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Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches

Google has thanked 86-year-old May Ashworth who proved old-fashioned manners have a place in the modern world by typing ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ into her internet searches.

May Ashworth’s grandson Ben John, a 25-year-old from Wigan, found her laptop open and took a photo of the unusually polite online request. She was asking for a translation of the Roman numerals MCMXCVIII. He then tweeted the photo which has been retweeted more than 11,000 times.

He told the BBC he and his boyfriend do not have a clothes dryer so they go to Ashworth’s house for their laundry.

“I asked my nan why she used ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and it seemed she thinks that there is someone – a physical person – at Google’s headquarters who looks after the searches.

“She thought that by being polite and using her manners, the search would be quicker,” he said.

Google tweeted back: ‘Dearest Ben's Nan. Hope you're well. In a world of billions of Searches, yours made us smile.

‘Oh, and it's 1998.’

Banksy suprises pupils with mural at Bristol School

Pupils and teachers heading back Bridge Farm Primary School in Whitchurch, Bristol after half term yesterday were stunned to find an original Banksy mural painted in the playground.

The secretive graffiti artist had left a spray-painting of a child holding a stick and chasing a burning tyre on the wall – the image is believed to be a modern take on hoop rolling, a popular game played by children during the Victorian days.

The six-foot high artwork also features a flower and a small house with ‘Banksy’ signed to the bottom left of the brick building.

A further note from the artist, pinned behind the mural, said: “Dear Bridge Farm School. Thanks for your letter and naming a house after me. Please have a picture.

“If you don’t like it feel free to add stuff, I’m sure the teachers won’t mind.

 “Remember - it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission. Much love Banksy.”

Electric vans rolled out for delivery company

A London ‘farm food’ home delivery service has become the first in the capital to use only electric vehicles.

Farmdrop, which specialises in food from 70 farms and other producers within 150 miles of London, says the move will save hundreds of tonnes of CO2 as well as other harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxide from being pumped into the atmosphere.

Farmdrop founder and former Morgan Stanley investment banker Ben Pugh said: “The mainstream food chain is harmful to our health, our environment, our local producers, and it needs fixing.

“Farmdrop is on a mission to make it easy to buy the freshest food direct from the best local producers and delivered to people’s doors in a convenient and green way.

“Our larger supermarket rivals all use diesel and petrol engines, but Farmdrop is the only grocery delivery service using 100 per cent electric. Not only does this mean cleaner air for Londoners but the savings on fuel allow us to continue to offer great value.”

Electric milk floats were once a mainstay of home delivery but have all but disappeared from London’s streets to be replaced by diesel vans. A conventional diesel delivery van emits 13.89 tonnes of CO2 and 10.36kg of nitrogen oxides into London’s atmosphere every year.

The small lorries that use diesel-powered transport refrigeration units are particularly harmful, giving out 164 times more particulates — the microscopic sooty flakes that are a by-product of burning diesel —than a diesel car. There are estimated to be 84,000 transport refrigeration units in Britain.

Original story here.