Hi everyone, its Peter here. Trust Paul to mention last night that Ive been talking about swatting flies in the Letter. Well, its started another wave of messages. I cant believe people have so much to say about flies! David in Bridlington emails me to say, Hi Peter, I didn't think that flies could cause so much interest, but you must be able to remember fly paper? Anyway it's still sold today only they call it a glue pot. Works wonderfully, but is unsightly. And Pat in Boston texted me My husband hit out at a fly and put his back out. Hes now sitting with two cushions to ease the pain. Good outcome though, he got the fly. Im sure your husband appreciates your sympathy Pat!!
And yesterday, I mentioned that taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalator on a regular basis could save your life. Well thats according to Swiss researchers. Mike from Willerby responded to that though with, Peter, I take it that those Swiss researchers have never worked in the Empire State building? Indeed Mike! Sniff It Out Heres a tale or tail perhaps of some clever canines. And it amazes me how mans best friend can become so adaptable and can work so closely with its owners. Those busy old scientists this time have been studying the decline of the bumblebee in the UK. Well, these researchers have now trained a dog to sniff out the insects in the wild in order to help in their studies. The dog in question is called Toby and hes a three year old Springer Spaniel. And this clever canine can find the bees nests, hidden in dense undergrowth or in the ground, using just his nose. The Scottish scientists have had problems in the past finding these wild bees, because theyre very difficult to see. Theyve said that in these wild bees nests therell be about 100 of them in the nest and only about 50 or so worker bees travelling in and out, so its pretty difficult to spot where the bees are hiding out if the nest happens to be in a dense spot of grass or big tree. Toby has stepped in to help thou! gh with his bee-seeking nose. Toby has come from a military background. After being abandoned as a puppy, he then went to the army dog-training school in Melton Mowbray where hed been trained to sniff out explosives. So hes gone from bombs to bees. And here are some more clever dogs. Sniffer dogs have been trained to detect the plastics used in DVDs and are helping the police in the fight against the £200 million trade in pirated films. Two black Labradors called Lucky and Flo have been trained to sniff out the parked cars at markets in London for illegal DVDs hidden in the boot or to search lockups or garages for DVDs stashed inside. Their reward for finding any dodgy DVDs a tennis ball! Well, Lucky and Flo get a tennis ball as a reward I sincerely hope Toby the Spaniel doesnt get a bee sting on his nose as a reward for his efforts! Signs Heres one for you to mull over. Have you seen those signs at supermarkets on the fast-track checkouts? The ones where they say, 10 items or less? Well, one big supermarket is having a crisis of linguistics. I can just imagine the big bosses of this supermarket sitting around the board table with a dictionary trying to work this one out. The big bosses have decided though that they should change all their signs, because theyve been guilty of bad grammar. Theyll be changing all their fast-checkout signs to Up to 10 items over their uncertainty whether the current notices should use fewer instead of less. The Grammar Police have been in contact with this supermarket firm and no it was Andy Comfort! The Plain English Campaign have flagged up that fewer should be used when youre talking about items that can be counted individually like fewer than ten apples. But less should be used when quantities cant be individually counted like in the phrase, Id like less wa! ter. Its all very complicated isnt it? So there you go. Keep an eye out in your local supermarket and see what the signs say and if theyve changed recently. And do you think they needed to change their signs? Keep in touch about this or anything else to the usual address of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Take care, Peter Your email address will be held by the BBC and kept confidential, and will only be used in relation to this newsletter. You will be given the option to unsubscribe from this newsletter each time you receive it. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information 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
