Slim down ye Elgin!
A cutting-edge obesity research exhibition-‘Fat Body Slim, led by a team of academics from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, will be heading to Elgin next week as part of a six-month Scottish tour.
It is a fun and interactive exhibition, which will be held in Moray Leisure Centre in Elgin on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 October. The team investigates the science behind obesity, body shape and health. Entitled ‘Fat Body Slim: Shape Matters!’ the exhibit has been designed to showcase the University’s obesity research through a series of interactive displays.
The exhibit is being toured until March 2011 following a £25,000 grant from the Scottish Government Science Engagement Fund to deliver a series of workshops to more than 10,000 teenagers in the North and North-east of Scotland.
During this time the public will have the opportunity to learn;
1. How weight distribution impacts their life
2. The role individual lifestyles play in maintaining health and fitness.
The public will also getting to grips with staining fat cells to see what they look like under a microscope, and finding out whether they can differentiate between the myths and the facts about obesity.
Edinburgh City to charge bed tax from Festival goers
As part of the local authority’s plans to raise the profile of events, Edinburgh Festival-goers may be asked to pay a bed tax for every night spent in the capital’s hotels.
With this Edinburgh City will become the first in the UK to charge the levy that could potentially earn it £3.2 million for advertising, branding and marketing the city. Some of the funds raised would be spent on the maintenance of its World Heritage Site status. Guests staying in larger hotels are expected to pay the 2% fee, also known as a transient guest tax, on top of their room and VAT charges in Edinburgh City Council’s proposal to the Scottish Government’s Independent Budget Review. Last year there about 1.8 million people visited the festival.
The idea was first mooted in 2006, in the Scottish Arts Council’s Thundering Hooves report as a means of funding the capital’s festivals. The idea was given another boost by Edinburgh City Council leader Jenny Dawe in 2008, and MSP Margo MacDonald supports the idea. A 2% levy is in place in Vancouver and Montreal, while some American cities charge people as much as 9%.
However, there are rising fears also in place that it might hurt Edinburgh’s ability to compete with the likes of Dublin and Paris as a leading European destination. The future of the festivals depend on Edinburgh remaining as an attractive destination for visitors from home and abroad.
The proposal comes at a time when hotel room rates in most UK cities are falling. Latest figures from travel service show a 4% reduction in the cost of hotel rooms in both Edinburgh and Glasgow for the first half of the year. The average room rate in Edinburgh in 2009, was £91.87, making it cheaper than London, Manchester, Newcastle and Aberdeen. Meanwhile, Edinburgh streets were filled with more than 100,000 people to see the annual Edinburgh Festivals’ Cavalcade yesterday.
News Source: BBC
Helicopter failure doubted reason behind McRae crash
The helicopter in which Mc Rae was travelling crashed in a wooded area on his Lanark estate last Saturday afternoon. The deceased include the driver, aged 39, died instantly along with his five-year-old son Johnny, his best friend Ben Porcelli, aged six, and family friend Graeme Duncan, aged 37.
Expert team from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) joined hands with Strathclyde Police to investigate the reason behind this crash. Although the official report regarding this tragedy will not be made public for at least few months, initial findings point finger on to a fault with the aircraft and not the pilot.
Police sources are almost certain that the tragedy was caused by mechanical failure rather than pilot’s mistake. One of the theories being examined is whether the Twin Squirrel’s drive belt failed, causing a sudden loss of power. A police source further added that “It looks as if it was a mechanical fault, something which they knew nothing about and something they could do nothing about once they took off.”
Traces of the belt have not been found yet, it is considered as a possible indication of the damage or disintegration of the vital component immediately after take off. The drive belt transfers power from the engine to spin the rotors and must be regularly maintained and replaced. So the inquiry is focusing on a specific part of the Eurocopter Twin Squirrel, which possibly could be the reason behind the tragedy.
The helicopter, which costs around £500,000 new, is one of the world’s most popular aircraft and has an excellent safety record but previously involved in other high-profile incidents. Eurocopter, the French-based manufacturers of the Squirrel aircraft has not expressed their version of things.
The McRae family declined to comment on the reason behind the accident. Colin’s father, Jimmy, has already stated that he does not believe his son caused the crash. Meanwhile condolences began to pour from various parts of