What we know about the Fundraising Preference Service... so far

Q Will all charities be blocked from sending fundraising communications to people on the FPS?

This is still undecided. George Kidd, chair of the working group deciding on the implementation of the FPS, indicated in February that he was not keen on having a model in which people could simply block communications from specific charities they disliked, saying he could not see how such a system would work. But at Third Sector's Fundraising Week conference in April, Stephen Dunmore, interim chief executive of the new Fundraising Regulator, said this was being considered. The regulator will be the body that manages the FPS, although Kidd has said the delivery will probably be taken care of by an external agency with expertise in data security.

Q What about existing supporters who sign up?read more

Large blue butterfly thriving after reintroduction

A rare butterfly once declared extinct in the UK is now being seen in record numbers after being reintroduced.

Conservationists said there was a population of more than 10,000 large blue butterflies on reserves in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

The last large blue butterfly colony was on Dartmoor in Devon and it was declared extinct in 1979.

The population in the UK is now believed to be largest concentration of the species anywhere in the world.

The butterfly, with a wingspan of more than two inches, was brought back from the dead with the reintroduction of stock from Sweden in 1984 and has thrived since then.

The key to the success of the programme was an understanding of the butterfly's bizarre life-cycle which is similar to that of the cuckoo.

The caterpillar tricks red ants into believing it is one of their own grubs and is carried underground.

It feeds on the larvae around it until it emerges 10 months later to live for just a few weeks as a butterfly.

Conservationists said the story of the large blue showed that the decline of globally threatened species could be reversed

european cave bear

a new research has found that the european cave bear became extinct due to vegan diet. wiki link

Smoking cannabis makes you lazy, study suggests

Smoking cannabis could make you lazy, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia gave the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main brain-affecting ingredient in cannabis, to laboratory rats.

They found this made them less willing to carry out a complex task for a large reward, with most opting for an easier one despite a smaller prize.read more

boars disorder in gloucestershire villages.

if you live linterford or yorkly village you may come across wild boars smashing into fences in search of food and ransacking wheelie bins .over a 1,000 wild boar roar the forest of dean in gloucestershire

Rare skeleton of a dodo is up for auction

A RARE skeleton of the extinct dodo is going under the hammer later this year.

It is the first to come up for auction for nearly 100 years and is already attracting widespread interest.

Summers Place Auctions in Stane Street, Billingshurst, believe the composite skeleton, which is 95 per cent complete, will be sold for a six figure sum.

It is rarer than the diplodocus dinosaur skeleton that was sold at the auction house earlier this year for £400,000.

Only one dodo skeleton exists that is made up from the bones of a single bird and the others, about a dozen, are composites made up from bones that belonged to several individuals.

Summers Place natural history curator Errol Fuller said: “Dodo skeletons are extremely rare.

“Most museums had acquired their dodos many years ago and no relatively complete skeleton has been put together since the early 20th century.

“This is an amazingly rare opportunity for the acquisition of one of the great icons of extinction.”

Bristol pirate Blackbeard's real name was NOT Edward Teach, American historian confirms

He is the world's most famous pirate, Bristol's finest and still notorious after 300 years, but now a definitive history of Blackbeard has claimed that the city has got it wrong.

Blackbeard's real name was Edward Thatch, not Edward Teach.

And not only has Bristol got the name of its most famous sons wrong all this time, but the city has misjudged the man – far from being a brutal and violent pirate, research now claims there is no evidence he ever killed or hurt anyone – apart from in the final battle where he himself died.

One of the world's leading historians, writers and researchers on the golden age of piracy – the seven or so years from 1712 when the Caribbean was effectively ruled by anarchic pirate fleets – Colin Woodard has written books on the subject and been the historical advisor on many a TV series and film.

But after visiting Bristol himself to research Blackbeard for a book called Republic of Pirates, he has broken the news that all the guidebooks, plaques, posters, notices on pubs and history books have been getting his name wrong all this time.

Blackbeard was from Bristol but was called Edward Thatch, and Mr Woodard said he found the first time a newspaper report - published in the Boston News-Letter - about the antics of the pirate got his name wrong, but it stuck.

"Of his life before, we still know very little," admitted Mr Woodard. "He went by Edward Thatch – not 'Teach' as many historians have said, apparently repeating an error made by the Boston News-Letter.read more

Holdstone Down-devon

Exmoor has the highest coastline on the British mainland, Holdstone Down peaks at 1150ft making it the highest on the North Devon coast path, and offers unbridled views of the coastline from Lundy Island in the west to Dunkery Beacon in the East. The high vantage point also allows views of the shadowy Dartmoor Tors to the South, and the industrious South Wales coast to the North.

Walking is short and easy through a high-level wilderness with ancient settlements and a history of spaceships and extra-terrestrial forces. UFO-spotters regularly gather on the summit of this ‘holy mountain’ and children will love the mysterious pebble arrows often left around the cairn by ‘alien’ visitors. An atmospheric walk in autumn, when the rust-coloured bracken is interspersed with banks of purple heather and the last of the butterflies browse among the brambles.also read

Spiderman is in North Devon - have you seen him?

SUPERHERO fans have an unusual reason to visit a small North Devon village as a famous web-slinging visitor has taken up residence there.

Mike and Julie Palmer, of Prixford, near Ilfracombe, have a life size model of Spiderman sitting outside the front of their cottage – and it has been attracting a lot of attention from passers byIt seems the resident hero has been doing good just by sitting on the spot, as Mike and Julie's two daughters, aged 7 and 9, have started charging 50p for visitors to have a photo taken with him.

They plan to donate all money raised to global children's charity Unicef at the end of the summer holidays.And the family said this was not the only positive effect of having the popular figure sitting outside the house.

They said they have also noticed a reduction in the speed of the traffic passing the house, as people slow down to get a good look at "Spidey"!

Badger culls to be extended to North Devon

BADGER culls will soon be taking place in North Devon according to the BBC.

It is believed shooting will start at the beginning of September.

North Devon is among five regions believed to have been chosen for new culls including South Devon, North Cornwall, West Dorset and South Herefordshire.

The Government has a 25-year-strategy in place to eradicate bovine TB, culling is one element of that strategy.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has neither confirmed or denied these areas will be the next to see culls but told the BBC it was looking at applications for new badger control licences.

However the BBC has reported culling companies have already been chosen and marksmen have been trained for new areas.

The precise locations of where culls will take place have in the past not been revealed because of the controversy surrounding the policy and the potential for attempts to be made by protesters to thwart any shooting.Responding to reports a decision has been made to extend the badger culls in areas like North Devon the CEO of the Badger Trust, Dominic Dyer, said: "After four years of badger culling no one can now doubt that the policy has been a disastrous failure on scientific, cost and humaneness grounds.

"For the new Defra Secretary Andrea Leadsom to ignore the facts and extend this policy into five new areas of the country defies belief.

"The badger cull is built on three pillars of sand, incompetence, negligence and deceit, and will ultimately collapse because it fails to address the key cause of bovine TB, which is cattle to cattle infection.

"We could kill every badger in England but bovine TB would continue to spread in cattle herds, due to inaccurate TB testing, excessive numbers of cattle movements and poor bio-security controls."

The chairman of the Badger Trust, Peter Martin, said: "The badger is being used as a scapegoat for failures in the modern intensive livestock industry that have led to a significant increase in bovine TB in cattle herds.

"Recent changes to the cull licencing regime have made it clear this policy is now just a numbers game based on indiscriminate and untargeted killing of this protected wildlife species.

"They have abandoned any pretence of science or control.

"We now have conclusive scientific evidence proving beyond doubt that badgers actively avoid cattle in pasture and farm yards, and that cattle avoid feeding on grass where badgers urinate or defecate.

"This effectively means that the likelihood of badgers passing TB to cattle within the farming environment is so low that it is impossible to distinguish it from any other potential environmental vector, including cattle themselves."

He added: "By extending the badger culls to five new areas of the country the taxpayer is now facing a bill in the region of £100 million by 2020 on a policy which will fail to deliver any significant reduction in bovine TB for livestock farmers."save the innocent badger

Discovery of potentially Earth-like planet Proxima b raises hopes for life

The search for life outside our solar system has been brought to our cosmic doorstep with the discovery of an apparently rocky planet orbiting the nearest star to our sun.

Thought to be at least 1.3 times the mass of the Earth, the planet lies within the so-called “habitable zone” of the star Proxima Centauri, meaning that liquid water could potentially exist on the newly discovered world.

Analysis Proxima b will be our prime laboratory in the search for extraterrestrial life

The discovery of a rocky planet in the habitable zone around our sun’s nearest star is just the beginning of decades of intense research and exploration

 

Read more

Named Proxima b, the new planet has sparked a flurry of excitement among astrophysicists, with the tantalising possibility that it might be similar in crucial respects to Earth.

“There is a reasonable expectation that this planet might be able to host life, yes,” said Guillem Anglada-Escudé, co-author of the research from Queen Mary, University of London.-read more

Marine biologist Chris Brown, who works at the Sea Life Adventure Park in Weymouth, spotted the heavily-pregnant male Spiny Seahorse last weekend.

The Spiny Seahorse, which is also known by the scientific name Hippocampus guttulatus, is the largest of the two native species to the British Isles.

It is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.read more

food banks

its a sad sign of the times that people need to go too food banks due to lack of cash or other hardships .yet to my surprise and disbelief people rather starve due to the stigma or too proud to ask both stupid reasons in my book,as if you need food to keep going and the reasons mentioned don't put food on your plate.so make a leap of faith and find out who too contact in your local area and get a voucher and go ,one is in holsworthy and yes i have needed it myself.

i can book you i am a librarian.

a strange headline you may think but thetford council are going to use a 6 month trial to use library staff to help people fill in online forms to report offences directly to norfolk police force ,these trails start in thetford and gorleston next month .

Bagpipe lung can kill you, scientists warn

Wind instrument players are being warned by doctors over possible lung damage after a bagpipe player is believed to have died from a reaction to mouldy pipes.

Doctors writing in the journal Thorax have said instruments should be cleaned regularly to avoid "bagpipe lung".

Dr Jenny King, a member of the team at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester that treated the piper, told the BBC that if caught early, similar problems could be treated with a good prognosis.

READ MORE

Scottish village in Italy where residents wear kilts and play bagpipes

The 61-year-old patient described in the journal practised every day and had been ill for a number of years.

Doctors realised the bagpipes might have been the cause of the problems when he travelled abroad for a few months without his instrument and his condition improved.-read more

pigtails to be tested

these are the pigtails believed to have belonged to the mutineers on hms bounty and are going to gett tested for d.n.a in london.

repeat .

like television do you find like me you are repeating yourself .this may be just me but all fashions come back ,music of your ear always tries to make comebacks and i may even repeat myself in posts.

please ,thank you.

the above words seem to be odd to use as most people expect rudeness as the norm these days.my grandad told me when i was a youngster to always to say pease,thank you ,be polite to others and you will go far and i have carried this on as much as possible in my life .i even try not to swear as to easy to get in this mode ,no dear reader not forcing my views on you just my opinion.

head fuck.

i have finally realised i am my own worst enemy when things said or done get inside my head.i become more o.c.d and paranoid and in turn tend to do more stupid stuff then become more guilt ridden then become a vicious cycle .so i have made steps to change and let live carry on and be no matter what in manner .

olympics rio 2016

team g.b final table we finished second with 27 golds,23 silvers,17 bronze -67 in total,not bad for an island nation who once where lucky to get a medal on the table in years gone by .but thanks to investment from the national lottery and a chance of attitude of trying to win instead of just doing our best .this i believe wiil inspire others to carry on in this vain.