if it’s news to me, it must be news to you!
Materialism of the week: Forget diamonds and works of art, the most expensive object on earth will be the Hinkley Point nuclear power station when and if it built. And as business objectives go, you’d think that the one at Hinkley shouldn’t need carving in stone.
Intruder of the week: A weasel brought the Large Hadron Collider to a halt by gnawing through a high-voltage cable.
The science of dating: More than 90 million people are trying to find their significant other through online dating and the secret of success can be analysed like anything else.
Musical of the week: The life of Pope John Paul II is to be told in the musical Karol in his native Poland.
Week of the week: It was National Stop Snoring Week this week, sponsored by the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association. It can be all down to inherited head shape apparently, but I’ve always found a sharp elbow in the ribs to be a good cure.
What me a swan? Aw go on: Conservationist Sacha Dench plans to use a hang glider and a paramotor to join the Bewick Swans’migration flying 2,800 miles from Russia to the UK to find out why their numbers are dwindling.
And speaking of swans: The Birmingham Royal Ballet is putting some wellie behind the RNLI Mayday Appeal.
Mystery solved: The origin of the Captain Pugwash theme (The Trumpet Hornpipe) that I believed to be lost in time was played by Tommy Edmundson who died in 2001.
Secret of youth: If you want to keep your youthful looks, the secret is to be born ginger thanks to MC1R, or the ‘ginger gene’ as it is also known.
Brief lives: Billy Paul, best known for singing Me and Mrs Jones; Barry Howard, the actor who played the camp dancing instructor, Barry Stuart-Hargreaves in Hi-de-Hi.
Lord Peston, economic adviser to the Labour government and father of Robert Peston; Comic-book author, Scott Goodall, creator of Captain Hurricane among others; Jeannette Guyot, French resistance agent during World War Two and; Weetabix magnate, Richard George;