Rabbit Thought of the Day

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Sydney Olympics ran out. Athens doubled the number. So organizers of the Beijing Games are hoping 100,000 condoms will satisfy the needs of Olympic athletes. While sex is not an Olympic sport, it is expected to be an activity in the Beijing village housing 10,500 athletes, all of whom are in great shape and with plenty of free time on their hands once knocked out of the Games.

Athletes have received free condoms at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992 to help raise awareness of AIDS, and Beijing is no exception.

"There are many young, strong, single people in the athletes' village and, like everywhere, some will fall in love or other things so we need to make condoms available," Ole Hansen, spokesman for UNAIDS China, told Reuters.

"A lot of these young people are not married or in relationships so we want to make sure they have the information and tools to protect themselves if they have sexual encounters."

The UNAIDS, the Beijing organizing committee BOCOG and International Olympics Committee are providing 100,000 condoms as part of a campaign on HIV prevention and anti-discrimination. At the Sydney Games in 2000 athletes quickly exhausted a supply of 70,000 and another 20,000 had to be brought in. The Foundation for AIDS Research, amfAR, said 100,000 were distributed at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 after a plan to distribute 250,000 condoms met protests by religious groups and was scaled back. Hansen said the number available at Beijing was based on previous Games' experience and in keeping with previous Olympics would be available at medical centers at athletes' centers in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong rather than put in rooms.

"We have people here from all religions and cultural backgrounds, some of whom may feel uncomfortable or offended with condoms in their room," he said. To be discreet, two condoms are tucked inside every a brochure about HIV that are available at medical centers. "No one can see that you are carrying condoms to save any embarrassment," said Hansen.

"People are encouraged to take the leaflets and to take as many as they like. They can use them or take them home for friends and spread the knowledge and awareness." Chinese condom makers have jumped on the Olympics bandwagon.

One manufacturer, Elasun, has come up with a set of cheeky advertisements featuring a stickman swimming over a rippled condom that looks like a wave, riding two condom rings like a bicycle, and using a condom as a basketball hoop. Condoms depicting the five Olympics mascots are also for sale on various online sites although nowhere to be seen in official merchandise stories.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police have arrested a 20-year-old man who attacked and robbed two people after they stared at his Winnie-the-Pooh costume, officials said on Tuesday.

Masayuki Ishikawa was hanging out on a Tokyo street corner after midnight last month while wearing the cuddly costume, accompanied by two friends dressed as a mouse and a panther, when he took offence at being stared at, police said.

"It's uncommon to see people dressed up like this, so the victims were watching them. Then the perpetrator came up and said 'What are you staring at?'" a police spokesman said.

Ishikawa and his friends beat up the two victims and stole $160 (84 pounds) from them, the spokesman said, adding the group had apparently donned the unusual garb because they had run out of clean clothes.

An angry judge has branded a prosecution worker an "illiterate idiot" after spotting several spelling mistakes in an indictment. Judge David Paget was reading a list of charges drawn up by Crown Prosecution Service staff at Wood Green Crown Court in north London when he spotted errors.

The indictment, which accused a man of assault, included attempted "greivous" bodily harm. The judge said he hoped staff at the court would take more care in future. Another charge accused the defendant of using an offensive weapon, "namely axe", instead of "an axe". Throwing the paper down on his bench, Judge Paget added: "It's quite disgraceful.

"This is supposed to be a centre of excellence. To have an indictment drawn up by some illiterate idiot is just not good enough."

Mountain biking in Essex, you may think I am joking, but Hadleigh Farm on the outskirts of Southend on Sea, has been chosen for the mountain bike venue in the 2012 Olympics. The 550 acre site is owned by the Salvation Army. Mountain biking was introduced at the 1996 Atlanta Games and is staged over a 40-50km (25-31m) course for men and 30-40km (18.5-25m) for women.

The Hadleigh site is not what I would call mountainous, if fact they are more like pimples than hills, it not what I would call picturesque either, mind you get a nice view of Canvey Island and across the Thames you have a great view of the Kings North power station (I think I would rather have red needles stuck in my eyes). On the plus side it’s only 10 minutes from my house by train so at least I might the chance to watch a part of the games!

Perhaps when the games come in 2012 the event will have to be renamed ‘Pimple Biking’

Could this be best performance in the Olympics for a many year, today we have won yet another medal, this time silver.

David Florence's secured Britain's first silver medal of the Beijing Olympics, their fourth overall, with a perfect run in the men's slalom canoe. The Briton started the day fourth but his time of 178.61 seconds moved him into the lead above Poland's Krzystof Bieryt and Czech Stanislav Jezek.

But last-man-down and world number one Michal Martikan of Slovakia was quicker on his final run to clinch gold.

The silver means that Team GB are now seventh in the overall medal table.

I notice that we are really enhancing our reputation abroad; arrests in Spain have risen 32% in the last 12 months. A number of towns in Greece are thinking of banning British tourists from their towns.  All across Europe the good Brit’s are drinking more and causing more trouble than other countries citizens the normal Saturday night binge drinkers that have for so long blighted our city centres are now taking their habits abroad.

It’s not only our young either, the older generation fare no better, these have be dubbed Saga Louts and an increase in drunk Brits over the age of 55 has risen dramatically.

At one time it was only our football that caused trouble abroad now it seems the rest of the population is catching up fast. Doesn’t it make you proud to be British; we are fast becoming the pariah of not only Europe but the world.

It now seems that the NHS is starting to get tough on managers who are responsible for losing patient data.

A hospital manager from Colchester University Hospital has been sacked after his laptop which contained patient information including names, postcodes and treatment plans was stolen from his car while it was parked in Edinburgh.

Lets hope this trend continues, there is no excuse for our data to be lost and it should never be carried on laptop these people deserve to lose their jobs.

Should football clubs pay all the cost associated with policing their games, yes say the Association of Police Officers. And I for one agree, the BBC has received information from 13 Premier League clubs and it shows that it cost £7.5m to police their games, the clubs paid £4.5m while £3.2m came from police budgets.

As you would imagine Manchester Unites had the biggest police budget at £1,447, 501 and also the biggest deficit and £543, 442, only Portsmouth paid the full amount of policing their games. This clubs spend millions on players wages every year and in the case of Chelsea and Manchester United the wage bill for last year was a little over £1Billion.

Yet the Football League says the clubs pay their way, it doesn’t seem that way to me, why should the public pay to police football, ticket prices are extortionate and the clubs receive millions from sponsorship deals and television it’s only right that they pay the price for policing of their games.

Follow the link below, the table shows what each club paid for policing of games, some clubs and police forces did not provide data.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7553875.stm#table

Well it a big day, once again I have to see the nurse for the official weigh in, it will be interesting to see what weight I am, and how much I have lost (if any). Unofficially I think I have lost 5lbs this week which if confirmed by the nurse tonight will mean I will have lost over a stone in 4 weeks.

I was out on my bike again last night, it was another good session and I can definitely feel the improvement in my fitness. Although the route I take is getting easier, therefore I will have change my route to a longer to make it a bit more challenging.

I will post tomorrow, with the official result from the nurse!  

What a great start to the day, heavy rain and its still dark, its more like a November morning than a summer August morning, the great British summer eh! I hope it improves in the next week or so I don’t fancy the Lake District in weather like this.

Well we finally won a cricket game and quiet convincingly as well, mind you we had to have a South African in charge to do it, and from a quick read of the news he now thinks he can give the Aussie a good beating (think again), it has always been know that Pietersen ego is a little on the big side. Just because he won his first game in charge he now thinks he has the best side in the world.

The paper are full of young Tom Daley, they didn’t have a good day and came last in yesterday diving competition and his partner has gone on record saying that Tom let the team down. He’s only 14 for god’s sake give the guy some credit at least he’s there, a few more years and a bit more experience and he’ll be ok!