if it’s news to me, it must be news to you!
Hit the paws button: The University of Central Lancashire has designed a tv remote control for dogs so that they can choose what they like to watch when their owners are out.
Taking liberties: A controversial new theory would have us believe that the Statue of Liberty is a transsexual and that its creator, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, modelled the face on his brother and not his mother as previously thought.
Anti-obesity badge: The Scouts have introduced a new anti-fat badge for six to eight-year-olds in a bid to combat childhood obesity. To earn the badge, they have to take part in three agility activities, such as an obstacle course, slalom relay, hula hooping, skipping, crab football or an egg and spoon race.
And speaking of obesity: Can’t wait to try the doughnut ice-cream cones, the new sugar-coated food craze sweeping the globe.
Smells fishy: How do salmon find their way back from the ocean to the exact spot where they hatched? Apparently, it’s down to their acute sense of smell, proven when scientists stuffed cotton buds up the noses of test subjects which promptly got lost on the way home.
Multi-tasker of the week: Proving that women are much better than men at juggling different tasks, this woman solves her Rubik’s Cube while driving in rush hour motorway traffic.
Mystery tourists: The suburban village of Kidlington in Oxfordshire has become a magnet for tourists and nobody knows why. Are they mistaking it for the ‘quintessential English village’ of Kirtlington or is Inspector Morse to blame?
Brief lives: Michael Climino, director of The Deer Hunter; Elie Wiesel who gave witness to The Holocaust; Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man; Noel Neill, the first on-screen Lois Lane; Simon Ramo, scientist who developed the ICBM; Gale Booth, Tony Blair’s mother-in-law and political advisor; Jimmy Gilbert, the BBC producer who commissioned some of their best comedies in the golden age of light entertainment.
And Mrs White, at the age of 67, who has been killed off from the Cluedo board to be replaced by Dr Orchid, a PhD in plant toxicology. Patrick Kidd in the Times wonders, in these austerity, post-Brexit days, whether the library will be closed, Prof Plum will lose his research grant and Col Mustard put out to grass following the defence cuts. ‘Whodunnit? George Osborne in the Treasury with his spreadsheet.’