Archive for the ‘News’ Category

It’s OK – the problem has been solved…

Everyone can relax – stop worrying, the wait is finally over…a scientist has uncovered the mystery of “belly button fluff”.

Georg Steinhauser, an Austrian chemist, has found a type of hair that actually holds pieces of lint that are floating around the belly button and then drags them into the navel.

This news didn’t come without a bit of sweat or tears as Dr Steinhauser spent his recent free time studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button over a three-year period.

And if you thought that the contents of the belly button fluff were simply bits of lint then I’m afraid that Dr Steinhauser has proven you wrong.  Inside the fluff apart from the lint you will find particles of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust.

And here’s the reason…

Writing in the journal, Medical Hypotheses, Dr Steinhauser claimed that the scaly structure of the hair promotes the “abrasion of minuscule fibres from the shirt” thus moving the lint into the belly button.

According to Dr Steinhauser’s study “small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day”.

“The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks.  Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel,” continued Dr Steinhauser.

“The question of the nature of navel fluff seems to concern more people than one would think at first glance.

“We hope we have been able to provide information for doctors when they are next confronted with the simple question of ‘why some belly buttons collect so much lint and others do not’.”

No stranger to the strange…

Dr Steinhauser is no stranger to weird and wacky studies – he has also looked at answering the question of why his wedding band erodes.

To add to the study, Dr Steinhauser explained a number of methods of ridding the body of the unproblematic fluff.  If you found the fluff to be an annoyance then you should think about shaving the hair or even getting a belly button piercing fitted.

However, Dr Steinhauser was quick to remind shavers that the problem would resurface as soon as the hairs grew back.

Another tip from the doctor is to wear old clothes as they tend to shed less amounts of lint compared with newer clothes.

When you think that a new item of clothing can lose up to a thousandth of its weight over the course of a year then perhaps this isn’t as much of a laughing matter as you might have originally thought…

Maybe more valuable than we thought?

Of course, there are always viable reasons for keeping hold of the belly button fluff and one man that will definitely not be shaving his belly button or fitting a piercing will be Graham Barker.

Mr Barker has been building up a collection of the fluff since 1984 in hopes that he might one day see a picture of himself in the Guinness Book of Records.

The most expensive bottles of Vimto in the world?

Police chiefs have waster almost a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers money by investigating the so-called theft of 5 bottles of Vimto by other police officers.

The bottles of Vimto in question were discovered by two transport officers, Rob Mitchell and Kris Catterall. They found the bottles of the popular cordial inside an abandoned cardboard box next to a rail line.

However, they stepped out of line according to police rules as they should have brought the box in to the station where it should have been reported lost or stolen.

Unfortunately for the officers and the taxpayer, Mitchell and Catterall couldn’t contain their excitement and had to share the bottles as equally as possible between each other and other colleagues.

18 month suspension and an internal probe…

These actions led to the officers being suspended for 18 months until the ridiculous case against them was dropped.

However the officers had to wait for 8 months until lawyers decided upon a charge, being a fine of four wages each for the officers who were forced to plead guilty to neglecting their duties – a sum of £400 each.

Mitchell and Catterall still face an internal probe over the situation.

A waste of taxpayer’s money…

Still, the biggest upset over the whole issue has to be the fact that the investigation has cost the taxpayer around £200,000 and has been blasted as a gross misuse of money.

Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers’ Alliance has spoken out about the situation, which he says could have been resolved without wasting so much time or money.

“This is an absurd and shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and utter incompetence on behalf of the senior officers involved.

“If disciplinary action needed to be taken it should have been done quickly and without wasting money. The police chiefs who oversaw this episode should be held accountable to taxpayers,” said Elliott.

Unnecessary stress on the officers!

Meanwhile, the officers in question will be feeling the stress involved with such a remarkably weird investigation as well as the approaching internal probe looming over their heads.

The chairman of the British Transport Police Federation, Alex Robertson, who is representing both officers involved in the Vimto issue, claimed that the whole situation was a huge upset for both the officers.

“To be suspended for so long over something so trivial will have put the officers and their families under great stress.”

Were they wrong?

However, in retaliation the British Transport Police have claimed that the officers they employ must remain devoted to the laws of the land if they expect to continue at their jobs successfully.

“The integrity of officers is paramount in maintaining public confidence and any failure to uphold our high standards will always be treated seriously,” claimed a spokeswoman for the British Transport Police.

How about you?

What do you think about the whole Vimto fiasco?  Do you see it as a complete waste of your money or are you on the side of the Transport Police who claim that their officers must remain observant of the laws of the land, even in the smallest of cases?

The search is over?

The western world for the most part has been on the look out for the elusive Osama Bin Laden ever since the horrific September 11th attacks. Well, according to a geography professor the search could soon be over.

Bin Laden is almost sure to be residing in one of three houses in Pakistan, according to Thomas Gillespie, a geography professor at the University of California in Los Angeles – although if Bin Laden is keeping his beady eye on the web then what’s to say he hasn’t moved down the street?

However, according to Gillespie, there is a science behind his announcement – it wasn’t just a wild stab in the dark, thankfully.

Animal behaviour is the key!

Gillespie claimed to have studied animal behaviour and in particular the way the species spread providing him with what he believes to be the location of the man behind the world-changing attacks.

Along with these studies, Gillespie announced in a new study published on the Internet by the MIT International Review that simple facts, a fundamental understanding of geography and satellite imagery that is available to the public all helped Gillespie do what the United States intelligence agency could not.

Gillespie also considered Bin Laden’s needs for high ceilings to combat his tall frame, electricity, security and the obvious need for available room for his security guards, which led to the proposed three targets.

“If he’s still alive, he honestly could be sitting there right now,” commented Gillespie.

“It is still the safest tribal area and city in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northwest Pakistan and one of the only tribal areas that the U.S. has not bombed with its unmanned Predators.”

Parachinar - Pakistan

The location that Gillespie is talking about is the location that has been deemed the mostly likely place for Bin Laden to be staying at – Parachinar, a town in northwest Pakistan.

This of course isn’t the first time the town has appeared in the news.  Parachinar is well known for providing a home for a number of mujahideen at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

John A. Agnew, the co-author of the study who is also a geography professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, has underlined the fact that this solution to the search is the first scientific one of its kind, and has stated that the search could be easily reproduced.

“We believe our work represents the first scientific approach to establishing bin Laden’s current location.  The methods are repeatable and could easily be updated with new information obtained by the U.S. intelligence community,” said Agnew.

Criticism of course…

However, you can’t go claiming that you can easily find the hiding place of a man who has a $25 million reward tag on his head without expecting a fair old bit of criticism.

Kim Rossmo, of the Texas State University who has worked with the military to try to find terrorists in the past, has slated the method, saying, “The idea of identifying three buildings in a city of half a million especially one in a country the authors have likely never visited is somewhat overconfident.”

Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Cow’s Urine…

Fizzy drinks are often blasted in today’s health conscious society.  So you can imagine the up-roar about the imperative release of a new fizzy drink in India that is made using the urine of cows.

Created by India’s Hindu nationalist movement, Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh, the fizzy drink is said to be almost ready for general consumption.

Named Gau Jai, or Cow Water, the drink has been developed in a research centre in Haridwar, an Indian holy city, and is hoped to provide a healthier alternative to soft drinks like Coke and Fanta.

Health implications – Fizzy Cow’s Urine fights diseases.

According to the director of the Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh’s Cow Protection Department, Om Prakash, the drink is an invaluable cure for a number of supposed diseases.

“We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water) as it has immense potential to cure various diseases.

“We have developed a soft drink formula with gau jal as the base and it has been sent to a laboratory at Lucknow for testing,” said Prakash.

The organisation is now focusing its development to managing the preservation of the urine drink through the hot summer months.

“It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase.

“It will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture.”

Not as bad as you might think…

However, for all of you who are expecting a foul smelling, yellow drink will be pleased to hear that this will not be the case.  In fact, Prakash claims that the drink will taste good if anything and will work in a de-tox fashion.

The move comes as Pepsi and Coca Cola have gained firm success in the Indian market and they are anything but healthy.  It would appear that Prakash’s movement is firmly against the soft drinks and is simply working to create a healthy alternative for the people of India.

The RSS has had a number of dealings with the sickly soft drinks as in 1994 the organisation declared a nationwide boycott of goods which included the likes of Pepsi and Coke.

How much for that cow’s urine in the window?

Price wise, the RSS is remaining tight-lipped over the whole thing but has said that the drinks will be cheap.  However, competition will be tight as Pepsi and Coke  are also extremely cheap throughout India.

Maybe Prakash’s drink will stand a chance in the Pepsi/Coke dominated market as the big named brands have been struggling to fight off allegations of their drinks containing dangerous and harmful toxic pesticides – something which cow’s urine clearly would not fall pray to.

Would you drink it?

What about you?  Would you swap the Dr Pepper and the Sprite for a mouthful of the healthy cow’s urine or do you think you’ll stick to a few E numbers?  Let the world know!

Message from a Saint…

How fitting is it that an island has been discovered in the Adriatic that is shaped like a small heart?  The small island was found using the popular Google Earth programme, which allows users to take a satellite view of the world.

As Valentine’s Day creeps even close, the island comes as if a message from the Saint himself.  Even the owners of the island were unaware of the loveable shape and after seeing the images from space is now becoming responsive to the possibilities that it holds.

The owner of the heart-shaped island, found off the Croatian coast, was inundated with letters from couples requesting to stay there on probably the most perfect location for lovers around the world.

Welcome to Celebrity Love Island, without the celebs, thankfully…

Since then the owner has decided to go ahead and allow people access to the island, creating the ultimate “love island” hidden from the rest of the world – apart from Google Earth’s prying eyes of course.

The owner, Vlad Juresko from the closely situated Pasman Island, has been taken aback by the recent attention by lovers to the island.  He is prepared to allow lovers who are over the age of 16 onto the 130,000 square meter island.

Planning a race?  Why not…

Juresko is also said to be planning a 1.5 kilometre race across the island to lovers who have expressed their desire to visit the island.

“It has been incredible. We think it is the most perfect heart-shaped island in the world.

“We always thought it looked a bit like a heart but since it’s been on Google Earth everyone else has seen it too and the whole world seems to want to stay here.”

Google Raider?

This is not the first time Google Earth has helped make an interesting discovery.  An American musician has been using the software package to search for hidden treasure.

After reading a book about hidden American treasure and as his imagination started to work in overtime, he opened Google Earth and started searching the country.

Eventually he found something in Texas, picked up his keys and took the long trip from Los Angles to check it out.

They are refusing to see the funny side…

The gentleman representing the family who owns the land that the musician wanted to search, Ron Walker, claimed that using Google Earth for something like this was considered an insult to the family.

“It was offensive that somebody could go on Google Earth, look down and see what they think, I guess see, under the ground and see a ship and come in and say I want to dig up your property. They have no proof anything is there and no experience,” said Walker.

What do you think?  Are you going to be using Google Earth to plan your trip to the heart shaped island, or search for buried treasure, or don’t you get what the hype is all about?

Cheaper than a Virgin Atlantic flight…

Jennifer Figge has become the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, making the epic crossing at the truly inspiring age of 56.

Figge, an American athlete, spent 24 days making the huge crossing from Cape Verde off Africa to Trinidad and Tobago. Officials are still calculating the exact total distance she swam.

And according to Figge she hasn’t had enough as she is now planning on carrying on her swim all the way up the coast to the British Virgin Islands.

Shark attack…when is it safe to get back in the water?

The physical strain was not the only issues Figge had to deal with but also the threat of attack by sharks.  Figge swam the Atlantic, therefore behind the protective cover of a cage to keep the danger of the sea predator at bay.

Probably viewed as both a let down and a relief, Figge didn’t end up seeing any sharks, but instead got an eye full of pilot whales, dolphins and turtles.

However, the sea can be just as dangerous as sharks as Figge faced daily torrents of waves reaching around 9 meters into the sky.

Energy drinks kept her going…

To keep her going, as Figge spent 8 hours at a go in the water before taking some solace in one of the rescue boats, crew members would chuck energy drinks to her.  Even in stormy weather, divers would be on hand to bring the drinks to her in person.

However, when the weather got too bad it was said that the crew would lose her and wouldn’t be able to see her in the water.  The weather also didn’t help with Figge’s route as she ended up being thrown 1,000 miles off course due to the bad weather.

The Atlantic was originally crossed by Benoit Lecomte, a French swimmer who swam the choppy sea 10 years ago, spending over two months, 73 days in total, swimming 4,000 miles, around double the distance that Figge is expected to have crossed.

19 out of 24 days isn’t bad, let’s be honest…

Figge wasn’t able to swim everyday of the 24 day adventure, due to the bad weather at sea.  According to her business manager, David Higden, Figge was forced to stay on the accompanying Catamaran until the weather eased up.

“She swam 19 of 24 days.  It turned from an endurance swim into an extreme adventure swim. She didn’t get into the water as much as she wanted, because the waves were so high.

The weather was so extreme the crew had trouble seeing her in the water,” continued Higden.

Even a cast wouldn’t stop her!

Figge is not new to the world of extreme sports and has been enjoying cross-country running and maritime crossings since her 30s.  Some of her accomplishments have seen her run 180 miles across Mexico which actually saw Figge complete the final 60 miles with a cast around her left leg.

Mirror, signal, position…

Most of us pass our driving tests after the first few goes at the most.  However, what do you do when you have just failed for the 771st time?  Maybe get the hint?

A 68-year-old woman in South Korea has indeed taken the driving test 771 times and apparently she is nowhere near giving up just yet.

Although, the story doesn’t pan out exactly as you would expect.  In this country we get the opportunity to take the test after about a few weeks wait due to the high number of learner drivers, however, the woman was able to take the test almost every working day since 2005.

30-50 per cent…

Even more ridiculous is how she is failing the test.  Apparently she stumbles on the written aspect of the test, where she is averaging a score between 30 and 50 per cent, although the pass rate is 60 per cent.

The woman, only known as Cha, failed her latest test this week and the plans are already set for her to take the test for the 772nd time.

Cha currently delivers groceries door-to-door around her home city of Jeonju, and it is said that she could use a car to help her business.

4 million Won.

According to the police in Jeonju, Cha has up until now spent 4 million Won (£2,000) on the tests and has won over the hearts of the police officers that know her story.

According to Park Jung-Seok, a traffic police officer in Cha’s area, “I feel sorry every time I see Cha fail. When she passes, I’ll make a commemorative tablet myself and give it to her.”

Maybe she would appreciate a crib sheet in the mean time and maybe a helping hand in the actual exam.

Don’t even mention the practical test.

Apparently once she passes the theory test, costing her 6,000 Won a go, she will then be able to move on to the practical test.

According to the Driver’s License Agency in Jeonju, Cha has now broken the record for the amount of tests taken by a single person, although that little record will be little reward as all she wants is to pass her test.

Try a bit of technology.

We here in Britain don’t seem to have these issues due to all the literature, DVDs and technology surrounding the subject.  Even the Nintendo DS has recently announced that there is a game in the “brain-training” style that helps the user to gain a strong grasp of the Driving Theory Test.

Maybe we should all chip in a penny and buy her a DS and the Theory game and she might eventually get 60 per cent…but then there’s the practical test.

Pole Dancing, anyone?

When I went to school I studied Maths, the Sciences, English and other such subjects.  I don’t remember there being any mention of Pole Dancing lessons, although if there were any going on I’m sure I would have taken a trip to that particular classroom.  Well now students need not worry anymore because a school has introduced the dancing to teen students in a controversial move to promote health.

That’s right, pole dancing lessons.  The campaign is aimed at providing the students of the school, South Devon College in Paignton, the chance to “Be Healthy”.

The school invited The Art of Dancing company to give a couple of demonstrations to the students as part of a “Be Healthy Week” and aims at promoting exercise and hopes to attract students to put down their laptops, iPhones and Nintendo DSs and get moving.

Let’s be honest, pole fitness is just another way of saying pole dancing, right?

However, just because the school calls the erotic dance form “pole fitness” doesn’t mean that parents will be OK with having it in their school.  In fact one of the biggest issues with the “pole fitness” was that Sam Remmer who gave the demonstration was dressed rather scantily in a sports bra and shorts.

Clearly a hit with the pupils though, Remmer stated that she had been warned about how she was dressed when she arrived for her second demonstration.  

“I was told that most of the complaints had come from members of staff who had not seen our displays but had just assumed that they were inappropriate.

“I was told pupils were distracted from their afternoon lessons because they were swapping pictures and videos,” said Remmer.

YouTube it…

Not troubled by the controversy surrounding her pole dancing, Remmer decided to see how far she could push the situation by posting videos of herself pole dancing on YouTube.

She said that the problem “escalated” when she uploaded onto the video sharing website, although I expect that “escalate” is probably an understatement.

Remmer, furious at the bad publicity the “pole fitness” had received, hit out at the critics, saying, “I am really angry that bad pole dancing stereotypes are being thrown in my face, I am annoyed to think that many mainstream pop groups seem to promote inappropriate behaviour far more than my pole dancing classes.”

Clothes?  Are you mad?

In response to the criticism Remmer faced about her clothing, she simple hit back saying that if she had indeed worn more clothing she would have slipped down the pole.

Pole dancing, or pole fitness as Remmer is hoping it be labelled, is becoming more and more popular amongst adult women due to the simple fact that it is both exercise and fun.  However, bringing the dancing to a school environment may not be the best idea, although I’m sure none of the students would be complaining.

To pole or not to pole…

What do you think?  Would you have been up for pole dancing, or pole fitness, in your school days or would you have preferred a quick session of Latin?

Signal, position, zombies…

You’re driving along the motorway, you’re checking your mirrors, it’s dark, you check your speed, there’s zombies ahead…?  A sign at the side of the road in Texas has stunned drivers by proclaiming that there are “Zombies Ahead”.  Maybe it’s time to pull over and have a coffee.

Apparently it’s not difficult to do either – although fairly illegal and, if you catch a driver without all their marbles, possibly dangerous too.  It all comes down to the fact that the proper authorities, namely the trasportation officers in Austin, Texas simply don’t bother locking up their road sign control boxes.

If you’re going to play with matches then you have better expect to get burned, and the blame surely has to fall on the authorities in this case, when they leave the security of the road signs so poorly defended.

It’s easy, but don’t do it!

I.Gizmodo is claiming that anyone could do it, and although they do stress that noone should be running out to make the signs read “Slow Fast” or “It’s Behind You”, they do point out that the boxes are often only protected with the simple password “DOTS” and the password can easily be reset by following a few illegal steps.

The authorities are refusing to take the prank with a pinch of salt and have highlighted how dangerous such an act could become. 

Apparently, this particular road sign box was indeed locked with a padlock and the prank could land the person responsible in a fair old bit of trouble, as the crime is classed as a class C misdemeanor in Texas.

Sara Hartley, the Austin Public Works spokeswoman refused to see the funny side of the situation, saying, “Even thought this may seem amusing to a lot of people, this is really serious and it is a crime and you can be indicted for it and we want to make sure our traffic on the roadways stays safe.

“It was a locked sign. There was a padlock that was cut and there is a computer inside those signs that is password protected and so they had to break in and hack into the computer to do it so they were pretty determined.”

Would it bother you?

Drivers are taking a different stance on the subject though, as many thought the prank was funny and obviously didn’t really believe that there were zombies out there down the road.

Even the director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, Chris Lippincott, found the sign amusing, although I’m sure if he shared this view with Hartley he’d get a slap on the wrist.

“It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for.  Those signs are deployed for a reason — to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there’s a road closure,” said Lippincott.

Although pranks like this are amusing and in this case does put a smile on the faces of the commuters, there is a real danger of the wrong person getting their hands on the road signs.