Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never Dry

Not the place to go for a swim

2011-10-04T05:29:00.001-07:00

The Marshall Islands in the Pacific is definitely not the place one would recommend to a person going for a swim. The government has created the world's largest shark sanctuary, covering nearly two million sq km (750,000 sq miles) of ocean.

The Pacific republic will ban trade in shark products and commercial shark fishing throughout its waters.

Tourism, including diving, is a staple of the Marshall Islands archipelago, which is home to just 68,000 people.

Sharks and their near relatives such as rays are seriously threatened by issues such as habitat loss and fishing.

About a third of ocean-going sharks are on the internationally-recognised Red List of Threatened Species.

"In passing this [shark protection] bill, there is no greater statement we can make about the importance of sharks to our culture, environment and economy," said Senator Tony deBrum, who co-sponsored the bill through the Marshallese parliament.
"Ours may be a small island nation, but our waters are now the biggest place sharks are protected."

To put the sanctuary in context, it covers roughly the same area as Indonesia, Mexico or Saudi Arabia, and is about eight times bigger than the UK.
The move will extend the area of ocean in which sharks are protected from about 2.7 million sq km to 4.6 million sq km (1.0 to 1.8 million sq miles).

Global network

Under the bill, commercial shark fishing and any trade in shark products will be banned, and any of the fish accidentally caught must be released alive.
The sanctuary will swallow a huge chunk of the Pacific Ocean
Certain designs of fishing gear will be banned from Marshallese waters; and violators of all these measures face fines of up to £200,000.

The Marshallese government has worked on the plan with advisors from the Pew Environment Group, the US-based organisation that identified archipelago nations as providing big marine conservation "wins" because of the vast scale of their territorial waters.

"We salute the Republic of the Marshall Islands for enacting the strongest legislation to protect sharks that we have seen," said Matt Rand, Pew's director of global shark conservation.

"As leaders recognise the importance of healthy shark populations to our oceans, the momentum for protecting these animals continues to spread across the globe."
The Marshall Islands follows the lead taken by Palau two years ago, whose sanctuary was then the world's biggest. Other nations including the Bahamas have since followed suit.

Last month, a group of eight countries including Mexico, Honduras, the Maldives and Northern Mariana Islands signed a declaration announcing they would push for more shark protection across the world.

Because they grow and reproduce relatively slowly, sharks are especially vulnerable to factors such as accidental or targeted fishing.

Shark protection measures are also likely to help marine biodiversity overall, as they restrict the rights of fishing vessels and require greater scrutiny of landings.
However, with the Marshall Islands as with Palau and some other countries, there are questions over the capacity of authorities to monitor fully such huge expanses of ocean.

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A Real Cold Case

2011-07-07T06:46:00.001-07:00

A murder mystery dating back to 1879 has been finally resolved after a skull unearthed in BBC legend David Attenborough's garden was formally recognised as that of a woman murdered by her maid 132 years ago.

Julia Martha Thomas, a wealthy widow aged 55, was killed by her 29-year-old housekeeper Kate Webster very close to Park Road in well-to-do Richmond, but her head was never found.

The case became known as the 'Barnes Mystery', which gripped London at the time.

Webster, a convicted thief and fraudster, chopped up Thomas with an axe, boiled the remains and gave the dripping to local children to eat.

A box containing human flesh was found in the nearby River Thames days after the killing and one of the victim's feet was found on an allotment.

Webster was tried and executed, but the head was never found until it was unearthed in October by workmen building an extension at the home of Attenborough, the face of BBC natural history programmes for more than 50 years.

Thomas lived at almost exactly the same spot as the 85-year-old broadcaster, while the garden where the skull was found used to be the site of a pub said to be a favourite of the killer.

Alison Thompson, the west London coroner formerly identified the recovered skull as that Thomas. She recorded a verdict of unlawful killing and the cause of death as asphyxiation and head injury.

After reviewing records of the murder from the time of her death, along with census records and radiocarbon testing, the investigating officer was able to provide the coroner with compelling evidence that the skull was indeed Thomas's.

"This is a fascinating case and a good example of how good old-fashioned detective work, historical records and technological advances came together to solve the 'Barnes mystery'," said Richmond borough police commander Chief Superintendent Clive Chalk.

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Teenage Car Thiefs Get BIG shock!

2011-05-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

TEENAGE thieves targeting vans parked on a council estate forced open the doors of one - and were confronted by four SAS men on a stakeout.

Two of the Who Dares Wins heroes stayed put while the other two chased the panic-stricken tearaways and gave them "a bit of a slap".

The SAS surveillanced team was on a night-time counter-terrorism training exercise in Manchester.

A source said: "The lads each had a machine gun and a side pistol with live ammunition to make it realistic. They saw these scrotes coming for some time.

"They were trying their luck on every van in the estate, looking for tools they could pinch.

"One of the team was resting, one on standby, one log-keeping and monitoring the radio, and the fourth was watching the practice target through the scope of a sniper rifle.

Heroes ... SAS crest
"They didn't want to move for fear of ruining the exercise and hoped the gang would pass them by.

"The lads decided they would teach them a lesson if they did get into their van, which is exactly what happened.

"To this day, those idiots probably still don't have any idea who they were messing with - but it hopefully made them think twice about doing that to anyone else again."

With the team's cover blown, the exercise was cancelled. But no official report was made to police to prevent members having to give court evidence.

The incident was confirmed by senior defence forces. But The Sun has been asked not to reveal specific details.

ABOUT The Special Air Srvice:

The Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces organisation of the British Army. Formed in 1941 to conduct raids behind German lines in North Africa, with the Long Range Desert Group, it today serves as a model for similar units fielded by many other countries.

The SAS is a small and secretive organisation, but attracts a disproportionate amount of media coverage. It forms part of the United Kingdom Special Forces, alongside the Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR).

The SAS is widely regarded as one of the finest and best trained special forces units in the world.

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The Dangers of Rising Damp...

2011-03-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

Don’t look now, but there’s an alligator behind your sofa…

A woman in Brazil was shocked to find an alligator hiding behind her sofa after heavy rains flooded her house in the town of Parauapebas, in Para state.

She said she was alerted to the reptile's presence by her three-year-old son, who was patting its head.

The woman snatched the child away and called the fire brigade, who trapped the 1.5m-long (5ft) alligator.

The firefighters said the family was lucky the reptile was not hungry.

Firefighter Captain Luiz Claudio Farias said it could have seriously hurt or even killed the boy.

Capt Farias said it was not uncommon for animals such as alligators and snakes to enter people's houses in towns such as Parauapebas which are built very near rivers and the rainforest.

He said the reptile had been released in a less populated area of the town.

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There She Blows....

2011-02-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

Published in 1851 by by American author Herman Melville. Moby-Dick is widely considered to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale: Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge.

Now, US marine archaeologists have found the sunken whaling ship belonging to the captain who inspired Herman Melville's classic 19th Century novel, Moby Dick.

The remains of the vessel, the Two Brothers, was found in shallow waters off Hawaii.

Captain George Pollard was the skipper when the ship hit a coral reef and sank in 1823.

His previous ship, the Essex, had been rammed by a whale and also sank, providing the narrative for the book.

'Pretty amazing'

The remains of the Two Brothers were found by researchers from America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), about 600 miles (965 km) north-west of Honolulu in the remote chain of islands and atolls.

The wooden vessel has disintegrated in the warm waters, but the researchers found harpoons, a hook for stripping whales of their blubber and cauldrons used to turn whale blubber into oil.

"To find the physical remains of something that seems to have been lost to time is pretty amazing," said Nathaniel Philbrick, an author and historian, who has been researching the Two Brothers, the Essex and their captain.

"It just makes you realise these stories are more than stories. They're about real lives."

The sinking of the Two Brothers was relatively uneventful compared with the Essex's run-in with the sperm whale in 1821.

After the Essex sank, Capt Pollard and his crew drifted at sea without food and water for three months and even resorted to cannibalism before they were rescued.

Pollard gave up whaling and became a night watchman in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

While Meville was inspired by Pollard's adventures, the unlucky seafarer's character is not thought to have been the basis for the novel's obsessive Capt Ahab.

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Birds Binge Drinking

2011-01-13T05:07:00.000-08:00

We hear about the issue when people fly drunk, but this is something differant.

Birds that were thought to have died from avian flu in Romania instead apparently drank themselves to death.

Residents of Constanta in eastern Romania found dozens of dead starlings on the outskirts of the city on Saturday.

They alerted authorities, fearing the birds had died from avian flu.

But local veterinary officials decided the starlings had died after eating grape 'marc' - the leftovers from the wine-making process.

The head of the local sanitary and veterinary authority, Dvsva, told news agency Agerpres that analysis of the starlings' gizzards showed they had died from alcohol poisoning.

There have been a number of unexplained mass bird deaths recently in several countries, including the United States and Sweden.

Fireworks were blamed for the deaths of thousands of red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas, while in Sweden officials believe almost 100 jackdaws found dead in the centre of a town had simply been run over.

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TV Star dies after being struck by lightning

2010-11-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

This is the sort of headline that one might see, however in this case the TV star is a seven-year-old giraffe. 'Playful and charming' Hamley, who has been an on-screen favourite for five years on TV drama Wild At Heart.

Yesterday thunderstorm killed Hamley on Monday on the Glen Afric reserve in South Africa, where the drama, which stars Stephen Tompkinson and Dawn Steele as newlyweds Danny and Alice Trevanion, is filmed.

The cast did not witness the tragedy, as they were away from the reserve filming a scene for the sixth series of the ITV drama.

Producer Nick Goding said: 'We are all desperately upset about the passing of Hamley, who has been part of the Wild At Heart family for five years.
'It was a natural disaster, but nevertheless heartbreaking for everyone who has been involved with him - he was a real character.

'Our wildlife is very much at the heart of the series - Hamley was a gentle, playful and charming animal. He will be greatly missed by everybody.'
Hamley had already filmed scenes, including frightening an environmental agency visitor up a tree, for the next series.

A spokeswoman for the drama said of the scene: 'You can't teach wild animals how to act. But Hamley walked up to the tree afterwards where the actor was and started to lick his face.

"That will stay in (the series). That was just one of his many extraordinary facets, that as a wild animal he had this natural aptitude to do what you wished for."

Scottish actress Steele said she was "so sad" about the death.

She said: "Hamley was a huge part of the show. We still all cannot believe that he will not be wandering around set, trying to get into the make-up truck or trying to get into every scene he could.

"I cannot express how he will be missed on Wild At Heart - he was like another actor - only taller!

"He touched everyone's lives on this set. I am only glad in his short life he touched so many people and left so many memories. It will not, and is not, the same without him."

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"Obeisant" crowns a differant Scrabble champ.

2010-11-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

The somewhat stayed reputation of "Scrabble" as a game played in sleepy backwaters by elderly school teachers and has been overturned as a transsexual in a pink wig and matching PVC dress was crowned UK national champion.

Mikki Nicholson, 32, from Carlisle in Cumbria, took the crown with the word "obeisant", which scored 86 points.

She outplayed Mark Nyman, who has won more than 20 major Scrabble contests, including the World Championship.

“People think Scrabble is just about words but it's the numbers that win the game”
Mikki Nicholson
National Scrabble Champion 2010

Other words used in the final were "inficete", meaning unfunny, and "oceanaut", an undersea explorer. "Obeisant", which means obedient or showing respect, proved crucial in the deciding fifth game.

Thrilling victory

Ms Nicholson, who learned to play the game on the internet five years ago, said: "It was a big challenge but I wouldn't have entered if I didn't think I had a chance of winning.

"I'm thrilled to have won and I can't wait to celebrate."

It was scant consolation for Mr Nyman, who has featured in Dictionary Corner on Channel 4's Countdown, that he got the highest scoring word in the final game - "updates" - which scored 105 points.

Explaining her route to victory, Ms Nicholson said: "A good Scrabble player is intuitive. They also need to be good with numbers.

"People think Scrabble is just about words, but it's the numbers that win the game so a sound mathematical brain is an advantage.

"The best word I played was 'inficete' as it changed the flow of the game and my best move was when I played 'tenor', as it allowed me to open up the board for me to play a high-scoring K."

Ms Nicholson, who is currently unemployed, said she planned to spend the £1,500 prize money on a trip to Malaysia in December to compete in another Scrabble tournament.

A Scrabble spokeswoman said: "Scrabble is a game for anyone to enjoy, loved by generations of families, men and women and anyone."

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Purple Spud is Good Grub

2010-10-06T14:59:00.001-07:00

A purple potato that growers claim is healthier than the standard variety is going on sale in UK supermarkets.

The Purple Majesty has a distinctive deep colour and contains up to 10 times the level of antioxidant, anthocyanins, compared with white potatoes.

It was developed at Colorado State University from a traditional variety.

Despite its appearance, the potato now being grown by Perthshire producer Albert Bartlett after two years of trials, is not genetically modified.

Potatoes originate from the high reaches of the Andes and come in thousands of varieties, with many having developed deep red and purple colouring.

The trials found that the Purple Majesty could be grown in Scotland.

'Positive effect'

An initial crop of 400 tonnes of the variety will go on sale in Sainsbury's stores across Scotland and the south-east of England this week, with a larger yield expected next year.

Albert Bartlett, which has its headquarter in Airdrie, has been working with Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh and the Scottish Crop Research Institute to determine what health benefits there could be from eating the potato.

Dr Catherine Tsang, who took part in research, said: "Our research specifically looked at Purple Majesty potatoes which, unlike white potatoes, contain a natural pigment called anthocyanins.

"It's this pigment that gives the potato the purple appearance, but more importantly, it possesses antioxidant properties, which are maintained even after cooking."

She added: "We're all aware of the stories about red wine having a more positive effect on the heart than white wine, due to their higher levels of antioxidant.

Dr Tsang said anthocyanins contained antioxidant properties which some studies had suggested could have a positive effect on blood vessels and reducing blood pressure."

However, other studies have found little evidence of the conclusion.

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Colombian declared world's shortest man

2010-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

A 70cm (27-inch) tall Colombian has been named the world's shortest living man by Guinness World Records.

Edward Nino Hernandez, 24, weighs only 10kg (22lbs). His mother said he had not grown since he was two years old.

Mr Hernandez, who works part-time as a dancer, told the Associated Press: "I feel happy because I'm unique."

The previous record holder was He Pingping of China, who was 4cm (1.5 inches) taller and died in March - before Mr Hernandez was discovered.

Mr Hernandez is not expected to keep the title for long, however, as Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal is expected to take the title when he turns 18 in October.

Khagendra, currently recognised as the world's shortest living teenager, is only 56cm (22in) tall. The shortest man on record was Gul Mohammed of India, who measured just 57cm - 1cm taller than Khagendra.

Mr Hernandez's mother, Noemi, said doctors in the Colombian capital, Bogota, never explained why he had grown only 40cm since birth.

She said doctors at the National University studied him until he was three and then lost interest. Her youngest child, 11-year-old Miguel Angel, is himself only 93cm (37in) tall

Mr Hernandez left school in the eighth grade and now earns some money dancing at department stores. He is also currently playing the role of a drug dealer in a film.

Although he liked the attention, he said there were some drawbacks.

"It bothers me that people are always touching me and picking me up."

Don't Forget November is MALE YA MONTH

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World Record $1m speeding fine

2010-08-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have ever had a speeding ticket, they have been nothing compared to a driver in Sweden who has clocked up (in more ways than one) a world record speeding fine.

A Swedish driver who was caught driving at 290km/h (180mph) in Switzerland could be given a world-record speeding fine of SFr1.08m ($1m; £656,000), prosecutors say.

The 37-year-old, who has not been named, was clocked driving his Mercedes sports car at 170km/h over the limit.

Under Swiss law, the level of fine is determined by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded.

In January, a Swiss driver was fined $290,000 - the current world record.

Local police spokesman Benoit Dumas said of the latest case that "nothing can justify a speed of 290km/h".

"It is not controllable. It must have taken 500m to stop," he said.

The Swede's car - a Mercedes SLS AMG - has been impounded and in principle he could be forced to pay a daily fine of SFr3,600 for 300 days

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Herby Goes Poo Powered

2010-08-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Adam Sandler has a song quite often heard around the more rowdy Karaoke bars called "Ode to the car" or "Piece of s**t car".

This now seems to be not far from the point as a car has been developed in Bristol, England that runs on methane, generated by human excrement, trying to aid the search for sustainable motoring.

One of the largest sewage works in England, Avonmouth (Bristol) sewage treatment plant have taken a VW Beetle and powered it by methane, with the gas stored in tanks in the boot (trunk), enough to power the VW for around 200 miles. The plan is to bring in waste from other areas like supermarkets ti increase the amount of methane available.

Methane was discovered in 1776 by Alessandro Volta (the inventor of the battery)
This is not something new, California garbage trucks are running on their own rubbish, bananas are being used for methane power in Australia, during the world wars; farmers used methane from their cows to power trucks.

Once good thing from the broadcast (see link below) it seems the smell is not as bad as one might think

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10884539

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Camp Equality

2010-07-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Luxury car worth £1.2m clamped outside Harrods

A luxury car valued at £1.2m was clamped outside Harrods in central London after being illegally parked.

The Koenigsegg CCXR and a £350,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce were both clamped on the afternoon of 22 July.

Kensington and Chelsea Council said the light-blue vehicles were in serious contravention of parking rules.

The Knightsbridge store was bought by members of the Qatari royal family in April for £1.5bn.

It was bought by the Qatar Holding group, led by the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, from Mohammed Al Fayed

Both the cars are very rare with the Swedish-made Koenigsegg being one of only six ever made.

'Effective deterrent'

A Harrods spokesman said: "Any matters relating to parking tickets and enforcement are strictly the domain of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea."

The council said £120 penalty charge notices were issued, but the cars were released for £70 each as the fines were paid within 14 days.

A spokesman said: "There is a greater shortage of parking space for residents in Kensington and Chelsea than practically anywhere else in the country.

"At the same time we have a huge number of visiting motorists attracted here by our fine shops, restaurants and other attractions.

"Our priority is our residents. To keep space available for them, we must deter visitors from taking up residents' bays and our experience is that clamping is simply the most effective deterrent."

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"Smarter than your average bear"

2010-07-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

Not exactly Yogi, but is seems there was one smart bear who wanted to go joy riding.

A bear climbed into an empty car in the US state of Colorado, sounded the horn and sent the vehicle rolling down hill with the terrified animal still inside.

The car's owner, 17-year-old Ben Story, took a snap of the panic-stricken bear as it demolished the inside of his vehicle in its bid to escape.

Police in Larkspur, near Denver, eventually freed the animal by opening the door from a distance using a rope.

It is believed the bear was attracted by a sandwich left on the back seat.

Mr Story and his family were asleep when the bear opened the unlocked door of his 2008 Toyota Corolla in the early hours of the morning and climbed inside.

'Flashers on'

Mr Story's father, Ralph, said the bear must have hit the car's automatic transmission into neutral sending it rolling backwards 125ft (38m), off the driveway, down an embankment and into a thicket of trees.

"The four-way flashers were on. It's like he knew what was going on, and kept hitting the horn," he told Denver's 7News.

Once the car door closed behind the bear, it was trapped inside.

Ben Story said his car was wrecked.

"It [the bear] was a pretty good size, actually it was pretty big. If you look at the inside of the car, there's nothing left at all. You could see it moving around, it like took up the entire inside of the car."

The bear was last seen running into the woods.

Colorado wildlife expert Tyler Baskfield said bears often entered cars and houses in search of food.

"It happens all the time," he said. "They're very smart."

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First Bottled Water... Now Sandwich in a Can

2010-07-22T04:45:00.000-07:00

Can you remeber when botled water first came out, and we all sniggered and said, "Who'd pay for a bottle of water, when you can just turn on the tap?" Now it's become the staple drinking water supply for people around the world. So what's next?

Marc Kirkland, 50, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has dedicated more than a decade of his life to a single concept: The sandwich in a can.

Or, actually, make that a few concepts: Sandwiches in a can. Pizza in a can. French toast in a can. Cinnamon rolls in a can.

Why a can? Because, when combined with techniques similar to those used to preserve Meals Ready-to-Eat for soldiers, an aluminum can keeps food fresh for a full year or even longer. Yes, that’s right: A fresh, year-old sandwich.

And cans have an added benefit, Kirkland noted: They fit perfectly inside all the soda vending machines that exist, well, everywhere. That means his “Candwich” products could be sold in both stores and vending machines.

markonefoods.com
Have you been hankering for a food product that can roll around inside your car for months before you eat it? If so, look no further. by Laura T. Coffey
TODAYshow.com contributor
updated 7/21/2010 2:32:16 AM ET
Share Print Font: + - Mark Kirkland is used to skeptics. He’s comfortable with critics. He’s unfazed by the reaction he typically gets the first time people hear about his invention: “Ewwwwwwww.”

Kirkland, 50, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has dedicated more than a decade of his life to a single concept: The sandwich in a can.

Or, actually, make that a few concepts: Sandwiches in a can. Pizza in a can. French toast in a can. Cinnamon rolls in a can.

Why a can? Because, when combined with techniques similar to those used to preserve Meals Ready-to-Eat for soldiers, an aluminum can keeps food fresh for a full year or even longer. Yes, that’s right: A fresh, year-old sandwich.

And cans have an added benefit, Kirkland noted: They fit perfectly inside all the soda vending machines that exist, well, everywhere. That means his “Candwich” products could be sold in both stores and vending machines.

“So think about it,” Kirkland explained. “You’re a mom running your kids between school, piano lessons, soccer. Stopping at a fast-food restaurant takes time. This is something that literally could roll around the car for a few months. ... I kind of compare it to bottled water when it first came out. At the time I thought, ‘Why would I pay a dollar for a bottle of water when I can just go to the water fountain?’ Now I drink bottled water every day. It’s convenient.”

But how does it taste?
Thus far, Kirkland’s assurances haven’t done much to stem the snickering and giggling. On his late-night Comedy Central show “The Colbert Report,” Stephen Colbert joked about preserving sandwiches with the same technology used to store motor oil. Colbert said of the “BBQ Chicken Candwich”: “I am confident only one of those B’s stands for botulism.”

Jac Howard
TODAYshow.com writer Laura T. Coffey conducts a taste test and gives the PB&J Candwich a thumbs-up.
Kirkland knows his products won’t be a hit with busy moms, kids or anybody else if they don’t taste good. To demonstrate the virtues of “shelf-stable bread” and sandwich fixings that have a long shelf life, he sent two peanut-butter-and-jelly Candwich samples to TODAYshow.com. This writer tried them, and you know what? They weren’t bad at all. In fact, they tasted just like standard peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches made with hot-dog buns — a perennial kid-lunch staple.

In the interest of full disclosure, Kirkland did not send the sample sandwiches in a fully canned state. (The cans are in the process of being mass-produced for his PB&J Candwich product launch in August.) When canned, his food products will undergo the rigors of “hurdle technology” — that is, hurdles to prevent the growth of any pathogens or unwanted organisms in the food. By controlling the amount of oxygen, acidity and water inside the packaging and the sandwich itself, pathogens can be stopped in their tracks, Kirkland said.

markonefoods.com
To build a PB&J Candwich, you spread the contents of squeezable peanut-butter and jelly packets onto a hot-dog bun that has been stored separately in cellophane.The sandwich samples Kirkland shared with TODAYshow.com included the ingredients that would have gone inside a can: A hot-dog bun wrapped in cellophane; a squeezable packet of peanut butter; a squeezable packet of jelly; and a small piece of taffy for dessert. You just build your own sandwich and nosh. The shelf-stable bread Kirkland uses for the hot-dog buns wound up sitting in a FedEx package for five days, but it still tasted, smelled and felt just fine.

But what about pre-built sandwiches and pizza pockets that have meat baked into them? How do those hold up after months and months inside a can?

Jeff Pierson, 46, a nature and wildlife photographer based in Salt Lake City, loves the BBQ Chicken Candwich so much that he’s devoured dozens of them. A few years back, he tried his first canned sandwich courtesy of one of his buddies, a longtime friend of Kirkland’s.

“When it was just peanut butter and jelly, I was pretty excited about it, but when I was handed my first meat sandwich I was a little hesitant,” Pierson recalled. “I thought, ‘How safe could this be?’ But I’ve eaten them after a full year, and they were still good — and I’m still here.”

Pierson said the sandwiches are convenient when he spends multiple days outside — nowhere near a store or refrigerator — taking photos of grizzly bears and other wildlife. When closer to home, he’s also devised a method for enjoying hot chicken sandwiches.

“I keep ’em in my car,” he said. “I put ’em in a heavy plastic sack and leave them on the dashboard, and I have a hot sandwich for lunch. ... I’ve never been sick and I’ve had a lot of them that have been kicking around in the car for a spring and a winter, a few seasons, and it’s always been OK.”

No need for refrigeration
Because of their staying power, inventor Kirkland also sees a place for Candwiches in emergency-preparedness kits and at times when natural disasters strike.

“I wish I would have had about 100 million of these when the earthquake hit Haiti,” Kirkland said. “Or any time there’s a hurricane or the power goes out. ... I think of it as more of a convenience item than an emergency item, but I do think it’s perfect for emergencies.”

In August, peanut-butter-and-jelly Candwiches will go on the market for the first time in limited areas of the United States. That will be followed by a nationwide product launch. Next will be the Pepperoni Pizza Pocket Candwich, which has the pepperoni, sauce and cheese baked into the bread.

Next up: The BBQ Chicken Candwich, the BBQ Beef Candwich, French toast that contains a maple filling, and cinnamon rolls that come with a spreadable chocolate sauce. Kirkland also has plans to unveil canned calzones and canned wrapped sandwiches in the future.

Pretty soon consumers will be able to add a sandwich to their soda order when they do business with a vending machine.He foresees the products selling in soda vending machines for $2 to $3, and in grocery stores and convenience stores for varying prices.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Move a dead badger? More a case of "weasel overcome"

2010-07-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

We have been a little light on the funny side of life over the last few weeks, but today is a good one...

Workmen painting white lines on a main road left a gap for a dead badger because it was not their responsibility to clear up the carcass, a council has said.
The animal was killed on the A338 near Downton on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border but when Hampshire County Council workmen came to paint white lines in the centre of the road, they decided to leave a space until the body had been removed.

The responsibility for picking up the remains was the responsibility of New Forest District Council.

Businessman Kevin Maul, of Winterbourne Dauntsey, Salisbury, Wiltshire, who spotted the gap in the lines, said: "I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw this poor old badger who had been there over a week.

"Then I drove home to see his body between the lines - they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay."

Mel Kendal, Hampshire County Council executive member for the environment, said: "We would usually liaise with our colleagues at the district council, who dispose of animal carcasses on the highways, to ensure the badger was removed before the white line-painting crew did this stretch of road.

"This appears not to have happened in this case and the white line-painting crew did what they thought was best until arrangements could be made to dispose of the carcass.

"These arrangements have now been made and the gap in the white lines will be filled in, at no extra cost to the council tax-payer

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Cat, Bear or Seagull?

2010-07-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Mr Pooh: lives in Shoreham by Sea, on the Sussex coast (in England), which is just a stones throw from where I used to live in Engalnd, okay a very long stobnes throw, but close enough.

He's a seagull. Or maybe he's a cat. Or maybe, given his nickname, he's actually a bear.

Whatever he 'thinks' he is, Pooh the seagull is a family pet.

He has been part of the Grimwood family from Shoreham-by-Sea ever since he arrived unexpectedly as a baby.

Pooh didn't even arrive conventionally by exiting an egg.

In fact the Grimwoods found him in their fireplace one day.

"We heard a rustle in the lounge when we were watching telly and we suddenly thought 'Ooh - what's that?" said June Grimwood.

"We reached into the chimney and pulled out this young chick."
He was just a baby gull at the time, albeit an ash-covered baby after falling down the chimney.

"We put him back on the roof, but it was a bit of a windy day and he fell back off."

Instead of getting into a flap, June and Steve Grimwood calmly nursed him and fed him cat food.

He ate it alongside some unlikely companions - the family cats.

"He slept in the cats' basket, mingled in amongst the cats and was happy as Larry,"

Then, one day, Pooh flew the nest.

But he still returns for six months every year. In fact, in a sense, he's still at home with Mum and Dad, because he and his partner nest on their roof.

Pooh comes in for meals three times a day, with the cats Mitzi, Gus and Henry.

"He feeds out of the cat bowls, he comes indoors and takes the cats' biscuits out of their feeder. I think he does believe that he is actually a cat," said Mrs Grimwood.

"I wouldn't say he's mixed up. He's just very clever. He knows where to go for a good B&B (Bed and Breakfast)is by the seaside every year."

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California Grins and Bares It!

2010-07-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

The southern Californian city of Laguna Niguel has been enjoying an annual ritual, in which locals and visitors bare their bottoms at passing trains.

For 30 years, the city has hosted "Mooning Amtrak" as crowds line up along the railway tracks, dropping their trousers when a train passes by.

Up to 10,000 people take part, and visitors are encouraged to leave their cars at home and arrive by train.

Local legend has it the tradition began in 1979, after a bar room bet.

A drinker at the Mugs Away Saloon, which stands directly across the road from the railway, offered to buy a drink for anyone who would run outside and moon at the next train.

One customer took him at his word, and a ritual was born.

Each year the event grows, with crowds swelled by word of mouth and enthusiastic reports from radio DJs on local radio stations.

There were reports in 2008 of surging crowds and drunkenness, and police and a helicopter were called in from neighbouring towns to maintain order.

Last year the city, which lies in Orange County between Los Angeles and San Diego, decided enough was enough.

"Avoid the area this year," the city warned on its website home page. It added in a breezy Twitter feed that the city was "saying 'NO' to crack".

Moon Amtrak enthusiasts were not impressed.

Mugs Away regular Rick Sanchez blamed a "stuffy, yuppie mayor" who had "never even been to a mooning", the Wall Street Journal reported.

The event even has its own website, this year proudly headed "31st Annual Mooning of Amtrak". It also promoted a newer offshoot: "5th Annual Mooning of Metrolink".

It features directions to Camino Capistrano, the road where trousers and dignity are dropped each year, and helpfully lists train times through the day, so that people can schedule their disrobing.

And after 8pm, there is night mooning. "Bring a flash light with plenty of batteries, or better yet, bring a camping lantern," the website advises.

There is even a "Frequently Asked Questions" section for mooning debutantes. "Can I decorate my butt?" is one FAQ.

Yes, that's OK, apparently

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I know we've been around a long time but...

2010-07-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Humans' early arrival in Britain

Researchers have discovered stone tools in Norfolk, UK, that suggest that early humans arrived in Britain nearly a million years ago - or even earlier.

The find, published in the journal Nature, pushes back the arrival of the first humans in what is now the UK by several hundred thousand years.

Environmental data suggests that temperatures were relatively cool.

This raises the possibility that these early Britons may have been among the first humans to use fire to keep warm.

They may also have been some of the earliest humans to wear fur clothing.

The discoveries were made in Happisburgh, in the north of Norfolk. At the time there was a land bridge connecting what is now southern Britain with continental Europe.

There are no early human remains, but the researchers speculate that the most likely species was Homo antecessor, more commonly - and possibly appropriately - known as "Pioneer Man".

Remains of the species have been found in the Atapuerca region of northern Spain, and dated to 0.8-1.2 million years ago. So the species could well have been in Britain at around that time, according to Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London.

"If the climate was good and the land bridge was there, there's no real reason they couldn't have come (to Britain) as far back as 1.2 million years ago," he told BBC News.
Pioneer Man was much like our own species in that it walked upright, used tools and was a hunter gatherer.

But physically the species looked rather different. It had a smaller brain, strong brow ridges and big teeth, with some primitive features such as a flat face and no prominent chin on the lower jaw.

'Real pioneers'

The discovery raises many new questions, such as how these creatures dealt with the cold winters that existed at the time. Scientists have also speculated that they may have used shelters and clothing.

It also raises the possibility that Britain was the first place where fire was used in a controlled way for warmth.

"Although we don't have the evidence for fire or of clothing to get through the winters up here, I think they must have had some extra adaptations," said Professor Stringer.

"I think the evidence suggests that they were living at the edge of the inhabited world in a really challenging environment and indeed they were real pioneers living here in Britain, nearly a million years ago," he said.

"The discovery is immensely surprising because we are dealing with an incredibly early date," Dr Ashton said.

He added that the environmental data that indicated the relatively low tempertures was "even more surprising".

"It's unusual to find humans in such a cool climate this far north at this very early date," he said.

This area of Norfolk was quite a different place one million years ago.

"The [River] Thames was flowing through this area. And at the site we have sediments laid down by the Thames," he explained.

Pioneer man was eventually wiped out by an Ice Age. These occurred about every 100,000 years, and each time that happened Britain was depopulated.

As conditions became more benign, a new group of humans arrived.

There were at least eight different waves of people that came in and died out before the last wave, which is the one that survives today.

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Chateau be the day.

2010-06-30T03:58:00.001-07:00

With the French soccer team, leaving the world cup with it's tail between it's numerous legs, and the not much state of the Euro, I was wondering what France would be "crowing" about next.

It seems they are very proud of building an ancient building... If that makes sense.

Deep in the forests of central France, an unusual architectural experiment is half-way to completion, as a team of masons replicates in painstaking detail the construction of an entire medieval castle.

The Chateau de Guedelon was started in 1998, after local landowner Michel Guyot wondered whether it would be possible to build a castle from scratch, using only contemporary tools and materials.

Today, the walls are rising gradually from the red Burgundy clay. The great hall is almost finished, with only part of the roof remaining, while the main tower edges past the 15m (50ft) mark.

Builders use sandstone quarried from the very ground from which the castle is emerging.

Modern cement did not exist in the 13th Century, so mortar is made from slaked lime and sand. For tools they have basic ironware.

Eccentric pipe dream

In woods surrounding the castle, craftsmen ply all the trades required for so monumental an endeavour. Stone-cutters and carpenters fashion the raw materials. A blacksmith forges the nails. Ropes, baskets and roof-tiles are all made on site.

"The rule is that only what we know from documents that existed at the time is allowed," says Sarah Preston, an English guide.

What started out as an eccentric pipe dream is now an established enterprise, drawing in tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe every year.

And Guedelon is also highly respected in the academic world. Experts are fascinated by what the experiment can teach about medieval building methods.

One example concerns lime kilns, used for making the mortar. Archaeologists had often wondered why they found traces of two separate kilns at construction sites.

Experience at Guedelon showed that, in a day's work, builders often needed to top up the mortar brought in from the main kiln with small amounts made close at hand. Hence the small second kiln actually inside the castle.

The discolouring of lime-based mortar is another revelation. Within one or two years of being laid, Guedelon's walls are already showing streaks of unsightly white where the lime is leaching.

Archaeologists think this is a clue to why medieval castles were very quickly plastered and painted: it was to hide the mess.

Mr Guyot, who owns the nearby castle of St Fargeau, teamed up with businesswoman Maryline Martin to launch the project in 1996. Part of the rationale was simply to provide employment for local people.

France's new medieval castle
Page last updated at 08:54 GMT, Wednesday, 30 June 2010 09:54 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version By Hugh Schofield

BBC News, Paris

Deep in the forests of central France, an unusual architectural experiment is half-way to completion, as a team of masons replicates in painstaking detail the construction of an entire medieval castle.

The chateau was started in 1998 in a project to build a castle from scratch The Chateau de Guedelon was started in 1998, after local landowner Michel Guyot wondered whether it would be possible to build a castle from scratch, using only contemporary tools and materials.

Today, the walls are rising gradually from the red Burgundy clay. The great hall is almost finished, with only part of the roof remaining, while the main tower edges past the 15m (50ft) mark.

Builders use sandstone quarried from the very ground from which the castle is emerging.

Modern cement did not exist in the 13th Century, so mortar is made from slaked lime and sand. For tools they have basic ironware.

Eccentric pipe dream

In woods surrounding the castle, craftsmen ply all the trades required for so monumental an endeavour. Stone-cutters and carpenters fashion the raw materials. A blacksmith forges the nails. Ropes, baskets and roof-tiles are all made on site.

"The rule is that only what we know from documents that existed at the time is allowed," says Sarah Preston, an English guide.

Only contemporary tools and materials are used in the construction What started out as an eccentric pipe dream is now an established enterprise, drawing in tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe every year.

And Guedelon is also highly respected in the academic world. Experts are fascinated by what the experiment can teach about medieval building methods.

One example concerns lime kilns, used for making the mortar. Archaeologists had often wondered why they found traces of two separate kilns at construction sites.

Experience at Guedelon showed that, in a day's work, builders often needed to top up the mortar brought in from the main kiln with small amounts made close at hand. Hence the small second kiln actually inside the castle.

The discolouring of lime-based mortar is another revelation. Within one or two years of being laid, Guedelon's walls are already showing streaks of unsightly white where the lime is leaching.

Archaeologists think this is a clue to why medieval castles were very quickly plastered and painted: it was to hide the mess.

Mr Guyot, who owns the nearby castle of St Fargeau, teamed up with businesswoman Maryline Martin to launch the project in 1996. Part of the rationale was simply to provide employment for local people.

AdvertisementHow to build a medieval castle
The Guedelon site was chosen because it contained all the necessary materials: plentiful oak from the forests, as well as clay and water. Stone from the quarry had actually been used in the building of real-life medieval chateaux.

'Lacking soul'

The castle's design is based on a style made popular by French King Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th Century.

An architectural team approves each year's building plans, after a master mason has sketched details from dozens of contemporary castles. Again, nothing that is not referenced in equivalent 13th Century buildings is permitted.

"Funnily enough, we found that even though we knew we were being accurate, somehow the castle lacked soul. So we invented a character - the owner - who would have likes and dislikes, wanting this and not wanting that," says Ms Preston.

ranking feudal lord, who has been granted the right to build his castle because he sided with the crown during a baronial rebellion in 1226.

The rebellion - at the accession of the 12-year-old Louis IX (later Saint Louis) - did actually take place, and was suppressed by his mother Blanche de Castile.

In the annals of Guedelonconstruction started in 1228. Each year that passes is a year in historical time too, so we are now in 1240. Completion is due around 1253 - or 2023 in today's calendar.

What happens when the castle is finally finished, no-one is really sure. One option is to start extending.

"Remember, medieval castles were often works in progress. In the 15th Century they might have added new bits with different architectural styles, and then again and again," says Preston. "So we could keep going for ever."

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'Psychic' octopus predicts Germany victory over England

2010-06-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ask any English soccer fan who is the one team that England always wants to beat and they will answer Germany. Since England beat them to won the 1966 world cup several times often in a penalty shoot out the Germans have put an end to England dreams. So saying guess who Enland play in the next round of the soccer world cup. None other than Germany once more. While ex yers are predicting another shoot out win, the folk at Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium have the prediction from one of there own.

"psychic" octopus is said by its aquarium owners to have predicted the country's football team will knock England out of the World Cup.

When consulted, Paul the octopus chose a mussel from a jar with the German flag on it ahead of one in a similar jar bearing the cross of St George.

The two-year-old cephalopod has a record of predicting past German results in this manner, his owners say.

Paul has so far correctly predicted all of Germany's results in South Africa.

His keepers say he correctly predicted nearly 70% of Germany's results during the 2008 European Championship.

In that contest, Germany finished as runners-up in their qualifying group, having lost only once to Croatia.

They then progressed to the final, where they were beaten by Spain.

If keepers at the Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium are right, he correctly predicted the outcome of four of the six games in that competition.

National celebrity

"Paul's prediction was phenomenal," said aquarium spokesman Tanja Munzig.

"He swam straight over to the German glass, climbed in and even put a lid on top once he was sitting inside."

The octopus, which was born in the UK and was moved to the German aquarium, has become a national celebrity after correctly predicting Germany would beat Australia in their opening match, then lose to Serbia, and then beat Ghana.

His latest prediction was flashed all over the German media.

The container that Paul opens first is said to be his pick for who will win the impending match, keepers say.

Germany finished the initial stage of the World Cup top of Group D, and face England, the runners-up from group C, in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

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Balloon Goes Up in South Korea

2010-06-18T04:24:00.000-07:00

Balloons released by schoolchildren sparked a major security alert in South Korea, reports say, amid heightened tensions with North Korea.

A resident of Ansan, near Seoul, reported seeing 40-50 objects resembling parachutes falling on a mountainside.

The military and police mobilised a special joint task force.

Upon investigation, the objects turned out to be helium balloons released by a local school.

Tensions between North and South Korea have been running high since the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year. Seoul said the ship was torpedoed by Northern forces.

In another incident earlier this month, an alert was raised after an explosion was heard on Yeonpyeong island, near the sea border with North Korea, and a diving suit was found on a shoreline, the JoongAng newspaper reported.

A joint military and police investigation found that the diving suit was abandoned by a fisherman and that the explosion had been caused by a South Korean mine, the paper said

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Green Green Grass of Home

2010-06-10T05:40:00.001-07:00

An English soccer fan has taken the starting of the World Cup perhaps just a little too far. Dan Taylor has transformed his living room into a mini football pitch for the World Cup.

England fan Dan, who's a legal secretary, thinks he used about 100 sq ft of turf but says it only took a couple of hours to lay. "I put some flags up and I put some bunting up but I looked around the room and I just thought something was lacking."

He admits he's not much of a gardener: "The reason I did it was obviously for the World Cup. It was simply a case of just going down the gardening centre and picking up the turf."

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Shoe Shops of the Ancient World

2010-06-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

The oldest example of a leather shoe has been discovered by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia.

At 5,500 years old, the well preserved cow-hide shoe pre-dates Stonehenge by 400 years and the Pyramids of Giza by 1,000 years.

It was made of a single piece of leather and was shaped to fit the wearer's foot, the researchers say.

They have published details of the discovery from south-east Armenia in the journal Plos One.

The shoe contained grass, although the archaeologists are uncertain as to whether this was to keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the footwear.

The authors are unsure whether it was worn by a man or a woman. The shoe is relatively small, corresponding to a UK women's size 5 (European size 38; US size 7 women), but it could have been worn by a man of that period.

It was discovered at the Areni-1 cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, which borders on Turkey and Iran.

The archaeologists put the shoe's remarkable preservation down to the stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave and the fact that the floor of the cave was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung.

This layer of excrement acted as a solid seal, preserving it over the millennia.

"We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition," said co-author Dr Ron Pinhasi from University College Cork in Ireland.

"It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford and in California that we realised that the shoe was older by a few hundred years than the shoes worn by Oetzi the Iceman."

Other well preserved objects were also found in the cave, including large containers, many of which held wheat and barley, apricots and other edible plants.

Sandals made from plant fibres found at the Arnold Research Cave in Missouri, US, pre-date the shoes from Areni by some 2,000-2,500 years.

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After the lava, Iceland now wants "The Best"

2010-05-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought Iceland had been in the news enough, today their elections make the headlines. A party that calls itself "the Best" has won local elections in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

The Best Party, founded by comedian Jon Gnarr, secured 34.7% of the vote, ahead of the Independence Party's 33.6%.

Its campaign video featured candidates singing to the tune of Tina Turner's "Simply The Best".

Key pledges included "sustainable transparency", free towels at all swimming pools and a new polar bear for the city zoo.

The party also called for a Disneyland at the airport and a "drug-free parliament" by 2020.

As well as specific pledges, its video promised change, a "bright future" and suggested that it was time for a "clean out".

The Best Party was only established six months ago. Its victory means it will hold six seats on the 15-member city council.

Commentators suggest it has benefited from voters' loss of trust in government and the establishment in the wake of the country's banking collapse in 2008.

According to Iceland Review Online, several local races saw parties that were in power ousted in the polls.

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Drunk in charge of a Barbie car

2010-05-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

A forty year old Essex (thats in England) man was pulled over by police as he drove an electric Barbie car. Though originally a bright pink Barbie Car, Paul Hatton had added larger wheels on the vehicle for his son, so that it actaully reached a top speed of 4mph.

Speaking after the hearing at Colchester magistrates court, he said: "You have to be a contortionist to get in, and then you can't get out.

"I was very surprised to get done for drink-driving but I was a twit to say the least."

Mr Hutton, was found to be twice the drink-drive limit, he said.

Appearing before magistrates last week, he admitted driving the toy car while drunk.

He was given a mandatory three-year ban because he had received another drink-drive ban within the past ten years.

Magistrates also gave him a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £85 court costs.

Chairman of the bench Neil Munson said: "This is most unusual.

"I have never seen the like of it in 15 years on the bench.

"The vehicle is not even capable of doing the speed of a mobility scooter and could be outrun by a pedestrian.

"Taking this into account, we feel we can impose a sentence of a conditional discharge for a period of 12 months."

The car was confiscated by police until the hearing but Mr Hutton now hopes to get it back.

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The Truth about “Cinco de Mayo”

2010-05-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Truth about “Cinco de Mayo”

A lot of people will be out celebrating today, drinking beer with limes in the top, shots that include lemon and salt or even supping from a bottle which holds a dead worm. However not many people know the truth about today.

When the Titanic set out on that fateful day in April 1912 amongst the large amount of cargo being carried was the first sample jars from Hellman’s to spread news of the product across into Europe, where Heinz had just launched their “salad cream”. The large create of the new product was dully stored deep in the cargo hold on board the Titanic.

When the boat sank all the samples were thought to have been lost delaying the spread of Hellmans new product into europe. This delay extended by the fact that the scienteist who created the recipee for the new product also went down with the Ttianic.

All was thought to have been lost , then on May 5th 1912 a crate was washed up on a small island just off the coast of Nova Scotia. This caused a huge surge of interest for not only was the create stamped with the fact it had been on the Titanic, but also inside quite unharmed was found many jars of Hellman’s new and thought lost product.

A celebration was held that day which has carried on ever since.
It was called “Sinka de Mayo” in memory of the jars of Hellman’s Mayonase that were thought lost but were returned by the sea.

Well that’s my version anyway

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"Pussy Galore" as German 'marries' his dying cat

2010-05-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

A German man has unofficially married his cat after the animal fell ill and vets told him it might not live much longer, Bild newspaper reports.

It says Uwe Mitzscherlich, 39, paid an actress 300 euros (£260,$395) to officiate at the ceremony, as marrying an animal is illegal in Germany.

Mr Mitzscherlich said he had wanted to tie the knot before his asthmatic cat Cecilia died.

The cat and groom have lived together for 10 years.

"Cecilia is such a trusting creature. We cuddle all the time and she has always slept in my bed," Mr Mitzscherlich, a postman from the eastern town of Possendorf, told Bild.

Actress Christin-Maria Lohri, who officiated the ceremony, was quoted as saying: "At first I thought it was a joke. But for Mr Mitzscherlich it's a dream come true".

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Bear comes to a sticky end

2010-04-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

It seems it's not only the American Police force that has a taste for sticky cakes and buns.

A hunter in the American state of Pennsylvania has been fined nearly $7,000 for luring a bear to a sticky end with a trail of donuts.

Charles Olsen enticed the large black bear into his gun sights with pastries and illegally shot it, police said.

Mr Olsen attracted the attention of the Game Commission when his truck, laden with sugary treats, was spotted on a road a week before bear season.
The "pastry poacher" was found guilty of violating several game laws.

Mr Olsen was arrested last November when he attempted to register the bear, which weighed 707 lbs (a third of a ton), the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
It would have been the biggest trophy claimed during the state's three-day bear hunting season had it been killed legally, the newspaper said.

The 39-year-old, of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, was rumbled when a Game Commission wildlife conservation officer spotted his truck loaded with pastries from a local shop and traced the license number.

The officer, Cory Bentzoni said: "Being that we were so close to bear season, seeing that person drive by with an unusual amount of pastries was like watching an individual go down a row of parked vehicles testing each handle to see if it would open.

"Something just didn't seem right," he was quoted as saying.
Mr Olsen could also lose his hunting and trapping privileges for at least three years after Thursday's hearing, it is reported.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Sony Get Stroppy Over Floppy

2010-04-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sony has said it will stop making floppy disks, after nearly three decades of manufacture. Yet millions of them are still being bought every year.

The floppy disk is the original symbol of storage; when you want to save a file, you go looking for that little icon that looks like a floppy.

Every year another computer manufacturer stops putting floppy drives in its machines, or a retailer stops selling the disks. Each time the cry goes up that the death knell has been sounded for the floppy disk.

However, Verbatim, a UK manufacturer which makes more than a quarter of the floppies sold in the UK, says it sells hundreds of thousands of them a month. It sells millions more in Europe.

"We've been discussing the death of the floppy for 14 years, ever since CD technology first started coming on strong," says Verbatim spokesman Kevin Jefcoate.

Yet what was Sony's best-selling peripheral for its computers in recent years? The 3.5-inch floppy disk drive that connects via a USB cable.

Somewhere out there, the floppy disk is alive and well. But where?

Disk-credited

The truth is the 3½-inch, 1.44 megabyte floppy - the disk that made it big - has always defied logic. It's not floppy for a start. The term was a hangover from its precursor, the 5¼-inch floppy, which had a definite lack of rigidness about it. However, its smaller successor held 15 times as much data.

But then along came the CD-ROM, and then the USB flash drive shamed them both; the most voluminous USB stick - which could pass for a keyring - can now hold nearly 90,000 floppies' worth of data.

One might be tempted to think that, like the vinyl enthusiasts who insist music sounds "warmer" on a record, the floppy has its own fan club. But unlike the case of vinyl, a digital format of a floppy is no different than that found on your hard drive or USB stick.

Given their limited size and speed of data transfer, along with their increasing obsolescence, it's harder to find a floppy fan club than it is to find a laptop with a floppy drive built in.

But what about all the second-hand computers that are donated to the developing world? Could they be even partly responsible for the thousands of disks still sold?

Anja Ffrench of Computer Aid International - the largest charity working to distribute recycled IT to Africa and South America - says that they only deal in computers from 2002 and later, meaning that they'll have the USB connection that obviates the need for floppies.

There are a few instances for which floppies remain the norm, like the specialist, high-value technology that may rely on floppy drives for data.

The vast desks that control the light shows and sounds settings in theatres or music venues have until recently come with floppy drives as standard; the English National Opera is just one example of an organisation that uses them.

A volunteer at the National Museum of Computing says that many scientific instruments - so-called dataloggers, oscilloscopes and the like - record their data onto floppies.

This kind of expensive equipment is made to last, to be bought infrequently - and these gadgets may call for at least a few floppies in their lifetimes.

But these relatively niche uses couldn't possibly account for the number of floppies - something like a million a month - that are being consumed in the UK alone.

The answer may simply be that there are a great many old computers that read only floppies, and a great many computer users that have no need for the storage media that have supplanted them in other quarters.

Rather than there being one industry propped up on the values of a floppy, or a horde of enthusiasts buying up the world's supply, they may simply be as much as many computer users need.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," said John Delaney, research director for IT analysts IDC.

"If you've been using PCs for a long time and you don't do much in the way of photography or music with them, then why would you change?

"There are people who ride technology for as long as it can be ridden without falling over."

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Disney hint for future happy meal gifts

2010-04-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

Disney has announced some of its plans for films over the next few years, or should we say, what your children will be demanding you buy clothes and toys, while you just know burger stores will have items in their children’s happy meals.
Coming out in 2012 will be an animated follow up to Pixar’s 2001 hit “Monsters Inc” which featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman made more than $525m wordwide.

Another Pixar film The Bear and the Bow, is to be renamed Brave and have its release put back to the end of 2011.

For those who can remember the world of Kermit, Miss Piggy etc, Disney is also going to make a new Muppets movie, to be directed by Flight of the Conchords creator James Bobin, will introduce a new puppet character called Walter.

Other future projects from Disney-Pixar include a retelling of the Winnie the Pooh story using hand-drawn animation and Frankenweenie, a stop-motion cartoon based on a story by Tim Burton.

Before that Pixar will release Toy Story 3 this summer, with a Cars sequel due in cinemas next year.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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From Victoria Cross to Wyatt Earp

2010-04-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Today sees two historic peices of weird news.

The first Victoria Cross to be won by a British army soldier - along with the cannonball which blew off his arm - has fetched £252,000 at auction.

The medal, which is Britain's highest military award for valour, was given to Glasgow-born Major John Simpson Knox.

It was for acts of heroism between 1854 and 1855 during the Crimean War.

The medal and cannonball, which took off part of Major Knox's left arm, went under the hammer at Spink Auctioneers in London.

A fellow soldier had picked up the missile that hit Major Knox and later gave it to him.

Major Knox, who was born in 1828, ran away from home in Glasgow at 14 and illegally joined the Scots Fusilier Guards as he was under age.

By the time the Crimean War had begun in 1854 he was an acting sergeant major.
He performed the first of two acts of valour on 20 September 1854 during the Battle of the River Alma.

According to the citation for his medal, he "acted with conspicuous courage in reforming the ranks of the Guards at a decisive moment of the action".

The second act of valour occurred in June the following year.

Then, while serving as a lieutenant with the Rifle Brigade, he volunteered for an attack on heavily defended Russian positions at Sebastopol.

According to the citation: "He remained in the field until he was twice wounded, all the time acting with great gallantry."

It was during that attack, on a fortress defending the city of Sebastopol, that Major Knox was struck on the left arm by the cannonball.

After his retirement from the Army in 1872, he took up residence at Cheltenham where he died on 8 January 1897 and was buried in the town's cemetery.

Before the auction, medal expert Oliver Pepys, of Spink auctioneers, said: "Major Knox showed incredible bravery, losing his arm to cannon fire in the process.

"The medal is being sold with a Russian cannonball, the very one that smashed into Knox's arm. In all my years of working with rare medals and war artefacts I have never seen a more unusual keepsake."

Victoria Cross medals are still cast from bronze taken from cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol.

The VC was being sold along with three other medals he was awarded - the Crimea Medal, the French Legion of Honour and the Turkish Crimea Medal.

OK Corral documents discovered in court storeroom

Records from an inquest into the notorious 1881 shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, have been discovered in a court storeroom.

The scrawled notes are a transcript of a witness statement about the shootout between lawmen including Wyatt Earp and three outlaws, who were killed.

The documents were last seen about 1960 when they were photocopied.

Researchers hope that restoration by archivists will reveal margin notes not visible on the reproductions.

But the notes are unlikely to shed much new light on the incident, as researchers already had access to the copies.

The pages will soon be digitised and made available online to researchers and Wild West history buffs.

Thirty-second firefight

The yellowed pages, said to be as brittle as potato crisps, were discovered in a manila envelope by court staff assigned to clean out a storage room at Cochise County superior court in Bisbee, Arizona, about 23 miles (37km) south of Tombstone, the Arizona Daily Star newspaper reported.

On 26 October, 1881, Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday confronted Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury behind the OK Corral.

The McLaurys and Billy Clanton were killed in the ensuing 30-second firefight. The incident and subsequent investigation were covered heavily in the news media at the time.

The fight entered the folklore of the Wild West and made heroes of the Earps. It has been portrayed numerous times in film and in literature.

Nearly 130 years after the shootout, it remains unclear which party fired first and whether all of the outlaws were armed.

The Earps and Holliday said they were defending themselves, but supporters of the dead men said they were murdered.

The document appears to include testimony by William Claiborn, who a historian identified as a friend of the three dead men, according to the Associated Press news agency.

It was recorded as part of an inquiry by a local official into the shootout.

The document indicates that Doc Holliday was carrying a weapon concealed under a long coat.

The town of Tombstone celebrates its part in Wild West history, attracting tourists with re-enactments of the gun battle.

Earlier this month Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed into law a measure allowing Arizonans to carry concealed firearms without a permit.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Did the earth move for you or was it an act of God?

2010-04-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

An Iranian cleric has given a whole new meaning to the age old question "Did the earth move for you?"

Hojjat ol-eslam Kazem Sediqi, the acting Friday prayer leader in Tehran, has blamed the increase in earthquakes on "women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously" (I wonder why there are not more earthquakes in Essex?)

he stated... "Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes."

With tens of thousands of people have died in Iran earthquakes in the last decade, the cleric added.

"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."

More than 25,000 people died when a powerful earthquake hit the ancient city of Bam in 2003.

Seismologists have warned that the capital, Tehran, is situated on a large number of tectonic fault lines and could be hit by a devastating earthquake soon.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said many of Tehran's 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

There are plans to build a purpose built new capital near Qom.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Aye Aye... It's Captain Bligh

2010-04-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

A four-man crew is preparing to set sail from Tonga in a 25ft open timber boat, recreating the epic voyage taken by Captain William Bligh after he was cast adrift by mutineers on the HMS Bounty in 1798.

The four man crew plans to cast off for the 4,400-nautical mile journey on April 28, exactly 221 years after Capt Bligh and 18 loyal sailors were abandoned off the Tongan island of Tofua.

Sailing in a 25ft (7.6m) open-deck boat with two small sails, they are hoping to sail from Tonga to West Timor in seven weeks.

The expedition has tried hard to recreate the conditions which confronted the Royal Navy captain.

Memorialised in two Hollywood films as well as novels and poems, the mutiny on the Bounty unfolded in 1789 when William Bligh was cast adrift in the South Pacific by his rebellious crew.

Accompanied by 18 men, Bligh managed to sail from near Tonga to West Timor in a voyage that lasted almost 50 days.

He survived by catching fish and drinking rain water.

Capsize fears

Australians Don McIntyre and David Bryce, Hong Kong businessman David Wilkinson and 18-year-old British gap year student Christopher Wilde are trying to recreate the epic voyage in their own open-top sailing boat.

From Tonga they will head west to Fiji, Vanuatu and Restoration Island before sailing north to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, then through the Torres Strait to West Timor.

To add to the authenticity of the voyage the adventurers are trying to get close to the provisions which Captain Bligh had on board - ship biscuits, pork, over 100 litres of water and six bottles of wine.

Like Bligh, they will not be using any modern-day navigational systems such as charts, compass or lights.

The main difference is that their boat is only about half the size of Bligh's vessel and their biggest fear is the danger of capsizing.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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George Washington's $300,000 library book fine

2010-04-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Librarians in New York's oldest library have uncovered a surprising book thief:

George Washington.

The first president of the United States of America borrowed two books from the New York Society Library in 1789 but failed to return them. Adjusting for inflation, this means he has since racked up $300,000 in fines for being some 220 years late.

The New York Society Library says it will not pursue the fine. It would simply like the books back. Famous for his "never told a lie" image, George Washington was not without his faults.

It seems on 5 October 1789, the first president borrowed two books from what was then the only library in Manhattan - "Law of Nations," a dissertation on international relations, and a volume of debate transcripts from Britain's House of Commons.

George Washington did not even bother to sign his name in the borrower's ledger. An aide simply scrawled "president" next to the title to show who had taken them out.

The two tomes were due back a month later but were never returned and have been accruing late fees ever since. Librarians uncovered the misdemeanour as they were digitising the library's ledger from that time.

The New York Society Library says it will not pursue the fine but it would like the books back.

Sadly for fans of 18th-Century political literature, they appear to have vanished. On the balance sheet of George Washington's achievements for America, mark down two small losses, our correspondent says.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Penguin Pulp Pasta Cook Book

2010-04-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

An Australian publisher has had to pulp and reprint a cook-book after one recipe listed "salt and freshly ground black people" instead of black pepper.

Penguin Group Australia had to reprint 7,000 copies of Pasta Bible last week, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.

The reprint cost A$20,000 ($18,000; £12,000), but stock in bookshops will not be recalled as it is "extremely hard" to do so, Penguin said.

The recipe was for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind, and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," head of publishing Bob Sessions is quoted as saying by the Sydney newspaper.

Penguin said almost every one of the more than 150 recipes in the book listed salt and freshly ground black pepper, but a misprint occurred on just one page.

"When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cook-book is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable," Mr Sessions said.

If anyone complains about the "silly mistake", they will be given the new version, Penguin said.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Some Bright Spark Job Prospect.

2010-04-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

An Australian man built up so much static electricity in his clothes as he walked that he burned carpets, melted plastic and sparked a mass evacuation.
Frank Clewer, of the western Victorian city of Warrnambool, was wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a woollen shirt when he went for a job interview.

As he walked into the building, the carpet ignited from the 40,000 volts of static electricity that had built up.

"It sounded almost like a firecracker or something like that," he said.
"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt," he told Australian radio.

Considerable current

Perplexed firemen evacuated the building and cut its electricity supply, thinking the burns could have been caused by a power surge.

"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise - a bit like a whip - both inside and outside the building," said fire official Henry Barton.

Mr Clewer said that after leaving the building, he scorched a piece of plastic in his car.

His clothes were measured by firemen as carrying an electrical charge of 40,000 volts, the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Barton as saying.

The fire official added that the charge was close to being high enough to cause the items to spontaneously combust.

"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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A Change in the Letter of the Law

2010-04-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

In 1938, American-born architect Alfred Butts invented the game Scrabble, selling the rights and trademark in 1948 the game has more than stood the test of time.

Now for the first time in the history of Scrabble the rules are going to be changed to allow the use of proper nouns, games company Mattel has said.

Place names, people's names and company names or brands will now count.

Mattel, which brings out a new version of the game containing amended rules in July, hopes the change will encourage younger people to play.

Until now a few proper nouns had been allowed which were determined by a word list based on the Collins dictionary.

In Scrabble, players try to gain the highest points by making words with individual letter tiles on a grid board.

Each letter tile has a points value between one and 10, based on the letter's frequency in standard English.

Various coloured squares on the board can double or triple a player's points.

Mattel said there would be no hard and fast rule over whether a proper noun was correct or not.

A spokeswoman for the company said the use of proper nouns would "add a new dimension" to Scrabble and "introduce an element of popular culture into the game".

She said: "This is one of a number of twists and challenges included that we believe existing fans will enjoy and will also enable younger fans and families to get involved."

However, Mattel said it would not be doing away with the old rules altogether.

It will continue to sell a board with the original rules.

I can just see all those Scrabble-hollicks working their way through maps of Europe tring to find those wonderful Polish or Slavakian names which use 4 "J's", 3 "Z's" and a couple of "X's"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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US girl sues for $1m over arrest for desk scribble

2010-04-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

I often say that as the west was being developed, the lasso was one of the cowboys major tools. It seems over the years in modern USA the "lass" part has been dropped and today's American just main tool seems to be "Sui".

Yesterday the stupidity that goes with some of these legal cases again showed it's ugly face, when it was announced that 12-year-old US schoolgirl is suing the New York City authorities for $1m in damages after she was arrested for writing on her desk.

Alexa Gonzalez was led out of her school in handcuffs by police after she was caught scribbling a message to her friends with an erasable, green marker.

Miss Gonzalez and her mother are suing the police and education departments in New York City.

They are claiming for excessive use of force and violation of her rights.

Miss Gonzalez was caught scribbling "I love my friends Abby and Faith" on her desk during a Spanish class in February.

The 12-year-old said her Spanish teacher then "dragged" her to the dean's office where police were called.

'Better judgement'

Miss Gonzalez told the New York Daily News she broke down as she was led out of Junior High School 190 in Queens in handcuffs.

"I started crying, like, a lot," she said. "I made two little doodles... It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary."

She said she was then held at a local school precinct for hours in what she calls a traumatizing and excessive ordeal.

New York City officials have acknowledged the arrest was a mistake, saying better judgement should have been used by the arresting officers.

Miss Gonzalez was suspended from school and tried in a family court, where she was given eight hours of community service and ordered to write an essay about lessons to be learned from the incident.

Her family's lawyer said the school had overreacted by calling the police.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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First chocolate, now see what is good for you?

2010-04-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

Early in the week I blogged about how with much cheering from many a female it had been reported that chocolate was actually good for you. Today we can add to that.

Women who drink wine 'less likely to gain weight'

Women can enjoy a tipple and stay slim, according to a study that shows moderate drinkers gain less weight than teetotallers.

Women who drank red wine gained the least, but the results held for other wines, beers and spirits.

Although alcohol contains calories, the US researchers believe the women may have substituted it for other food.

Their work in the Archives of Internal Medicine followed over 19,000 women over 13 years.

The women recruited into the study were aged 39 or over and of normal weight at the time they joined.

Over the next 13 years, on average, they gained weight progressively.

Those who drank no alcohol gained the most weight, and there was an inverse relationship between weight gain and alcohol consumption.

Even after accounting for lifestyle, dietary factors and things like smoking and exercise, the study found those who drank the least gained the most weight.

Moderate drinking was classed as drinking up to about two 150ml glasses of wine a day.

Although the study did not include men, the authors believe the findings may not apply to men.

FIVE OTHER REASONS WHY WINE MAY BE GOOD FOR YOU

1: Feed your head
Wine could preserve your memory. When researchers gave memory quizzes to women in their 70s, those who drank one drink or more every day scored much better than those who drank less or not at all.

2: Boost your body’s defenses
n one British study, those who drank roughly a glass of wine a day reduced by 11% their risk of infection by Helicobacter pylori bacteria, a major cause of gastritis, ulcers, and stomach cancers.

3:Guard against ovarian woes
hen Australian researchers recently compared women with ovarian cancer to cancer-free women, they found that roughly one glass of wine a day seemed to reduce the risk of the disease by as much as 50 percent.

4: Build better bones
On average, women who drink moderately seem to have higher bone mass than abstainers. Alcohol appears to boost estrogen levels; the hormone seems to slow the body’s destruction of old bone more than it slows the production of new bone.

5: Prevent blood-sugar trouble
Premenopausal women who drink one or two glasses of wine a day are 40 percent less likely than women who don’t drink to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a 10-year study by Harvard Medical School. While the reasons aren’t clear, wine seems to reduce insulin resistance in diabetic patients.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Stop in the Name of Love.

2010-04-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Pill is pilfered.

Spanish police say they have detained a man suspected of robbing 10 pharmacies at gunpoint, taking their money and all available boxes of Viagra.

Police in Madrid began receiving reports of the thefts in January.

Victims said the "only objective" of the lone gunman was to take boxes of Viagra and cash.

The authorities suspect the 43-year-old man of selling the pills on the black market, where they are sought by users for recreational purposes.

Combined with the illegal drug Ecstasy, the anti-impotence pill is well known on the club scene as Sexstasy.

Viagra manufacturer Pfizer warns the drug should not be taken unless recommended by a doctor.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Follow That Toad

2010-03-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

If you see the toads leaving, run for the hills.

The Common toads appear to be able to sense an impending earthquake and will flee their colony days before the seismic activity strikes.The evidence comes from a population of toads which left their breeding colony three days before an earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009.

How toads sensed the quake is unclear, but most breeding pairs and males fled.

They reacted despite the colony being 74km from the quake's epicenter, say biologists in the Journal of Zoology.

It is hard to objectively and quantifiably study how animals respond to seismic activity, in part because earthquakes are rare and unpredictable.

Some studies have been done on how domestic animals respond, but measuring the response of wild animals is more difficult.

Even those that have been shown to react, such as fish, rodents and snakes tend to do so shortly before an earthquakes strikes, rather than days ahead of the event.

However, biologist Dr Rachel Grant of the Open University, in Milton Keynes, UK, was routinely studying the behavior of various colonies of common toads on a daily basis in Italy around the time a massive earthquake struck.

Her studies included a 29-day period gathering data before, during and after the earthquake that hit Italy on 6 April 2009.

The quake, a 6.3-magnitude event, struck close to L'Aquila city, about 95km (60 miles) north-east of Rome.

Dr Grant was studying toads 74km away in San Ruffino Lake in central Italy, when she recorded the toads behaving oddly.

Five days before the earthquake, the number of male common toads in the breeding colony fell by 96%.

AMPHIBIAN PHENOMENA
Common frogs (Rana temporaria) mating
Dr Grant has also shown that many amphibians around the world synchronize their mating activity by the full Moon, a phenomenon not reported before
The world's first truly monogamous amphibian was described earlier this year
Listen to a common toad croaking

That is highly unusual for male toads: once they have bred, they normally remain active in large numbers at breeding sites until spawning has finished.

Yet spawning had barely begun at the San Ruffino Lake site before the earthquake struck.

Also, no weather event could be linked to the toads' disappearance.

Three days before the earthquake, the number of breeding pairs also suddenly dropped to zero.

While spawn was found at the site up to six days before the earthquake, and again six days after it, no spawn was laid during the so-called earthquake period - the time from the first main shock to the last aftershock.

"Our study is one of the first to document animal behavior before, during and after an earthquake," says Dr Grant.

She believes the toads fled to higher ground, possibly where they would be at less risk from rock falls, landslides and flooding.

Exactly how the toads sense impending seismic activity is unclear.

The shift in the toads' behaviour coincided with disruptions in the ionosphere, the uppermost electromagnetic layer of the earth's atmosphere, which researchers detected around the time of the L'Aquila quake using a technique known as very low frequency (VLF) radio sounding.

ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

Use this map to explore coverage of the Italian earthquake in video, audio, pictures and text
After the quake, L'Aquila was described as a 'broken city'
Read 'A history of deadly earthquakes'

Such changes to the atmosphere have in turn been linked by some scientists to the release of radon gas, or gravity waves, prior to an earthquake.

In the case of the L'Aquila quake, Dr Grant could not determine what caused the disruptions in the ionosphere.

However, her findings do suggest that the toads can detect something.

"Our findings suggest that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system," she says.

Ants ignore quakes

One other study has quantified an animal's response to a major earthquake.

Researchers had the serendipitous opportunity to measure how the behavior of the desert harvester ant (Messor pergandei) changed as the ground began to tremble in the Mojave Desert, California, on 28 June 1992.

The largest quake to hit the US in four decades struck during the middle of an ongoing study, which measured how many ants walked the trails to and from the colony, the distributions of worker ants and even how much carbon dioxide the ants produced.

However, in response to that 7.4 magnitude quake, the ants did not appear to alter their behavior at all.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Bring on the Chocolate

2010-03-30T09:59:00.001-07:00

Women, children and many men have been saying it for years... "Chocolate is good for you!" A report out today states "Chocolate 'can cut blood pressure and help heart". with Easter just a few days away confirms that. Chocolate eggs are part of celerbrating Easter, the egg cybolizing a new birth, fresh start etc.

Easter eggs and other chocolate can be good for you, as long as you eat only small amounts, latest research suggests.

The study of over 19,000 people, published in the European Heart Journal, found those who ate half a bar a week had lower blood pressure.

They also had a 39% lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Heart campaigners warned that too much chocolate is damaging because is has a lot of calories and saturated fat.

The study looked at the chocolate consumption of middle-aged men and women over eight years.

It compared the health of those who ate the most and least chocolate.

The study found that those who ate more chocolate cut their risk of heart attacks by around a quarter, and of stroke by nearly half, compared with those who ate the least.

Chocolate lovers dream

But Dr Buijsse warned that it was important people ensured that eating chocolate did not increase their overall intake of calories or reduce their consumption of healthy foods.

"Small amounts of chocolate may help to prevent heart disease, but only if it replaces other energy-dense food, such as snacks, in order to keep body weight stable," he said.

The researchers believe that flavanols in cocoa may be the reason why chocolate seems to be good for people's blood pressure and heart health.

And since there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, dark chocolate may have a greater effect.

I can hear the rustle of wrapping paper already.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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A Pub For One

2010-03-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ever thought have owning your own island complete with a pub, just for yourself? Well a Swiss business man has gone one better than that.

A Swiss businessman is thought to have paid about £2.5m for a small group of islands off the west coast of Scotland.

The deal includes the island of Sanda, which has its own pub but only one resident, as well as the neighboring Sheep Island and Glunimore Insland.

I must admit the "Island of Sanda" sounds very like the location where Thomas the Tank engine and his friends shunt their stuff, which is the "Island of Sodor". Perhaps he's going to turn it into a train theme island??

The three islands lie off the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, 13 miles south of Campbeltown.

The sale was confirmed by Dick Gannon, who had owned the three islands for the past 20 years with his wife Meg.

The buyer was named locally as Michi Meier, who is originally from Switzerland but now lives in Sweden.

Mr Gannon, 59, said: "The island is sold, close to the asking price, to a customer sent over by Hamburg-based selling agents Vladi Private islands, but I can't say any more about the sale than that.

"The new owner is taking over at the end of April. It's a bit of a mystery what he is going to do but I am hoping it will go on as it is now, as a business, as a tourist destination."

I think it is a bargain. Sanda is a beautiful island, you can farm there and you have also got six self catering cottages and an award winning pub
Dick Gannon
Previous owner

Sanda had been on sale since August 2008. It was originally priced at £3.2m but dropped to offers around £2.5m.

Mr Gannon said: "I think it is a bargain. Sanda is a beautiful island, you can farm there and you have also got six self catering cottages and an award winning pub."

Mrs Gannon has always lived at the family home in Campbeltown while her husband was the island's only listed resident.

Although they have three sons and a daughter, none of their family was interested in taking over Sanda.

Mr Gannon said: "20 years we have had Sanda and it's been the experience of a lifetime really but it's a bit like hiding away and I now want to visit a few places and do a few things. There is a life outside Sanda."

Mr Meier could not be contacted, but has been speaking to a number of business people in Kintyre about services for the island in recent weeks.

Terry Smith, who owns farm land at Southend, near the Mull of Kintyre - the nearest mainland point to the 314 acre isle of Sanda - said Mr Meier had visited him last week.

Tourism destination

He said it was his understanding the new owner intended to run Sanda for his family's private use.

Kintyre Councillor Donald Kelly said: "I would sincerely hope that Sanda will stay as a tourism venue and that the community will be able to work constructively with the new owner to the benefit of Kintyre."

Sanda was home to only a few derelict buildings when the Gannons bought the three-isle chain for £250,000 in 1990.

Mr Gannon spent years building the island into a unique tourism destination, renovating the buildings into the award winning Byron Darnton tavern and six self catering cottages.

The Gannons, who marketed Sanda as "a piece of paradise", are selling up because of their decision to separate.

The island's 350 breeding ewes are included in the sale, along with chickens which produce free range eggs and enjoy such a good reputation that customers, including Princess Anne, have sailed in specially to buy them.

The other two islands in the chain are uninhabited apart from a flock of 60 Soay sheep on Sheep Island.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Burger with Fries to go... I mean really to go.

2010-03-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

They say an army marches on it's stomach, but for those troops in Afghanistam, this will no longer be full of burgers and pizza.

It was announced that burger bars and pizza joints at Nato bases across Afghanistan are being closed down in an effort "to increase efficiency across the battlefield".

A Nato spokesman said that "amenities" at bases across the country are being phased out for logistical reasons.

He said officials at each base will decide exactly when they are axed.

Nato's top Afghanistan commander, Gen Stanley McChrystal, made it clear last year that the days of Burger King, Dairy Quest and Pizza Hut on Isaf bases were numbered.

He expressed concern that burger bars, pizza restaurants and other stores in large International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) bases at Kandahar, Bagram and Mazar-e-Sharif served as a distraction to the military mission.

'Get refocussed'

"For several months now we have been in the process of bringing 39,000 extra troops to Afghanistan - in addition to extra equipment, ammunition and supplies," the Nato spokesman told the BBC.

"Soldiers will still be able to eat pizzas and burgers - but served up in military canteens rather than in commercial outlets."

A blog written in February by a senior Isaf morale welfare and recreation officer states the argument bluntly for closing down outlets such as Burger King, Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen.

"This is a warzone, not an amusement park," the blog written by Command Sgt Maj Michael T Hall says.

"In order to accommodate the troop increase and get refocussed on the mission in hand, we need to cut back on some of the non-essentials.

"Supplying non-essential luxuries to big bases like Bagram and Kandahar makes it harder to get essential items to combat outposts and forward operating bases, where troops fighting every day need to be resupplied with ammunition, food and water."

Command Sgt Maj Hall said that closing such outlets will free up much needed storage space and reduce the amount of flight and ground convoy traffic across Afghanistan.

He said it would also free up "water and electricity needs required to run these businesses".

Correspondents say that while the closures are not likely to bother troops on the frontline who live in tough conditions, many in the larger bases on lengthy 12-month tours may complain it places an added burden on them.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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It Fell of the back of a lorry... honest

2010-03-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

A term used often in England for when caught supishus items is that "it fell of the back of a lorry". Well yesterday in Ohio it did just that.

Police in the US state of Ohio say tens of thousands of dollars are missing a day after a bag of cash fell from an armoured car, sparking a money grab.

A mad rush to pick up $20 bills broke out after the bag fell from the car in Columbus and split open.

It is unclear how much cash was in the bag, but US media say it was at least $100,000.

Officers are reviewing mobile phone and surveillance videos to identify who has the missing cash.

"It's not free money," said a police sergeant.

If people were found with the missing cash they would be charged, Sgt Dan Kelso told Associated Press news agency.

He said he did not know how the bag of money fell from the armoured car.

Witnesses told local media that people were scooping up as much cash as they could carry.

"People were jumping out of their vehicles," one person said.

Another described it as like a feeding frenzy by "a school of piranhas".

Workers at a nearby flower shop helped police gather up the money in boxes. Several people ended up bringing some of the cash into the police station.

But only about $10,500 dollars had been recovered by the end of the day, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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FarmVille - is it taking over the world?

2010-03-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

I have remarked on my radio station in the past how things have changed with my children. It used to be dashing home from school, to see some TV program, or get homework done so they could go out to play. In the last year though comments have changed so it's now. "I have to get onto facebook to feed my fish", or "harvest m crops". As a Facebook Farmer, Builder, fishminder and Mafia Killer, this article on the BBC website today really put a smile on my face, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

A Bulgarian official has been sacked after being caught milking a virtual cow on the hugely popular online farming game, FarmVille. So what is it about it that's made it so popular?

At the end of a hard day seeing to patients at the surgery there is more work to be done. Tending to the crops, feeding the cows and making sure the fields are ploughed.

For one GP, who is too embarrassed to be named, the internet game FarmVille has become a part of daily life.

The premise of the game is simple - you are a farmer, albeit a virtual one - with your own plot of land. Your job is to cultivate it and rear animals. You get points depending on how successful you are and the aim is to get the highest score you can.

On her farm, the GP grows potatoes, watermelons and keeps chickens and cows. She never tends to her fields during her working day, but is on it most evenings.

"It does seem like a terrible waste of time," she says. "It's like watching trashy TV though, a bit of escapism to help you unwind."

For her and many others, FarmVille has become a guilty pleasure. The game was launched in June 2009, since then more than 80 million people have signed up to it. While it's highly unlikely that everyone who has joined the game plays it on a regular basis, there is no doubting it has a huge regular following, with people around the world, from all ages and backgrounds playing it.

FarmVille is accessed as an application through Facebook and now has its own website too. But it's the game's presence on the social networking site which has given the game such a wide reach, allowing it to tap into Facebook's already large user base.

And its availability on social networks has created a new wave of computer gamers, who wouldn't normally go near a console.

Meaningful effect

Like full-time mum Gemma, for whom FarmVille has become part of the daily routine, in-between nappy changes and feeds. Both her sisters and her mum are signed up too. She was initially dismissive of FarmVille when she was asked to join, but is hooked now. So, what is the appeal?

"It becomes a personal experience and something you care about," says Johnny Minkley, a computer games expert. The game has a certain "stickiness" to it, because of the nurturing element involved, he says.

"What you're doing needs to have some meaningful effect, like the planting and growing of crops."

The game also has a competitive element - it's about having the best farm and earning the most money to see to its upkeep. But it can also be co-operative and it's possible to interact with your friends' farms on the site by watering their plants and feeding their animals.

The game is free to play, but if you want to buy extra coins to keep up your farm, you are given the option to buy more with your credit card.

Parallels can be drawn between Farmville and the Tamagotchi craze in the 1990s, where people looked after a virtual pet housed in a plastic egg, developing an emotional attachment to their virtual being. But the fact FarmVille has been introduced in an age of social media has had other effects.

For the embarrassed GP, it resurrected an old friendship - sort of.

"There's a girl I went to school with, and who I never speak to, but I now fertilise her crops for her," she says.

To the uninitiated, this behaviour might seem bizarre, but hardened FarmVillers say all of this helps you win extra points and prizes.

It is this sense of reward which keeps people playing, says psychologist Dr Mark Griffiths. He describes FarmVille as "virtual Lego", where building something from scratch and seeing it grow gives players a sense of accomplishment and a "psychological high".

Educational tool

Dr Griffiths specialises in researching technological addictions and says what underlies any addiction is the reliance on constant rewards. But saying you are "addicted" to FarmVille is a bit like saying you're addicted to chocolate, he argues.

"What people really mean is that there is a 'moreishness' quality about it. There's nothing wrong with spending hours on it, as long it's not affecting your personal relationships and work."

There are those who see FarmVille as a blight on their daily Facebook feed, when every time they log in they discover that Georgia has traded 50 gold pieces, or that Andrew has harvested his chicken coop.

Top five FarmVille countries
1. United States
2. Turkey
3. The Philippines
4. The United Kingdom
5. Italy

Others say it is not just a blight, but a downright distraction. It was recently reported that a councillor in Bulgaria was sacked after he was discovered milking a virtual cow on his laptop during a committee meeting.

There are many others who agree with the superiors in Plovdiv and the game has its fair share of detractors. There are several Anti-FarmVille groups online, one called Not Playing FarmVille has more than two million members.

"If you are doing this you have... I repeat if you are doing this you have too much time on your hands", writes one member. Another says, "everyone's worried about the swine flu, but I think we need to be worried about this FarmVille epidemic".

Bill Mooney, VP and general manager of Zynga, the company behind FarmVille brushes off these kind of negative comments.

"If FarmVille is affecting people in a positive way, then we're all for it," he says.

Tenuous

"The best thing is, FarmVille is played in 5-10 minutes sessions, so you really don't have to get too preoccupied or diverted for a long time. It's more like a coffee break or break from studying."

Does it provide a "real sense of farming"?
Mooney says the game has had other positive benefits, like generating an interest in real farming. Before the game was developed the company did a lot of research into the area, so they could make the game accurate and give people a "real sense of farming".

In the US the appeal of FarmVille is being seen as one possible way of attracting younger people into farming. But at the Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen, Alison Campbell who lectures in farming says the parallels between real and online world are limited.

"A lot of the students we have here come from farm backgrounds. It is quite tenuous to what they know to be real life [on a farm]."

On a virtual farm, it's all about instant gratification - you don't have to wait six months for your aubergines to grow. But then again, you can't eat them either.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Message in a Bottle

2010-03-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

A Sting once song, "message in a bottle", in this case not just one bottle but 1200.

A group of led by environmentalist and banking heir David De Rothschild are set to sail a boat made out of 12,000 plastic bottles on a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney to spread awareness about pollution in the world's oceans. The boat is appropriately named Plastiki.

Their 11,000-nautical mile journey will go past the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a sea of waste about five times the size of the UK or twice that of Texas.

Four out of five plastic bottles end up in a landfill, according to the UN.

"It is time we beat waste and this is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue that needs to be addressed," Mr De Rothschild told the BBC earlier this month.

The 31-year-old adventurer, who has completed expeditions to both poles and various jungles, was already tweeting on Saturday, hours after the boat set sail on its three-month voyage.

"Travelling 2.0 Knots ummm! That's a lot of ocean ahead!" he said on his Twitter page. "Just saw our first bit marine debris - a plastic cup!"

Green credentials

The Plastiki takes recycling to a whole other level.

The 12,000 used water bottles are filled with carbon dioxide to make the vessel durable and buoyant.

The catamaran is powered by solar, wind and sea turbines.

An exercise bike will power the boat's laptops and there is also a composting bathroom and gardens to grow food.

Critics say the expedition only perpetuates the belief that it is acceptable to use plastic as long as people recycle it, rather than encouraging people to cut down on its use entirely.

They also point out that if the Plastiki were to break apart mid-journey, it would dump thousands of bottles directly into the ocean.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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A Sign of the Times

2010-03-21T10:03:00.001-07:00

A most people know who live in Great Britain there is a railway station in Wales which whose name is the longest word in the British language. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, is a Victorian composition primarily for the benefit of tourists, for the station serving the village of Llanfairpwll on the North Wales Coast Line from London Euston station to Holyhead.

This week however the Welsh language again caused a few issues.

When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed. Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth. Swansea Council became lost in translation when it was looking to halt heavy goods vehicles using a road near an Asda store in the Morriston area

All official road signs in Wales are bilingual, so the local authority e-mailed its in-house translation service for the Welsh version of: "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only".

The reply duly came back and officials set the wheels in motion to create the large sign in both languages.The notice went up and all seemed well - until Welsh speakers began pointing out the embarrassing error.

This is not ehe only time Welsh has been translated incorrectly or put in the wrong place:

Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an "inflamed bladder".

• In the same year, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English read 'Look Left' in Welsh.

• In 2006, a shared-faith school in Wrexham removed a sign which translated the Welsh for staff as "wooden stave".

• Football fans at a FA Cup tie between Oldham and Chasetown - two English teams - in 2005 were left scratching their heads after a Welsh-language hoarding was put up along the pitch. It should have gone to a match in Merthyr Tydfil.

• People living near an Aberdeenshire (Scotland) building site in 2006 were mystified when a sign apologising for the inconvenience was written in Welsh as well as English.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

New York police say sorry with a cheesecake

2010-03-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cheese on a base made from biscuit, pastry or sponge. However for the new York police force it is a way of saying sorry to an elderly couple in Brooklyn.

The New York's police chief delivered the cheesecake to an elderly couple in Brooklyn, to apologies for dozens of mistaken police visits to their home.

A computer glitch had led officers to Walter and Rose Martin's home 50 times in the past eight years, police said.

The latest intrusion came on Tuesday, with officers pounding on the front and back doors, shouting "Police, open up!"

Thursday's visit - cheesecake in hand - went well. The Martins, aged 82 and 83, shared pictures of their grandchildren.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly visited the couple's modest home on Friday to "apologies and explain" for the mix-up, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told the Associated Press.

The problem started in 2002, when the Martin's home address was used as "test data" for a new computer crime-tracking system.

The couple complained about the harrowing visits in 2007, but the data remained in the system despite efforts to "purge the records", Deputy Commissioner Browne said.

He added that the Martin's address had now been flagged with alerts "barring officers" from questioning the octogenarians.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

Playboy Accidentally Played Out On Children's TV

2010-03-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

Oh Mommy what are those people doing?

TV bosses in the US have apologised after preview clips of the Playboy channel were accidentally played out on two children's channels.

A Time Warner Cable (TWC) spokesman said a "technical glitch" was to blame for the mistake, which lasted two hours in parts of North Carolina on Tuesday.

The company was made aware of the error after parents called in to report it.

TWC said it had procedures in place to catch errors, but it was not picked up as it affected only a small area.

'Worst time'

"We're very, very sorry it happened - we know parents are concerned," spokesman Keith Poston told local news station WRAL.

"It took about an hour or so once we were notified of the problem to actually get it fixed.

"It was a technical glitch and unfortunately it hit at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels," he added.

The error occurred on the Kids On Demand and Kids Preschool On Demand channels where clips from Playboy TV appeared in the top right hand corner.

Although a menu of available children's programming was listed on the left side of the screen, previews showing nude women engaged in explicit conversations were shown where previews of children's shows normally would appear.

Mr Poston said the explicit content aired from about 0615 to 0815 local time in parts of Cary, Garner, Morrisville, Wilson, Goldsboro, Willow Spring and Johnston County, but added most areas just went black when the equipment failed.

Time Warner said it regretted the glitch and had fixed the problem so it would not happen again.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

Stoned Wallabies Creating Crop Circles

2010-03-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.

The attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," the hearing was told. "Then they crash, and we see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not very common, but other animals had also been spotted in the poppy fields acting unusually.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," he added.

Retired Tasmanian poppy farmer Lyndley Chopping also said he had seen strange behaviour from wallabies in his fields.

"They would just come and eat some poppies and they would go away," he told ABC News.

"They'd come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock."

Some people believe the mysterious circles that appear in fields in a number of countries are created by aliens. Others put them down to a human hoax.

Of course this brought in a huge load of comments, here's a few of the better ones...

I have seen a stoned wallaby but I don't know about them making crop circles. The one I saw was slurring his words and asking me for a dollar as he was trying to get the boat to see his brother in New Zealand - he looked in no mood to be formulating a series of complex agricultural design patterns

Funniest headline of the year so far. Trippy Skippy.

And my favorite...

I saw a whole bunch of them dingos going mad in my corn field only last night. I'm not sure if they were high or not but I'm pretty sure they were. One of them had a ghettoblaster and they were listening to some kind of fast electronic music.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)