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Will Covid-19 mean a large increase in abandoned dogs and cats? Battersea Dogs and Cats Home fear so. In a recent study it found that a third of the people who acquired a cat or dog during the national lockdown had not considered having a pet before the pandemic, and had bought one on impulse....

Where do we most like to walk? A recent survey has found that two places in the Lake District are clear winners. Top comes the gently accessible Buttermere Circuit, with its rippling silver water, mountain views, peace and quiet. Second is the demanding eight-hour climb up Helvellyn, which is not for the faint-hearted. Then comes...

Potholes have proliferated during the pandemic, and they are still the top concern of nearly 40 per cent of all drivers. The pandemic slowed down the maintenance of roads for many councils. A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “We’ve committed £2.5billion for local road repairs as part of the biggest nationwide pothole programme...

Ravens have been found to be among the cleverest animals in the world. These largest members of the crow family can even score as high on intelligence tests as chimpanzees. Ravens can remember where food is hidden, can use tools to get at it, follow human faces with their eyes, and understand what people mean...

Last year saw a steep rise in redundances among the over-60s, and a lack of proficiency with digital work tools such as Zoom helped contribute to the problem. The number of workers over 60 who were made redundant increased from 8,000 between April and June to 31,000 between July and September – twice the percentage...

All in the month of January The first man to get stopped for speeding… Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms – 500 years on ‘Quarantine’ – the 2020 word of the year Beware what’s lurking in the water Climate change has increased disasters Holocaust Memorial Day calls for light in the darkness of today...

It was: 500 years ago, on 3rd January 1521 that German Protestant reformer Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X after he refused to recant his writings. A few weeks later, on 23rd January, the Diet of Worms was called by the Holy Roman Empire and ran until 25th...

It was 125 years ago, on 28th January 1896, that Walter Arnold of Kent became the first person in the world to be convicted of speeding. The speed limit was 2mph at the time, and a man carrying a red flag had to walk in front of the vehicle. But one day Mr Arnold took off...

Five hundred years ago, on 3rd January 1521, German Protestant reformer Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X after he refused to recant his writings. A few weeks later, on 23rd January, the Diet of Worms was called by the Holy Roman Empire and ran until 25th May. This amusingly titled event...

The Cambridge Dictionary has named ‘quarantine’ as its ‘word of the year’ for 2020.  Apparently, it was the word most looked up between January and October of last year. ‘Quarantine’ even beat ‘pandemic’ and ‘lockdown’. The Cambridge Dictionary has now added a new meaning to the word ‘quarantine’.  It runs: ‘A general period of time...

Every river in England has chemicals in them. A recent waterways survey has found that agricultural, industrial and household pollutants now contaminate, to some extent, all of our surface water. It is a huge turnaround since 2016, when 97 per cent of our surface water was deemed to be free from chemicals. Using new Environment...

Climate change is largely to blame for the huge rise in natural disasters between the years 2000 to 2019.  So says a recent report from the United Nations office for disaster risk reduction. It goes on to warn that the earth is rapidly becoming “uninhabitable” to millions of people worldwide. Three quarters of a billion...