Archive - Dec 2004 - Story

My favourite Christmas present this year was Lucy.

I was given her as an adoption gift from London Zoo. She is a Sulawesi Crested Macaque and although she has a rather stocky ape like appearance she is actually a monkey. Latin name Macaca nigra meaning 'black monkey' , these macaques are endangered. I don't know what her real name is but I have called her Lucy which seems to suit her. The downside of adoption is that she isn't allowed to come and stay ;o).

Feeling the need to walk off the excesses of Christmas day we took a walk up Roseberry Topping in the North York Moors. The site is managed by the National Trust and there is a convenient car park next to a pub in Newton under Roseberry. Setting off in the afternoon the sun was low in the sky and casting a reddish glow over the landscape. For the most part the sky was clear but with occaisional dark cloud creating quite a spectacular sight.

The latest version of Squash Ladder PHP has been released. Version 0.7.6 includes the following changes:

* Script rewritten to work with register_globals off
* Automated position swapping from entered match results
* Cancel & forfeit challenge options added
* Improved results displaying
* Error logging function added
* Improved sessions handling
* Fixed delete from database function (you can now remove yourself)

A scan of various wildlife discussion lists has produced some interesting stories. A swarm of crickets was reported taking over a Newcastle to Cardiff train resulting in passengers fleeing. The full report is reproduced in the discussion forum. Whilst the event isn't really a natural phenomenom (it seems they originated from a bag on the train and were destined for some exotic pet) there are some slightly strange goings on with butterflies and dragonflies being reported in December still. If you have spotted any wildlife appearing at unusual times of year let us know about it in the uk nature and wildlife discussion forum.