I found a bottle of Fetzer Barrel Select Merlot 2005 in Tesco. I must admit I brought it because it was on offer at Tesco for £3.99 and I thought at that price it was worth a try. The bottle blurb boasts of a range of tastes including plums, vanilla, raspberries, cherries and chocolates. When I tried it the taste of plums was evident and it was a really fruity wine. It did however lack body, although to be honest at £3.99 I was not surprised. In all, it was a nice enough wine that went down fairly well, but about what I would expect from a £3.99 offering, ok, but not great. Not a wine I would buy again.

A new moon has been discovered orbiting Saturn. This means there are now 60 known moons orbiting the planet. It was spotted by cameras on the Cassini spacecraft. It has not yet been officially named but is currently nicknamed Frank.

A man in Ventura has been arrested for torturing a tortoise. He had tried to cut the endangered tortoise out of its shell before throwing it against a wall. The tortoise is recovering at the Turtle Dreams rehabilitation center. He is currently being fed though a tube in his neck but there are hopes he will make a full recovery.

Fishermen in Zanzibar have caught a creature called a Coelacanth. The fish has many fins and a three lobed tail and was thought to be extinct until one was caught in 1938. Since then two other Coelacanth have been caught by fishermen but its still not known how many of the fish still exist.

A Coelacanth.

A seagull in Aberdeen has developed a taste for cheese Doritos. The seagull has been nicknamed Sam. He walks into the newsagents when the door is open and steals the crisps but only seems to like the cheese flavoured Doritos. Once he is outside he rips the bag open and is joined by other birds that help him eat them.

Facebook can now claim to have created its first boy band. A group of four musicians met on Facebook after discovering they had similar interests. They later tracked down Daniel Glatman, former boss of the band Blue and asked him if he would become their manager. They have now signed a £1 million album deal with Universal. The group called Blake have already recorded their first album which includes classic tracks such as Moon River and Jerusalem.

An owl shaped maze has been created into a farmer’s field to mark the lance of the latest Harry Potter book. The maze is 600ft/ 193m long. Amazing.

Armed police called to a crime scene in Wuppertal in Germany were surprised to find a large stuffed toy. A woman had reported seeing a masked criminal through the window of a parked van. It turned out the suspect was actually a large toy beaver in the passenger seat of a car.

A man in West Sussex is celebrating after placing a £2 bet on a series of horse races and winning and amazing £427.000. He placed what is called a Scoop 6 bet with William Hill. He is now planning to move to Spain.

Firefighters taking part in a training exercise were meant to cut holes in the roof and walls of an empty house. Unfortunately they managed to cut holes in another house which was two blocks away from the empty one. The owner of the house is now claiming compensation for the damage.

Blogging dosh.com is a blog about making money by blogging. The blog is sponsored by Dosh Talk. The first article I looked at was about making money from selling invites, not really an avenue I have considered so far and to be honest I would probably just give them away rather than try selling them. Still, it’s interesting that some people are cashing on this idea.

Another article that I found interesting was regarding people who remove comments from their blogs. For me comments are always appreciated and let me know firstly that people actually read my blog rather but more importantly that they found a particular subject of interest. As this article says comments are a vital part of blogging.

Another really useful article is a review on websites where you can Make Money Blogging. It talks about the main sites including PayPerPost, ReviewMe and Blogvertise as well as some lesser know paid review sites. I have already come across most of these paid blogging sites but this is certainly a useful overview for anyone who is looking to make money from their blog.

Not only does this blog have useful articles about making money it also has interesting stuff about optimising your blog. Simple things such as including simple to use navigation might not seem like rocket science but making things easy to find for your readers is obviously important. Other tips include how to create a brand for your blog, in other words creating a professional design, using consistent colours, designing a logo and making sure that any advertising you use fits with the style of your blog. Its all really useful stuff and as I am new to blogging I have a feeling I will be visiting this blog on a regular basis for some more useful tips.

A father and son have unearthed a hoard of Viking treasure. It contained 617 silver coins and 65 other objects including a gold arm ring and a silver vessel. It’s thought to be worth around £750,000. The proceeds of the find will be split between the finders and the landowners.

I read this interesting article about how Britain became an island. The evidence shows that Britain was split from France hundreds of thousand years ago by a huge flood. The evidence is based upon high resolution sonar images of the English Channel that show a deep scar in the limestone rock caused by a huge torrent of water. Its an interesting read and makes me wonder hoe different Britain would be today if it were still joined to France

A tractor and trailer carrying blocks of cheese caught light in West Sacramento. The result was that hundreds of pounds of cheese erupted in flames causing a huge fondue effect.

I read this really interesting article about how London is slowly sinking. A combination of subsidence and rising water levels mean that every year London is around 3mm lower. This is according to the Environment Agency who has been monitoring the situation. With these findings they hope to be able to adapt London’s current flood defences to make use of a better natural floodplain as well as get a clear timeline of how much time they have to carry out existing improvements before the situation gets too critical.

Last time we moved we did it ourselves hiring a van which my Dad drove. Since then we have gained a lot more stuff and next time we move we will certainly be using a moving company.  I found this useful directory of moving companies. You can search by area and by the type of service you need. They also include services for moving internationally as well as storage rentals.

I came across these great Simpsons quotes. Among some of the good ones are “Your questions have become more redundant and annoying than the last three “Highlander movies” from Comic Book Guy and “I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman” from Homer.

I have been caught out in the past when my account has gone overdrawn by a few pounds and the bank has charged a lot of fees on the top increasing the debt dramatically. This article, however, highlights what I hope is an extreme case of unfair charges. The article talks about an HSBC account that went £5.60 overdrawn. In the first month £184 of charges were added to the account. In subsequent months amounts of £152 and £176 were also added, making the total debt more than £500. The bank said it wrote to the customer informing them of the problem but no letters were received until nearly four months later when the debt had mounted up. In this instance the bank did apologize although the article does not state whether the customer still had to pay the charges. It makes me wonder how many other people have been caught out by this tactic.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you have the luck to get a bank error in your favour. It’s usually the kind of event that we only see on a chance card when playing Monopoly. Obviously in the game you are allowed to spend it but in real life you know you should really give it back. One lady finding £135,000 in her bank account decided to take a chance (literally) and spend the cash. She managed to work her way through £33,000 of the money before being arrested for theft. She will also have to pay back the money.

Retailers are now starting to offer free laptops as incentives to customers who sign two year broadband contracts. PC World was the first to introduce the offer, giving free laptops to people who signed up for a two year contract with Orange broadband. Now the Carphone Warehouse has introduced a deal to give a Dell laptop to each customer who signs up with AOL Broadband and signs a contract for 24 months.

Australia’s worst drought in around a hundred years is forcing kangaroos into its cities. The droughts mean that food is scarce and kangaroos have to compete with sheep and cattle for food water and water. This forces them into the city to look for food.

I read this article about the alcohol content of wines. It’s interesting that most wines used to be around 12% per bottle and nowadays most bottles that you see are around 14 or 15%. More alcohol does not necessarily mean a nicer wine and I find that some wines are spoilt by the fact they are simply so strong. Like the author of this article I would much rather have a nice bottle of wine rather than have one glass and start to feel tired because it is so strong. Luckily some supermarkets are now starting to stock some wine with lower alcohol content. The article suggests some to try including a Moscato from Brown Brothers.

It always seems to be the cute cuddly creatures that get most of the press when it comes to conservation. Other animals are overlooked because they are not so attractive. When it comes to sharks they have a really bad press, everyone remembers Jaws and most people will probably admit to finding them rather frightening. Maybe that’s why there doesn’t seem to be much effort to try and save these creatures from extinction. A recent report by a conservation group suggests that sharks could well become extinct within a generation if the practice of eating shark fin soup is not stopped. The soup is popular as a luxury item in China and is often eaten at wedding, mainly because its expensive, you need a lot of sharks to make the soup and they are few and far between. The Chinese currently account for around 90% of the world’s consumption of shark fins. The current demand for shark fin soup continues to rise and as the demand cannot be sustained by the population of wild sharks, the future looks bleak for the shark.

This is another one of those stories that makes me sick. This poor kitten was set alight by two teenage girls. The cat was in a cage at the time so had no way of getting away when the two girls poured flammable liquid on him and set to light to it. The skin on his back was burnt off leaving raw tissue and he has had his tail and ear tips amputated because they were so badly damaged. How someone can be this cruel to an animal is beyond me.

A pair of Montagu’s harriers nesting in Lincolnshire has successfully hatched three chicks. There are currently only around 10 to 14 pairs of these rare birds nesting in the UK so this could be good news for the species.

A couple in Vancouver are currently living with 80 bats which have built a nest inside the walls of their condo. Despite the fact that they risk exposure to rabies a court has ruled the bats cannot be evicted for another three weeks. Under the current legislation the bats are protected during the breeding season, so until it is over they are allowed to stay. The human residents of the condo are looking forward to the day when their unwelcome guests can be re-homed.

A bomb threat in Pittsburgh turned out to be someone’s lunch. The threat was taken seriously and sniffer dogs were sent in, only to find a salad in a brown paper bag. The suspicious package had been left in a women’s bathroom under a sink. The moral of this story, be careful where you store your lunch.

Police in South Korea are hunting a rouge monkey after the creature stole a pair of glasses. The monkey apparently broke into a tourist’s hotel room and nicked his reading glasses. Police have a good description of the monkey but are not sure what they will do if they find it, as there are currently no laws under which a wild monkey can be charged. The tourist should be able to claim the cost of his glasses on hi travel insurance.

A boy who brought a Playstation 2 on Ebay was surprised when he received a parcel containing 65,400 Euros, that’s about £44,000. The boy parents contacted the police who are now trying to find out who owns the money. If no one claims it the boy’s family may be able to apply to have it returned to them. Now that I think about I remember posting a large sum of money to Norfolk last week, I wonder if they will believe me.

Police arrested a kennel on legs as they saw it leaving a pet store. The kennel was leaving a Pets at Home store when police spotted it and pulled it over thinking it was slightly odd. It turned out the kennel contained a man who was stealing a kennel. What a master of disguise!

GimmeTheScoop is a Blog on a number of subjects including health, business, finance and news. It is written by Gaurav Bhola and the idea is that it is a webblog open to the public to try and provoke intelligent debate on a number of subjects.  Among the posts in the finance section is a particularly interesting article about the rise in mortgage rates and how it is affecting the current market.

A man who went to the doctor with what he thought was shingles found out he actually had creatures living in his head. He had picked up an infection whilst in Belize and it turned out the creatures were bot fly lava. The bugs were successfully removed.

A man at a gas station in Wawa got a shock when he stopped at the pump to fill up and a snake crawled out of the engine compartment of his car. The snake was a boa constrictor which had crawled into the engine for warmth. The snake which measures 5 feet in length was later caught by police but was not charged with an offence.

Parts of China have been invaded by plagues of rats caused by heavy rainfall. The unusually high rainfall has caused around two billion rats to leave their flooded holes and move into the surrounding farmland where they have caused havoc eating crops. Villagers at first tried to poison them but eventually some people came up with a better idea. They have been catching the rats and selling them on to restaurants. The rats are the used to make rat stew which is a traditional delicacy.

I read this interesting article about a group of giant apes that been discovered in the Congolese jungle. The chimps are much larger than normal and due to their remote location are not afraid of people. They also exhibit different behaviour from most chimps building large nests on the ground rather than sleeping in the trees to avoid predators, as is more common. Local hunters claim that the large apes have also been known to kill and eat lions, although so far there is no evidence to support this claim other than the fact that one chimp was found eating a leopard. Once again it reminds me of those pub arguments, who will win chimp or lion? .... but what if its a giant lion eating chimp?

Further to my last post about the rubber duck army about to hit Britain, the first ducks have now arrived. A retired teacher claims to found the first duck in Devon as she was walking her dog on the beach. There is a $100 finder’s fee for any recovered ducks.

Cheese prices are set to rise dramatically due to a combination of freak weather and the demand for milk. The price of wholesale cheddar has increased in Britain by £350 a ton in the last three months, meaning consumers will start seeing the cost of cheese rise. The rise in prices will not also affect cheese prices; the price of pizza is also likely to rise as cheese makes up around 40% of the cost of producing a pizza. Bad news for cheese lovers everywhere.

Some people will nick anything. A bouncy castle was stolen from a Shropshire pub’s beer garden. The bouncy castle measured 12ft high and was described as green and white with pillars shaped like red and white toadstools.

A sighting of the Loch Ness monster in Wales turned out to be a float built for a festival. The “monster” was actually a raft with a head at one end and a tail at the other. Coastguards were amused by the findings.

A rugby player played for for months with another players tooth buried in his head. It was only when the wound became infected that the tooth was discovered and removed. The tooth had become stuck in his head after a clash of heads at an earlier match, in which the rightful owner broke his jaw.

This giant rubber duck is part of an exhibition of contemporary art taking place in France on the Loire River. The duck measures 26 metres high and 20 metres wide and is made of PVC.

Sainsbury’s are one of the latest large retailers to stop taking cheques. From the 1st of August you will now longer be able to pay by cheque in 800 Sainsbury’s stores. Sainsbury’s say too few people are now using cheques and that they take too long to process. I always find it's useful to have a cheque book handy as a backup, I guess I will have to carry more cash in future.

I was looking into a detox program and thought about juice fasting. Looking around for more information on it I came across this website that contains lots of useful tips. The site talks about both the good and bad points of Juice Fasting. The benefits include the fact that it can help expel toxins in your body but it can also have side effects. Looking at the website I don’t know that juice fasting is really for me, but I found the information here really useful.

A species that was thought to be extinct has now been found to be alive. The creature is called David Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna. The creature was feared to be extinct until a local tribesman said he had recently caught and eaten one. Scientists investigating the claim found recent burrows which suggested the creature is still very much alive. More trips to the area have now been planned in the hope they will be able to catch the creatures on camera.

With the recent rises in mortgage rates it’s getting harder to find the money to buy a home especially for first time buyers. I remember when we purchased our house four years ago we struggled to find the money for our deposit and the fees and had to borrow from family, just to get on the property ladder. We have always made sure we choose a fixed rate on our mortgages, mainly because we would find it difficult to cope with any rise in interest rates and would struggle with increased payments. However if you do have problems there are people that can help you with bad credit remortgages and debt consolidation. We are now trying to find the money to purchase our second home and finding it equally difficult to find the money for fees. We have worked out that to buy a new house and sell ours will cost around £10,000 just in Stamp Duty, Land Registry fees and solicitor’s fees and thats before we start paying the mortgage.

A pet macaw that flew away a week ago turned up a surprising 80 miles away from home. The macaw was spotted by a passing motorist and police later captured the bird and reunited it with its owner.

Parts of London are to get free Wi-Fi as part of a new scheme. The scheme will cover most of London from Millbank in central London to Greenwich. To use the service for free users will need to agree to view a paid advert every 15 minutes whilst they are using it. If they don't want to view the adverts then the service will charged an an hourly rate.

If you are looking for something a bit different you might want to try some Handmade Jewelry at Night Fox Jewelry. They have a wide range of necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. The fact that each piece is hand made means that you can be sure you will have a special custom made piece. I was looking for a necklace for a wedding I am going to soon and found an amethyst and carnelian necklace which should match my purple dress perfectly.

I just opened a bottle of L'Oc de la Bouysse, a wine that featured in The Times Top 100 Summer Wines of 2006. At only £4.99 a bottle, this blend of Grenache, Noir, Syrah, Mouvedre and Merlot grapes is a full bodied wine with a nice fruity flavour.

Shops could soon charge customers 10p for each carrier bag they use. A new scheme is likely to be tested in London before possibly being introduced throughout the rest of Britain. The proposals are aimed at reducing plastic waste produced by supermarkets. Personally I would not mind paying for bags when doing a shop. I do already reuse all of my bags, taking my own with me on most shopping trips and I wonder if more people would start to do this if they have to pay for a bag.