Regular readers will know that I like wine so I am always quick to highlight articles about the benefits of drinking it. This article, however, says just the opposite. It is based upon a study from the National Cancer Institute in Paris which found that as little as one unit of alcohol, the equivalent of half a glass of wine can increase the risk of colon cancer by nine per cent and the risk of mouth or throat cancer by 168 per cent. The report also found that when more alcohol was drunk the risk was greater. The findings appear to dispute previous claims that small amounts of alcohol could be good for heart health. I seem to read conflicting reports every few weeks so its hard to know what to believe, but I think I like wine a bit too much to be giving it up.

It appears that one company at least is yet to feel the effects of the recession. Whilst many other businesses are struggling business is booming at Domino's Pizza. Profits for the last 12 months were up 25% to £23 million with like for like sales rising by 10%. There were also 52 new store openings last year. The company appears to benefiting not only from the fact that people are choosing to eat in rather than go out but also from the recent bad weather which has kept many people at home.

This is a good example of a rather bad thief who robbed a petrol station but was then quickly caught after he ran out of petrol. The man had robbed a petrol station in Florida, threatening the clerk with a knife. He then fled with the money but unfortunately for him he ran out of petrol not far from the scene of the crime. He was arrested only a few hours later after he abandoned the car. A perfect example of how not to commit a crime.

This is interesting its some artwork from Yuken Teruya who turns everyday objects such as pizza boxes, toilet rolls and bags into art. This is one of the projects featured on the website. Its called Corner Forest and includes lots of individual toilet rolls which are hung to create a forest.

We usually go out on Valentines Day but this year we decided we would stay in and cook at home. I received a gift of flowers and chocolates from my husband in the morning and then we went out to source ingredients. We ended up going for a menu of seared scallops with a tomato salsa, fillet steak with rocket salad and banoffe pie accompanied by a bottle of Bollinger. It was all cooked to perfection and was very tasty and when I consider that to purchase food of this quality in a restaurant would probably have cost double what it cost us to cook at home I think we did quite well. That's not to say we won't be going out for a meal but we will go next weekend when we won't be paying over inflated Valentines Day prices.

I read this article with some disbelief, its about a women who had booked a holiday to Costa Rica. Unfortunately for her, the travel agent had made a mistake on the ticket entering the wrong airport code on the ticket and she ended up in Puerto Rico. Instead of entering SJO the code for Juan Santa Maria in San Jose the travel agent had used SJU, the code for San Juan in Puerto Rico. Not realising the mistake she boarded the plane and it was only when she got into a taxi to go to her hotel that she was told "This is not Costa Rica. It's Puerto Rico". What I can't believe is that she managed to get all the way there without noticing she was flying to the wrong destination. The departure boards do show the destination of the flight, so I'm assuming she missed this small but all important detail. Failing that, did she not get a little suspicious when the captain said "welcome aboard this flight to Puerto Rico". Whilst the travel agent has obviously made a mistake here, I think you would expect some degree of common sense on the part of the customer.

This article suggests that despite a Government pledge to crack down on developers who build new homes on flood plains, the number of new homes built on flood risk areas is increasing. The article points out that local planners gave the go ahead for 16 new developments in danger areas in 2007/2008. In each of these case although the Environment Agency raised objections, these were ignored and many were approved after the floods in the summer of 2007 when thousands of families lost their homes and possessions. There are now around two million homes built on flood plains in the UK and the insurance industry will no longer cover people who move into new homes in at risk areas unless the builders have installed flood defences.

It just seems ludicrous to me that despite the bad floods of the past couple of years developers are still choosing to build on areas that are at risk of flooding. The flood plains are called that for a reason, they are there primarily to take the excess water when an area floods. In fact two definitions of the term are "All land adjacent to a watercourse over which water flows in times of flood or would flow but for the presence of flood defences where they exist" and "The area around a body of water which may at times be under water and may at other times be dry land, depending on the level of the water in the lake, river, pond, etc." It seems to be me that if they developers insist on building on flood plains they need to stop building conventional houses and look at other solutions. Something like this Eco-home might work. It is built on stilts so that the water simply flows underneath the house. It also has no foundations that will be swept away by flood waters. Another interesting idea are these floating houses made by Dutch company Waterstudio. One thing is for sure building conventional style houses in an area which will flood is a dumb idea and developers should be looking at the long term implications.

I came across this picture of a heart shaped island in Croatia today. The unusual shape was of the island called Galesnjak was highlighted on Google Earth and it has since become known as Lovers Island. The owner has now started receiving lots of requests from people who want to spend a romantic break there.

This article suggests that more people are ignoring level crossings. This doesn't surprise me because recently there seems to have been lots of news reports about people being killed or injured on level crossings. The article shows a video of a car driving through a level crossing moments before the train comes through and also talks about an incident where a man's show was clipped by a passing train. All of the reports have one thing in common people who can't be bothered to wait for the barriers to go up and decide to ignore them. I live in an area where I have to cross a level crossing every time I want to go into town and whilst it is really annoying and I spend much of my time waiting there it's just dumb to jump over the barriers, they are there for a reason. As one reader commented "It's called natural selection".

This is the world's fastest production electric motorbike. It is produced by a Californian company Mission Motors and is considerably quicker than other models already on the market. It can reach a top speed of 150mph and can run for around 150 miles before it needs charging. It is likely to go on sale for $68,995 (£47,100) with a cheaper model being announced in the summer.

This cow was unfortunate enough to be struck by lightening. Surprisingly she survived although has some nasty burns. It is apparently very rare for a cow to be struck by lightening and most die so it appears this is one very lucky cow.