Strictly Controversy

After being in the dance off for the fourth time Heather finally departed but not before she had given Rachel a shock. Or rather the viewers gave Rachel a shock.


John and Kristina were the first couple announced as being voted back next week... How much longer can it go on. The British public do so love a loser! Craig probably did them a favour when he gave them a 1.

A new Gecko from an egg...

So where else would a Gecko come from but an egg? But this is sl;ighty unusual in that the egg travelled 12,000 miles before the Gecko hatched. French scientists say they have hatched a new gecko species from an egg plucked from its nest in a South Pacific island and carried to Paris in a box lined with Kleenex.


France’s National Museum of Natural History says the discovery marks the first time a new species of lizard has been catalogued based on an individual raised from an egg. The museum says it is baptised with the Latin name Lepidodactylus buleli and makes its home near the tops of the trees that line the west coast of Espiritu Santo, one of the larger islands of the Vanuatu archipelago, east of Australia. Just three inches long, the gecko lives in trees, feeding off ants and other insects and, possibly, the nectar it sips from treetop flowers. The species is not thought to be endangered.

Strictly Saturday

I decided on Saturday that the time had come to start voting in Strictly. I didn’t fancy one of the better ones going out by being in the dance off against another good couple. So I made a note of the number to call for Tom, Austin, Rachel and Christine. Unfortunately I forgot to vote until ten past nine by which time it was too late. I suspect this is one case where the thought doesn’t count! I wasn’t wowed by any of the dances and really feel that this has not been the best Strictly series despite the promise suggested by the group Mambo early on.


John was hilarious after being voted down by the judges (yet again) when he pointed out the judges didn’t appreciate the rules. “The rules are that the public has half the vote. We’re playing by the rules,” he said. His partner, Kristina Rihanoff, gets sexier by the week. I can only echo someone who commented on “Strictly – It takes Two” during the week that she must be kept in a cage during the week and released at weekends – purrr.... Nevertheless, despite John’s wonderful personality and Kristina’s It, I think it’s time for them to go.

Oops!

A dredger sank in the harbour at Heysham in Lancashire today. The newscaster commented that when the crew came back to the dredger they realised it was taking on water... Duh!!!! Wouldn’t take much intelligence to realise that!

Strictly Secret

I’ve swapped my Strictly blog postings over from Rambles from my Chair because I don’t want GB to see them before he receives his dvds from the UK.


I have come to the conclusion that in general I much prefer the traditional ballroom dances like waltz, quickstep, foxtrot and American smooth. One of the reasons is the men look so smart in tails and the women so beautiful in their gorgeous dresses. The exception is the jive which Jill Halfpenny did so brilliantly in an earlier series. Austin and Erin’s waltz was a definite ten for me. Len’s ten to them was the first ten of the series – it’s been a long time coming.


I think Cherie has peaked. As Bruno said the “Dress was red hot but the salsa was not.” As Len pointed out the salsa and Paso didn’t suit here but the good news was that as long as she got through that was two poor ones out of the way...

Despite my preference for the traditional dances the controversial paso of Tom and Camilla was excellent. I thought Rachel and Vincent’s jive was good – the jive is my favourite of the modern dances – but it wasn’t up to the Jill Halfpenny one.


As Arlene commented John Sargant’s Foxtrot got into a trot at the end but it lacked Fox. Len’s comment that it wasn’t “Help the Aged” was a bit cruel. He will need the public more than ever this weekend but think his time has come.



Jodie’s waltz with Ian was by far her best dance yet – I loved the Mr Darcy outfit and her dress.


I think Len is having hormone problems – he’s been really grumpy the last couple of weeks.
 

MotoGP

The MotoGP season has come to an end. No more racing for months. I shall miss the beauty of the bikes, the thrill of the speed, the excitement as riders pass and re-pass each other, the colour, the glamour, the grid girls, Suzi Perry, the wonderful commentary on BBC, and the whole atmosphere of a MotoGP weekend. And that’s just watching it on TV.


Valentino Rossi won the Championship on his Yamaha. Rossi (born February 16, 1979 in Urbino) is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. A cheeky chappy. he seems to have a really pleasant personality and unlike many sports champions he seems to be moderately popular with his competitors. Part of the reason fopr this is the fact that he fights very hard but very fair.


Rossi is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with 8 Grand Prix World Championships to his name. According to Sports Illustrated, Valentino Rossi is one of the highest earning sports personalities in the world, having earned an estimated $34 million in 2007. He had a trial in a Ferrari F1 car and toyed with the idea of moving to F1 but decided to stay with motorbikes.

Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Rossi started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250 cc category, again with Aprilia, and won the World Championship in 1999. He won the 500 cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 Championships after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. After two years as a runner-up (to Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner) he has now regained the title in 2008.


The Rizla Suzuki, ridden here by Capirossi, got my vote for best colour scheme (as it has done for the past couple of years)


Second came the Kawasaki, seen here with west riding it.


Third came the Ducati, seen here with Casey stoner on board.


The Repsol Honda livery for the final race was also pretty smart.


And, as always, the website mcnews.com.au proved to be the definitive website for all things motorcycling.

Discoveries

I seem to have fallen behind of late in mentioning new species and re-discovered species. So here, thanks largely to “Free your Imagination” is a compilation of some recent discoveries.


The Hairy-nosed Otter (Lutra sumatrana) is the world’s rarest otter species and was thought to be extinct in the 1990s. But a pair were spotted in U Minh Ha National Park, in Vietnam’s Ca Mau province, in March 2008. They have also recently been rediscovered in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.


Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution have discovered a new species of bird in Gabon, Africa, that was, until now, unknown to the scientific community. Their findings were published in the international science journal Zootaxa on Aug. 15 2008 The Olive-backed Forest Robin (Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus) was named by the scientists for its distinctive olive back and rump. Adult birds measure 4.5 inches in length and the males have a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back, black feathers on the head and a distinctive white dot on their face in front of each eye. The female is basically similar but less bright.


A tiny frog species thought by many experts to be extinct has been rediscovered alive and well in a remote area of Australia’s tropical north. The 1.5 inch-long Armoured Mistfrog, Litoria lorica, had not been seen since 1991, and many experts assumed it had been wiped out by a devastating fungus that struck northern Queensland state. But two months ago, a doctoral student at James Cook University in Townsville conducting research on another frog species in Queensland stumbled across what appeared to be several Armoured Mistfrogs in a creek.

And another rare frog, the tiny tree frog, Isthmohyla rivularis, has been seen in Costa Rica after 20 years. This species was thought to have become extinct two decades ago, but last year a University of Manchester researcher caught a glimpse of a male in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.. Now a female has been seen and they are presumed to be breeding.


The world’s smallest snake, Leptotyphlops carlae, averaging just 10cm (4 inches) and as thin as a spaghetti noodle, has been discovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The snake, found beneath a rock in a tiny fragment of threatened forest, is thought to be at the very limit of how small a snake can evolve to be. Females produce only a single, massive egg - and the young hatch at half of their adult body weight. The discovery of this new snake, the smallest of the 3,100 known species, is described in the journal Zootaxa.