Hello and welcome to Wednesdays Levy Letter. Happy St Georges Day, I hope your weeks going well so far, and of course I hope you can join me tonight for Look North at half past six on BBC One. Coming up on the programme tonight, we'll hear from the police officers who risked their own safety to try and rescue three men who'd gone swimming in Hull Marina. Despite their efforts yesterday one man died. The other 2 are still being treated in hospital.
With a Lincolnshire MP about to rebel over the government's abolition of the ten pence tax band, we'll be trying to find out exactly what impact it's had on those on low incomes in our area. A doctor from Boston Hospital who was at the centre of a Hepatitis C scare has resigned. More than sixty of Dr Ahmed Shaheen's patients had to be tested for the potentially fatal liver infection. The Polish Consul will open its first ever office in a British University in Hull this lunchtime. We'll find out why and look at the impact the new Polish community is having on the city. And it's St Georges Day! To mark it we'll be looking at how our English landscape has influenced artists through the ages from poet Philip Larkin through to a gallery in Gainsborough and the rock band The Paddingtons. Thats all coming up at half past six on BBC One along with the days detailed weather forecast. I hope you can join me then. Teachers Tomorrow teachers are set to strike in our region over pay, and here at Look North we want to know how youre going to be affected. If youre a parent, how are you going to deal with children being out of school? Maybe its going to affect you financially, or maybe youll have to take a day off work because of the strike. If youve got anything to say on this let us know, get in touch on [EMAIL PROTECTED] and well have more on this on the programme tomorrow with some of your stories. Babies I saw some very interesting research in the news today, see what you think of this. According to a new study, a womans diet around the time of conception could influence the gender of her baby. Regular breakfasts, and a higher calorie intake could make the conditions more favourable for baby boys. The trend towards lower calorie diets in developed countries could explain the reduction in male children in these regions. 56% of women with the highest intake of calories had boys, compared to just 45% amongst those with the lowest calorie diet. Women who had sons were also more likely to have eaten a higher quantity and wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. And they were also more likely to have eaten breakfast cereals. Doctors are warning women not to try to alter their diet deliberately to try and influence their childs sex, as even small changes in diet can have long term consequences on a childs health and development. Its some fascinating research on a subject that people have been interested for many, many years. You hear lots of old wives tales about ways to influence a babys sex, but it seems that diet could be the key. Boring Job Well they say all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, but according to new research the kind of work you do could dull your brain more than others. If you do a boring, monotonous job, you could be more prone to certain types of mistakes on the easiest of tasks. Monotonous jobs where its hard to maintain focus, like passport control or driving, shift the brain into rest mode which tries to economise by putting less effort into a task. The involuntary change in the brain causes us to make errors. Interestingly, the research is going towards creating devices that monitor our brains for this shift, and can therefore predict when well start making mistakes. If such a device can be built, it could be used to warn us when were about to become unsafe at the wheel, or when were going to start producing basic errors at work. More interesting research there, and if you work in passport control and want to protest that its not a boring job, its not my opinion, its just an example from the article I read! Demolition Job Heres a cautionary tale if youre late paying for services. A builder in Sussex has just finished demolishing a porch and conservatory with a sledgehammer, just after finishing its construction. The building work on a council house was worth £15,000, but after a string of missed payments and excuses, the builder returned with the permission of the local council and set about his handiwork with a sledgehammer. The houses occupant will now have to pay for the removal of the rubble and putting the property back to its original state. The builder is worried he may have to close his business after losing the money spent on the construction and loss of earnings. As I said, its a cautionary tale, and a rather sad one for the builder who had to knock down the work hed carefully constructed. Well thats it from me today. If youve got anything to let me know about, a story for the programme or a picture for the weather, you can drop me a line at [EMAIL PROTECTED] If theres anything you want to let me know about for the letter than get in touch with me as well and thatll go straight to me. Have a very good day and I hope you can join me for Look North tonight at half past six on BBC One. 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
