A study suggests that lifelong criminals could be genetically programmed to break the law. Carried out by the University of Texas and recently published in the Criminology journal the study suggests that crime can be in part genetic. Researchers looked at 3 groups of people, those who offend throughout their lives, those who only commit crimes in their teens and those who always obey the law. They focused on the persistent offenders and found that  whilst adolescent offenders were more influenced by their environment, the same was not true of those who became lifelong criminals. Ultimately the findings suggested that up to 70% of our chance of lifelong criminality could be genetic.

A rare white penguin has been pictured in Antarctica. The Chinstrap penguin was photographed by naturalist David Stephens during an expedition to the Aitcho Islands. The penguins normally have black and white plumage but this one suffers from leucism, a condition that occurs in around one in every 146,000 penguins. It is different from albinism which is a complete lack of skin pigment. Instead it has pigmented eyes and a paler version of the normal penguins colouring.

Burger King have been criticised for this tasty looking burger which contains 966 calories. The Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Double Angus burger is apparently the biggest and most fattening burger available on the high street and has twice as many calories as a Big Mac. Costing £5.29 it has a fat content of 58g, something which has been widely criticised according to the article. Personally the calories content doesn’t put me off, it’s not really the sort of thing you would eat every day more as an occasional convenience food.

These sheep in a New Zealand nature park are particularly striking because they have been dyed pink. The sheep were originally dyed in order to celebrate breast cancer awareness week but it proved to be such a hit with visitors that The park called SheepWorld has decided to leave them this colour. They have been coloured with a harmless food colouring which washes out in the rain. They do look rather good.

This unusual white blackbird has recently been pictured in a park in Nottinghamshire. The bird is leucistic, a genetic mutation which prevents pigments from being deposited normally in its feathers. Despite white birds being more vulnerable to predators it has been living in the the woodland of Rufford Abbey Country Park for the past four years and during that time has gradually shed any black plumage to become completely white.

Bottles of ale which were brewed to celebrate the coronation of Edward VIII have recently been found in a bricked up cellar. The ales were brewed to celebrate Edwards coronation but were never released for sale because he abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson. They were recently found in a bricked up cellar after workmen were called in to replace a floor at the Greene King brewery in Bury St Edmunds.

There is still time to register for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which is this weekend. All you need to do is register your details on the website at the following link. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/  Then just spend an hour recording the birds that visit your garden on either Saturday 28th or Sunday the 29th. When you have finished go back to the website and submit your results. The results help the RSPB to get an idea of the numbers of different bird species in each region so they can see how they are doing and spot any problems with decline.

This is interesting it’s a man who has developed a way of combining cleaning the house and exercising. Steve Markovich, from Crescent Springs, Kentucky combines resistance training methods with day to day housework. The workout includes vacuum cleaner lunges, window cleaning squats, sofa lifting and karate kicks with most of the workout being able to be completed indoors. He has now started producing videos showing others how to follow his workout plan and is due to publish a book called Aerobic House Cleaning. What a great idea.

At a time when religion appears to feature less in the lives of many people in the UK, it is interesting to note that there has been a rise in the number of Church of England weddings. Figures show that Church of England weddings were up by 4% in 2010 when compared with 2009, the biggest annual increase in 10 years. The church has put the rise down to its weddings project which asked the public what it wanted from a church wedding and briefed the clergy on the findings. The project also included the launch of yourchurchwedding.org which is designed to make planning your ceremony easier. According to the article most people cite tradition as the reason they would like to get married in a church.