Magic Statistics

Sanity surfaces at Dudley Council, where it was recently reported that office workers were prohibited from displaying pictures of pigs on the grounds that they offended Muslims.

Council leaders say they will not accept "extreme forms of political correctness". Last month the Express & Star revealed how staff in the council's benefits department were told to remove a series of toy pigs sent as a promotion, as well as pig imagery, from their desks.

It came after a complaint from a Muslim worker who said she was offended by the items - the Koran forbids Muslims from eating and touching pork.

But where does the Koran forbid Muslims from looking at images of pigs? (Just asking.)

Now if the British Chief Inspector of Prisons would back off that St George's Cross ban.

via Dhimmi Watch.

Police in Twin Falls, Idaho, busted a very stupid counterfeiter after he tried to deposit at a bank 999 bills, each with a face value of $1,000,000. The phony bills, police said, were "actually better quality than we normally see on counterfeit notes".

via Clayton Cramer.

If the light bulbs go out in a church ceiling 12 metres (40 feet) above the floor, then it takes two electricians, two labourers, three days, and £1316. That's because the ceiling is too high for a man with a ladder, according to the EU’s "Working at Heights/Scaffolding directive 2001/45/EU". Says Dom Antony Sutch of St Benet’s Church, Beccles, Suffolk:

"What normally had been done with a ladder and took about two hours took between 14 and 18 hours. Because of the regulations, they had to put in scaffolding, then take it down and move it to the next light bulb and put it up again."

He added: "We are not blaming the electricians. We are blaming the regulations. The only alternative is to ask members of the congregation to bring their own candles to light up services."

Since this little tidbit was reported in the church's newsletter, Dom Antony has "received an abusive phone call from a person accusing him of not caring for the safety of people who fall off ladders". It sounds like that person could use a new light bulb, too.

A federal cabinet minister recently said that. "Who?", you ask. A better question would be: From which country?

Can you imagine a Canadian politician saying anything like that? Me neither.

via small dead animals.

The graphic links to the complete cover story at the TimeCanada.com site. If you go to the Time.com site and try to read the cover story, you'll see only the first two paragraphs followed by a notice that the full text is only available to Time subscribers. Go figure!