My condition means people always assume I'm drunk

Thrown out of bars and stopped at the airport . . . what living with ataxia means

Jayne Wallace . . . 'I've decided not to have children'. Photograph: Sam Frost

When my best friend Judy turned 40, she organised a group of us to fly to New York. As the plane was ready to take off, three members of security approached me. "Madam, we'd like to escort you off the plane," the manager said. "We think you've had too much to drink." "Honestly, I haven't had a drop," I protested. They apologised and left me – but I wanted the plane to swallow me up. It had been the same situation when I arrived at the boarding gate, feeling tired and a little dizzy. "Excuse me, have you been drinking?" a cabin attendant asked. She wouldn't even let me on board without inspecting my bottle of water and my breath. The truth is I drink very little alcohol nowadays, but people often assume I'm drunk.

I was working for Estée Lauder when I first began losing my balance, and a colleague advised me to see a doctor. I had suddenly found it difficult to walk in a straight line, but as the symptoms were mild and only worsened with tiredness, I hadn't thought much of it. While undergoing medical tests to find out what was wrong, I left my job to follow my dream of setting up my own mobile makeup business in Aberdeen. It flourished, but doctors were still baffled by my lack of balance. Could it be MS? In April 2001, a genetic specialist from Edinburgh did some blood tests and I was diagnosed with type six ataxia.

Ataxia is a genetic disorder that causes a loss of co-ordination, and can leave speech slurred; in essence, sufferers appear drunk. I had never heard of it when I was diagnosed, and it is still little known. So when I was banned from entering a bar with my best friend last Christmas, it didn't shock me that the doorman wasn't convinced by the medical card I carry everywhere. I had left my walking stick at home and leant on my friend's arm for support. Although completely sober, we were forced to leave because the doorman felt I had "had enough". Meanwhile, boisterous rugby fans celebrating a win were welcomed.

When I was diagnosed, I was a fit 31-year-old who ran at least five miles a day. I loved the freedom and adrenaline of running – turning all the day's work stresses into something positive. My partner of 10 years was sociable like me, and we'd see friends every night. But the diagnosis was like a dark cloud over us. Although my symptoms were mild – only my balance was affected– we knew it was a progressive condition, and were warned that we would need multiple tests if we wanted children. Six months later, my partner said the relationship wasn't working and left for work overseas the next day. I'll never know if it was the ataxia that split us up, but I've always wondered.

I put all my energy into my business and didn't tell anyone at work about my illness. I was invited to work at London fashion week in 2004. Most people didn't notice there was anything wrong with me and my heart soared. But within a year, everything changed. My ataxia worsened and the incident on the plane knocked my confidence. Although I had to stop running years before, I ended up closing my business in 2006. I feel fine – it's not my symptoms that are the problem – but anyone who sees me assumes I am intoxicated. I slur my words most of the time, and my lack of balance is much more obvious than it used to be. I'm still capable of applying makeup – my hands are as steady as ever – but who wants to be made up by someone who is swaying from side to side? There are have been other consequences too; I have decided not to have children because I don't want to pass this condition on, and anyway I am not sure I will meet anyone else.

Yet I have learned to live with my condition. I go to the gym every day – and have a personal assistant to guide me once a week. I love cooking and just have to be extra careful I don't drop anything. I seldom drink so I am as in control of my ataxia as I can be. My friends have been brilliant, and I always tell people in public situations about my condition so they don't make a wrong assumption.

Three weeks ago I got a new job as a disability housing officer. It's given me a real boost and now I try to accept what I can do – not what I can't.

Jayne Wallace was talking to Helen Turner.

The courts took my children away from me because I'm a working mother

As a successful working mother, Jo Joyce always thought that women could have it all.

A high-flying divorce lawyer, she revelled in the cut and thrust of the courtroom, proudly combining her career with bringing up two young children, Ross and Madelaine.

With her businessman husband, Andy, the family lived in a £600,000 detached house set in a three-acre garden in a glorious part of Nottinghamshire.

Together again: Jo Joyce with Ross and Madelaine

There was the Ferrari in the driveway and no money worries. The children enjoyed an idyllic existence and Jo felt as though her 11-year marriage was blessed.

Turn the clock forward to today, three and a half years later, and Jo is a different woman. She cannot count the times she has lain awake at night worrying about Ross and Madelaine. After the acrimonious collapse of her relationship with Andy, the two children were taken away by the courts and sent to live with their father.

Now nine and 11, they have only just come back home to her after a bitter custody battle within the family justice system, in which she used to be a leading light.

And 44-year-old Jo, a blonde with a wide smile, believes that her horrendous experience was all because she combined a career with motherhood.

'I am not stupid,' she said yesterday at her now modest rented house 20 miles outside the cathedral city of Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

'I've seen the way courts penalise women during custody disputes for daring to have a career as well as children. I never expected it to happen to me.'

Jo has become part of a worrying phenomenon . Courts are increasingly ruling that women live apart from their children after a divorce.

Many campaigners see this as an attack on working mothers and say that the increasingly 'gender-blind' courts are now biased in favour of fathers (although naturally many divorced men will respond 'about time too'.).

Who knew?

By June 2009, the average amount of child maintenance non-resident parents were asked to pay by the Child Support Agency was £21 per week

Figures from the Child Support Agency show that the instances where mothers are registered as the non resident parent doubled from 32,000 in 2005 to 65,800 by March of this year. Yet, this official picture is just the tip of the iceberg.

The charity Match (Mothers Apart From Their Children), helping women in this distressing situation, estimates that there are closer to 250,000 mothers no longer living under the same roof as their children.

After years of high profile stunts by male pressure groups, such as Fathers4Justice, many people assume that men still systematically fare badly in battles over custody (or what is now known as the residency) of children heard in family courts.

Yet, gradually, the pendulum is swinging against mothers or, at least, mothers who go out to work.

The Equal Parenting Alliance, advising those in such heartbreaking disputes, believes that with the acquiescence of the courts half of the children of splitting parents now end up in the care of the father.

Jo herself says:'I felt like a condemned woman standing before the judge and arguing that I wanted to look after my own children. I was persecuted in the courts and I am sure it is because the judge did not believe that I could have a career and be a good mother too.'

So how has this happened and what has been the effect on the children themselves?

The changes have occurred gradually and out of the public eye. Despite pleas from the press and efforts by the Government to open up the family courts to public scrutiny, most of events that happen there cannot be revealed in order to protect the children involved.

However, the shift in favour of fathers in court custody arrangements is a carbon copy of what has occurred in America, provoking a blaze of publicity and criticism from women's groups across the Atlantic.

It started so well: Jo Joyce and Andy on their wedding day

It was back in September 1994 that the US was rocked by a court decision involving Sharon Prost, an ambitious and highly-successful career lawyer advising politicians on Washington DC's Capitol Hill at the United States Congress.

She was ordered to surrender her two sons to her former husband, who was working part time.

While Ms Prost was described as an obsessive workaholic who got home late at night, eating her supper sitting on the floor surrounded by legal papers, HER husband was portrayed as a doting father who had time to put the children first.

The Sharon Prost custody row set a precedent that critics believe was fundamentally flawed. As Nancy Polikoff, family law expert at the American University in Washington DC recalled recently: 'In the Prost case, the husband was unemployed for a substantial period, yet the kids were still put in day care full time.

'If a woman did that, it would count against her. In that case it was treated as a neutral fact. '

She feels that, back then and now, there is a dangerous double standard operating in the courts.

'Many women who hold full-time jobs still do most of the work of parenting.They're the ones who really know what the child needs, even if they send the baby sitter to buy it.'

Significantly, the British courts take no account of a mother's natural nurturing instincts or that in a family she invariably takes the lead role in looking after children.

Under the 1989 Children Act, courts must consider the interests of the child above everything.

The way this legislation is framed means that parents are no longer referred to specifically as 'mothers' or 'fathers', but as those with 'parental responsibilities'.

This gender-neutral approach means that a mother can not presume that she will become the main carer for her children post-divorce as once routinely was the case.

Miranda Fisher, a family law solicitor with London firm Charles Russell, agrees that in Britain there has been a shift from automatically giving children to their mothers after marital splits.

If one has a career and is working long hours while the other is a stay-at-home parent, then it is likely that the courts will look favourably on the latter whether it is the father or the mother.

She says: 'As more mothers work full time and fathers take on childcare responsibilities, there is a growing trend in the family courts towards making shared residence orders.

There are also more cases where fathers obtain sole residence orders, although they are still in the minority.'

Hazel Wright, head of the family department at London lawyers, Cumberland Ellis, warns that even when the courts grant a shared residency order that does not mean that the children live equally between each of their parents.

The mothers can be eased out of their children's lives if they reside with the father and the mother gets meagre visiting rights, or vice versa.

'More men work from home or have been forced out of their jobs because of the recession, At the same time, women are working to make ends meet. If the man tells the judge he is the primary carer and the mother is the breadwinner who is rarely at home, then the courts will take notice of this and let him look after them.'

Sarah Hart, the author of a new book on this trend, A Mother Apart, is aware of a growing backlash. 'Working mothers are losing out,' she says.

'The courts don't necessarily view a mother as a capable main carer of her children if she also has a career.'

Illusion: From outside, Jo and Andy appeared happy. But, behind closed doors they were arguing because Jo felt he was not supporting her

She cautions working mothers - even those who are happily married - that the hours they spend out of the home can influence court decisions in a custody dispute years down the line.

The stigma suffered by women who lose their children in custody battles is grim. Society assumes that they have abandoned their children, or are deemed unfit mothers by the court. They are perceived as heartless, selfish or cruel, say UK campaign groups.

Norma Cavendish understands this well. A marketing executive from Blackheath,south London, she thought she had the perfect life balance, working three days a week and looking after her son and daughter for the rest of the time.

That was until she and her husband James' divorced and went to the custody courts. James who runs his own business was a very hands on father. Norma admits his work allowed him a flexible lifestyle. He often put the children to bed, and took them out to the park.

But after the marriage broke up he did not want to share them with Norma. The courts gave the couple shared residency but the girl and boy, now ten and 12, were given to James to live with. Gradually James chipped away at Norma's visiting rights and persuaded the children that their mother did not want to see them.

The children grew apart from Norma. She has not seen her daughter for more than a year, and her son just once in the same time. Other parents look at her suspiciously because she has, to all intents and purposes, lost her own children.

Yet she pays maintenance to James through the Child Support Agency to cover the costs of bringing them up. She is £10,000 in debt because during the traumatic time consuming custody battle she lost her job.

Norma, 38, says:'If I had been a stay at home mother I would not have lost my children. What kind of indictment of life in the 21st century is that?

'My children are cut off from my entire family. I wonder how in the future my son will cope a relationship with a woman when he has not seen his mother at such a formative age. I send the children weekly letters, but I don't know if they get them. It is a bereavement and I only hope that when they are older they will come back of their own free will.'

Distraught: After a two-day hearing last October, a judge decreed that Ross and Madelaine must live with their father and see Jo on alternate weekends, half the holidays and a mid-week night

Which is, thankfully, what happened to Jo Joyce. Today as she cuddles her children in her garden, she can look back on her nightmare with some degree of impartiality.She believes that any woman who works - whether it be as a shop assistant or a high-flier - can lose their children in a custody wrangle.

'In the recession mothers who have become breadwinners can all be caught in this trap. In my case, Andy wanted me to work and I believe my career was used as a stick to beat me.

'The judges couldn't see me as an loving mum fighting for the best outcome for my children. I feel that if I had been a non-working mother I would have been treated with empathy and dealt a fairer outcome.'

Such an acrimonious end to her own marriage is not what Jo expected when she first fell for Andy in January 1995. Raised in Singapore and Essex by her accountant father and secretary mother, Jo first met Andy at her local gym after landing a job at one of the Nottingham's best law firms.

Within six months the couple had bought a house together.In April 1997, they married in front of family and friends in Southwell. Within a year Jo had given birth to Ross, with Madelaine following 18 months later in August1999. She returned to work juggling the demands of her legal career with motherhood.

From outside, Jo and Andy appeared happy. But, behind closed doors there were beginning to be arguments because Jo felt he was not supporting her. She says he never changed a nappy and used any excuse to avoid looking after the children. 'It was all left to me even though I had my career.' she remembers.

'He would brag to acquaintances that I was a brilliant lawyer. At home, though, he seemed to have little interest in the kids that he didn't even read Ross and Madelaine a bedtime story. It broke my heart. '

By April 2006, the couple had a ferocious row during which she accuses Andy of manhandled her. Whatever the accuracy of this - and as Jo Joyce admits there are two sides to every story - she decided to call time on the marriage.

'I stayed on in our house until it was sold and Andy moved to his parents in Southwell. I filed for divorced on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour and we both appointed solicitors.'

The battle lines were drawn. Nothing could have prepared Jo for what happened next. She thought that she would automatically get custody of the children because she had been such a good hands-on mother and Andy had played a smaller part in their daily upbringing.
She was wrong.

At her first court appearance in May 2006, Jo was shattered to hear that Andy had applied for shared residency of the children. 'I thought it was a stunt to cause me the maximum pain as he knew the children were my reason for living.

'I wanted the court to listen to my fears for them because of Andy's behaviour towards me. Instead, I was ignored.

I was constantly told: 'Well that's not what your husband says.'

One barrister labelled her a 'hostile mother' intent on blackening her husband's name to win custody. Another judge said that she was making things up about Andy.

In April 2007, a judge agreed that Jo should have shared residency of the children with Andy. It meant that Andy would have the children to stay three nights a fortnight.

Then Jo made a fatal mistake. When the children grew upset about visiting their father, she racheted up the custody row asking the courts to reduce their visits to him. In response, Andy said he would look after the children himself.

After a two day hearing in October 2008, a judge decreed that Ross and Madelaine must live with him and see Jo on alternate weekends, half the holidays and a mid-week night.

Jo was distraught. The children, particularly Ross, appeared to be missing his mother The little boy began to getting into trouble at school and once ran away from his father's home.

'The only thing that cheered me was my belief that Andy would tire of the arrangement within six months. In fact, it only went on just under four months until February this year.'

According to Jo, Andy began to find it difficult to cope with two young children and his successful business. Simultaneously, Ross told his father: 'I've had enough. I want to be with Mummy.' And back the children came to their mother

Today, they reach out to Jo as if they cannot believe they are with her again. Jo is thrilled and neither she, nor Andy, have gone near the courts again. They agree they both want the very best for their children.

'The court order giving me those limited visiting right to Ross and Maddie still exists. But the children want to live with me so they do,' said Jo this week.

Now Jo has resigned her legal job and just written a book on her experience, 'The Divorcing Women's Survival Guide'.

She says:'The system is flawed. Custody should not come down to whether you're a woman who works or stays at home.

It should be based on behaviour and, most importantly, whether you're a good parent. Other mothers should beware.'

And she is, almost certainly, right.

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

What really DOES turn women on?

So is a successful and driven career woman more likely to have a high sex drive than her lesser-achieving sisters?

That was the conclusion drawn from research published this week which showed that women with high levels of testosterone are more likely to be risk-takers - and to have stronger sexual appetites.

It's just the latest piece in the jigsaw of the female libido, an enigma that now feeds a multi-million pound industry, with battalions of 'sexperts' racing to uncover the magic formula that will deliver the gift of better sex for all.

Baffling: A female sex drive is a complicated, multi-layered thing. Understanding desire may turn out to be as tough as understanding women

But it's also a battleground, with experts at war with each other over whether 'sexy' for a woman begins in her body or her brain.

Over the past decade - ironically, since the launch of Viagra for men had the unexpected side-effect of making drug treatments for sex a hot new market for both genders - millions of pounds have been poured into researching the female libido.

It has uncovered some big surprises and some baffling dead-ends. While male desire tends to be straightforward, a woman's sex drive is a complicated, multi-layered thing.

That said, some women, just like some men, do seem to have a naturally higher sex drive than others. The research just published in the U.S. would seem to back that up, showing that this may well be linked to hormones, and to testosterone in particular.

Women with high levels of testosterone are much more likely to be ambitious and assertive and to choose traditionally male careers in business and finance. They're also likely to want more sex (low levels of testosterone have been shown to produce the opposite effect).

Sex researchers have started to talk about the importance of just doing it whether you feel like it or not, to maintain your desire levels

'Eureka!' shout the biologists. This shows that female desire, like male, is rooted in body chemistry.

Simplistic rubbish, respond the psychotherapists.

They believe that female desire is made up of physical, emotional, social and relationship factors. If you have poor body image, an uptight family background, bad early sexual experiences or a partner who is insensitive, lazy or just not that nice, then your sex drive very likely would take a nose-dive.

Who's right, then? Let's just consider the subject these experts are spending so much time and money to argue about, using real examples from a group of women who agreed to talk honestly about their sex lives.

Susan, is 48, slim and attractive and happily married. Well, quite happily.

'To be honest. I don't care if I never have sex again,' she admits. 'I only do it to keep Gary happy'.

Monica is 35 and also uninterested in sex with her long-time partner, but feels ' overwhelming feelings of desire' for a colleague at work with whom she is having an affair.

Lucy is 54 and has the opposite problem to Susan. 'Since my late 40s, I've had the wonderful experience of a late-blossoming sex drive, and I absolutely love it.'

Claire is 24 and in a new relationship with Tom: 'We spend days at a time in bed. It makes me feel very close to him, but I also like the feeling of sexual power it gives me.'

Helen, who is 32, isn't interested in sexual power. 'I've got a full-time job and two children under five. I don't even think about sex.'

It's clear from just this handful of examples that female sexual desire is as various and unique as women themselves.

But, nonetheless, there are some inescapable biological factors. The study of hormones and their effect on everything from our personalities and behaviour to the functioning of our bodies has been the focus in recent sex research.

'Hormone treatments are an important development,' says Dr John Moran, a sexual dysfunction expert with the Holistic Medical Clinic in London. 'It has been very positive in the past decade or so to see that women's sexuality is being properly acknowledged and served by medical research'.

Man's world: A woman working in a male dominated environment could produce more testosterone, resulting in a higher sex drive

Some researchers have gone so far as to claim that the new wave of drug therapies being developed to boost libido and solve sexual problems represent 'the final frontier of women's liberation'.

The biologists do have a point - and the high-testosterone woman is an interesting part of the research.

Dr Moran says that after more than 20 years' experience as an expert in female sexuality, high-testosterone females are not difficult for him to spot

'Though I'd never make a diagnosis without a proper examination, the male hormone does produce visual and behavioural clues in women. The ring finger is often as long as the index finger, for example. She may also have a wider waist and have more facial or body hair than low-testosterone women.'

The link with high-risk behaviour is also true, he says. 'I hate generalising, but yes, it wouldn't be unusual for a woman with high levels of testosterone to indulge in high-risk behaviour - to drive a fast sports car or motorbike, for example.'

'The male hormone does produce visual and behavioural clues in women. She may have a wider waist and more facial or body hair than low-testosterone women'

But, insist the psychologists, these signs do not necessarily mean a woman has a high sex drive. Our hormone levels are dictated partly by genetics, partly by lifestyle and life stages, and partly by our experiences.

The problem, says Dr Chris Simpson - a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists - is that nobody knows yet whether our behaviour and personalities are created by our hormones, or whether our hormones are created by our behaviour and personality.

'It's probably both,' he adds.

'If you have a woman working in a competitive environment, like banking or business, she may well become more assertive, competitive and aggressive, which will cause her testosterone levels to rise. Did she go into banking because she had high testosterone levels, or did she develop high testosterone levels because she went into banking?'

The same question can be applied to sex itself, says Dr Simpson. It's well known that the more sex you have, the stronger your sexual desire becomes. If you have a 'dry spell', your desire to have sex dies down and you can get into a downward spiral of not doing it and subsequently not feeling like it.

'Hormones are interesting, but they're just a small part of the mix,' he says. 'A woman with high testosterone who is in a lousy relationship may go off sex completely.'

Dr Moran agrees: 'To understand a woman's sex drive, we need to look at a mixture of physical, psychological, social and relationship factors.

'It's not just about body parts. There's lust, there's love, there's intimacy - then there's how tired, busy, angry or happy a woman is. All of these things affect how sexy you feel.'

Rekindling: Remembering what attracted you to your partner in the first place is a good way of getting in the mood

Yes, he says, sometimes giving a woman a hormone shot will boost her libido. But, more often, giving her a compliment will have the same affect.

Female desire also changes over time, though in a different way to men's. Males are at their sexual peak, in terms of desire, when they're still adolescents. Women don't reach theirs until much later - estimates vary from mid-30s upwards - which is why women's sex drives often improve with age.

When we're young, our sex drive is strongly influenced by finding the best male mate to reproduce with, which is why biologists believe we're programmed to desire 'high-status' men - that is, men who are physically fit, attractive and good providers.

Psychologists agree that our sex drive is linked to reproduction, but believe that it leads us to men with 'good genes' who we sense will make good fathers and remain loyal to us.

Ten or 20 years on, of course, the original reason for our desire may have evaporated, and the rich man or the good man is now as familiar as an old sweater. The very closeness of a good long-term relationship may be a desire-killer.

'We know that for men and women, sexual desire dies down after the first year of a relationship,' says the evolutionary psychologist Christopher Ryan.

'Eroticism is fuelled by difference, not sameness. Long-term couples can become so close they're like siblings, and nobody wants to make love with their sibling.'

It also explains why women such as Monica can feel no sexual feelings towards their partners, but are very sexy when they're with their lovers.

Therapists describe desire, for women especially, as a 'choice', and talk about the importance of prioritising sex so that your marriage doesn't turn into a 'sibling bond'.

Monica could re-ignite her relationship. She could remember what attracted her to her partner in the first place and use fantasy as a way to get herself in the mood. Auto-eroticism - turning yourself on - is a key part of a woman's sex drive, according to Dr Pamela Connolly, wife of comedian Billy and a sex therapist.

Sex researchers have also started to talk about the importance of just doing it whether you feel like it or not, to maintain your desire levels.

A landmark research project by Dr Rosemary Basson from the University of British Columbia found that while men feel desire and so want to have sex, many women have sex as a way to kick-start desire.

'Women can often begin sexual liaisons feeling sexually neutral,' she says, 'but as things get more passionate, so do they. It's a "use it or lose it" strategy - the very act of making love seems to restore desire in women.'

Research into female sexuality is still controversial, contradictory and incomplete. The researchers may not agree with each other, but they do agree that understanding female desire may turn out to be as tough as understanding women.

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

Eddie the male tortoiseshell kitten who is Britain's rarest cat

Eddie the cat has defied genetics and odds of 400,000 to one after he was born a MALE tortoiseshell.

Vet Karen Horne was stunned to discover the black and ginger tom, who overturns the normal laws of biology.

She said she named him after the cross-dressing comic Eddie Izzard because 'he is essentially a boy dressed in girls' clothing.'

Karen Horne with Eddie the cat. The rare kitten is black with ginger splotches

Male cats, like human beings, have only one X chromosome in their DNA meaning it is technically impossible for them to inherit different colours.

Of eight million pet cats in Britain only a couple a year are born male tortoiseshells - making Eddie an extremely rare accident.

Karen, 38, said: 'As a vet I can tell you that it is genetically impossible to get a male cat that is tortoiseshell coloured.

'My colleagues and I have 30 years of experience between us and we have never seen anything like this.'

The eight-week-old kitten was brought into Karen's veterinary surgery in Harpenden, Herts, with his three tortoiseshell sisters by local charity Cat and Kitten Rescue.

But as Karen set about vaccinating the siblings she discovered to her amazement that one was a boy.

It is almost impossible to get a male cat that is tortoiseshell coloured like Eddie

Karen, from nearby Markyate, was bowled over and immediately adopted Eddie into her family of five cats, four dogs and three children.

She said: 'I feel like the luckiest vet ever just to see a tortie tom cat, and even luckier to have him live with me.

'He a perfect cute little fluffy bundle. When he came in to the surgery, we all wanted to offer him a home.

'So far there are no signs of any gender confusion and he seems to be all there.

'In theory cats like Eddie should be infertile but he will be neutered when he comes to puberty anyway.'

Karen did not tell long-suffering husband Mike, 39, a lawyer, about the latest addition to the family, but he was soon won over.

Children Lucy, 11, Zoe, nine and Alex, six, and other cats Nia, Molly, Sterling, Harty and Herbie are equally delighted.

Viv Fowler, who runs the rescue centre that brought Eddie and his sisters in, said: 'In all my 13 years working for Cat and Kitten Rescue I have never seen a male tortie.'

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

The monkeys that prove babies can be born to THREE parents... and may be the key to halting genetic illness

Scientists have produced four baby monkeys who each have three biological parents.

They used an IVF procedure designed to stop the spread of incurable inherited diseases.

Scientists believe the breakthrough could lead to the first geneticallyengineered children within a few years.

Revolutionary: Twins Mito and Tracker are two of the monkeys who were born using an IVF technique that creates babies with three biological parents. They were named after a dye called Mitotracker used in the procedure

It has provoked an ethical storm, however. Critics say it is a step towards an era of hybrid children and warn that it erodes the sanctity of life.

The technique is intended to help women who carry genetic diseases. It involves transferring healthy DNA from the mother's egg cell into an egg donated by another woman.

Children conceived by the technique would inherit DNA from three sources - their mother, the donor and their father.

The American team who produced the macaque monkeys - named Mito, Tracker, Spindler and Spindy - say the technique could be used to eradicate potentially fatal forms of inherited epilepsy, blindness and heart disease.

The diseases, which affect some 150 UK babies a year, are caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA which is passed down from mothers to children.

Mitochondria are sausage- shaped 'power packs' that float around inside cells, converting food into energy that the body can use. Each contains a tiny

strand of DNA, carrying just 37 of the 20,000 or so human genes. The rest are in the DNA in the cell's nucleus.

Spindler is another of the four monkeys who appear healthy after they were conceived using the new technique

Mitochondrial DNA can only be passed on via mothers' eggs, not through sperm.

Doctors have identified around 50 diseases caused by mutations of this DNA - some of which kill before adulthood. Symptoms include muscle weakness, dementia, blindness, hearing loss and heart and kidney problems.

The U.S. experiment, reported today in the journal Nature, involved researchers at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre. They took an egg cell

from a mother carrying a mitochondrial disease and removed its nuclear DNA. This was then transferred into a second, healthy egg, whose own nuclear DNA had been removed.

The resulting 'hybrid' eggs contained nuclear DNA from the mother and fully-functioning mitochondrial DNA from the donor, and produced apparently healthy baby monkeys.

Such a process alters the DNA inherited by future generations, however - an idea that has long worried ethicists - although mitochondrial DNA affects only how cells convert food into energy, so children would inherit physical characteristics from their real mother's nuclear DNA.

Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: 'This is genetic engineering.

'We should avoid at all costs interfering in the pattern of reproduction that has evolved

over millions of years. The objective is to stop mitochondrial diseases in the next generation - but it would be absurd if it unleashed something worse in generations to come.'

Stephen Green, director of pressure group Christian Voice, said he had concerns that scientists were going 'too far, too fast' and 'playing God'.

He said: 'These things are always done with the best of intentions but we have to think whether this will lead to any unintended consequences. When the child finds out they have two mummies, how will they feel?

'We have to have a lot of sympathy for those with inherited conditions but we need to be very careful before we start interfering with nature.

'There's a thought that because scientists can do something they always want to do it and that's not necessarily the right way'. But

Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University and leader of the team that cloned Dolly the sheep, said: 'This demonstrates an exciting new route to therapy for diseases such as myopathy, in which muscle fibres do not function properly.

'It also seems likely that mitochondrial malfunction predisposes patients to diseases such as osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke.'

Last year Newcastle University researchers created ten human embryos using a similar technique. They were destroyed after six days because current UK law says they cannot be kept longer than 14 days.

But the new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which comes into effect on October 1, could open the door for a change in the rules.

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

Baby boom pushes Britain's population past 61m in biggest jump for almost half a century

• Arrivals from Eastern Europe fall by over a quarter
• Over half of increase in births from non-British born mothers
• 'Natural changes' overtake immigration as growth driver
  

A baby boom and longer lifespan have pushed up population levels by 408,000

A baby boom fuelled by the highest fertility rates in a generation has pushed Britain's population above 61 million for the first time.

There were 408,000 more people living here in 2008, the Office for National Statistics said.

That takes the total population to 61.4 million - an increase of more than two million over 2001.

It is the first time in nearly a decade that natural changes to the population caused by shifts in birth and death rates have overtaken immigration as the biggest factor affecting population growth.

But immigration is still impacting on population growth because over half of the increase in births last year was from non-UK born mothers.

The vast wave of immigrants who came here from Eastern Europe after the EU expanded in 2004 has slowed to a trickle, as the recession took hold, the figures showed.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe fell by more than a quarter - 28 per cent - from 109,000 to 79,000 during 2008.

More Eastern European immigrants went home in the same period - up by more than 50% to 66,000.

Overall migration levels - the numbers arriving minus those leaving - fell 44per cent to 118,000 - the lowest since EU enlargement.

Chief statistician Karen Dunnell said the emigration was probably due to the economic downturn.

She said: 'You have to say that probably the unemployment and the economic situation, given that quite a lot of people from the A8 (Eastern European) countries are coming to work, is probably having an impact.'

The last time there was a growth of this size was in 1962, when the population rose by 484,000. The largest ever increase was in the 1947 post-war baby boom when population levels grew by 551,000.

The surge in Eastern Europeans returning home and the decline in arrivals meant they added only 13,000 to the total population last year.

Enlarge

The ageing population meant there were a record number of mid-octogenarians. There are now 1.3 million over 85s, making up 2% of the total.

Statisticians said the increase in birth rates was caused in part by higher fertility rates among British nationals, and in part by immigration, as foreign-born mothers tend to have more children. There are also more women of child bearing age.

There were 791,000 babies born in the UK last year, an increase of 33,000 on a year earlier, and almost twice the rise seen at the start of the decade.

ONS statistician Roma Chappell highlighted the significance of the shift: "That's actually quite exciting because it's the highest fertility rate we have seen in the UK for some time.

"You have to go all the way back to 1993 to find a time when the fertility rate went higher.

"For the first time in a decade natural change exceeded net migration as the main driver of population change."

"Prior to 1998 natural change was higher than net migration. This isn't a new phenomenon for the UK.

"If you go back it was quite common for natural change to exceed net migration as a driver of population growth."

She added: "The balance is still positive so the population is still growing due to net migration but the increase is the lowest it has been since accession in 2004."

"What has driven this is the emigration of non-British citizens especially citizens of the A8 countries."

The population is now growing by a rate of 0.7% every year, more than double the rate in the 1990s and three times the level of the 1980s.

Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said the figures showed migrants were coming here to work then returning home.

He said: "The fall in net migration is further proof that migrants come to the UK for short periods of time, work, contribute to the economy and then return home.

"Our new flexible points based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain needs can come.

"Britain's borders are stronger than ever before. Our border controls in northern France are stopping record numbers of migrants reaching our shores - 28,000 in 2008.

"We are rolling out ID cards to foreign nationals, we have introduced civil penalties for those employing illegal workers and from the end of next year our electronic border system will monitor 95% of journeys in and out of the UK."

"The British people can be confident that immigration is under control."

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People

Wikipedia, one of the 10 most popular sites on the Web, was founded about eight years ago as a long-shot experiment to create a free encyclopedia from the contributions of volunteers, all with the power to edit, and presumably improve, the content.

Now, as the English-language version of Wikipedia has just surpassed three million articles, that freewheeling ethos is about to be curbed.

Officials at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit in San Francisco that governs Wikipedia, say that within weeks, the English-language Wikipedia will begin imposing a layer of editorial review on articles about living people.

The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version.

The change is part of a growing realization on the part of Wikipedia’s leaders that as the site grows more influential, they must transform its embrace-the-chaos culture into something more mature and dependable.

Roughly 60 million Americans visit Wikipedia every month. It is the first reference point for many Web inquiries — not least because its pages often lead the search results on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Since Michael Jackson died on June 25, for example, the Wikipedia article about him has been viewed more than 30 million times, with 6 million of those in the first 24 hours.

“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” said Michael Snow, a lawyer in Seattle who is the chairman of the Wikimedia board. “There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion — whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”

The new editing procedures, which have been applied to the entire German-language version of Wikipedia during the last year, are certain to be a topic of discussion this week when Wikipedia’s volunteer editors gather in Buenos Aires for their annual Wikimania conference. Much of the agenda is focused on the implications of the encyclopedia’s size and influence.

Although Wikipedia has prevented anonymous users from creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system crosses a psychological Rubicon. It will divide Wikipedia’s contributors into two classes — experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else — altering Wikipedia’s implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to edit entries.

That right was never absolute, and the policy changes are an extension of earlier struggles between control and openness.

For example, certain popular or controversial pages, like the ones for the singer Britney Spears and for President Obama, are frequently “protected” or “semi-protected,” limiting who, if anyone, can edit the articles.

And for seven months beginning in November, The New York Times worked with Wikipedia administrators to suppress information about the kidnapping of David Rohde, a correspondent in Afghanistan, from the article about him. The Times argued that the censorship would improve his chances of survival. Mr. Rohde escaped from his Taliban captors in June, but the episode dismayed some Wikipedia contributors.

The new system comes as some recent studies have found Wikipedia is no longer as attractive to first-time or infrequent contributors as it once was.

Ed H. Chi of the Palo Alto Research Center in California, which specializes in research for commercial endeavors, recently completed a study of the millions of changes made to Wikipedia in a month. He concluded that the site’s growth (whether in new articles, new edits or new contributors) hit a plateau in 2007-8.

For some active Wikipedia editors, this was an expected development — after so many articles, naturally there are fewer topics to uncover, and those new topics are not necessarily of general interest.

But Mr. Chi also found that the changes made by more experienced editors were more likely to stay up on the site, whereas one-time editors had a much higher chance of having their edits reversed. He concluded that there was “growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content.”

To other observers, the new flagging system reflects Wikipedia’s necessary acceptance of the responsibility that comes with its vast influence.

“Wikipedia now has the ability to alter the world that it attempts to document,” said Joseph Reagle, an adjunct professor of communications at New York University whose Ph.D. thesis was about the history of Wikipedia.

Under the current system, it is not difficult to insert false information into a Wikipedia entry, at least for a short time. In March, for example, a 22-year-old Irish student planted a false quotation attributed to the French composer Maurice Jarre shortly after Mr. Jarre’s death. It was promptly included in obituaries about Mr. Jarre in several newspapers, including The Guardian and The Independent in Britain. And on Jan. 20, vandals changed the entries for two ailing senators, Edward M. Kennedy and Robert C. Byrd, to report falsely that they had died.

Flagged revisions, advocates say, could offer one more chance to catch such hoaxes and improve the overall accuracy of Wikipedia’s entries.

Foundation officials intend to put the system into effect first with articles about living people because those pieces are ripe for vandalism and because malicious information within them can be devastating to those individuals.

Exactly who will have flagging privileges has not yet been determined, but the editors will number in the thousands, Wikipedia officials say. With German Wikipedia, nearly 7,500 people have the right to approve a change. The English version, which has more than three times as many articles, would presumably need even more editors to ensure that changes do not languish before approval.

“It is a test,” said Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia. “We will be interested to see all the questions raised. How long will it take for something to be approved? Will it take a couple of minutes, days, weeks?”

Mr. Wales began pushing for the policy after the Kennedy and Byrd hoaxes, but discussions about a review system date back to one of the darkest episodes in Wikipedia’s history, known as the Seigenthaler incident.

In 2005, the prominent author and journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. discovered that Wikipedia’s biographical article connected him to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, a particularly scurrilous thing to report because he was personally close to the Kennedy family.

Since then, Wikipedians have been fanatical about providing sources for facts, with teams of editors adding the label “citation needed” to any sentence without a footnote.

“We have really become part of the infrastructure of how people get information,” Mr. Wales said. “There is a serious responsibility we have.”

Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts

Scout Labs tracks positive and negative sentiments about keywords like “cash for clunkers.”

Computers may be good at crunching numbers, but can they crunch feelings?

The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users.

An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.

This is more than just an interesting programming exercise. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.

Yet many companies struggle to make sense of the caterwaul of complaints and compliments that now swirl around their products online. As sentiment analysis tools begin to take shape, they could not only help businesses improve their bottom lines, but also eventually transform the experience of searching for information online.

Several new sentiment analysis companies are trying to tap into the growing business interest in what is being said online.

“Social media used to be this cute project for 25-year-old consultants,” said Margaret Francis, vice president for product at Scout Labs in San Francisco. Now, she said, top executives “are recognizing it as an incredibly rich vein of market intelligence.”

Scout Labs, which is backed by the venture capital firm started by the CNet founder Halsey Minor, recently introduced a subscription service that allows customers to monitor blogs, news articles, online forums and social networking sites for trends in opinions about products, services or topics in the news.

In early May, the ticket marketplace StubHub used Scout Labs’ monitoring tool to identify a sudden surge of negative blog sentiment after rain delayed a Yankees-Red Sox game.

Stadium officials mistakenly told hundreds of fans that the game had been canceled, and StubHub denied fans’ requests for refunds, on the grounds that the game had actually been played. But after spotting trouble brewing online, the company offered discounts and credits to the affected fans. It is now re-evaluating its bad weather policy.

“This is a canary in a coal mine for us,” said John Whelan, StubHub’s director of customer service.

Jodange, based in Yonkers, offers a service geared toward online publishers that lets them incorporate opinion data drawn from over 450,000 sources, including mainstream news sources, blogs and Twitter.

Based on research by Claire Cardie, a Cornell computer science professor, and Jan Wiebe of the University of Pittsburgh, the service uses a sophisticated algorithm that not only evaluates sentiments about particular topics, but also identifies the most influential opinion holders.

Jodange, which received an innovation research grant from the National Science Foundation last year, is currently working on a new algorithm that could use opinion data to predict future developments, like forecasting the impact of newspaper editorials on a company’s stock price.

In a similar vein, The Financial Times recently introduced Newssift, an experimental program that tracks sentiments about business topics in the news, coupled with a specialized search engine that allows users to organize their queries by topic, organization, place, person and theme.

Using Newssift, a search for Wal-Mart reveals that recent sentiment about the company is running positive by a ratio of slightly better than two to one. When that search is refined with the suggested term “Labor Force and Unions,” however, the ratio of positive to negative sentiments drops closer to one to one.

Such tools could help companies pinpoint the effect of specific issues on customer perceptions, helping them respond with appropriate marketing and public relations strategies.

For casual Web surfers, simpler incarnations of sentiment analysis are sprouting up in the form of lightweight tools like Tweetfeel, Twendz and Twitrratr. These sites allow users to take the pulse of Twitter users about particular topics.

A quick search on Tweetfeel, for example, reveals that 77 percent of recent tweeters liked the movie “Julie & Julia.” But the same search on Twitrratr reveals a few misfires. The site assigned a negative score to a tweet reading “julie and julia was truly delightful!!” That same message ended with “we all felt very hungry afterwards” — and the system took the word “hungry” to indicate a negative sentiment.

While the more advanced algorithms used by Scout Labs, Jodange and Newssift employ advanced analytics to avoid such pitfalls, none of these services works perfectly. “Our algorithm is about 70 to 80 percent accurate,” said Ms. Francis, who added that its users can reclassify inaccurate results so the system learns from its mistakes.

Translating the slippery stuff of human language into binary values will always be an imperfect science, however. “Sentiments are very different from conventional facts,” said Seth Grimes, the founder of the suburban Maryland consulting firm Alta Plana, who points to the many cultural factors and linguistic nuances that make it difficult to turn a string of written text into a simple pro or con sentiment. “ ‘Sinful’ is a good thing when applied to chocolate cake,” he said.

The simplest algorithms work by scanning keywords to categorize a statement as positive or negative, based on a simple binary analysis (“love” is good, “hate” is bad). But that approach fails to capture the subtleties that bring human language to life: irony, sarcasm, slang and other idiomatic expressions. Reliable sentiment analysis requires parsing many linguistic shades of gray.

“We are dealing with sentiment that can be expressed in subtle ways,” said Bo Pang, a researcher at Yahoo who co-wrote “Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis,” one of the first academic books on sentiment analysis.

To get at the true intent of a statement, Ms. Pang developed software that looks at several different filters, including polarity (is the statement positive or negative?), intensity (what is the degree of emotion being expressed?) and subjectivity (how partial or impartial is the source?).

For example, a preponderance of adjectives often signals a high degree of subjectivity, while noun- and verb-heavy statements tend toward a more neutral point of view.

As sentiment analysis algorithms grow more sophisticated, they should begin to yield more accurate results that may eventually point the way to more sophisticated filtering mechanisms. They could become a part of everyday Web use.

“I see sentiment analysis becoming a standard feature of search engines,” said Mr. Grimes, who suggests that such algorithms could begin to influence both general-purpose Web searching and more specialized searches in areas like e-commerce, travel reservations and movie reviews.

Ms. Pang envisions a search engine that fine-tunes results for users based on sentiment. For example, it might influence the ordering of search results for certain kinds of queries like “best hotel in San Antonio.”

As search engines begin to incorporate more and more opinion data into their results, the distinction between fact and opinion may start blurring to the point where, as David Byrne once put it, “facts all come with points of view.”

Steve Jobs's new trick: the Apple tablet

Rumours are rife that Steve Jobs is about to unveil a revolutionary touchscreen gadget



A design concept for the Apple tablet

Feverish speculation all over the internet, gadget shoppers nearing mass hysteria and pundits predicting our lives will never be the same. It must mean that an Apple product launch is on the way.

The company that makes the Mac computer, iPod music player and iPhone is reportedly poised to launch a tablet computer – small enough to carry in a handbag or briefcase but big enough to comfortably surf the web, read newspapers and watch films. It could be Apple's latest billion-dollar jackpot.

Months of rumour and hype have reached a crescendo in recent days with Mashable.com: Apple Tablet May Launch in September and be in the shops by Christmas. Such is the fascination with all things Apple that blogs are humming with speculation and a new mention of the tablet crops up on Twitter around every eight minutes.

"The Apple magic is great technology and great marketing," said Leander Kahney, a blogger and author of The Cult of Mac. "We've seen it with the iPod, the iPhone and, before that, the Mac. That's why this is so exciting."

He added: "They've been working on this for the past six years. People expect it to be the ultimate Apple surprise. This thing will knock people's socks off."

Apple product launches are celebrated rituals where the talismanic Jobs, in black sweater and jeans, stands on a stage in San Francisco and unveils the company's latest innovation, cheered by adulatory crowds with near religious fervour. The Californian giant has sold more 200 million iPods since their launch in 2001.

Famously secretive, Apple has refused to comment on the tablet speculation. But Tim Cook, its chief operating officer, recently hinted that the company was working on something "very innovative". Jobs – now back at work after a six-month leave of absence following a liver transplant – is thought to have been personally involved in the development of the device over the past two years.

The tablet is rumoured to be any size and scale between the iPhone and the MacBook laptop. Some have described the tablet as a "Kindle-killer", potentially usurping the Amazon Kindle and other electronic book readers. It would be billed as a solution for people who work a lot on the move but don't want to carry a laptop. What experts believe would set the tablet apart would be that, instead of a keyboard, it would use a touch-sensitive screen. Kahney said: "Apple will totally rejig the computing experience. You won't manipulate a keyboard and mouse any more but rather use an intuitive touchscreen. It will very tactile. It will be a whole new paradigm."

It might also prove the launchpad for an "iTunes for newspapers", allowing commuters to read news on screen instead of in print. Even magazines might be reproduced convincingly on the high-resolution screen. Kahney said: "Instead of reading a review of a band, you could have audio and video embedded and listen to them and watch them being interviewed."

Expectations flared recently when Gene Munster, a technology research analyst, said that he had had discussions with an Asian component supplier that claimed to have received orders for a touchscreen device which needed to be filled by the end of the year. Munster took this as evidence that Apple would launch a tablet in early 2010.

He estimated that an Apple tablet, with an onscreen keyboard like the iPhone, would cost around $600 (£363), putting it between the highest-end iPod Touch at $399 and the MacBook, which starts at $999. At $600, Munster calculated that sales of 2 million tablets could add $1.2bn (£727m) to Apple's sales next year.

Sales of Apple laptops are stalling as they face competition from netbooks, the smaller and lighter laptops that have proved popular among students. Rival companies have also introduced tablets but lack the hype that guarantees Apple mountains of free publicity.

andfinally.com, a technology author and blogger, warned, however, that Apple's run of dramatic breakthroughs was unlikely to last for ever. "If Steve Jobs stands up and announces this, it could be his last hurrah. The technology industry has matured and, unless Apple does something completely unexpected, we have a pretty good idea what this will look like. The world has been shaped by technology in such a way that it is no longer surprising."

The exes who just can't let go

The Duke and Duchess of York have gone on holiday together – years after their separation. Amy Fleming explores the intriguing stories behind divorcees who are closer than ever



The Duke and Duchess of York Photograph: Niki Nikolova/FilmMagic

Many divorced couples remain civil, if through gritted teeth, for the sake of the children. Occasionally, you even hear of affable divorcees who – far from splits so bitter that offspring must choose which parent should attend their wedding – can tolerate spending entire holidays together. The Duke and Duchess of York are a case in point: so amicable have they remained since they officially ended their 10-year marriage in 1996 (after being separated for four), that their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, have described them as "the world's happiest unmarried couple". While leading separate lives, since February last year they have even shared digs at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park (she moved in temporarily after a fire at her rented home and sort of stayed on).

But in the latest development in their post-divorce love-in, things have taken a surprising turn, confirming that their friendship runs far deeper than staying geographically close and keeping appearances sweet for their girls' sakes. They have gone on holiday together, without the children. Without anyone, in fact. Just the two of them spending a relaxing fortnight in a secluded six-bedroomed villa, tucked away in 350 acres of Spanish woodland.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Prince Andrew's life is one big, perpetual holiday, but Fergie really needed a break. Her documentary on the Manchester council estate where Shameless was set, was met with ridicule and disgust. She evidently needed to retreat from this hostile world into a place of complete peace and safety – the company of her ex-husband. It is a move made more perplexing by the fact that, last we all heard, she is in a two-year relationship with the Findus frozen-food tycoon Geir Frantzen.

But despite all those divorce tales of wives taking husbands to the cleaners and ex-couples not being able to stand each other, perhaps the reality often isn't so different to Prince Andrew and Fergie's story. My own parents split up 20 years ago (after 20 years of marriage) and finally divorced so that my father could remarry 10 years later. But when Dad and his second wife were considering buying a property together, they sought outside advice from the person he'd always known had her head screwed on when it came to grown-up matters such as this – his ex-wife. My mother also attended their wedding shindig and has frequently accompanied me when I visit Dad and his wife in Devon. They, in turn, have crashed at my mother's flat in London and we all meet up at Christmases, one big interwoven family. As my dad says, "your mother's an extraordinary person, and we've never seen the point in arguing over the past. We both probably knew it was time to move on, so you muddle through it and get on with life, but you're still family."

You don't have to have had children with someone, though, to have a chance of staying friends after divorce. Most couples marry for good reasons; much goodwill is invested in a marriage. So it makes sense that they would make good friends too. "While there is a difference between a friendship and an intimate adult relationhip," says Mo Kurimbokus, a counsellor at Relate, "if something didn't work in the marriage and they both realise that, there's nothing to say they can't go on to support and help each other."

For some people, divorce is simply another stage of their long and valued relationship with their former spouse. Arianna Huffington, editor of the Huffington Post, one of America's most influential political blogs, recently wrote that "Just like marriage, divorce isn't easy either." But her own divorce has now outlasted her marriage by a year. On what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary, Huffington received a bouquet of flowers from her ex with a card that read: "Happy 20th Anniversary. We'll always be the parents of two remarkable young women. Love Michael." All of which was detailed in a blog last month from Crete, where Huffington was on her first family holiday with her former husband, 12 years after their separation and genuinely enjoying it.

Chris Evans and Billie Piper are similarly compatible divorcees. Evans was on the scene just 15 hours after Piper gave birth to her new husband's baby, and is now said to have set up a trust fund for the child. Meanwhile Hugh Grant remains a permanent fixture in Liz Hurley's marriage. "If I'm alone with Hugh, [husband] Arun and [son]Damian, I can turn off my cell phone . . . no one else really matters," she told Harper's Bazaar last year. (Admittedly, Grant and Hurley weren't technically hitched, but I think we can grant them common-law status).

You can't help wondering, though, if overly happily divorced couples annoy each others' current partners. What, emotionally, could the prince give Sarah Ferguson that her boyfriend couldn't? "They have shared a lot with each other," suggests Kurimbokus, "and already have a strong understanding of each other. It's not surprising she's turned to him when she's feeling so low. Things didn't work for them in marriage but the friendship side of things seems to be working really well, so why lose that too?" •

Time is called on traditional pint glass after government brands them too dangerous

The traditional dimpled beaker has fallen out of fashion since the 1960s, now it looks like the lighter and straighter glass will disappear as well

Last orders have been called for the traditional pint glass, after the Government deemed them too dangerous to handle.

The Home Office has called in a team of designers to create a safer beer glass in a bid to reduce the number of violent assaults.

Pint glasses made from safety or shatterproof glass, have been introduced into pubs and clubs around Britain recently.

The popular shaped glasses are easy to stack and have a bulge below the rim to prevent them from chipping.

However, there are still around 87,000 violent incidents involving glassware each year, which costs an annual estimate of £100m in NHS, police and court costs.

Consultancy Design Bridge won the pitch to create a range of 'safer drinking vessel prototypes' that will be unveiled in December.

'The challenge is to not only develop a safer pint glass, but to ensure they are attractive to industry, manufacturers and consumers,' a spokesman from the Government funded Design Council said.

Under the 'Designing Out Crime' initiative, the firm will focus on two areas, looking at what can be added to the glass to make it safer, and ‘a complete paradigm shift’, which could look at using new materials or forms.

Plastic containers are often used at festivals and other outdoor events, but the British Beer and Pub Association said these were not popular with pub-goers. Pubs currently pull 126million pints of beer every week in Britain.

Nick Verebelyi, 3D branding and packaging director for Design Bridge said: ‘We have to have a solution that satisfies the consumer, trade and the breweries.’

Home Office minister Alan Campbell said: ‘Innovative design has played an important role in driving down overall crime by a third since 1997, tackling a range of crimes including theft, fraud and burglary with innovative and practical solutions to real problems.

‘This project will see those same skills applied to the dangerous and costly issue of alcohol-related crime and I am confident that it will lead to similar successes.’

Source: mail online

Women who take risks more likely to have high testosterone levels... and be hungry for sex

Women with an appetite for risk may also be hungry for sex, a study suggests.

Scientists found that risk-taking women have unusually high testosterone levels.

The hormone fuels sex-drive in both men and women and is associated with competitiveness and dominance.

Women who like to take risks, by doing things such as gambling, were found to have higher levels of testosterone, the hormone which fuels the sex drive

Prior research has shown that high levels of testosterone are also linked to risky behaviour such as gambling or excessive drinking.

Scientists in the U.S. measured the amount of testosterone in saliva samples taken from 500 male and female MBA business students at the University of Chicago.

Participants in the study were asked to play a computer game that evaluated their attitude towards risk.

A series of questions allowed them to choose between a guaranteed monetary reward or a risky lottery with a higher potential pay-out.

The students had to decide repeatedly whether to play safe for less or gamble on a bigger win.

Women who were most willing to take risks were also found to have the highest levels of testosterone, but this was not true of men.

However, men and women with the same levels of the hormone shared a similar attitude to risk.

The link between risk-taking and testosterone also had a bearing on the students' career choices after graduation.

Testosterone-driven individuals who liked to gamble went on to choose riskier careers in finance.

'This is the first study showing that gender differences in financial risk aversion have a biological basis, and that differences in testosterone levels between individuals can affect important aspects of economic behaviour and career decisions,' said Professor Dario Maestripieri, one of the study leaders.

In general, women are known to be more risk-averse than men when it comes to financial decision making.

Among the students taking part in the study, 36% of the women chose high-risk financial careers such as investment banking or trading compared with 57% of the men.

Overall, male participants displayed lower risk-aversion than their female counterparts and also had significantly higher levels of salivary testosterone.

The findings are published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Co-author Professor Luigi Zingales said: 'This study has significant implications for how the effects of testosterone could impact actual risk-taking in financial markets, because many of these students will go on to become major players in the financial world.

'Furthermore, it could shed some light on gender differences in career choices. Future studies should further explore the mechanisms through which testosterone affects the brain.'

Source: mail online

One in five honeybees is wiped out in a year

Nearly a fifth of Britain's honeybees perished last year, increasing fears the species is in serious decline, experts warned yesterday.

Although the death toll is lower than the previous year - when nearly a third of hives did not make it through the winter - beekeepers say it is double the 'acceptable' level.

The annual survey by the British Beekeepers' Association revealed 19.2 per cent of colonies died in the winter.

Dying out: Honeybees are decreasing rapidly in number, with almost a fifth of the UK's population perishing last year

In the North of England, where losses were highest, nearly one in three colonies was wiped out. However, in the East of England 87 per cent survived.

The honeybee, or apis mellifera, pictured right, is essential for agriculture. It is thought to contribute around £200million to the economy by pollinating crops.

BBKA president Tim Lovett said: 'The improved figure is very welcome, but is way short of the 7 per cent to 10 per cent which - until the last five years - has been considered acceptable.

'These ongoing losses in the pollination army of honeybees cannot continue if we are to secure food supplies.'

The cold winter encouraged bees to cluster together, helping them to survive through to March, Mr Lovett said. Good weather in early spring allowed them to forage for nectar.

The association also believes beekeepers took extra care this year to prevent them from starving. There are between 200 and 300 commercial beekeepers in Britain and around 44,000 who keep bees as a hobby.

In recent years, honeybees have been hit by the varroa mite, which has spread here from Asia. The mites feed on bees and make hives more vulnerable to disease. Numbers may also have suffered due to changes in farming, which have cut the number of wildflowers growing in and around fields.

Climate change and pesticides have also been suggested as factors in their decline. They could soon face a further threat if warmer summers and milder winters encourage the spread of the Asian hornet, which preys on bees.

The two-inch long stinging insects are thought to have ravaged colonies in the south of France. A single hornet can kill 40 bees in a minute.

One insect expert from the Natural History Museum said: 'They can cope with European summers already and they are heading north, so it could only be a matter of time before they find their way to Britain.'

The hornets are thought to have arrived in France on a boat from China in 2004.
There are now 1,100 confirmed nests in the country, some as far north as Brittany.

A report by the cross-party Parliamentary Accounts Committee last month warned the Government was giving 'little priority' to the health of the nation's bees despite their importance to the agricultural economy.

The report called on the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ring-fence research spending on bee health and ensure that it is not diluted by looking at other pollinating insects - a call backed by Mr Lovett.

Ref: mail online

Revealed: The man who claims to have had a gay love affair with Michael Jackson

This is the man who claims to have had a gay love affair with Michael Jackson.

Rotund clinic worker Jason Pfeiffer , who works for Jacko's dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein, described how they shared a 'short romantic love story that ended in tragedy'.

Speaking of his loss, Pfeiffer said he lost his 'soulmate' when the Thriller star died of cardiac arrest in June.

Jason Pfeiffer claims he shared a gay lover affair with Michael Jackson that ended in tragedy when the star died in June

The 35-year-old said he first got to know the singer over the phone before father-of-three Michael asked him for a lift home one night.

It then led to further clandestine meetings between the pair.

Pfeiffer said: 'I guess our first 'date' was in my car. We went for a drive and were talking and having fun, but Michael had his minders who were 'nosey' as Michael put it.

'We had to make sure we were not caught, and although the date was short as I had to take him home before anyone noticed, we had a great time.'

Jackson pictured in rehearsal just days before he died

Their fling was cut short when the 50-year-old Jacko died after going into cardiac arrest two months ago.

Pfeiffer added: 'I've lost my soulmate. It's very hard to describe the loss I feel - but there is something that's empty in my heart.'

He said he was in regular contact with Jackson through to his final days

And he described how the twice-wed star began acting strangely two weeks before his shock death.

Pfeiffer, who told his story to Aussie mag Woman's Day, said: 'He completely changed in the final two weeks.

'He was overly religious, overly dramatic, exhausting and exhausted.

'He was saying goodbyes the week before passing. Everyone was creeped out by it.

'Michael got very retrospective in the last few weeks, he was talking about God and the Mayan calendar and the year 2012 - which is when the Mayan calendar ends.'

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Jackson family said he will not be buried on what would have been his 51st birthday as originally planned.

The late King of Pop was due to be interred on August 29 during a private ceremony at the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn cemetery in Los Angeles.

But in a brief statement it was announced that the date had been put back to September 3. No reason was given for the changed arrangements.

The statement added that the ceremony would be limited to family and close friends.

REF: dailymail.co.uk

Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon unite against Google Books project

Microsoft, Yahoo! and Amazon have joined forces to stall Google's efforts to create what could be the world's largest digital library.

The technology heavyweights have all signed up to the Open Book Alliance, which will oppose Google's crusade to make digital copies of as many printed books as possible.

A growing number of critics already have filed objections to Google's book settlement, but none have the clout that the Open Book Alliance has with the world's best-known technology companies on board.

'Do no evil': Google's mantra is to be a 'good company' but Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon allege the company is trying to monopolise the digital book market

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have confirmed their intention to join the alliance. Amazon declined to comment because the group hasn't been formally announced yet.

The Open Book Alliance also will include an assortment of nonprofit groups.

Among other things, the alliance will try to persuade the U.S. Justice Department that Google's broad settlement with authors and publishers could undermine competition in the digital book market just as more consumers are gravitating toward electronic readers like Amazon.com's Kindle.

In a bit of irony, the alliance is working closely with Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer who helped convince the Justice Department to file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft that tormented the software maker during the late 1990s.

Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon all have financial reasons for objecting to the class-action lawsuit settlement that Google reached with authors and publishers 10 months ago.

Yahoo is one of the companies joining the Open Book Alliance. Pictured is their headquarters in California

Amazon may have the most at stake, given that it's a major book seller and is mining the Kindle for even more sales.

Google plans to offer free access to some books through its search engine and sell others as part of a registry that will share revenue with authors and publishers if the class-action settlement is approved.

Opponents of the deal believe it will give Google too much pricing power, and have raised concerns about the company's ability to stockpile more personal data about the users of its search engines by tracking what they're reading.

'We see many disadvantages in this settlement,' the Internet Archive's Brantley said.
Others see tremendous benefits.

Amazon, who sell the Kindle e-book reader, may have something to lose from Google's approach

A wide cross-section of libraries, colleges and authors have endorsed Google's book settlement.

Google argues that the settlement will be a boon for consumers, who will have easier access to potentially valuable information now gathering dust in remote library shelves.

And, Google says, authors and publishers will be able to make more money from out-of-print books.

'The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition,' Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said.

'That said, it's ironic that some of these complaints are coming from a company that abandoned its book digitization effort because it lacked "commercial intent".'

Stricker addressed this comment at Microsoft, which abandoned its efforts to make digital book copies to focus on more profitable online opportunities.

Microsoft and Yahoo could be hurt if Google's expanded index of digital books propels even more traffic to its search engine. If that were to happen, Google might process even more search requests than it already does, allowing the company to show more of the text ads alongside search results that generate most of its revenue.

Hoping to siphon advertising away from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo last month announced a planned partnership in search.

The proposal, which still must be approved by the Justice Department, calls for Microsoft to run the search engine on Yahoo's web site in return for 12 percent of the revenue generated by accompanying ad sales.

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

Find yourself walking in circles? Scientists reveal why we struggle to walk in a straight line

It's a recurring scene in desert movies - a group of lost people try to find their way through the dunes but end up walking round in circles.

Now scientists have shown that the old cliché really is true, and that without help from the sun or stars people are unable to walk in a straight line.

Researchers in Germany left six volunteers in a forest and asked them to keep going in the same direction. On cloudy days - with no sun to guide them - the volunteers ended up walking in circles and crossing their paths without realising it.

Clichéd but true: Humans struggle to walk in straight lines without definite points like the sun to guide us

In a second experiment, volunteers were left in the Sahara for several hours with water and food.

Again, they were able to keep to a straight path only when the sun was visible. As soon as it went behind clouds they wandered aimlessly in loops.

Dr Jan Souman, who led the study, said: 'Those stories about people who end up walking around in circles when lost are true.

'People cannot walk in a straight line if they do not have absolute references, such as a tower or a mountain in the distance or the sun or moon, and often end up walking in circles.'

In one part of the study, published in the journal Current Biology, two volunteers were left in the Sahara in southern Tunisia in daylight and told to walk straight. Although neither managed a complete circle, both veered off a straight line.

The study found the idea that we walk in circles because one leg is stronger was untrue

A third volunteer walked at night by the light of the moon. When it was obscured by clouds, he made several turns and ended up heading in the direction he came from.

In another test, six students were taken to a large, flat forest in Bienwald, southern Germany, and told to walk in a straight line.

Four of them walked under a cloudy sky and all ended up walking in circles, despite thinking they were going straight. Two others were able to see the sun - and so kept going in a straight line.

All walkers were tracked with global positioning satellites and their routes were mapped digitally.

Dr Souman, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, added: 'One explanation offered in the past for walking in circles is that most people have one leg longer or stronger than the other - which would produce a systematic bias in one direction.'

But the researchers disproved that by showing that blindfolded volunteers walked in circles but without any preference for going clockwise or anti-clockwise.

The research is being used to map how the brain uses the senses to guide people.

Ref: dailymail.co.uk

DNA evidence can be fabricated and planted at crime scenes, scientists warn

Scientists have shown it is possible to fake DNA evidence, potentially undermining the credibility of the key forensic technique.

Using equipment found in labs up and down the country, they obliterated all traces of DNA from a blood sample and added someone else's genetic material in its place.

The swap was so successful it fooled scientists who carry out DNA fingerprinting for U.S. courts.

Forensic evidence, often analysed in crime dramas such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (above), may not be the gold standard for such cases any more

The development raises the possibility of samples of blood or saliva being planted at crime scenes, leading to the innocent being wrongly convicted and the guilty going free.

Israeli researcher Dan Frumkin, who produced the bogus DNA, said: 'If you can fake blood, saliva or any other tissue, you can engineer a crime scene. Any biology undergraduate could perform this.'

Dr Frumkin's company, which has made a kit he claims can distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones, used two techniques to fabricate the evidence.

In the first, they extracted minute samples of genetic material from strands of hair and multiplied them many times over.

They then inserted this DNA into blood cells that had been purged of all genetic clues to their real owner.

The blood then contained the genetic fingerprint of the first person, the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics reports.

In theory, it could then be planted at the scene of a crime.

DNA material can be gathered from an empty wine glass or cigarette butt

Hair, chewing gum, cigarette butts and mugs and glasses could all provide an initial DNA sample.

The company has also developed a more complicated technique, which relies on knowledge of the DNA fingerprint - a 'bar code' of genetics from 20 set spots on a person's DNA.

The scientists built a 'library' containing hundreds of DNA snippets covering all the genetic codes that crop up at the set points scrutinised by police. To make a sample matching a particular fingerprint, they just dipped into their library for the right combination and mixed them in a test-tube.

The researchers believe eventually the technology will be used by criminals.

They warned: 'DNA evidence is key to the conviction or exoneration of suspects of various types of crime, from theft to rape and murder. However, the disturbing possibility that DNA evidence can be faked has been overlooked.

'DNA with any desired genetic profile can be easily synthesised using common and recently developed biological techniques, integrated into human tissues or applied to surfaces of objects, and then planted in crime scenes.'

But British experts said it was highly unlikely any criminal would go to such lengths. Dr Gill Tully of the Government-funded Forensic Science Service said: 'You would need a full molecular biology lab, thousands of pounds worth of equipment and a fully competent molecular biology scientist or technician.

'The vast majority of people who may be involved in criminality would not have access to these materials.'

Dr John Manlove, a forensic scientist and expert witness in court cases, said: 'Yes, it is scientifically possible but it is somebody going to an extreme.

'DNA is very important to a case but the investigations are not carried out on the basis of DNA alone.'

Ref: dailymail.co.uk