Chocolate Reduces The Risk Of Heart Disease By A Third, Cambridge Study Shows

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Eat a lot of chocolate over the bank holiday weekend?

Well, according to a new study you could be reducing your risk of heart disease by a third.

New research published in the British Medical Journal on Monday indicates a Mars bar a day really can help keep the doctor away.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and universities in Colombia are to present their findings at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris.

via Chocolate Reduces The Risk Of Heart Disease By A Third, Cambridge Study Shows.

Strange Random Chocolate Quote:

“I never met a chocolate I didn’t like.” – Deanna Troi, Star Trek: The Next Generation

 

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Follow that hurricane!

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From tropical wave on August 19th to Category 3 and back down to Category 2 on August 26th, Hurricane Irene‘s movements are documented here in 30-minute imagery from the NOAA GOES-East satellite.

For the most recent satellite imagery and animations, please see our webpage at http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/RealTime.php.

Strange Random Hurricane Quote:

“There isn’t much wrong with most of those summerhouses that a really good hurricane wouldn’t cure [and] when it comes it may do for the Hamptons what Mrs O’Leary‘s cow did for Chicago.” – Peter Blake

 

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Alarm over decline in pupils studying languages – Education News, Education – The Independent

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A further dramatic slump in the number of pupils taking modern-languages GCSEs is alarming exam boards and teachers’ leaders.

Figures show that the take-up of French and German has fallen by 13.2 per cent in the past year to 154,221 and 60,887 respectively. It means fewer than one in four 16-year-olds now take French and one in 10 take German.

Even Spanish, which has been the only bright spot on the horizon with rising numbers in the past few years, has fallen by 2.5 per cent to 66,021. “Today’s students are at risk of failing to to meet the needs of our universities, economy and society,” said Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 20 of the country’s top research universities.

via Alarm over decline in pupils studying languages – Education News, Education – The Independent.

Strange Random Foreign Language Quote:

Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English. – Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

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• You: GCSE results 2011: One in four entries gets A or A* (guardian.co.uk)
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• 30,000 GCSE pupils await results (bbc.co.uk)
• Record GCSE Results But Boys Fall Behind (news.sky.com)

Germany mourns king of comedy Loriot | World news | The Guardian

Cover of Loriot

Germany is known for many things: reliable cars, punctual trains, a national reluctance to cross the road if the lights are on red. Comedy, though, not so much.

Yet the country’s reaction this week to the death of its most beloved postwar comic, aged 87, shows that Germans do indeed take their humour very seriously.

It is a measure of the devotion inspired by Loriot that when his death was announced the foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, told journalists at a press conference on Libya that he would take questions on the comic only after he had answered all Gaddafi-related queries.

Loriot – real name Bernhard Victor Christoph-Carl von Bülow, better known as Vicco von Bülow – was a national treasure who combined the eloquence and linguistic dexterity of a Stephen Fry with a Peter Sellers-style sense of the absurd. Pretty much every German newspaper on Wednesday carried a picture of him on the front page, or one of his cartoons, rather than an image from the battle for Tripoli.

via Germany mourns king of comedy Loriot | World news | The Guardian.

German for Foreigners … subtitled

Strange Random Comedy Quote:

“In tragedy every moment is eternity; in comedy, eternity is a moment.” – Christopher Fry (English Writer, 1907-2005)

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• Edinburgh Festival 2011: Henning Wehn – Germany’s premium comedy export (telegraph.co.uk)

Holiday Car Breakdown – UK advert

RAC and Simon Day create a funny video highlighting the pitfalls of not having breakdown cover. RAC is offering £28 breakdown cover this summer.

Strange Random Family Holiday Quote:

Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales where walking was part of the holiday. – Roger Bannister

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• Cutting corners on breakdown cover could cost you £172 (confused.com)