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.

This is an interesting idea, a pair of pants that keep a check on the wearers blood pressure. The pants called "smart pants" contain sensors in the waistband that pick up information on how fast blood is flowing through the arteries, this can give vital clues about the condition of the artery walls and act as an early warning system to pick up any problems. They are still in the experimental stage but Phillips has recently applied for a patent for the idea so they might well be in the shops soon.

As of last weekend alcohol has been banned on the tube and its easy to see why when you see the scenes from the so called "tube alcohol party". The party was organised on Facebook so that people could enjoy the last night of being allowed to drink on the tube. During the party six tube stations has to be closed and services were seriously delayed. Predictably it ended with 17 people being arrested and four train drivers, three London Underground staff and two police officers being assaulted. All good reasons why the ban is a good idea.

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.

We always find that no matter how many times we clear out the shed it always becomes full again very quickly. I think I have finally found the answer this huge shed. It costs £13,000 and is available from Argos. The only problem is, its just a little bit too big for our garden.

I'm still playing with new Nikon D40 and in just a few weeks have already taken hundreds of pictures. Rather than bore people with the details, in future I will just post a selection of the better ones every week or so with a short caption. Starting with the picture on the left which I was quite pleased with.

Yellow Rose in My Garden

This is an interesting idea, its a ceiling that recreates the effect of a sunny day indoors. Called a SkyCeiling the ceiling creates the illusion that you are underneath a sunny sky and can be used to brighten up a room even it has no windows. It works by using high resolution photographs of the sky and overhanging trees which are suspended from the ceiling to create a 3 D effect. The photos are produced on transparent tiles and are lit from behind with high powered fluorescent lights. The system can be programmed to mimic the time of the day and different seasons. It is expected to be popular with offices and hospitals where it could be used to reduce stress and boost feelings of well being.

I often wonder why it takes so long to transfer money between bank accounts and why I can transfer it between two accounts with the same bank instantly but to transfer to an account with a different bank it takes a minimum of four days. Now it appears that there is a new system that will allow same day bank transfers. Customers will be able to make one off payments up to a maximum of of £10,000 that will leave their account and arrive at the destination on the same day. Among the banks that will be included in the scheme are Abbey, Alliance and Leicester, Barclays, Citi, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (National Australia Group), Co-operative Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank (Danske Bank), Northern Rock, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (including NatWest and Ulster Bank).