Netherlands councillors call for fines for wrong weather forecasts

Local councillors in the Netherlands are calling for weather forecasters who get their predictions wrong to be fined.

The demand comes from Labour councillors in Hoek van Holland who say that "bad" forecasts are spoiling the local seaside trade.

It follow claims that wrong forecasts in both the Netherlands and Belgium are damaging outdoor attractions as day trippers cancel plans to go out because of poor weather prospects.

Joep Thonissen, head of Recron, the Dutch tourist attraction association, said "incorrect" forecasts were causing "considerable damage" to visitor attractions.

He said, "Last week it was really good weather over most of the country but the weather forecasts were full of heavy rain and thunderstorms, so people stayed home."

KNMI, the commercial weather bureau, based at Hilversum, near Amsterdam, whose forecasts are widely used by Dutch TV and newspapers, has been blamed with Mr Thonissen saying: "Heavy rain above Hilversum does not mean that is the case in the rest of the country."

Pieter van Cutsem, who runs a small hotel in Hoek van Holland, agrees that forecasters should be "punished" for incorrect predictions,saying: "Despite having more forecasting tools than ever before they often get it wrong.

"Recent weather reporting has been completely inaccurate and it is hitting local businesses dearly because people are cancelling bookings. I agree they should be fined on the grounds of disseminating incorrerct information."

Cees Molenaars, a spokesman for KNMI told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: "TV, radio and newspapers use the raw data we deliver but it is up to them to how their forecasts turn out."

Last week, tourist attraction bosses in Belgium called for "less pessimistic forecasts" and urged meteorologists to pay as much attention to sun as they do to rain.

French cows reared on fine wine

French cows are enjoying up to two bottles of high quality wine every day as farmers attempt to produce the best beef in Europe.

Jean-Charles Tastavy, who came up with the idea, said the two Angus and one Camargue were initially fed the wine in a mix of barley, hay and grapes

The extraordinary development has seen a 'Vinbovin' label of meat established which is already being championed by some of the best restaurants in Paris.

It follows an experiment in Lunel-Viel, in the southern Herault region of France, which saw three cows fed local wine for four months.

Jean-Charles Tastavy, who came up with the idea, said the two Angus and one Camargue were initially fed the wine in a mix of barley, hay and grapes.

It soon became clear that they were 'happy cows' who ended up producing an exceptionally succulent meat.

Outlining how he encouraged the cows to enjoy a tipple, Mr Tastavy said: "For each animal, alcohol intake should be equivalent to the amount recommended by health authorities for a man – namely two or three glasses of wine a day. In the case of cows, this amounts to between a litre and a litre-and-a-half a day."

After a rough mix of grapes and water, the cows were allowed wine from Saint-Genies des Mourgues, a Languedoc village near Montpellier renowned for its vineyards.

"The cattle loved what was on the menu and drank it with relish," said Claude Chaballier, owner of the farm where the experiment started last year.

Referring to the Muscat grape, Mr Chaballier added: "I thought that next time we may try Muscat so as to give the meat a more musky taste."

Laurent Pourcel, a Michelin-starred chef, is among those enthusing about the 'luxury meat' saying: "It has a very special texture – beautiful, marbled and tender, and which caramelises during cooking. All the best Parisien restaurants will take it."

Japanese Kobe beef, which is made with beer, is currently considered among the best in the world, but the possibility of cows enjoying vintage wine will guarantee an even more luxurious product.

There is a down side, however: the introduction of wine into the feed of the Lunel-Viel cows tripled the cost of their feed, adding up to £80 to the cost of a prime beef cut.

Indonesian smoking orang-utan to kick the habit

Tori is a teenager with a bad habit. The 15-year-old orang-utan has been smoking cigarettes at an Indonesian zoo for a decade, but she’s about to go cold turkey.

Tori the smoking orangutan inside her enclosure at a zoo in the central Java town of Solo 

Zookeepers said on Friday that they plan to move Tori away from visitors who regularly throw lit cigarettes into her cage so they can watch and photograph her puffing away and flicking ashes on the ground.

The primate mimics human behavior, holding cigarettes casually between her fingers while taking long drags and blowing bursts of smoke out her nostrils to the delight of visitors.

Taru Jurug Zoo director Lili Krisdianto said the move was aimed to protect four endangered orangutans at the 14-hectare (35-acre) zoo in the Central Java town of Solo.

Results of a medical test are expected Saturday to determine how much Tori's smoking has affected her health, said Hardi Baktiantoro of the Borneo-based Center for Orangutan Protection, which is helping to coordinate the intervention. A mesh cover will initially be placed over Tori's cage, and later she will be moved to a small island away from the public, he said.

Several Indonesian zoos have come under scrutiny following animal deaths, including a giraffe that died in the long-troubled Surabaya Zoo in March with an 18-kilogram (40-pound) ball of plastic in its stomach after years of ingesting trash thrown into its enclosure by visitors.

Indonesia is also one of the last remaining countries where tobacco companies face few restrictions on selling, advertising and promoting products long banned elsewhere.

More than 60 percent of all men light up and a third of the country's entire population smokes.

Lifeguard sacked after saving drowning man outside his beach patrol

A young lifeguard in Florida has lost his job after rescuing a drowning man in a section of beach he was not assigned to patrol, local news media reported on Wednesday.

Tomas Lopez, 21, fired for helping drowning man 

Tomas Lopez, 21, was manning his post on Hallandale Beach, north of Miami, on Monday afternoon when a beachgoer alerted him to a swimmer struggling in an "unprotected" part of the beach.

"It was a long run, but someone needed my help. I wasn't going to say no," said Lopez, quoted by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

The unidentified man was rescued, then rushed to hospital where he remains in intensive care. But when Lopez went to file an incident report, he was fired for going 500 yards out of his assigned area.

"They didn't tell me in a bad way. It was more like they were 'sorry, but rules are rules,'" Lopez said. "I couldn't believe what was happening."

"We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area," explained a supervisor for the private contractor that supplies lifeguards for Hallandale Beach, a popular destination for Canadian winter holiday makers.

"What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."

No longer in a job that pays $8.25 an hour, Lopez said he would do what he did again if he had to. "It was the moral thing to do," he said. "I would never pick a job over my morals."