Stephen Groom Taking a shot at becoming a Poker Pro

Speed camera boss in 100mph drive

The boss of a speed camera firm has been banned from driving for six months after admitting speeding at more than 100mph on a 70mph road in Suffolk.

   

Tom Riall expressed "deep regret" over the incident

Tom Riall, 49, is a chief executive of Serco, which has provided more than 5,000 speed cameras in the UK.

He appeared at Sudbury Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to driving at 102.9mph on the A14 on 4 January, 2009.

Riall was fined £300, banned from driving for six months and had six points added to his licence.

Riall, from Ufton Nervet, near Reading, was caught speeding in his blue Volvo by a police patrol car on the eastbound dual carriageway just before 1300 BST, the court heard.

Outside court, he said: "I accept the decision of the court. I recognise that speeding is not acceptable.

"I very much regret what happened and I have made a full apology to the court."

On Serco's website it states the company prides itself on providing "robust evidence" of drivers' speeding.

 

Wrong Place, Right Time

Today I have just had a phone call from my dad who's currently working on offshore Oil Rigs. Not too unusual you'd think, but the first few words to come out of his mouth scared me, prematurely.

The conversation went something like this:

[code]Me: Hello
Dad: Hey, where are you
Me: Home, why?
Dad: Have you seen the news
Me: What news
Dad: "Our" Helicopter has just gone down[/code]

I was speaking to him, so he wasn't dead, and that was the main worry, but fact remained that he was in the middle of a big helicopter rescue. I spoke to him for a few minutes and found out a few things.

Wednesday is his crew change date but he wasn't due to fly today. The helicopter that went down though, was the same helicopter that he got dropped off on this time last week, and the same that he would have used to fly next week. To you guys that probably doesn't sound like much but it is very scary for me and I can't beleive his luck that he was in the "wrong place at the right time".

There were no fatalities in the crash from what I can comprehend but there were 16 crew (all my dads workmates) and 2 pilots who were in the water for 2 hours in 3 meter (10 foot) sees in probably subzero temperatures and they were all rescued and either flown or boated to safety. Atleast now I know why all the riggers undergo an intensive survival training course every few years.

Anyway, I am waffling proably due to being in shock a little so I'll let a professional explain the situation as it was about 40 minutes ago:

[i]Source [url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/A-Helicopter-With-18-People-On-Board-Has-Ditched-Into-The-North-Sea/Article/200902315225518?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15225518_A_Helicopter_With_18_People_On_Board_Has_Ditched_Into_The_North_Sea]http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/A-Helicopter-With-18-People-On-Board-Has-Ditched-Into-The-North-Sea/Article/200902315225518?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15225518_A_Helicopter_With_18_People_On_Board_Has_Ditched_Into_The_North_Sea[/url][/i]

[code]A crew of 18 on board a helicopter which crashed into the North Sea off the coast of Scotland has been rescued.

Super Pumas are used to ferry oil workers between the shore and rigs

A full scale rescue operation using four more helicopters is still underway after the Super Puma aircraft went down in the sea whilst approaching a platform.

Flares have been fired from the scene and lifejacket lights were spotted in the water.

The helicopters are used to transport oil workers to and from rigs and offshore factories.

RAF aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss are at the scene along with two helicopters from the oil company.

It is understood that several earlier helicopter flights in the area had been cancelled due to the rough weather.

Low-lying cloud were hampering the rescue operation and waves are up to 3 metres high.

The alarm was raised just before 7pm.

RAF Squadron Leader Dave Webster described the incident as very rare.

The Super Puma is one type of chopper used for oil and gas personnel in the North Sea and has 18 passenger seats and two pilot seats. It is believed there were 16 passengers and two pilots on board the stricken aircraft.

The passengers will have had survival suits to protect them from the cold water and a flotation device is installed on the Puma.

[/code]

Zimbabwe cuts 10 zeros from dollar

Today sees Zimbabwe removing 10 zeros from the value of the Zimbabwe dollar changing the value of Z$10,000,000,000 to just Z$1.

The move comes after Giesecke and Devrient, based in Munich, said it would no longer deliver watermarked paper to President Robert Mugabe’s Reserve Bank.

The Zimbabwe dollar has been ravaged by hyperinflation due to Robert Mugabe's bankrupt regime printing more money to pay it's bills. This has caused an official inflation rate of 2,200,000% which is argued to be much higher by experts.

Banknotes could not even be used any more and the currency was until today issued in the form of Bearer Cheques, marked with an expiry date. The bank also more recently moved on to special "Agro Cheques" of which the biggest was recently printed as Z$100 billion. Coins have been rendered useless in Zimbabwe too and have been obsolete for years.

Just to give you an idea of how worthless the Zimbabwe Dollar was in real terms, yesterday a can of coke cost Z$600 billion, bread Z$200 billion and a beer was Z$1.8 trillion!

Given that prices are almost doubling daily, I don't think that today's move to cut ten zeros will begin to help the economy of Zimbabwe, only prolong complete disaster. If they cut 10 zeros of the price of everything, surely this means that they will also cut 10 zeros from your salary, which still means most people couldn't afford a beer from their annual pay cheque.