The Oscar ceremonies threw up a couple of ‘firsts’ as Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the best directing award and Sandra Bullock became the first person to be awarded a ‘Razzie’ (Worst Actress Award) and an Oscar (Best Actress Award) in the same year. Kathryn Bigelow took the best directing Oscar for her Iraq war drama The …
On the piste
A new world record has been set after 235 skiers and snowboarders took to the piste on CairnGorm Mountain, near Aviemore, Scotland. What made the record significant was that all the participants were wearing kilts. They skied down in a line from the Ptarmigan Top Station on CairnGorm Mountain to claim the record. Money raised from the event will go to charity …
Is there an election looming by any chance?
I’ve planned this visit for some time says Mr Bean as he makes a visit to Afghanistan to promise more equipment to British troops just one day after appearing at the Iraq Inquiry and being accused of being ‘disingenuous’ by two former army chiefs on the question of earlier requests for more and better equipment. Alternatives to disingenuous: artful, crooked, …
The tragic side of modern life
A South Korean couple were so addicted to the internet that they let baby, only three months old, starve to death while raising a virtual daughter online. The couple spent twelve hour periods in a local internet cafe raising and nurturing an online virtual baby but only fed their own premature baby just once a day. The father, aged 41 …
Early to rise
The crisis in the Greek banking sector has provoked all sorts of responses throughout the European community, none of them being the offer of huge wads of cash to bail them out. In turn, the Greeks have not exactly helped their cause, particularly during efforts to solicit financial aid from Germany, by bringing up the small matter of the disturbances …
Free Skype calls on Nokia phones
Nokia users will be able to make free Skype to Skype calls on their mobile phones, as well as make reduced-rate calls to landlines and other mobiles at home and abroad The Skype application, which can can run on more than 200 million phones around the world, is available as a free download from Nokia’s Ovi store. The system will also …
It will end in tears
It is not long since the tragic death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer working will killer whales at Sea World in Orlando Florida, and now we have keepers playing ‘cat and mouse’ with Bengal and Siberian tigers. Called ‘Tiger Splash’, the event at Out of Africa Wildlife Park, in Camp Verde, Arizona, U.S. is a big hit with visitors and …
Expensive meal
A passenger on a Ryanair flight from Krakow, Poland, to East Midlands was a lucky scratchcard winner, his prize being €10,000. However, a trifle upset that the prize had to be collected from the offices of the company organising the scratchcard lottery as it was such a large amount, the man then ATE his winning ticket. In doing so, he …
Attention, Admiral on (tweet)deck
US troops are to be allowed to use social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook following a review of internet use and security, with Defence department officials saying that the benefits of using social media now outweigh the risks to security. Many sites, including YouTube, were blocked by the Pentagon in 2007 but under the new ruling will be unblocked. …
Is promiscuity the key to survival?
Research conducted by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool concludes that females that have multiple mates reduce the risk of producing a brood of offspring without males and this could prevent the species becoming extinct. The study into the long term effects of polyandry (multiple mates, a common phenomenon in the animal kingdom) was carried out on the fruitfly, Drosophila …