The darkening financial climate is pretty much unavoidable at the minute. If you're not queuing up at the supermarket spending 15% more for half a dozen eggs than you would have done five minutes ago, then 150 journalists and financial advisors are lined up round the block to tell you about it.

Fuel costs are rocketing to record new heights and the price of a barrel of crude oil, if you really wanted to buy one, is nearing the astronomical sum of $200.

The public talent show began humbly enough: when Opportunity Knocks bounded from radio to ITV in 1956 winners were selected by postal vote. Aahh, it all seems rather quaint now doesn't it? Of course, this lead, eventually, to votes being cast by premium phone lines, a system, some 25 years later, still in use.

Though the format of modern day programmes like X Factor or I'd Do Anything is similar to its televisual ancestors like Opp.

Pistorius first came to the public attention when he competed in the 2004 summer Paralympics. Representing South Africa, the 17 year old from Gauteng came third in the 100m and picked up the gold medal in the 200m. As well as completing very successful turns in Paralympic competitions such as the 2007 World Cup, Pistorious began pushing for inclusion within international able-bodied competitions.

Australian scientists claim to have found a correlation between heavy cannabis smoking and decreased brain size in a recent study. The study was carried out at the University of Melbourne with help from members of the University of Wollongong.

The context of the study cited that "Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the developed world.

What is the first thing you hear when when you switch the radio on? If you are lucky enough to tune-in in time to actually catch some music, the chances are it's the latest breed of new-wave-new-rave-alternative-shouty-vocalised-indie-rock. (I call it guitar music for short.) Such has been the case for a number of years now, since the demise of the Higher States of Consciousness and the invasion of the Gallagher brothers in the early nineties.

With so much content beaming freely across the web, consumers have never had such unfettered access to entertainment. Dilating bandwiths have meant data transfers have shrunk to infinitesimal speeds and, as entire fleets of pirate P2P websites and media data streamers career off all over the place, the notion of actually paying for entertainment is quickly becoming rather odious.

The Association of Independent Music (AIM) is holding a special event to celebrate 50 years of successful independent music which will include a gig, a five part television series, a one off auction on ebay and the release of a double CD full of "independent" covers. Artists including The Prodigy, The Charlatans and Maximo Park have all given their backing to the cause and plan to donate songs for the album.

It is only when you get close enough do you realise that despite their deeply out of place appearance these ladies are more a part of Margate than any other resident, they are in fact a part of the town, they are made from it. Painstakingly crafted from shells, primarily those of the local scallops the glistening white shell ladies are the pearls of Margate.

The main point of the article was "the unadvertised extra costs... that add up, sending the price of the a day out spiralling." The cost of visiting attractions on their own is not, however, so crushing. If one looks hard enough, family breaks can be found for as little as 125 GBP for a family of four - which includes entry to a top theme park and a hotel stay for the night.

The improved gadget was demonstrated to an audience of over 5000 elite techies and die hard Apple fanatics the ranks of which included Al Gore, forty-fifth vice president of the US.

The new model, named the iPhone 3G boasts browsing speeds up to 36% faster than the Nokia N95 and Treo 750, the brushed aluminium back has been replaced with glossy black plastic (no sign of the speculated zircon based ceramic casing.