I came across this article about these adorable little panthers. They have been born in a zoo in the Tierpark Zoo in Berlin on the 26th of April and seem to be creating something of a sensation. They are certainly very cute.

A fisherman had a surprise when he caught a live missile in the Gulf of Mexico. The missile was caught 50 miles off the coast of Panama City in an area that the US Air Force and Navy use for weapons training. Bearing this is mind, it might not be as surprising as it first seemed. What is surprising, however, is that the fisherman kept the missile aboard his boat for ten days before returning to port. Once this boat docked the bomb squad was called in to dismantle it. They described it as being in a live and unstable state.

According to this article wine sales in Britain have fallen for the first time in ten years. Figures show that the average British household does still drink more than a bottle of wine a week, however, it appears that people are cutting back. 1.16 billion litres of wine were sold in Britain in 2008, a two per cent fall on the previous year and the first time there has been an annual fall since 1995. One factor that might be behind the fall is the increase in wine duty last year which means a duty of £1.61 on a standard bottle. It might also be that people are spending their money more wisely in the current economic climate. What do you think? Are you buying less wine?

This is interesting, its what has been dubbed the anti stab knife. The knife is designed so that it works as normal in the kitchen but it has a rounded tip which makes it harder to stab someone. The rounded edge will snag on clothing or skin and should make it almost impossible to use it to stab someone to death as well as cutting down the risk of accidental injuries. It has been invented by industrial designer John Cornock and is likely to cost between £40 and £50 when it goes on sale. 

An Israeli woman has been frantically trying to recover an old mattress she has thrown out after finding it contains $1 million in savings. She has brought a new mattress for her mother as a surprise and taken the old one to the local dump. It was only when her mother returned home and told her the mattress contained her life savings that she learnt about the money. She has searched three landfill sites since for the mattress which had been taken away along with another 3,000 tonnes of rubbish. So far she has been unable to find it.

A dog called Toby has survived despite swallowing 12 fishing hooks. The dog ate the hooks which were loaded with bait whilst his owner was out. He was later rushed to the vet and the x-ray pictured left clearly shows the hooks which had passed through into his stomach. Toby was kept at the vet until the hooks passed safely though his system and appears to have felt no long lasting effects.

Pret a Manger has taken the decision to switch to a sustainable type of tuna after the founder watched a documentary about intensive fishing methods. They will start using skipjack tuna later this year which is more common than the yellowfin and bluefin tuna that they currently use. As well as being more common skipjack tuna is caught using smaller fishing boats using a pole and line approach rather than an intensive fishing method which often leads to other sea creatures being caught in the nets. Although the pole and line technique is more labour intensive and therefore most expensive Pret have promised that the increased cost will not be passed onto the customer. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have also stopped selling bluefin tuna, swordfish and skate and Tesco does not sell bluefin tuna.

Sony have released two new phones that are made from recycled plastic. The phone are made from old CD cases and water bottles and have been launched as an eco friendly option for customers. The GreenHeart C901 and Naite both feature a camera, video streaming, bluetooth and WAP and work as a conventional phone would. The only difference is that the casing is made from 50 per cent recycled plastic. Both phones also include a low power charger and an in phone e-manual which reduces paper usage by 90 per cent. They also include an application that allows you to work out how much greenhouse gas emissions you can save by choosing to walk somewhere rather than using your car.

According to this article online fraud is at its highest ever level with seven out of ten internet users regularly seeing so called e-scams in their inboxes over the last twelve months. Around 80 per cent of users have received fake banking emails or fake online shopping emails. 70 per cent have been targeted by fake requests for money and 67 per cent have been told they have won a competition only to find out it is a scam. Personally I get so many of all of these types of emails that I automatically assume they are all fraudulent. If I ever did receive a genuine email from my bank or informing me I had won something it would be deleted along with the rest.

One man got an added extra with his loaf of bread when he found a dead mouse embedded in the bottom of the loaf. He had purchased the loaf from a supermarket in Ballymoney and found the mouse when he unwrapped the bread. The company who made the loaf have since been fined £1,000 for putting unsafe goods on the market.

Robots can do many useful things, now it appears that there is one that can cook pancakes. The robot which has been invented in Japan stirs the ingredients before pouring the batter onto a heated cooking pan and then flipping them using its spatulas before serving. Very useful but what I am waiting for is a house cleaning robot.

Like most people our mortgage is by far our biggest outgoing with most of our income going towards it before we have paid any other bills. Bearing this is mind we are always looking of ways to reduce the loan and try to overpay when we have any spare money. We do find, however, that we are able to do this very rarely as most months expenses come up that we are not expecting. I found this article interesting because it suggests that if you save just £2.50 a day then you could save £13,500 from the cost of your mortgage over the life of the loan. It seems like such small amount that you wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference. Most people can probably afford to save what amounts to slightly less than £80 a month but like me don’t consider it will make a great deal of difference, I guess it does all add up, perhaps I should start putting this small amount aside every month.

This in interesting, its a plant that has the ability to water itself. The desert rhubarb which is found in Israel has specially developed leaves that collect water and then channel it down to the plants roots. This means that the plant can collect 16 times more water than other plants in the same region with a typical plant collecting about 4.2 litres of water a year and a large plant collecting as much as 43.8 litres. That's not bad especially when you consider that only 75mm of rain falls in the region each year.

This is an interesting idea, its a mini microwave from Heinz that is designed to be used at your desk. The microwave can be charged from your laptop and is large enough to heat a small pot of food or a mug or soup. It has been made for Heinz snap pots and is just 7.4 inches tall by 6.2 inches wide. At around £100 its not cheap but I can see that it would be quite a useful gadget to have at work.

This article suggests that many people now consider broadband to be an essential service and that many regard it as important as electricity or water. The findings are based on information collected from 16 focus groups and surveys of 2,000 people across the UK. Based on this a report will recommend that the government provides universal broadband at a speed of 2Mbps by 2012 so that everyone has access to it. Personally my broadband is an essential service as I would be unable to carry out my day to day work without it but I can see that electricity and water are more important. What do you think, can you manage without your broadband?