If you have a bit of spare cash then you might be interested in this diamond encrusted saucepan. It has gone on sale at Moscow’s Millionaire Fair for £130,000. The saucepan is encrusted with 270 diamonds and covered in 750 carat gold. Despite the hefty price tag the salesman has admitted that is not an item that you would want to put onto the hob so it seems it is not fit for purpose.

This is an interesting idea, its an airbag that has been designed for cyclists. The device which is called the Hwding helmet has been designed by two Swedish industrial design students. It is worn as a collar around the neck but upon impact takes only 0.1 seconds to inflate covering the skull and neck. It is likely to go on sale in the UK next year and will cost in the region of £260.

That’s according to research that has been carried out by The University of Oxford. The research indicates that not only would the measure prevent 45,000 early deaths but would also save the NHS £1.2 billion each year. The study focussed on the fact that processed products such as cheap burgers and sausages are particularly bad for peoples health because of the high levels of salt and fat they contain.

Based on the fact that the average Briton eats one large beef steak, two portions of chicken breast, two pork chops and milk and cheese every day researchers worked out that lower meat diets could cut deaths from heart disease by around 31,000, deaths from cancer by 9,000 and deaths from strokes by 5,000 each year.

I remain unconvinced, I can see how a diet high in processed meats is bad for you but personally I make all my meals fresh and eat very little red meat mainly because it is so expensive. Perhaps I am not the typical Briton. One thing I couldn’t go without, however, is cheese.

If this article is correct the EU could be set to back the sale of meat and milk from the offspring of cloned farm animals. The report from the EU’s College of Commissioners reportedly favours producing food from the offspring of cloned animals. It would propose a five year ban on the sale of food product from clones but would allow food products from their offspring. This would allow European farms to used cloned animals as breeding stock for animals which will be reared as food. Food products from these animals would not be required to be labelled as such because the offspring of a cloned animal is viewed as a normal animal. As yet it is not know whether there are any long term health effects from eating food from these animals.

According to this article otters have increased ten fold within the last thirty years and are now found in more than 1,500 rivers. The creatures have been brought back from the brink of extinction caused by poor river quality and hunting. During the 1970s the animals were only found in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the far South West of England but they are now present almost everywhere except Kent. The return has been put down to a ban on organo-chlorine pesticides in the 1970s and the fact that otters were made a protected species.

This poor little guy had to rescued when he got his head stuck inside a watering can. It is thought the fox was stuck for around two days after he poked his head inside to get at a frog or a mouse. It took two RSPCA officers to pull the can off the foxes head. Once he had been checked for injuries the fox was released back into the wild.

According to this article red sprouts will go on sale in Asda this December. The red variety is supposed to be much sweeter and milder than the traditional green variety and can be served raw in salads or steamed. They are grown in Cambridgeshire and will be on sale in selected Asda stores during December if you want to try them. 

According to this article if you want to attract bumblebees to your garden you should be growing more stripy flowers. Research has shown that bees are more attracted to stripy flowers because the veins direct them to the centre of the flower somewhat like a landing platform. It seems they are also rather partial to red flowers preferring these to other colours. As bees are so important for pollinating my fruit and vegetables I will have to bear this is mind and plant a border of something stripy next year.