Talk of the town: Old bird shows age can't hold her back

AMONG the hundreds of press releases Talk of the Town casts its discerning eye over each day, one titled "boozy shag produces young" unsurprisingly stood out.

But rather than some tale of debauchery from the city's student population, this was in fact the heartwarming story of a bird who survived strangulation by a plastic beer can holder to produce offspring at a remarkably ripe old age.

Scottish Natural Heritage staff rescued the shag from Isle of May in the Forth and discovered it was 16 years old and had reared chicks for the ninth year running.

Builders cracking up under sun's deadly rays

A DRIVE to get construction workers to "cover up" would likely win considerable support among the Edinburgh public, tired of seeing the notorious glimpses of a "builder's bum".

And while a warning published in a leading medical journal has demanded just that, the motives of the Journal of Occupational Medicine were not aesthetic.

Instead, scientists recommended they were more vulnerable to skin cancer than most other workers, such was their exposure to the sun.

Dr Henry Goodall, the article's author, stated: "We need to send a clear message that the days of the topless builder are over."

Murdoch gets grilled again

FOLLOWING the slapstick appearance of Rupert Murdoch in parliament this week, pie shops across the nation are no doubt rushing to cash in with the creation of the "Humble Pie".

But as they try to concoct just the right mixture of guts and old gristle to capture the spirit of the media mogul in pie form, news emerges that they have been beaten to the culinary punch.

Edinburgh's Wannaburger has put the "Rupert Murdoch burger" on its menu with the tagline "can you hack the heat?"

The burger includes Cajun beef, Cajun bacon, jalapenos and cheese, making it fiery and difficult to tackle - much like Mr Murdoch.

Cream of the crop?

IT can be hard to find a job, so it's heartening to see there is clearly no shortage of work for researchers, employed by companies to look into every aspect of modern life.

Nivea, for example, was keen to announce that, "according to recent research by Nivea", only three per cent of people in Edinburgh think snogging in public is unacceptable, compared with 26 per cent in Aberdeen.

Some people really do have too much time on their immaculately-moisturised hands.