drunk with chats

So it's true! Chatting and talking can make your head confused as you had an excess of alcohol in the blood.
That means it's very dangerous to drive while talking at the phone even on a lawful hands-free phones.
It's exactly the result of a research conducted by psychologists J. Watson and D. Strayer.

To learn more read the whole story by Daily Mail Reporter

Hands-free phone devices are as dangerous as drink drivers, scientists have claimed
Drivers having a conversation on a hands-free mobile phone could be as dangerous as those who are drunk behind the wheel, scientists believe.
Researchers found that using a handset on speaker phone, or fitted with a headset, while in control of a car causes a drop in concentration equivalent to being over the drinkdrive limit.
Motorists using the legal devices took almost a fifth longer to hit the brakes in an emergency and were shown to be less aware of traffic around them.
Psychologists Jason Watson and David Strayer said their findings were important because they prove the vast majority of us can't do more than one thing at a time.
But while this is true for 97.5 per cent of drivers, the researchers discovered that 2.5 per cent of their subjects were 'supertaskers' who are able to do two things at once.
Dr Watson and Dr Strayer asked 200 volunteers to drive along a motorway in a simulator.
The subjects were monitored for their braking reaction time, the distance at which they followed the car in front and asked to carry out simple maths and memory problems.
They then repeated the simulation while having a conversation on a hands-free mobile, which involved memorising words and carrying out more maths problems.
The 2.5 per cent of supertaskers had no increase in braking time, following distance or maths ability while talking on the phone - and their memory abilities actually improved 3 per cent.



But Dr Watson warned that they were exceptionally rare.
He said: 'While we'd probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it.
'In fact, the odds of being a supertasker are about as good as your chances of flipping a coin and getting five heads in a row.'
Although it has been illegal for drivers to hold a mobile at the wheel since 2003, it is still lawful to use a hands-free kit as long as motorists are in proper control of their vehicle.
But now the research by the University of Utah psychologists, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, could throw the law into doubt.
It found that the drivers on their phones took 20 per cent longer to hit the brakes when needed.
The average following distance also increased by 30 per cent - which the scientists said reflected drivers' failure to keep pace with traffic around them.
Memory performance declined 11 per cent, and the ability to do maths problems fell 3 per cent.
The results show that driving performance routinely falls while using a hands-free mobile phone and is comparable to the impairment seen in drunken drivers.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262447/Hands-free-phones-risky-drink-driving-We-things-time-say-scientists.html#ixzz0jjEshRNP

We are what we eat

A song from the evergone days said to old men "you are what eat, eat well".

That statement, in nowdays, needs to be adressed to young people, specially in Great Britain.

According to a recent research, infact, young people are becoming addicted with junk food, as well as might be becoming on smoking and taking havier drugs (like heroin).

Read more by David Derbyshire
Junk food may be as addictive as heroin and tobacco, a study has shown.
Obesity researchers found fatty and sugary snacks trigger the same 'pleasure centres' in the brain that drive people into drug addiction - making them binge on unhealthy food.
The findings could partly explain the soaring obesity rates in Britain and the success of fast food outlets.

Junk: Britons are the world's biggest junk food addicts (file photo)
Experts studied rats fed on cheesecake, bacon and sausages. Soon after the experiments began the animals began to bulk up and show signs of addiction.
'It presents the most thorough and compelling evidence that drug addiction and obesity are based on the same underlying neurobiological mechanisms,' Professor Paul Kenny said.

'In the study, the animals completely lost control over their eating behaviour and continued to over-eat even when they anticipated receiving electric shocks, highlighting just how motivated they were to consume the palatable food.'
During the trial the animals were rewarded with a pleasurable electrical stimulation.
The rats could control how much of the stimulation they got by running on a wheel. Animals living on junk food ran far more - suggesting they needed more brain stimulation to feel good, the researchers found.
The scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, also gave rats electric shocks on their feet when they ate high-fat food.
Rats on a normal diet quickly learned to avoid the unhealthy food. But those used to junk food refused to let the shock get in their way of their high calorie food.
'They always went for the worst types of food,' said Professor Kenny, who published his findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
'When we removed the junk food and tried to put them on a nutritious diet they simply refused to eat.'
The researchers found junk food altered the chemical balance in the brain's 'reward circuits' - the parts of the brain that handle the feel-good chemical dopamine.
Identical changes happen in the brains of rats given cocaine or heroin and are thought to play a key role in drug addiction.
Britons are the world's biggest junk food addicts. At the same time, the average adult eats just over three portions of fruit and vegetables a day - the recommended number is five.
We will also get through 22,000 ready meals, sandwiches and sweet Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1261463/Junk-food-addictive-heroin-cigarettes.html#ixzz0jXVLLCtl

In love for ever

That's really a good example of a love who lasts for ever, even after and against the death.
As matter of fact, a widow, after 40 years of life together, carries her husband's ashes with her, in a around the world's tour, scattering them every where.
A very nice love story. Of course I'm not in a rush for it, but think I'm going to ask the same to my wife if had to part before her.

Read more: by Andrew Levy on DM on line

"Richard Munns had always bemoaned the fact that a fear of flying had prevented him seeing the world.
So when he passed away, his widow Rita decided to set things right.
Over the past three years she has carried his ashes on a world tour covering more than 55,000 miles and 12 countries on four continents, including China, Italy, Israel, New Zealand and Turkey.

Devoted: Widow Rita Munns, 63, who has embarked on an emotional 60,000-mile trip in memory of her late husband Richard
The 63-year-old has scattered some of his remains in each location.
Mr Munns, who died aged 68 in 2007, went on just two flights in his lifetime - once to visit family and once when he realised he was losing his battle against cancer.
His wife described the pilgrimage as 'extremely emotional' but said: 'I do this because if he had lived for longer we would have tried to travel to all kinds of places together.
'I had Richard for 40 years, which makes me so lucky because we were total soul mates. This is my way of giving something back.
'His death has left a massive hole in my life and everywhere I go there is always something missing.'
She added: 'He never liked flying and only took his first flight in 1994. He always wanted to be able to see so much more of the world than he did.

'Now there is a little piece of him in all of those magical places.'

Globetrotter: The grandmother-of-five on her walk along the Great Wall of China, where she scattered some of her husband's ashes

The couple met in Exning, near Newmarket, Suffolk, in 1964. They married in 1969 and settled in the village for life. They had two children and five grandchildren.
Mr Munns, a draughtsman, made his first trip by plane when he and his wife travelled to Italy to visit their daughter, who had moved there.
He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002 which spread to his bones, liver and kidney. In a final attempt to see some of the world with his wife, Mr Munns flew to Canada in 2005.

During both flights he gripped his wife's hand as she talked him through breathing exercises to calm him down. The couple were planning a trip to New Zealand when he died.
Later that year Mrs Munns, a retired auxiliary nurse who cared for her husband throughout his illness, set off on her first solo trip.
Each time she carried a small amount of ashes in an envelope to avoid problems with customs.
After returning to her daughter's home in Italy, she went to Istanbul, the Great Wall of China, Ireland, Belgium and France in 2007. She then visited Israel in 2008 and Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Swiss Alps last year.
Mr Munns' ashes have also been scattered in their home village, Fordham in Cambridgeshire - where he was born - and Dundee, where his wife was born.
Sponsorship for the trips to China and New Zealand raised £10,500 for St Nicholas Hospice Care in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, which helped Mr Munns before his death.
'I am so grateful that I had him for as long as I did,' Mrs Munns said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260875/Widow-Rita-Munns-travels-60-000-miles-scatter-ashes-husband-Richard-world.html#ixzz0jLxiDicH

So weak, so macho

"Weak macho" might sound as an oxymoron but is not.

According to a scientific research, infact, men show less strenght than women, under certain circumstances, because of their preference to face any risk.

That's for a sort of a compensation law that moves resources from a human sector to another in order to allow men's prediliction for risky behaviour.

Read more by Fiona Macrae on DM on line

"Watching a chap battle a bout of man flu is not a pretty sight.
With his snuffly nose, hacking cough and hangdog expression, there's no surprise that women are regarded as the more stoic of the sexes.
But what is it that makes men such sickly sorts who take to their beds at the first sign of a sniffle?
Ironically, it's apparently all down to the inherent masculine drive for adventure and danger.
According to Cambridge University researchers, modern man's ancestors had a predilection to risky behaviour (which is still seen today in anything from getting into fights to having affairs).
This tendency would have made the male system more vulnerable to becoming ill.
It could have gone down the obvious path of evolving stronger immune systems to beat off bugs.
But this would have put men at risk of developing various auto-immune diseases caused by the immune system going into overdrive.
It would also have zapped resources needed for other bodily processes, including reproduction.
So nature opted for a weaker immune system, ushering in the man who thinks a cold is the flu and a headache a migraine.
Other research has shown that men take more time off work for colds and flu than women and that the sexes are targeted and infected by different parasites when holidaying in the tropics.
Dr Olivier Restif, whose man flu theory is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggested tailoring vaccination campaigns to take into account men's greater vulnerability.
He said: 'If you could identify the differences you may want to treat men and women differently."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1260180/Why-man-flu-isnt-fault-hes-macho.html#ixzz0j4YtCPuX

Sometimes they return

Rome's ancient emperor Vespasianus would surely give his plaudits to the idea that Council bosses had in Eastleigh, Hants, in order to avoid the unpleasant show of men urinating on the public streets, specially at Sunday nights.

Though I believe that at least two side barriers should be erected to contain the bin, aimed to save users reservation and passers-by's decency.

To know more by Daily Mail Reporter

If you ever tempted to remonstrate with a drunken young man relieving himself by the side of the street late one night, be warned - he might just be doing his bit for the environment.

New 'wheelie bin urinals' are to be placed around a town which has been deluged by drinkers relieving themselves in the street.
The new breed of public toilets will allow men to urinate into a funnel that transfers the liquid into a compartment in the base where it is converted into bio-fertiliser.
Council bosses in Eastleigh, Hants, say the town has been blighted by people urinating in its streets, alleyways and shop doorways.
The modified wheelie bins have a separate section that acts as a urinal
Figures show that in just 12 months, 42 people were successfully prosecuted for urinating on the streets of Eastleigh and made to pay out £8,201 in costs and fines.
Hampshire Police Chief inspector Diana Boyles said: 'Urinating in the streets is considered to be a problem and both Eastleigh Borough Council and the police are looking at it.'

It has a separate area for rubbish.
Environmental services bosses have been asked to investigate the cost of the bizarre solution for the town where no public toilets are open late at night.
Dee Buffone, town centre partnership chairman, said: 'It is a superb idea and I hope it is brought in. I just hope people use them.
'To see someone going in the street is extremely unpleasant, particularly if you are a young lady.
'I cannot believe people are leaving the pubs without using the toilets and then going in the street. The alleyways often have a bad smell in them on Mondays.
'We are working with landlords to make sure what their customers drink in the pub stays in the pub.
'We may even end up putting up posters to remind people to use the toilet before they leave, as silly as that sounds.' The new units are the same size as a standard wheelie bin.
Designer Stephan Bischof says they will cost around £80.
He went on to suggest they are put in problem areas and emptied into a garden or park every two weeks to be used as compost.
The scheme will only target male drinkers and there are no plans to create a woman's version of the toilet.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259590/The-80-wheelie-bin-built-toilet-late-night-emergencies.html#comments#ixzz0isp78b2q

Mind the button

If you get married just start reinforcing your shirt's buttons, 'cause they will risk to be shot up by increasing belly fat!

An official study, made up in Greece on a survey of more than a thousand people has showed infact that married men are three times as likely to suffer from abdominal obesity as single men, while married women are twice as likely to have those problems as those who remain unmarried.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1259280/Marriage-makes-fat.html#ixzz0ihGCgglN

Royals on their own!

May be because they lost the last world war; or might be for desire of fame; or, who knows?, for need of money; whatever can be the reason, the Italian royals Savoia started working very hard in order to pay their own fees.

The youngest heir of the family became a very busy TV showman!

Of course we don't mean British Royals should do the same!

At least they didn't escape during the war nor they involved their country in an insane dictatorship!

Anyway we prefer the Italian royals being showmen (of course if they are able to play with!)

Read more on the DM online By Stephen Wright

"Scotland Yard chief Sir Paul Stephenson has expressed concerns about the costs of protecting Princess Eugenie and other 'B-list' royals

Britain's top policeman has expressed concerns about the cost to the taxpayer of protecting Princess Eugenie and other 'B-list' royals.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson is looking at how best to use resources at his cash-strapped force.

One area of concern is the cost of armed, round-the-clock protection for the 19-year-old princess - a renowned party animal - during her first year at Newcastle University.

Insiders estimate it at £250,000 a year - including salaries, accommodation, living and travel expenses.

Sir Paul is involved in a fierce dispute with ministers over the estimated £50million a year cost of protecting 22 members of the Royal Family.

He has told Home Secretary Alan Johnson the Government should pay the full amount rather than the £30million it currently provides.

Dai Davies, a respected former head of the Yard's Royalty Protection Squad, said some officers had expressed their doubts about the need for Eugenie to have full-time armed bodyguards.

He said: 'I am not aware of any evidence of any threat to her. If there isn’t a threat, it would appear to be a pointless exercise. It’s difficult to see the justification in security terms for providing such protection 24/7.'

Policing arrangements for Prince Andrew’s children have come under intense scrutiny in recent years.
The attempted mugging of Eugenie while she was travelling in Cambodia in May 2009 during her gap year highlighted the role of her protection officers.

They were able to defend her because they had accompanied her during her trip.
Critics pointed out, however, that it was Eugenie’s decision to go backpacking that attracted the threat. She was not targeted because she was a royal and therefore should not get VIP treatment from the Yard, they add.

A number of cynics have also questioned how details of the mugging were leaked to a national newspaper, which duly splashed her 'ordeal', just weeks after the row over her security arrangements first blew up.


At Newcastle, Eugenie is said to be living in a £96-a-week hall of residence, and is in the first year of a three-year course combining English, art history and politics.
Her protection officers are based in a nearby flat rather than a luxury hotel, which is where they normally stay when following the globe-trotting, party loving princess around the world.

Her older sister, Beatrice, 21, also enjoys full-time protection. She is living in a four-bedroom apartment in St James’s Palace while studying history at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The decision to continue to provide Beatrice and Eugenie with 24-hour guards is said to stem from a secret deal agreed between their father, Andrew, and a senior Scotland Yard officer when his former wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, was pregnant with Beatrice in 1988.
During a private meeting, the prince is said to have forcefully requested that Scotland Yard provide lifelong armed protection to his children because he feared they might one day be targeted in a terrorist or violent attack. The unidentified senior officer is said to have agreed.
Eugenie's older sister, Beatrice, enjoys full-time protection, as does their father, Prince Andrew

Insiders claim that Prince Andrew regards his daughters' having Yard bodyguards as being good for their 'status'.

The funding issue is particularly acute because the Met, like other forces, is planning to cut frontline officers.

The tight security round Prince Andrew's daughters is in marked contrast to the protection provided to Princess Anne's daughter Zara.

Though she is a professional horsewoman with a higher profile than her cousins, neither she nor her brother Peter are routinely guarded.

Buckingham Palace and Scotland Yard refuse to comment on security. "



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257866/Scotland-Yard-chiefs-fury-royal-security-Princess-Eugenie-B-list-royals.html#ixzz0iDvmFQfN

Proud to be so different!

He looks really proud of himself this very rare penguin. Someone could think he just forgot to wear his shirt but it's not the truth. As matter of fact the penguin is a very rare one, pictured at Fortuna Bay as nature has done it!

Penguin suit? I'd rather wear an All Blacks shirt!

Read more By Mail Foreign Service
Some of us just can't help standing out from the crowd.
But few exhibitionists are as startling - or as rare - as this all-black penguin.
The king penguin, described by experts as 'one in a zillion', is thought to suffer from melanism, a mutation that turned it black.

The penguin shuffles towards the photographer as a ship lies anchored in Fortuna Bay, South Georgia
It was spotted by wildlife watchers at Fortuna Bay on South Georgia, about 860 miles off the Falklands in the Atlantic.
After being shown the pictures by National Geographic magazine, Dr Allan Baker of the University of Toronto described them as 'astonishing'.
'I've never ever seen that before,' he said. 'It's a one in a zillion kind of mutation somewhere. The animal has lost control of its pigmentation patterns. Presumably it's some kind of mutation.'
The photograph was taken by Andrew Evans, one of those who spotted the penguin among several thousand of its normal-coloured counterparts.

A seal looks warily at the incredibly rare all black penguin
'Observing this black penguin waddle across South Georgia's black sand beach revealed no different behaviour than that of his fellow penguins,' he wrote on a National Geographic blog
'In fact, he seemed to mix well. Regarding feeding and mating behaviour there is no real way to tell, but I do know that we were all fascinated by his presence and wished him the best for the coming winter season.'
Because black penguins are particularly rare there has been very little research into them.
It is estimated that about one in every 250,000 penguins shows evidence of the condition - but few are as completely black as the one pictured here.
Melanism is, however, common in many other species.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the condition is the darkness in an animal’s skin, feathers, or fur is acquired by populations living in an industrial region where the environment is soot-darkened. It can be gene related.
It does, however, mean that the probability that its members will survive and reproduce is enhance.
The condition evolves over the course of several generations.
But due to being lighter in colour, they become more conspicuous to predators.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1256577/One-rare-bird-Black-penguin-suffers-zillion-mutation.html#ixzz0hqdTsBqi

Smoke can kill you....

.......at 85! Of course I'm sure that smoke can really kill you, but someone, considering that Dick Whittamore died at 85 (after living 10 years more than the average in the western countries) could be tempted to start smoking after knowing his story.

As matter of fact Dick started smoking on his young age and suffered of emphysema because of cigarettes.

So he wanted a sign to be shown along with his funeral hearse to warn everybody about the damaging can be caused by the wrong habit of smoking sigarettes.

A very original idea by a surely original man.

Read more

'Smoking killed me': Pensioner issues final warning... on the back of his funeral hearseBy Daily Mail Reporter on 02nd March 2010
A smoker's final wish was fulfilled today when his hearse was paraded through the streets bearing the sign Smoking Killed Me.
Dick Whittamore's last request was that the stark message be displayed alongside his coffin and by his gravestone as a warning to others.
The signs, printed in the same typeface as the health warnings on a cigarette packet, read Smoking Killed Me, Albert (Dick) Whittamore.
'Smoking killed me': The coffin of Albert 'Dick' Whittamore arrives at St Mary's Cemetery in Dover, Kent surrounded by his warning to others

Passersby stopped to watch the unusual sight as the hearse travelled through the high street in Dover, Kent, where he lived.
The former assistant theatre manager from Dover, Kent, suffered badly from emphysema, a lung disease caused by the toxins in cigarette smoke.
Smoker: Albert 'Dick' Whittamore
He died aged 85 on February 16 in William Harvey Hospital in Ashford following a heart attack and was buried today.

He blamed his ill health on his addiction to tobacco in his youth.

Funeral director Paul Sullivan, 36, of Sullivan and Son undertakers in Dover, said the request in Mr Whittamore's will was an 'unusual one'.

He said: 'He gave specific instructions in his will. Apparently he was a heavy smoker in his youth and he suffered from emphysema for several years, making his breathing very difficult.
'His will said he wanted to warn smokers what can happen if you continue the habit.

'We put the boards one each side of the coffin and one behind. His gravestone is going to have a traditional message on it, but we are to leave one of the printed boards saying "Smoking Killed Me" by the grave for one week.
'He wanted to do his bit to get the message across to people about the health problems which smoking can cause.'

Mr Sullivan said Mr Whittamore, who was known as 'Dick' and had lived in Dover since he was 10, ran a printing shop for almost 50 years, never married and had no children. He was adopted and was buried alongside his adoptive mother.
Stark message: The funeral directors remove Mr Whittamore's coffin

Emphysema is caused by cigarette smoking and it destroys the lung tissues and causes shortness of breath.
Mr Sullivan added:'It is a very graphic image to have the sign by the coffin.

'I have never been asked to put signs in the hearse before, it is very unusual.'
The hearse went from Mr Whittamore's house through the streets, past the site of the old Royal Hippodrome Theatre where he was assistant manager and on to the cemetery.
His friend, journalist Terry Sutton, 80, said: 'Dick was a great publicist - he loved the days when he worked at the Hippodrome Theatre.
'He started as an errand boy before the war and during the war he was promoted to assistant manager.

Mr Whittamore's coffin lies in his grave at St Mary's Cemetery in Dover, Kent, alongside the sign
'He knew all the stars who came to the theatre before it was destroyed by enemy bombing during WW2.

'He loved to see the striptease artists there. In later years I would see him through the town in his mobility wheelchair and he was always very proud to have his age on a badge on his chest.
'He was a real character. He was a heavy smoker in his younger days so he asked his solicitors to make it public - he was doing this to persuade young people not to take up the habit.
'Although in an earlier will, he suggested strippergram girls should be at the graveside - but this was dropped.'
A couple of dozen friends attended the funeral which was held at


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254881/Cigarettes-killed-Message-smoker-funeral-hearse.html#ixzz0h5fqWMd8