This chicken nugget has been auctioned on eBay after it was noticed it looked like surprisingly like President George Washington. Rebekah Speights noticed the amazing resemblance and froze the nugget. She eventually decided to auction it to raise funds for her local church.

This pink diamond is the largest ever to be found in Australia. It is 12.76 carats in size. Found at the Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia's East Kimberly region it it thought to be worth millions. It will now be polished and cut before being graded by a team of international experts.

The answer it seems is around 60 days. This article which makes for an interesting read looks at how long a person can go without food. The question has arisen after a Swedish man was found buried in the snow in his car. He claims he survived for two months eating only handfuls of snow. Other people have been known to successfully survive for a 50 day period. It seems the amount of fat a person has on them has no bearing on how long they can actually survive as a lack of calories starts to cause your organs to shut down one by one. It is known that people who have gone on hunger strike tend to die after around 60 days.

If you have trouble parking then it might not be your parking skills that are at fault it may actually be that the spaces are too small. Apparently the average vehicle is now 2 inches wider than the minimum allowed parking space. Research shows that popular British cars have increased in width by around 16% in the past 40 years. The article gives the example of the Ford Escort which was 5ft 2 inches wide when it was launched in 1968. The modern equivalent the Ford Focus, however, now measures 6ft 1 inch, nearly a foot wider. The guidance for the minimum size of a parking bay is 5ft 11 inches, something which has remained unchanged since 1994 meaning many spaces are now a very tight fit for popular models and too narrow for some. That explains a lot and I thought it was my questionable parking ability

These cute little otters appear to be getting a fair amount of coverage because they appear to be praying. They are in fact simply playing with a stone but they are certainly very cute. They were pictured at Whipsnade Zoo in Dunstable by Marac Andrev Kolodzinski .

Australian chef Andy Wrobel has created the world tallest stack of pancakes. He beat a record set in 2008 in Croatia to build a 76cm tall stack of pancakes. Including 60 pancakes in total. The tower did eventually fall over but not before the record was confirmed.

NHS figures show that women in the North East of the country are more likely to smoke through their pregnancy. The figures show that women in the region are three times more likely to be smokers when they give birth as those in London. The figures come from the NHS Information Centre and revealed 20.2% of women in the North East were smokers when they gave birth compared to 6.1% in London. This is despite the added complications that smoking during pregnancy may cause such as the risk of stillbirth and the increased risk of the baby being born prematurely. Personally I find it hard to believe that anyone would continue to smoke once they are pregnant. With £1million being spent across Shropshire and Telford warning women of the dangers of smoking in pregnancy it seems the message is still not getting though at least in some areas.

We had Penny baptised last weekend on the 19th of February. Despite the service being quite long we were lucky that Penny slept through most of it, only waking up once to have a look around. Here is a picture of the yummy lemon cake we had afterwards and Penny getting ready to go to the church.

This interesting looking tree has been dubbed E Tree due to its resemblance to Steven Spielberg’s character ET. The tree in Essex is thought by some to bear an uncanny resemblance to ET. I’m not sure myself but it is certainly an unusual looking tree.

This cute little guy was recently discovered in Madagascar. Measuring just three centimetres it is thought to be the world’s smallest chameleon. The creature is thought to be found only in an area that is a few square miles in size although at this size it must be very hard to be sure.

Researchers claim that babies as young as six months old can understand basic words such as apple and arm. That is despite the fact that most children are not able to speak meaningful words until they are nearly a year old. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal tested 33 children aged between six and nine months. They looked at their understanding of common nouns by showing them two images such as an apple and and arm and asking what the object was. Researchers tracked their eye movements and found the children looked at the correct image with with a frequency that was unlikely to be down to chance. It seems then it is never too early to start teaching babies image association.

That’s if this article is to be believed. Trading standards officers in Lincolnshire collected more than 1,350 discarded cigarette packets and found that only six out every seven packets were legal cigarettes. The study gives some insight into the numbers of fake cigarettes that could be in circulation. With the black market versions containing much higher levels of chemicals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium the illegal versions are much more damaging to your health than the legal versions and can increase the risk of lung and liver cancer. The fake cigarettes have often been found to contain sawdust, tobacco beetles and rat droppings. If you do smoke the message is to look out for spelling mistakes and altered logos on the packets, low quality labels and foreign safety warnings and to avoid cigarettes sold at car boot fairs and pubs. All cigarettes are going to kill you but it seems these ones might be just a bit more lethal.

It seems many parents no longer read their children traditional fairy tales because they think are too scary. According to this article one in five parents no longer read traditional tales such as those by Hans Christian Andersen or the Brothers Grimm preferring instead to read more modern books. Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel are avoided because the themes of the stories include kidnapping whilst Little Red Riding Hood is often considered too upsetting because the wolf eats the girls grandmother. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is avoided because the term dwarf is considered inappropriate and parents find the Gingerbread Man problematic because they are uncomfortable explaining that the gingerbread man gets eaten by a fox. Personally I don’t see a problem with any of the stories, perhaps traditional fairy tales are now less politically correct than more modern books but they are a product of the time in which they were written and ultimately they are only stories.

We have been trying for some time to cut the waste that goes out in our weekly bin collection and are frequently surprised when we still often have 3 or 4 rubbish sacks going out. In order to see exactly what we throw away we have spent a couple of weeks breaking the waste down into categories.

We already have a composting bin, in which we put anything that will break down, such as fruit and veg waste, paper, kitchen towels and small cardboard items. In addition to this we have recycling sacks from the local council. We are able to recycle cardboard, plastic bottles (but no other plastics) tins and paper. The other waste we have broken down into food waste that cannot be composted and non food waste that cannot be recycled, mainly other plastics. We also take all the glass to the recycling centre on a weekly basis.

At the end of one week we ended up with more recycling than usual, a total of 3 sacks. In addition to this we had half a sack of food waste, 2 sacks of compost which of course eventually goes straight back into the garden and still 2 sacks of other waste.

Looking at these two sacks of other waste which cannot be recycled or composted they were made up almost entirely of other plastic such as plastic cartons and shrink wrapping. based on this it is my opinion that supermarkets use too much non recyclable plastic packaging on their products. If this makes up the bulk of our waste and we are doing everything possible to recycle/compost the rest, then it seems the problem is not with our recycling efforts but with the over use of packaging on day to day items.

Based on our little experiment we will continue to split up the waste in this way because it actively helps us to cut down on our waste and think about what we throw away. I will now be making an effort when shopping to avoid anything that includes excess packaging and shrink wrap to see if I can reduce the rubbish a little more.

A study recently published in the British Medical Journal has found that smoking cannabis less than three hours before driving can double the drivers chances of a serious accident. The findings come from a review of nine studies which found drivers were more likely to be involved in a collision after smoking the drug. With an estimated 3 million cannabis in the UK perhaps it is time to update drink driving laws to cover the use of other substances.

This painting is one of many created by an artist who uses beer to create her pictures. Karen Eland started created pictures using coffee but has recently started making beer pictures. She uses mainly stouts and porters to create the painting and sometimes uses lagers to create the lighter areas. She does admit to sometimes drinking the painting material whilst creating the pictures.

This is interesting its a marketing campaign from McCain for their new microwaveable jacket potato. Bus shelters in 10 UK cities have been fitted with a 3D poster featuring a jacket potato. When the button on the display is pressed it releases the smell of an oven backed jacket potato.

This article proves that sometimes it does pay to air your views on a product. After receiving a letter from a 3 year old girl Sainsbury’s have taken the decision to rebrand their tiger bread as giraffe bread. In the letter 3 year old Lily said that she thought the bread looked much more like a giraffe than a tiger. She received a reply to her letter and a voucher. The reply letter has since received a great deal of coverage on social networks and Sainsbury’s have renamed the bread. What a nice piece of advertising.

Penny is now 10 weeks old and is weighing in at 9lbs 9. She is still small but is looking less like a premature baby, although is still a lot smaller than most other babies her age. Despite her small size she is showing all the normal signs of a 3 month old baby and had now started grabbing for toys and reacting to her surroundings. I think she will soon catch up where growing is concerned, she does have rather large feet so needs to grow into them.

One avid Star Trek fan has recreated the inside of the Starship Enterprise in his flat. Including a full scale replica of the transporter console his one bedroom flat includes a computerised flight deck and flashing lights. It certainly looks impressive, I’m not sure how practical it is for everyday use, however.

This is interesting its some high heels that can help you lose weight. According to the article they can help you to drop a dress size in a month. They feature a concave sole and a unique spring action in the heel which destabilises the wearer's centre of balance. Early trials have shown that women can shed as much as half a stone or one dress size if they wear the heels for a month. They work by causing the foot to rock back and forth as the weight of the body shifts much like walking on a unstable surface such as sand. The result of this is that the muscles in the legs, hips and buttocks have to work harder to maintain balance burning more calories in the process. They look interesting but I can’t really see me wearing these to pop to the shops, now some trainers that do the same thing might work.

We all know cats are cute but it seems they are much cuter when you take a piece of bread and put it around their head as pictured. Known as breading it appears it is currently the thing to do. With five cats in the house and a number of different loaves of bread in the kitchen the possibilities here are endless. Now where did those kitties go?

This is my first attempt at making a spelt loaf. I have been meaning to try making one for a while as its something we buy a lot of and I thought making our own might be more cost effective. For this one I followed the instructions on the back of the pack of spelt flour. I think, however, that I might have added a little too much water. The end result looks very much like a spelt loaf and has a good crust on the outside. The inside, however, feels a little on the soft side. I think I will try this again, perhaps with a little less water in the dough mixture. It does still taste quite good which I suppose is the main point of the exercise.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend then you might be interested in these sunglasses. Costing £26,000 they are made by Bentley to compliment the £225,000 Bentley Mulsanne. I guess if you can afford to spend that much on a car them you might have enough left over for the glasses. The sunglasses have been hand crafted from platinum with engraved surfaces to reflect the style of a Bentley’s interior quilted leather. Each pair is made to order to the exact specifications of the buyer. The frames can then be engraved with the owner’s initials or decorated with precious stones at an extra cost.

Researchers are asking people to take part in a project to help measure the spread of black squirrels. It it thought be about 100 years since the rodents were released in the UK, however, the spread of the black squirrel has been hard to trace. They are essentially the same species as the common grey variety but it not known whether they carry the grey squirrel pox which is known to infect the UK’s native red squirrels. It is thought the entire population of the black squirrels originate in Bedfordshire where a  few individuals were released. So far they have only been spotted in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. If you have spotted one you can submit your sighting here http://blacksquirrelproject.org/

This impressive looking breakfast is being offered at Jesters Diner in Great Yarmouth. Including 12 rashers of bacon, 12 sausages, 6 eggs, 4 black pudding slices, 4 slices of toast, 4 slices of fried bread, 2 hash browns, an 8 egg cheese and potato omelette, sauté potatoes, mushrooms, beans and tomatoes  it has been heavily criticised because it contains more than 6,000 calories, that’s three times the recommended daily intake for an average person. At just £15 you certainly get a lot for your money and if you can eat the whole lot without any help from your friends you get it for free.

This is interesting its the story of a mummified cat that has recently been found in a property in North Yorkshire. It was found when the owners removed the ceilings from their 18th century property. It is thought the cat has been there for around 100 years and that it was positioned in the roof as a good luck charm to ward off evil spirits.

This article claims that some of the secrets to a happy marriage are two holidays a year, a meaningful conversation twice a week and cuddles 11 times in a fortnight. The findings come from research on 2,000 happily marriage couples. Among the other things that were identified as important were eating out restaurants at lest three times a month, sharing a kiss six times a week, having sex twice a week and saying I love you up to 9 times in a fortnight. Personally we rarely have the time to take a holiday together but I think the important thing is to always make time to do things together even if you are only cooking a meal together.

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.