You couldn't make it up

Being a law student I ought to take crime seriously. I ought to keep abreast of the latest crime waves and monitor how the law develops to deal with them. Today I learnt about the latest worrying crime wave in Scotland. Beavers are being illegally released into the wild in Scotland. As the BBC website put it "Beavers Believed to be on the Loose". Admittedly there are plans to reintroduce beavers into the wild in Scotland but beavers, like any wild animal, have to be released into the wild under controlled conditions to give them the best chance of survival. There has been no official confirmation that beavers are being illegally released but several gnawed trees have been discovered in Perthshire, Angus, and Fife. Last year an illegal beaver was caught in Perthshire. The punishment for such a serious crime is a fine of £40, 000 or imprisonment. The BBC article quotes Martin Gaywood, from Scottish National Heritage, who says that the beavers would find it tough to survive and that the illegal beavers in Tayside are looking for mates that are never going to materialise. The police are keen to catch these beavers to check that they are clean and free from disease.



I swear I did not make that story up, click here if you don't believe me, I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Don't rush in

I was browsing the BBC website when I stumbled across a story about a Yemeni child bride. Apparently in Yemen there is no minimum age for marriage but the bride ought not to live with her husband until puberty. In most of Europe it is 18 but this can be reduced to 16 with parental consent. However in Scotland it is 16. I also discovered that in Canada the legal age for marriage is 18, 16 with parental consent and 14 with judicial consent. Interestingly in several states of the USA children younger than 15 can get married with parental consent and judicial approval, they include Michigan, New York, New Hampshire, Utah, and West Virginia.



So you can get married before you can legally drink, or before you can legally drive. I hasten to point out that you can never legally do both.

Crack open the bubbly

It is traditional to swing a bottle of champagne at the bows of a ship as she is being launched. However it is considered bad luck if the bottle does not break. Due to this the shipping industry has several ways to help ensure that the bottle actually breaks. Champagne bottles are incredibly tough as they have been designed to withstand high pressure. However if the glass is scored before the bottle is swung at the ship the chances of the bottle breaking are much greater. In addition bigger bubbles increase the chances of the bottle breaking so cava would break easier than another variety. The biggest bottle of champagne should be used because it is more likely to have a defect in the glass due to there being more glass. The rope should be very stiff as any elasticity in the rope will absorb the impact and thus decrease the chances of the bottle breaking. And just to make doubly sure, X-ray the bow to find the hardest part and aim the bottle there.



You see nothing is simple these days, not even breaking the bubbly.

Great iSpectations

I can remember a time before Apple Inc dominated anything. Admittedly the company still hasn't cornered the PC market but it does have a sizeable chunk of the MP3player market. I do own an MP3 player but it is not an iPod and I have no desire to own one. While reading an article in a magazine I came across some statistics. Apple has a 6% share of the home computing market but a 70% share of the MP3 market. The capacity of the classic iPod has increased from 5GB to 160 GB in seven years. But here's a really interesting little factoid, the iPod's fixed battery is not a necessary design feature, it ensures that millions of consumers will have to buy a new iPod when the battery conks out. Similarly the iPhone has a sim card and a battery that cannot be removed.



I am strangely reminded of that iconic Apple advert way back in the 80s. It seems somehow ironic now.

Black and white, m'lud, black and white

On Sunday while celebrating the Sinhalese New Year, my friend asked me if the lawyers here had to wear certain clothes to appear in court. I explained that they had to wear special robes and she asked if they had to wear anything special underneath, if they were restricted to certain colours. I said that they were not. She then told me that in Sri Lanka lawyers have to wear black and white to court, that they cannot wear any other colour. Apparently they even make saris in black for court wear.



There's something nice about that symbolism of black and white, isn't there?

Sinhala New Year

Yesterday I was invited round to my friends' house for a New Year's party. You might think that they were a bit behind the times after all it is April. However my friends were celebrating Sri Lankan New Year or Avurudu. While enjoying the fine cuisine that my friends had prepared I heard some stories of how to properly celebrate the New Year. It is considered proper to wear some new clothes and these new clothes must be in a specific colour. It is also traditional to boil a pot of milk until it boils over.



And, of course, to eat yourself stupid on love cake, kaung, mung kevum, and kiritbath.

Graining in price

Just in case you are unaware of this fact let me point it out for you, rice is a staple food for a significant part of the world's population. However the price of rice has increased by 70% during the past year. Part of the reason the price has risen is due to poor harvests caused by extreme weather, and because demand for rice has increased as wealth and populations have grown. Although in China people have been eating less rice as their incomes have increased. In Japan rice was so important that it was once worshipped as a god.



And if there is a rice shortage we can expect a famine of Biblical proportions.