Hi there, Peter here on this Friday afternoon. I am looking forward to the weekend and think it is great how the evenings are getting just a little bit lighter every day. A minute or two every day makes a difference as the weeks go by.
Devilled Kidney Did you hear the bizarre story about a US man divorcing his wife and is demanding that she return the kidney he donated to her or pay him $1.5m (£1m) in compensation? Dr Richard Batista told reporters that he decided to go public because he was frustrated at the slow pace of divorce negotiations with his estranged wife. He said he had not only given his heart to his wife, Dawnell, but donated his kidney to save her life. But divorce lawyers say a donated organ is not a marital asset to be divided. Dr Batista married Dawnell in 1990 and donated the kidney to her in 2001. She filed for divorce in 2005 and a settlement has still not been reached. He told reporters at his lawyer's office in Long Island, New York, that going public was a last resort. Dr Batista's lawyer, Dominic Barbara, said his client was "asking for the value of the kidney" that he gave his wife. A lawyer for Mrs Batista said: "The facts aren't as represented by Dr Batista. We will be addressing the issu! es before the judge within the next few days." Musical Wings Did you know that mosquitoes "sing" a mating duet by beating their wings together in harmony? US scientists have eavesdropped on a male Aedes aegypti mosquito pursuing a female in mating flight, and recorded the couple's courtship "love song". The familiar buzz of a flying female mosquito may be irritating to humans, but for her male counterpart, it is an irresistible mating signal. Males and females each have their own characteristic flight tone - which they create by beating their wings. But when scientists from Cornell University listened in on a male Aedes aegypti pursuing his mate, they were surprised to hear a new kind of "music" playing. The amorous couple began to beat their wings together at a matching frequency - 1,200 hertz. It was thought that females may even be deaf. But the Cornell scientists were able to show that their hearing range extends to 2,000 Hz. It sounds to me like the females are just playing hard to get! Big Brother is Reading You Rules forcing internet companies to keep details of every e-mail sent in the UK are a waste of money and an attack on civil liberties, say critics. From March all internet service providers (ISPs) will by law have to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for a year. Human rights group Liberty says it is worried what will happen next. The Home Office insists the data, which does not include e-mails' content, is vital for crime and terror inquiries. Some three billion e-mails are thought to be sent each day in the UK. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said ISPs already kept the information on a voluntary basis. "The thing we have to worry about is what happens next because the government is already mooting plans not just to leave this stuff with the providers but to create a central government database where they hold all the information. "I'm afraid we just don't trust any government or any organisation to keep that much very sensitive inf! ormation about us all and to keep it safe." The new rules are due to come into force on 15 March, as part of a European Commission directive which could affect every ISP in the country. Well, there you go, all those Levy Letters inhabiting cyber space! Have a good weekend and hope you will join me on Monday with my BBC Radio Humberside lunchtime show between 12pm and 2pm when I will be talking to Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, and I will see you, as usual on Look Night tonight at 6.30pm. Take care. 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. 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.
