Birds are keeping their nests warm and pest-free by lining them with cigarette butts, research at St Andrews University has suggested.
The nicotine and other chemicals in discarded filters act as a natural pesticide that repels parasitic mites.
At the same time, the cellulose butts provide useful nest insulation.
Wild birds are also known to protect their nests from mite invasion by importing certain chemical-emitting plants.
The new evidence suggests some bird species in the cities have adapted the same behaviour to harness the repellent properties of tobacco.
St Andrews University scientists studied nests of house sparrows and house finches that each contained, on average, about 10 used cigarette butts in Mexico City.
The number of stubbed-out cigarettes incorporated into the nests ranged from none to as many as 48.
In both species, nests with larger numbers of butts were significantly less infested by mites.............>
A salon in west London attracts customers from all over the world, thanks to a poster that went viral two years ago.
Barber Karim Nabbach used a picture of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, to offer a discount to anyone experiencing a "bad hair day".
North Korean officials visited the salon a few days later and demanded the poster be taken down. The story quickly made headlines around the world.
Two years on, Nabbach continues to use satire to drum up business. His latest effort features US presidential candidate Donald Trump, and was featured on CNN.
"If there's a funny news story and I can think of some sort of hair pun, then I'll run with that," he says.
"We've started to get more international clients. We've had people come from Geneva, Zurich, Canada, Dubai."
Nabbach's next target is Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
"I've had Boris Johnson in my head for the past six month, but I can't think of anything. So if anyone does have an idea, I'd be willing to brainstorm with them!"
A poor night’s sleep is likely to make you fatter, research suggests.
Those who get less than seven hours' sleep a night were found to consume the equivalent of an extra four slices of toast a day.
The systematic review by King’s College London found that those who were sleep-deprived consumed an average of 385 calories per day more than those who slept for longer.
Researchers said that that disruption to the body clock appears to affect the hormone ghrelin which controls hunger and the hormone leptin, which dictates feelings of fullness.
Other studies have also found that sleep deprivation resulted in greater activation of areas in the brain associated with reward when people were exposed to food.
............Now a father and living in Ilchester, Somerset, he recently saw a photo from his own childhood, showing 27 children from his neighbourhood in the 1970s.
He is the only one still alive, the others dying through drugs, car accidents or violence. Both his brothers died because of drugs and alcohol abuse.
He added: "I see my prison past as an old movie I watched that scarred me, but now I don't get so bothered about it.
"If I hadn't have gone to prison, then my life wouldn't be as good as it is now. I never look at it in a negative way."..........>
More Americans now die from drugs than from guns or in car accidents, and increasingly, reports Ian Pannell, the victims are young, white and middle class.
The number of people who die each year taking a selfie is on the rise but a team of US researchers now hope they can tackle the problem.
They are developing an app which will warn people when they are at risk.
Their research found 15 selfie-takers died in 2014, 39 in 2015 and 73 died in the first eight months of 2016.
They revealed where most incidents happen and how causes of death can change depending on where in the world you live.
The study has been led by PhD student Hemank Lamba and a team of friends at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The first report (by a reputable news source) of a selfie-taker dying while snapping a picture was in March 2014.
Since then, Hemank and his team of researchers found there had been 127 recorded incidents of selfie deaths across the world.
76 of these took place in India, nine in Pakistan, eight in the US and six in Russia.
The most likely cause of death was falling from a great height, with people going to extreme lengths to take a selfie on cliffs or the top of buildings to impress followers on social media.............>
Simply being at the bottom of the social heap directly alters the body in ways that can damage health, a study at Duke University in the US suggests.
Monkey experiments showed low status alters the immune system in a way that raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes and mental health problems.
One expert said the findings were "terrifically applicable" to people.
The findings, in Science, had nothing to do with the unhealthy behaviours that are more common in poorer groups.
The gulf in life expectancy between the richest and poorest is huge - in the US it is more than a decade for women and 15 years for men.
Part of the explanation is that people from poorer backgrounds are more likely to have a worse lifestyle - including smoking, little exercise and diets containing junk food.
But the latest study goes further to show low status - with all of those other factors stripped out - still has an impact on the body..................>
The humble steamed bun is taking Hong Kong's culinary scene by storm - and scooping up awards along the way.
May Chow, the owner of restaurant Little Bao, has just been voted Asia's best female chef by a panel of over 300 experts.
The 32-year-old's restaurant serves what she calls Chinese burgers: steamed white buns filled with braised pork belly, fried chicken or fish.
And there are even burgers for dessert, in the form of fried buns sandwiched with ice cream.
Winning the award is no mean feat, considering Asia's competitive food scene, but the restaurant might not have started at all if Ms Chow hadn't sneaked behind her parents' back...............>
Horses killed more people in Australia in recent years than all venomous animals combined, research has shown.
The University of Melbourne's Dr Ronelle Welton examined hospital admissions data and coronial records.
From 2000 to 2013, horses were responsible for 74 deaths.
Bees
and other stinging insects were the next most dangerous, causing 27
deaths, followed by snakes, which also claimed 27 lives but landed fewer
people in hospital.
Spiders were not responsible for any deaths during that time, the research showed.............>
Police and social services were
baffled when an elderly man with an American accent was found lost on
the streets of the English city of Hereford. He didn't know who he was
or have any ID, and he was dressed in brand new clothes from Tesco. The
quest to find out who he was had results that nobody could have
predicted.
It was 7 November 2015 when the man was found in a bus
station car park. Tests at the county hospital showed why he wasn't able
to reveal his identity - he had dementia........
.............A
woman called Debbie Cocker posted a photograph of a man called Earl
Roger Curry, from a 1958 US high school yearbook. The photograph was of
an 18-year-old man. He looked a bit like Roger and was about the same
age.
The yearbook picture was from Edmonds High School. Edmonds is just north
of Seattle, in the northwest state of Washington...........
...........Jerry
Maiques lives opposite the old Curry home. I showed him pictures of
Roger taken in the nursing home in England. "That's Roger." No
hesitation. "No question about it. No doubt." Another neighbour also
recognised Roger.........
...........The 27-year-old was upset when I told her about her father. She knew
nothing about him turning up in England but thought Kevin could have
arranged it. Her biggest worry though was that he might be returned to
LA. As far as she was concerned he was safe and well in Britain. Back
in the UK, the authorities were brought up to date about these new
facts. Within two days a man was arrested in England. US social services
and the FBI joined the investigation.............
...........We now know that all three flew into the UK in November 2015, but only
two flew home. An elderly and vulnerable man was dumped overseas by his
family..........>
A poker-playing AI has beaten four human players in a marathon match lasting 20 days.
Libratus, an artificial intelligence program developed at Carnegie Mellon University, was trained to play a variant of the game known as no-limit heads-up Texas hold 'em.
In a similar tournament in 2015, the humans won.
The victory has been hailed as a significant milestone for AI, by the team responsible for building it.
The AI won more than $1.5m (£1.2m) worth of chips from the humans.
The matches - held at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh - were live-streamed over gaming site Twitch.
Tuomas Sandholm, professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, said the event was "historic".
"Heads-up no limit Texas hold 'em is in a way the last frontier of all the games," he said.
"Othello, Chess, Go, Jeopardy have all been conquered, but this remained elusive: this is a landmark in AI game-play."
Prof Sandholm said that the algorithm could be transferred to a range of other uses.
"This is not just about poker," he said.
"The algorithms can take information and output a strategy in a range of scenarios, including negotiations, finance, medical treatment and cybersecurity."
"Now we have proven the ability of AI to do strategy and reasoning, there are many potential applications in future..........>
A Chinese man who was trapped in India for more than 50 years has finally been reunited with his family.
The BBC had reported how Wang Qi, an army surveyor who says he accidentally crossed into India in 1963, had not been given the necessary documents to leave the country.
Following the report, he was visited by Chinese diplomats, who told him efforts were being made to take him back.
Mr Wang was met by family members when his flight landed in Beijing.
Later, in his home city of Xianyang, crowds met him with banners reading "Welcome home, soldier, it's been a rough journey".
Mr Wang flew out from Delhi on Friday night accompanied by his adult children.
Chinese officials took him and his family shopping in a Delhi mall before they boarded the flight.
Mr Wang had been given a document by the Indian Foreign Ministry stating that he was cleared to leave. His family were given Indian passports so that they could leave with him if they wished.
His wife, an Indian citizen, was sick and did not accompany him...............>
By Tim Harford50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
9 January 2017
..............In a large port, someone would be killed every few weeks.
In 1950, New York averaged half a dozen serious incidents every day, and its port was safer than many.
Researchers
studying the SS Warrior's trip to Bremerhaven concluded the ship had
taken ten days to load and unload, as much time as it had spent crossing
the Atlantic.
In today's money, the cargo cost around $420 (£335) a tonne to move..................
.................Rather than the $420 (£335) that a customer would have paid to get
the SS Warrior to ship a tonne of goods across the Atlantic in 1954, you
might now pay less than $50 (£39).
Indeed, economists who study international trade often assume that transport costs are zero.
It keeps the mathematics simpler, they say, and thanks to the shipping container, it is nearly true...........>
Diners
tucking into spicy food in curry houses are unlikely to notice music
being played in background, however new research shows it could be
having a remarkable effect on their taste buds.
For the first time research has shown that traditional music, often
played by curry restaurants to set the mood for diners, may also be
making their food taste hotter.
Scientists at the University of Oxford have discovered that certain
types of music - those with fast beats, distorted notes and high-pitched
sounds - can enhance the sensation of heat from chilli peppers.
In a series of tests researchers were able to produce specific
soundtracks that can boost the spiciness of food by up to 10 per cent.
They describe the effect as "sonic seasoning". A shrill violin
concerto or fast samba music were among the most effective types of
music while distorted notes also seemed to increase the sensation of
heat.........>
Cats
might have a reputation for being a bit sneaky or scheming - but,
according to science, we really ought to be keeping an eye on dogs if
we're worried about our pets running rings around us.
A new study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, has found pet dogs will deliberately deceive humans in order to get something they want.
Researchers at the University of Zurich studied 27 dogs, pairing each
one with two human partners: a "co-operative" one who would allow the
dogs to eat treats, and a "competitive" one who withheld the treats. ..........>
A woman who fell and broke her ankle in a remote Cornish village was
rescued because a man, sat 200 miles away in Worcester, saw her on a
live webcam.............
...............Mrs Davies, from St Teath, had gone into the seaside town to get a present for her son.
"I crossed over the road and my left foot shot out in front of me and I just went down," she said.
Minutes later Becky Galvin, who lives in Boscastle, got a call from her son in Worcester.
"I suddenly noticed this lady coming to me and we hobbled back to her place," said Mrs Davies.
"It was amazing that someone in Worcester saw me lying there and and phoned his mum to say 'Can you help her?'"
She said there was nobody around as the weather was bad...........>
British Vogue, an iconic fashion magazine which celebrated its centenary last year, named Ghana-born Edward Enninful as its first male editor on Monday.
Enninful, a close friend of British supermodel Naomi Campbell, will replace Alexandra Shulman, who is stepping down on August 1 after more than 25 years.............>
A D-Day war hero became the world’s oldest person to skydive, at the age of 101 and 38 days............Mr Hayes said he wanted to parachute jump since he turned 90, but was first talked out of it by his late wife. He was determined to take the world record from its previous holder, Candaian Armand Gendreau – who did it at the age of 101 and three days in 2013............>
Mystery surrounding a foul-smelling black cloud that appeared in water
at the base of the Niagara Falls on the US-Canadian border has been
explained. Experts say the discharge - which at one point was feared to
be an oil leak - was caused by residue from black carbon filters used
to clean the water.
The leak happened during maintenance work on Saturday, US officials say.
The Niagara Falls Water Board (NFWB) has since apologized for causing
alarm to residents and tourists.
In a statement the
board said the "inky water" was the result of "routine, necessary and
short term change in the waste water treatment process" at its plant
near the city of Buffalo................>
