Tough passenger

March 25, 2016 at 3:41 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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THE NEWS

Odd news from around the world

Charity shop begs readers to stop handing in used copies of EL James’s bondage thriller after being inundated: “A charity bookshop is begging women to stop handing in secondhand copies of steamy novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Women who bought the erotic thrillers are dumping them in charity shops – because they do not want to keep them in their own home. The best-selling trilogy, which tells of the dark sexual relationship between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, has sold more than 125 million copies worldwide. But an Oxfam store in Swansea, South Wales, has received so many copies of E.L James’s novels it has been forced to say: ‘Please – no more’. The shop has become so inundated with ‘literally hundreds’ of the books they have been forced to hand them over to a warehouse where they will either be sold online or recycled.”

MAGGOTS set to make a comeback in medicine: “Modern medicine may be upgrading centuries-old techniques to repair wounds that just won’t heal. Researchers from North Carolina State University and Massey University in New Zealand have found that genetically engineered maggots can clean non-healing wounds and promote cell growth. This is done using a human growth factor, which the maggots secrete while removing dead tissue. In a treatment known as ‘maggot debridement therapy’ (MDT) the sterile larvae are raised in a lab and applied to a wound. This type of treatment focuses on non-healing wounds, in particular diabetic foot ulcers, and is cost-effective and approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Researchers engineered ‘enhanced wound-healing’ green bottle fly larvae to produce human growth factor PDGF-BB”

New era of ‘affordable’ supersonic flights with ‘mini Concorde’: “Sir Richard Branson is set to order 10 supersonic jets, which the manufacturer claims will herald a new era of ‘affordable’ supersonic travel. The airline tycoon has confirmed that Virgin has options to buy 10 of the recently revealed supersonic Boom jets, which will be capable of flying at 1,451mph – about 100mph faster than Concorde – and reaching New York from London in three and a half hours. The Boom jet is being built by former Amazon executive Blake Scholl, who is putting a prototype of Boom together in a Colorado aircraft hangar. When created Boom will have 40 seats – with a ticket costing $5,000 (£3,540). Speaking to Bloomberg, Scholl, 35, said: ‘The idea is for a plane that goes faster than any other passenger plane built before, but for the same price as business class.'”

New Zealanders choose their flag: The old one: “New Zealanders have voted to keep the same flag they’ve had for the past 114 years, rejecting the chance for a new design. Preliminary results from voting in a referendum to decide if the flag would be changed were in favour of keeping the old design, which is similar to the Australian flag and incorporates the Union Jack. The New Zealand Herald reported 2.1 million people voting with the result as 56.6 percent in favour of the same flag and 43.2 percent in favour of a new flag. Last year, a competition was held to design options for a new flag for the country, which New Zealanders voted for. A selection committee chose four flags from a vast number of entries, and voting in an earlier referendum selected a black, white, blue and red fern and stars design by Kyle Lockwood. It was that flag that was outvoted in the latest referendum. The result has brought the end to the first-ever public vote by a country on its national flag.”

A celebration of an event that took place 2,500 years ago: “Orthodox Jewish children and their parents have swapped their traditional clothing to put on a colourful display to celebrate the festival of Purim in Stamford Hill, east London. The holiday is marked with carnival-like parades where people dress up in masks and fancy dress outfits and eat traditional food, such as Hamantash pastries. A holy day in the Jewish calendar, it commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia during the 5th century BC when royal adviser Haman plotted ‘to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day’. Huge celebrations are held around the world from the streets of east London to the beaches of Tel Aviv. It is the one day alcohol is not only allowed but positively encouraged.”

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