Can’t see the wood

Tree gang jailed after offering to prune pole
By Stewart PayneLast Updated: 1:46am GMT 02/12/2006 

A gang of bogus tree surgeons, caught after offering to prune what they claimed was a poplar but was an ivy-covered telegraph pole, were jailed yesterday. Travellers Albert Bowers, Edward Smith and Maurice Smith, all related to each other, charged extortionate sums for easy work, preying on elderly people in Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex. They charged £2,750 for removing a tree, a 45-minute job, and £600 for trimming a holly bush. Police found £225,530 in one caravan. The men were found guilty at Winchester Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud and to damage property.

Daily Telegraph

Bear facts

Examiners pass polar bear howler
By Graeme Paton, Education CorrespondentLast Updated: 1:46am GMT 02/12/2006 

A new science textbook for schools claims that polar bears eat penguins, even though they live in separate hemispheres. The book, authorised by one of England’s three exam boards, contains other errors, including that African elephants get drunk on rotten fruit, a theory dismissed by academics. The howlers were found in GCSE books and computer resources produced by the educational publishers Nelson Thornes and endorsed by the AQA board. Teaching packs cost schools £1,700 each. Peter Cotgreave, the chairman of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, a pressure group lobbying to improve science standards, said: “It is inevitable that mistakes are going to creep in but to say that polar bears and penguins live together is astonishing. It reflects a loss of respect for science.”

Daily Telegraph