Weird news: How many times can you fail a citizenship test ?

If you want to take citizenship of a country, a lot of countries insist on a test where you can show that you have the learnt the culture and the ethos of the country, know its history to some degree, and so on. This is because this would show that you are willing to assimilate in the culture of the country. One would expect that you would pass this test mostly the first time, since you would have done some preparation for this, but even if you were to fail it once, you would understand that there is a lot more needed to be done, and you would be allowed to give the test again, so that you could prepare more and be ready the next time.
The idea being, that if you fail this test multiple times, it shows that either you don't know enough about the country, or you could not be bothered with trying to learn more about the country. But no limits for how many times you can give this test ? That seems a bit strange. 60+ times, something is weird. And for 50 pounds per test, it is not such a small amount. (link to article):

Woman has spent more than £3,000 repeatedly sitting the £50-a-time exam Citizenship test asks 24 questions about British traditions and customs Individual case reveals that questionnaire can be completed infinite times Tory MP blasted situation, insisting that it just cannot be justified

Weird news - In Britain, man banned from speaking to women strangers for 10 years, will face prison if he does

Sometimes one comes across strange court judgments, which do not make sense from a layman's perspective. A typical judgment from the court typically would involve either a person getting exonerated by a court, or being sentenced to some sort of community service, or to probation, or to a prison term. These are the sort of court judgments in criminal matters that we have come to expect, and if something deviates from such a judgment, it seems weird. What would you say to a court judgment where a man is sentenced to a prison term if he speaks to a unknown woman in public, unless it is an emergency. This was a strange case where a man walked up to a lady in her mid 20's, kissed her on the cheek and told her that he was a sex offender.
You can imagine the shock that this lady would have felt, including the fear that she would have felt. The only reassurance that she would have felt was that they were in public; the problem is that such a situation is so odd that one does not know whether such a man is safe in public. At the same time, since the offence conducted was not one to jail him for a long period of time (in a sort of preventive custody), there was not much that the judge could do; and hence the unusual judgment. But how does one make such a judgment effective ? How do you determine whether the man spoke to an unknown lady, or just replied back. Similarly, how do you determine what is an emergency ? Read this news article (link):

A 56-year-old Briton has been banned by court from speaking to women for 10 years after he told a woman he was a rapist who had just been freed from prison. David Delahunty, 56, faces up to five years in jail if he just says hello to a woman he does not know, The Sun reported. A judge imposed the ban after the man admitted sexual assault. The order bans him from speaking to any woman he does not know in a public place for the next 10 years, except in an emergency. He said he walked up to a woman stranger at a bus stop, kissed her on the cheek and told her she was a "bonny lass".

Man wins a fortune just the day after his divorce

This man can truly claim that his wife brought him bad luck, since he got something that most people never get in their life time. After a long divorce that dragged on for a number of years, it was clear that the divorce was done and he was now free of his wife. As a part of the celebration, he decided to spend the evening out with friends, getting drunk and enjoying the freedom. The bus driver used his last amount of money left to buy a lottery ticket, and given the probability of lottery tickets, it is difficult to believe that something would come out of them. However, the man did win half the top prize, giving him 2.3 million pounds, enough that his wife might want to come back to him (link to article)

Kevin Halstead, a 50-year-old bus driver, spent Friday out with friends after his divorce and the next day he bought a Lotto ticket. Later, he was left stunned when he won the lottery, Daily Express reported Wednesday.
Halstead's friend said: "Kevin's divorce dragged on for a couple of years. Everything was settled on Friday so he went out and got drunk. On Saturday he decided to spend his last quid on a lottery ticket. He checked the papers next morning and saw he'd won half the jackpot."

Weird laws in England / Great Britain (part 2)

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned
In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants
Picking up abandoned baggage is an act of terrorism.
It is still an offence to beat or shake any carpet rug or mat in any street in the Metropolitan Police District, although you are allowed to shake a doormat before 8am.
Londoners are not allowed to keep a pigsty in the front of their homes.
The Library Offences Act of 1898 makes it illegal to gamble in a library.
The Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 states that no one, “except persons acting in obedience to lawful authority, may discharge any cannon or other firearm of greater calibre than a common fowling-piece, within 300 yards of any dwelling house, to the annoyance of any inhabitant thereof”.
One may not drive a cow while drunk.
In Scotland it is illegal to be a drunk in possession of a cow.
Ban on firing a cannon close to a dwelling house (Met Police Act 1839)
Ban on the use of any slide upon ice or snow (Town Police Clauses Act 1847)
Prohibition of driving cattle through the streets of London (Metropolitan Streets Act 1867)
In London, it is illegal for a person with the Plague to flag down a taxi. No cab may carry corpses or rabid dogs.
It is illegal to sell most goods on a Sunday. It is however legal to sell a carrot. It is also legal to sell it at any price, and to give free gifts with it, such as anything else one might want to buy on a Sunday.

The following are legal though:
- a male may urinate in public, so long as it is on the rear wheel of his motor vehicle, and his right hand is on the vehicle.
- all English males over the age of 14 are to carry out approximately two hours of longbow practice a week, supervised by the local clergy.

Weird laws in England / Great Britain (part 1)

In Hereford, you may not shoot a Welsh person on Sunday with a longbow in the Cathedral Close.
However, in Chester you can only shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside the city walls and after midnight.
Also in York, excluding Sundays, it is apparently legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow.
In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless in public unless they are a clerk in a tropical fish store.
It is illegal for a Member of Parliament to enter the House of Commons wearing a full coat of armour.
Sleeping with a consort of the queen is classified as treason, and as such carries a maximum penalty of death (this was debated by the newspapers when there was the controversy about Lady Diana's lovers).
It is unlawful to impersonate an Chelsea pensioner.
The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen
It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour
No cows may be driven down the roadway between 10 AM and 7 PM unless there is prior approval from the Commissioner of Police.
Those wishing to purchase a television must also buy a license.
All English males over the age 14 are to carry out 2 or so hours of longbow practice a week supervised by the local clergy.
It is illegal for two adult men to have sex in the same house as a third person.
Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks (enacted by Edward VI).
It is illegal for a lady to eat chocolates on a public conveyance.
It could be regarded an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down

Europe causes London to smell

Imagine a vague smell permeating through a modern city; there is an odour that you can smell and you wonder as to what has gone bad. People who are more fastidious would be going crazy turning their house upside down to find out what is causing this smell. And then you find out that the smell is actually due to agricultural practices on the main continent, and you are paying the cost for a weather pattern that is pushing the smell your way:

A foul smell permeating London and parts of England over the past two days is due to farmers on the European continent spreading manure in their fields, forecasters and British farmers said Saturday. The agricultural odor is inescapable in central London and smells vaguely of farmland or even garbage.
The National Farmers' Union blamed the smell on the muck-spreading by Dutch farmers, who it said are banned from the practice in the winter and are now spreading it "en masse." Although the smell may be unusual, the phenomenon of European air spilling its contents over England is not, forecasters have said. "We quite often get pollution in the form of haze coming over when we've got these winds from [an] easterly direction, particularly when the winds are coming off the near-continent," he said.

The smell is also an indication of how easily any happening can be used to prove a point; so even this smell is being used by the National Farmers Union to oppose a practise proposed for implementation in Britain that is causing this smell in the European continent.

Britain's unluckiest man does it again

In this article from The Register, can read about the world's unluckiest man exhibiting the reasons why he has won that title. It would be funny if it was not real and happening to some living human being.
John Lyne, from Britain, fell down a manhole and suffered serious injuries which will take a few months to repair. Now this can happen to anyone, but for something serious to happen to someone 16 times over is a bit too much.
John has been run over by a cart, fallen from a tree, hit twice by lightning, suffered numerous vehicle crashes and come close to drowing. He must have borrowed a few lives from neighbouring cats. And to make it even worse, his friends and family just laugh about it.