Swiss bank to lift lid on hidden Kafka works

It's an interesting question to ponder whether an author has any rights after his death as Franz Kafka clearly didn't.

Franz Kafka was one of the most enigmatic authors of the 20th Century. He died of tuberculosis in 1924 aged only 40 and, if his own last wishes had been followed, novels such as The Trial and The Castle would never have seen the light of day.

Kafka asked his friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, to burn his manuscripts after his death. Brod refused, publishing the novels and taking letters and other writings to Israel where he left them to his secretary Esther Hoffe - who then bequeathed them to her two daughters.

It seems there is very little honour not only in publishing but anywhere these days!

Gunshot survivor gets prosthetic face

You have to marvel at the miracle of science these days! This woman got shot full in the face and which left a gaping hole. Not only did she survive it, but now she's had corrective surgery (was there ever such an understatement?) and has her very own "new" face.

Chrissy Steltz, 27, from Milwaukie, Oregon, was shot accidentally at close range by a friend at a party in March 1999. The shot blew a huge hole in her face where her eyes and nose used to be. Mrs Steltz went into a coma and spent six weeks in hospital. Doctors said it was a miracle that she was not killed but the blast left her badly disfigured. She was also blinded and lost part of her hearing. Mrs Steltz, who married last year and has a one-year-old child, wore a sleeping mask to cover the hole but has now been given a prosthetic replacement 11 years later.

This is an amazing testament to the courage of the human spirit. How many people even if they had survived physically, would have curled up and died inside? how many people would have gone into a deep depression from which they would never have come out again, certainly not intact or in one piece?

I hear a talk show coming along..."Ok, Oprah be right with you in a minute!"

Sucker for soccer: octopus predicts World Cup finalist

You couldn't make this up and has to rank as a crazy story - a British born octopus in Germany called Paul has correctly predicted the results of a number of the World Cup games?

Spain's victory over Germany in the World Cup last night will come as no surprise to those following one of the competition's most successful pundits – for the result had already been foretold by Paul the Octopus, a creature that has achieved celebrity status with the accuracy of its predictions.

Dubbed the psychic octopus, the English-born Paul (hatched at the Sea Life Park in Weymouth) has correctly predicted all of Germany's World Cup results including the 1-0 defeat last night. He predicted Germany's wins against England and Argentina, and even Serbia's defeat of Germany in the group stage.

Such is the popularity of his selections that, on the eve of last night's game, the German news channel n-tv broadcast Paul's prediction live.

What will we have next? A chimpanzeee who can plat chess and beat Grand Masters? A one-legged gerbil that can perform keyhole surgery? A cat that can tell when rabbits are lying?

What is the world coming to eh?

Ageing - New genetic test can predict your chances of living to 100, claim scientists

Just as we always knew- you can drink like a fish, copulate like a rabbit, smoke like a chimney, but what really determines how long you live is how good your genes are - or so says a report into the correlation between length of life and your genes.

"A genetic test that can predict whether a person is likely to live long enough to see their 100th birthday has been developed by scientists. Researchers at Boston University claim the test can identify those who can look forward to an exceptionally long life with 77% accuracy. They designed the test after a major study into the genetic makeup of centenarians highlighted a host of DNA variants that boost a person's chances of reaching a ripe old age."

So that old geezer you used to see down the pub every night knocking back the Guinness and smoking like ciggies were about to be banned wasn't such an idiot after all. he was just lucky - he had good genes. His brothers and sisters also probably enjoyed the same predisposition to be able to avoid regular illness and chronic ailments related to old age, too.

"Many of the genetic markers the scientists found stave off common, and often lethal, age-related diseases, such as heart disease, dementia and high blood pressure. The US researchers investigated the genetic secrets of a longer life after studies showed that living beyond 100 often runs in families."

Ok, gotta go now. Off to the pub and to buy a pack of Marlboro on the way!

The World's Richest Self-made Women

Only 14 of the world's 1,000 billionaires are self-made women, and only seven of them had no help from relatives, a new list has found. Also interesting is the fact that of those 14, 6 of them are Chinese which no doubt reflects the rise of China as a new super power in terms of economics as well as in other areas.

Here is the list:

The World's Richest Self-made Women (Name, nationality, industry, net worth in dollars)

1. Wu Yajun, Chinese, Property development, 3.9 billion

2. Rosalie Mera, Spanish, Clothing, 3.5 billion

3. Elena Baturina, Russian, Construction, 2.9 billion

4. Doris Fisher, American, Clothing, 2.4 billion

5. Xiu Li Hawken, UK citizen, property development, 2.4 billion

6. Oprah Winfrey, American, Media, 2.4 billion

7. Giulana Benetton, Italian, Clothing, 2.1 billion

8. Chu Lam Yiu, Chinese, Flavourings and fragrances, 2.1 billion

9. Zhang Xin, Chinese, property development, 2 billion

10. Yan Cheung, Chinese, Waste paper, 1.7 billion

11. Meg Whitman, American, Internet commerce, 1.3 billion

12. Chan Laiwa, Chinese, property development, 1.1 billion

13. Lei Jufang, Chinese, Medicines, 1.1 billion

14. J.K. Rowling, British, Books, 1 billion

Every picture tells a story...

Tallest German surrenders to short soldier in Second World War picture



This is an unusual picture to see of a diminutive Englishman. Corporal Bob Roberts was overseeing the surrender of dozens of enemy soldiers during the Battle of Normandy when the 7ft 6ins German loomed into his view. Cpl Roberts, who stood two feet below him at 5ft 6ins, had the daunting job of frisking the German lance corporal for weapons before taking him prisoner.

What this picture doesn't tell you is that only a short time earlier, the same Englishman had just shot dead another German who had pulled out a pistol. For just a few minutes before the picture was taken, Cpl Roberts faced a life-or-death duel with another German soldier who pulled out a pistol as he pretended to surrender. Luckily, he raised his gun in the nick of time and shot the enemy soldier dead.

Cpl Roberts, who was 21 at the time, was a member of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment of the Canadian army and stormed Juno Beach on D-Day in June 1944. "I didn't take a lot of notice of this guy at the time because I was so focused on what the Germans were doing after what had happened to me.

"I just passed the prisoners on one after the other after searching them. But my mates who were watching the rest of the men saw this giant of a guy approach me and I was aware they and the Germans were having a good laugh. The Germans were saying that he was the tallest man in the German army, he was 7ft 6ins tall."

Sometimes, there is a funny side to war as this photo suggests.

What did I tell you? Swine flu - another scam!

What many of us already knew. Swine flu - another scam! This article criticises the way certain drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Roche, paid so-called experts to scare the bejesus out of us and forcing our governments to stockpile Tamiflu which turned out to be a waste of money as a full scale pandemic never happened. (Click on the title link to read the article.)

"City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true."

This is the age we live in where the manipulation of ordinary people has reached new heights. Where once we thought somewhat naively that knowledge would set us free, knowledge about human behaviour patterns has instead been used to control us and make money from us in much more pernicious and secretive ways.

And drug companies will soon be seen as the absolute poison in our midst:

"The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process," said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who sits on the council's health committee. "It must be right that the WHO is transparent because there has been distortion of priorities of public health services all over Europe, waste of huge sums of public money and provocation of unjustified fear."

What have we learned throughout all of this? Fear sells! It is now a commodity like oil and gold when used by secretive and unscrupulous people.