SMASHING NEWSMAIL

The one-metre wide hole smashed into an aeroplane's nose by an ALBATROSS

2012-01-21T09:35:00.001-08:00

A Japanese Coastguard patrol aeroplane came close to disaster when it was hit by an albatross.

The bird smashed a one-metre wide hole into the Bombardier DHC8-315's nose as it flew at just 300 metres over the East China Sea on Wednesday afternoon.

Remarkably the pilot did not feel the need to perform an emergency landing - despite the dead bird being stuck - and continued for another hour to his destination in Ishigaki, in the Okinawa Prefecture.

None of the onboard nine crew members, who were on the three-hour flight from Naha, were hurt.

The country's transport ministry has now launched an investigation to look into the incident.

And it said it was setting up radar equipment at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in April to help track flocks of birds which would help guide aircraft out of their way.

It will be the first such project in Japan.Bird strikes are on the rise at the nation's busiest airport despite daily efforts by ground staff to disperse birds when they are spotted near flight paths.

It is also a common problem across the world.

Last year passengers onboard a U.S. JetBlue flight from JFK to Aruba had to return to the airport after a 'very big bird', believed to be a turkey, was sucked into the Airbus A320's engine.

'Suddenly the plane smelled like chicken. I thought, Wow they have hot food on this plane,' passenger Gina Vicinanza, 50, told The New York Post.

Death-defying snowboarders make history by becoming first to conquer VERTICAL Alaskan slope

2012-01-14T02:30:00.000-08:00

This is the heart-in-mouth moment three daredevil snowboarders dice with death - and become the first people in the world to conquer a vertical slope.

The adrenaline junkies - John Jackson, Travis Rice and Mark Landvik - hurtled down the peak in the 3,000ft Tordrillo Mountains, in Alaska, in a matter of seconds.

Risking the prospect of sparking deadly avalanches through their rapid 80mph movements, the brave trio zig-zagged their way down the 50 degree angle.

And for their piece-de-resistance the trio decided to pull off some big-air tricks for the camera as they plummeted towards the bottom.

The epic descent booked the speedsters a place in the record books by becoming the first people to successfully conquer the perilous peak.

Photographer Scott Serfas, who was watching from the safety of a helicopter, said: 'It was amazing to watch. I knew I was witnessing snowboard history in the making.

'These guys are all top pros and some of the most well respected in the business, if anyone could do it it was them.'

The three professional snowboarders - who each have 20 years experience - were dropped off at the summit by helicopter.

They faced the daunting prospect of ten foot snow drifts and temperatures plummeting to a chilly minus 13C.

But armed with just a shovel, back up CO2 canisters and transceivers should anything go wrong, they launched off from a knife-edge ridge in pursuit of the record.

And within seconds they reached speeds of up to 80mph before vanishing out of sight - resurfacing thousands of feet below where Mr Serfas caught up in his helicopter.

Mr Serfas, 39, a professional photographer from Vancouver, Canada, added: 'Descents like this are always dangerous, but you try to minimize that by playing smart.

'But at the end of the day, no matter what safety gear you have on, nothing is going to save you if something goes wrong.'

The Tordrillo Mountains are a range found 75 miles west-north-west of Anchorage, and stretch 60 miles to the north. It is primarily a volcanic range, with its most recent eruption occuring in June 1992.

World's tallest suspension bridge unveiled in Mexico

2012-01-07T07:11:00.001-08:00

The world's tallest suspension bridge opened in Mexico Thursday spanning a ravine higher than New York's Empire State building and Paris' Eiffel Tower.

At 403 meters or 1,322 feet tall, the Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge connects between the northwestern states of Sinaloa and Durango in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains.

Officials with the Guinness Book of World Records were present as was President Felipe Calderon for the opening ceremony.

The bridge features four highway lanes celebrated for cutting transportation time between the two regions by an estimated six hours.

Without including the Empire State Building's lightning rod, the bridge can easily fit its towering height from head to toe or the height of Paris' Eiffel Tower which stands at 324 meters or 1063 feet.

Its price tag for that height?

After four years of construction, the Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge is priced at 2.18 billion pesos or 158.98522 million U.S. dollars.

It's so named as the country celebrates it's bicentennial independence from Spain which was in 1810.

The Durango-Mazatlan highway newly constructed to reach the bridge cost its own amount of over 20 billion pesos or 1.45858 billion U.S. dollars.

It had been deemed President Calderon's most significant transportation project during his six-year term according to the country's transportation ministry.

'With developments in infrastructure, we'll continue to achieve the targets established during my term,' Mr Calderon said Thursday according to TheAge.com.

The world's tallest cat (who is part African wildcat but is docile as a kitten)

2012-01-01T05:53:00.001-08:00

When Trouble comes around, he’s hard to miss.

That’s because the Sacramento, California cat is 19 inches tall from paw to shoulder, making him the tallest cat in the world.

Owner Debby Maraspina bred him three years ago and is delighted that her cat has risen to fame.

Trouble is part house cat and part African serval cat, a recognised hybrid called a Savannah, but his height is still surprising, even for his breed.

Mrs Maraspina told the Sacramento Bee that she didn’t really think much of Trouble’s size until a friend, who owns the world’s longest cat, suggested that she get him measured at a cat show in Reno.

The process to get Trouble registered and confirmed as the Guinness-certified tallest cat was a long one.

Mrs Maraspina had to get Trouble measured by a veterinarian and document the cat’s height in both photos and videos.

After all of that – and sending in affidavits – she received a call from London in November.

They had good news to deliver – Trouble was the new tallest cat in the world, beating out the previous record holder by about an inch.

Despite his size, Trouble only weighs 20 pounds. And according to Mrs Maraspina’s husband John, ‘He’s just a relaxed, indoor animal.’

While Trouble may be relaxed, he's a picky eater and turns up his nose at regular cat food. Instead, he feasts on rabbit meat and beef.

And he’s quite pampered. ‘He expects me to get his food out, warm it up and cut it into chunks – off the bone,’ Mrs Maraspina told the Bee.

Savannahs are a recent creation – they were recognised as a breed only ten years ago, after existing for 15 or so years prior to that.

Mrs Maraspina says that the cats are difficult to breed since females are picky over which males they accept, and Savannahs that have more than five or six per cent feral cat are sterile.

Trouble is a quarter serval, and is therefore sterile, but makes a good show cat.

Daring climbers risk their lives scaling 'deadly' 110ft wall of ice

2011-12-29T12:35:00.001-08:00

These daring climbers braved temperatures of minus 20 degrees and a terrifying 110ft vertical drop to scale a spectacular wall of ice.

And the brave pair celebrated not getting cold feet on the The Rigid Designator, near Vail, Colorado, by a romantic kiss at the top of the icy pillar.

Naturally formed pillar The Rigid Designator is known to be one of the hardest and deadliest ice climbs in the world.

Those that attempt it risk death or serious injury if they lose their footing and slip.

Photographer Lucas Gilman, 34, watched as his friends Cam Brensinger, 35, and Caitlin Brensinger, 34, completed the climb.

He said: 'The Rigid Designator is rated a WI5, which is one of the hardest and most technical ratings for an ice climb. It is for expert climbers only.

'Ice climbing is similar to rock climbing but the extreme cold of the act makes it very difficult and extreme. It is a very dangerous sport and can lead in many instances to death.

'I love ice climbing due to the extreme nature of the sport and the graphic and colourful qualities of the ice and rock.

'On the morning I took these photos it was a bone-chilling -20 degrees Celsius.'

Mr Gilman, from Colorado, added: 'Only people with a real sense of adventure and ability to deal with extremely cold temperatures excel at ice climbing.

'It's a war of attrition climbing a vertical column of ice in extremely cold temperatures.

'You start to lose feeling in your hands after a while and focus is extremely important, not to make a mistake.'

Is this an alien skull? Mystery of giant-headed mummy found in Peru

2011-11-19T04:58:00.000-08:00

A mummified elongated skull found in Peru could finally prove the existence of aliens.

The strangely shaped head - almost as big as its 50cm (20in) body - has baffled anthropologists.

It was one of two sets of remains found in the city of Andahuaylillas in the southern province of Quispicanchi.

The skeletal sets were discovered by Renato Davila Riquelme, who works for the Privado Ritos Andinos museum in Cusco in south-eastern Peru.

He said that that the eye cavities are far larger than normally seen in humans.

There is a soft spot in the skull - called an open fontanelle - which is a characteristic of children in their first year of life, yet the skull also has two large molars, only found in much older humans.

Davila Riquelme said three anthropologists, from Spain and Russia, arrived at the museum last week to investigate the findings and agreed it was ‘not a human being’ and would conduct further studies.

He added: ‘Although the assessment was superficial, it is obvious that its features do not correspond to any ethnic group in the world.’

The remains of an eyeball in the right socket will help determine its genetic DNA - and clear up the controversy if it is human or not.

The second mummy is incomplete and is only 30cm (12in).

It lacks a face and seems to be wrapped in a layer as a placenta, fetal position.

The remains bear a striking resemblance to the triangular crystal skull in the 2008 Indiana Jones film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - which turned out to be of alien origin and have supernatural powers.

Boozing moose is rescued after becoming drunkenly stranded up apple tree

2011-09-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's a situation many can sympathise with - having one too many and attempting physical feats you'd never consider while sober.
But in this case the shamed boozy culprit was not human, but a moose who had become stuck several feet off the ground in an apple tree.
The inebriated creature managed to trap itself amongst the branches of the tree in Gothenburg after apparently becoming drunk while eating fermented apples.

Police believe it had reached for apples higher up the tree before finding itself wedged in the branches and unable to escape.
The stricken animal was discovered by Per Johansson outside his home in Saro, south Gothenburg when he returned home from work.

Rescuers managed to free the moose the same night, after which Johansson said the animal lay down for a while, apparently recovering while in a drunken stupour.
Mr Johansson told Swedish newspaper The Local: 'I thought at first that someone was having a laugh. Then I went over to take a look and spotted an elk stuck in an apple tree with only one leg left on the ground.

'I thought it looked pretty bad so I called the police who sent out an on-call hunter.

'My neighbour recognised it as the animal that almost ran into her car earlier in the day. She was pretty sure the elk was already under the influence.'
The moose lay on the ground overnight outside Mr Johansson's house, before finally getting up the next morning and wandering off with a hangover.
Boozing mooses are not uncommon in Scandinavia, where the creatures are occasionally spotted eating rotting fruit which drops to the group and ferments.
In 2007, a Swedish moose drowned in Stockholm after getting drunk on apples and falling through the ice of a frozen inlet.

Six-year-old Croatian strongman can stick metal objects to his body

2011-05-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

In many respects, Ivan Stoiljkovic is much like any other six-year-old boy in his city.

He enjoys kicking a ball around in the garden of the home he shares with his family and is learning to play the accordion as a hobby.

But there are some areas of his magnetic personality where Ivan differs greatly - namely his ability to stick metal objects to his body.

There are also claims from his family in Koprivnica, in Northern Croatia, of unusual levels of strength and even healing powers.

But one thing is for certain - when Ivan takes off his shirt, he is able to stick metallic objects such as spoons, mobile phones and even frying pans to his body.

In total, his family says, he can carry up to 25kg of metal stuck to his torso.

In the video below, his grandmother Dragica adds metal objects of various sizes to his torso, including a huge metal frying pan.

'I have no problem to hold metal objects, but eventually I get tired,' said Ivan.

But that isn't the end to Ivan's unusual talents.

According to his family, Ivan has also used his 'healing' hands to alleviate stomach pains for his grandfather Ivo and is credited with soothing the pain of a neighbour who hurt his leg in a tractor accident.

Ivo said that when his grandson laid his hands on his stomach, they became extremely hot and the pain simply went away.

'When something hurts us, we ask Ivan to put his hands on the sore and the pain disappears in a flash,' said Dragica.

If that wasn't enough, it is also claimed Ivan is much stronger than other children his age and is able to easily carry bags of cement as heavy as 50lb.

His abilities echo the character Magneto, as featured in the X-Men comics and films, a mutant who has the ability to manipulate metals.

Magneto was played by Sir Ian McKellen in the X-men trilogy of films, and will be played by Michael Fassbender in the upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class.

Girl's snake act charms BGT judges... but terrifies viewers

2011-05-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

She had taken the stage to deliver an impassioned poem about the protection of endangered species.

But the audience was more worried about seven-year-old Olivia Binfield’s own survival as she performed on Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday with a 6ft boa constrictor called Lucy wrapped around her neck.

Olivia explained that the potentially dangerous animal is a family pet that lives in her house.

Presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly looked nervous, with McPartlin asking: ‘It is kind of wrapping round her head, is that normal?’

After Olivia, from Thanet, Kent, finished her poem, Ant and Dec hurried on stage to speed up the judges’ comments.

Dec said: ‘She is getting strangled by a snake.’

It appears viewers shared their concerns.

Among comments on the Twitter website, one wrote: ‘I can’t actually believe how close that snake came to killing that kid.’

A show spokesman said: ‘The safety and welfare of all our contributors is of paramount importance.’

Watch Video Below

Britain's smallest twin who weighed just 13oz at birth

2011-04-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

Liz and Jeff Barrett were devastated when they lost their daughter Mollie just two days after Liz went into premature labour at 23 weeks.

But they were thrilled and amazed when her smaller twin Freya-Grace refused to give up the battle for survival despite only weighing 13oz at birth.

Over eight months she had nine blood transfusions, a plasma transfusion, and a delicate heart valve operation.

The feisty youngster was allowed home from hospital today to Deri in South Wales with an oxygen supply to help strengthen her lungs.

Many hospitals leave babies born before 24 weeks to die because they only have a two per cent chance of survival and often have severe disabilities.

However, doctors are hopeful that Freya-Grace will go on to live a normal life.

Mrs Barrett said: 'We are so proud of her. It's just fantastic Freya-Grace is home and putting on weight every day.

'She already brings us so much joy and her fighting spirit has got her through.'

Liz and her self-employed builder husband Jeff, 33, kept a cotside vigil - taking it turns to be with their little girl.

When their daughter was born she fitted easily into Liz's hand and her skin was so transluscent some of her veins were visible.

Customer service advisor Liz said: 'At first, we were shocked that Freya had survived - she was the smallest of the two girls.

'We thought the doctors had made a mistake - we thought Mollie was going to live.

'When I saw Freya, she reminded me of cooked chicken. She was so small. Her skin was shiny, you could almost see straight through her.

'She didn't look like a normal baby should. It was horrible to see her hooked up to all these wires. I wanted to hold her but she was too fragile to touch.'

But she said her brave little girl is living proof that babies are viable at 23 weeks.

She is furious after a leading consultant questioned whether babies should be resuscitated when born at 23 weeks.

Dr Daphne Austin, of the West Midlands Specialised Commissioning Team, told a BBC documentary that rescuscitating '23-weekers' was doing more harm than good.

Liz, who became pregnant through IVF treatment, said: 'I was infuriated by her comments.

'I would like to meet Mrs Austin, ask her to look into Freya-Grace's eyes then ask whether she thinks treating 23-week babies is a waste of money.'

Liz and Jeff say they will always be grateful to the doctors and staff at the specialist neo-natal unit at Singleton Hospital, in Swansea, where Freya-Grace spent her first eight months.

Freya-Grace weighs in at 9lbs now - still less than the birth weight of many babies.

Liz said: 'She's a determined little girl. She's already pulling herself up and arching her back. She's so strong.

'Every milestone that Freya reaches is that little bit happier, I'm just so grateful she's still here.'

The previous smallest surviving twin born in Britain was in July 2010 to Amanda Staplehurst in Portsmouth to a boy weighing 1lb 4oz. His sister, weighing 1lb 20z also survived.

Zookeepers stunned by birth of 5ft baby giraffe after ‘secret’ pregnancy

2011-01-13T06:32:00.001-08:00

Zoo keepers have been shocked by the birth of a 5ft baby giraffe to a mother who kept her pregnancy hidden.

The as-yet-unnamed calf was born at Paignton Zoo in Devon on Monday morning to first-time mother Sangha.

Zoo keeper Jim Dicks said: 'The birth has come as a bit of a surprise. We thought Sangha might be pregnant back in the summer, but the signs were not clear and we began to think it was a false alarm.

'Wild animals are very good at keeping this sort of thing hidden. The first we knew about it was when we found the youngster when we arrived early on Monday morning.'

Although he is Sangha's first baby following a 16-month pregnancy, his father Yoda had a calf by the zoo's other female, Janica, in February last year.

Because the first few days of a baby giraffe's life are so critical, the zookeepers prefer not to choose a name, but their shortlist is from three Swahili names - Kito (Jewel), Nakuru (waterbuck haven) and Mosi (first born), and the Czech names Jacob and Josef.

All the signs are good so far,' said zoo press officer Philip Knowling.

The new arrival is expected to draw big crowds to the tourist attraction, which in 2006 tragically lost all three of its giraffes - Paddy, Kizi and their week-old calf - in a fire.

The zoo now has five Rothschild's (Baringo) giraffes, which are classified as endangered.

Curator of mammals Neil Bemment said: 'We are very pleased to have a second youngster within a year.'

The calf is expected to be given some time to find his feet before going on show.

Sangha, who is five and a half, arrived from Liberec Zoo in Slovakia, while six-year-old Yoda came from Givskud Zoo in Denmark.

The inquisitive pup who put his nose where it wasn't wanted

2010-12-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

Dogs may be inquisitive by nature, but this eight-month-old German Shepherd was heading for trouble when he decided to check out this hole in the wall.

Rebel somehow squeezed his head into a tight spot in the 18in wall in his garden at home in Los Angeles, California, and got well and truly stuck.

It was only when a friend of the owner, who was out at the time, heard Rebel whimpering that he found the pup was in a bit of a tight spot and called the authorities.

County Animal Services officers arrived and decided the dog was not in serious danger. They also concluded that if Rebel could get his head into the hole, they would be able to pull him out, but their main concern was doing so without hurting him.

With officers on either side of the wall, they tucked in the pup’s ears and nudged him back and forth for about 30 minutes before freeing him none the worse for wear.

World's most expensive tequila

2010-11-26T02:28:00.001-08:00

For this price, you'd think they would have included a worm.

A Mexican distiller has produced what it hopes will become the world's most expensive tequila in a platinum and diamond-studded bottle.

Hacienda La Capilla's 'The Diamond Sterling' comes in a 1.3-litre ceramic bottle coated in more than 5lbs of platinum.

But that's not all: the bottle is encrusted in more than 4,000 diamonds, totalling 328 carats.

The bottle is crafted by renowned designer Fernando Altamirano and is valued at around $3.5million.

The liquor inside is not half bad either: a rich seven-year aged tequila straight from the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Hacienda La Capilla already holds the Guinness record for the most expensive tequila with a bottle that sold for $225,000 (£142,000) in 1996.

But the company said they hoped their newest creation would fetch $3.5 million (£2.2 million).

Its latest creation will go on a world tour of tequila-appreciating hotspots, including London, Paris, Switzerland, Spain, Monaco and Dubai.

The diamond-encrusted bottle will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Bizarre new artwork embeds USB sticks in buildings for filesharing with strangers

2010-11-03T23:28:00.001-07:00

A groundbreaking new project has created the first offline peer-to-peer file-sharing network - by cementing USB sticks into buildings.

The initiative, known as Dead Drops, is the creation of architect and artist Aram Bartholl.

He has been working on a number of projects that take digital moments into real space and real life for the last few years - and Dead Drops has stemmed from them.

Mr Bartholl. 37, has 'injected' USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessible to anybody in five spots across New York, with each dead drop containing a readme.txt file explaining the project.

People will then be free to upload or download whatever files they want when they pass.

He said: 'It's a development of different projects I have worked on, where I delve into and try to get between this intersection of online life and offline life.

'It's all about dealing with the question of how digital innovation of the internet through the last decade influences every day life.

'States and companies collect data online, everything is connected. We are all connected by Facebook and social networking.

'I like to convert this by making the digital meet-up an offline event again. You plug your laptop into a city, into the building and this electric device becomes part of the building.'

But commentators on Mr Bartholl's website have pointed out that the project will be an obvious target for people uploading malicious computer viruses or malware.

One reader wrote: 'It’s a shame these will be abused. Surely someone can put some sort of virus or keylogger on there. Not to mention people/rain will break them.''

But Mr Bartholl, from Berlin, Germany, aims to globalise the project by planting USB drives in major cities all over the world from the UK to China.

He said: 'I'm encouraging people to create their own dead drops on my website.

'Soon I want to create a short movie, map and a 'How to make your own dead drop' manual.

'I go back to New York soon and I will be able to see what has been shared so far. When I left there was music, movies and even some art on the dead drop at the art centre.'

Aram, who is a New York City resident for Eyebeam, a non-profit organisation focusing on art and technology, has a number of projects at the centre.

He added: 'I like to discuss online development offline - the whole idea of open web and open standards is very important.

'The iPad for example has already lost the USB connection so you have no real access to storage anymore.

'Everything is moving slowly to 'closed' and we will have a hard time to control what is stored on your hard drive.'

Armless musician won China Got Talent

2010-10-23T07:01:00.001-07:00

An armless pianist who performs music using his toes has won the first series of China's Got Talent, the country's version of the hit Talent franchise.

Liu Wei, 23, who lost both his arms aged 10 when he was electrocuted during a game of hide-and-seek, defeated seven-year-old standup comedian Zhang Fengxi at the final on Sunday at the Shanghai Stadium, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The pianist, from Beijing, who taught himself to play the piano at age 18, impressed the audience with his performance of the James Blunt song You're Beautiful, singing and using his feet to play the piano.

He also won over the judges by commenting: 'At least I have a pair of perfect legs.'

Cai Xiuqing, 23, a student from Shantou in Guangdong province, won third place for singing Boundless Oceans Vast Skies, a hit for Hong Kong rock band Beyond.

At the awards ceremony, Liu was invited by Taiwan singer Jolin Tsai to be a guest performer on her world tour which gives him the chance to perform in Las Vegas for three months.

The awards ceremony also featured winners and finalists from the British and American versions of the show, including British singer Paul Potts - who won the first series of Britain's Got Talent - and dance group Diversity.

The British version of the show catapulted Scottish singer Susan Boyle to international stardom in 2009.

The Chinese version of the TV talent show made its debut in May and has steadily risen in popularity, with the semi-final on Sept 26 ranking as the most-watched programme nationally, according to ratings.

The show's director Jin Lei told the newspaper that its success ensured it would continue next year.

'China has so much untapped grassroots talent and we believe the show will maintain its nationwide vitality and popularity for three or five years,' said Jin.

Is this the world's longest cucumber?

2010-09-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

A British grandmother may be heading for the Guinness Book of Records after apparently growing the two longest cucumbers in the world.

Clare Pearce, who used seeds which were two years out of date, was stunned when one of the fruits growing in her greenhouse reached 47 inches.

Although it has now decomposed, the 78-year-old pensioner has a second giant cucumber which measures 43 inches and is still growing.

The current world record for the longest cucumber was set two years ago by Frank Dimmock, from Thame, Oxfordshire, whose creation reached 41.25 inches.

Mrs Pearce is waiting for Guinness World Record officials to measure her cucumber and recognise it as a new world record.

‘I found an old packet of cucumber seeds which ran out of date in 2008 but I decided to give them a try,’ she said.

‘I've never grown cucumbers before and I didn't give them any special treatment, just watered them.

‘I couldn't believe it when two of them grew so long. It seemed like the biggest one was growing before my eyes.

‘When I went back at the end of the day it would be longer than it had been in the morning. It must have been beginner's luck.’

Mrs Pearce, who has 12 grandchildren, planted the Cucumber Melonie seeds in her greenhouse at her home in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire in May.

The largest cucumber fell from the plant in August and soon started to turn yellow and decomposed.

It measured a whopping 47 inches in a straight line from top to bottom or 50 inches if you included its curve.

The second vegetable already measures 43 inches and is still growing slowly.

‘We picked some of the earlier cucumbers and they had a nice fresh flavour and tasted good,’ she added.

‘We certainly didn't set off to grow large cucumbers, it just seems to have happened.

‘I've also discovered a giant aubergine in my greenhouse, which is heading towards the size of a football.’

Mrs Pearce is now confirming if the cucumbers have officially set a new world record.

The Amazing Cat with Four Ears

2010-08-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

The brief Seventies craze for quadraphonic sound might have lasted a little longer if there were more cats like Luntik around.

The three-month-old kitten who lives in a garage in Vladivostok, Russia, has a 'spare' pair of vestigial ears just in front of his real ones.

It's not a completely unique condition. There's a cat called Yoda living in Chicago with an even bigger pair of spare lugholes.

Unlike the widespread reports of 'winged cats' - which are usually just the result of wishful thinking and extremely matted fur - Luntik really does have a fully formed extra pair of ears.

However, they don't have any of the internal 'plumbing' that would actually make them workable.

Best leave those old Pink Floyd LPs up in the loft then.

Switzerland police hired a Guardian angel to stop drivers speeding

2010-05-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Drivers in Switzerland who spot a winged man dressed in white at the side of the road shouldn't be alarmed – it’s not a vision, it’s a guardian angel.

Police in the state of Fribourg have hired the professional actor to deter motorists from speeding.

The ‘road angel’, who forms part of a safe-driving campaign, will wave and flap his wings at motorists travelling too fast.

He’s the real-life version of an angel that features in the initiative’s TV commercials who is hit by a young motorist as he hurriedly drives out of his garage.

The advert advises heavy-footed drivers to 'Slow Down. Take It Easy'.

'The idea is to provide a sort of concrete protection, to have a real angel telling drivers to be responsible,' Benoît Dumas, a Fribourg police spokesman, said.

'To have a physical presence like that makes the message more visible, and it's out of the ordinary.'

The actor, whose identity has not been released for privacy reasons, works 20 hours per week and will ‘appear’ in different parts of the 670-square-mile region of western Switzerland.

'The initiative will go on until at least end of October, but it could be prolonged. After all, you know, angels are eternal,' Dumas said.

Drivers who spot the angel are being encouraged to e-mail the police – they will then be entered into a lottery for a driving lesson.

Officers say it’s too early to tell if the ‘guardian angel’ has discouraged speeding in the mountainous country, where speed limits vary from 75mph to 31mph.

Barking photos of canines dressed in pop star's most famous outfits

2010-03-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

If you thought there was nothing more gaga than GaGa, you'd be wrong.

Decked out in blonde wigs, a space age mask and a red lace 'dress' accessorised with matching hat this collection of dogs are doing their best to be as avant-garde as the lady herself.

Not that any of them look particularly thrilled with their new outfits. Instead, each canine has put on his best poker face for the camera.

The Doggie GaGa project was dreamed up by Jesse Freidin, an award-winning pet photographer based in San Francisco.

He was inspired by the pop star's extraordinary costumes and outre personality.

'I took two of the last remaining packs of Polaroid film in the world and created an original celebration of creativity, originality and fearlessness,' he said.

'This is a toast to instant photography. Oh, and dogs.'

Freidin has not met Lady GaGa - yet. 'I'd love to,' he said. 'I hope she enjoys the pictures.'

The photographer dressed his dogs in five of Lady GaGa's most iconic outfits.

His models were a Boston Terrier, a Mexican hairless, a Shiba Inu and two Pit Bulls and each outfit was custom made.

Lady GaGa has recently been named as creative director for a new line of Polaroid products.

One million baby slings are recalled over safety fears

2010-03-24T17:03:00.001-07:00

More than a million baby slings were recalled yesterday by their manufacturer over fears that they pose a threat of suffocation.

The SlingRider and Wendy Bellissimo slings, made by Infantino, have been implicated in three deaths in the U.S. in the past year.

Last night a spokesman for the company said consumers should stop using the slings 'immediately' and contact the company for a free replacement.

About 10,000 of the suspect slings have been sold in the UK while more than one million have been distributed in the U.S.

Baby slings have become fashionable with celebrities and so-called 'yummy mummies' and have been hailed for apparently helping to cement the bond between mother and child.

They are presented as a natural way to carry a baby, based on the notion that the warmth and closeness to the parent's heartbeat creates a feeling of security - and the parent can keep their hands free.

However, a sling's fabric can press against a baby's nose and mouth, blocking the breathing and causing suffocation within a few minutes. Very young babies have relatively heavy heads and weak neck muscles which leaves them unable to free themselves to breathe properly.

There is also a danger that the baby is cradled in a curved or 'C-like' position, nestling the baby below the mother's chest or near her belly.

That curved position can cause a baby who does not have strong neck control to flop its head forward, chin-to-chest, restricting the ability to breathe.

It is thought the suspect slings were sold in the UK through Halfords and various baby product websites.

The safety alert was issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC). This triggered follow-up action by trading standards officials in the UK.

The CSPC is investigating a number of sling designs and manufacturers after 14 deaths in America over the last 20 years. It was not known last night whether there have been any deaths or problems in the UK.

Infantino president Jack Vresics said yesterday: 'Our top priority is the safety of infants.'

Officials at Infantino's UK office in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were liaising with local trading standards officials yesterday.

The U.S. has a central product safety body. However, the situation in Britain is more haphazard and left to individual council trading standards bodies. The recall relates to all SlingRider models, which includes a variant called the Wendy Bellissimo.

Infantino has sold 14,000 of the SlingRider baby slings in Europe, including 10,000 to parents in the UK.

An Infantino spokesman said: ' Consumers should stop using the recalled slings immediately and contact us to receive a free replacement product.'

Girl 2, whose jaw was ripped off in horrific attack by family dog before father kills it with a kitchen knife

2010-03-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

A two-year-old was in a critical condition tonight after she was horrifically attacked by her family dog.

Taylor Leadbeater has undergone facial reconstruction surgery and tissue from her cheeks following the vicious mauling.

The French Bullmastiff dog suddenly turned on her while she was playing with toys in her bedroom.

Her distraught father wrestled the dog off her, dragged it into the back garden and stabbed it to death with a kitchen knife on yesterday afternoon.

Taylor was taken to hospital and has had 70 stitches put into her face after an operation today. She is due to undergo another operation to deep wounds below her eye tomorrow.

Her parents, Gareth and Charlene Leadbeater and brother Ronnie, six, were at her side last night.

The male dog is not an illegal breed but had been kept at the family’s home with a female French Bullmastiff who is in season and an Alsatian.
Her grandmother Alison Leadbeater last night said her daughter had asked vets to put the dog down two weeks ago after it bit her brother Gary’s hand, but they had refused.

She said: ‘Taylor was playing with the drawers and toys in her bedroom and the dog suddenly snapped.

‘Her father Gareth heard him growl and grabbed the dog off of her, but it was too late.

‘Taylor has serious facial injuries and has already had 70 stitches following one operation. Her bone structure is fine, but there is a lot of damage to her face. She will have to have a lot of operations.’

Mrs Leadbeater said vets had offered to ‘retrain’ the dog after her daughter had asked for it to be put down because of its recent aggressive behaviour.

She claimed vets told the family that the breed was not illegal and not normally aggressive.

‘The dog was a family pet and only had been fine for years’, she added.

‘He only started getting aggressive recently when he bit my son’s hand.

Charlene was worried about his behaviour and spoke to the vets as she was concerned about the children.

‘But they said they could retrain the animal and they could not put it down.

'The dog was lovely but turned into a killing machine because of how aggressive it was getting.'

A next-door neighbour told how his wife saw the incident.

The man told the Evening Standard: 'He was playing with the dog and he turned away and the dog bit the girl on the face.

'He chased the dog out into the garden and was punching and kicking it and that's where he stabbed it with a knife.]

'My wife saw that and started screaming. We haven't been living here very long and their dogs do bark a lot and don't get on with the other dogs in the street.'

The French Bullmastiff breed is not covered under the Dangerous Dogs act.

The family's other two dogs have been taken from their semi-detached house in Eltham, South London and placed into police care while they are investigating. They are not described as dangerous.

It is understood the police received assistance from the RSPCA, who are believed to have taken away two other dogs that were at the house.

The incident comes amid growing concern about the use of dangerous dogs as status symbols and weapons.

Last week, Chrisdian Johnson, 22, was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 24 years, after using his powerfully-built pitbull-cross dog as a weapon to savage 16-year-old Seyi Ogunyemi.

As his slightly-built victim lay helpless on the ground, Johnson carried out a 'vicious murder' with a knife before fleeing the scene covered in blood.

Judge Christopher Moss, sentencing, told Johnson the dog had been used as a 'fearsome' weapon - 'trained to attack and bring down your prey'.

The French Mastiff - also called the Bordeaux Bulldog - is a relatively short, stocky mastiff.

According to breeders it usually has a good and calm temperament. They are renowned for being extremely loyal, patient and devoted.

Fearless and confrontational with strangers, they make a first class watch and guard dog.

The French Mastiff can be aggressive to other dogs unless they are socialised from an early age. The breed is usually gentle with children.

Dentist creates sculptures of tiny workmen repairing teeth to liven up surgery

2010-02-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

A dentist's surgery is never the most welcoming environment, but one creative dentist has sought to change that by livening up his clinic with a series of sculptures featuring tiny workmen scrubbing, cleaning and repairing teeth.

Using a real patient's dental cast Dr Ian Davis used his steady dentist's hand to create the tiny models, which he then attached to the model teeth.
Photographs of the 'Toothville' series adorn his dental surgery in north London and he even uses them to explain treatment to patients.

Dr Davis, 36, said: 'The idea was conceived following an article in a photography magazine where the photographer used small toy men in his photos.
'Photography is my hobby and it got me thinking about if teeth were very large how they would be treated.

'I then came up with the idea of tradesmen and general workers using their skills on teeth, if the teeth were very large compared to my little 'worklings'.
'I thought it was a nice concept and would be something like painting and decorating.

'Even one set-up can take quite a long time. Because they're so tiny, they're extremely fiddly.

'Luckily I have a steady hand and lots of tools.'

Dr Davis said patients loved the works and they lifted the atmosphere of his surgery.

'I really enjoy doing them and, as dentists, we are very into things that are very small.

'Making the small, humdrum everyday things special is what we are all about.'

Hollywood director Kevin Smith booted off flight after pilot says he's 'too fat to fly'

2010-02-15T12:14:00.001-08:00

Cult film director and actor Kevin Smith sparked an internet frenzy after he revealed an airline had thrown him off a flight for being too fat.

Smith claimed a pilot ejected him from a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank, California, saying he didn't fit properly in a single seat.

The Clerks star raised a stink about the incident on his Twitter page yesterday, saying: 'I'm way fat, but I'm not there just yet.'

He added: 'If you look like me, you may be ejected from Southwest Air.'

He posted a picture of himself sitting on the plane with his cheeks puffed out.

'I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)' he later Tweeted.

'I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn't about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I'm being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like "Please don't tell..."

After landing in Burbank, Smith wrote: 'Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.'

Southwest says its 'Customer of Size' policy require travellers must be able to fit safely and comfortably in one seat or make other arrangements.

After a storm of angry online comments from Smith and his fans, the airline issued an apology first from its own Twitter account and later in a statement on its Web site titled 'Not So Silent Bob,' a jovial jab at the Silent Bob character Smith plays in many of his films.

'We would like to echo our tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you,' the statement said.

The airline said it also accommodated Smith on a later flight, gave him a $100 voucher and apologised by phone.

Both Smith and the airline acknowledged that he had bought two seats for his original flight from Oakland, where he had spoken at the Macworld Expo conference.

But he was flying standby in order to catch an earlier flight, and only one was available.

The movie man insisted that he was still able to put both armrests down and buckle his seat belt, which is Southwest's standard.

Smith is the director of the new Bruce Willis movie Cop Out, and previously directed the films Clerks and Chasing Amy.

Images of city's most wanted criminals to be beamed on to historic landmarks

2010-01-27T04:01:00.000-08:00

Huge images of a city's most wanted criminals are to be beamed on to buildings as part of a groundbreaking crime-busting initiative, it was revealed today.

The scheme could also see pictures of missing person appeals projected on to historic monuments overnight in Southampton.

Hampshire constabulary are considering using the Bargate monument or the city's new police building, which is still being built, to display their messages.

They have already secured a £3,000 projector thanks to government funding from the Tackling Knives Action Programme.

Chief Inspector Alison Scott said the images would be beamed in a bid to engage more with the public.

She said: ‘It is all about communication with as many people as possible.

‘We are looking at using it at some of the entrances to the city where thousands of people can see it, possibly on the new police headquarters.’

The scheme could also be used to promote safe drinking messages to revellers on nights out in a move to cut alcohol-related crime in the city centre

Artist creates six-foot replica of Christ on 153 slices of burnt bread

2010-01-13T11:37:00.001-08:00

An artist has created a giant replica of the Crucifixion using 153 slices of burnt toast.

Adam Sheldon, 33, designed the unique piece of art six months ago at the request of his mother who worships at the Anglican Church of St Peter, in Great Limber, Lincolnshire.

Using his toaster, Adam burned every piece of bread before drying each piece out and flattening them so they were ready to be positioned in a giant frame.

He then spent hours scraping the toast with a knife to create the lighter parts of the image, such as Christ's halo, and a blow torch to create darker patches.

Before embarking on the mammoth project, Adam also made a much smaller depiction of the Last Supper on three pieces of toast to perfect his scraping technique.

His Crucifixion picture now measures six feet by three-and-a-half feet and was mounted on the wall of St Peter's knave on December 30.

Reverend Felicity Couch, 50, said the ‘utterly unique’ image would stay up for two weeks and added many parishioners had not initially realised it was made from toast.

She said: ‘We asked Adam to create a piece of artwork for the church and this incredible picture made from toast is what he gave us.

‘It's not what we anticipated but it is amazing and although at first we were stunned to find it was made from bread everyone is now incredibly impressed.

‘A number of the congregation thought it was painted on tiles and were stunned to find it was actually scraped onto bread.

‘Adam spent a great deal of time on his knees in front of the image carving away at each individual piece of toast for hours at a time.

‘That in itself shows a great degree of religious symbolism and it seems the artwork has grown out of Adam's faith like so much great art from history.

‘People have asked us if the mice have got to it yet, but the image is still in one whole piece with no sign of mould or nibbles.’

The Parish of St Peter's was originally home to a Norman priory built before 1180 under the Abbey of L'Aulnay in Normandy.

The church has 350 seats and the Anglican parish register dates from 1562. The church was restored in 1875.

Prisoner trying to flee has to be rescued after he is stuck in bars of cell

2010-01-02T06:33:00.000-08:00

He was presumably hoping to kick of 2010 a free man on the run but it seems he forgot to meticulously plan his escape route.

Prisoner Roberto Carrillo attempted to flee his cell in a Mexican jail in Valle Hermoso on New Year's Eve.

The 42-year-old tried to squeeze himself between the gap between the roof of the prison and the bars of his cell.

But instead of sneaking through, he ended up completely stuck and hanging upside down.

He was forced to call for help and laughing guards came to his aid and cut him free using a chain saw - before locking him up once again.

A source at the jail told The Sun: 'If he'd had a brain, it could have been embarrassing.

Meet 'Giant George' the 7ft-long blue great dane who could be the world's tallest dog

2009-12-22T05:33:00.001-08:00

Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world's new tallest dog?

Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog.

The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August.

Now George's owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights.

'He's 42.625 inches at the shoulder,' said David. 'He's very very unique.'

According to David, George consumes 110lbs of food every month, and sleeps alone in his own Queen Size Bed.

David and Christine raised George from when he was 7 weeks old, but never expected him to grow so big.

The couple eventually had to move their aptly named dog out of their king sized bed, when he grew too large for the three of them to share the same sheets.

Dr. William Wallace of the Buena Pet Clinic in Tucson, who witnessed the documentation necessary for the Guinness record, said: 'In my 45 years of experience working with giant breed dogs, without question, George is the tallest dog I have ever seen.'

David is currently rushing to get that necessary documentation into Guinness as other dog owners are coming forth claiming the record.

As they wait for the results to come through, George is busy occupying himself with his new found stardom and even has a Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts for his adorning fans.

It appears as though the sky's the limit for this mammoth hound.

The Christmas slanket for watching TV

2009-12-12T00:49:00.001-08:00

It's the perfect present for those who need help coping with cold winter evenings.

To prove it, the Slanket is a huge Christmas hit with thousands of buyers, leaving its suppliers struggling to keep up with demand.

The Slanket, so named as it is a blanket with over-sized sleeves, is designed to keep wearers warm as they lounge on the sofa watching TV or reading a book.

Christian Robinson, from internet site Firefox, said: 'We are selling over 1,000 a day, and as soon as we get more delivered, they are selling out.

'It's been amazing. We just can't get them into the country fast enough.'

The £25 garment can cover the wearer from neck to foot, keeping them cosy even if they get up to make a cup of tea or answer the door.

It was invented in 1998 by Gary Clegg, a student struggling to keep warm in a flat in the U.S. state of Maine during sub-zero temperatures.

He said: 'I decided I needed to tear a hole in my sleeping bag so I could keep my upper body warm as I channel- surfed during the commercial breaks. During the Christmas vacation, I commissioned the first Slanket to be made by my mother. . . and it was born.'

Mr Clegg, 30, added that the original version was a blanket with one sleeve which he used all through college. He later redesigned it to have two sleeves.

The product was a huge seller in the U.S., netting him millions.

Made of a polyester fleece material, there is a version for children and even a double slanket for couples.

The single adult version measures a very generous 60in by 95in. They are open at the back and worn like an apron.

In Britain, Lakeland started stocking them in September last year and has sold nearly 250,000 since.

The Slanket has attracted a celebrity following, including an appearance by Bruce Willis wearing one on the David Letterman show.

But Tom Dunmore, from Stuff magazine, said: 'There is something very wrong about someone wearing a

Slanket. They are most definitely not high fashion but they've an amazing phenomenon.

'I think people are spending more time at home and there is also an argument that you could save on heating. However, I would have to advise them to just put on a nice jumper instead.'

Other presents which have sold out this year include the robotic Go- Go Hamster and the Lucky Voice home karaoke kit.

Now, how do I outfox the ticket inspectors? (or how an undeniably urban fox rode a Tube station escalator)

2009-12-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

Scrabbling through bins and dodging the traffic doesn’t make you a real urban fox.

But catching the Tube definitely does. This city gent dashed on to the escalator at Walthamstow Central in East London at the weekend.

He got all the way down to the bottom before staff shooed him back up again.

Then, unsure what to do, he sat at the top of the escalator as his fellow travellers watched in surprise.

Kate Arkless Gray, 29, who took the photo, watched as the fox eventually trotted out of the station.

'As I got off the train I saw this daring creature dashing full speed down the down escalator, which was taped off for maintenance workers at the bottom,' she said.

'The workers at the bottom of the escalator shooed him back up again.

'He just paused near the top for a moment, so I scrabbled around my bag and took a couple of pictures.

'I was there for about a minute, watching other people's reactions to it.'

She added: ‘He was so casual. He left under the ticket barrier and headed toward the bus station.

‘Maybe he was trying to catch the last bus home.’

We were all just stunned,' said Ms Arkless Gray. 'It's not exactly a sight that you expect to see on your way home from a Saturday night out.

We did that London thing of just smiling at one another to acknowledge we'd each seen something interesting. You don't normally make eye contact on the underground unless something unusual is going on and this was definitely one of those times.'

She added: 'I've certainly never seen anything like it and I've lived in the area for years.

'I do hear a lot of foxes at night and occasionally see them in the street. But it would have had to go down a couple of flights of stairs to get down to that escalator. It was a great surprise to see on my way home.'

Snake in a bind after eating its own tail

2009-12-01T04:50:00.001-08:00

A pet snake got itself in a bit of a bind after it mistook its own tail for a tasty dinner.

Reggie the King snake soon realised his mistake after chomping down on his back end but couldn't release himself after his teeth had taken hold.

Luckily the hungry reptile's owner arrived on the scene before the snake began to digest its own body, and rushed him to the vet.

'Its teeth were acting like a ratchet,' said vet Bob Reynolds from Faygate, West Sussex.

'If a snake like this one is kept in a space that is too small then there is always a temptation for it to lunge at its own tail.

'They can't spread themselves out and think their tails are another snake.'

The foolhardy animal was close to being put down, but Mr Reynolds was eventually able to gently untangle Reggie.

King snakes in the wild range from southern Canada down to South America. They can grow up to seven feet and live up to 20 years.

The constrictors hunt a variety of prey from rodents to birds and other snakes... and at times even themselves.

World Smallest orchid

2009-11-30T15:06:00.001-08:00

Botanists who have just discovered a new flower in Ecuador can be forgiven for having missed it until now.

The world's smallest orchid is just 2.1mm wide, with transparent petals that are just one cell thick. It comes from the Platystele genus, which is made up of mostly miniature plants.

American scientist Lou Jost found the tiny flower by accident among the roots of a larger plant that he had collected from the Cerro Candelaria reserve in the eastern Andes.

He said: 'I saw that down among the roots was a tiny little plant that I realised was more interesting than the bigger orchid.

'Looking at the flower is often the best way to be able to identify which species of orchid you’re got hold of - and can tell you whether you’re looking at an unknown species or not.'

It is the 60th new orchid that Dr Jost has discovered in the past decade.

He works for Ecuador's EcoMinga Foundation, which created the reserve in partnership with the World Land Trust in Britain.

'It is an exciting feeling to find a new species,' he said.

'People think everything has been discovered but there's much more.'

More than 1,000 orchid species have been unearthed in the South American country in the last 100 years as new roads have opened up more remote regions.

Dr Jost's most exciting find was a group of 28 types of orchids from the teagueia genus in a mountainous area near Banos, Ecuador.

The group was previously thought to only have six species.

Gardener grows marrow that looks like a duck

2009-11-20T01:20:00.001-08:00

At a glance, it could easily be a duck, ruffling its feathers as it sits in a nest.

But this incredible image actually shows a marrow grown by Marilyn and Lionel Partridge in their vegetable patch.

The remarkable vegetable even features an eye, after it scratched against a twig, while the 2in stalk perfectly resembles a beak.

Mrs Partridge, 62, said: 'I have never in my 40 years of gardening and growing my own vegetables come across anything that looks like an animal before.

'I am absolutely delighted. The marrow just looked a bit odd at first, but we then realised that it looked like a duck.

'When I saw it, I burst out laughing. It is so realistic. We haven't done anything to it, it is perfectly natural.

'It is in the shape of a duck with its head turned about to preen itself.

'We couldn't eat it because it looked so adorable. Besides, would it be a meat or vegetable course?

'My two-year-old granddaughter Sophie loves it. She kept looking at it and saying "duck, duck".

'Everyone thinks we must have done something to it to make it grow like a bird but we didn't. In fact we completely forgot we had planted it.'

Mrs Partridge, a grandmother of four, added: 'It would be great to grow another odd-shaped plant but seeing it took us 40 plus years to find this one, we won't hold our breath.'

The couple's marrow is now part of a display in honour of Wild Bird Care Week at the garden centre where they bought the original plant.

'When our grandchildren, Matilda, Henry and Finley Doel told us that they had entered a bird modelling competition at Sanders GardenWorld, we decided to take it along to add to the garden centre's display,' Mrs Partridge added.

Ex-soldier has all 223 names of troops killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body

2009-11-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

His bare back is still red raw from their freshly-inked names.

But former soldier Shaun Clark had promised to have the name of every troop killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body in honour of their sacrifice.

And he wasn't going to back out.

Mr Clark, 43, spent more than four hours in the tattooist's chair today as each of the 223 names were etched in ink over his chest and back.

Mr Clark, who served with the 8th Battalion Light Infantry Regiment from 1989 to 1996, was waiting in the tattooist's chair at 11am this morning to carry out his painful pledge.

The first name was etched on his body just as the traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence began

He said: 'I don't mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they're doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.

'The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they've come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.'

The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.

He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.

Before his ordeal began, Mr Clark said: 'It's going to be painful business but it's nothing compared to what the troops are going through every single day on the front line.'

He added: 'I know it's a bit extreme covering the top half of your body front and back with 223 names, but it's my way of honouring all those men and women and it'll be there as a memorial for as long as I live.'

Mr Clark said: 'I wanted to do something to raise money for the heroes who still need help and to honour the memory of the fallen.

'I've still lots of friends from my days in the Army over in Afghanistan and there's lots of Donny lads out there as well.

'Lots of people do things to raise money but I wanted to do something different and something permanent.

'It's not just about raising money - it's also about letting these lads know that people care about what they're doing.'

Tattoo artist Kevin Kent, who is donating his services free of charge, said: 'We're going to start just as the two minute silence begins at 11am on Wednesday, and I've told Shaun that's it's going to be a slow and painful process.'

Mr Clark served in Denmark, Gibraltar and Norway before leaving the Army in 1997.

He says he has received many messages of support from soldiers still out in Afghanistan as well as from former colleagues.

Mr Clark has set up a page on the Just Giving fundraising website and has raised £165.

His page is inundated with supportive comments from well-wishers.

One supporter writes: 'Good luck shaun its means a lot to me what you are doing as my husband is there soon.'

Another adds: 'Top bloke. We will remember them.'

A Help for Heroes spokesman said: 'We are used to people going the extra mile, but this goes far beyond the norm.

'Shaun was in touch a few days ago to confirm everything was going ahead.

'It turned out to be a very poignant conversation because the volunteer who took the call lost her husband in action earlier in the year and, of course, his name is among those on the list."

Help for Heroes is a charity that raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded.

In just over two years, the charity has raised over £30million through more than 10,000 individual events.

Baby boy gives two-finger salute to the world from inside the WOMB

2009-11-10T03:44:00.001-08:00

If Owen Skeffington grows up to show a lack of respect for authority, his parents can hardly complain that he didn't warn them.

A scan taken at 27 weeks clearly shows the infant raising two fingers to the camera.

Such was the hilarity at Royal Preston Hospital that the sonographer asked permission of his parents, Owen senior and Kelly, to put the picture on the wall.

The couple, from Ashton, Preston, who also have three-year-old twins girls, Niamh and Erin, said they couldn't decide whether baby Owen was being rude to them or simply showing how many sisters he has.

His father Owen, 34, joked: 'Luckily, he didn't come out sticking two fingers up!'

Owen's comical antics caused great hilarity at the hospital. The sonographer carrying out the scan even asked for the couple's permission to reproduce the image and put it on the wall for other patients to see.

Kelly has since given birth to Owen at Royal Preson Hospital.

According to popular legend, the rude V-sign was a gesture of defiance first used by English and Welsh archers during the 100 Years War against France.

The French apparently threatened to cut off the arrow-shooting fingers of the longbow men, so the archers would wave these two fingers to show they could still shoot.

Pet dog 'baked to death' after owner left her in car during heat wave

2009-11-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

A negligent pet owner left his dog to 'cook to death' inside a boiling hot car while he visited his girlfriend.

The animal, named Sasha, was found dead in the car after worried neighbours called the police and the RSPCA.

Experts said that the inside of the BMW was as hot as an Aga cooker. The dog had died after two hours inside the vehicle which had been parked in direct sun during the heat wave in August, when temperatures outside were in excess of 22 degrees.

When a vet pulled Sasha, a rescued Rottweiler dog, out of the sweltering car her body temperature was so high that the mercury rocketed off the scale of his thermometer.

Sasha's owner James MacDonald was fined £574 pounds after admitting to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

Magistrates banned him from keeping animals for only a year - meaning he will be allowed to own a dog again.

The court at Banbury, Oxon, heard how the married 42-year-old was visiting a girlfriend at a bed and breakfast guesthouse in Chipping Norton, Oxon, in August this year.

He had taken his dog with him on the journey from his home in Whitton, Middlesex.

Paddy Roche, prosecuting, told JPs how the landlady of the B&B saw MacDonald pull into the car park in his BMW before going to visit his girlfriend.

However, when she left to go to the shops, she noticed the 'distressed' female Rottweiler panting in the back of the saloon car.

'The parking space was in the sun and it was a hot afternoon,' said Mr Roche.

'The landlady went past the car and realised the dog was a Rottweiler and it was in distress.

'It was panting badly with long drawn out pants. Only one of the rear windows was open and it was open by two inches.'

The worried landlady called the RSPCA, who in turn alerted the police before rushing to the scene.

'A PCSO arrived first and, with the help of the landlady's husband, smashed in the driver's window of the car,' added Mr Roche.

'They described the heat of the inside of the car as being like an Aga oven.'

A vet then clambered inside the vehicle and found Sasha wedged in a footwell under the driver's seat of the car, where she had desperately tried to escape from the blistering heat and intense sunlight.

Six bottles of water were also discovered inside the car - but all the tops had been left screwed on.

After her body was pulled out of the car a temperature reading was taken using a thermometer which had a maximum of 42 degrees centigrade.

However, the mercury shot straight off the scale.

Even four hours after her dead body was found, her core temperature read 43 degrees - five degrees more than what a normal dog her size should have been.

A post mortem examination on Sasha's body had suffered multiple organ failure due to the overwhelming heat.

In an RSPCA interview, MacDonald said he was told that animals were not allowed inside the B&B so he was left with no choice but to leave her in the car with the window slightly open.

He told Inspector Will Rippon that he 'loved that dog so much' and wished he could turn the clock back.

Shirley Selby, defending, said the dog's death had been caused by a 'total error of judgment' by MacDonald, who had owned her since she was rescued at the age of two-and-a-half years.

She told JPs that he was 'completely devastated' by the death.

Passing sentence, presiding magistrate Eileen Bussell told him: 'While we accept it was not a deliberate act, you acted in complete negligence by not ensuring you checked on the welfare of the dog when you were away.'

Following the case, Inspector Rippon said: 'This case just highlights how important it is not to leave dogs in cars in hot weather.

'They can overheat so quickly leading to suffering and potential death. I would encourage anyone to think twice before leaving their dog in a car.'

The fridge-sized computer that sent the very first email 40 years ago but crashed after just two letters were received

2009-10-30T14:34:00.001-07:00

The very first message to be sent between two computers - a breakthrough that helped usher in the internet and Mail Online - was sent exactly 40 years ago.

And to mark the occasion, celebrities, computer experts and entrepreneurs joined the man behind that first message for a bit of a party.

UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock said: 'It's the 40th year since the infant internet first spoke.'

Kleinrock, who led the team that first got two computers to communicate online via a network called ARPANET, added: 'The internet is a democratising element; everyone has an equivalent voice. There is no way back at this point. We can't turn it off. The Internet Age is here.'

The computer expert could never have imagined that the fledgling internet would one day give rise to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

He referred to spam emails, online scams and malicious software spread by crooks as an unexpected dark side of the internet.

'The net is penetrating every aspect of our lives,' Kleinrock told a gathering of about 200 people in Los Angeles.

'As a teenager, the internet is behaving badly, the dark side has emerged. The question is when it grows into a young adult, will it get over this period of misbehaving?'

On October 29, 1969, Kleinrock led a team that got a computer at UCLA to 'talk' to one at a research institute.

'It feels to me like the alumni meeting of the framers of the US Constitution,' Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow said as he addressed the gathering.

'There are a lot of people in this room who are honest to God uncles and aunts of the internet. What you did is conceivably the most important technological event since the capture of fire.'

Barlow, whose non-profit legal organisation fights for online freedom, maintained that internet access is on the verge of becoming an inalienable human right.

Kleinrock was driven by a certainty that computers were destined to speak to each other and that the resulting network should be as simple to use as telephones.

US telecom colossus AT&T ran lines connecting the computers for ARPANET.

A key to getting computers to exchange data was breaking digitised information into packets fired between on-demand with no wasting of time, according to Kleinrock.

Engineers began typing 'LOG' to log into the distant computer, which crashed after getting the 'O.'

'So, the first message was 'Lo' as in 'Lo and behold',' Kleinrock recounted. 'We couldn't have a better, more succinct first message.'

Kleinrock's team logged in on the second try, sending digital data packets between computers on the ARPANET because funding came from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) established in 1958.

ARPANET grew into what is known today as the internet.

Kleinrock, 75, sees the internet spreading into everything.

'The next step is to move it into the real world,' Kleinrock said. 'The internet will be present everywhere. I will walk into a room and it will know I am there. It will talk back to me.'

How the internet was born

The first message ever sent over the ARPANET occurred at 10.30pm on October 29, 1969.

It was sent by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline and supervised by Prof Kleinrock.

The message was sent from the UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the SRI SDS 940 Host computer.

Like most systems of the era, the latter machine had a tiny core memory allowing between 16 and 64 kilowords.

This was backed up by a variety of secondary storage devices, including a 1,376 kWord drum, or hard disk.

The SDS machines also included a paper tape punch and reader, line printer, and a real-time clock.

They bootstrapped from paper tape.

The first permanent ARPANET link was established on November 21, 1969, between the IMP at UCLA and the IMP at SRI.

By December 5, 1969, the entire 4-node network - UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah - was connected.

When this happened, multiple thousands of connections were opened, beyond the amount of people at the time who could possibly connect.

The contents of the first email transmission (sent in 1971) have long since been forgotten; in a FAQ on his website, the sender, Ray Tomlinson (who sent the message between two computers located side-by-side) claims that the contents were 'entirely forgettable, and I have, therefore, forgotten them', and speculates that the message was most likely 'QWERTYUIOP' or something similar.

Britain first road map - printed in 1675

2009-10-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Showing a network of just 73 major highways, this is the first ever road map of Britain – printed in 1675.

The atlas depicts 7,500 miles of road and shows how their condition was so poor, it would have taken more than two weeks to travel from Newcastle to London.

Britannia Volume The First Or An Illustration Of The Kingdom Of England And Dominion Of Wales is expected to fetch up to £9,000 at auction next Thursday.

Experts hailed the 17th-century work by John Ogilby, which contains 100 double pages of routes split into parallel vertical strips, a ‘landmark’ in road-mapping.

Charles Ashton, an auctioneer at Cheffins Fine Art, Cambridge, said: ‘What's unusual about this book is that it is complete.

‘This is one of the original printing batch from 1675 and there are probably about 100 out there across the world - mostly in university and library collections.

‘From the outside it looks like nothing - the plain board cover is quite beaten up and unornamented, not elaborate at all – you would never guess how special this book is.

‘But once you open it, its full glory is revealed. It doesn't look much like a modern road map.

‘It set a new standard for map making in England as the first attempt at a serious road map in England.’

The road map, which has been in the same family for generations, was the first time in England an atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile, based on the statute of 1,760 yards to the mile.

Ogilby claimed that 26,600 miles of roads were surveyed in the course of preparing the atlas, but only about 7,500 were actually depicted in print.

Oxford University’s Dr George Garnett said: ‘The roads would have been pools of mud. The stone that Romans used to build roads had been removed for building houses.

‘It meant people travelled little unless they had to. Newcastle to London could take weeks.’

Starfish with record eight legs is found off British coast

2009-10-23T05:37:00.001-07:00

A starfish thought to be the first in the world with eight legs has been found off the British coast, it emerged today.

The bizarre creature, which has three more limbs than normal, was discovered inside a Cornish fisherman’s crab pot.

Sea life experts at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay – where it is on display – believe it may be two spiny starfishes in the form of conjoined twins.

Curator Matt Slater explained: ‘Starfish have the ability to re-grow lost limbs and the general consensus is that starfish with extra legs are caused by some kind of accidental genetic mutation.

‘However with this particular starfish it has three extra legs and it also has two special openings - known as madreporites - through which water is pumped into their fluid filled skeleton.

‘An individual starfish would normally only have one of these.

‘As a result we believe this starfish may have a rare doubling of its genetic material,’ he added.

The 10in-wide creature, which is around an inch bigger than average, has left experts across Britain stunned.

Douglas Herdson, a marine biologist, said: ‘I’ve never seen a spiny with eight legs. It should have five. I have seen them with one, four, or six, as well as five.

‘I think it’s probably conjoined twins. It is quite feasible that it is a conjoined twin due to the first fertilised egg not completely separating. I have never heard of one before.’

The starfish, which has been put in a the Octopus tank so is with fellow eight-legged creatures, was found by Newquay-based crabber Gary Eglington in a pot off St Agnes.

The creature appears to be in excellent health and the fact that he was found inside the vessel would also suggest that he has no problem finding food.

The spiny starfish gets its name from the lines of bulbous spines that run along each of its arms.

At the end of each of these arms are photosensitive cells that can detect movement.

It is one of the most voracious members of the starfish family and feeds on a variety of both living and dead food including fish, shellfish, molluscs and other starfish.

It lives on rocky bottoms from surface to depths up to 600ft and is found in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Often blamed for attacks on mussel and oyster farms, fishermen would historically cut them up and throw them back into the sea, not realising this would actually result in more starfish as a single leg and part of the starfish’s central disc can replicate into a new animal.

Roadkill: Tourists left stunned as lioness attacks buffalo - right in the middle of a traffic jam

2009-10-19T02:48:00.001-07:00

This stunning series of pictures shows the moment a water buffalo becomes a road-hog.

But the tourists driving through Kruger National Park in South Africa could hardly blame the poor creature, who was more concerned with the tail-gating lioness than other traffic on the road.

The convoy of cars came to a halt to watch - but the passengers then found themselves part of the action as the two beasts lumbered onto the road, oblivious to their watchers.

The incredible fight took place near the national park's Phelwana Bridge, as tourists noticed a buffalo standing alone by a tree just ten metres from the road.

At first the rest of the countryside seemed desolate, and then passengers began to see lion heads popping up out of the foliage a further 20 metres away.

It seemed the convoy had missed act one of the battle, as the buffalo seemed injured and was staggering on the spot.

Eyewitness 'Mgdonny', who posted this incredible series of photos on picture-sharing site Flickr, said: 'We sat there for about an hour and nothing happened.The buffalo then tried to lift itself up, with great difficulty, and after some time managed to get on its feet.

'As it stood up this female lioness came walking towards it and jumped onto the buffalo's back trying to pull it down.

'The female lioness was injured in the back leg and looked as if it had tried to attack the buffalo previously and was injured in the process.

'The buffalo started snorting and walking with the lioness on its back trying to escape.'

It came towards the roads and hit a car in the rear bumper and the lioness couldn't hold on and jumped off.'

At this point, the tourists became uneasy as two male lions began to pad their way over.

Luckily, they were content to stay on the side of the road and watch their lady friend bring home the dinner.

Mgdonny continued: 'The buffalo - still on the road - hit another car in the front bumper with its horn.

The two huge male lions came walking towards the road and just sat down in the distance.

After a some time again the female tried two more times to bring down the buffalo but with no success.'

Luckily for the buffalo -and the passengers - the buffalo proved too much for the lioness, and she padded off, leaving the buffalo free to roam another day.

The glowing frog who wanted a light snack and swallowed a Christmas bulb

2009-09-28T05:12:00.001-07:00

In an ultimate case of crossed wires, a tiny tree frog's bug-catching antics left it with a bellyful of bulb.

The Cuban tree frog took on an unnatural glow when it swallowed an entire fairy light in a botched bid to catch an insect.

The unlucky amphibian had been hunting in the back garden of wildlife photographer James Snyder when it made a bid for the snack.

James, who lives in Palm Beach, Florida, had decorated his back yard with colourful lights after noticing that frogs had worked out lights attracted bugs.

But one night he discovered that one of the little beasts had bitten off far more than it could chew.

James, 29, said: 'A bug landed on the bulb and when the frog went for it he got a little bit extra.

'I have a large mango tree by my patio and my wife and I have Christmas lights wrapped around the trunk and main limbs to light it up from underneath.

'I took my dog out back when I noticed the frog glowing on the tree and at first I thought that the frog was sitting on top of the light.

'I quickly put my dog back inside and grabbed my camera, but I was convinced that he would be gone by the time I returned but when I got back he was still sitting there glowing away.

'I began taking a few pictures from about four or five feet away because I did not want to scare him and make him move.

'I zoomed in and noticed that the wire was actually going into the frogs mouth, he had swallowed the entire light, he wasn't sitting on it at all.'

James, 29, said he feared the frog had been killed after it ate the bulb.

He said: 'I figured that he must be dead and because there was no fear of spooking him I got very close and continued taking pictures.

'But after few minutes I noticed one of his legs had moved, death spasm I thought for a second until he repositioned his entire body.

'Now with the realisation that the frog was indeed alive I wanted to keep him that way.

'So I fired off a few more shots, then gently grabbed the wire next to the bulb and slowly pulled it out for his mouth.

'He seemed a little lethargic, maybe drunk on the heat from the bulb, but he came to and slowly crawled away.'

Seemingly none the worse for wear from his ordeal the frog has been seen again by James in the garden, but has kept well clear of the mango tree.

10 State Nickname Explanations

2009-09-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

1. North Dakota is the Peace Garden State. The International Peace Garden falls across both North Dakota and the Canadian province of Manitoba and offers the state a much nobler nickname than the Flickertail State (it’s a type of ground squirrel).

2. Arizona used to be called the Valentine State. That might seem like a pretty random nickname, but when you consider that it was made a state on February 14, 1912, it all starts to make sense… and so do those “Arizona is for Lovers” shirts.

3. Delaware has the distinction of being the First State to ratify the constitution, and that’s what you’ll usually see on Delaware license plates. Surely that’s only because “Uncle Sam’s Pocket Handkerchief” won’t fit, which is a reference to Delaware’s diminutive size and its patriotic origins.

4. When I read that Colorado is sometimes called the “Switzerland of America,” I briefly thought, “Because it’s neutral?” Um… no. Because of the mountains. Duh.

5. Arkansas may have been letting it be known that they are not a state to be messed with when they called themselves the Toothpick State. The Toothpick was a large knife, similar to the Bowie Knife, but longer and more throw-able. Speaking of which, Arkansas also has the nickname “The Bowie State” because the blacksmith who made the Bowie knife for Jim Bowie lived in Arkansas and popularized the blade there. Officially, Arkansas is “The Natural State.”

6. “The Goober State” might sound like a pretty rude nickname for Georgia, but it’s really not – “Goober” is a term for peanuts, and since Georgia is famous for producing peanuts, it makes sense

7. The state we usually know as the Free State (Maryland, in case you haven’t been brushing up on your Jeopardy! questions lately) was once called the Cockade State. I know… it sounds slightly questionable. A cockade is actually a ribbon ornament worn on hats as decoration (pictured), and this Revolutionary War-era nickname was coined when someone wrote that Maryland’s young soldiers wore brilliant cockades.

8. You likely know Tennessee as the Volunteer State, especially if you’re a sports fan, but back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to hear it referred to as “The Butternut State” (or likewise for Tennessee natives to be called butternuts). It’s not because the area is so rich in squash, though – it’s because the tan uniforms Tennessee soldiers wore during the Civil War resembled the color of butternut squash, and eventually the name spread to the whole state.

9. Oklahoma is obviously the Sooner State, but what does that mean? Well, way back when Oklahoma was called the Unassigned Lands, “Sooner” was a derogatory term referring to people who showed up and staked claim on the land before they were legally supposed to be able to.

10. And, of course, Iowa. We’re the Hawkeye State because of literary origins, surprisingly enough. Well, maybe. There are two schools of thought there. #1: Natty Bumppo of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales (which includes Last of the Mohicans) also goes by the nickname of Hawkeye, and Judge David Rorer of Burlington, Iowa, is said to have suggested the name after reading the novels. Story #2: we’re named for Chief Black Hawk, a Sauk tribe leader. Take your pick.

Man turns BLUE after he self-medicates for a skin condition

2009-09-10T18:41:00.001-07:00

A man who turned blue after self-medicating for a skin condition says his hue is lightening.

Paul Karason, 58, has the strange Papa Smurf look as a side effect of using a silver compound which he used more than a decade ago to treat a bad case of dermatitis on his face.

But he told NBC's Today Show that his skin is lightening because he is now using the self-administered doses of colloidal silver less.

'I’m in a place right now where it’s very difficult for me to make my own, and my resources are limited and it’s very expensive,' he explained to host Matt Lauer, a year after first appearing on the programme.

Colloidal silver is a suspension of silver in a liquid base - in this case, distilled water.

Silver has antibacterial properties and has been used to fight infection for thousands of years.

But it went out of use when penicillin, which is far more effective, was developed.

It continued to be used in some over-the-counter medicines until 1999, when the FDA banned it because it causes argyria, which is a result of the silver reacting with light the same way it does in photography.

The silver collects in the skin and other organs and does not dissipate, meaning Karason will be blue for life.

Karson also revealed he has recently broke off his relationship with partner Jackie Northrup during his interview today, who he was engaged to when he last appeared on the U.S. show.

He said: '[My skin] has lightened up, it is not major but it is lightening up. I am actually going to try green.'

Driver's miraculous escape after car plunges 200ft over cliff

2009-09-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

A motorist has had a miraculous escape after his car plunged down a 200 feet high cliff.

The car was seen to drive over the sheer cliffs at Hartland Quay in North Devon at 5am on Sunday morning.

Around 25 minutes later, coastguard rescue teams found the car and the driver who was able to talk to them.

He was cut free from the silver coloured car and flown by RAF helicopter to hospital at Barnstaple, North Devon.

The extent of his injuries are unclear.

Swansea coastguard watch manager Steve Jones said: 'It beggar's belief. He is very lucky to have survived.

'It is miraculous that someone can survive a fall like this but people suffer a trivial fall and it can result in fatalities.

'We are still uncertain as to the circumstances of why the car was driven over the cliff.'

The rescuers were fortunate that the weather was calm which helped them cut the driver free from the wreckage.

The electronic device that allows blind people to 'see' using their tongue

2009-09-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

A groundbreaking electronic device will allow blind people to 'see' using their tongues, scientists have claimed.

The extraordinary technology takes pictures filmed by a tiny camera and turns the information into electrical pulses which can be felt on the tongue.

Tests show that the nerves send messages to the brain which turn these tingles back into pictures.

People using the device, which resembles a pair of sunglasses attached by cable to a plastic lollipop, say that with fewer than 20 hours training they can make out shapes and even read signs.

Scientists say learning to picture images felt on the tongue is similar to learning to ride a bicycle.

The BrainPort vision device is expected to go on sale later this year.

It collects visual data through a small digital video camera about one inch in diameter that sits in the middle of a pair of sunglasses worn by the user.

This information is transmitted to a handheld control unit, which is about the size of a mobile phone.

The unit converts the digital signal into electrical pulses and sends this to the tongue via the lollipop that sits on the tongue.

The lollipop contains a square grid of 600 electrodes which pulsate according to how much light is in that area of the picture.

White pixels have a strong pulse while black pixels give no signal.

Densely packed nerves on the surface of the tongue receive the incoming electrical signals, which tingle a little like champagne bubbles.

The control unit allows users to zoom in and out and control light settings and electric shock intensity.

People can begin interpreting information via the BrainPort within 15 minutes of using the device, says William Seiple, research director at vision healthcare and research organisation Lighthouse International which has been testing it.

Dr Seiple works with four patients who train with the BrainPort once a week and says they have learned how to quickly find doorways and read letters and numbers.

They have also been able to pick out cups and forks at the dinner table without having to fumble around.

Dr Seiple said: 'At first, I was amazed at what the device could do. One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.'

Robert Beckman, president of Wicab which is developing the BrainPort, said: 'It enables blind people to gain perception of their surroundings, displayed on their tongue.

'It enables them to identify objects, like a ball, or distinguish letters of the alphabet.

'They cannot necessarily read a book but they can read a sign.'

Mr Beckman envisages the device being used to improve people's mobility and safety.

Wicab neuroscientist Aimee Arnoldussen said: 'It becomes a task of learning, no different than learning to ride a bike.

'The process is similar to how a baby learns to see.'

Users must learn to move their heads around to survey images, objects, and surroundings - just as sighted people move their eyes.

Arnoldussen structures the training to encourage users to first identify what they know, putting contextual knowledge to work in deducing an object’s identity or spatial orientation - such as recognising that the vertical lines under a chair are likely to be its legs.

By building exercises around perceiving directional orientation and shape of objects, discerning letters and shapes of various sizes, following black-line pathways delineated on a warehouse floor, and recognising standing and suspended barriers in an obstacle course, Arnoldussen has led over 20 blind subjects to remarkable levels of success.

Wicab, based in Middleton, Wisconsin, is submitting BrainPort to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval this month.

It could be approved for market by the end of the year at a cost of about £6,000.

Wicab, which has collaborated with Lighthouse International and the University of Pittsburgh in America, is looking to work with UK organisations as well.

Pilot owes his life to Biggles after crashing plane into a tree... then walking away

2009-08-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

It might not look like a text-book landing. But the pilot who crashed this plane into the branches of a towering tree says he owes his life to fiction. Vince Hagedorn, who amazingly walked away from the wreckage, put his survival down to the fictional fighter and adventurer Biggles. Despite the blood streaming from his forehead, he left the scene with a wide smile spread across his face.

Mr Hagedorn carried out an unorthodox 'pancake' manoeuvre to land in the tree at Dundee's Caird Park Golf Course yesterday afternoon when he realised he was going to crash land after running out of fuel. He confessed he had read about the move in a book about the World War I hero decades ago - and paid tribute to its author for saving his life.

Mr Hagedorn, 63, from Chelmsford, Essex, said: 'Captain W E Johns saved my life. As a boy, I remember reading a Biggles story where he was shot down while flying over a wooded area. 'He managed to "pancake" the plane sideways into a tree, which minimised the impact, and he walked away unscathed.

In the moments before impact, I was doing about 70 knots and still managed to think, "What would Biggles do?".'

Business consultant Mr Hagedorn - who spoke to wife Carole, 58, by phone in the ambulance - was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee but had suffered only bruised ribs and a gash to the head. His two-seater Flight Design CTSW struck the tree on the 15th hole. It took fire crews and ambulance staff an hour to free him using a series of ladders and pulleys. Mr Hagedorn, who has four years' flying experience, said: 'I left Barrow-in-Furness in the morning and was heading for RAF Kinloss, where I had been cleared to land, to visit my daughter Maggie in Lossiemouth. 'I was just north of Dundee when I checked my fuel gauge and it said it was half-full, but when I checked the wing gauges, one said it was empty and the other said I had only half-an-hour left of flying. 'I looked for somewhere to land and saw the golf course. I couldn't land on the fairway because there were too many trees, so I lined up the tree and did what Biggles did, stalled and "pancaked" into it.' A spokesman for Dundee Airport said: 'The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has been notified.'

Heads first: Amazing pictures as 108 skydivers set new freefall world record

2009-08-02T11:51:00.001-07:00

Typical, you line a huge group together for a photo and they go and do something silly like stand on their heads. They can be forgiven for larking around though, for as they lined up for the camera these daredevil skydivers were setting a record for the biggest ever formation of people in freefall. It was also a plus point that the photographer had a steady hand and a fast shutter (and no fear of heights), for these 108 jumpers plummeted to earth at a speedy 180mph.

First the skydivers had to get up there - and as they leaped from the planes they looked like human-shaped bombs released by the maddest of dictators. Then, still above the cloud level, they began to clump together and hold hands in an insane, upside down version of hokey-cokey. Timing of the jaw-dropping event was so crucial they had just one second after linking together to break off and prepare for a safe landing. Jumpers need to begin preparations for a safe touchdown at just 7,000 feet. The breathtaking world record attempt was achieved on Friday at the Skydive Chicago event in Ottawa, Illinois., USA.

Hurtling towards the surface of the planet like these highly trained extreme sportspeople is known as freeflying. Ecstatic Luis Prinetto, 30, who manages his own pressure-washer company, said: 'It feels amazing. The previous record was 69 people freeflying in formation so we absolutely smashed it. 'One jumper got into trouble and it's utter chaos up there so finding your allocated slot in the formation can be very tough. 'Eventually he managed to make his way through the crowd and get into position but it was really tight. We were nearing the lowest altitude we could do it from so we were only able to hold it for a second before we broke off to get ready for landing. 'We knew we had done it though and people were screaming with joy before we even got to ground.' Courageous team members jumped from five different planes and raced to join the first jumpers who had started the centre of the formation below them. To make sure all jumpers arrived at the same point in the air, those last to leave the plane needed to accelerate to eye-blistering speeds of over 180mph in order to catch up with their colleagues.

World air sports officials Federation Aeronautique International judged the attempt and confirmed it as a record when the jumpers returned to their base. The 108 international freeflyers were carefully selected over a year of qualifications from events around the world. The final selection of expert jumpers performed preparatory jumps starting on Wednesday and gradually built up to 108 in formation. Venezuelan Luis, who lives in Florida, said: 'Planning was everything. "You can't hear anything up there so once you are in the air you can't communicate. 'It all came down to knowing where your spot was and getting there after fighting through dozens of bodies floating around you at 180mph. 'We all partied pretty hard on Friday night. It's an amazing feeling.' The stunning aerial photos were captured by expert photographer Norman Kent. The 52-year-old is frequently hired by big movie producers to manage high-altitude camerawork. His latest films include Get Smart with luscious Anne Hathaway and action man Steve Carell. American Kent was hired as Director of Aerial Photography.

World's First 3D Digital Camera

2009-07-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

The world's first camera to take 3D video and pictures without the need for special glasses is to go on sale in Britain this September.

Created by Japanese camera company Fujifilm, it will allow users to see their holiday snaps in full 3D, with bicycles and beach balls jumping out from pictures. It can also capture movies with the same special effect.

A spokesman said: 'We want our cameras to capture precious moments just as the eyes see them.'

The FinePix REAL 3D W1camera has two lenses and two sensors set apart on the facia. The third dimension is created by the integrated processor that layers together an image from the two slightly different angles.

But photographers need not wear red and green glasses to view their masterpieces. They can be viewed as they are shot on the 2.8inch LCD screen on the back of the camera.

You will also be able to share them on the FinePix REAL 3D V1 - an 8inch LCD photo frame.

Hard copies will be available on order from FujiFilm using lenticular sheets, which have a plastic layer that acts as a lens to create the effect.

The high-tech camera is a chunky device with a hardy aluminium frame to protect the lenses from vibration and impact.

It features a 3x optical zoom and 'interval shooting' that lets you take 3D shots as you are moving, such as in a car or a plane.

However, a spokesman assured tentative snappers: 'As the camera performs a series of image processing steps automatically, anyone can take 3D stills and videos with superb picture quality by just pointing the camera and pressing the shutter button.'

Should this still prove too technical the camera can also take standard 2D pictures with a 10MP camera.

The brand new technology doesn't come cheap however. The camera is expected to be priced at £570 while the viewer will cost around £400.

Still it could be a wise investment as there are signs to suggest 3D is the way the industry is moving. The technology has taken off in the cinema this year, with films such as Ice Age 3 and Harry Potter being showed in 3D format.

Panasonic released their first 3D HDTV this year while the satellite broadcaster Sky are busy testing their 3D camera technology filming rugby matches and pop concerts.

Is this the world's most crowded swimming pool?

2009-07-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

There was barely enough room to tread water as thousands of swimmers crowded into a pool in an attempt to escape China's scorching heatwave.

But the fact there was no elbow room was not going to stop the fun in the world's most populous nation.

Families desperate to escape the heat grabbed their rubber rings to jostle for space at a local pool in Nanjing, the capital of the Jiangsu Province.

A heatwave has blasted many parts of China with temperatures reaching a sweltering 40 degrees.

China residents also resorted to jumping into the polluted Yangtze river to cool off.

The country is now bracing for extreme weather, with strong gales and soaring temperatures in recent weeks serving as harbingers of disasters to come.

Rainstorms have already wreaked havoc on southern parts of China leaving dozens people dead or missing and forcing many more to evacuate their homes.

Mid-air terror as hole opens up on packed passenger plane

2009-07-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

A passenger jet was forced to make an emergency landing after a foot-square hole opened up in the cabin mid flight.

Southwest Airlines inspected about 200 planes overnight after the hole appeared in the passenger cabin of the Boeing 737 plane, forcing an emergency landing in West Virginia.

Passengers said they could see right through the hole as the cabin lost pressure during the flight on Monday. No one was injured on the Nashville-to-Baltimore flight which carried 126 passengers and five crew members.

Brian Cunningham told NBC's "Today" show that he had dozed off in his seat in mid cabin when he was awakened by "the loudest roar I'd ever heard."

'It took me a couple of seconds to wake up. I got the baseball cap out of my face and I look up and there's the sun coming through the ceiling. ...I saw sky where I shouldn't be seeing it,' he said.

The hole was above his seat but he added that people stayed calm and put on the oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling.

"After we landed in Charleston, the pilot came out and looked up through the hole, and everybody applauded, shook his hand, a couple of people gave him hugs," Cunningham said.

It's not clear what caused the damage.

Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis confirmed the airline inspected 200 Boeing 737-300-series jets overnight at hangars around the country and discovered no other similar problems.

"It was a walk-around visual inspection just to check for structural integrity," McInnis said.

All those planes were put into routine service this morning, while the airliner that landed in West Virginia remained on the tarmac.

Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board and the aircraft manufacturer Boeing were helping to determine cause of the hole, McInnis said.

The hobbled airliner was placed in service during the 1990s and went through "routine maintenance" this month, according to McInnis.

The 137-seat 737-300 makes up about one-third of the carrier's fleet of about 540 jets.

Southwest was operating a normal schedule of flights - about 3,300 per day - with no cancelations or delays through midmorning, McInnis said.

Bad luck for swan who stuck her neck out and walked under a ladder

2009-07-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

They say it is unlucky to walk them and so it proved for this hapless swan who was trapped by the neck a falling ladder.

The bird, nicknamed Lofty by rescuers, managed to bump into the ladder after wandering into a back garden, and brought it crashing to the ground.

The aluminium frame, weighing a hefty 40lb, had been propped up against a fence but as it fell it pinned the bird to the ground by her long neck.

It is thought the stranded swan was stuck for several hours under the extendable ladder before homeowner Michael Johnson went out into his garden and found her.

At first he thought it was a bag of rubbish but was stunned when he went closer.

Mr Johnson, 32, called a nearby swan sanctuary who sent an expert to the home in Wimborne, Dorset.

Rescuer Ken Merriman, of the Swan Rescue Sanctuary at Holt, said Lofty looked 'half-dead' when he got there but, despite suffering swelling to the neck and head, it is expected to make a full recovery.

Mr Johnson, who runs a website design company, said: 'Our garden backs onto a river so it must have come from there.

'The ladder was propped up against the fence at the bottom of the garden and it must have knocked it over and got stuck under one of the rungs.

'I don't know how long it was there for. I went into the garden in the morning but didn't see it then. I only found it when I went back out in the afternoon.

'It's body was sat on top of the ladder and the top of its neck and head was poking out from under one of the rungs.'

Mr Merriman said: 'Michael found the swan in the nick of time. If it had been trapped for another half-an-hour I don't think it would have made it.

'It looked half-dead when I got there. It suffered some bad swelling to its neck and was quite dehydrated but it is now about 90 per cent recovered.'

He said Lofty, a female swan, was aged about seven-years-old.

He said he plans to release the bird back to its likely herd at Christchurch Harbour once she has fully recovered.

'Ghost' of Michael Jackson caught on camera pacing the corridors of Neverland

2009-07-06T02:44:00.000-07:00

His ghoulish hit Thriller merged music with horror and Michael Jackson certainly understood the children's thrill of being spooked silly.

So he probably would have loved to hear about the latest creepy goings-on in Neverland.

An unexplained shadow filmed inside his former home has sparked wild speculation among his fans that his spirit is haunting the halls.

The alleged supernatural sighting is the latest in a string of bizarre rumours to emerge after his death nearly two weeks ago.

These include reports the late singer will tour the world via hologram and that he will be buried without his brain.

The pop star’s apparent poltergeist was spotted during a live American TV tour of Neverland by his close friend Miko Brando for the Larry King Live show.

Neither the presenter - the son of screen legend Marlon - nor the cameraman noticed the spectre, which appeared to move like a shadow at the far end of a long hallway.

But after it was posted on YouTube fans picked up the shadow and rumours spread across the internet like wildfire.

Viewer comments and chat forums have been debating whether it could be Jackson’s spirit or simply a shadow of an unseen crew member.

Some fans have linked the shadow with Peter Pan, who Jackson was rumoured to have modelled his adult life on and why he named his fantasy land ranch Neverland.

The children’s character lost his shadow in the famous J M Barrie tale before Wendy sews it back on.

On YouTube one user said: ‘Yes, that is MJ, even the hair style silhouette everything..!! Immortal!’

Another wrote: ‘That is so weird. I have played it over five times now and I have to admit that it does resemble MJ. I can’t believe I am saying that actually. It’s his image.’

But others were not so convinced.

‘It is the shadow of a TV crew person in the room, idiot people. Get a grip… that’s not genuine ghost footage!’ wrote tubs1000.

Life without limb-its: The astonishing story of the man born without arms or legs... who plays golf, surfs, and swims

2009-07-02T08:07:00.001-07:00

Nick Vujicic was born with no arms or legs - but he doesn't let the details stop him.

The brave 26-year-old - who is mainly torso - plays football and golf, swims, and surfs, despite having no limbs.

Nick has a small foot on his left hip which helps him balance and enables him to kick.

He uses his one foot to type, write with a pen and pick things up between his toes.

'I call it my chicken drumstick,' joked Nick, who was born in Melbourne, Australia, but now lives in Los Angeles. 'I'd be lost without it.

'When I get in the water I float because 80 per cent of my body is lungs and my drumstick acts as a propeller.'

Due to his faith as an Evangelical Christian, Nick has chosen to remain a virgin until marriage although he has had long-term girlfriends in the past.

'He's very modest but he gets marriage proposals from women all the time,' said Nick's friend and publicist Steve Appel, from Los Angeles.

'He would love to get married and start a family but he's waiting for the right girl to come along.'

When Nick was born his father was so shocked he left the hospital room to vomit. His distraught mother couldn't bring herself to hold him until he was four months old.

His disability came without any medical explanation - a rare occurrence called Phocomelia - and Nick and his parents spent many years asking why this cruel trick would happen to them.

'My mother was a nurse and she did everything right during pregnancy but she still blamed herself,' he said.

'It was so hard for them but right from the start they did their best to make me independent.

'My dad put me in the water at 18 months and gave the courage to learn how to swim.

'I also got really into football and skateboarding. I totally love the English Premier League.'

Nick's father was a computer programmer and accountant and he taught his little son how to type with his toe at just 6 years old.

His mum invented a special plastic device that meant he could hold a pen and pencil.

Despite the risk of bullying, his parents insisted Nick attended mainstream school.

'It was the best decision they could have made for me,' adds Nick, who later achieved a degree in Financial Planning and Real Estate. 'It was very hard but it gave me independence.'

Nick, who was teased and bullied, had an electric wheelchair for mobility, and a team of carers to help him.

'I was deeply depressed when I was eight years old,' he said. 'I went to my mum crying and told her I wanted to kill myself.

'I felt cold and bitter. I hated God for doing this to me and was terrified of what would happen when my parents weren't there to look after me.

'I could brush my own teeth with a wall mounted brush and wash my own hair with pump action soap, but there was so much that was impossible for me.'

At age ten Nick, tried to drown himself in the bath but luckily the attempt was unsuccessful.

'I felt there was no purpose when you lack purpose and strength it is hard to hold on,' he said.

But with the help of his religion, friends and family, Nick managed to pull through to become an international symbol of triumph over adversity.

The football fan is now a motivational speaker and has travelled to over 24 countries speaking to groups of up to 110,000 people.

'When I was 13 I read a newspaper article about a disabled man who had managed to achieve great things and help others,' said Nick, who also plays golf with the club tucked under his chin.

'I realised why God had made us like this - to give hope to others. It was so inspirational to me that I decided to use my life to encourage other people and give them the courage that the article had given me.
'I decided to be thankful for what I do have, not get angry about what I don't.

'I looked at myself in the mirror and said: 'You know what the world is right that I have no arms or legs, but they'll never take away the beauty of my eyes.' I wanted to concentrate on something good that I had.'

In 1990 Nick won the Australian Young Citizen of the Year award for his bravery and perseverance.

'When kids run up to me and ask 'what happened?' I just lean over and whisper 'cigarettes', he laughed.

'And once I was in a car and this girl at traffic lights was giving me the eye. She could only see my head so I decided to do a 360 in the car seat to freak her out.

'Her face was like woooooooah what is going on? She sped off really quickly.'

Nick began travelling the world and in 2008 he went to Hawaii and met surfing master Bethany Hamilton, who had her arm bitten off by a shark when she was 12.

'She was amazing, said Nick. 'She taught me how to surf and I was terrified at first, but once I got up there it felt absolutely fantastic and I caught some waves pretty well.'

Nick quickly learned how to do three 360 degree spins on his board - a feat that got him on the cover of Surfer magazine within 48 hours.

'No one has ever done that in the history of surfing,' he said.

'But I have a very low centre of gravity so I've got pretty good balance.'

He moved to Los Angeles two years ago and plans to continue to travel the world - this year he will visit South America and the Middle East.

'I tell people to keep on getting up when they fall and to always love themselves,' he said.

'If I can encourage just one person then my job in this life is done.'

World's Ugliest Dog Competition

2009-06-27T13:20:00.001-07:00

There was shampoo, backcombing and enough diva antics to scare the steeliest of postmen but as beauty pageants go not every canine would have been quite so happy to participate.

But for those who did take part in the World's Ugliest Dog Competition at Sonoma-Marin Fair in California it was a question of ugly being the new beautiful.

In the dog-eat-dog, claw-biting contest a truly 'unique' looking creature beat off other hideous hounds to claim the crown for being the world's ugliest pedigree dog.

Miss Ellie, a pure breed Chinese crested hairless from Tennessee, is reported to be around 15 years old, has only a couple of back teeth, cataracts in both her eyes, several moles and pimples and limited hair - with such credentials the other mutts surely could not have stood a chance.

And like every good beauty queen Miss Ellie also had a heartfelt message for her adoring fans. According to her owner come spokesperson, Dawn Goehring, Miss Ellie really hopes to be a 'spokesmodel for rescue dogs of the 'not so cute' kind''.

'Her dream is to travel around to prove that ugly is just a word, and says nothing about how wonderful she is,' she said.

Ellie has come a long way from being kept in a kennel area for much of her life with an owner that saw no purpose for her.

When she was rescued she knew no commands and was not house trained but now rules the roost among her other rescue pals and even attended her owner's wedding in rival white dress and veil.

'Miss Ellie hopes that people get the message that there are plenty of wonderful rescue dogs out there just waiting for a chance,' added her proud owner.

As well as winning a modeling contract from House Of Dog lucky Ellie will also pick up a cheque for $1,000, a trophy to put in her kennel and even a professional photo shoot.

But it was Pabst the boxer who came through as the surprise overall winner of the contest.

His victory was an upset - the first place usually goes to a Chinese crested, like Miss Ellie.

The fabulously toothy four-year-old Boxer, who is also a rescue dog, has a 2in underbite, a large burn scar on his stomach and his nails grow in any direction they feel like.

While looking absolutely ferocious Pabst's bark is worse than his bite and in fact the loveable mutt is reportedly a pussy cat who likes nothing more than to take lots of naps in the sun.

World's Youngest Smoker

2009-06-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

A two-year-old Chinese boy is thought to be the world’s youngest smoker.

Tong Liangliang was taught how to light up by his father, who believed the habit would alleviate pain caused by a hernia.

The toddler now smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and throws a tantrum if he can’t get his fix.

‘The father wasn’t aware of how serious the toddler’s habit became until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes he smoked per day’, China Radio International reported.

Tong received his first cigarette at the age of 18 months in a bid to reduce the discomfort caused by his hernia. The boy’s tender age meant he was too young to have an operation.

In 2005 a 37-year-old man submitted an application to the Guinness Book of Records, claiming to have smoked since the age of three.

The man was bidding for an accolade as the world’s youngest smoker, but his application was denied on the grounds that it promoted a harmful habit.

World largest Albino Snake

2009-06-24T09:00:00.001-07:00

Oddball circus leader Jim Rose is to tour the US with the world's largest albino Burmese python.

The showman purchased Maurice Le Grand from a Belgian breeder for £42,000 - the highest price ever paid for a snake.

The giant slithering reptile arrived in America by crate on Monday and Rose is happy with his new housemate.

He insists fans will be shocked when they see the size of the beast at upcoming shows which will again feature a number of wrestlers including Sinn and Jake 'The Snake' Roberts.

'Until you see it you can't even come close to fathoming what a complete monster it is.

'It's actually pretty cool. We spent three months studying this species and the particulars of the nature of these rare albinos and we have also hired a snake butler who cares for it 24/7.

'Within two weeks I should be able to get into the encampment with it and begin bonding with the python.'

Asda's Extra Special Curry Sauce the dead mouse in it

2009-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

When Cate Barrett brought a ??1.49 jar of tikka masala sauce from her local Asda store, she was expecting it to contain a bit of a kick.

But what she wasn't expecting to find was the dead mouse which had somehow ended up in the jar - along with the rest of her favourite sauce.

The nursery worker had begun making dinner for herself and her boyfriend, Nigel, when she poured the sauce into the pan, and noticed it was a little lumpy.

As she began stirring the sauce through, she noticed what looked like whiskers and a tail - and immediately knew it was a dead rodent.

The couple took the dead animal and the jar of Asda Extra Special sauce back to the shop where a manager apologised and said it would be sent for examination.

Ms Barrett, of St Austell, Cornwall, said: 'I stirred the sauce around and thought it looked a little bit more lumpy than usual and wondered if we had too many vegetables in the pan.

'Then as the sauce spread out, I saw whiskers, legs, and a tail. I shouted out to Nigel to come to see if it was what I thought it was. Then I fished it out.

'It was a really big shock to see it plop out of the jar. It's going to be a while until I get another one of those tikka masala sauces.'

Ms Barrett said the seal of the jar was firmly in place as the button on the top of the lid was not popped out, which would indicate it had already been opened.

She said she had no idea how the mouse came to be in the jar and she guessed it must have fallen in the moment before the lid was sealed.

She said: 'I wasn't angry but I didn't really know want to do.' she said.

'I went up to the customer services desk and showed them a photo of the mouse. The manger was very apologetic and said they'd send it away for analysis.'

'Asda have been good about it all. I'm not squeamish but that definitely got my heart pumping when I saw it and gave me a real fright.'

Environmental Health and Asda are investigating the incident.

An Asda spokeswoman confirmed the sauce had been sent away for analysis and that a full investigation is currently place.

The spokeswoman told Mail Online it was impossible to say how the mouse got in the jar until the investigation was complete.

'The curry sauce the mouse was in has been sent away for analysis,' she said.

'It will probably be between four and six weeks until we establish where the mouse actually came from.'

The spokeswoman added the company appreciated Ms Barret's patience and that Asda representatives would contact her once the results of the investigation were complete.

Scarred for life: The teenager who asked tattooist for THREE stars on her face and ended up with FIFTY-SIX

2009-06-16T05:54:00.001-07:00

A teenage girl is suing a tattoo artist for £8,500 after she allegedly asked him for three stars on her face - but ended up with 56.

Eighteen-year-old Kimberley Vlaminck paid £55 for 'the graffiti that has ruined my life' in her Belgian home town of Courtrai.

She claimed the Romanian tattooist who performed the artwork misunderstood her French and English.

She claims she fell asleep while he was doing his work... and awoke to 'this nightmare'.

'It is terrible for me,' said Kimberley. 'I cannot go out on to the street, I am so embarrassed. I just look horrible.'

'I think he didn’t understand what I wanted. He spoke only fractured English and French.

'But I explicitly said in my native tongue, French, and also in a little bit of English when he looked confused, that I wanted three little stars only near my left eye.'

Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the tattoo parlour called The Tattoo Box in Courtrai, denies her claim, saying she knew 'exactly what she wanted'.

He added: 'She was awake and looked into the mirror several times as the procedure was taking place. The trouble all started when she went home and her father and boyfriend threw a fit.

'They are saying things now like I doped her or hypnotised her. What rubbish! She asked for 56 stars and that’s what she got.'

To remove the stars would require surgery costing £8,500.

But even the most advanced laser techniques would, while removing the tattoos, leave deep white marks all across Kimberley's face.

She has launched legal proceedings against Toumaniantz seeking damages, plus the money for the operation.

He was questioned by police earlier this year but they decided it was a civil matter and that there was nothing they could do.

Jules Clocher, a Belgian psychologist, said: 'The trauma this girl must be feeling is indescribable. She feels like a circus freak - and no wonder, because she looks like one.'

Guantanamo 4 hit shops on first day of freedom

2009-06-13T20:40:00.001-07:00

Four Guantanamo Bay inmates have celebrated their first day of freedom in Bermuda by going shopping.

As a storm erupted over America releasing the four in the British colony without telling the Foreign Office, they bought trousers, toothpaste and other toiletries, then played football with local teenagers.

Salahidin Abdulahat, 32, one of the four Uighur Muslims, from eastern and central Asia, said: 'I have been in jail for over seven years. Innocently.

'First I would like to rest for a couple of weeks. Then I would like to work. I would love to have a Bermuda passport and live as a normal member of society.'

The Foreign Office, which controls the colony's security, expressed shock at the deal between the US and Bermudan Premier Ewart Brown.

'We are deeply disappointed that they negotiated the movement of the four people here with the United States without consulting us because, to us, it pretty clearly cuts across foreign affairs and security issues,' said island Governor Sir Richard Gozney.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was 'astonishing' that Downing Street knew nothing of the deal.

But Gordon Brown said Barack Obama had called to thank him after the Uighurs' arrival on the island.

The US abandoned a plan to settle them on the outskirts of Washington DC after protests from locals.

The four are living in a waterfront cottage and have been given a woman interpreter.

A Bermuda official said they will be given work permits.

Police unveil new twist on old idea... the bobby on a (motorised) tricycle

2009-06-12T10:45:00.001-07:00

With its bright colours and chunky wheels, it looks like a motorbike from a giant Lego kit.

In fact, the T3 Motion could be the future of law enforcement.

The electric scooter, which has a top speed of 25mph, is designed to be cheap to use, to be friendly to the environment and, with a 9in-high raised platform, to provide a great vantage point for policing crowds.

A model with police-style blue and yellow livery (and limited to 5mph) was loaned to Sussex Police to use at the South of England Show, a three-day agricultural show in Ardingly, near Haywards Heath, which runs until tomorrow.

Sergeant Paul Marsterson said the experiment had been a success - though hampered by the sheer novelty of the vehicle.

'We tried to do a tour of the arena. However, people were so interested in it, it took us 45 minutes to get a couple of hundred metres,' he said.

'The chief constable [Martin Richards] has had a go and I mentioned to him it is perfect for Gatwick airport, both indoors and outdoors.

'It gives high visibility and it's great to be able to talk to people you might not always be able to.'

The £5,000 trike is designed by a Californian firm and has been adopted by a number of police forces in the U.S.

It uses changeable power modules, costs a few pence a day to run and produces zero gas emissions.

Although Sgt Masterson's trike was not equipped for use on the roads, it was fitted with headlights, brakelights, running lights and emergency lights.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: 'There was a road safety area at the show and the theme this year is Then And Now, so there were old police cars and other emergency services vehicles right the way through to the present.

'The trike was an example of what we could potentially have in the future.'

The sunbathing killer: Briton who threw children from balcony relaxes in Greece

2009-06-10T16:06:00.001-07:00

Stretching out in the sun with a cigarette and a cup of iced coffee, killer father John Hogan savours his last moments in Greece before returning to Britain a free man.

Hogan, 35, is pictured at the psychiatric hospital he has called home since killing his six-year-old son Liam by pushing him off a 50ft balcony.

In court, the former floor-tiler from Bristol argued he was suffering from an 'explosion of insanity'.

He was found not guilty and instead ordered to seek psychiatric treatment.

Less than three years after the incident, he has apparently made a full recovery and last month he was cleared to return to Britain.

Residents of the psychiatric facility in Dafni, on the outskirts of Athens, say he spends much of his time in the outdoor cafe, reading, drinking and chatting to other patients.

Hogan killed his son after an argument with his then-wife Natasha in Crete in August 2006.

He pushed Liam and his daughter Mia, two, from a balcony before jumping himself.

Mia survived and has since moved to Australia with her mother, who has remarried.

But Hogan is determined to be reunited with his daughter. In court last month he said: 'I must be there for her - strong and healthy.'

You dirty rat: Daring rodent shows puzzled leopard exactly who's boss by stealing its lunch

2009-06-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

It's not so much snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as dinner from the jaws of danger.

But even the imposing presence of an adult leopard at feeding time is not enough to get between plucky young Rattus Norvegicus (better known as the brown rat) and a free meal.

This extraordinary series of images were captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge, as he trained his camera on the leopard for a course project.

The little rat - thought to be only two to three months old - was spotted scampering into the leopard's enclosure shortly after feeding time at the Santago Rare Leopard Project, in Hertfordshire.

So intent was the plucky rodent on its mission to snatch a tasty snack, that it seemed not to notice that its path was taking it within a whisker's breadth of 12-year-old Sheena.

Clutching a corner of raw meat with its tiny paws, the rat busily tucked in, until it sensed one of those whiskers moving in.

Sheena, bemused by the interloper coming between her and the remains of dinner, padded over on paws big enough to wreak vengeance with a single swipe.

But rather than giving the thief at very least the hearty set down it deserved, she gingerly lowered her nose for an exploratory sniff.

Rattus paused, lifted its dainty pink claws in submission, then - obviously deciding on a nothing-ventured-nothing-gained approach - continued to tuck in.

And after another tentative investigation, Sheena gave the leopard equivalent of a shrug and turned away.

Mr Gutteridge, 19, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, thought the rodent was a mouse.

Mr Gutteridge said: 'I have no idea where it came from - he just appeared in the enclosure after the keeper had dropped in the meat for the leopard.
'He didn't take any notice of the leopard, just went straight over to the meat and started feeding himself.

'But the leopard was pretty surprised - she bent down and sniffed at it and flinched a bit like she was scared.

'It was amazing, even the keeper who had thrown the meat into the enclosure was shocked - he said he'd never seen anything like it before.'

An expert at the Wildlife Trust said the creature was in fact a young and 'inexperienced rat', identifiable by its big paws and ears and more importantly its bald, scaly tail with a thick base.

Leopard project owner Jackie James added: 'My son threw meat in for the photographers and it just appeared. Sheena batted it away but it just came back. The determined little thing took no notice and just carried on.'

Sheena was brought in to the Santago Rare Leopard Project from a UK zoo when she was just four months old.

She is one of 14 big cats in the private collection started by Jackie's late husband Peter in 1989.

The African leopard can be found in the continent's forests, grasslands, savannas, and rainforests.

The leopard is the most elusive of all the big cats. They are solitary animals and are primarily nocturnal - preferring to hunt at night.

The species is also a strong climber and is capable of killing prey larger than itself.

The leopard's prey ranges from fish, reptiles and birds to smaller mammals such as hares and monkeys.

A stealthy hunter, leopards are known to stalk close to their prey and run a relatively short distance on the hunt.

They kill by grabbing their prey by the throat and biting down with their jaws, and store their larger kills in trees - out of the reach of prowling lions and hyenas.

Good gored! Bull catches matador and tears an eight-inch hole in his side

2009-05-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures that will give you a new appreciation for your nice, safe office job today.

Tossed into the air like a rag doll, Spanish matador Israel Lancho is gored by a bull in Madrid on Wednesday.

The matador is now in critical condition after the bullfight at the San Isidro's fair in Las Ventas bullring.

His gaping wound is nearly eight inches wide, with Spanish press claiming it was a miracle the bull's horn had missed his heart.

Lancho, 30, had confessed he did not think he would survive. He is expected to remain in the intensive care unit of a Madrid hospital for several more days before being transferred to a clinic for at least a week.

Don't get in a flap, it's just a cat with furry wings

2009-05-27T10:25:00.001-07:00

Someone should tell the birds to look out - now cats are growing wings.

At least, this cat in the Chinese city of Chongqing in China appears to be.

Animal experts have been left baffled by the fluffy white moggy, who was born normal - but began growing wing-shaped appendages on either side of his spine when he was just a year old.

Some experts believe the bony 'wings' are in fact a freak mutation - a Siamese twin growing inside the kitty.

Others think the mutation may be genetic, caused by chemicals during his mother's pregnancy.

Whatever the answer is, the cat does not seem to mind - with his owners even claiming he enjoys all the attention.

A cue at two: Meet the toddler who's a pool prodigy (and learning his colours at the same time)

2009-05-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

A New York toddler still in nappies has a growing reputation as a pool shark with a mean bank shot - even though he has to stand on a chair to reach the table.

Two-year-old Keith O'Dell Jr has youngest member of the American Pool Association.

The son of pool-playing parents, the toddler recently travelled to Las Vegas to put on a demonstration for the APA, the governing body of amateur pool.

Keith started playing pool on a child-size table - but has since moved up to a regulation table.

His parents say his learning hasn't been limited to billiard games. Pool is also teaching him colours and how to count.

So that's how you cut an elephant's toenails

2009-05-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

He might have preferred shocking pink, or a gold that would have twinkled in the sunlight as he lumbered along.

But since Boy the elephant was asleep during his pedicure he had no choice in the colour of varnish smeared on his nails - and ended up with boring dark blue.

His beauty treatment at Kiev Zoo, in the Ukraine, was a truly jumbo task involving a saw, power grinders and quite a few pairs of hands.

The pedicure was done for Boy's benefit, as his nails had grown too long for comfort. It didn't look particularly pleasant, however, as the German vet and his assistants hacked away at his tippytoes, clippings flying off into the air.

Thankfully the 12,000lb Asian elephant, who is 39, had been heavily sedated for the procedure.

Afterwards, with a helpful push on the rump, Boy got up and wandered off - presumably to admire his nails and blowdry them with his trunk.

Am I on the ring road? Stunt driver defies gravity on the world's biggest loop-the-loop

2009-05-17T17:47:00.001-07:00

It was definitely not the time to be having second thoughts.

For the driver attempting the world's largest loop-the-loop, a moment's hesitation could have been fatal.

If stuntman Steve Truglia had been too timid in his acceleration, his yellow Toyota would have reached the top of the track and dropped like a stone.

But if he had driven in too fast, the G-force generated could have knocked him unconscious.

Either way, his route down from the high point of the 40ft loop would have been, shall we say, less than graceful.

But as this extraordinary picture shows, Mr Truglia's timing and speed were perfect.

The breathtaking stunt - planned with the help of a Cambridge physicist - was filmed at a Suffolk airbase for Channel Five's car show Fifth Gear.

It will be shown in a special episode next Saturday at 11.30am.

John Nolan, of North One Television, which produces Fifth Gear, admitted that Mr Truglia was dicing with death by taking on the challenge - known to stuntmen as the 'death loop'.

'This is definitely the highest loop-the-loop in a real car ever,' he said. 'If he had blacked out he might not be here now.'

To stop this happening, Mr Truglia took part in endurance training in an aircraft to get his body used to the stresses of the G-forces involved.

Fighter pilots are trained to tense the muscles in their legs, arms and abdomens to restrict the flow of blood away from their brains, which could cause a blackout.

Mr Truglia also had to overcome his natural urge to bail out.

But after successfully completing the stunt, he is now ready for his next adventure - skydiving from space.

The pregnant woman killed with her unborn son by an out-of-control sports car

2009-05-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

A mother-to-be and her unborn child were killed when a car mounted a pavement and mowed her down in front of her husband.

Anne-Marie McCreadie, 29, was walking with Andrew, 31, and a male friend after enjoying an afternoon out.

But as they strolled along the pavement a BMW coupe careered off the road, hit the kerb and mounted the pavement.

The sports car then plowed into the pregnant woman causing her horrendous injuries.

An ambulance rushed to the scene close to the town centre in the picturesque town on Penrith in Cumbria and paramedics treated her before taking her to hospital.

Surgeons battled to save Mrs McCreadie, who was more than six months pregnant, but she and her unborn baby boy were later pronounced dead.

The male driver of the BMW was arrested by police at the scene of the accident on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

Last night Mrs McCreadie's husband and family were being comforted by friends and were too distraught to speak of the tragedy.

Mr McCreadie, a placed a message on Twitter which said: 'My heart is breaking over my wife and son. God bless you both.'

Sources said the couple, who had been married for 10 years, were extremely close and looking forward to the birth of their first child.

They were excited and had been a chosing name for their baby son whose birth was due within the next few weeks. It is believed they had decided to call their son, Ben.

Last night family, friends and well-wishers left flowers and heartfelt tributes for Mrs mccreadie at the scene of the accident.

One left by relative Ella Fears said: 'The family is gutted and the family will never be the same without both of you.

'I've got a picture of you and am going to keep the picture in my room to always remember you. On Sunday we all went to church and your name was mentioned.'

Her sister Hannah, six, said: 'Anne-Marie I miss you very much. Ben, you are so cute.'

An elderly neighbour said: 'She was a very polite, pleasant young woman, We didn't know her very well but she and her husband were hardworking and dedicated to each other. They are a joy to have as neighbours.'

Another neighbour said: 'They are a very nice couple who were very well liked. Everyone is shocked by this tragedy.'

The tragedy happened at around 6.30pm after the couple and a friend had enjoyed an afternoon out in Penrith.

As they were walking down a street close to the town centre a BMW couple careered off the road, mounted the pavement and hit Mrs Mccreadie.

The 29-year-old was rushed to Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary by ambulance but she and her unborn child lost their fight for life.

Police arrested a male driver at the scene of the accident and have launched an investigation into the incident.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: 'A blue BMW coupe mounted the pavement and collided with a pregnant female pedestrian who was walking with her husband and a male friend. The woman sustained serious pelvic injuries.

'The male driver of the BMW was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and is currently being detained at Carlisle police station where he is helping police with their enquiries.'

The Indian village where there are 220 sets of twins has doctors baffled

2009-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Baffled doctors are trying to unravel the mystery of an Indian village boasting more than 220 sets of twins born to just 2,000 families.

Experts who have visited the remote tropical village of Kodinhi, in Kerala, have been left scratching their heads over the phenomenon that has seen almost six times as many twins born than the global average.

In 2008 alone 15 pairs of twins were born in the village out of 300 healthy deliveries and this year is expected to top that number

In the last five years alone up to 60 pairs of twins have been born - with the rate of twins increasing year-on-year.

Local doctor and twin enthusiast Dr Krishnan Sribiju has been studying the medical marvel of Kodinhi for the past two years.

Although 220 sets of twins have been officially registered in the village Dr Sribiju believes the real number to be far higher.

'In my medical opinion there are around 300 to 350 twins within the village boundaries of Kodinhi,' he said.

'What is fascinating is the increasing numbers of twins with each passing year, so much so that I feel in the past ten years the number of twins in Kodinhi has doubled.'

According to villagers, the twin phenomenon only started occurring three generations ago. Dr Sribiju can barely contain his excitement discussing the possible scientific implications of the village.

'To the best of my knowledge this medical marvel began somewhere between 60 to 70 years ago.

'Without access to detailed biochemical analysis equipment I cannot say for certain what the reason for the twinning is, but I feel that it is something to do with what the villagers eat and drink.

'If that is the case then maybe whatever is causing this exceptional level of twinning can be bottled and provide help for infertile couples.' Categorising the twin phenomenon as a naturally occurring anomaly, Dr Sribiju has ruled out genetic factors as the cause due to the localised nature of the village.

He also dismisses any suggestion that the unusual level of twins could be caused by an unknown pollutant pointing to the high number of healthy twins born without any deformities.

'There are lots of reasons for twins, but let me explain the underlying uniqueness of Kodinhi,' said Dr Sribiju, 40.

'The number of twins per thousand here is around 45 per 1,000 births.

'Indian, and by that I mean Asian, people on the sub-continent have the lowest acknowledged incidences of twinning in the world at around four per thousand.

'In addition, there is no IVF treatment here because of the prohibitive cost. Global rates of twins being born, especially in the western world, have increased because of artificial insemination.

'Also, twins are born usually to older, more mature women. In Kodinhi that is not the case because marriage happens much younger here at around 18-20 years old and families begin very soon after.

'Another factor that bucks the trend is that twins occur in women who are generally over 5ft 3in in height. The height of women in Kodinhi is around 5ft on average.'

The residents of Kodinhi, which is in the lush state of Kerala in the south of India, have even taken to calling their home 'twin town' and have gone as far as to set up the Twins and Kin Association (TAKA).

'TAKA has been set up to register and provide support for the twins of Kodinhi and their families,' said Puallani Bhaskaran, 50, the association's president and the proud father of twin boys

Stunning pictures of the California Fires

2009-05-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Thousands of residents have fled from a wind-fuelled inferno that has devastated exclusive multi-million pound homes in Santa Barbara, California.

Miracle roll: Rally pair's amazing escape after their car spins through the air at 115mph

2009-05-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is the moment a rally driver had an astonishing escape after his car flipped through the air with such force it ripped off his crash helmet.

Darren Pool, 35, was travelling at 115mph when a gust of strong wind caught the side of his Talbot Sunbeam as it went over a small jump.

The car flipped five times on its side and twice end-over-end and at one point his crash helmet was seen flying out of the car window.

One of Darren's arms can be seen dangling out of the window and the whole ordeal was watched by his horrified family.

The battered car eventually came to a halt 150 yards from the tracks and rescuers feared he and co-driver Chris Beer, 37, had been killed.

But Darren suffered only minor cuts and Chris escaped with bruises to his face.

Both men were airlifted to hospital but have now been released following the horror smash at the RDP Welsh Rally Epynt in Wales.

Father-of-one Darren, a mechanic from Exeter, spoke of the moment he lost control of the car.

He said: 'I was going over a jump I'd done about 25 times before but this time for some reason we lost our line while we were in the air.

'There was a gust of wind and we realised we were coming down all wrong and were going to land off the track.

'The car landed in a ditch and just started rolling over and over. After a few rolls my helmet was ripped off my head and at one stage my arms and legs were hanging out of the window.

'You have a very short time to react - it was very scary. It felt like we were in a tumble drier, although it was a bit of a blur really.

'I would guess we were only rolling for a couple of seconds but it felt like ten minutes.

'The bend where it happened is very accessible to spectators and it makes it even worse to know the family were watching 30 yards to the side.

'Dad came running over and said he was fearing the worst when he saw me. He really thought I was dead.'

Darren and Chris both lost consciousness momentarily before being removed from the car and flown to hospital to be checked over.

They were later released with just bruises after the crash at 9.30am on Sunday.

Chris, also a mechanic, said he felt 'lucky to be alive' after medics told him the force of the rolling car had forced his internal organs upwards and nearly ripped his eyes out of his head.

He said: 'It feels like I've been in the ring with Mike Tyson. But I also feel very lucky to be alive.

'After the crash I knew I had been in a serious accident and I was just relieved my arms and legs were still attached.

'When it happened we had just been congratulating each other on how well we had done on the first stage of the race - as we were lying in 6th place.'

The pair, who are both amateur drivers, know each other because Darren's wife Victoria, 34, is the sister of Chris's fiancie Carol, 35.

Darren's £20,000 car was written off in what was the first accident either had been involved in on the track.

Pilot's miracle escape as plane crash lands ... on a pile of Portaloos

2009-05-02T17:15:00.001-07:00

With his plane stalling at 150 feet, and no time to return to the runway, the pilot of a Cessna 182 was probably in need of the toilet.

Luckily, he found a whole pile of them, and the crash landing on top of piles of portable loos probably saved his life.

The Cessna 182 crashed on Friday afternoon in Washington state after taking off from Thun Field, an airfield owned by Pierce County southeast of Tacoma.

The plane was about 150 feet (45 meters) in the air when the engine quit.

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said the pilot tried to turn around to land but didn't quite make it.

The plane hit a fence, flipped over and landed upside down on top of the portable toilets standing in a storage yard.

The pilot, whose identity has not been released, was able to walk away apparently unharmed.

Artists turns her old Skoda Fabia into an 'invisible car'

2009-05-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's a familiar feeling - you park your car, head to the shops and on your return you forget where you left it.

But art student Sara Watson could be forgiven for such a lapse - because she has created an invisible car.

The University of Central Lancashire artist made the incredible optical illusion by spray painting a battered Skoda Fabia to match the car park and entrance to her art studio.

The car - which was created as part of Sara's drawing and image making course - is reminiscent of the work of pavement artist Julian Beever whose work has caused a storm in central London.

To create his images, he uses a camera lens to look at the stretch of pavement he is working on and visualise the picture.

He then plots a drawing which will play tricks on the way in which our minds 'read' perspective to create an impression of depth on the flat surface of the paving stones.

Among his other works he has created a deep swimming pool realistic enough that shoppers swerve to avoid it, chalked on the street.

His lifelike 3D works of Coca-Cola bottles, sunbathing women and globes appear to spring out of the ground, ready to trip you up.

The pig who feels a little bit sheepish

2009-04-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

She oinks, snuffles in a trough and has a fetching set of trotters.

But it's not just her tail that's curly.

Elizabeth the pig wears a golden fleece that could pull the wool over enough eyes to make her the pride of the flock.

She is a queen of her species - a rare Austrian Mangalitza Gilt - and one of only a handful to thrive in Britain.

Elizabeth was the star buy at a livestock auction in Lancashire at the weekend.

There was frantic bidding, with farmer Tim Fitton paying the winning £250 to buy her for his daughter Alice.

'My daughter really took a shine to her,' he said.

'We love animals and we just came along to see what this one was all about really.

'We have got to promote these new breeds and it will be interesting to see what happens when we take her home and our own pigs see her. I hope we can breed from her.'

The pig, christened Elizabeth by her new keeper, is settling in well.

The yoga supergran who can still assume the lotus position at the age of 83

2009-04-23T04:27:00.001-07:00

Yoga instructor Bette Calman may be 83, but she's still bending over backwards to spread the benefits of the ancient Indian discipline.

The nimble grandmother can really pull some shapes and with her set hair and pearl earrings she looks as glamorous as Greta Garbo in a pink jumpsuit.

With 40 years of teaching under her belt, the Australian wonder is living proof that a lifetime's dedication to yoga will keep you flexible as a rubber band.

While others her age complain about aches and pains, Mrs Calman focuses on getting tough balancing manoeuvres right.

Mrs Calman from Williamstown, southeast Australia, can do all the difficult moves including the agonising 'peacock' where the body is held in a horizontal position by the strength of the arms alone.

The bendy granny can also pull off a tricky raised 'lotus', 'bridge' and a headstand with ease.

She can also put her head between her knees and hold her ankles putting her inflexible grandchildren to shame.

I'm proof that if you keep at it, you'll get there. I can do more now than I could 50 years ago,' Mrs Calman said.

So when will she give it up?

'You're never too old. The body is a remarkable instrument.

'It can stretch and stretch, and get better all the time. Forget age,' said Mrs Calman, the author of three yoga books including one called Yoga for Arthritis.

'Even a basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have big benefits.'

It's that spirit that has made Mrs Calman a legend.

She was a pioneer of the regime in Australia in the 1950s, ran yoga centres for 33 years and made regular TV appearances in the 70s.

She thought she would take it easy in Melbourne, but was drawn back to teaching as yoga interest grew.

'I came here to retire, but my daughter, Susie, who's also a teacher, kept being pestered for fill-in teachers at her health centre. That was eight years ago,' she said.

Mrs Calman teaches up to 11 classes a week with no sign of stopping and she keeps the 'corpse' posture strictly for her classes.

'Yoga keeps you young,' she said.

'Never have I gone to a yoga class and wished I was somewhere else, because I know I'm going to come out feeling on the top of the world. There'll always be yoga.'

A pothole 5 inches deep left my face looking as if I'd been brutally attacked

2009-04-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

His two black eyes, broken facial bones and cuts and bruises make Warren Peters look like the victim of a brutal mugging.

In fact, the cyclist had been set upon by nothing more than a pothole.

Mr Peters, a 45-year- old surveyor, was cycling the seven miles home from his office in Milland, West Sussex, when he had an altercation with the 5in- deep hole.

It was 5.50pm and the weather was gloomy following a shower as he reached the stretch of road which borders Roman Abramovich's former estate at Harting Combe.

'There was surface water across the road and a car was coming up behind me which meant I had to stick to the inside line rather than go round it,' he said.

'There was this massive pothole there hidden by the water and I went straight into it. The bike just stopped dead and I was catapulted over the handlebars.

'All I can remember is my face hitting the ground. There was a big chunk taken out of my cycle helmet. If I hadn't been wearing it, I dread to think what would have happened.

'What happened next is very vague. Apparently I tried to phone for an ambulance but I don't remember.

'A chap in a car stopped and a lady stopped and someone else and I sat in the back of a car.

In the end I managed to contact my wife Gillian and she came and picked me up. She took me to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham and I was there for two nights while they operated on my face.

'I may have to go back for another operation and in the meantime I can't eat properly because of the damage to my jaw.

'I suffered multiple fractures, including a broken nose and cracked jaw and needed an awful lot of stitches. I was trying to be green by cycling to work - but now I go by car.'

Mr Peters, whose compensation claim is being handled by British Cycling, is one of thousands injured by the state of the roads, made worse by frosts in February.

The AA says insurance claims have trebled, with many motorists and cyclists hitting potholes hidden by rainwater.

The pothole into which Mr Peters crashed was was 5in deep and 2ft across. It has since been repaired, but an inspection of it yesterday showed that it was already crumbling round the edges, with another hole formin.

Supporting the Daily Mail's campaign to improve the state of the nation's roads, Mr Peters said: 'If it stirs something up to get potholes repaired it's brilliant.'

West Sussex County Council says the pothole should have been given 'the highest intervention level' once reported as it was at least 10cm deep. Repairs should be made within 72 hours.

The council said: 'Our team of pothole patrols are working to ensure speedy repairs are made. The works schedule is put together on a priority basis.

'We will continue to make every reasonable effort to deal with hazards as soon as is practicably possible.'