A multitude of ‘news’ today, some good, some bad.
The good news is: It is better to be fat than thin at age 40, according to a new study which shows that the overweight are likely to live longer than those who are slim.
Contrary to the widely held belief that it is healthier to be slim, researchers in Japan found that the life expectancy of the overweight at 40 was six years longer than that of their thinner counterparts.
Those who were slimmer were also at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the major study, conducted over a ten-year period by scientists at Tohoku University.
Health concerns surrounding the slimmest also eclipsed those of the overweight, with higher risks of heart disease and other illnesses as they age, according to Masato Nagai, a graduate student involved in the research.
And the bad: Gord’s gang wanted to show the world that the UK, which produces a fart in a hurricanes worth of “pollution” is serious about reducing Carbon emissions that he ensconced it in law.
Now we are going to pay for it-Road pricing, rigid 70mph speed limits on motorways and mandatory, eco-driving lessons should be introduced to help country meet legally-binding carbon emissions targets, a key Government advisory committee has said
The Committee on Climate Change said the Government is unlikely to be able to meet the target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 34 per cent by 2020 unless there is a radical step change in power generation, transport and homes.
In its first annual report the expert committee led, that was set up to make sure the Government stays on track to meet its own targets, recommended a series of radical measures.
IN TRANSPORT: Subsidies for the car industry should encourage 1.7 million electric cars onto the roads by 2020. Petrol cars can be made more efficient by keeping to 70mph on motorways and teaching people to drive in higher gears and rev the engine less in "eco-driving" lessons. People should also be encouraged onto public transport or "smarter choices" like car sharing by making driving more expensive, for example by introducing road pricing.
IN HOMES: Homeowners will have to do their bit by better insulating homes and turning off appliances. The current plans to let energy companies lead the way should be replaced by a Government led "street by street" refurbishment programme that would see 10 million lofts and 7.5 million cavity walls insulated by 2015 and all 12 million inefficient boilers in people's homes replaced by 2022.
IN POWER: Thousands of wind farms will need to be built as well as up to three nuclear power stations in order to provide "clean energy". Any new coal-fired power stations will have to be fitted with the new technology "carbon capture and storage" that takes carbon dioxide and stores it under ground. The committee pointed out that the recession had pushed down carbon prices, making it cheaper for industry to pollute, and more important than ever for Government to encourage cleaner technologies.
In the past five years, greenhouse gas emissions have been falling at a rate of less than one per cent a year, with the most significant pollutant, carbon dioxide, only dropping by 0.5 per cent annually.
And the solution to this half-arsed legislation: repeal it.
Scout Jamborees could be cancelled in Britain because of the new anti-paedophile vetting rules, it has been claimed.
As the first phase of the controversial Government scheme starts, the Scout Association has warned it could mean the gatherings of packs from around the world will no longer be held here after 90 years of the tradition.
Organising criminal record information and other checks on thousands of foreign Scout leaders was ''just not possible'', a spokesman said.
And volunteers who fail to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which is to check the backgrounds of 11.3 million people who want to work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults, could face a criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000.
Simon Carter, Scout Association spokesman, said: ''When we hold big international jamborees we rely on adults from other parts of the world coming in and staffing these events.
''The rules for checking people out suggest that if they were to come along and do intensive activity they would have to be checked.
''Clearly we cannot do that, it's just not possible.''
The “new” CRB checks-a Numpty cock up on a global scale.
The year 2012 will not bring the end of the world, a Mayan elder has insisted, despite claims that a Mayan calendar shows that time will "run out" on December 21 of that year.
Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the end of the world. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff," he said.
A significant time period for the Mayans does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.
But hysteria surrounding 2012 does have some grains of archaeological basis. One of them is Monument Six.
Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost did not survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.
The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation. However, erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Guillermo Bernal, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, believes the eroded message is: "He will descend from the sky".
Time will tell.
Man wins wife's weight in beer in Wife Carrying Championship
Dave and Lacey Castro of Lewiston came in first among 41 teams to win Saturday's competition at Sunday River ski resort in Newry.
They covered the 278-yard course in 54.45 seconds.
For their effort, the couple won 97-pound Mrs Castro's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash - which amounts to $485 (£306).
Teams from 11 states competed in the 10th annual race in which a man has to carry a woman, or vice versa, over an obstacle course.
As the North American champs, the Castros are eligible to compete in the world championships in Finland next July.
After drinking all that beer the roles will be reversed. (That’s not them in the pic)
A church has been banned from singing hymns that are too noisy, after its neighbours complained to a council.
All Nations Centre in Kennington, south London, could now be forced to close after Lambeth Council ordered it to turn the volume down.
The Pentecostal church, which has a congregation of 600 people, has been told that it cannot amplify its music or sermons after a complaint was made to the town hall.
The council is the second to take action against a church over the playing of music, following an order that was served last week on the Immanuel International Christian Centre in Waltham Forest, north-east London. The congregation at the Immanuel centre has dwindled from 100 to 30 because of the restrictions, and leaders at All Nations fear that the same will happen to them.
They expressed dismay at the council's decision, which they said had been made without any justification for the noise ban.
"The complaint against us has nothing to do with noise and everything to do with our faith," said Victor Jibuike, 43, a pastor at All Nations in Kennington.
"It feels as if they're trying to harass us and drive us out."
The congregation has been meeting at All Nations since the 1960s and Mr Jibuike said that they have never received a complaint before.
He said that the church began to face opposition from neighbours after it emerged that it was in negotiation with the council to develop a disused school as a community centre.
Still, come Christmas they will be able to belt out Silent Night.
And finally ;( thought I would never get there)
In scenes reminiscent of Independence Day, a ring-shaped luminous cloud was seen above Moscow city's Western District on Wednesday, last week.
The pale halo has social networkers speculating that it could be either a UFO or a sign from God. But experts say it is simply a natural phenomenon.
Talking to the Daily Mail, a spokesman from Moscow's weather forecasting service said:
"Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the
Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west – this is how the effect was produced.
"This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive," he added.
"If you look closer, you can see sun rays coming through that cloud. Most likely, the sun was setting when the video was being made.
"If you observe clouds regularly, you may see many other astonishing things. Clouds of the same class may look absolutely different in different areas," he said.
Some environmentalists blame pollution for the mysterious ring but weather forecasters reject this claim saying: "The phenomenon has nothing to do with industrial emissions.”
Maybe it’s a natural emission.
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