According to this article we will soon be able to watch 3D football matches in our living rooms. Sky have begun testing its technology by filming some matches in 3D and have promised that football will be a major part of its 3D channel content. In order to watch the 3D matches you will need to have a Sky HD set top box and wear 3D glasses but with many TV manufactures launching their 3D models this year it seems TV could be set to get a little bit more exciting.

This interesting looking creature is called the blobfish. The fish which can grow up to 12 inches in size lives at depths of up to 800m which means it is rarely seen. Unfortunately although the fish is not edible it lives close to others that are and so is often caught by mistake with other catches such as crabs and lobsters. Whilst other fish are protected the blobfish is not and so is now at risk of becoming extinct.

A Tesco store has put up notices asking shoppers not to wear pyjamas or go barefoot. It seems the store in Cardiff has more than its fair share of customers who like to do their shopping in their night clothes. A spokesman for Tesco has said that although they do not have a strict dress code they do not want people shopping in their nightwear in case it offends other customers. The signs read as follows "To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted)." Some of the customers, however, have described the ban as ridiculous and one lady has claimed she has shopped at the store in her pyjamas regularly before being turned away a week ago. She has claimed that the store will lose custom as people will choose to shop elsewhere. I’m not really sure I agree. Are people really too busy to bother getting dressed before they go to the supermarket?

This is Amber the first cat to win the UK slimming champion in PDSA’s annual Pet Fit Club Competition. The cat has managed to lose 17% of her boy weight to win the title. She started off weighing 7kg in September 2009 and has lost 1.23kg. As you can see by the before and after pictures she is now a much sleeker pussy cat.

This is Missy the world’s first cat to receive a knee replacement. She was close to death after being run over by a car but after receiving pioneering surgery to rebuild her limbs and being fitted with a metal joint she is now recovering nicely. To repair her leg a collagen mesh made from a pigs bladder was used to re-grow tissue and cover the bone. The bones were then placed in a device called a spider which held them in place until the bone and tissue had healed. The implant itself was custom made to fit Missy’s measurements. It was made out of stainless steel and bonded to the thigh bone and shin bone using cement. The new implant should allow Missy to walk, run and jump around as normal.

According to this article nine out of ten food allergy cases are all in the mind. Researchers say that nine out of ten Britons who believe they have a food allergy or intolerance are actually perfectly healthy. Studies show that although 20 per cent of adults claim they cannot eat certain foods when in reality fewer than 2% actually have a problem. Internet searches, self testing kits and celebrity food fads are blamed for the problem which causes millions of people to restrict their diet unnecessarily. Other people could be suffering from a medical problem which goes untreated because they believe they are suffering a food intolerance instead. The advice here is to see your doctor to receive a correct diagnosis.

If you have some extra money to spare and fancy buying something a little unusual then you might be interested in this hole. It has recently been put up for sale by the owners for the first time in 150 years. The hole was once used as a quarry and has since been filled with water. It measures 142 metres (466ft deep). It is thought that it might attract interest from people wanting to use it as a leisure site for diving or perhaps to drain it to use for climbing. If you are interested in purchasing it, it is expected to sell for offers over £30,000.

That’s a question that some teenagers might struggle to answer correctly if this article is to be believed. It suggests that teenage schoolchildren think bacon comes from sheep and that oats grow on trees. Many also thought that eggs were the main ingredient in bread. The results comes from a survey conducted on behalf of the Home Grown Cereals Authority as part of the Farmhouse Breakfast Week awareness campaign. Whilst the majority of over 40s questioned knew the answers to the simple questions, the results found that 26% of children thought bacon came from sheep, 29% thought oats grow on trees, and 17% of both children and adults under the age of 30 believed eggs were a core ingredient in bread. Based on the findings it appears that are some shocking gaps in the knowledge of the younger generation.

If this article is correct then online food shopping is set to double within the next five years. That’s according to new estimates from the Institute of Grocery Distribution. Their research shows that customers will spend nearly £7.2bn on grocery shopping online by 2014, that’s nearly double the figure spent last year. Personally I do most of food shopping online. It allows me to shop for the whole month without worrying about getting it in my small car and I find I budget better and am less likely to overspend.

If you like the idea of eating fresh produce from your own allotment but are not to keen on all the hard work involved, then this scheme might be for you. Launched by Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire it allows people to own a plot of land on an allotment. A grower will then plant, harvest and maintain the plot and for just £8 the owner will receive the fruits of their labour. An acre of land has been put aside by Wimpole Home Farm for the scheme and this has been divided into 50 sections which are being offered to individual owners. The land is owned by the National Trust and they have pledged to create 1,000 similar plots across the UK in the next 3 years. It seems like a good idea for those who want seasonal fruit and vegetables but don’t really have to time to spend growing it themselves.

According to this article the number of people advertising for a lodger has risen by 27% in the first two weeks of the year. According to Spareroom.co.uk the rise is down to people looking to raise extra income because they have over stretched financially after the Christmas period. The group have said that they saw a record number of people advertising for lodgers during 2009 and that it expects the trend to continue this year. With the average weekly rent costing £87 it seems like a good way to bring in some extra cash if you have a big enough house to be able to do it.

According to this article a temple dedicated to an ancient cat goddess has been found in Egypt. The temple in Alexandria is thought to be around 2,000 years old. It is the first trace of the royal quarters of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be revealed in the area and confirms that the Greek dynasty of Egyptians worshipped ancient animal deities. The temple which is 60m high by 15m wide is thought to have belonged to Queen Berenike 11 the wife of Ptolemy who ruled in the third century BC. It is filled with statues of Bastet the feared lion headed goddess whose image gradually changed over time to resemble the domestic cat.

If this article is to be believed then this could be the world’s expensive leg of lamb. It has gone on sale at Selfridges £1,800 for a leg. This is no ordinary ham, however, it weighs 7kg and comes with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity. The ham comes from one of just 50 carefully selected pigs that have been reared in Extremadura in western Spain. The pigs were fed a diet of acorns and roots to give the ham a distinctive flavour. After being slaughtered the ham was then salted and cured for three years before going on sale. According to the Selfridges fresh food buyer connoisseurs will appreciate the hams melt in the mouth texture.

It appears that divorce is now big business with companies offering divorce cakes and divorce parties. Now it seems Debenhams are cashing in on the market. They have launched a divorce guest list. Much the same as a wedding gift list it works in exactly the same way and not surprisingly contains many of the same items such as kitchen appliances, crockery and glasses. It takes into account that when a marriage breaks down one person leaves the marital home and has to start again with those essentials we tend to take for granted. With January being the peak time of year for divorce it will be interesting to see how much interest this idea generates.

According to this article there has been a huge rise in the number of pets being abandoned over the Christmas period. UK animal charities are struggling to cope the number of unwanted animals on their books and many also have long waiting animals that need a place in the re-homing centre. Battersea Dogs and Cats home in particular have said they are unable to cope with the number of pets arriving and have had to create a waiting list for local authorities. Animals on the waiting list will have to be looked after by the local council whilst there wait for a place to become available at the home. The situation is unlikely to improve as this time of year usually sees a rise in more animals being abandoned as people find pets brought for Christmas are too expensive to keep. If you have space for a furry friend then it might be worth checking out those that need a new home at the Battersea website here.

According to this article women’s handbags are getting lighter. The average weight of a woman’s handbag is now 1.5kg, that’s down 57% from last year when the average weight was 3.5kg. The research carried out by Debenhams  in order to help them to design suitable bags. It seems the change is not down to the fact that we are carrying less in our handbags but more the fact  that popular gadgets such as mobile phones and PDAs are simply getting smaller and lighter.

According to this article the BBC is considering not renewing the Met Office contract when it comes up for renewal in April. The  news comes after a series of inaccurate weather forecasts which included the “BBQ summer” that failed to materialise and the “mild winter” which has been one of the coldest in recent years. Personally I usually rely on the BBC’s weather forecasts and this winter have found them to be fairly inaccurate. On days when heavy snow has been forecast there has been none and vice versa. The BBC is currently in talks with a company called Metra, the national forecaster for New Zealand so it will be interesting to see whether the Met Office is replaced and if it is whether the forecasts are any more reliable. 

I am a great fan of the morning run and usually try to fit one in around three or four times a week. It certainly make me feel not only fitter but also more alert and when I can’t run I have the opposite side effect of feeling rather slow and sluggish. I was interested then to read this article which suggests that running is not only good for your body but that it is also good for your mind. It seems that a regular jog actually leads to the growth of new cells in the area of the brain which boosts your memory. Although it it is not know exactly what causes this it is thought it may be linked to increased blood flow or higher levels of hormones that are released whilst exercising.

If you watch a lot of TV then this article might encourage you to get out a bit more. It suggests that every hour spent TV increases the risk of dying from heart disease by almost a fifth. Researchers monitored 8,800 adults over a six year period to see what impact TV had on their long term health. The results found that each hour spent in front of the TV increased the risk of heart disease related death by 18%. During the follow up period there were 284 deaths, 87 due to cardiovascular, or heart and artery disease, and 125 from cancer. The scientists warned that any prolonged sedentary behaviour such as sitting at an office desk can have the same effect and that even those who are not overweight are still at risk.

If you need another excuse to go shopping then you might find this article interesting. It claims that the average woman burns off around 48,000 calories a year just by shopping. According to the article most women burn off around 385 calories walking around the shops every week. In fact this amounts to around 154 a miles a year, the same as walking from London to Nottingham. The figures are based on the assumption that the average woman covers 2.96 miles on a shopping trip and spends about 2.5 hours browsing in stores every week. So next time you don’t feel like heading down the gym you might be justified in hitting the shops instead.

According to this article overweight people could be paid to slim down as part of a new scheme. Under the scheme people could earn up to £1,750 as an incentive to lose their extra weight. The scheme is privately run and the payments made by a private firm but it is hoped that it could soon be available on the NHS. In a trial run within the NHS in Kent patients earned up to £425 as an incentive from private form Weight Wins. In order to earn the reward patients had to meet weight loss targets. It appears that the pilot scheme was successful and one person who took part earned the maximum available payout after reaching the target of losing three stone in seven months and managing to keep the weight off over a six month period. The scheme has now been extended for private individuals whilst the success rate is evaluated further to see if it can be offered on the NHS.

A buffer zone has been put in place around a red squirrel reserve in Northumberland in a bid to protect the species. The reserve in Kielder Forest includes the Cumbrian woods of Kershope and Spaedadam. The buffer zone effectively cuts off the gap between the forest and the Solway Firth to try and slow the migration of grey squirrels to the Scottish border. Within the buffer zone Forestry Commission grants are available to support land managers in controlling grey squirrels by using humane traps. It is hoped that the zone will stop the spread of the pox virus which the grey squirrels carry and which is fatal to the endangered red squirrels.

Having suffered from irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) for a number of years I read this article with some surprise. The article suggests that insoluble fibre can make the condition worse in many cases. Personally this was not what surprised me, it was more the fact that it has taken this long for this research to be reported. I first went to a doctor more than ten years ago for help with managing the condition. At this time I was prescribed a fibre supplement which made all of my symptoms much worse. Having felt disillusioned with the advice given by the doctor I have since relied on natural remedies and diet to manage the condition and still find that excessive insoluble fibre intake such as bran leaves me with severe symptoms. The article suggests what I have already discovered that for someone with an already irritable bowel insoluble fibre is likely to worsen symptoms and in fact it is best to stick to white breads and other products made from refined white flour. Sufferers are advised to stick to soluble fibre such as fruit and vegetables and steer clear of bran, wholemeal bread, brown pasta and cereal bars which are likely to irritate a sensitive bowel.

According to this article many different types of animals exhibit heroic behaviour and it is not just limited to humans. The article suggests that dolphins, monkeys, fruit bats and ants will all rescue their fellow creatures when they are in danger. Dolphins have been know to rescue trapped and injured dolphin, often lifting them to surface to help them breathe. Monkeys will drive away attackers from vulnerable individuals such as females and infants and fruit bats will help other fruit bats that are in labour. Ants will offer help to other ants from the same colony if they are caught in traps although it appears this help does not extend to individual from outside their own colony. A group of scientists is now hoping to study and document this type of behaviour in more detail to try and determine whether the animal rescuers behaviour is indeed heroic.

If you have put on a few extra pounds over Christmas then you might be interested in this new dress from Asda. It is designed to hide all of those lumps and bumps that you would rather you didn’t have. It works in a similar way to hold it in pants, having built in control panels in all the right places. At £28 for the dress and £16 for a skirt it claims it can take as much as inch and half off the waist. It certainly looks interesting but I feel the article would be better illustrated by using a model who has some lumps and bumps herself, that way it would be easier to see the effects of the garment.

If you have a bit of spare cash and fancy a home with a difference then you might be interested in this house boat. On sale for £1million it has a 577 square foot deck and includes a roof top pool. Inside it has three en-suite bedrooms, a dressing room, a modern open plan kitchen and dining area, reception room, study and utility room. The boat is moored at Cadogan Pier on the Thames near to London’s Albert Bridge so is well placed for central London.

According to this article you could soon be paying a bit more for your pint. Many of the country’s biggest brewers are likely to increase their prices in a move that will mean an increase of around 10p on popular beers. Guinness are putting up the recommend retail price to £3.03 per pint from February 1st. InBev who make Stella Artois, Becks and Budweiser are increasing the wholesale price of all its drinks by 4p a pint from the same date. Heineken UK have also announced a price rise and Carlsberg and Moulson Coors are yet to make an announcement.

If you feel you have a little too much blood and would like a little more beer then this scheme could be for you. Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma, Washington is offering donors a free pint of beer every time they give blood. They are hoping the scheme might encourage more people to donate. Donors have to be over 21 and are given a coupon entitling them a free pint when they donate blood through the scheme. It appears to be having the desired effect with the blood centre saying the scheme has worked so well that it is being expanded.

If you have tried in vain to lose excess weight from around your bum, hips and thighs then this article might offer some comfort. It suggests that carrying a little extra weight in these areas could actually be good for you. It is claimed that extra weight in these areas can help protect against heart and metabolic problems. Apparently hip fat helps to mop up harmful fatty acids and contains an anti-inflammatory agent that stops arteries clogging whereas extra fat around the waistline offers no such protection. In fact too little fat around the hips can lead to some metabolic problems such as Cushing’s syndrome. Taking this into account perhaps I should start appreciating my large bottom.

Most people are aware that wearing black can have a slimming effect on the figure but it seems it could also make you look older. According to this article black clothing highlights dark lines under the chin, shadows around the eyes and wrinkles on the face. The effect is more pronounced when wearing black near to the face and is worse in older women. Apparently just one in five people have the skin tone needed to wear black well. Those with warm skin tones fare badly as black takes away the golden glow of the basic skin tone. It seems it is possible to lessen the aging effect by wearing a splash of colour such as a scarf or chunky jewellery around the neck. 

According to this article this is the world’s largest TV. Recently unveiled by Panasonic it measures 152 inches. If you want one it is likely to have a fairly hefty price tag and you will need a large living room as you need to be seated between 25ft and 38ft away from it to enjoy optimum viewing.

If you want to pop the question but don’t have a very big budget, then Asda might have the answer. They are selling engagement rings for just £397. The average amount spent on an engagement ring is £1,800 according to the wedding site Confetti.co.uk but it is traditional to spend at least one month’s salary on the ring. The Asda ring, then seems something of a bargain. The ring is the best selling one on offer at the store and is an 18ct gold ring with 1 caret 7 stone diamonds and looks quite good for the price.

The World Wide Fund for Nature has placed the tiger at the top of its list of the most endangered species. The charity is stepping up its efforts to save the animal as figures show there are only 3,200 tigers left on earth. Tigers are under threat from poachers, the destruction of their habit and climate change. A combination of these things has meant that the world population of tigers has fallen by 95% over the past century. The WWF have now classified it as the most at risk on its roaster of 10 critically endangered animals and will increase patrols and work with politicians to try and eradicate poaching and the illegal trade in tiger skins and body parts. With this year being the Chinese Year of the Tiger it seems like a time to focus on saving this magnificent animal.

The news has been full of snow related stories during the recent bad weather but this one deserves a mention for being one of the more unusual. It had never occurred to me that swans can get stuck on frozen lakes but it seems they can and do. This article highlights a case where a flock of swans had to rescued from a frozen lake by the RSPCA and some construction workers. The construction workers used their mechanical digger to break up the thick ice that has frozen around the birds. Although one swan died before they arrived the others were set free. It seems this is not an isolated incident with the RSPCA receiving around 100 calls reporting ducks and swans stuck on ice on ponds and lakes.

This interesting looking crab has recently been discovered of the coast of southern Taiwan. The crab which is bright red and covered with white spots is a new species.  Although it does resemble another species that lives in areas around Hawaii this one has a distinct clam shaped shell.

According to this article women’s feet are getting bigger with the average shoe size going up from a size five to a size six within the last five years. Medical experts believe the rise in size is down to the obesity epidemic with people eating high density foods such as pizza during puberty, stimulating growth hormones. Research from Debenhams certainly supports this showing that in 2009 sales of size nine shoes increased by 23% whilst sales of size six shoes increased by 17%. Based on this the store is now considering stocking size ten shoes as standard rather than its largest women’s size being a nine. It’s not just women that are getting taller and heavier men are increasingly wearing bigger shoe sizes, with sizes 10, 11 and 12 being more popular. Personally as someone who takes a size 6 and half or 7 depending on the store I have trouble finding nice shoes. Most styles tend to make my feet look like aircraft carriers. If it is the case that women’s feet are indeed getting larger, I wonder whether manufacturers might start making nice shoes for those with slightly bigger feet.

If this article is correct we could soon expect to pay a little more for a carton of orange juice. According to the article cold weather and disease have hit the citrus groves in Florida which produce much of the world’s orange juice. This has already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in the past year. As yet this has not affected the prices we pay in the supermarket because stores usually fix their prices a long time in advance, however, we should expect prices to rise by between 10 and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated.

According to this article around 16 million people use the same password for every website they use. It seems people faced with remembering multiple passwords prefer to use the same one for everything. Unfortunately, however, they are making themselves easy targets for fraud. A study has found that the average internet user is asked for a password on 23 websites a month. 46 per cent of British internet users, that’s around 15.6 million users have the same password for every website they use. Around 29% use variations of the same password by adding days of the weeks or adding numbers to the end of the word. One in ten users tend to use memorable dates, children’s names and mother’s maiden names and one in five users use their pet’s name. 40 per cent of users also admit to disclosing their passwords to friends and family rather than keeping them secret.

All of these things leave people open to fraud and potentially having numerous accounts compromised. It is, however, easy to see why people tend to use the same passwords when there is so much to remember. Identity theft experts recommend using multiple passwords and including a combination of letters and numbers in order to stay safe. Personally I have one of these password fingerprint readers which helps to make life a little easier allowing you to put in details of the sites you use and access them with a touch of your finger.

At first glance this might seem like quite a good buy for £3,000, but the bungalow is actually a condemned property. The bungalow at Knipe Point near Scarborough is situated dangerously close to the edge of a cliff and is likely to fall into the sea within 6 months. Artist, Mr Cunningham has brought the property so that he can spend his time painting its descent into the sea. He also intends to set up cameras inside the house in order to film its destruction. Many of the neighbouring houses have already gone over the edge and the property has recently developed cracks in the past few weeks so it seems the artist may need to paint rather quickly to get his moneys worth.

If this article is to be believed then you might be getting less beer for your money when you pop out for a pint. A study carried out by trading standards officers found that nine out of ten pints are sold short. In a test of 88 pints brought at bars and restaurants in Birmingham the average drink was three quarters of a fluid ounce short of the full glass, that’s about 12% short. Under the Weights and Measures Act of 1985 a pint of beer should be exactly a pint although froth can account for up to 5% of the pint as its considered an integral part of the beer.

If you have overdone this Christmas and are looking for a quick way to lose the extra weight then you might be interested in this new slimming pill. Called Capsiplex it is already used by Hollywood stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Bard Pitt and Britney Spears. Trials of the pill have found that it can burn off 278 more calories in adults before, during and after exercise than a placebo. The pill contains capsicum extract from hot chilli peppers and works by speeding up the metabolism causing people to lose weight more quickly. Presumably, as with most weight loss products it is best used combined with an existing weight loss programme so is unlikely to a miracle cure for all those couch potatoes out there. At £29.99 it’s not cheap either so you might be better off spending the money of a gym membership.

According to this article Japanese wine is seeing a rise in popularity. Whilst the country is not traditionally know for its great wines they are increasingly exporting to the US and Europe. Around 90 wineries operate near Mount Fuji with the focus on producing wine from 100% domestically grown grapes. The wineries already produce chardonnay and other wines from European grapes but have recently taken inspiration from the Koshu grape which is an indigenous variety. The resulting wine is being marketed as the perfect accompaniment to sushi and one Tokyo based wine merchant called Millesimes has won considerable critical acclaim for its Shizen 2006, Curvee Denis Durbourdieu. They are now exporting bottles to England and France and with interest growing, it appears we could be seeing more Japanese wine appearing in our supermarkets soon.

If this article is to be believed then our pets could have a bigger carbon footprint than the car we drive. According to the article the carbon footprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a sports utility vehicle. The analysis is based upon the fact that the average sized medium dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal in a year. The land required to generate this amount or food has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares, that’s twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4 by 4 driving 6,200 miles a year. It appears other pets are no better for the environment, with cats having an eco-footprint of around 0.15 hectares, a little less than driving a Golf for a year. A hamster’s carbon footprint equates to a plasma TV and a goldfish, the equivalent to running two mobile phones. There are ways to reduce your pets carbon footprint such as feeding your cat on fish heads and left over's rather than premium choice cuts of meat. Still, given the choice between giving up my cats or the car, I know what I would rather keep, my cats might not be very useful but my car could never give me the companionship and entertainment that my cats do.

If you are looking for an unusual gift idea then you might want to check out this site. It offers gift packs of cow dung to so you can let your enemies know exactly what you think of them. The idea comes from a French entrepreneur. Each box includes some cow manure and a guide on the cows digestive system and costs 8.50 Euros (approx £7.70).