FORD INTRODUCES 'PARENTAL CONTROLS' TO RESTRICT TEENAGERS' SPEED AND REDUCE THE LOUDNESS OF CAR STEREO

Worried parents in the U.S. will be able to limit the speed at which their teenage children drive their car with a computer chip inside the key.

Ford Motor Company will roll out the new feature on many of its 2010 models that will restrict drivers to a top speed of 80mph.

Parents in the U.S., where most teenagers can get drivers' licences at 16, will also have the option to programme the car key to limit the stereo volume and to sound continuous six-second alerts if the driver doesn't wear a seat belt.

The new computer chip will be installed in the keys of 2010 models and can restrict the top speed of cars to 80mph

Jim Buczkowski, Ford's director of electronic and electrical systems engineering, said: 'Our message to parents is, hey, we are providing you some conditions to give your new drivers that may allow you to feel a little more comfortable in giving them the car more often.'

More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and non-fatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The new feature, called 'MyKey', will be standard on an unspecified number of Ford models when the 2010 cars and trucks come out next summer.

The feature will spread to the entire Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup as models are updated, spokesman Wes Sherwood said.

Ford chose an 80mph limit even though freeway speed limits are lower in most states because it wanted to leave a margin in case of unusual situation arises, Buczkowski said. In some states, freeway speed limits are above 70 mph (112 kph), Sherwood added.

The 'MyKey' will be standard on some Ford models from next summer and can be programmed to restrict top speed, stereo volume and sound an alarm when the driver is not wearing a seat belt

'Just lopping it off at exactly 70mph was felt to be too limiting,' Buczkowski said.

The company already uses computer chips in its keys to prevent thefts. The car won't start unless it recognizes the chip in the key.

'It's making use of existing technology, and through the magic of software, we're able to build features on top of the features we already have,' Buczkowski said.

The seat belt chime will also sound for adult drivers, but stops after five minutes to avoid annoying adults who adamantly don't want to wear seat belts, Buczkowski said.

Ford said its market research shows 75 per cent of parents like the speed and audio limits, but as you might expect, 67 per cent of teens don't like them.

Danisha Williams, a 16-year-old senior at Southfield-Lathrup High School in suburban Detroit, said she's against the idea.

'I wouldn't want my parents to have that much control over how I'm driving,' she said.

'If your parents are holding your hand, you're never going to learn.'

Brittany Hawthorne, 17, another Southfield-Lathrup senior, said there may be emergency situations where she'd have to drive more than 80, possibly to accelerate to avoid a crash.

Ford's research shows that parents would be more likely to let teens use their vehicles with the system, Sherwood said, and if it gets them the car more often, the number of teens objecting drops by nearly half.

Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry that is pushing to raise the minimum driving age to 17 or 18, said: 'Research we've done has shown that speeding is a major factor in teen crashes, especially novice teen drivers.

'So I think a system that tries to correct the speeding behavior has the potential to improve safety.'

(Mail Online)

'Pizza Hut' is to become 'Pasta Hut' in a radical overhaul of the restaurant chain's menu and image.

From this week, pizza will play second fiddle to a range of new pasta dishes to be launched on unsuspecting customers.

Pizza Hut signs are currently being taken down and altered as the chain battles to adopt a wholesome image - not whole-fat.

'We wanted to create a moment in time for people to sit back and take notice,' said Pizza Hut boss Alasdair Murdoch.'

'We are confident that people will like what they see when they come into the restaurants.

'The popular salad bar has been upgraded. Improvements have been made in areas including nutrition, quality of ingredients in all of our pizzas and pastas, as well as a decrease in salt and saturated fat.'

And, in a move that will surely please school meals' champion, Jamie Oliver, the restaurant also plans to sneak 'hidden vegetables in kid's meals', a statement from the company said.

It remains to be seen whether the huge rebranding exercise will be a success.

But there is hope for those who value fatty pizza over diet-friendly dishes - and those who think the name change is a brazen publicity stunt.

It is for a trial period only and customers can offer their thoughts on the new-look restaurants at www.pastahut.co.uk.

The 50-year-old US company, which launched its first restaurant in Britain in 1973, uses 8,500 tonnes of cheese every year.

(Mail Online)

Most of us are familiar with floral tributes left to mark a fatal road accident and in Continental Europe roadside shrines are prominent.

I have recently returned from Greece and they were everywhere.

Now a new phenomenen has arisen - the 'Ghost Bike', marking the spot where a cyclist has been killed or injured.

Do they serve any purpose? Or are they just adding to street litter?

Read the following article from the Observer:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/05/art

Also visit:

http://www.ghostbikes.org/

Click images
to enlarge

Employees who take regular periods of long-term sick leave die earlier than their colleagues, a study by the British Medical Journal revealed.

Researchers found that workers with more than one absence requiring a doctor's note on their records were 66 per cent more likely to die prematurely.

And workers who had to stay off work because of psychiatric problems were two and a half times more likely to die of cancer.

Those who had to take time off because of heart disease were the most likely to die before their healthy colleagues. Researchers found they had a four times higher chance of a premature death.

Workers taking time off as a result of psychiatric diseases were nearly twice as likely to die prematurely, and those who had time away from work for surgery were more than twice as likely.

But employees who suffered musculoskeletal diseases, such as back pain, had no increased risk.

The University College London research, published by the BMJ, looked at the sickness records of 6,478 British civil servants.

Study leader Jenny Head told BBC Online that the link between psychiatric illness and cancer could be due to depressed people failing to visit their doctor early enough.

"We didn't study the reason, but it might be people that tend to be depressed might be less likely to seek help from a doctor or being prone to depression could affect your cancer prognosis or depression might affect adherence to treatment."

She added: "It would be useful for this information to be collected because we could identify groups with high risk of serious health problems".

(Mail Online)

I don't think these findings are particularly surprising. Obviously, anyone who is sick will die sooner than someone who is healthy.

They are not talking about faked illnesses to avoid work.

(Matt)

Have you had a bad experience talking to a call centre in India?

Perhaps you have, but have you thought of the stress of people working there?

A 23-year-old man, barely out of college, has been recovering from a heart attack in hospital. The doctor's diagnosis: modern lifestyle - stress and odd hours of work.

He works at a call centre in Mumbai

His colleagues at the call centre where he works are. Says one of his best friends and colleague: "I'm leaving. Have been planning to for sometime.

"As soon as I get another job, even if it's less paying, I will leave this industry for good."

The youth of India seem to have fallen out of love with the call centre industry.

Even before the impact of the economic crisis could be felt on India's $11bn business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which gets 70% of all the outsourced work from the US, it was in the grip of a crisis of its own.

Several companies, mostly smaller ones unable to maintain international standards, have shut down in Mumbai and Delhi.

Young men and women in call and contact centres across India are overworked and stressed out.

Many are leaving the industry.

Those who have left say they quit because it was frustrating to continue to answer calls day after day, year after year.

No creativity, no use of mind required. Some say their minds have become cabbage.

Staff in call centres say they have been shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks they encounter

British callers may be infuriated when they discover that the company they are telephoning has moved its customer service centre to India.

But their frustration is as nothing compared with the heart attacks, ulcers and insomnia afflicting those on the other end of the line.

Research carried out by India's booming call centre industry has found the 1.6 million people who work in them, mostly in their twenties, are plagued by ailments arising from the stress of dealing with irate customers.

Staff in call centres dealing with customers in Britain say they have been shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks they encounter.

Nidhi Aggarwal, 24, said she had never heard some of the insulting language used - including the word "Paki" as a term of abuse - before she began taking orders for a British catalogue company, which routes its customers' calls to a Bangalore call centre.

"At first, I thought I'd get used to it, but it's been a year now and it's not getting easier," she said."

Miss Aggarwal, an English graduate, said she planned to quit, tired of wishing customers a good morning only to hear: "Oh, I'm through to India am I? Put me through to someone who can understand English, you f** cow."

Some companies offer counselling to employees to help them overcome psychological problems.

The Indian government is so concerned about the problem that it is preparing to launch a health strategy for the workers.

(Extracts from Telegraph articles)

Judges at Tate Britain have unveiled the four artists shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize.

Cathy Wilkes, Goshka Macuga, Mark Leckey, and Runa Islam have all been nominated for prestigious award, given to the best exhibition by an artist born or based in Britain under the age of 50

It is the first time in a decade that three of the four nominees for the £25,000 award have been women. The contemporary art prize has a long history of controversy, often showcasing unusual or even shocking works.

Belfast-born Cathy Wilkes is exhibiting a new sculpture made using items from her home.

It depicts a supermarket checkout adorned with empty breakfast bowls alongside a mannequin sitting on a toilet.

(Telegraph)

P.S. I see that there are the customary piles of bricks.

Next week I shall be having my annual innoculation against the influenza virus - so I was interested to read the following newspaper article.

COMING TO BRITAIN - THE AUSTRALIAN FLU VIRUS THAT HAS ALREADY KILLED HUNDREDS

A flu virus more deadly than any seen in two decades is threatening Britain.

The strain originates in Australia where it has claimed hundreds of lives, including those of children.

Called Brisbane H3N2, it is so virulent that health chiefs have had to change the make-up of flu vaccines to deal with it.

It affects three times the number of victims hit by other strains, with many deaths resulting from pneumonia.

Viruses from the southern hemisphere strike in their winter months - our summer - and tend to travel north for our winter.

And although that did not happen after Brisbane H3N2 ravaged Australia last year, experts fear Europe will not escape it this winter.

Hugh Pennington, professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said: 'If this flu has been busy in Australia, it is reasonable to suppose that we may get a similar situation in the UK.

Viruses travel round the world very quickly now.

We have had some very quiet flu years recently and every year we have to assume that it will be busier than last year.

'Sooner or later we will have a big outbreak, and the more cases there are, the more deaths there will be.

'There is no doubt that elderly people are more at risk. It can tear through an old folk's home and cause a lot of harm.'

The last major outbreak in England and Wales came in 1989-90, when 23,046 people died, compared with a seasonal average of around 4,000. The elderly are those most at risk because they have weaker immune systems.

The Australian flu outbreak affected even fit young adults, and New South Wales saw more than 800 deaths from pneumonia in just five weeks in June and July 2007. Many children died.

Experts speculated that several winters of mild flu had left the population with little immunity. Last year the Australian inventor of the flu vaccine, Dr Graeme Laver, said the outbreak in his country meant Britain was also in danger. 'If the seasonal flu is as bad as it was in Australia, you are in for a pretty bad time,' he said.

'You could have a really severe epidemic. Thousands will be ill and many will die.'

The World Health Organisation and Sanofi Pasteur, a vaccine manufacturer, have combined the Brisbane strain with two others, one also named after the city, in their latest flu vaccine.

(Mail Online)

For centuries, religious believers have endured suffering with impressive fortitude.

Now scientists claim to have discovered that faith in God really can relieve pain.

New research at Oxford University has found that the Christian martyrs may well have been able to draw on their religion to reduce the agony of, for example, being burnt at the stake.

Virgin Mary: The painting stared at by
believers in God as they were subjected to
electric shocks

In a bizarre experiment, academics at The Oxford Centre For Science Of The Mind ‘tortured’ 12 Roman Catholics and 12 atheists with electric shocks as they studied a painting of the Virgin Mary.

They found that the Catholics seemed to be able to block out much of the pain.

And, using the latest brain-scanning techniques, they also discovered that the Catholics were able to activate part of the brain associated with conditioning the experience of pain.

The findings were welcomed by the Anglican Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, who said: ‘The practice of faith should, and in many cases does, alter the person you are.

‘It can affect the patterns of your brain and your emotions. So it comes as no surprise to me that this experiment has reached such conclusions.’

The experiment is one of a series being conducted by the academics, a group of scientists, philosophers and theologians from different departments at the university.

A sparking device was strapped to the back of the participants’ left hands to deliver an electric shock.

The scientists then asked them to contemplate two paintings, Sassoferrato’s 17th Century Virgin Annunciate (Virgin Mary) and Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th Century Lady With An Ermine.

The researchers hoped that the face of the Virgin Mary would induce a religious state of mind in the believers, while da Vinci’s painting was chosen because it did not look dissimilar and would be calming.

The volunteers were not told the true purpose of the experiment, only that it was designed to judge how people felt pain while contemplating pictures of different things.

They spent half an hour inside an MRI scanner, receiving a series of 20 electric shocks in four separate sessions while looking at either the religious or non-religious picture.

Each time, the volunteer had to rate how much it hurt on a scale of 0 to 100.

The Catholics said that looking at the painting of the Virgin Mary made them feel ‘safe’, ‘taken care of’ and ‘calmed down and peaceful’.

More significantly, they reported feeling 12 per cent less pain after viewing the religious image than after looking at the Leonardo.

The front right-hand side of their brains lit up on the scanner, indicating that the neural mechanisms of pain modulation had been engaged.

There was no such brain activity among the atheists, whose pain and anxiety levels stayed roughly the same throughout the experiment.

Writing in the scientific journal Pain, the researchers concluded that at least some religious believers can moderate their pain by thinking about it more positively.

Psychologist Miguel Farias, one of the team, admitted that a similar effect may be produced by non-believers if a sufficiently powerful image was used.

He said: ‘We would need to find a picture of someone they feel very positive towards, such as a mother or father.

(Mail Online)

If your loved ones aren't quite as steady on their feet as they used to be, fear not - help is at hand.

The solution, according to its Japanese inventors, is this bizarre 'human airbag'.

Sensors on a vest strapped round the wearer's waist detect if he or she is taking a tumble.

Prop president Mitsuya Uchida displays the air-bag for elderly people

Within 0.1 seconds, it inflates each of the two airbags to the size of three footballs, providing a soft padding to the back of the head and bottom.

Sadly, the 2 1/2lb (1.1kg) device, made by Japanese firm Prop, does have one or two drawbacks.

It only protects the wearer if he or she falls backwards, not forwards, and the price - around £700 - seems a little-inflated.

The airbag was unveiled at the International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo, where it was displayed by Prop president Mitsuya Uchida.

Britons are unlikely to find out for themselves if it's worth it, however, as the airbag is not available here.

Around 22 per cent of Japan's population, nearly 30million people, are over 65.

As well as the airbag, recent inventions to assist them include light-up slippers and a kettle which alerts family members if its owner does not make enough tea.

Daily Mail

Now Europe wants us to keep headlights on ALL day - inflating fuel costs by up to £160 a year

Drivers face paying up to £160 a year more for fuel because of an EU directive forcing them to keep their headlamps on all day.

The European Commission wants all new passenger cars and vans to have lights that stay on while the engine is running.

It is estimated that this will increase fuel consumption by around 5 per cent.

The directive, which is being sent to the European Parliament for final approval, would come into force in February 2011.

Truck and bus manufacturers would have an extra 18 months to meet the new specifications.

Timothy Kirkhope, Tory transport spokesman in the European Parliament, said daylight running could make roads more dangerous.

'If all cars have lights on, there is a concern that drivers start looking out for lights, rather than pedestrians or cyclists,' he said.

'At a time when we are pushing for reductions in the use of fuel and resultant emissions, we must be certain we are not causing extra carbon emissions without an additional benefit.'

Britain has opposed the measure but is unable to block it because a majority of other EU nations were in favour and transport issues are not subject to veto.

According to the AA, the fuel bill for a typical family car would rise by £68 a year and by as much as £160 a year for less efficient larger models.

Heavy goods vehicles would see costs shoot up by £260 a year.

Green campaigners say the ruling, which will be in force from Lapland in the north to Cyprus in the south, will waste fuel.

Daytime-running lights were made compulsory in Scandinavian countries in the late 1970s - which is why Swedish-built Volvos always have their lights on.

In 2006, Austria, Croatia and the Czech Republic-became the first outside of Northern Europe to follow suit. Daytime lights are used in 14 states.

A Dutch study found they could prevent 5,500 deaths and 155,000 injuries across Europe.

But Tory MP Greg Knight said: 'This idea was being pushed by Scandinavian countries and it's absolutely ludicrous that it should be imposed in a blanket fashion across Europe.

'The UK does not suffer from the short hours of daylight as in northern Europe, and places like Spain certainly don't.'

The proposal has been opposed by Stephen Ladyman, who was a transport minister during earlier discussions and is now a backbencher.

He said: 'This directive will kill a lot of motorcyclists. They use daytime lights to make them easier to see but if cars are using them as well, motorbikes will blur into the background.'

(Mail Online)

For a people who were keen on sex, but just weren't very good at talking about it, they offered a welcome outlet for a snigger and a giggle.

Cartoons of hen-pecked husbands . . . doctors and nurses with wandering stethoscopes . . . waiters in trousers so tight you could see their religion . . . barmaids with a cleavage that Evel Knievel would have struggled to jump across on his motorbike. . . they've all brought a cheeky smile to the face of many a birthday recipient

Captions like 'I've got to get Mrs Gimlet to Oldham and then I'm going to Bangor as fast as I can' only added to the fun.

Embarrassment was the repressed Englishman's strongest emotion. Innuendo made a virtue of that fact. Double meanings gave you a good laugh without being too aggressively crude.

Innuendo also made Brits the world champs at wordplay. Greetings cards with saucy double entendres sold in their millions.

It was an essentially innocent approach epitomised by the late, great Donald McGill's incomparable illustrations of wobbling female flesh and pink- cheeked peeping Toms that so captivated generations of seaside holidaymakers.

Cards like his were a naughty-but-nice part of British humour. In my naivety, I thought that was still the case.

Then, the other day, I popped into my local branch of Scribblers with the kids to buy my mum a birthday card. Naturally, I assumed that in a greetings card chain with branches all over Britain's High Streets, the merchandise would be suitable for family viewing. Big mistake.

'What does OFF YOUR T*** mean, Mum?' bellowed the eight-year-old, holding up one card. I grabbed it off him and was putting it back when I did a double-take. The other cards in the rack made that first one look as pure as a snowy Nativity scene.

'Happy birthday to the office slut' ran the caption over a picture of a girl sitting on a desk in just a bra and skirt.

A photo from the Fifties of an elegant, Princess Margaret type bore the charming greeting: 'FYI: You're a cheap good for nothing rancid old slag.'

Particularly horrifying were the cards featuring pictures of pensioners with pornographic captions.

How I winced for the smiling old lady on the cover of one. Hilda, as they called her, could never have imagined a Britain where a frail elderly person would be the butt of a cruel joke about oral sex.

Equally shocked would be the devoted Darby and Joan, whom we see linking hands on another card, with a speech bubble which reads: 'Fancy a quickie up the ****?'

There are battalions of laws in this country to protect sensitive minority groups from offence. But in many card shops today, it seems, it's open season to be obscene about the very old - and the very young too.

No one is considered too vulnerable to be sexualised. In one card, showing a smiling old-fashioned little girl with her arm round her brother, the sister is saying: 'F*** off. He's mine.'

Another angelic brother and sister beam out over the caption: 'Happy Birthday W*.'

So who the hell is buying this wretched stuff? The staggering fact is that the greetings card industry is booming on the back of such smut, with an annual value of £1.3 billion making it more lucrative than sales of coffee and tea combined.

But what's even more depressing is that 85 per cent of all greetings cards are purchased by women.

What sort of woman would send a birthday card 'From one drunken whore to another'?

I suspect the answer lies in the binge-drinking ladette culture, which prides itself on being as crude and sexist as the male equivalent.

Frankly, who needs to worry about misogynistic men insulting and belittling women when the girls buying these cards happily call themselves and their mates 'slut' and 'bitch'?

Undoubtedly, the shops that stock cards like this are cynically jumping on the bandwagon of a black American street culture where dissing (disrespecting) your peers is seen as cool and coarse abuse of women is routine.

Thanks to them, we now have the spectacle of British girls sending birthday cards in which 'whore' is a term of endearment.

When it came to saucy cards, a nudge was always as good as a wink. But in Vulgar Britain, it seems we're all treated like slappers now.

(Abridged from Mail Online)

In case anyone thinks that they are jumping onto the commercial bandwagon, the Mail adds: " We apologise for reproducing these offensive cards but readers must see for themselves how distasteful some greeting cards have become"

PAINTING TOO 'DEGENERATE' FOR THE NAZIS TO BE AUCTIONED FOR $35M

One of the most sensational and shocking images in European art, Edvard Munch's painting of a man locked in a vampire's tortured embrace – her molten-red hair running along his soft bare skin – created an instant outcry when unveiled a century ago.

Some believed the Norwegian artist's anguished 1894 masterpiece, Love and Pain – since known as Vampire – to be a reference to his illicit visits to prostitutes; others interpreted it as a macabre fantasy about the death of his favourite sister. Some years later, Nazi Germany condemned it as morally "degenerate".

Vampire has become one of Munch's most sought-after and reproduced images, despite remaining in the hands of a private collector for the past 70 years.

The painting will go on the open market, The Independent can reveal, and is anticipated to smash the $31m (£17m) auction record for a Munch work. Vampire, which is often seen as the sister of The Scream, completed just months earlier, will be sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York for an estimated $35m.

(The Independent)

Many may not know they have done anything wrong, while others simply might not care.
But the average person breaks the law at least once a day, a survey has found.

Speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and dropping litter top the list of rules and regulations regularly flouted.

Other laws often broken are eating while driving, parking on pavements and not wearing a seatbelt.

While some of these crimes can have fatal consequences, 58 per cent say they are not very important.

Another 20 per cent say that because everyone is up to it, they don't even see the actions as being illegal.

Only 5 per cent of Britons say they never break any laws .

John Sewell, spokesman for www.onepoll.com, which carried out the survey, said: 'It's worrying to think that so many people are breaking the law on a daily basis.

'And it's an even bigger concern that many aren't at all bothered about it.

'But these so-called minor crimes are committed so regularly they have almost become legal, which seems to be the reason so many people aren't fazed when they do break the law.'

The poll of 5,000 men and women found the average person admitted to around seven offences a week.

It revealed speeding as the most common crime, with almost half - 46 per cent - admitting to driving over the speed limit.

Another 40 per cent confessed to texting or chatting on their mobile while behind the wheel.

A further 36 per cent said that they drop litter in the street, while around 35 per cent download music illegally.

More than a third have cycled on pavements instead of on the road, 29 per cent admitted eating and drinking while driving and a quarter have had sex in a public place.

Another 24 per cent say they park on a pavement to protect their car. Nineteen per cent take drugs and 18 per cent admitted to not wearing their seatbelt.

Other crimes committed on a daily basis include parking on double yellow lines, driving through red lights and carrying a weapon.

Mr Sewell added: 'Some of these crimes might seem petty but they were all made illegal for a reason.

'Most people wouldn't dream of stealing something from a shop but this research proves that some crimes have become normal everyday activities for many Brits.

(Mail Online)

POLICE SENT ON 'TREASURE HUNT' AROUND LONDON

Elite police went on a search for London landmarks to boost their investigative skills

Senior detectives charged with bringing Britain’s crime lords to justice have been sent on a tourist-style ‘treasure hunt’ to boost their investigative skills.

Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) went looking for cryptic clues around London landmarks rather than pursuing gangland bosses.

Soca comprises highly experienced detectives, Customs investigators and MI5 officers.

But this year senior politicians called it an ‘agency in complete turmoil’ after its annual report revealed it had cut its work to combat drugs on Britain’s streets.

Yet last month in a ‘team-bonding’ task, several of the detectives approached uniformed policemen outside the Commons trying to find answers to trivia questions posed by their commanders.

The hunt involved officers under Jane Attwood, 52, Soca’s deputy director for prevention and alerts.

She also owns an Essex gastro-pub known for its quiz nights.

A senior Soca detective said: ‘It was ridiculous. You had some of the most experienced, highly paid investigators in Britain playing Trivial Pursuit around London rather than bringing criminals to justice.

'It sums up what is going on behind the scenes at what is supposed to be Britain’s answer to the FBI.’

Soca said last night: ‘This was an informal, team-building exercise devised by team members and took place at the end of the working day with no cost to taxpayers.’

(Mail Online)

Baroness Warnock

Old people with dementia have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death, says Baroness Warnock

Elderly people with dementia are 'wasting' the lives of those who have to care for them, one of the country's most influential experts on medical ethics said yesterday.

Baroness Warnock said that for the old and sick who are contemplating dying, 'there is nothing wrong with feeling you ought to do so'.

Her remarks in an interview with a church journal were the first public suggestion from any expert with close links to Whitehall that euthanasia should not only be legal but that elderly people should be pressed towards death.

Lady Warnock said: 'If you are demented, you are wasting people's lives, your family's lives, and you are wasting the resources of the National Health Service.'

Her remarks were condemned as 'shocking ignorance' and 'barbaric' by Alzheimer's charities.

Right to life groups furiously accused Lady Warnock and fellow supporters of euthanasia of telling the public they want a right to choose while privately supporting compulsory killing.

Lady Warnock, 84, was the head of the committee which during the 1980s opened the way for legal research on human embryos.

Influential in education as well as in medical ethics, she became an open supporter of euthanasia after her ill husband was helped to die by his doctor in 1995.

She told the Church of Scotland's magazine Life and Work: 'I've just written an article called A Duty to Die? for a Norwegian periodical. I wrote it really suggesting that there is nothing wrong with feeling you ought to do so for the sake of others as well as yourself.'

She added: 'I am absolutely, fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there is a wider argument that if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they are a burden to their family or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die.'

Lady Warnock first suggested that the elderly and sick should die rather than becoming a burden four years ago.

In 2006 she supported an attempt by fellow peers to push through a law allowing doctors to kill patients suffering unbearable pain.

Some 700,000 in Britain have dementia and this is expected to double over the next 30 years.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: 'Lady Warnock demonstrates a shocking ignorance when espousing her highly insensitive views.

'People with dementia can live quite comfortably when cared for properly. The solution to our dementia crisis is not euthanasia; the answer is more research so we can find new treatments, preventions and a cure.'

Neil Hunt, of the Alzheimer's Society, said: 'With the right care, a person can have a good quality of life very late into dementia.

'To suggest that people with dementia should not be entitled to that quality of life or that they should feel that they have some sort of duty to kill themselves is nothing short of barbaric.'

Phyllis Bowman, of the Right to Life group, said: 'When has loving somebody been a waste?

(From an article in Mail Online)

RESTAURANT TO SERVE MEALS COOKED IN HUMAN BREAST MILK

A Swiss gastronomist has stirred a controversy in the tranquil Alpine republic after announcing that he will serve meals cooked with human breast milk.

The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialities such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother's milk.

"We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

He said: "I first experimented with breast milk when my daughter was born.

"One can cook really delicious things with it. However, it always needs to be mixed with a bit of whipped cream, in order to keep the consistency."

The food control authority in Switzerland was initially confused by the apparent loophole in local legislation regulating the use of human milk and it was not clear whether Mr Locher could actually be banned from serving his specialities.

"Humans as producers of milk are simply not envisaged in the legislation.

"They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and primates," Rolf Etter of the Zurich food control laboratory said.

(Telegraph)

The word "phwoar" - meaning an "expression of enthusiastic or lubricious approval" - has gained official entry to the English language, appearing in the pages of the latest Oxford English Dictionary of Modern Slang.

The book also provides plenty for readers to give their lubricious approval of, including "stud muffin" - an attractive man - and "arm candy" - a good-looking date.

Both these could presumably be described as "fit", which has become used as common shorthand for "sexually attractive", according to the book.

Its authors said that the growth of the internet had led to young people on both sides of the Atlantic regularly swapping phrases, meaning new American slang terms now lodge themselves in British culture quicker than ever before.

These include "hairy eyeball" - the look made by someone expressing "hostility or disapproval", and "mallrat" - someone who spends too much time hanging around shopping centres.

With origins closer to home is the "oggy", a Cornish word dating back to 1948 used to describe a pasty half filled with meat and vegetables and half with fruit, which has apparently made a culinary comeback.

The new edition of the book also incorporates recent innovations in Cockney rhyming slang, including "Britneys" for beers - to rhyme with the name of the singer Britney Spears.

The creators of the book, which is published by Oxford University Press, said they had aimed to preserve a section of the language that might otherwise be forgotten.

John Ayto, the book's co-editor, said: "Thousands of new slang words and expressions have flooded into the English language, most of them to be flushed away summarily.

"Slang has a reputation for being ephemeral, for coming into the language and then going again."

The book includes 6,000 slang words and expressions, including 350 brand new words, while another 1,000 words have had their existing meanings expanded or altered, he said.

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WILL BE ON SEPTEMBER 18 2008