Nerja News

A golfer sparked a wildfire which destroyed 12 acres of dense woodland at Shady Canyon golf course in Irvine, California, after he struck his club against a rock while trying to hit his ball out of the rough.

Around 150 firefighters responded to the blaze. The golfer is apparently not going to be charged in connection with the incident.

After a number of Ferrari 458 Italias have burst into flames, the Italian manufacturer has decided to recall 1,248 of the cars including 50 in Britain.

Incidents have been reported in California, Paris, China and Switzerland, the cars suddenly bursting into flames or crashing and prompting speculation that the car is jinxed.

However, the problem appears to be with the glue used to secure the wheel arch lining to the chassis which has been overheating, and on hot days and when the cars have been driven for long periods at high speed, it catches fire. Recalls by Ferrari are rare, but nevertheless embarrassing for the prestige manufacturer.

The repairs are expected to take about half a day.

Remember Brazil’s Roberto Carlos taking a free kick from 115ft against France in 1997 which was seemingly heading for the corner flag but then curved like a banana to land in the net? No. Never mind, there is a video you can watch.

The stunning free kick was dismissed as a fluke but now, a research team has applied the laws of physics to prove that, in fact, the shot was no fluke at all.

Using tiny plastic balls and a slingshot (don’t remember those in the match), the researchers have gone beyond the known Magnus effect to discover fresh insight into spinning balls that are shot over a distance equivalent to Carlos’ free kick…The Story…

Shigeru Kondo, a 55 year old Japanese systems engineer, has set a new world record by doing what most of us would never even consider worth even dreaming about doing. He has calculated Pi (ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter) to 5 trillion digits.

Pi, as we all know, is usually abbreviated to 3.14. The previous record was 2.7 trillion digits, set last year by a French Engineeer. Probably had the time when his train was sent to the wrong destination. more »

The final curtain has fallen on the world’s longest running sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine after 37 years, 31 series and 295 episodes.

Peter Sallis, who was in the very first episode, was also in the last, his character Norman Clegg delivering the final line of the show,  which was, ‘Did I lock the door?’.

In its heyday, the show attracted as many as 18 million viewers each episode.

An early and abundant mushroom harvest in the Alpine valleys of northern Italy has to more people than usual scouring the woods and forests in search of succulent fungi.

However, many have also been ill-prepared and in ten days, eighteen people have so far lost their lives. Not through eating non-mushrooms or poisonous varieties, though, but as a result of falling down ravines and other accidents associated with mountain pursuits.

British actor Hugh Laurie has become the highest paid actor in US television drama, earning around €400,000 per episode as the grumpy but brilliant doctor in the series House.

Laurie is followed by Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order who are paid $395,000 and David Caruso, whose role on CSI Miami earns him $375,000 an episode.

Still some catching up to do, though, to equal the top earners in Hollywood with the likes of Charlie Sheen being paid $1.25 million for each episode of the comedy series Two and a Half Men.

Was this an Ice Age highway? Workers digging up A-road find axe abandoned 13,000 years ago

The axe is actually a postage stamp sized piece of a Neolithic axe made from greenstone. What next?

Was Birmingham the Ice Age seaside resort? Grain of sand found under local tip

Emotional scenes in Chile as 33 miners trapped 2,300 feet below ground for 18 days have been found alive and apparently in good spirits, despite their confinement. However, it could be Christmas before the miners, trapped after a rockfall, can be rescued, as it will take 120 days to drill a rescue shaft of sufficient width to haul the men out, one by one. more »

A woman in Coventry caught on CCTV putting a cat into a wheelie bin, where it was trapped for fifteen hours, is now receiving police protection. She has not been arrested as she has not actually committed any criminal offence but is being investigated by the RSPCA in connection with cruelty to animals.

A public outcry led to thousands of people joining social media campaigns to identify the woman in the footage, which you can see here. more »

As the records continue to tumble as far as the number of Grade A and A* (what’s that all about!) passes at A-Level, the competition for higher education places has reached unprecedented levels and some universities now openly require students to score a number of A grades at age 16 as a minimum entry requirement.

In many cases, pupils who fail to gain at least Cs in GCSE English and mathematics are automatically barred. more »

The French are obviously not having a good week. After rail staff sent hundreds of travellers to ‘le wrong country’, various beaches were closed to bathers after reports of a shark (turned out to be a dolphin) and a huge crocodile (turned out to be un piece of wood).

Better safe than sorry, though…Le Croc…

Mounties raiding two marijuana plantations near the US-Canadian border at Christina Lake were surprised to find 14 wild black bears roaming around freely, and quite contentedly, in the fields and had to proceed with caution.

The bears, however, seemed to be quite tame and very used to humans and one even went and sat on a police car for a while before just jumping off and wandering away. more »

“I’d like a ticket to…”

“Here you are sir”

“But I haven’t told you where I’m going!”

“Not necessary, sir, we’ll leave that up to the French. Have a nice journey. Next!” more »

This story about a hapless burglar caught my attention, particularly for the offer by a neighbourly surgeon to remove the offender without damaging the window frame….Framed! Burglar rescued by firemen after getting stuck in a window for six hours…

No doubt he is already consulting lawyers about what sort of lawsuit he can bring and how much compensation he can get. Breach of Human Rights as he was prevented from carrying out his work..Illegal detention…Small window constitutes Health and Safety hazard. The possibilities are endless.

Police in France are looking for two attractive females who found a novel way to rob a man at an ATM in Paris.

As the man punched in his pin code ready to withdraw some cash, the two women exposed their breasts and while the stunned man stared at one of them, the other withdrew €300 from his account. The two women then ran off.

The incident was recorded on CCTV but the police have apparently not been able to identify the two women. Film worn out?

The police have advised ATM users to concentrate on the job in hand and not be distracted, however pleasant the view.