Is this how you feel after a heavy night out?

February 20, 2012 at 5:51 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It’s actually a scale worm from the ocean deeps

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Pix, pix, pix

As usual, I have picked out a selection of past pictures off this blog that I consider to be the most fun. I have just now done the selection for November/December of last year. There were such a lot of good ones that it was a difficult choice but you can access the result here

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THE NEWS

Odd news from around the world

Man pulled out of snowed-in car after being stuck ‘for months’: “A man who police claimed had been snowed in ‘for months’ has been pulled alive from a car northern Sweden. The man, aged in his 40s, was rescued after a passer-by on a snowscooter noticed the top of the car on the deserted and snowfilled forest road, not far from the northern town of Umeaa, just south of the Arctic Circle. Mr Nyberg said the man was “in really bad shape,” starving and barely able to move or speak. The man, who had not been reported missing and who has yet to say how he got stuck, appeared to have survived on nothing but snow since mid-December.”

Nomophobia: “Do you feel anxious if your cellphone isn’t nearby? Does just the thought of losing your phone make your heart pound? Do you keep an extra phone on hand, just in case your primary phone breaks? Do you sometimes take it to bed with you? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you may be a nomophobe, and you are not alone. Nomophobia – the fear of being without your mobile phone – is on the rise, according to a new report sponsored by SecurEnvoy, a company that specialises in digital passwords. Just four years ago a similar survey found that only 53 per cent of people suffered from nomophobia (no-mobile-phobia). Back then, men were more likely to fear being without their phones, but today women are more concerned about being disconnected. SecurEnvoy’s study found that 70 per cent of female respondents fear losing their phones, compared with 61 per cent of male respondants. People 18-24 tend to be the most nomophobic (77 per cent), followed by people aged 25-34 (68 per cent). The third most nomophobic group is 55 and older.”

Test tube burgers?: “The world’s first test-tube burger will be ready to eat within months. It will look, feel and, it is hoped, taste, like a regular quarter-pounder, its creator Mark Post told the world’s premier science conference. The ‘ethical meat’ will would be kinder to the environment than the real thing, reduce animal suffering and help feed the world’s burgeoning population. The Maastricht Univeristy professor has spent the last six years trying to turn stem cells – ‘master cells’ with the power to turn into all other cell types – into meat. A four-step technique is used to turn stem cells from animal flesh into a burger”

The secret to long life? Starve yourself on alternate days: “Starving yourself on alternate days can make you live longer, according to scientists. The National Institutes for Aging said their research was based on giving animals the bare minimum of calories required to keep them alive and results showed they lived up to twice as long. The diet has since been tested on humans and appears to protect the heart, circulatory system and brain against age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s. ‘Dietery energy restriction extends lifespan and protects the brain and cardiovascular system against age-related disease,’ said Mark Mattson, head of the laboratory of neurosciences at the NIA and professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. ‘We have found that dietary energy restriction, particularly when administered in intermittent bouts of major caloric restriction, such as alternative day fasting, activates cellular stress response pathways in neurones,’”

Batty British bureaucracy again: “Ambulances carrying the sick and vulnerable will be left stranded in traffic jams during the Olympics while dignitaries beat congestion with ‘Games lanes’ reserved for VIPs. Organisers for the London Games rejected a request from NHS London to let ambulances use the new fast lanes and have now been accused of risking patients’ lives. The lanes, which will be implemented across 39 miles of road in central London, will allow 80,000 accredited members of the ‘Olympic family’, including athletes, officials and sponsors to by-pass congestion on the busy roads. Meanwhile ambulances will only be allowed in the lanes if they have their blue lights on. Blue lights can only be switched on by those specifically trained to do so and are only used in genuine emergencies and Leah Bevington, head of communications at Medical Services said this was totally unacceptable. Speaking to The Observer she said ‘This means that sick people, often elderly and frail, urgent blood supplies and oxygen will all be made to wait in traffic with the rest of us.”

And don’t forget to catch up with all the Strange Justice before you go.