The M 200G

‘FLYING SAUCER’ NEARS US TAKE-OFF

It has been called the vehicle of the future and the ultimate way to beat the rush hour commute.

It is the M 200G, otherwise known as a “flying saucer”, which is being built by a company in Davis, California called Moller International.

It says the futuristic contraption will go on sale in a few months and hopes to expand production to 250 a year.

Company representatives say it is easy to operate, with plenty of leg room and space for a passenger.

Capable of vertical take-off and landing, the craft hovers like a helicopter up to 10ft off the ground. Any higher and the driver would need a pilot’s license.

It is the brainchild of Dr Paul Moller, an aeronautics engineer who envisions a “highway in the sky” which he believes could cut conventional commuter traffic in half.

“Look at the sky above us - how many aircraft do you see? It’s a great space that is not being utilised. That is what we plan to use.

Cars are finished as a means of getting around. It’s only a matter of time.”

The flying saucer is powered by eight engines which can run on petrol, diesel or even ethanol.

Dr Moller and his team have already conducted more than 200 test flights and say the flying saucer could prove useful to rescue teams as well as landowners.

It will sell for about $90,000 (£44,700) and the only question now surrounds licensing arrangements.
Moller International has yet to establish which US agency - the Federal Aviation Administration or the Department of Transport - will authorise its use.

It sees the flying saucer as a precursor to the M400 - otherwise known as the “Skycar” - which looks a bit like the Batmobile, also boasts vertical take-off and landing, and can be driven on the road as well as flown through the sky.

By the time the Skycar goes into production - probably in about six years time - it will be capable of climbing 6,000ft a minute and travelling at up to 400 miles an hour.

If Dr Moller and his magnificent men get their way, the days of dropping in to the shops or the office may not be far away.

Jackie Thompson , aged 70,
has been going to Blackpool
for 20 years

Further to my recent comments on 'Saga Louts', a group of men - some in their 70s - have been banned from a Blackpool hotel over fears of anti-social behaviour.

For 20 years the friends of Hallgarth Social Club in Gateshead have enjoyed their trip to play darts and dominoes.

Earlier this year the 16-strong all male group paid a deposit of £450 to stay at the Southbank Hotel.

But since then the hotel has been taken over by new management which bans large groups to deter hen and stag parties. The group has been given a refund.

Trip organiser, Jackie Thompson, said: "We have five or six pints on the Saturday and Sunday and that's it.

"I'm 70 years old and five feet six, so I can't cause much bother. I wish I could do what they think I could do.

"I'm extremely annoyed about what has happened."

A spokesman said the hotel did not want large groups of men to stay in case of trouble.

The men have now found another hotel to take them and take their trip next month.

Manningtree residents outside the Tesco Express

The people at Tesco think big. The company's hypermarkets are big, its share of the UK market is big, and its profits are big.

So big, in fact, that Tesco has recently unveiled record annual profits of £2.03bn ($3.83bn).

Under its tough but respected chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco is thought to account for one in every eight pounds spent in Britain's shops, while it has been expanding abroad rapidly.

The company sets great store by its commitment to competitive prices, customer service and efficiency.

But while Tesco shareholders may be cheering another set of glittering earnings figures, not everyone will be celebrating.

Critics of the company - and there are a growing number of them - argue Tesco is simply too big and too powerful.They say Tesco's sheer size is pushing smaller shops out of business.

Now residents of England's smallest town, Manningtree in Essex, are preparing to fight an application by the company to build a superstore they say will destroy the town's distinctive character and put local shops out of business. There is already a small Tesco Express in the High Street.

The town, which claims to be England's smallest by area, has a delicatessen, a farm shop, a whole food shop, two bakeries and a twice-weekly market with butcher, fishmonger and greengrocers and, currently, a small Tesco Express.

Tesco is now proposing to build a 30,000 square foot store on the edge of the town, right next door to the farm shop, opposite a newsagent and adjacent to the existing Five Ways Co-Op supermarket, the only large food store in the town, which has lodged an application to expand.

Residents point out that there are already 10 Tesco stores within 10 miles of Manningtree and the roads to them are better than the narrow roads of the Dedham Vale. The proposed new store is not on the local plan.

The David and Goliath contest is expected to begin in earnest when a planning application is lodged this autumn. It has already stirred up a hornet's next of opposition in the area.

Where do your sympathies lie?

I wrote yesterday about "Saga Louts". How about this story of an elderly driver who assaulted police officers?

But apparenly he was not drunk as he said he had only had 'a sip of communion wine.'

A frail 81-year-old who was charged with assaulting two burly policemen on his way from church last Christmas Eve will have to wait until after next Christmas for the chance to clear his name.

Frank Gibson, OBE, a former Conservative councillor, Tory group leader and mayor of Gravesend in Kent, went on trial in Chatham last week after denying assaulting the two young, well-built officers.

To his dismay, Mr Gibson - who is hard of hearing, has high blood pressure, arthritic hands and, at the time of his arrest, could barely walk following major surgery on his feet - was told at the end of the prosecution case that there was no space on the court calendar for the defence to be heard until January.

"Last year, this matter effectively ruined Christmas and now we will have this hanging over us again this Christmas," Mr Gibson said afterwards.

Mr Gibson is accused of pushing one officer in the chest and twisting the thumb of another after they pulled him over on suspicion of drink-driving as he drove home his Volvo.

A breath test was taken but, as Mr Gibson had only had a sip of communion wine, it was negative. But because the pensioner refused to get out of his car, saying he had done nothing wrong, Mr Gibson claims the two officers grabbed an arm each and dragged him from his vehicle.

Pc Steven Cole told Medway magistrates' court that Mr Gibson had grabbed his thumb. "It hurt. He twisted it back and I noted down in my pocket notebook that I let out a yelp. There is no way else of describing it."

John Fitzgerald, prosecuting, said: "Mr Gibson's reaction was to push Pc Thomas McGregor in the chest with his left hand and walk back to his car."

The officers said that they were so traumatised by the OAP's actions they called for back-up before arresting him.

Mr Gibson was handcuffed and taken to a police station, where he was held for more than five hours, returning home at 5am on Christmas Day.

The case was adjourned until Jan 22.

RISE OF THE 'SAGA LOUT'

More and more old people are becoming problem drinkers, according to the Scottish psychiatrist Dr Peter Rice. He wants us to take this phenomenon seriously.

Unfortunately, he has come up with such a glorious name for these boozy pensioners - "Saga louts" - that it is almost impossible to keep a straight face.

Saga louts congregate in gangs, sometimes disguised as "wine clubs". The men, in particular, adopt a dress code as inflexible as those of their grandchildren: blazer with gold buttons, cravat, pocket handkerchief folded just so.

And they have their own lingo: "What's your poison?", "Don't mind if I do", etc.

But they present no threat to public safety - unless, that is, you find yourself trapped in one of their gatherings, in which case you face the very real danger of being bored to death by a golfing anecdote.

Dr Peter Rice said the typical Saga lout acquired a taste for drinking at home as alcohol prices dropped in the 1970s and 80s and became more socially acceptable.

He said yesterday: "The trend in young people seems to be improving slightly but in older people the numbers being admitted to hospital with alcohol-related illnesses are increasing.

"People are actually increasing their drinking between the age of 60 and 65. It's a bottle of wine, or beer or spirits at home in the evening, but it all adds up to consumption above the recommended levels."

He said older people's drinking had not had the same public awareness as that of young people, adding that alcohol could be even more damaging to the health of the elderly.

Factors blamed for rising consumption among the elderly included a relatively higher level of disposable income, retirement and decreased social activity, -isolation, illness, insomnia and pain.

Note: SAGA is a UK-based organisation for senior citizens. As I am sure you all know, a 'Lager Lout' is a young British man who drinks too much alcohol and is then noisy, rude, or violent - often abroad.

A 90-year-old man went to see his GP and said: 'Doctor, my wife, who is 18, is expecting a baby.'

The doctor shook his head and said: 'Let me tell you a story.

A man went hunting, but instead of a gun he picked up an umbrella by mistake.

While he was in the woods a bear charged at him, so he pointed his umbrella at the bear, shot at it and killed it on the spot.'

The old man shook his head. 'That's impossible,' he declared. 'Somebody else must have killed the bear.'

'Exactly my point,' replied the doctor.

When did you last eat in a McDonald's "Restaurant"?

Up till now, I hse hesitated to use that word, as I regard them as a self-service fast-food outlets and not proper restaurants.

However, they have fulfilled the needs of children and young adults for many years

Now the are going upmarket, as they have been losing ground to the smarter chains of coffee bars and cafes.

McDonald's European restaurants now have designer touches and more localized menus.

The following article is from the New York Times:

TO WOO EUROPEANS, MCDONALD'S GOES UPSCALE

LONDON — Taking a respite from an afternoon of shopping, Ita Clift sips a cappuccino at a McDonald’s. Though she rarely sets foot in the fast-food restaurant, Ms. Clift says she dropped in to this one in the Edgware Road section of Northwest London for a quick boost of energy and because the restaurant “looked so nice and sophisticated.”

A McDonald’s in central London includes chairs that are not typically found in the chain’s restaurants in the United States.

Aiming to create a more relaxed experience in a sophisticated atmosphere, McDonald’s is replacing bolted-down plastic yellow-and-white furniture with lime-green designer chairs and dark leather upholstery.

It is the restaurant chain’s biggest overhaul in more than 20 years and, with its franchisees, it plans to spend more than 600 million euros ($828 million), remodeling 1,280 European restaurants by the end of this year.

The changes are more than cosmetic. McDonald’s is introducing healthier foods and items that cater to regional tastes, like caffè lattes. Hoping to attract more young adults and professionals, in addition to its core customer base of children, the chain is also adding amenities like Internet access and rental iPods.

The changes are paying off. In the first half of this year, combined sales at Europe’s 6,400 restaurants rose 15 percent, to $4.1 billion, compared with a 6 percent increase in the United States, where McDonald’s has 13,800 restaurants and sales totaled $3.9 billion.

The strength of European currencies helped, but even without the lagging American dollar, European revenue is rising faster in real terms than revenue in the United States.

“McDonald’s is doing a great job in Europe, which has become an enormously important market for them,” said Larry Miller, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

The chain now serves over 10 million customers a day in Europe, which contributes 36 percent to the company’s operating income, making it the most profitable region, after the United States.

The original impetus for the makeover was a European sales slump in the late 1990s, brought on by concerns about obesity and annoyance at unappealing décor and grumpy employees. But the ideas for how to change came from Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald’s Europe, the first non-American in that role.

As head of McDonald’s restaurants in his native France in the late 1990s, Mr. Hennequin had searched for ways to make fast food more appealing to a nation that prefers slow-simmered cassoulets and likes to savor a meal.

“To make McDonald’s and a Big Mac work in the country of slow food, we felt we had to pay more attention to space and showcasing,” said Mr. Hennequin, seated in front of zebra print wallpaper in one of the remodeled London restaurants.

He was right. After refurbishment, on average, sales increased 4.5 percent at the upgraded restaurants in France. The new outlets were so successful that two years ago Mr. Hennequin was asked to do the same for the rest of Europe.

But now the success of his makeovers comes with a challenge of its own: How much can you upgrade the image before McDonald’s isn’t McDonald’s anymore? “If you stretch the brand too much it can snap,” said Dean Crutchfield, director of marketing at the brand consultancy Wolff Olins in New York.

Mr. Hennequin said he did not have a choice. “Reimaging is essential in the competitive world of retail,” he said. “We need to avoid aging faster than our customers.”

To do that he instructed the design studio he had set up in Paris to come up with nine different designs. Franchised restaurants, which account for about 64 percent of all European outlets, can then choose the design most appropriate for their location and clientele.

The designs range from “purely simple,” with minimalist décor in neutral colors, to “Qualité,” featuring large pictures of lettuces and tomatoes and gleaming stainless steel kitchen utensils, like meat grinders.

“The new ones are much more comfortable, less crammed and we love those chairs,” said 16-year-old Shane Bogela, referring to the redesigned stores and the “egg” chairs, designed by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, at a McDonald’s in London.

A separate food factory in Munich is trying to come up with new menus for the different tastes in the 41 European countries, including Russia, where McDonald’s operates.

In Britain, McDonald’s restaurants started to serve porridge for breakfast. In Portugal, they offer soup and in France, cheese saga — burgers with French cheeses.

McDonald’s first adapted its menu to local tastes in the 1980s when it started to offer beer in some of its German restaurants.

Paying attention to local European tastes has also helped McDonald’s overcome some of the cultural hurdles it faced as a large American fast-food chain. “The problem in Europe was the perception that any large U.S. brand has, which is bringing the American way of eating and marketing and invading the local culture,” said David Kolpak, who helps manage $62 billion, including McDonald’s shares, at Victory Capital Management in Cleveland.

While head of McDonald’s restaurants in France, Mr. Hennequin experienced opposition to American corporations firsthand in 1999 when Jose Bové, the firebrand leader of a French farmers union, organized a bulldozing of a McDonald’s restaurant to protest the spread of American “hegemony.”

Mr. Hennequin reacted with a large advertising campaign promoting the American chain’s use of local produce and its creation of local jobs. McDonald’s not only organized open-door days for customers to come see its kitchens, but also invited customers to make a trip to its suppliers.

While palates differ from country to country, design is more universal, Mr. Hennequin said. He admires strong brands that reinvent themselves to become more fashionable and appealing, as the trendy car line Mini Cooper did. In France, he hired the same advertising agency as Apple Computer, another brand Mr. Hennequin said he admired for its adaptability.

“We would like to stay true to our roots while moving forward,” Mr. Hennequin said.

This means that McDonald’s kept its trademark golden arches logo in Europe but got rid of the red accompanying it. Instead, restaurants feature a warm burgundy color. The pointy roofs are being phased out and replaced by simple olive green facades, and the bright neon lights in the restaurants were dimmed.

French fries and cheeseburgers remain the best sellers on the menu.

Remodeling is also catching on in the United States, where McDonald’s has renovated about 6,000 of its 13,800 restaurants in the last two years, though less extensively than in Europe. Some analysts say the new design works better in Europe than in the United States, where most McDonald’s customers prefer to eat in their cars or take their food home.

“And they won’t change their habits,” Mr. Kolpak said.

The New Look:

I may visit them one of these days!

The spire of Salisbury cathedral is the highest in England.

But why was it built so high? Perhaps to reach further towards Heaven although, because it can be seen from a far distance, it also guides people towards it.

Nowadays church steeples and spires can have another purpose: they are used as mobile telephone masts.

But this is not without controversy and there have been many objections on health grounds. However, these are often unsuccessful because of the lack of scientific evidence of harmful radiation.

More recently another reason for banning the masts has been found.

Earlier this year George Pulman QC, Chancellor for the Diocese of Chelmsford, banned the St Peter and St Paul Church in Chingford, east London, from erecting a T-Mobile base station in its spire, saying it would be wrong in law for churches to "facilitate the transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way".

In his judgment Pulman concluded that some of the material to be transmitted is not consistent with the Christian use of a church. He said the original concept of a mobile phone was to enable two people to talk to each other. But now they could be used to download a vast range of obscene images, pornography, pictures of real or simulated child abuse and other material from the internet.

He said he considered it wrong for the Church to facilitate transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way. It is equally wrong for the Church to gain financial advantage, even in a slight or modest way, from the transmission of pornography.

All this has come about because the new 3G or third-generation phones can access the internet, enable films to be watched and be used for online gambling.

However, this week George Pulman's ruling was overruled by the 800-year old Court of Arches, which allowed an appeal headed by the Rev Tom Page, rector of Chingford, and backed by QS4, which puts aerials on churches.

The Court of Arches ruled that protections are in place to prevent children viewing pornographic images on their phones.

It found that while the mast may lead to some adults receiving improved access to pornography on their phones, it must be remembered that human beings are "imperfect" and to refuse the mast on that ground would be an "unbalanced approach".

Headed by the Right Worshipful Sheila Cameron QC, Dean of the Arches, the court's ruling stated: "The risk associated with the internet is of children viewing pornography, or even being drawn into sexual abuse, and this has been clearly identified by the Government and by mobile phone operators and action has been taken to counter the risk."

The court said Chancellor Pullman had "failed properly to evaluate such evidence as was before him and did not attempt to conduct any balancing of the arguments for and against" the granting of permission.

So that's alright then? Churches can now earn £10,000 or more a year for telephone masts to be installed.

Commercial considerations have triumphed once again.

Lets, hope that the masts are disguised and do not look like this:

P.S. There is an interesting, illustrated technical article about the siting of mobile telephone masts at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2001/09/pan62/pan62-/Q/Zoom/80

GOVERNMENT STARTS TRACKING BLOGS

The government's Central Office of Information (COI) is creating a blog monitoring utility that will track hot debates on government policy and forward them to relevant departments.

The tool, developed by the COI's Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), will use software created by internet intelligence company 23 Ltd, which automatically monitors the internet for blogs attracting a large amount of debate and flags those with enough posts.

The flagged threads are then forwarded to an analyst who assesses the worth of the thread, the positives and negatives, and repackages it into a useable briefing for the official on the other end of the service.

Around 100 blogs will be monitored initially covering a range of issues from pensioners to counter terrorism, with the hope being that the service will eventually feature a series of daily alerts for subscribing members.

"What we're trying to do is provide a service on a more organised and widespread basis," says MMU director David Mitchell. "We looked at an online debate among pensioners in a recent budget. The debate looked at how the budget impinged on pensioners, their council tax payments, winter fuel allowances and so on."

MacUser

MAN DETAINED FOR UNLAWFUL USE OF BROADBAND CONNECTION

A man has been arrested for using a broadband internet connection in the street without the owner's permission.

The 39-year-old was using his laptop while sitting on a wall outside a house in Chiswick, west London, when two community support officers challenged him.

He was detained after admitting using the wireless internet connection without permission.

Detective Constable Mark Roberts, of the Metropolitan police computer crime unit, said dishonestly using an unsecured wireless connection was a criminal offence.

"This arrest should act as a warning to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to illegally use other people's broadband connections," he said.

"To do so potentially breaches the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act ... computer users need to be aware that this is unlawful and police will investigate any violation we become aware of."

Since the Communications Act was passed in 2003, only a handful of people have been prosecuted.

In April this year, a man was cautioned by police after neighbours saw him using a laptop in a car parked outside a house in Redditch, Worcestershire.

In 2005, a man was fined £500 for illegally using someone else's wireless broadband connection in London.

The man arrested yesterday was released on bail until October pending further inquiries.

Wireless networks should be protected with a password to block unauthorised users.

DINERS SERVED POOR-QUALITY ZEBU STEAK AT UK PUBS

Ordering a steak in a British pub may acquaint you with an exotic animal you have never heard of nor seen. An undercover investigation has found that many of the prime cuts that one might have assumed came from a British cow actually come - at least partly - from a humped oxon-like creature living in Africa and Brazil.

The zebu is often cross-bred with European cattle to make them survive tropical conditions and has a reputation of producing poor meat.

The discovery that DNA from it rather than a Hereford or Aberdeen Angus is filling the stomachs of diners at British pubs was made by an ITV programme screened testerday, "Undercover Mum".

In the programme, a former undercover policewoman, Nina Hobson, visited 15 pubs belonging to two of Britain's biggest pub groups, JD Wetherspoons and Greene King's Hungry Horse chain.

Ms Hobson, who has two children, randomly selected the pubs from the chains' 650 outlets across Britain.

Staff sometimes said that the steaks she ordered were British or they did not know where the meat came from. The programme sent samples of the meat for laboratory analysis. It found - allegedly - that three out of nine Hungry Horse and four out of six JD Wetherspoons pubs were selling steaks with DNA from the zebu.

Although legal, the animal and its cross-breeds were removed from a British quality scheme. In April, the English Beef and Lamb Executive explained: "Tropically adapted Zebu breeds produce meat with an overall poorer eating quality and more variability than that from British or European breeds."

JD Wetherspoons said it sold 140,000 steaks a week. It added: "Zebu is ... taxonomically identical to any other breed of cattle such as Charolais, Limosin or Hereford."

Hungry Horse said it did "not sell zebu steaks".

The Independent

N.B. 'Taxonomy' is a method of classifying living things

First female gondolier

FEMALE GONDOLIER ATTACKS 'GREEDY' MALE RIVALS.

Venice's first female gondolier has claimed that her male counterparts have abandoned tradition and are ripping off tourists.

Alexandra Hai, Venice’s only female gondolier, has labelled her male counterparts as greedy, discourteous and ignorant

Alexandra Hai, 40, said many were greedy and had forgotten the noble art of steering their craft around the city's waterways. Instead, she said, they mass-loaded tourists on to their gondolas and ferry them "a couple of times around the block".

Technically, the price for a gondola trip is £55 for 40 minutes, but tourists rarely get the full time for which they have paid.

"It used to be a privilege to be a gondolier," said Miss Hai. "They were called the princes of Venice. Now they do not even keep their gondolas clean."

Miss Hai has been fighting a decade-long battle to be accepted by the city's all-male gondolier guild. But being a woman has not been her only disadvantage. She is German, a fact resented by many of the other gondoliers, who are all Venetian.

Aldo Rosso, a judge in Miss Hai's gondolier exam, admitted that the cartel was more or less closed to outsiders. "The tradition is to keep this from father to son," he explained. "A gondolier only makes so much money. If he has a son, to whom his licence can be passed, that furnishes him with a pension."

However, Miss Hai said that tradition now counted for little among modern gondoliers. "They are also supposed to study three languages in the gondoliering school but they do not bother anymore," she added.

"Basically, to be a good gondolier, you should spend two years learning the waterways, where you can go in high and low tide, and where the underwater currents and eddies are.

"But you also need to know how to treat your customers politely. There is no romance in a gondola trip when your gondolier does not shut up on his mobile phone."

She said that gondolas originally designed for a couple and their servant are now loaded with as many as six people sitting on the sides of the boat.

In addition, they usually travelled in convoy, rather than offering visitors the pleasure of a solitary and tranquil journey.

"Day-trippers are part of the problem. They do not want to pay much, so it works out cheaper for them to go for rides in mass groups. And then there are about 40 of them so they all want to go together," she said.

Miss Hai, who has eschewed the stripey shirt as a modern gimmick, wears an 18th century uniform and has replica 15th century ironwork on her craft.

She said she had been threatened several times, and that her gondola had been stolen from its moorings and left elsewhere in the city.

The Venetian Gondola Association was not available for comment.

(Daily Telegraph)

IS IT FOOLISH VANITY?

Dr Jeffry Life, 67, shows off his physique
before and after a Cenegenics programme

With his six-pack stomach, bulging chest and bull-like shoulders, the muscleman in the newspaper advertisement above displays the sort of rippling torso that adorns the cover of men's fitness journals.

But there is one difference. From the neck up, Dr Jeffry S Life is a balding 67-year-old physician.

His physique is the product not of a computer touch-up but a controversial American "ageing management" technique, that often includes a cocktail of human growth hormones and testosterone.

Some 13,000 clients have so far spent thousands of dollars on a technique known as Cenegenics (from the Greek for "new beginning"). As post-war baby boomers enter their 60s, it promises to boost performance from the office to the gym to the bedroom.

The initial one-day $2,995 evaluation at the Cenegenics Medical Institute (CMI) in Las Vegas, has already attracted a handful of unnamed Britons seeking the secret of Dr Life's remarkable torso.

However, unlike many other health fads, there is one reason why it may not prove popular.

Cenegenics was the brainchild of Alan Mintz, a radiologist, whose own buffed body also used to be the best advertising for his business - until he died in June, aged 69, five years short of the average male American life expectancy.

His death prompted internet speculation that he paid the ultimate price for using human growth hormones. But the CMI has been at pains to assert that Dr Mintz's passing was the result of a brain haemorrhage. His decline was due to an accident in the gym, according to Dr Life, his friend and personal physician, who also works for Cenegenics in Las Vegas.

After the initial evaluation, clients spend up to $13,000 on exercise and diet regimes, supplemented by vitamins and, in most cases, hormone replenishment such as testosterone.

Approximately 20 per cent are also prescribed injections of human growth hormones if they are diagnosed as demonstrating adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD).

Critics say that it is unproven and potentially dangerous. Tom Perls, a professor of medicine at Boston University, expressed surprise at the number of Cenegenics clients diagnosed with AGHD, as he said the condition normally affects three people in 10,000.

In an interview outlining his philosophy last year, Dr Mintz listed a panoply of positives that he attributed to human growth hormone. They include a decrease in fat and skin wrinkling, an increase in muscle and improved mood.

"Next year does not have to be worse than this year," Dr Mintz said. "How about good sexual activity with your loved one once a week, twice a week, feeling good about it?"

EXERCISE WON'T SHIFT THE FAT FOR ONE IN SIX

Exercise may be a waste of time for one person in six wanting to tone up their body, researchers have discovered.

They found genes could have a far stronger impact on how receptive we are to exercise.

While some people tone up quickly, for others slaving away in the gym can have little effect.

The implication from the Louisiana State University study is that those who exercise hard but cannot shift problem weight might be able to blame their parents.

Dr Claude Bouchard, who led the study, explained people were either "high-responders", "low-responders" or "non-responders" to exercise.

The physiologist and his team made the revelation after studying the differing effects on 742 sedentary people of a 20-week exercise programme, in which the intensity was gradually increased.

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They measured ability to process oxygen, ability to pump blood round the body, pulse rate, blood pressure and insulin resistance.

Dr Bouchard found 10-15 per cent of volunteers were non-responders to aerobic exercise. In some people the peak rate at which their muscles could process oxygen increased by up to 40 per cent. For others there was no improvement in this key measure of cardiovascular fitness, known as "VO2 max".

Researchers concluded: "Some people simply respond better to exercise. They have lower heart rates, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, better response to insulin and a host of other positive responses. Others who exercise the same amount simply don't get all the benefits, and it appears to be in the genes." The study was not all bad news. It found that every volunteer improved physically in some way. Dr Bouchard is now trying to identify which genes are responsible for receptiveness to exercise.

Fitness trainers had harsh words for those wanting to slacken off. Nicky Lawson, from David Lloyd in Heston, west London, said: "Genetics plays a part in your body shape and some people's metabolism is faster than others.

"But motivation plays a huge role. We have people who come in four times a week but they are not pushing themselves. To change, the body needs to be overloaded, and the best way to do that safely is with advice from a personal trainer."

People who take moderate exercise to stave off heart disease and other health problems have also been warned they may have to try harder

Just taking the odd stroll is not enough to "maintain and improve health", the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association said.

In 1995 it recommended people aged 18-65 should take at least 30 minutes' moderate exercise on most days. Now it says this advice, which was adopted by the Government, has been "misinterpreted".

It now recommends half an hour moderate exercise at least five days a week, plus vigorous aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes twice a week, plus two sessions of weight training or another form of muscle-strengthening exercise at least twice a week.

CANNIBAL TRIBE APOLOGISES FOR EATING METHODISTS

A tribe in Papua New Guinea has apologised for killing and eating four 19th century missionaries under the command of a doughty British clergyman.

The four Fijian missionaries were on a proselytising mission on the island of New Britain when they were massacred by Tolai tribesmen in 1878.

They were murdered on the orders of a local warrior chief, Taleli, and were then cooked and eaten.

The Fijians - a minister and three teachers - were under the leadership of the Reverend George Brown, an adventurous Wesleyan missionary who was born in Durham but spent most of his life spreading the word of God in the South Seas.

Thousands of villagers attended a reconciliation ceremony near Rabaul, the capital of East New Britain province, once notorious for the ferocity of its cannibals.

Their leaders apologised for their forefather's taste for human flesh to Fiji's high commissioner to Papua New Guinea.

"We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," said Ratu Isoa Tikoca, the high commissioner.

Cannibalism was common in many parts of the South Pacific - Fiji was formerly known as the Cannibal Isles - and dozens of missionaries were killed by hostile islanders.

Born at Barnard Castle, Durham, Rev Brown emigrated to New Zealand as a young man and served as a missionary in Samoa before moving with his wife and children to New Guinea.

He was familiar with the cannibalistic traditions of the region and once described a visit to a village in which he counted 35 smoke-blackened human jaw bones dangling from the rafters of a hut.

"A human hand, smoke-dried, was hanging in the same house. And outside I counted 76 notches in a coconut tree, each notch of which, the natives told us, represented a human body which had been cooked and eaten there," he told the Royal Geographical Society.

Even so, he was shocked when told that four of his staff had been cannibalised.

"They were killed simply because they were foreigners, and the natives who killed them did so for no other reason than their desire to eat them, and to get the little property they had with them," he wrote.

He reluctantly agreed to launch a punitive expedition, ordering his men to burn down villages implicated in the murders and destroy wooden canoes.

At least 10 tribe members blamed for the attack were killed in an area known as Blanche Bay. Rev Brown claimed the raids made the region safe for Europeans.

In a letter to the general secretary of the London Missionary Society he wrote: "The natives respect us more than they did, and as they all acknowledge the justice of our cause they bear us no ill will."

But the reprisals attracted fierce criticism from the press, particularly in Australia.

The Australian newspaper said: "If missionary enterprise in such an island as this leads to wars of vengeance, which may readily develop into wars of extermination, the question may be raised whether it may not be better to withdraw the mission from savages who show so little appreciation of its benefits."

However, an official investigation by British colonial authorities a year later exonerated Rev Brown.

At last, a country that is to have more CCTV surveillance than the UK

Shenzhen is the richest, most developed city in China


CHINA'S 'BIG BROTHER SURVEILLANCE' TO DWARF UK

China has launched an ambitious "Big Brother" surveillance programme using everything from closed circuit television systems that can recognise faces to identity card computer chips to monitor its population.

A high-tech security company has been awarded a contract for the first phase of a scheme to encode computer chips for the residence permits all Chinese citizens must carry, starting in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

The government will use the chips to control the whereabouts of its hundreds of millions of migrant workers. But they will also store data on the number of their children under the one-child policy, education records and ultimately medical and credit histories.

The company is already setting up television systems throughout the city armed with "intelligent surveillance" software that can recognise faces.

Police hope eventually to combine the two systems to provide complete surveillance.

(Daily Telegraph)

Max Davidson has something in common with that globetrotting football star David Beckham: jet lag. Can Viagra keep them perky?

I never thought I would find myself writing this, but it is the literal truth. David Beckham and I have the same problem - and Viagra could be the answer to it.

Now plying his trade in Los Angeles, the footballer still hopes to play a key role in England's qualifying campaign for the 2008 European Championships, which resumes in four weeks. On form, our boy Becks probably merits selection. But is it realistic to expect him to give of his best when he has just got off a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles?

Jet lag, as every frequent flier knows, can be a killer. In my case, it nearly was. I have never handled transatlantic flights well and in 2006, straight off a flight from the Caribbean, I paid the price. I was driving through Wiltshire at three in the afternoon, nodded off at the wheel and crashed into the car in front. Mercifully, nobody was hurt.

Naturally, with my history, a story in The Daily Telegraph on May 22, about how Viagra could perk up jet-lagged travellers, leapt out at me over the breakfast table. Could this be the answer to my prayers? Within hours, I was round at my doctor's surgery, clutching the newspaper.

"Viagra?" My GP looked dubious. "As a cure for jet lag?" "It's all right," I said hastily. "There's been some proper research." "Done by whom?" "Scientists in Buenos Aires." "And where was it published?" "The, er, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An American periodical. It's not The Lancet, but..." No, he said, it certainly wasn't The Lancet. He shot me a suspicious look. "You're not…?" Our eyes met across the consulting room. Alpha male looked at alpha male.

"No," I said firmly. "I'm not. Two children under my belt. No problems in that department." "Well, in that case…" Rather magnanimously in the circumstances, he scribbled out a prescription. "Let me look up the original research and email it to you." Twenty-four hours later, he was as good as his word. "These findings only relate to hamsters," ran his email. "I am not impressed." Sure enough, the Buenos Aires researchers who had blazoned forth their findings to the world had confined their study to rodents. What had they done? Flown hamsters to Australia, then taken their blood pressure?

In fact, when one studied their paper, they had been far more ingenious. They had confused laboratory hamsters by switching on their lights early, given half of them Viagra, then observed the results. The hamsters on Viagra, intriguingly, were up and pounding their exercise wheels faster than the ones not on Viagra. Even more intriguingly, the Viagra only worked when west-to-east flight patterns - for example, Los Angeles to London - were simulated.

The other way round, the hamsters didn't respond. Something to do with their circadian rhythms - body clock, to you and me.

Was it conceivable that these poor drugged creatures were trying to tell us something? As I was about to fly from London to Kuala Lumpur - 12 hours west to east, almost identical to the trip Beckham will have to make from Los Angeles - I decided to put the matter to the test.

Never again. First came the walk of shame to the chemist. "That will be £55," said the pharmacist, looking at me as if I was Hannibal Lecter.

Fifty-five quid! I could have flown to Venice for that. His assistant, a young Asian woman, couldn't bring herself to look me in the eyes.

Then came the experiment proper, mimicking the methods of the Buenos Aires team.

I normally struggle mid-afternoon after a long west-to-east flight, so at exactly 15.00 hours on my first day in Kuala Lumpur, I gave myself a small dose of Viagra, fed my partner a placebo of chocolate brownie and awaited developments. Hopeless. We both fell asleep an hour later, within five minutes of each other.

The next day, I doubled the dose of Viagra and gave my partner a placebo of white wine and pretzels. Again, hopeless. Apart from feeling a momentary twinge of lust for a Malaysian waitress who had left me cold the day before, I felt no discernible effects or side-effects.

On the third day, I did feel slightly perkier than I usually do in the early stages of jet lag. But perky enough to embrace Viagra as a cure for the condition? No way. Those boffins in Buenos Aires need to go back to the lab and experiment with something larger than hamsters. Horses perhaps. Or, better still, rhinoceroses.

I'm keeping an open mind. If David Beckham thinks that Viagra will help him combat jet lag as he whizzes to and from Los Angeles, let him give it a try. But he should (a) make sure he gets the dose right; and (b) consult his physician if he starts to feel unnatural cravings for the opposition left-back.

Max Davidson - Daily Telegraph

Exercising on just three days a week could have health benefits

Even low levels of weekly exercise could help reduce blood pressure and improve fitness, scientists say.

Experts say walking for half an hour, five days a week, is the minimum required to achieve health benefits.

But a Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health report from Northern Ireland found walking on just three days a week gave similar benefits.

The finding could encourage those with sedentary lifestyles to take up exercise gradually, the authors say.

This could be helpful as few people currently meet the minimum recommendations for exercise, with many saying they do not have enough time.

The study, led by researchers at Queen's University, Belfast, looked at 106 healthy but sedentary civil servants aged between 40 and 61.

The participants took part in a 12 week exercise programme - some were assigned to do 30 minutes of brisk walking five days a week, others did it three days a week, and the rest did not change their lifestyles.

In all, 93 people completed the study and their blood pressure, weight and hip circumferences, and other indicators of fitness were all measured before and after the 12-week programme.

There were no changes in the non-walking group, but in both walking groups there was a significant drop in blood pressure and waist and hip measurements.

This could reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

All walkers also had improved overall fitness.

The authors said such changes were enough to make a difference to an individual's risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

And they concluded: "The results may encourage people who feel they do not have time to exercise on five days each week to consider finding time to commit to a lower weekly target of exercise."

Dr Mark Tully, lead author of the research at Queen's University said exercising five days a week should still be the minimum goal, as it had greater positive effects on blood pressure.

But he said: "To get to that goal the first hurdle could be to exercise three days a week - it's a more achievable target to build up from.

"And people would still be getting benefits."

But he said more research was needed to assess the long-term effects of these levels of exercise.

Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation, said the study was a reminder that blood pressure could be reduced even through simple activities, such as brisk walking.

She said: "As this study suggests, the best results can be achieved through exercising for 30 minutes a day, five times a week.

"However, benefits can also be had from exercising three times a week.

"Doing any physical activity is better than doing none."

And Ken Fox, professor of health and exercise sciences at the University of Bristol, said it was "good news" that exercising three days a week had health benefits, but that exercising five days would still be better.

He said: "The message is to exercise five times a week, so you're doing something most days."

Bursledon Bridge

When I was a youngster I lived close to the River Hamble. Not far away was the village of Bursledon with a bridge carrying the A27 over the river.

At that time I had never heard of "Tombstoning", but now it is quite a common term. It is an extreme sport involving diving off a fixed point such as sea harbour walls, bridges, rocks and cliff faces into water.

Over the past few weeks there have been several newspaper articles about tombstoning from Bursledon Bridge.

Here is one of them (Courtesy of Southern Daily Echo):

TOMBSTONERS CAN STILL ESCAPE SCOT-FREE AFTER BY-LAW BUNGLE

A BUREAUCRATIC bungle means daredevils can continue jumping off a Hampshire bridge without fear of police action - as long as they leap off the right end!

A lack of joined-up thinking between two councils means that anyone "tombstoning" off the eastern end of the A27 Bursledon Bridge face arrest while those diving off the western half will get off scot-free.

Fareham Council has passed a by-law to make jumping off their side of the bridge illegal, but Eastleigh Council has failed to secure one for its half of the bridge.

So even though the eastern end is now a no-go zone for youngsters wanting to take the plunge into the River Hamble, the Eastleigh end still provides a platform for youths who fancy a cool down during the summer holidays.

Both councils joined forces last year in a bid to convince the Government that the law was needed but Eastleigh have failed to follow Fareham's speed in getting it enforced.

Eastleigh Council have started proceedings and expect their own by-law to be confirmed in early September but with the bridge proving a big attraction during the holidays, that may be too late for some.

The problem with bridge-jumpers has been getting worse over the past few years with youngsters continually ignoring the danger warnings.

With its very strong tide and strong undercurrent, the River Hamble poses a threat to youngsters.

Nine years ago a 16-year-old was scarred for life after leaping off the bridge and injuring his face.

The decision means that anyone caught tombstoning from the eastern side of the bridge can now be arrested by the police and charged.

A reader commented:

We probably need the next generation to be prepared to take risks. Preventing them isn't good for them or the UK. Let them jump, some will die, some will live to tell the tale and go on to fight those all important (energy) wars in the future.

Unfortunately there have been many cases of severe injury and death all ove