Hello and welcome to Thursday's Levy Letter. I hope your day's going well, and if you're going outside it might be a good idea to take an umbrella with you. Still, the shortest day of the year is fast approaching, around the 21st of December I think, and then we can look forward to days getting longer again.
On Look North tonight we'll be looking at the Environment Agency report into the summer floods and what it means for our part of the world. We also hear from the father who lost his son in the floods, as an inquest begins into the death. We'll have the latest on Beverly Allitt's High Court appeal to have her sentence reduced. And with dozens of office blocks opening, would you apply for one of hundreds of new jobs planned in Hull? And tonight we're live from Lincoln Christmas Market as Look North team up with Radio Lincolnshire for a special challenge. Sounds interesting. Of course we'll have the detailed weather forecast from Paul, if you have an aversion to rain you might want to cover your eyes for that one. I'm sure he'll be happy with me for saying that! Don't miss all the day's news and stories for our region on Look North tonight on BBC One as always at half past six. Cancer free lifestyle Would you be interested if you could follow a lifestyle that would dramatically reduce your risk of cancer, and extend your life? I think most of us would be very interested in finding out whats involved, until you find out that youd also have to avoid meat, sex, females of any description, and technology. And did I mention youll also have to live in a strict religious regime in an isolated peninsular too? Well if youre a man, and youre still interested then the place for you is Mount Athos in Northern Greece. The area houses 1,500 monks who live on a simple and repetitive diet of home grown vegetables and fruit, with fish and olive oil as occasional luxuries. Women, and even female animals are forbidden to enter the area, and the daily routine consists of pre-dawn prayers, chores, simple meals eaten quickly, and then more prayers before bed. I think I probably speak for a lot of people when I say that if thats the price of lowering your cancer risk, then the price is probably too high! In studies from a Greek university, the monks demonstrated an incredibly low rate of prostate cancer, less than a quarter of the international average. In one study they also had a lung and bladder cancer rate of zero, which is extraordinary. The monks lifestyle has barely changed in over 1,000 years, a tradition they keep with a strict isolationist policy. Well I wont be booking my plane ticket any time soon, but it does demonstrate the affect your lifestyle can have on your health, particularly on cancer. If you fancy it, Im not sure what you have to do to join, but I dont think youll find details in your local travel agent. Dolphin Bouquet Ive had a few strange stories from nature and animals in the letter lately, and heres another from one of the most intelligent animals in the sea. A study of Amazon river dolphins in Brazil has discovered that the males use sticks or clumps of weed in their mouths to attract females. As it says here in the article Im reading, its slightly different to the human custom of giving bunches of flowers, as it seems to be a display of sexual virility, and appeared to provoke aggression in other male rivals. I dont think you could say that about bunches of flowers. Dolphins carrying objects were found likely to father more offspring, and the behaviour is believed to be a learned cultural custom, in other words they learn it from others and pass it on. Thats incredible, we tend to think of customs and culture as being something exclusively human, but apparently not. Another example of dolphins using objects has been observed in separate studies where the animals tore off pieces of sea sponges to protect their bellies as the forage for food on the sea bed. So there you go, an insight into the fascinating world of dolphins. The stick and weed carrying behaviour seems almost suave when compared to some of the mating behaviour of humans at times if you go out much on a Saturday night Carol Concert Don't forget tonight is the annual Lord Mayors Carol Concert at the Street Life Museum in Hull. Its always a great event and the atmosphere is always lovely and for me heralds the start of Christmas. It's a splendid setting for the carol concert and is always done so well. I have been lucky enough to be invited to do a reading again and the event is compered by Blair Jacobs. It starts at 7 30 if you can make it along, I look forward to seeing you there. Well thats about it from me for today, but I will just mention an email we had at Look North from Les and Lin, Was watching tonight and listened to the message from the email correspondent from Minorca. Earlier this week, someone was on from Malaga. Both my wife and I live in Huescar, Andalucia and we also watch the local (Hull and Lincs) news. As my wife is from Hull, my brother lives in Barton and her sister lives in Horncastle, our TV news always has the Hull and Lincs flavour. Well done to them, its incredible how many people watch the programme abroad. Its quite easy to do if you have the internet of course, just go to www.bbc.co.uk/looknorthhull and youll find links to watch the programme online at your leisure. I hope you can join me for Look North tonight, at half past six on BBC One as usual. Take care, enjoy the rest of your day. Bye for now Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
