WHATS NEW(S)?

This weeks newspapers.
My apologies that this is such a long post.

Peg - A 'model' pet until left alone.

Is your pooch's bowl half-full OR half-empty.

Scientists have confirmed what many pet owners have long suspected: some dogs have a more gloomy outlook on life than others. This unusual insight into canine psychology emerged from a study by Bristol University researchers into how dogs behave when separated from their owners. Dogs that were generally calm when left alone were also found to have a 'dog bowl half-full' attitude to life, while those that barked, relieved themselves and destroyed furniture appeared to be more pessimistic, the story concluded. - Ian Sample, The Guardian (Tuesday 12/10/2010). Click HERE for full story.

And now for several articles from Friday's (15/10/2010) Daily Telegraph.

Remember me telling you about the £96,000 bill for the cleaning of the Queen's chandeliers? Now we are informed:-

The Queen has cancelled this year's Christmas party for her staff due to the 'difficult financial circumstances' facing the country.

Not exactly a bestseller, I for one am glad to read that, Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair's memoirs have gained some recognition.

Tony Blair's memoirs have been nominated for the Literary Review's Bad Sex Award.

The least coveted prize in literature is traditionally awarded to a novelist, but the judges have made an exception for the former PM and his toe-curling reminiscences about a night of passion with his wife Cherie.

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me," he wrote in A Journey. "On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct..."  - Anita Singh. Click HERE for full article.

Hardly romantic is it? Unlike this next article in which a television technician searches for his real life Cinderella.

An Australian tv technician has begun a Cinderella-style hunt for his Indian 'Princess' ancestor in Delhi, attempting to trace her and her descendants using only a pair of silk slippers handed down through generations.

Eric Ronald has released photographs of the slippers and some sketchy details about his family's colonial history in India as part of an appeal to help him find his long-lost 'royal family'. - Dean Nelson. Click HERE to view those slippers and read the full story.

I've heard some pretty good excuses in my time but this (as my nana used to say) just about takes the biscuit*

Airline meals have long been lambasted for being bland - but research suggests that the chefs may not be to blame.

A study has found that high levels of background noise can diminish the sensitivity of people's palates, making food taste less appealing. - Murray Wardrop. READ MORE/ GO VISIT A who also has a post about this very article.

And so onto Saturday's (16/10/2010) articles.

And talking of food, remember the three-course dinner chewing gum in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory in which anyone getting past the tomato soup and roast beef stages to desert changes into a giant blueberry? Well! ......

A scientist believes he has found the secret of creating it.

Dave Hart hopes to turn author Roald Dahl's crazy invention into reality, without the side effects says the answer lies with NANOTECHNOLOGY. - Daily Express.

My perfect job (sighs).

Eating chocolate for a living might (might!!!!) sound like a dream job but it could become a reality for one cocoa-lover and even pay up to £35,000 a year.

Green & Black's, the chocolate company, is looking for a taste assistant (pick me, pick me) to help come up with new flavour combinations, test new products and travel the world sourcing ingredients. - Laura Roberts, The Daily Telegraph. READ MORE.

Guilty as charged.

When brake cables were systematically damaged on seven cars, police launched an urgent investigation and street patrols - but were astonished when they found the culprits.

Instead of gangs of vandals attacking the cables and cutting phone lines to homes, forensic tests showed ????? (click HERE to find out what) were causing the damage. - Victoria Ward, The Daily Telegraph.

And finally just one more article that I simply could not resist.

Plumber Colin Furze has built the fastest mobility scooter in the world - it can whiz along at 69mph compared with a normal top speed of 8mph. (Don't worry I don't think I'll be doing this speed in Madge - at least not yet.) - The Sunday Telegraph (17/10/2010).

*If something takes the biscuit, it is the absolute limit.