Tuesday 30 August 2011

US man impaled through eye with pruning shears

An 86-year-old Arizona man is lucky to be alive after he accidentally impaled himself with pruning shears.

Leroy Luetscher was working in his back garden when he dropped a pair of pruning shears, which landed point-side down in the ground.
A pair of pruning shears embedded in the head of Leroy Luetscher
A pair of pruning shears embedded in the head of Leroy Luetscher 
 
When Luetscher went to pick them up, he lost his balance and fell face-down on the handle. The handle penetrated his eye socket and went down into his neck, resting on the external carotid artery. Half the shears were left in his head, while the other half was sticking out.
An X-ray of Mr Luetscher's head showed the severity of the injury.
"You wouldn't believe your eyes," said doctor Julie Wynne.
Mr Luetscher was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons removed the shears and rebuilt his orbital floor with metal mesh, saving his eye.
Doctors say Mr Luetscher still has slight swelling in his eyelids and minor double vision but has otherwise recovered.
He has thanked the doctors at the University Medical Center for their remarkable work.
"I am so grateful to the doctors and staff at UMC," he said.

Monday 29 August 2011

Offender breaks curfew after security staff tag his false leg


Christopher Lowcock, 29, wrapped his prosthetic limb in a bandage and fooled G4S staff who failed to carry out the proper tests when they set up the tag and monitoring equipment at his Rochdale home.
Lowcock could then simply remove his leg - and the tag - whenever he wanted to breach his court-imposed curfew for driving and drug offences, as well as possession of an offensive weapon.
A second G4S officer who went to check the monitoring equipment also failed to carry out the proper test.
Managers became suspicious last month, but when they returned to the address a third time Lowcock had already been arrested and was back in custody accused of driving while banned and without insurance.
A G4S spokeswoman said: ''G4S tags 70,000 subjects a year on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
''Given the critical nature of this service we have very strict procedures in place which all of our staff must follow.
''In this individual's case two employees failed to adhere to the correct procedures when installing the tag. Had they done so, they would have identified his prosthetic leg.
''Failure to follow procedure is a serious disciplinary offence, and the two employees responsible for the installation of the tag have now been dismissed.''
A Ministry of Justice spokesman added: ''We expect the highest level of professionalism from all our contractors, and there are strict guidelines which must be followed when tagging offenders.
''Procedures were clearly not followed in this case and G4S have taken action against the staff involved.
''Two thousand offenders are tagged every week and incidents like this are very rare.''
As well as the electronic tagging of offenders, G4S also runs private prisons including Altcourse, in Liverpool; Parc, in Bridgend, south Wales; Rye Hill, in Willoughby, near Rugby; and Wolds, in Brough, East Yorkshire.
It will also run Birmingham Prison when it becomes the first to be transferred from the public to private sector in October.

Sunday 28 August 2011

Future heart health 'shaped by diet'


Heart  
What we eat as a child has long-term effects on our heart, say researchers
 
Growing up starved of calories may give you a higher risk of heart disease 50 years on, research suggests.
Researchers in The Netherlands tracked the heart health of Dutch women who lived through the famine at the end of World War II.
Those living on rations of 400-800 calories a day had a 27% higher risk of heart disease in later life.
It's the first direct evidence early nutrition shapes future health, they report in the European Heart Journal.
The Dutch famine of 1944-45 gave researchers in Holland a unique opportunity to study the long-term effects of severe malnutrition in childhood and adolescence.
A combination of factors - including failed crops, a harsh winter and the war - caused thousands of deaths among people living in the west of The Netherlands.
The women, who were aged between 10 and 17 at the time, were followed up in 2007.
The team, from the University Medical Center Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam, found those who were severely affected by the famine had a 27% greater risk of developing heart disease than those who had had enough to eat.
Diet impact
Lead author Annet van Abeelen said: "The most important message is that it is good to realise that disturbing the development of children through acute malnutrition can have implications for later adult health.
"It's not only the short-term direct consequences that matter. Even 50 years later, there is still a higher risk of adult coronary heart disease."
Victoria Taylor, senior heart health dietitian for the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study showed a link between children and young adults experiencing famine and the likelihood of them developing heart disease later on in life.
"Although it wasn't clear exactly what changes occurred in the body to increase the risk, this highlights how our environment can have a long-term impact upon our heart health.
"Fortunately, the problems of famine seen in other countries have not been an issue in the UK in recent times. But that doesn't make this study irrelevant for us.
"It adds to the importance of providing a healthy diet for children and young people because of the way it can shape their future heart health."

Saturday 27 August 2011

Goring-on-Thames tortoise fitted with wheels

Bill Jackson and Yuri the tortoise  
Bill Jackson said Yuri the pet tortoise was "speeding around" on her new set of wheels
A 100-year-old tortoise that woke from hibernation unable to move her back legs is mobile again thanks to a set of furniture wheels.
Owner Bill Jackson, 71, from Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, said Yuri had difficulties after sleeping for over two months.
"She was dragging herself around the garden looking rather miserable," he said.
But a visit to his local hardware shop solved the problem.
Tanya Brown, from Goring Hardware, said: "We established we needed swivel casters so the tortoise could still rotate on its back legs.
"It was one of our most unusual cases but we do rise to the challenge."
Ms Brown described the ensuing operation as "fairly straightforward".
Removable double-sided sticky tape was used to attach the wheels to the underside of Yuri's shell.
Mr Jackson said: "She's happy now. She's eating, walking and speeding around.
Temporary measure "She comes out the moment the sun comes out but doesn't go quite as far as she used to."
It is hoped the wheels are a temporary measure and that Yuri will regain movement in her legs.
Mr Jackson said he has taken Yuri for several visits to the vet but he was unable to diagnose the problem.
Jimmy Reynolds, reptile zookeeper at Cotswold Wildlife Park, said: "It sounds like it's worth a shot if she's getting on with life and seems happy.
"You can be in the game for a long time and not hear every story."
Mr Jackson has owned Yuri for 40 years, inheriting the pet from a previous owner who said they could not cope.
He and his wife also own horses, chickens, two dogs and a parrot.
Yuri's favourite foods include strawberries, bananas and brown bread.

Friday 26 August 2011

Women waste 50bn litres of water shaving legs in shower

They may already be used to complaints about blunt razors from boyfriends or husbands, but women who shave their legs in the shower now face criticism from environmentalists.

Research has shown that one in three women leave the shower running while they shave their legs, wasting around 50 billion litres of water a year. 
Shaving in the shower
Shaving in the shower
 
Thames Water, which commissioned the study, said the amount wasted would be enough to supply the whole of London for 25 days.
The research also found that one in four people leave the sink tap running while they brush their teeth, which accounts for around 120 billion litres of water wasted per year.
A spokesman for Thames Water said yesterday: “It may seem like it’s always raining, but we’ve had below average rainfall across our region for nine of the past 12 months.
''Our research proves that the majority of people have a 'water conscience’, with more than

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Woman collects £35,000 in small change from toilets

A German woman is being investigated by tax officials after hoarding more than €40,000 (£34,880) in loose change she gathered from public toilets.
The woman, who operates 50 toilets across Germany, paid cleaners minimal wages while pocketing the change they collected from the toilet floors and didn't declare the income.
But her policy looks to have backfired after it was reported that one of the cleaners tipped off the state prosecutor who launched a tax investigation.
When visited by police at her home in Bonn, Germany, the suspect resisted arrest before finally giving in. When she finally gave in police found her garage knee-deep in coins.
The bags of coins had to be loaded away by shovel into a 7.5 tonne truck.
Though the haul seems astounding, it is estimated that there is more than £42.9 million in loose change down the back of British sofas alone, with £385 million squirreled away in change jars.
Research from Halifax has found that there is an average £1.61 caught down each sofa in Britain, while figures from Money.co.uk show the nation's coin jars have an average of  £24.54 in them each, making the toilet floor find look like small change.

Species count put at 8.7 million


Black-capped woodnymph  
The black-capped woodnymph of Colombia was identified as recently as 2009
The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever.
But the vast majority have not been identified - and cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years.
The number comes from studying relationships between the branches and leaves of the "family tree of life".
The team warns in the journal PLoS Biology that many species will become extinct before they can be studied.
Although the number of species on the planet might seem an obvious figure to know, a way to calculate it with confidence has been elusive.
In a commentary also carried in PLoS Biology, former Royal Society president Lord (Robert) May observes: "It is a remarkable testament to humanity's narcissism that we know the number of books in the US Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you - to within an order of magnitude - how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with."
Now, it appears, we can.
"We've been thinking about this for several years now - we've had a look at a number of different approaches, and didn't have any success," one of the research team, Derek Tittensor,said.
"So this was basically our last chance, the last thing we tried, and it seems to work."
Dr Tittensor, who is based at the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, worked on the project alongside peers from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Hawaii.
The vast majority of the 8.7 million are animals, with progressively smaller numbers of fungi, plants, protozoa (a group of single-celled organisms) and chromists (algae and other micro-organisms).
The figure excludes bacteria and some other types of micro-organism.
Linnaean steps About 1.2 million species have been formally described, the vast majority from the land rather than the oceans.

The natural world in numbers

  • Animals: 7.77 million (12% described)
  • Fungi: 0.61 million (7% described)
  • Plants: 0.30 million (70% described)
  • Protozoa: 0.04 million (22% described)
  • Chromists: 0.03 million (50% described)
The trick this team used was to look at the relationship between species and the broader groupings to which they belong.
In 1758, Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus developed a comprehensive system of taxonomy, as the field is known, which is still - with modifications - in use today.
Groups of closely related species belong to the same genus, which in turn are clustered into families, then orders, then classes, then phyla, and finally into kingdoms (such as the animal kingdom).
The higher up this hierarchical tree of life you look, the rarer new discoveries become - hardly surprising, as a discovery of a new species will be much more common than the discovery of a totally new phylum or class.
The researchers quantified the relationship between the discovery of new species and the discovery of new higher groups such as phyla and orders, and then used it to predict how many species there are likely to be.
"We discovered that, using numbers from the higher taxonomic groups, we can predict the number of species," said Dalhousie researcher Sina Adl.
"The approach accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fishes and birds, providing confidence in the method."
And the number came out as 8.7 million - plus or minus about a million.
Muddied waters If this is correct, then only 14% of the world's species have yet been identified - and only 9% of those in the oceans.

Kunstformen der Natur - spiders  
The rate of species discovery has remained about even ever since Haeckel compiled his Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) a century ago
 
"The rest are primarily going to be smaller organisms, and a large proportion of them will be dwelling in places that are hard to reach or hard to sample, like the deep oceans," said Dr Tittensor.
"When we think of species we tend to think of mammals or birds, which are pretty well known.
"But when you go to a tropical rainforest, it's easy to find new insects, and when you go to the deep sea and pull up a trawl, 90% of what you get can be undiscovered species."
At current rates of discovery, completing the catalogue would take over 1,000 years - but new techniques such as DNA bar-coding could speed things up.
The scientists say they do not expect their calculations to mark the end of this line of inquiry, and are looking to peers to refine methods and conclusions.
One who has already looked through the paper is Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
"I think it's definitely a creative and innovative approach, but like every other method there are potential biases and I think it's probably a conservative figure,"
"But it's such a high figure that it wouldn't really matter if it's out by one or two million either way.
"It is really picking up this point that we know very little about the species with which we share the planet; and we are converting the Earth's natural landscapes so quickly, with total ignorance of our impact on the life in them."

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Modified ecstasy 'attacks blood cancers'


Ecstasy  
Ecstasy was already known to kill some cancerous cells, but the doses needed were fatal
Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers, according to scientists.
Ecstasy is known to kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they said in Investigational New Drugs journal.
Their early study showed all leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells could be killed in a test tube, but any treatment would be a decade away.
A charity said the findings were a "significant step forward".
In 2006, a research team at the University of Birmingham showed that ecstasy and anti-depressants such as Prozac had the potential to stop cancers growing.
The problem was that it needed doses so high they would have been fatal if given to people.
The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.
One variant increased cancer-fighting effectiveness 100-fold. It means that if 100g of un-modified ecstasy was needed to get the desired effect, only 1g of the modified ecstasy would be needed to have the same effect.
Scientists say this also reduced the toxic effect on the brain.
Lead researcher Professor John Gordon, from the University of Birmingham, told the BBC: "Against the cancers, particularly the leukaemia, the lymphoma and the myeloma, where we've tested these new compounds we can wipe out 100% of the cancer cells in some cases.

A molecule of ecstasy  
Tweaking the structure of ecstasy has made it more effective in attacking some cancers.
"We would really need to pinpoint which are the most sensitive cases, but it has the potential to wipe out all the cancer cells in those examples.
"This is in the test tube, it could be different in the patient, but for now it's quite exciting."
'Soapy' cells It is believed that the drug is attracted to the fat in the membranes of the cancerous cells.
Researchers think it makes the cells "a bit more soapy", which can break down the membrane and kill the cell.
They said cancerous cells were more susceptible than normal, healthy ones.
However, doctors are not going to start prescribing modified ecstasy to cancer patients in the near future.
The research has been demonstrated only in samples in a test tube. Animals studies and clinical trials would be needed before prescribing a drug could be considered.
First, however, chemists in the UK and Australia are going to try to tweak the modified ecstasy even further as they think it can be made even more potent.
'Genuinely exciting' If everything is successful, a drug is still at least a decade away.
Dr David Grant, scientific director of the charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, said: "The prospect of being able to target blood cancer with a drug derived from ecstasy is a genuinely exciting proposition.
"Many types of lymphoma remain hard to treat and non-toxic drugs which are both effective and have few side effects are desperately needed.
"Further work is required but this research is a significant step forward in developing a potential new cancer drug."

Monday 22 August 2011

Scottish SPCA helps 'silly moo' remove head from ladder

Bullock with head in ladder 
Members of the public spotted the bullock with its head in the ladder
 
An animal charity has rescued a bullock in South Ayrshire which got its head stuck in a ladder.
Members of the public called the Scottish SPCA after spotting the bewildered beast in a field beside the Troon to Barassie road last month.
An inspector contacted the farmer who owned the Belgian Blue bullock and helped return it to the herd unharmed.
The farmer, who recently took on the lease to the land, said he had no idea how the ladder ended up in the field.
'Surprisingly calm' Scottish SPCA Inspector Kerry Kirkpatrick contacted the farmer after being alerted to the animal's plight.
He said: "When the job came through my first thought was, this is a wind up, but I arrived at the field to find the cow looking confused but surprisingly calm despite having his head wedged tightly in between the rungs of the ladder.
"The farmer's family rounded up the whole herd into a holding pen and we managed to gently pull the ladder off the cow's head.
"The farmer had no idea how the ladder ended up in his field as he only recently took on the lease for the land. It may have been used to patch up a hole in the fence or it could have fallen off a passing van or lorry. Either way, it's a rescue I won't forget in a while."

Sunday 21 August 2011

Cuckoos' 5,000km journey tracked by satellite


Map of cuckoo migration (Data courtesy of BTO)
Scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology have tracked the migration routes of five British cuckoos, using tiny satellite-tracking tags.
The team caught and tagged the birds in June and fitted them with trackers, which fitted like miniature backpacks.
All five birds have now reached Africa.
Having started their journeys from the same breeding ground in East Anglia, the birds are now distributed across 3,000km (1,860 miles) of the continent.
Dr Chris Hewson from the BTO explains how the miniature satellite trackers are fitted and how they work
Their tags automatically switch on once every two days for 10 hours. They send off a radio signal revealing their whereabouts, which is picked up by a satellite.
The cuckoo-tracking team, led by the BTO's Chris Hewson, is able to follow the birds from the comfort of the trust's headquarters in Thetford.
"We can log on to their website and download the most recent messages from each of the tags and download that onto a map," Dr Hewson explained to BBC Nature. "So we can get an almost live picture of where the birds are."
Four of the birds have already crossed the Sahara; two are in southern Chad, one is in northern Nigeria and the fourth one is in Burkina Faso. One cuckoo is lagging slightly behind the rest and has made it as far as Morocco.
"He was last seen about 20km outside Casablanca," said Dr Hewson.

Common cuckoo (Image: photolibrary.com)
  • Cuckoos are brood parasites. In the UK, they lay eggs in the nests of dunnocks, reed warblers and meadow pipits
  • One female can lay up to 20 eggs in one breeding season
  • The birds look like sparrow hawks and their appearance is thought to intimidate their hosts
  • Cuckoos also fool their hosts with egg "mimicry". Their eggs' colour and markings resemble those of their victims
"The bird that has travelled furthest, Chris, has already flown almost 5,000km to Chad. We're expecting him to go further than that - possibly as far as 6-7,000km."
Crossing the Sahara is one of the major sources of mortality for many migrants, so the team is relieved that almost all the birds have made it safely across the desert.
The team wants to find out what environments the birds rely on and where they stop off to feed along the way.
"Migratory birds don't just have a breeding area and a wintering area, they also have staging posts where they spend different amounts of time," said Dr Hewson.
"Because Britain and Europe as a whole is getting warmer, they need to get back earlier and earlier to their breeding grounds.
"If we don't know exactly where they are, we won't know where the bottlenecks are that might be preventing the cuckoos from getting back to Brtain.
"So we're particularly interested in where the birds are fattening up before the final journey to Britain."
Migrant decline Cuckoos are one of several migrant species declining in Britain.
According to a 2010 survey by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), of the 10 UK birds which have declined the most since 1995, eight are summer migrants, including the cuckoo, turtle dove, yellow wagtail and nightingale.
Between 1995 and 2010 the UK lost more than 70% of its turtle doves and nearly half of its cuckoos. The RSPB called the declines "unsustainable".
Martin Davies from the society, who is one of the co-founders of the annual Birdfair, which begins in Rutland Water on Friday said: "We are in danger of losing these sentinels of summer, as the birds' populations have slumped since the mid 1990s.
"The world is changing rapidly and pressures such as habitat destruction, illegal hunting and climate change are believed to be having a major impact on populations of these birds.
"It will be a race against time to tackle these declines."

Saturday 20 August 2011

Newly sequenced DNA - how the kangaroo got its bounce


Tammar wallaby  
Tammar wallaby young spend nine months in their mother's pouch
Researchers have laid bare the DNA of a kangaroo species for the first tim
An international team of scientists, writing in the Biomed Central journal, Genome Biology, say they have even indentified a gene responsible for the kangaroo's hop.
The group focussed on a small species of kangaroo that inhabits islands off Australia's south and western coasts.
The tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) is only the third marsupial to have its genome sequenced.
Making up the trio are the Tasmanian devil and the South American opossum.
The team says the first kangaroo genome is a milestone in the study of mammalian evolution. The ancestors of kangaroos and other marsupials diverged from other mammals at least 130 million years ago.
Professor Marilyn Renfree of the University of Melbourne, a lead researcher on the project, said: "The tammar wallaby sequencing project has provided us with many possibilities for understanding how marsupials are different from us."
Key marsupial traits Dr Elizabeth Murchison, a marsupial specialist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, described the study as "a wonderful tool for studying the evolution of marsupials, and mammals in general, and an impressive piece of work looking at one of Australia's iconic species."
Aside from identifying the "hop" gene, the researchers pinpointed the genes responsible for other key marsupial traits.
For example, tammar wallaby young are only the size of a grain of rice when born. They spend the next stage of their development in their mother's pouch, feeding on her milk.
The pouch is external to the mother's body and therefore the developing animal comes under attack from many pathogens. Antibiotics in the mother's milk are key to the survival of the offspring.

tarram wallaby This is only the third marsupial genome to be sequenced 
 
Dr Murchison said: "It's always really valuable to look at an organism that is a bit different to understand how humans and other mammals have evolved.
"It gives you a perspective on mammalian evolution by looking at mammals that have diverged fairly early on, like the kangaroo.
The researchers also studied the way tammar wallaby genes are turned "on" or "off" at different stages of the animal's life cycle and in different parts of the body.
They hope their work may help produce future treatments for human disease.
"This is the first genome project to be led by Australian scientists," commented Dr Murchison.
"It's been a huge project. It's been going on for almost my entire career. I'm from Australia and it was going on when I was an undergraduate there 10 years ago.
"It was a very early conceived genome project and it has evolved through various different stages as genome sequencing technologies have changed a lot. The team has adapted and kept up and so they have a huge amount of data." e.

Friday 19 August 2011

Sniffer dogs detect lung cancer


Dog sniffing 
It was first suggested that dogs could sniff out cancer in 1989
Sniffer dogs can be used to reliably detect lung cancer, according to researchers in Germany.
Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, they found that trained dogs could detect a tumour in 71% of patients.
However, scientists do not know which chemical the dogs are detecting, which is what they say they need to know to develop a screening programme.
Cancer Research UK said that was still a "long way" off.
It was first suggested that dogs could "sniff out" cancer in 1989 and further studies have shown that dogs can detect some cancers such as those of the skin, bladder, bowel and breast.
Cancer Scent It is thought that tumours produce "volatile chemicals" which a dog can detect.
Researchers trained four dogs - two German shepherds, an Australian shepherd and a Labrador - to detect lung cancer.

Unfortunately, dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer”
Dr Thorsten Walles
 
Three groups of patients were tested: 110 healthy people, 60 with lung cancer and 50 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a narrowing of the airways of the lungs.
They all breathed into a fleece filled tube, which absorbed any smells.
The dogs sniffed the tubes and sat down in front of those in which they detected lung cancer smells.
They were successful 71% of the time. The researchers showed the dogs were not getting confused by chemicals associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or smoking.
Dr Thorsten Walles, the report's author from Schillerhoehe Hospital, said: "In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs' keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease.
"Our results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer. This is a big step forward."
Dogs are unlikely to become regular fixtures in doctors surgeries so researchers are working on "electronic noses" which would be able to detect the same chemical as the dog. This chemical or combination of smells has not yet been found.
As the researchers lament: "Unfortunately, dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer."
Dr Laura McCallum, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although there are now some intriguing studies suggesting that dogs may be able to smell cancer in some situations, we're still a long way from understanding exactly which 'smelly molecules' they are detecting and if these studies are accurate.
"Because it would be extremely difficult to use dogs in the clinic, further research is being carried out to learn more about these molecules that are released from tumours and whether devices such as 'electronic noses' could help sniff them out."

Thursday 18 August 2011

For sale in Sweden: Three-bed house, includes skeleton



The medieval skeleton in the cellar of the property 
The property comes with one former resident who never moved out
 
An estate agent in Sweden is offering a house with the remains of a medieval resident included in the price.
The property, built in 1750 in Visby, on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, has a tomb and skeleton in the cellar.
The starting price for the three-bedroomed house, where the skeleton is visible through glass in the cellar, is 4.1m Kronor ($640,000; £390,780).
The property was built on the foundations of a Russian church, abandoned during the Middle Ages.
"It's harder to get closer to history," estate agent Leif Bertwig said of the house, according to Sweden's Helagotland website.
The farm where the house is located shares part of its property with two other nearby houses that also have access to the basement, reached via a spiral staircase from the courtyard, the website reports.
Even if you cannot raise the asking price to buy the house, a local museum does organise occasional tours to visit the skeleton in the cellar.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Women spend over £100,000 on cosmetics in a lifetime

Women spend over £100,000 on cosmetics but still use out of date products. 

A woman applying lipstick(Rex Features)
According to a survey by the natural deodorant company Biosen, women spend around £100,000 in a lifetime on cosmetics which equates to £40 a week, or £2,000 a year. Yep, you've read that correctly.
The study also found that two thirds of women would rather buy make-up than go on a dinner date and 57% would sooner break-up with their boyfriend than go without it, with Birmingham ladies being the biggest beauty buyers.

The value of the average make-up bag was revealed as £130 and we store an extra 40 products in our bathroom cabinets and dressing tables at home.
If these statistics weren't shocking enough, another survey by myvouchercodes.co.uk found out that probably most of those 40 products are out of date! 73% of us apparently knowingly use cosmetics that are out of date and mascara was cited as the top product women just can't let go of and contrary to the fact that we a are big beauty spenders two fifths of women don't replace their old make-up as it's too expensive.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Too much television may shorten your life


Mother and son watching television
Too much television could shorten your life, putting TV-watching 'in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity', say researchers. 
Watching too much television could shorten your life, a study suggests. Research carried out in Australia, and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that every hour of TV watched after the age of 25 may shorten lifespan by 22 minutes.
According to one of the report's authors, Dr Lennert Veerman, from the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland, it puts long hours spent in front of the box "in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity". "While smoking rates are declining, watching TV is not, which has implications at a population level," he said.
Last year, another Australian study found an hour of TV a day led to an 8% increase in the risk of premature death.
"We've taken that study and translated it into what it means for life expectancy in Australia given how much TV we watch," said Veerman.
Australians watch about two hours of TV a day. As a result their life expectancy at birth is reduced by 1.8 years for men and 1.5 years for women, according to the study. Britons watch more than three hours of TV a day, according to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.
Too much sitting, as distinct from too little exercise, is associated with higher mortality risk, particularly from cardiovascular disease. "Logically we know that physical activity is good for health and so it's not so strange that the reverse is not so good," said Veerman.
The report was based on an observational survey conducted in 1999-2000 with more than 11,000 participants aged 25 and over. Participants reported the amount of time they spent watching TV or videos in the previous week, when it was their main activity (ie, not doing the cooking or the ironing at the same time).
The report also showed that a person who watches an average of six hours of TV a day would live on average 4.8 years less than someone who watches none.

Monday 15 August 2011

Homosexual zebra finches form long-term bond


Two bonded male zebra finches (Image: Julie Elie)  
The male-male pairs nestled and preened each other just like male-female pairs
Same-sex pairs of monogamous birds are just as attached and faithful to each other as those paired with a member of the opposite sex.
The insight comes from a study of zebra finches - highly vocal, colourful birds that sing to their mates, a performance thought to strengthen the pair's bond.
Scientists found that same-sex pairs of finches sang to and preened each other just like heterosexual pairs.
The study is reported in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

A displaying pair of king penguins  
Male king penguins have been seen to "flirt" with other males in the colony
 
Lead researcher Julie Elie from the University of California Berkeley said that the research showed that "relationships in animals can be more complicated than just a male and a female who meet and reproduce, even in birds".
Dr Elie and her colleagues are interested in zebra finches' behaviour. The birds establish life-long relationships and are highly social; males sing to their mates, the birds preen each other and pairs share a nest.
"I'm interested in how animals establish relationships and how [they] use acoustic communication in their social interactions," Dr Elie told BBC Nature.
"My observations of [them] led me to this surprising result: same-sex individuals would also interact in affiliative manners, like male-female pairs."
Dr Elie decided to look more closely at the formation of these bonds and the behaviour of finches in same-sex pairs.
First, she and her colleagues, Clementine Vignal and Nicolas Mathevon from the University of Saint-Etienne, raised young finches in same-sex groups. More than half of the birds paired up with another bird of the same sex.
The team then closely monitored the birds for signs that they had bonded fully.
Bonded birds, Dr Elie explained, perch side by side, nestled together. They also greet each other by "nuzzling" beaks.

Albatrosses (Image: Brandon Cole/NPL)
Female partners copulate with a paired male then rear the young together”
In the next stage of their study, the scientists brought novel females to a group of bonded male-male pairs. Out of eight males that were engaged in same-sex pair-bonds, five ignored the females completely and continued to interact with their male partner.
The findings indicate that, even in birds, the drive to find a mate is far more complicated than simply the need to reproduce.
"A pair-bond in socially monogamous species represents a cooperative partnership that may give advantages for survival," said Dr Elie. "Finding a social partner, whatever its sex, could be a priority."
There are many other examples of same-sex pairing in the avian world.
In monogamous gulls and albatrosses, it gives females the chance to breed without a male partner.
"Female partners copulate with a paired male then rear the young together," Dr Elie explained.
In captivity, there have been at least two cases of male penguins forming long-term bonds when there are females available.
Perhaps the most famous of these was two male chinstrap penguins in Manhattan's Central Park Zoo, named Roy and Silo. They bonded and paid no attention to females in their enclosure for at least a year.
They even built a nest together and incubated and hatched a fertilised egg donated to them by one of the keepers.

Saturday 13 August 2011

THE SACRED FAMILY OF BURMA

burma 213x300 THE SACRED FAMILY OF BURMA

In 1826 an expedition led by John Crawfurd visited the court of Ava, a province in Burma. In his published account of the visit, Crawfurd described meeting a wolf man named Shew-Maong. The account was the first documented encounter with hypertrichosis since Petrus Gonzales.
At the age of five, Shwe-Maong was given to the King of Ava as a gift. He took to the role of court jester and entertained the King so completely that the sovereign presented Shwe-Maong with a beautiful wife at the age of 22. Crawfurd wrote that the union produced 4 children. A daughter, named Maphoon, was covered with hair like her father.
In 1855, a second expedition to Ava updated the tale. Captain Henry Yule wrote that Shwe-Maong had been murdered by thieves. His daughter Maphoon, now thirty-one, was married to an average Burmese man. Her marriage was not a simple affair as the King was forced to offer a large dowry to any man who would wed her. The union resulted in two sons and one, Moung-Phoset, was as furry as his mother and grandfather.
In 1885 the Third Burmese War began. During this revolution the palace at Ava was burned and its inhabitants murdered. The hairy family of Burma managed to escape into the forest. By this time Moung-Phoset had several of his own children. He had one daughter named Mah-Me, who was also hairy, but she died either shortly before or during the escape. Maphoon was still alive but blind and invalid, thus Moung-Phoset carried her on his back to safety.
One year later the family began to exhibit themselves for profit. In the summer of 1886 the family was visited by one Mr. J. J. Weir in England and he described them in detail. He reported that Maphoon, while weak and blind, was both lively and pleasant. He also stated that not only was Moung-Phoset covered with soft, brown hair but he was also heavily tattooed from below the waist and to the knees. Weir was astounded by the level of education displayed by the family. He remarked that their appearance did not do justice to their intellect.
From England, the family moved on to Paris. In 1888 they appeared in the United States with P.T. Barnum. They were billed as ‘The Sacred Hairy Family of Burma’. But following that stint in the United States, the family disappeared. Unbelievably, their remaining history is unknown.

Friday 12 August 2011

Depressed women 'have increased risk of stroke'

Depressed woman (posed by model) 
Depression could mean people take less care of their health
Women with depression may also be at increased risk of having a stroke, US researchers suggest.
A study of over 80,000 women found those with a history of depression had a 29% increased risk of stroke.
The research, in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, said doctors should be aware people with depression may neglect their general health.
UK stroke experts said depression alone was unlikely to increase stroke risk.
Indicator The women, all aged 54-79, who were all taking part in the long-running Nurses' Health Study which has been following women across the US since the mid 1970s.
In this study, the researchers looked at data from 2000 to 2006.
None had had a stroke before the study began, while 22% had been diagnosed with depression.

Women suffering from depression may be less motivated to maintain good health or control other medical conditions”
Dr Peter Coleman The Stroke Association
 
Compared to women without a history of depression, depressed women were more likely to be single, smokers and less physically active. They were also slightly younger, had a higher body mass index and conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
During the course of the research, 1,033 women had a stroke.
As well as the increased risk for those who had been diagnosed with depression at any point, the researchers also found women who had used anti-depressants particularly SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) at any point in the two years prior to the study, was 39% higher.
Bur Dr Kathryn Rexrode, who led the research, said the medicines were more likely to be an indication someone was more seriously ill, rather than a cause of the stroke.
"I don't think the medications themselves are the primary cause of the risk. This study does not suggest that people should stop their medications to reduce the risk of stroke."
She added: "Depression can prevent individuals from controlling other medical problems such as diabetes and hypertension, from taking medications regularly or pursuing other healthy lifestyle measures such as exercise. All these factors could contribute to increased risk."
Lifestyle Dr An Pan of the Harvard School of Public Health, who also worked on the research, said inflammation could be the physical mechanism linking depression and stroke.
But he added: "Regardless of the mechanism, recognising that depressed individuals may be at a higher risk of stroke may help the physician focus on not only treating the depression, but treating stroke risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol as well as addressing lifestyle behaviours such as smoking and exercise."
Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of research at the UK's Stroke Association, said: "Depression is a very serious condition which needs to be treated carefully by healthcare professionals.
"This research appears to indicate that women suffering from depression may be less motivated to maintain good health or control other medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which have an associated increased risk of stroke.
"However, it is very hard to determine whether there is a direct link between depression and stroke risk and a lot more research is needed in this area before depression alone can be viewed as a stroke risk factor.
"It's important that anyone taking antidepressants should continue doing so, and anyone concerned about their overall stroke risk should speak to their GP."

Thursday 11 August 2011

Gene linked to depression 'fixed' in mice

Brain - depression Could gene therapy help depression?
Gene therapy in mice appears to be able to "correct" a gene defect strongly linked to depression in people.
Abnormal behaviour in mice lacking a gene in a specific brain region was reversed after injections of a modified virus.
The US study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
A UK gene therapy pioneer said that despite the need for a brain injection, a future treatment should not be ruled out in severe depression.
The gene, known as p11, is one of several candidates which appear to play a role in depression.
Examination of the brains of deceased patients with depression revealed that they had considerably lower levels of p11 in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.
It is thought to work by regulating the brain chemical serotonin, which helps control mood, appetite and sleep.
Mice bred so that the gene is not present in the nucleus accumbens also showed behaviour which has been compared to depression in humans, for example appearing to lack motivation when given a swimming task to complete.
When they were given an injection of a virus altered to restore p11 to normal levels, their behaviour became indistinguishable from a normal mouse.
Dr Michael Kaplitt, from Weill Cornell Medical Center, and one of the research leaders, said: "We potentially have a novel therapy to target what we now believe is one root cause of human depression.
"Current therapies for depression treat symptoms but not underlying causes, and while that works for many patients, those with advanced depression, or depression that does not respond to medication, could hopefully benefit from our approach."

It seems to me that it could open up a whole new field of medicine”
Professor Len Seymour Oxford University
Any such treatment would be many years away, and, given the complexity of depression, further work would be needed to determine how much impact p11 gene therapy could have in humans.
The viruses used to deliver the gene therapy are too big to pass the blood brain barrier which protects the brain, and would need to be targeted precisely at the nucleus accumbens, as p11 could have a variety of different roles in different brain areas.
This would mean that a hole would need to be drilled in the skull, and a needle guided into precisely the right spot.
'Clinical issues' Dr Guang Chen, a neuroscience researcher at pharmaceutical firm Johnson and Johnson, in a commentary in the journal, said that the use of gene therapy in this way for depression represented "uncharted territory".
"Although we have embarked on a promising new path, a large number of clinical and regulatory issues must be overcome before such therapies can be implemented."
Other experts argue that even such an invasive treatment should not be dismissed as a future option.
Prof Alan Kingsman, a pioneer of gene therapy at Oxford University, and now chairman of biopharmaceutical company Oxford Biomedica, is already helping to run trials of gene therapy for patients with Parkinson's Disease.
This too is delivered by injection directly to the brain, but he pointed out that the procedure was no more invasive than deep brain stimulation, a treatment being trialled for severe depression in which an electrode is implanted beneath the skull.
He said: "It certainly shouldn't be written off as something that is completely inappropriate in patients with depression."
He said that it was possible that a gene therapy might only need to be administered once, unlike traditional drugs which might need to be taken long-term.
Len Seymour, a professor of gene therapy at Oxford University, said that the only way to move was for researchers to identify a group of depressed patients whose condition was so severe that ethicists could be convinced that such an experimental treatment was justified.
"Brain therapy is becoming more acceptable than it was 10 years ago, and it seems to me that it could open up a whole new field of medicine," Prof Seymour said.
"What this, and other studies, are showing, is that gene therapy, delivered correctly, can be effective."

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Rolling Stone Mick Jagger sings in Sanskrit

SuperHeavy  
Mick Jagger teams up with AR Rahman on the song
Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger has sung in Sanskrit on a new album by a supergroup, which stars Oscar-winning Indian musician AR Rahman.
Jagger sings Satyameva Jayate (Truth alone triumphs), the second single from a supergroup called SuperHeavy which also features Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian Marley.
Satyameva Jayate is the band's second single.
SuperHeavy's album is expected to be released in September.
"Dave said AR [Rahman] we want your voice in this album... we want this to be a great Indian song too. A long dream for me to raise one of the morals of Indian culture which is Satyameva Jayate and make it as a song," Rahman was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
"This is historic... it is iconic in a way. I hope people will like it," he said.
Jagger formed the band in May, saying that he "wanted a convergence of different musical styles".
"It's different from anything else I've ever been involved in," Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine .
"The music is very wide-ranging - from reggae to ballads to Indian songs in Urdu."

Monday 8 August 2011

Attack of the rats



A farmer hunting rats
The rat floods decimate rice crops in the region
The local farmers call it a flood; an inundation that happens every 50 years.
Others believe it to be an act of God, an inevitability.
It isn't water flooding the precious farmland in north-eastern India, but rats.
A once in a generation, gigantic plague of rats, that ruins crops and leaves people starving.
A rat army so big, so mythical, that until now some scientists did not believe it was real.
This explosion in the rodent population, leading to swarms of hungry pests, is caused by a glut in the food supply, namely bamboo seeds, researchers have confirmed.
And it is a perfect example of how the simple relationship between two apparently innocuous species, a tall grass and a tiny rodent, can turn the ecology of a whole region upside down: wiping out wildlife, destroying agriculture and leaving people destitute.
Worse, scientists suspect that climate change may create even bigger rat armies in the future.
Bamboo carpet
Map of affected region
Bamboo forest covers more than 26,000 square kilometres throughout the north-eastern state of Mizoram, extending into the Chin Hills of Burma and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
This species of bamboo (Melcocanna baccifera) is invaluable for farmers whose entire livelihood is based on what they can grow.
It provides a building material, clothing and even food - in the form of bamboo shoots.
Ecologically though, it is an aggressive plant that has annihilated its competition, and carpeted the area.
Approximately every 50 years, though, that carpet of forest dies off.
Whatever the environmental conditions, an internal clock signals to each plant that it is time to flower, set seed and die.
Bamboo forest (Image: SPL)
Bamboo forests cover 26,000 square kilometres of the region
"It's a way for the bamboo to ensure that the seeds survive," explains Steve Belmain, an ecologist from Greenwich University in London.
"But when the bamboo seed falls - you end up with 80 tonnes of seed per hectare on the ground.
"That's 80 tonnes of food just lying there waiting to be eaten."
For Dr Belmain and his colleagues, the most recent bamboo flowering, which began in 2004 and will continue to 2011, provided a unique opportunity to study an event that only occurs every half century.
"Before this, all we had was anecdotes from 50 years ago," he told BBC News.
"It had become a legend - many people who live in the area now weren't alive during the last outbreak."
'Rat armies'
It is only now that scientists have accepted that the "bamboo masting" is the trigger for the outbreaks.
The infrequency and scale of the event rendered it somewhat mythical.
"The many fantastic stories make it much harder for scientists to take it seriously and separate fact from fiction," says Dr Belmain.
When his colleagues interviewed the communities in the Hill Tracts, some people talked about "rat armies" that appear to work together.
And many believed the rat plagues to be an act of God.

Dead rats collected in the  Ayeyarwaddy Delta in 2009
Between June and September 2009 community rat collection campaigns in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta collected more than 2.6 million rats

The big problem for local farmers is that their low-growing rice crops make easy pickings for the voracious pests.
Dr Belmain says that, when the rats come, some people simply do not bother planting crops. They just accept that it is pointless.
He and his colleague Grant Singleton from the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, Philippines, have just compiled and edited a new book, Rodent outbreaks - Ecology and impacts.
The book brings together the findings of teams of scientists working in the region, studying the local ecology and agricultural practices.
On top of widespread starvation, Dr Singleton tells BBC News, that the rat floods turn the whole forest ecology "upside down".
"There is a huge impact on insects and other wildlife too - habitats and food are simply wiped out," he says.
Pest apathy
But, despite the fact that the locals see their crops ravaged, there is little to no drive to do anything about it.
The scientists say there is an overwhelming feeling of apathy in the region.
And in the lowlands of Burma, cyclone Nargis - an event that itself killed an estimated 140,000 people - actually made the problem even worse.
Rat in rice crop
Most of the methods used for pest control are not working at all
Dr Singleton explains: "Because the cyclone was so intense and so much life was lost, there were a lot of areas abandoned that would normally be cropped.
"And these areas became overgrown with grasses and weeds that were a major breeding ground for the rodents.
"Also smallholder farmers recovered from the cyclone at different stages, leading to the crops being planted at markedly different times.
"Therefore the rice crops matured at different times and provided food on the table of the rat for much longer than usual."
All of this led to the rats breeding for longer and to their young maturing and breeding before the cropping season ended. The result: another explosion in the rat population.
There was anecdotal evidence that the cyclone also wiped out predators, including snakes, that would otherwise have preyed on the rats.
This, along with abandoned land and fewer humans to catch the rodents, left them with little control over their numbers.
Between June and September 2009, community rat collection campaigns conducted in just a few townships in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta collected more than 2.6 million rats.
Dr Belmain says the huge number of rodents was related to the cyclone.

Rat tails collected by communities in Burma
Burma's ruling junta offered a small cash reward for each rat tail delivered by the rat collection campaigns

"Outbreaks of this magnitude have not been recorded in the previous 30 years in this delta," he tells BBC News.
The scientists believe that outbreaks of rodent and other crop pest populations following extreme weather events [are] likely to become more common with the onset of climate change.
Unusual pests
Not just one rodent species involved, but one of the main culprits in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta is Bandicota savilei.
This common rat is a native species, rather than an invasive predator that has found itself in a new environment with no strong competition.
It seems though that the ecological landscape is so warped by the bamboo masting that this has become a native species gone bad.
The rats can produce a litter every three weeks and the baby rats reach sexual maturity in just 50-60 days.


For the scientists, it is a frustrating problem, because the solutions are relatively straightforward.
Dr Belmain says: "Most of the methods used for pest control are not working at all."
"In India, individual farmers often buy a handful of poison at the market and spread it around."
One solution could be a simple plastic sheeting fence - containing holes that lead into rat traps.
So Dr Belmain and his colleagues hope to reach local farmers and teach them that by laying efficient traps at the right times, they could reduce the amount of food they lose.
Dr Belmain says: They're either engrained in apathy because they've tried and failed to control it or they don't appreciate how much they're losing to rats.
"So you really have to hold their hands and show them their lives can be better.
"People can do a lot more if they're organised."
Preparation, it seems, will be key to facing the next rat army.

Sunday 7 August 2011

'Killer' shrimps worst alien invader of waterways

The 'killer' shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus shrimp have a voracious appetite which can alter the habitats it invades
 
'Killer' shrimp is the worst non-native invader of England and Wales' waterways, says the Environment Agency.
Known as Dikerogammarus villosus, it kills native shrimp and young fish.
The Environment Agency's worst 10 alien invaders include water primrose, giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed which can damage riverbanks and buildings.
The agency said invasive species cost the UK about £1.7bn a year and it will work with partner groups to manage the spread of damaging plants and animals.
Several species of pond plant which have escaped from gardens and parks are also on the list of non-native wildlife which pose the greatest threat to the country's rivers and lakes.
Increased damage to riverbanks and buildings can increase the risk of floods and hit native wildlife.
Tough EU targets
Invasive species can even become so prolific that anglers, fishermen and boaters cannot use the waterways.
Despite growing to just 30mm long, Dikerogammarus villosus has been identified as being the worst alien invader due to its voracious appetite which alters the make-up of habitats it invades.
Other creatures in the Environment Agency's most wanted list include the American signal crayfish which has endangered our native white-clawed species, the topmouth gudgeon fish which hits other species, and the mink, which eats water voles.
Water primrose, the floating pennywort and parrot's feather are pond plants which have caused problems after spreading into the environment, clogging up and damaging water habitats.

'Most wanted' invaders

  • 1. Killer shrimp
  • 2. Water primrose
  • 3. Floating pennywort
  • 4. American signal crayfish
  • 5. Topmouth gudgeon
  • 6. Giant hogweed
  • 7. Japanese knotweed
  • 8. Himalayan balsam
  • 9. Mink
  • 10. Parrot's feather

Giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam are all taking their toll on riverbanks and other areas across the UK.
The hogweed contains a poisonous sap, the knotweed causes structural damage and all three suppress native plants and cause soil erosion.
The Environment Agency warned that the invasive species could hamper efforts to improve the quality of rivers to meet tough new EU targets.
It said it is already spending £2m a year controlling invasive species, and will be increasing its efforts with partners such as government conservation agency Natural England.
Trevor Renals, invasive species expert at the Environment Agency, said if invasive species are not controlled there is a risk of losing some native species and incurring even more clean-up costs, as well as "falling short of the strict EU targets for our rivers and lakes".
He said: "The Environment Agency will be working with other environment bodies as well as community and volunteer groups to manage the spread of these damaging plants and animals.
"We would urge everyone to help stop the spread of these species by making sure that garden and pond plants don't end up near rivers and parkland and thoroughly cleaning any fishing, boating and canoeing equipment when moving between waterways."

Saturday 6 August 2011

'Swamp monster' threatens rail project




A multi-billion dollar railway tunnel project is in doubt over land patrolled by a swamp monster.

The local Maori have protested the development of the new railway because they believe the area is home to a mythical creature, the taniwha. It isn't the first time this has happened either, in 2002 the construction of a road was halted under similar circumstances.


Glenn Wilcox, a member of the Maori Statutory Board, which protects Maori interests, complained that the plan did not take into account the monster, which "was here first". The taniwha is a mythical protector with a powerful role in Maori folklore, but get it angry and you're in trouble, Mr Wilcox said.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Paul Daniels Treated After Sooty Pizza Attack

Veteran TV magician Paul Daniels has admitted needing medical treatment after being hit in the face with a pizza thrown by Sooty, the puppet.

Paul Daniels is struck by a pizza thrown by the puppet Sooty
Paul Daniels was seen by a nurse after the attack 


The 73-year-old was filming a scene for the new series of ITV's The Sooty Show when the wayward snack struck him harder than expected on the head.
The incident was witnessed by a shocked Sweep.
But Daniels attempted to play down reports of the incident when he spoke to Sky News.
He said he had driven himself to a "village hospital" after his eye began to sting but was given the all clear after receiving an eye drop.

"It was over a month ago," he said. "I wasn't hospitalised by Sooty, there was a slapstick scene, I got pizza in my eye.
"It stung so on the way home that evening I called into a local wonderful village hospital.
"A nurse said, 'Oh no that's all right'...
"That was it it was all over, she put a little drop in my eye, it did sting for about a minute, and then gone."
Co-star Richard Cadell, who had been operating Sooty the puppet, was devastated after throwing the pizza much softer in the first take.
"Paul turned round and said 'Come on Sooty, give it some welly!', so I did. The second throw hit him hard.

Paul Daniels and Sooty
Daniels and his attacker 

"Debbie (McGee, Paul's wife and assistant) laughed when it hit him but soon realised he'd been hurt.
"Paul was a childhood hero of mine so you can imagine how I felt."
Daniels - who is performing at his year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival - later denied asking for the pizza to be thrown harder.
He also denied appearing dazed, saying this was his "normal walking state".
The offending scene can be viewed when The Sooty Show returns to ITV in September.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

On a wing and a prayer: Central Park peacock on the run from zoo keepers in New York

A peacock is on the loose in New York City after escaping from the Central Park Zoo today.
The brightly plumaged bird broke free from its enclosure around 9 am this morning before wondering towards the city's Upper East Side.
The zoo, which has already had two other high profile escapees including a pea hen and a cobra,  says the peacock poses no danger to anyone.
Peek-a-boo: A Peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo and flew across 5th ave. and landed on a windowsill at 838 5th ave
Peek-a-boo: A Peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo and flew across 5th ave. and landed on a windowsill at 838 5th ave

Waiting game: Police and Zoo officials were on scene and appeared to want to wait to see if the Peacock flew off on it's own, rather than frighten it
Waiting game: Police and Zoo officials were on scene and appeared to want to wait to see if the Peacock flew off on it's own, rather than frighten it
Zoo-keepers are asking anyone who spots the peacock 'not to follow or harass the bird.'
Spokeswoman Mary Dixon says they're hopeful the male peacock will either fly back or be retrieved nearby.
The bird apparently found a comfortable perch on the fifth-story window ledge of a nearby building on Tuesday.
Up to 100 people gathered on East 65th Street for a little urban bird-watching, as the reticent peacock stubbornly refused to move from the window ledge.
Hanging around: The bird spent several hours admiring it's reflection in the window and was still perched there late in the afternoon
Hanging around: The bird spent several hours admiring it's reflection in the window and was still perched there late in the afternoon
The daring bird has obviously taken a leaf from fellow escapees after setting up his 'own' Twitter account.
Calling himself the 'Peacock in the City', this is one bird with a lot of attitude.
This evening he tweeted: 'Just finished dinner at a Chinese restaurant and I'm relieved to find out that the peacock fantasy is actually chicken!'
And like the rest of New York, it appears even peacocks suffer in the stifling heat.
Earlier today he wrote: 'Anyone know of any good anti-friz products? This humidity is killing my feathers!'
In March, a venomous Egyptian cobra was found nearly a week after it went missing from the Bronx Zoo's Reptile House.