New Years"Spread"At My Mum And Dads House

The table spread. There wasn't any room on our table,so we placed some dishes on our units. Our other unit.

Russia slaps minimum price on vodka

Russian authorities have brought in new measures imposing a minimum price for all vodka sold in the country. The move is part of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plan to tackle alcoholism. The cheapest bottle of vodka on sale will now be 89 roubles ($3;£1.80) for half a litre. An average Russian earns just under 18,000 roubles ($600; £367) per month and illegal vodka can be found for as little as 40 roubles. Experts estimate that sales of bootleg vodka in Russia make up almost 50% of all vodka drunk by Russians. As an average Russian drinks 34 bottles a year, that adds up to a lot of bottles. Mr Medvedev is determined to cut that by a quarter by 2012 - a brave target considering the lack of success his predecessors have had. The problem is that historically, whenever Russia has tried to combat excessive drinking, sales of illicit alcohol have risen. Homemade vodka in Russia is highly dangerous and contributes heavily to the country's 35,000 deaths a year from alcohol poisoning. The most draconian anti-alcohol campaign was virtual prohibition under former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. That resulted in people drinking perfume and industrial alcohol which in turn led to widespread death and injury. The worry is that, at best, this gesture is just a token effort and at worst may even encourage the production of illicit vodka.(MY VIEW)-HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS TACKLE ALCOHOLISM?-making it cheaper..no wonder why their thick as shit,this will make it worse numbnuts

Rising alcohol addiction costs 'could cripple the NHS'

The cost of treating the growing number of people drinking heavily threatens to cripple NHS hospitals, warn experts. If the trend continues the burden will be unsustainable, the Royal College of Physicians and NHS Confederation say. With a quarter of England's population consuming hazardous amounts, alcohol addiction already costs the NHS more than £2.7 billion a year. Services need work together to avert a crisis, with the emphasis on prevention, they say in a joint report. Currently, most of the money is being spent on hospital and ambulance services. But hospital care alone cannot solve the problem, the report says. Increasing out-of-hospital provision could be more cost effective, it says. This would include GPs screening and counselling their patients on alcohol misuse. Trials suggest that brief advice from a GP, or practice nurse, leads to one in eight people reducing their drinking to within sensible levels. This, says the report, compares well with smoking cessation, where only one in 20 change their behaviour. Changing the way alcohol-related services are delivered could save hospitals 1,000 bed days and Primary Care Trusts up to £650,000 a year, experts estimate. Breaking point Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "The nation's growing addiction to alcohol is putting an immense strain on health services, especially in hospitals, costing the NHS over £2.7 billion each year." And this sum has doubled in under five years. "This burden is no longer sustainable," he said. "The role of the NHS should not just be about treating the consequences of alcohol related-harm but also about active prevention, early intervention, and working in partnership with services in local communities to raise awareness of alcohol-related harm." Steve Barnett, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "We hope this report helps to outline the scale of the problems facing the NHS and acts as a warning that if we carry on drinking in the way that we are currently, the bar bill will be paid in worse health and a health system struggling to cope." A Department of Health spokesperson welcomed the report: "We agree the level of alcohol-related hospital admissions, crime, and deaths are still unacceptable. "We are now seeing a real will by the NHS for change and improvement in alcohol services. "Two thirds of PCTs have adopted reducing alcohol-related hospital admissions as a local priority for the first time. "The department is providing Primary Care Trusts with the support, tools and incentives to deliver alcohol services in their own areas effectively according to local needs." (my view)-Easy answer......DO NOT TREAT THEM.....SIMPLE!THEY KNOW THE RISKS BEFORE THEY INTAKE.......SAME WITH LIVER FAILURE DUE TO ALCOHOLISM......LET THEM DIE

Google loses Canadian Groovle domain name claim

A Canadian company behind a search engine called Groovle.com has won a case filed against it by online search giant Google. Google said the domain name used by the small business, 207 Media, was too similar to its own, but mediators the National Arbitration Forum disagreed. In the complaint, Google asked for the judges to rule that 207 Media transfer the domain name over to it. But three judges appointed by the forum refused the request. They said the name was not similar enough to confuse people and the word 'groovle' was more closely linked to "groovy" or "groove" rather than Google.

Legitimate interest

The judges also refused to examine other claims made by Google, including that the Canadian business had no "legitimate" interest in the domain name and had registered it in "bad faith". The entrepreneurs behind Groovle.com said they had used the site for more than two-and-a-half years without any complaints by Google. The site is powered by Google but describes itself as a way for users to create a customised internet homepage. People can upload personal images onto the site and then go on to search the web from that page. The National Arbitration Forum is an agency, approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to sort out domain name disputes. It is only the second time out of 65 that a complaint made by Google against companies about domain names has been rejected. In 2004, Richard Wolfe, the owner of froogles.com managed to persuade an arbitration panel his site could not be confused with Google.com. (my view)- Like"Disney"or"Kraft" Google has grown to be a bigger and more greedier company then stamps on smaller and other firms to companies and totally wants to RULE the roost so to speak and wants to OWN everything and charge MORE for THEIR crappier produc. HOW DOES IT FEEL YOU MOTHER FUCKERS TO NOT WIN AND CRUSH A COMPANY? LOL,YOUR BASTARDS ARE GETTING WAY TO GREEDY

'Grisly' Brittany Murphy artwork withdrawn

-Abandoned, one of Murphy's last films, is expected to be released in 2010- Promotional artwork for a DVD release showing late actress Brittany Murphy lying apparently lifeless in a bathtub has been pulled by a US rental chain. Redbox said it planned to complete the removal of DVD covers and posters from its outlets by 1 January. The artwork promotes Deadline, a direct to DVD title in which Murphy played a writer staying in a haunted house. A private funeral service is expected to be held later at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

'On her game'

It is the same cemetery where singer Michael Jackson was laid to rest earlier this year. Murphy, 32, was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre after collapsing in the bathroom of her Hollywood home on Sunday. The county coroner's office is awaiting the results of toxicology and tissue tests before releasing an official cause of death. Best known for her roles in Clueless and 8 Mile, Murphy completed a number of films this year that are currently awaiting release. The director of one, a thriller called Abandoned, said she was delightful to work with and "was on her game". "She was such a pro and so good at her craft that she could turn it on and off as necessary," said Michael Feifer.