News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
SO now you know...according to a story in the Daily Star, we Brits were tucking into frogs' legs up to 8,000 years before the French.
Archaeologists reported that a charred toad’s front leg was found at a dig at the Blick Mead site, just a mile from Stonehenge, Wiltshire, alongside small fish vertebrate bones of trout or salmon as well as burnt bones of aurochs, the predecessor of cows.
Researchers at the University of Buckingham say that the find, which dates back to between 6250BC and 7596BC, is the earliest evidence of a cooked toad or frog anywhere in the world.
Animal magic...the Daily Mail reports that a cat is set to be reunited with his owner in London a year after he went missing - after being discovered 450 miles away from home, in a Scottish bank.
Pablo, a nine year old silver tabby, disappeared last October, but last week strolled into a branch of TSB bank in Rosyth, Fife, after learning how to activate the automatic door.
He was handed in to the Cats Protection charity, and when he was checked for a microchip it showed that he was a long way from his home.
His owner’s mother Kate Partridge said: “I was just thinking on Thursday that it must be a year since he was last seen. On Friday afternoon I had a call from a vet in Rosyth saying he had just been handed in. How on earth had he got over 400 miles from Lewisham and where has he been for the last year?”
It would appear that many Brits have a 'spiritual' leaning, says a new report outlined in the Daily Telegraph.
Research commissioned by television production company CTVC and the religious think-tank Theos showed that more than half of the British population still believes that 'spiritual' forces affect life on Earth even if they have turned their back on formal religion.
One in six people were convinced that they or someone they know personally has experienced a miracle and the report found that angels and 'spirits' also form part of a significant number of British people’s belief system.
Lunchtime shoppers in Covent Garden in London were astonished to see an impromptu gig by pop icon Sir Paul McCartney.
The BBC said he told a crowd of around 2,000 spectators: “We're just going to do some songs from our new album so get your phones out... as if they weren't already.”
The 71 year old former Beatle sang four songs from his latest album, New, from a truck parked on the piazza.
The wonders of modern science...the Daily Star claims that an underwear company has designed a range of pants using chemical warfare technology which feature an absorptive carbon cloth back panel which traps and neutralises flatulence odours.
The hi-tech pants have been created by Loughborough based Shreddies Ltd who say that the carbon cloth could filter odours 200 times the strength of the average flatus emission.
Residents in East Devon are to be advised how to cope with nuisance seagulls, reports the BBC.
East Devon Council, which is to hold a seagull advice workshop,says that the long hot summer meant seagulls have been a particular problem this year and aims to work with food businesses to keep down the litter that attracts the birds. It will also issue advice to residents about how to seagull-proof their properties.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in August it had been inundated with the highest number of calls from the public about gulls for eight years, and 2013's figures were double those for last year.
Reference lists:
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Star (www.daily star.co.uk)
Daily Telegraph (www.telegraph co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)