This article suggests that the effects of alcohol do make people appear more attractive. Researchers found that as little as a pint and a half of beer is enough to make everyone seem more desirable. Men are worst affected with the effect lasting as long as 24 hours after a heavy drinking session. The results were based on a study done at Bristol University where male and female volunteers were randomly allocated a drink of vodka and lime or a similar tasting soft drink. There were then asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 male and 20 female faces on a seven point scale. Those who had been drinking alcohol scored the faces 10% higher than those who had not. The following day both sexes were tested again, this time the men who had been drinking the previous day scored the picture more highly than the non drinkers. The researchers concluded: 'Alcohol consumption increases ratings of attractiveness of facial stimuli.'

A candy ship in Santa Cruz has started selling chocolate covered bacon. The bacon is sprinkled with sea salt and then covered in dark chocolate and according to this article is "a good combination of sweet and salty". I'm not convinced.

When Hector the great dane started drooling and looking unwell, it was obvious there was something wrong with him, so his owner took him to the vet. It was only when, he was given an X-ray, however, that it emerged he had managed to swallow a 63cm stick. The stick was so long that it stretched over two thirds of the dogs body. It was later removed under anaesthetic and Hector appears to be fine despite the sticky situation.

This is an interesting idea, its a pair of shoes that are also sandals. As you can see from the picture the top part of the shoe unzips to reveal a sandal inside the sole. They are made by Nat-2 design and cost £59.99. There are currently over 20 different designs available and you can also mix and match the soles with different top part. Currently the only place to buy them in the UK is Wild Goose in Twickenham. They seem like a great idea for the unpredictable UK weather.

If you want longer legs then you might want to consider a leg lengthening clinic. Based in Russia the clinic claims it can literally add inches to your legs. The article cites two examples the first where a lady had her legs lengthened by 3 inches and another where a man has the procedure to correct the fact that he had one leg longer than the other. In both cases the treatment appears to have been successful. It does, however, sound really painful. The treatment involves having your legs broken in several places before being attached via metal pins to something called the IIizarov Frame. The frame provides a support of a cast and uses metal spokes to pierce the flesh and fix the bone in position. Rather than setting the bone the device gradually moves the two sections further apart causing new bone to grow and seal the break. It is possible to lengthen the bone as much as 2 inches in a month. I am lucky to be quite tall already but this procedure seems an awful lot of pain for the sake of a few extra inches. Ouch.

According to this article makeup for men is becoming more popular with Superdrug stocking a new range of makeup for men called Taxi Man. The makeup is aimed at men who want to enhance their features. It will include eyeliner for men which is thicker than normal eyeliner to make it easier for men to grip. Later this summer the range will also include a concealer and a lip balm. I wonder how popular it will be, I can't see my husband liking the idea very much.

A garden centre in Lancashire have spent thousands of pounds on these rather interesting designer urinals. They were designed by American artist Clark Sorensen and cost £3,250. So far they have received good feedback with the managing director of the garden centre saying "In fact, our only complaint in the first few weeks of opening was that the men couldn't get into the gents' because it was full of ladies looking at the urinals!".

Sat Nav devices can be useful but only if they are used in conjunction with road signs and a little common sense. Without this they can also be a disaster. One driver who was meant to be delivering cars from Turkey to Gibraltar ended up in a lane in Skegness after his sat nav device directed him towards a nature reserve called Gibraltar point. Of course the blame cannot be put solely on the sat nav device, presumably the driver is at fault for programming completely the wrong destination into it in the first place. And just for fun, here is a map showing the distance between the two destinations.

I have heard of firefighters rescuing cats from trees but this story was a little more unusual. Firefighters in Northampton were called out to rescue a bird from a tree. The crow had managed to get itself tangled in the branches and was stuck. The firefighters soon pulled him free and the crow is now recovering at the Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital.

Ben Walton from Hampshire must really like ironing because he has started an attempt break a world record by ironing for 60 hours. The current record stands at 55 hours and 5 minutes. Ben is allowed a 5 minute break every hour during the attempt. It is estimated that he will iron about 1,000 garments. He will be giving any money he raises to the Winchester Royal County Hospital to help pay for an incubator.

A German football club is offering fans the chance to be buried in an area near its arena. Hamburger SV has opened a 500 plot cemetery near its Nordbank arena and is offering fans the chance to be buried in the cemetery in the club's colours. The graves are on a football pitch lawn accessed by a goal shaped entrance. The scheme is open to all fans and costs £80,000. They offer burial contracts of around £2,000 payable over 25 years and you can also buy a HSV coffin for £1,850 or and an urn for £200. The idea came about after the club received numerous requests from fans who wanted to have their ashes strewn on the pitch. A number of English clubs have also had similar requests, so watch this space you could soon buried at your favourite football club.

The artists who decided to try painting in zero gravity managed to produce several pictures. British painter Nasser Azam managed to complete six pictures whilst on the flight. He also managed to complete the journey without getting sick. You can the video here. I must say the pictures are rather abstract but then what do I know? I'm no art critic.

In an experiment to find out whether octopuses have a preferred arm out of the eight they use scientists have given them a Rubik's Cube. 25 octopuses have all been given one of the toys and the scientists will record their behaviour to see whether the creatures use a specific limb to pick up the toy. I have never managed to solve a Rubik's Cube, I wonder how long it will the octopuses to figure it out.

Sometimes I come across something really strange, well how about bacon chocolate chip cookies? I found the recipe on this blog and they look truly awful (this is no reflection on the authors cooking or pictures, rather the bacon and chocolate combination itself). I'm not sure whether I am brave enough to try the recipe myself but apparently they are delicious.

This article suggests that smaller dogs are more likely to be aggressive than bigger ones. A study on animal behaviour published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that smaller dogs were more likely to show aggressive behaviour. Dachshunds topped the list followed by the Chihuahua and the Jack Russell Terrier with a large dog the Akita only making number four in the list. I guess what the smaller dogs lack in size they make up for in attitude.

Police in Wales who were called out to investigate an unidentified flying object quickly found that it was not an alien invasion but was simply the moon. It appeared the man who called them out was unable to identify the large glowing object in the sky as the moon. The conversation with the control room (below) makes interesting reading.

Control Room: 'South Wales Police, what's your emergency?'
Caller: 'It's not really. I just need to inform you that across the mountain there's a bright stationary object.'
Control room: 'Right.'
Caller: 'If you've got a couple of minutes, perhaps you could find out what it is? It's been there at least half an hour and it's still there.'
Control: 'It's been there for half an hour. Right. Is it actually on the mountain or in the sky?'
Caller: 'It's in the air.'
Control: 'I will send someone up there now to check it out.'
Caller: 'OK.' The mystery was soon solved, as the exchange between control and an officer sent to the scene makes clear.
Control: 'Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?'
Officer: 'Yes, it's the Moon. Over.'

A Japanese company has teamed up with the American aerospace firm Rocketplane to offer the first "space weddings". The voyages will start in 2011 and the weddings will take place 100km above the earth. They cost £1.1 million so are not cheap. For that you can invite two guests and a priest. The cost includes a four day training period, a wedding dress and a party at the spaceport. It also includes a live broadcast so that family and friends can watch the ceremony.

I came across this story some time ago about a man who had decided to put his life up for sale. Ian Usher decided to sell his house and its contents his car, his job and his friends in an ebay auction. The auction ended last week and the winning bidder paid £192,000 for their new life. Mr Usher was disappointed that he did not get as much for his life as he expected but he went ahead with the sale and will spend the money travelling.

I never knew there was such an event as the World Nettle Eating Championships but according to this article it does exist. The event is held in Dorset and competitors come from all over the world to eat as many nettles as they can. The competitors have one hour to eat the nettles and the winner is the person who eats the most. This years winner was Paul Collins who managed to eat 64 feet of nettles but he fell just short of his record of 76 feet and hopes to beat this next year.

This is Gus. He is this years winner of the World's Ugliest Dog competition. He certainly is ugly.

I often come across articles that make me think scientists have a little too much time on their hands. This is a good example. A group of scientists have been working really hard and have found the formula for the perfect sandwich. What a relief. It is based on algebraic variables and takes into account factors such as the thickness of the cheese and the bread and the amount of margarine that is used. You can give it a go here and can be sure you will never mess your sandwich up ever again. Thank you science.

In case you are wondering my perfect sandwich had the following dimensions.

White Bread : 10mm
Farmhouse Cheddar : 2.25 mm
Pickle : 3 mm (3 teaspoons, random chunk distribution)
Butter : 1 mm (average spread thickness)
White Bread : 10mm

The optimum thickness of Parkham Mature Cheddar for your sarnie strata selection is 2.25 mm.   

As a hater of gnomes I read this article with some disbelief. It appears some people actually spend time stealing the things. The article is about a French man who was arrested in Brittany suspected of stealing over 170 gnomes. Apparently thefts of gnomes are becoming quite a problem along the French German border where people liberate the gnomes from German gardens and release them in France. The question still remains, why would you want to steal a gnome?

I read this article with amusement. Its about a small boy who on a holiday to Skegness spent his time trying to win a cuddly animal from the crane machines. After finding that the crane was rather ineffective at picking up the cuddly toys he crawled in through the hatch to claim his prize another way, and of course got stuck. I can sympathise here, as a child I wasted most of my pocket money trying to win cuddly toys from these things. I eventually did the sums and realised that based on the price to play the machine and the amount of goes it took to win a toy, I was better off just buying the toy and saving myself a bit of time and money.

A cane toad managed to survive despite being eaten by a dog. The dog ate the toad which can release a poison known to kill a dog within minutes. The dogs owner immediately called a vet who gave the dog an injection to induce vomiting. After 40 minutes the dog then vomited a live cane toad. Dog and toad are both doing well.

When a kitten became stuck in a drain it was rescued by firefighters using just a vacuum cleaner. They put a sock on the end of the nozzle and this little guy was soon freed from his hiding place.

A slightly odd topic for my blog but I came across this article about a porn star called Maxi Mounds ( obviously not her real name). She holds the world record for having the largest breast implants in the world and has a 36MMM bust. My first thought was where does she finds clothes that fit?

This article suggests that people are now so busy that they cannot find time to peel and orange. It looks at figures that show the consumption of oranges has fallen by 2% in the last twelve months. The figures from TNS are attributed to the fact that the average worker only has 15 minutes for lunch and so is choosing not to eat oranges because they take too long to peel. I'm not really sure how much true there is in this, personally I buy a lot of oranges but don't peel them, instead I like to juice them.

This is Tama the cat. She has been credited with turning around the fortunes of a loss making railway company in Japan. The Wakayama Electric Railway axed all its staff two years ago because it was making a loss. Last year Tama was appointed as station master and given her own office. Since then the company's fortunes have picked up and the number of passengers has increased by 10%. Despite the success Tama does not draw a salary, receiving cat food instead.

Now why doesn't that sound like a good idea? It is however a good way to increase sales, according to a Missouri car dealer. He ran a week long promotion where he gave away either a $250 gas card or $250 credit for a gun shop. As a result his sales soared and he managed to sell 30 trucks in just three days, much more than the usual volume. All the buyers except one elected to take advantage of the gun credit rather than the gas.

I know men are not usually very good at clearing out their cupboards but this story is really strange. If its true a homeless woman in Japan managed to live in man's closet for a whole year without being detected. When he noticed food disappearing he installed security cameras which transmitted images to his mobile phone. One of the cameras caught someone moving about inside his house so he called the police who investigated. Apparently, they found all the doors and windows locked but after a search of the property found a woman on the top shelf of the man's closet. She told police she had sneaked into the house a year ago because she has no where else to live.

A donkey has been jailed after it bit and kicked two men in southern Mexico. After the attack the donkey was taken to the local jail which normally holds people. It will remain there until its owner agrees to pay the medical bills of the people it attacked.

A government alcohol abuse expert has been banned from driving after being caught drink driving not once but twice. He was fined £1,500 for the two offences he committed in August and December 2006. It makes me wonder what hope there is for the rest of the population if the very experts put in place to make a difference break the laws themselves.

This is slightly odd, an artist who paints with his tongue. Ani K devised the technique last year and has so far completed 20 watercolours. However, painting in this way does give him severe headaches and body aches. He does say that he is growing immune to the effects of the paint, but it really can't be good for you ingesting paint. Still, its an interesting technique and if the effects of the paint should become too much, I suppose he can be happy in the knowledge that most artists work is worth more after they die.

This remarkable likeness of Jesus was found on a bottle of cider. Apparently Michael Cartwright and his friends were amazed when they looked at the foil wrapper of the bottle and saw this "clear" image of Jesus. The bottle itself was thrown away but they did manage to capture this picture of the face. I can't see it myself and I can't help wondering how many pints of cider they had consumed before making the "miraculous" discovery. Maybe I will have a few beers, then take second look, I might see the light.

This resourceful robin laid her eggs in a hard hat in an electrical firm's warehouse. Staff found the eggs when they were clearing out some old equipment and decided to leave it to see if any chicks would hatch. Four eggs hatched out of original six that were laid and the mother is now busy flying back and forth with offerings of worms for the babies. Unusually the robin also chose the only red hard hat out of a row of 14, the rest being white.

A luxury watch with a price tag of £150,000 has sold out within 48 hours of going on sale. That might not seem surprising but the watch is unusual because it doesn't tell the time. It has a crocodile skin strap and is made from steel salvaged from the wreck of the titanic encrusted with sapphires. The face is divided into two sections which signify day and night. It is described by the manufacturer as “world unique - a watch that does not tell the time” and the chief executive of the company says “Anyone can buy a watch that shows time, but only a discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.” Call me old fashioned I think I will stick with a cheaper watch that tell the time.

I came across this article the other day about a rather odd hobby called extreme ironing. Extreme ironing according to the website is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt" Examples of extreme ironing include ironing on the sea bed, ironing whilst bog snorkelling (left) and even David Blaine-style ironing. It all looks very exciting, you can check out some more examples in the gallery here.

This is what happened when a learner bus driver went under a low bridge. The top deck of the bus was ripped off and left in the road making it an open top bus. No one was injured in the accident but the road was sealed off for an hour whilst a recovery firm took the bus away.

Police in Texas were a little surprised when they came across this motorist with an alligator in the back of his car. The driver had found the alligator by the side of the road and decided to put it into his car. Reptile experts were called in to release the alligator into a wildlife reserve. The driver of the car was charged with illegal possession of an alligator.