The 22-year-old soul singer Joss Stone — who recorded her new album ‘Colour Me Free” in her mother’s live music bar ‘Mama Stone’s’ in just a week — believes music should be shared for free whenever possible, while Lily Allen has campaigned vehemently to make internet file sharing a criminal offence.

Joss said about this and of Lily Allen:

‘It’s really about the track and about their personality and their celebrity and that’s how they make their money is selling those records.

‘So the downloads — she’s not going to win that fight.

‘None of us will win that fight.

‘So let’s just accept it and let’s see it as something that can be beautiful and it might change music for the better.

‘It might sort the weeds from the flowers.’

‘She needs to sell records because she’s not a singer, and that’s not an offence to her because I think that she knows that too.’

‘I think she’s a performer and she’s more of a personality than she is a singer.

‘And that’s what we make our money from, from playing live.
And I think it’s probably harder for an artist like Lily and any other pop acts.

Joss added that she makes music purely for enjoyment. She said:

‘Who said that musicians have to be millionaires?

‘Who made this a rule?

‘We don’t need that much money. We just don’t; we only need enough to make music and to eat and to go on tour.”

Our internal body clocks are shaped by the weather as well as by the seasons, scientists have discovered.

Researchers used computers to model the workings of internal biological clocks. They found the mechanism had to be so complicated because it was able to deal with varying amounts of light from hour to hour, as well as changing seasons.

It is hoped the research, led by a team from Edinburgh University, could help tackle sleep problems caused by jet lag and shift working.

The researchers said the findings gave them a greater understanding of what drives the internal rhythms of people, animals and plants.

Environmental signals, such as hours of daylight, affect the daily rhythms which many plants use to control flowering and ripening.

The findings may also help scientists develop crops that can cope with climate change.

The study was led by the University of Edinburgh, and involved researchers from the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), and the University of Warwick.

Mr. Carl Troein, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences, said:

‘By better understanding why biological clocks are so complex, we stand a better chance of controlling them.

‘Our study goes some way to explaining how and why these in-built rhythms have developed.

‘We hope it will be useful in informing treatments for sleep disorders as well as helping scientists develop crops that can survive in the long term.’

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘ Weather “shapes human body clock”‘ BBC News, 2009-10-20

Carl Troein
Millar Lab
Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences
University of Edinburgh
Mayfield Rd
Edinburgh UK
EH9 3JH
Phone: +44 131 651 3348
Email: carl.troein@ed.ac.uk, carl@thep.lu.se

According to the UN, the UK has been ranked the 21st best place in the world to live prior to the recession, and a recent uswitch report puts the UK as having the worst quality of life in Europe.

The report highlights the long hours, bad weather, low life expectancy and high price of many consumer goods in Britain.

In a study of ten of the largest European countries, Britain comes last followed by Ireland — with France and Spain topping the table.

Though British households enjoy the highest income, at 35 730 GBP/year, 10 325 GBP/year higher than the European average, British families have to contend with a high cost of living, with fuel, food and alcohol all costing more than the European average.

With a litre of unleaded petrol at 1.08 GBP/litre, Britain is the second most expensive country in Europe. However, diesel is more expensive in Britain than anywhere else in Europe – 1.13 GBP/litre, which is 0.19 GBP/litre (or 20 per cent) above the European average of 0.94 GBP/litre.

The report by price comparison website uSwitch analyses 10 European countries against 17 different benchmarks — from the price of gas, electricity, fuel, food and drink — to the amount each country spends on education, health, working conditions and the weather.

The top three countries are France, Spain and Denmark, with Sweden, Ireland and Britain coming eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

• The study comes less than a week after The United Nations moved Britain out of the top 20 list of most desirable countries to live in for the first time.

While France and Germany were initially hit hard by the global financial crisis, both have officially exited their recessions, while Britain has yet to confirm this has happened. Later this week, despite signs of recovery in the housing market and buoyant retail sales, there is expected to be grim economic news with unemployment predicted to have climbed to above 2.5 million for the first time since 1994.

The uSwitch report indicated that Britain suffers from the lowest number of days holiday per year, with the average worker entitled to 26 days, well below Spain on 41. British consumers also pays the highest prices for diesel, food and the country spends below the European average, as a percentage of GDP, on health, and education. It also has the 4th lowest life expectancy in Europe, at 78.9 years, compared with above 80 years in France, Italy and Sweden and workers retire later than most of their European counterparts.

Ms.Ann Robinson, The Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch, said:

There is more to good living than money and this report shows why so many Brits are giving up on the UK and heading to France and Spain.

‘We earn substantially more than our European neighbours, but this level of income is needed just to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table and our homes warm.

‘It’s giving us a decent standard of living, but it’s not helping us achieve the quality of life that people in other countries enjoy.’

• CLIPPED FROM:  ‘Britain has worst quality of life in Europe, study says‘, Harry Wallop, The Telegraph, 2009-10-12

The UK has been ranked the 21st best place in the world to live — flagging behind Ireland and Iceland.

The UN list, which saw Norway retain its status as the world’s most desirable place to live, ranks sub-Saharan African states afflicted by war and AIDS as the worst.

Data collected prior to the global economic crisis showed people in Norway, Australia and Iceland had the best living standards, while Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone scored worst in terms of human development.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) index was compiled using 2007 data on GDP per capita, education, and life expectancy, and showed marked differences between the developed and developing world.

‘Despite significant improvements over time, progress has been uneven,’ UNDP said in a statement.

‘Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and this was even before the impact of the global economic crisis was felt.’

Life expectancy in Niger was 50, about 30 years shorter than Norway, according to the index. For every USD earned per person in Niger, 85 USD was earned in Norway.
Liechtenstein has the highest GDP per capita at 85 383  USD in a tiny principality home to 35 000 people, 15 banks and more than 100 wealth management companies.

People were poorest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where average income per person was 298 USD/year.

Five countries — China, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and France — climbed three or more places from the previous year, driven by greater earnings and longer life expectancy.

China, Colombia and Venezuela also scored better due to improvements in education.

UNDP, which has published the index annually since 1990, said human development had improved globally by 15 percent since 1980, with China, Iran and Nepal the biggest climbers in the chart.

• The top 21 ranked states in the latest Human Development Index, which refers to data compiled in 2007, was prior to the world economic crisis.

Top 21 countries in the world to live based on data from 2007, according to the UN:

01. Norway
02. Australia
03. Iceland
04. Canada
05. Ireland
06. Netherlands
07. Sweden
08. France
09. Switzerland
10. Japan
11. Luxembourg
12. Finland
13. United States
14. Austria
15. Spain
16. Denmark
17. Belgium
18. Italy
19. Liechtenstein
20. New Zealand
21. United Kingdom

• CLIPPED FROM:’Revealed: The 20 best places in the world to live (and guess which country trails in 21st place?)’, Daily mail, 2009-10-06

Giles Visual Arts School has been ordered to pay 19 000 GBP after a 16-year-old girl lost most of her fingers when she put her hands in a bucket of ‘plaster of Paris’ during a school art lesson.

The teenager was attempting to make a sculpture of her own hands during a lesson in 2007-01 when the horrific accident happened, Boston Magistrates’ Court in Lincolnshire was told.

The plaster set around her hands and neither staff nor paramedics could get it off during the lesson at Giles School, in Boston.

The court was told that temperatures up to 60C can be generated in large quantities of plaster and the girl, who was referred to in court only as student X, suffered terrible burns.

• Plastic surgeons did what they could to help her but after a series of 12 operations she was left with no fingers on one hand and just two on the other.

The foundation school’s governing body admitted breaching health and safety regulations and also failing to report the incident to The Health and Safety Executive (The HSE).

The court was told that The HSE was never informed by the school about what happened. It only found out six weeks after the incident from the girl’s plastic surgeon.

The school was fined a total of 16 500 GBP and ordered to pay 2 500 GBP in costs.

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘Pupil lost fingers in art accident‘, Press Association via Yahoo! 2009-10-12 Mo.

Jamie and Jools Oliver and their brood have been named the family to which most parents of young children aspire, ahead of the Obamas and Beckhams.

A third of those who took part in the survey for broadcaster Nick Jr said they wanted to be more like the Channel 4 chef and his model wife.

A total of 11 per cent said they wanted their family to be more like Barack Obama’s, while 8 per cent plumped for a family situation like that of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

The research — to launch the channel’s new block of pre-school programmes ‘Wake Up World’, which began this week featuring shows such as ‘Dora The Explorer’ and ‘Peppa Pig’ — also found only a small proportion of families eat breakfast together.

Seven in 10 families said they eat dinner as a family at least once a week, but only three in 10 manage their morning meal as a group.

Half of the parents of two to five-year-olds admitted getting out of the house on time was the most difficult part of the morning.

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘Olivers most popular role models‘, Yahoo! News, 2009-10-06

I am a seventeen-year-old who had terrible and repulsive acne for the past 3 years, and literally got rid of it in one week by putting a clean towel over my pillowcase every day.

Bear with me here! Because I struggled with acne for so long, it’s hard to not make such a long post, because of how passionate about the topic I’ve grown. I know I may seem a bit loony, but all I want to do through this post is try to help someone.

This isn’t a spam post/advertisement — I’ve got no products to promote, and I’m not even going to advocate types of soaps here (that isn’t to say soap doesn’t help). I’m just making this for the sake of hopefully helping my fellow acne-sufferers.

I’d been having terrible, disgusting, simply repulsive acne for the past 3 years. I even have literally ~100 (yes, I was that obsessive) close-up pictures of the sides of my face that I’d use for posts that would plead for some miracle solutions or at least some helpful knowledge on the Internet. I was ashamed when I went to school, and was entirely too ashamed to approach people, because I knew engaging in conversation would mean having to get close enough for them to see my flaws.

There would be a new formation waiting for me every day, if not multiple formations. My skin… felt… alive. And possessed. I went to several doctors and tried things like (here are the ones I can remember) Erythromycin, Tetracycline, Differin, Retin-A, Aqua Glycolic Acid, etc.

Chugged bottle after bottle after bottle of water every day because it was supposed to help (and it very well might have, to some extent, but it wasn’t noticeable to me).

I even went several months carefully crushing up aspirin pills, mixing them with just the right amount of water, and then spreading that all over my face because of how many times I’d read about the salicylic acid supposedly helping at least some people out.

Some of these things seemed to cause changes, but overall, nothing significant. And more importantly, nothing really made it go away. As if my own body was taunting me, whitehead after pimple after unappealing, unidentified bump would develop overnight, and I couldn’t stand to look at myself in sunlight any longer.

Anyways, well, the whole overnight thing? That information, as I would find, turned out to be key. It should have made the solution much more apparent to me, and I wish I’d just thought about it earlier, but what can you do?

As it turns out, my pillowcase was the problem. I guess I didn’t change it as often as I should have. I’d change it once every two weeks or so.

Was that a normal rate? Apparently not, but I never knew, and frankly, I never minded it. Regardless, even if my pillowcase gets changed every day, I’ve come to the decision that it’s never going to be clean enough for me to lay my face against. Instead, I’ve been laying down a freshly-washed, clean towel daily for my face to lie against. Like I said, it’s only been one week, and everything… is now… completely… gone.

Now, my skin is unbelievably smooth and even-toned — I almost feel like I’m a little kid again because of how clear my skin is. I love to look at myself in the mirror now. I’ve started to become more outgoing. I’m even looking forward to a date soon. Because of how simple this really was, I almost feel like this should be a FML. But oh well. Here it is. Here’s what I did. If you have acne, try this. Don’t just limit it to your pillowcase; do not let your even-somewhat dirty sheets come in contact with your bare skin anywhere your skin is affected. In the least, just try to be more aware of this, because I really, really think it will help you. After finding it out the hard way, I even Googled it to see if anyone else had similar results, and sure enough, they did.

If this is common sense to anyone else, I apologize. But don’t assume everyone else knows this just because you do. Three years of researching acne solutions never prompted me to even remotely ponder this. I’m an extremely hygienic person in every other sense. I just never… knew.

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘I am a seventeen-year-old who had terrible and repulsive acne for the past 3 years, and literally got rid of it in one week by putting a clean towel over my pillowcase every day’. (self.reddit.com), 2009-09-29

Former ‘Genesis‘ rocker Phil Collins will never play the drums again — after years of performing left him with an agonising spinal injury.

The 58 year old made a name for himself due to his skills on the drums, playing the instrument during his years with ‘Genesis’, before releasing solo material, including percussion-heavy hit ‘In The Air Tonight’.

But due to his talents, the star has slowly been causing devastating damage to his spinal cord — and admits it is too painful to even pick up the sticks now.

Phil Collins told ‘The Daily Mirror’:

‘I’ve got a condition that means I can’t play any more.

‘After playing drums for 50 years, I’ve had to stop.

‘Obviously, I’m very sad about it.

‘My vertebrae has been crushing my spinal cord because of the position I drum in. It comes from years of playing.

‘I can’t even hold the sticks properly without it being painful.’

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘Spinal injury kills Collins’ drumming career‘, Yahoo News, 2009-09-10

Lazy Brits would rather watch a television programme they do not like than get out of their chair to change channels.

A survey by Nuffield Health has been finding out our slobbish habits with some shocking results.

Around one in six people said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.

More than half of the 2000 adults questioned (59%) would get the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs to their workplace.

And a third (36%) said they would not run to catch a bus.

‘If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks’, said Ms. Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health.

‘Ready-meals, remote controls and even internet shopping are all contributing to a dangerously lazy and idle Britain.

‘The nation has fallen into a vicious circle of laziness that we must put a stop to.’

The Nuffield Health Fitness Report included a top 10 of the laziest cities, based on how many people admitted they do not exercise at least three times a week.

• Glasgow topped the table with 75%, followed by
  
• Birmingham and Southampton (both 67%),
  
• London (66%),
  
• Bristol (64%),
  
• Leeds and Newcastle (both 62%),
  
• Norwich (60%),
  
• Manchester (59%) and
  
• Cardiff (58%).

The survey did offer some hope with almost three out of 10 (28%) of respondents saying they would be prepared to step up their fitness regime if they felt it would make them more attractive to their partner.

• CLIPPED FROM: Brits Are ‘Dangerously Lazy And Idle‘ Sky News via Yahoo! News, 2009-09-10

Teachers often identify naughty pupils simply by looking at names in the class register, it was claimed.

Youngsters called Callum, Chelsea, Connor and Jack are earmarked as troublemakers on the first day of class.

Girls called Aleisha, Casey and Crystal put teachers on edge, as do boys named Kyle, Liam, Jake and Brooklyn.

Some 49 per cent of teachers make an assumption about a child just from their name, according to research by parenting club Bounty.com.

‘Teachers are only human and make assumptions like the rest of us,’ said Faye Mingo, from Bounty.com.

‘It’s only natural for teachers to make judgments based on the behaviour and performance of former pupils with the same name but I’m sure that they are happy for to be proved wrong.’

Surprisingly, 57 per cent said the naughtiest children were also the most popular and often made friends easier than well behaved children.

The good news for teachers is that in 50 per cent of cases, even the most unruly youngsters settle down as the school year progresses.

And 74 per cent of teachers claim that even the naughty children are good at heart but often get carried away trying to impress their friends.

• CLIPPED FROM: “Callum and Chelsea are naughtiest names“,The Metro, 2009-09-07

British teachers make assumptions about a child based on their names, it has been revealed, with boys called Callum likely to be billed as the most naughty.

The full Teachers Pet and Pest Name Chart is below:

TOP 10 NAUGHTIEST BOYS

1. Callum

2. Connor

3. Jack

4. Daniel

5. Brandon

6. Charlie

7. Kyle

8. Liam

9. Jake

10. Brooklyn

TOP 10 NAUGHTIEST GIRLS

1. Chelsea

2. Courtney

3. Chardonnay

4. Aleisha

5. Casey

6. Crystal

7. Jessica

8. Brooke

9. Demi

10. Aisha

TOP 10 CLEVEREST BOYS

1. Alexander

2. Adam

3. Christopher

4. Benjamin

5. Edward

6. Matthew

7. Daniel

8. James

9. Harry

10. William

TOP 10 CLEVEREST GIRLS

1. Elisabeth

2. Charlotte

3. Emma

4. Hannah

5. Rebecca

6. Abigail

7. Grace

8. Alice

9. Anna

10. Sophie

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR BOYS IN THE CLASS

1. Jack

2. Daniel

3. Charlie

4. Callum

5. Benjamin

6. Connor

7. Adam

8. Alfie

9. Christopher

10. James

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR GIRLS IN THE CLASS

1. Emma

2. Charlotte

3. Hannah

4. Anna

5. Caitlin

6. Chelsea

7. Courtney

8. Holly

9. Brooke

10. Jessica

• CLIPPED FROM: “Top 10 children’s names which make teachers think they’re naughty, clever or popular: UK Teachers Pet and Pest Name Chart”, The Metro, 2009-09-08

New research has revealed some bizarre myths about contraception methods believed by women in Britain, involving bread, chicken skin and garlic.
The on-line survey of 1000 women aged 18 to 50 unearthed a number of misconceptions about family planning.

Some women believe bread, cling film and chicken skin can be used as barrier method contraceptives, while others think eating garlic will prevent pregnancy.

The poll, carried out by ‘Opinion Health‘ for drug manufacturer ‘Bayer Schering Pharma‘, also found a number of misunderstandings about the contraceptive pill.

50 per cent of those surveyed wrongly thought that taking the pill long term could cause infertility, and 10 per cent said that it would always take a number of years to regain fertility after coming off the medication.

Over 33 per cent thought that the greatest risk of getting pregnant while taking the combined contraceptive pill occurred in the middle of a pack, when in fact it is at the beginning and end.

Ms.Annie Evans GP, Women’s Health Specialist at ‘The Bristol Sexual Health Centre‘, said:

‘It is not surprising that this survey has uncovered how widespread contraceptive myths still are in this country, given that Britain continues to have the highest unintended pregnancy rate in Europe, with as many as 50 per cent of births being unintended.
‘It is vital that women are made aware of the facts, using the credible sources of information available to them.’

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘Bizarre British contraception myths‘, Yahoo! News, 2009-09-05