I am frequently frustrated when I come across people who fail to understand the difference between loose and lose so found this article particularly interesting. Its worth reading the whole article but amongst other things it points out:
“A bet you're unlikely to win is a losing proposition. If you're playing Scrabble and your opponent is winning, that means you're losing. You're not loosing. No matter how lopsided the score, you can take comfort from the fact that you're never, ever loosing a game--unless the board is stuck in a tree branch after a tornado and you're knocking it loose.”

Personally I can’t understand how people manage to confuse two words with completely different meanings, it only take a moment to read the sentence and its easy to see the correct word to use in each case. I do, however, take comfort in the fact that there are other people out there who find this just as irritating as I do.

According to this article the Nintendo Wii has now become the fastest selling games console in history surpassing even the Playstation 2. Since the launch of the Wii in 2006 Nintendo have sold more than 50 million consoles. The Wii seems to be doing well because it appeals to families and casual users who perhaps are not your average Playstation or Xbox gamers and if this article is to believed figures suggest that 20 per cent of Wii owners in the US have no other games console in their home. I find this quite interesting, I own a Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and like all the consoles for different reasons. I do, however, play the Wii considerably less than the other two, it seems to only be used when we have friends around and want something that does require conventional gaming controls. I prefer my Playstation 3 for my SingStar games and for Tombraider and my Xbox 360 is used for more serious games such as Gears of War and Splinter Cell.

This is interesting its some pictures that have been taken by artist Alan Sailer of everyday objects being hit by pellets. He used an air rifle, a camera and a home made flash to create the shots which are quite amazing. He took them by using a laser to trigger the Nikon D40’s shutter and used a special flash to film the action in slow motion. To pinpoint the exact moment to take the perfect shot must have taken ages which makes the results all the more spectacular. Some of the picture are shown below.

 
Strawberry

 
Glass ball filled with water

 
Nut

 
Crayons

 
Christmas Decoration

 
Paintball

 
Tomato

This is interesting its a TV that turns itself off when no one is watching it. The new Sony Bravia WE5 Eco TV includes something called a smart presence sensor that will turn the TV off if it no longer detects any movement in the room. The TV detects the movement and body heat of anyone sitting within range of the screen. If the viewer falls asleep or leaves the room the sensor can detect this and switched the picture mode off reducing the power consumption. The set then remains idle for 30 minutes before switching itself off completely. It’s an interesting idea, but I wonder how well it copes with people who sit still for long periods of time and also how it deals with pets moving about the house.

According to this article this monstrosity is the world’s biggest burger. The tasty looking snack, if you can call it a snack contains 4,800 calories which is twice the daily recommended limit for a man. It also contains 300 grams of fat, 744 milligrams of cholesterol and 10,000 milligrams of salt. The burger has been created by caterers at an West Michigan Whitecaps’s ball park. It contains five beef patties, five slices of cheese, sour cream, a cup of chilli salsa and corn chips. It costs $20 and if you manage to finish it in one sitting you get a free t-shirt, in an extra large size, I’m guessing.

This is Ziggy the Pekingese with a difference. Ziggy unlike other dogs can paint. He does this by using a paper towel roll attached to a paintbrush which he grabs in his teeth to create his masterpieces. Not surprisingly Ziggy favours abstract art such as the pieces pictured to the left. There does however, appear to be a demand for Ziggy’s work with his paintings selling at auction for around $250. Now I wonder if I can teach my cats to paint.

I have come across a lot of stories about how peoples blind reliance on their sat nav systems has led them into danger. This latest article highlights the case of a man who drove down a narrow footpath in Todmorden after his sat nav device told him it was a road. He only stopped when his car hit a fence and his BMW ended up perched on the side of a hill. The driver of the car has now been charged with driving without due care and attention. This once again shows that sat nav devices only really work if the person driving the car takes account of their surroundings rather than blindly following the instructions. Personally I hate using our sat nav device because it has taken me around some very scenic routes, I always plot my route on a map before setting out, my husband on the other hand swears by the sat nav.

This is cool its the Terrafugia Transition a car that flies. The car works like a conventional car but has the added bonus of being able to fly with the help of some fold away wings. It runs on unleaded petrol and can fly 400 miles on a single tank of gas. It does look a little odd and at £139,000 its certainly not cheap but I think there are times we have all wished we had a flying car.

This article suggests that low energy light bulbs can cause rashes and swelling in some people with sensitive skin. The warning comes as many large supermarkets have started phasing out traditional light bulbs in favour of the energy saving variety. Currently people do still have the choice of whether to buy traditional or energy saving bulbs, however from September 2012 traditional light bulbs will be banned and only the energy saving bulbs or halogen bulbs will be available. Medical charities say that low energy light bulbs trigger migraines, epilepsy and rashes and in some cases lupus, a disease of the immune system which causes skin to become hypersensitive to sunlight. Based on this some doctors are now calling on the government to give medical exemptions for those affected when the ban comes into place. In my opinion if there is evidence that low energy light bulbs can affect people in this way, then the traditional alternative needs to remain on sale as an alternative although personally I do buy energy saving bulbs and don’t find that they affect me.

This is an interesting idea, its a pizza vending machine. The machine called Let’s Pizza has been invented by Claudio Torghele and has recently been launched in Italy. It can make a pizza from scratch in just three minutes whipping the flour into dough, squashing in into a disc and adding the topping before cooking it and serving it in a cardboard box. The machine includes clear plastic windows so that customers can watch the ingredients being mixed and cooked. It costs 3.50 Euros, approx £3.30 for a pizza which is about half what you would expect to pay in a restaurant. The inventor hopes that in the current difficult economic times his three minute pizzas will grab a share of the takeaway market. However, traditional Italian pizza makers are far from impressed with the head of the Association of Italian Pizzerias saying "Pizza that comes out of an automatic machine has nothing to do with Italian pizza."

This cute little guy is the Spud the spineless hedgehog. He is being cared for at St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital after he was found in someone’s garden. What makes Spud unusual is that he doesn’t have any spines at all. Other than that he behaves like a perfectly normal hedgehog. Due to his lack of spines he cannot be released into the wild because he would get too cold in the winter so he has a permanent home at the hospital. The cause of his condition continues to be a mystery and staff at the hospital are appealing for people to come forward with ideas about what might have caused the problem and offer potential solutions.

It seems that adding gadgets to body parts is the thing to do at the moment. Last week we had the man with the USB drive in his prosthetic finger and now this story about a man who has put a video camera into his prosthetic eye. Ro Spence is a film maker who intends to use the device to make a documentary highlighting the issues of privacy and the surveillance of society. He lost his right eye in a childhood accident and has recently spent time adapting a mini video camera to fit inside his prosthetic eye. The camera will be able to record everything that his other eye sees and looks just like a real eyeball so people will be unaware that they are being filmed.

This is interesting its a plaster that alerts you when you have been in the sun too long. The plaster has been created by scientists in Scotland and is sensitive to ultraviolet light. It works by changing colour when the wearer is at risk of sun burn. The plaster costs 10p and will be available either as a wristband or a sticky plaster. It will also be able to detect ultraviolet rays when it is worn under a swimming costume. It is thought that the device will radically cut the chances of developing skin cancer caused by prolonged overexposure to the sun because it can take between four and eight hours for sunburn to show on the skin by which time damage has been done. The plaster should help warn people before this happens. People do need to be aware that they need to cover up when in the sun and put on a sunscreen that provides adequate protection, the plaster might alert you that you have been in the sun too long but it is better to be aware of the risk first.

This picture shows what happened to one poor pigeon when he bit off a little more than he could chew. The pigeon must have at first considered himself to be very lucky when he found a whole bagel, however, it wasn't long before things when a little wrong and he ended up the bagel around his neck. As the pictures show the unfortunate pigeon was still able to fly but sadly unable to reach the bagel in order to eat it. The pigeon is now likely to be stuck with bagel around his neck until it becomes wet and falls off, he might have a rather long wait for that meal.

Some stories that I come across take the biscuit, this one takes the whole tin. It’s about a family of four who say they are unable to work because they are too fat. What’s more they believe that the £22,000 they currently receive in benefits is not enough to live on. The family say "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more.” They were also quoted as saying "We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner" and "All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight." Am I the only one who thinks perhaps the money barely covers the bills because they simply eat too much? Does it take a genius to figure out they might be overweight simply because they live on microwave pies and bacon butties? Equally the argument regarding fresh food is flawed, food is currently expensive but I have certainly learnt to economise whilst still eating a healthy diet.

This story is wrong on so many levels, the family obviously lack a basic understanding of why they are fat, that said I have nothing against people who are overweight. What I do have a problem with is people like this family that blame the problem on factors they believe are out of their control such as their genes, rather than going on a diet and following an exercise regime. In addition to this I find it difficult to believe that you would be unable to sit at a desk and work no matter how fat you happen to be. The fact that this family are responsible for their situation, expect the taxpayer to fund their lifestyle whilst giving nothing back in return and still have the gall to moan about it, really annoys me. There is no reason why they cannot get a job, why should the hardworking taxpayer fund this type of person?

This is slightly odd, its about a computer programmer who installed a USB in his prosthetic finger. He lost the original finger in a motorcycle accident and naturally decided to make his new prosthetic finger more useful than a normal finger by adding a USB drive to it. The prosthetic initially looks like a normal finger until the nail is pulled back revealing the USB drive inside. He can now store photos, movies and other useful files on the drive and plug it into his computer to use as an additional hard drive.

This is interesting its a new scheme which has been introduced at a pub to allow customers to serve themselves. It has been introduced at The Wheatsheaf Inn in Willingdon East Sussex. Drinkers are able to serve themselves and leave the money in an honesty box. The landlord of the pub has said that he trusts his customers to pay for all of the beer that they drink. I have often thought that it would be a good idea to have self service available in the pub rather than queuing for drinks at the bar but I’m not sure everyone would be honest enough to pay.

According to this article the brain starts to decline at the age of 27 after peaking at age 22. This was the result of research done by Professor Timothy Salthouse. He carried out tests on 2000 people between the ages of 18 and 60 with the participants having to solve puzzles, remember words and spot patterns in letters. In nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22 with the first age at which there was a marked decline being 27. Having already reached this age, I find this research rather depressing.

If you are too busy to crack an egg then you might interested in this product. Called Egg in a Instant it contains liquid egg. The product is 100% pasteurised British Lion eggs and contains about ten whole eggs per half litre. It can be stored for up to 21 days unopened and needs to be used within three days once you open it. It’s an interesting idea but personally I think I will just stick to using regular eggs.

A lady in Washington got a surprise when she found that the second hand sofa she had brought had a cat inside it. A few days after buying the sofa she noticed that it was making mewing noises and after searching for the source she found a cat inside. It appears that the cat had crawled inside through a small hole before the sofa was donated to the store. The cat was later reunited with its owner.

A British man has sailed from Cornwall to Australia in a boat that he made himself. The journey was an attempt to recreate the voyage made by 7 men in a wooden boat more than 150 years ago. Pete Goss set sail in November and finally completed the voyage last week. In total the boat took 116 days to reach its destination with a weeks break in Cape Town for repairs. Not bad for a boat with no engine or modern navigational system. 

It’s a conversation you might have in a pub after a few beers, if a crocodile and a shark has a fight which will win? This question appears to be answered if this article is to believed. It highlights an incident (pictured left) where the two creatures did indeed fight with the crocodile coming off better. In fact the 15ft saltwater crocodile proceeded to eat the shark after disabling it, proving that on this occasion the answer to the question is clearly crocodile.

This is interesting, its a swimming costume that repels water meaning that it dries minutes after you leave the water. Called the Sun Dry Swimsuit, it is made from a special fabric so water passes through the fabric rather than being absorbed into it. The swimsuits also have the advantage of being chorine resistant and having a SPF 50 rating to keep out UV rays. If you want one they are made by Solestrom International and cost between £20 and £60.

Frogs in a part of Edinburgh will soon have their own frog hotel. The structure will be built alongside a pond in Redhall Walled Garden in Edinburgh. It is designed to protect the frogs from predators during the mating season. The structure will include a ramp that leads up to a protected area and a lower ground area which has been nicknamed the Compost Cafe. It’s an interesting idea, I wonder whether I should built a frog hotel to protect the frogs in my garden from my curious cats?

This is interesting, its the new trend of what has been dubbed meggings. They are put simply leggings for men and appear to be the thing to wear at the moment. Celebrity's like Russell Brand (pictured left) and Noel Fielding have recently been pictured wearing them. I’m not quite sure that my husband will be rushing out to buy a pair. What do you think, would you wear them?

I tried this Dreamtime Bath Melt from the Lush the other day. Although it's not the most exciting of products lacking the usual colour, fizz and glitter that you would expect from Lush, I really liked it. Although it is small the bar melted slowly creating a creamy coloured bath that left my skin very soft and silky. The fragrance also gets the thumbs up, the mixture of jasmine, lavender and sandalwood is not overpowering and is a perfect mix for an evening when you want a good nights sleep. After enjoying this bath I went to bed and was asleep almost instantly. I will be getting this again.

This is interesting its an idea created by visionary architects which they say could help combat global warming. Put in simple terms the idea is to build a skyscraper that includes 400 trees in an effort to absorb dangerous pollutants and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The devices would be built near factories or other major sources of pollution in order to clean the air. Evergreen trees would be mounted on the 400ft tall structure along a series of floors so that they could filter air hundreds of feet above the ground. To the right is a diagram showing how the system could work. Looking at the comments at the bottom the article it seems most people object to the fact that the structure is rather ugly, I certainly wouldn't want outside my house. What do you think?

A property tycoon has built America's first "green" mansion. Costing £15 million the mansion includes enough solar panels to cover a basketball court and can generate enough energy to power two or three average sized homes (or 1 giant mansion presumably). It also has a water system that collects enough run off water to fill an average sized swimming pool every 14 days and includes environmentally conscious lighting which reduces electricity consumption by 70 per cent. All of these things mean that it is the first home of its size to be certified as "green" by Florida's rigorous environmental standards committees.

Cat owners in Leicestershire have been urged to sign their pets up to a blood donor scheme. Currently only four cats are signed up to the Loughborough based Pet Blood Bank UK (PBBuk)  which stores and collects dog and cat blood for use in transfusions. Under the scheme the PBBuk will go to the cats home in order to reduce any stress to the donors. It's an interesting idea but unfortunately I think my cats are more likely to take blood rather than give it.

This is Ugly Bat Boy and he has been given the dubious unofficial title as the most hideous cat ever. The cat who is eight years old was born without fur except for one shaggy part around his neck giving him an interesting appearance to say the least. He certainly is odd looking. Do you have a cat that is uglier than Ugly Bat Boy?

I have seen a lot of really odd courses being offered at degree level but this has got to be one of the strangest yet. It's a MA in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society. The course which is composed of four 12 week modules and a dissertation looks at the postwar music industry and the importance of authenticity and locality according to this article. Quite why you want to spend your time doing such a course, I'm not sure, I'm also unsure what benefit the resulting qualification would have and how seriously a prospective employer would take it. Perhaps I'm missing the point? The Guardian have a quiz here entitled Would you pass the Beatles MA? I only scored 6 out 10, so apparently not.

I came across this article today about a Swarovski crystal encrusted cat flap. It is billed as the latest must have pet accessory and costs £1,000. It comes in a number of standard designs including a roman arch style and a stable door style but can also be customised to include details such as your cat's name. I love my cats but I don't really see why someone would spend this much money on a cat flap, I guess some people have more money than sense.

As someone who is rather fond of red wine, I do find myself cleaning up rather a lot of spillages, so a stain remover is an important product to have in the cupboard.  I found this article quite interesting, it looks at a test carried out by the consumer watchdog Which? They tested various stain removers to see which ones performed best. 17 different stain removers were tested on red wine, coffee, blood, Ribena and chocolate. What is interesting, however, is that budget washing up liquid was used as a comparison alongside the products. Surprisingly the washing up liquid was better than half of the branded cleaners, so it appears you might be wasting your money buying an expensive stain remover. The product that performed best overall was Sainsbury's carpet and upholstery cleaner which costs £2.43.

This article suggests that eating an egg a day could actually help lower your blood pressure. It is based on research that has found eggs produce proteins that mimic the action of drugs that lower pressure such as Ace inhibitors. These drugs lower blood pressure by stopping the hormone angiotensin narrowing the body's blood vessels and it appears that eggs can do the same thing when they come into contact with stomach enzymes. The study was, however, funded by the poultry industry so whilst I find it interesting I can't help feeling a little skeptical.

If you are thinking of having an affair then you might want to check out this article, it suggests that the average affair costs an adulterer £8,000. This figure is based upon a poll which looked at 2,000 adulterers. On average unfaithful partners will spend £2,000 on secret holidays, £1,000 on dining, £916 on food and drink in country pubs and £1,000 on flowers. In additional to this most mistresses receive 10 boxes of chocolates, 11 bouquets of flowers, and 10 sets of clothes, underwear or jewellery in a 12 month period. The poll also found that adulterers also spent more money on their cheated partners, with eleven per cent of adults being more likely to take them away for a weekend if they are having an affair and one in ten buying flowers on the way home from a liaison.