Talk of the Town: Sex tape solution to gender inequality

But researchers in Edinburgh are hoping it will help to solve a rather unusual mystery – why more females than males are born in captivity.

Research funded by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns Edinburgh Zoo, is hoping to find out whether this is a problem restricted to zoos or is repeated in the wild.

To do this, teams of scientists are collecting lots of night-vision footage of loved-up pygmy hippos, in the wild, as well as trying to determine whether female pygmy hippos are just more common.

Of course, they have to be careful – if they intrude too much they might put the poor animals off mating altogether.

Volcano knocks cricket team's tour for six

FOR once the troublesome Icelandic volcano is receiving some praise, and it comes from Morton cricket club.

The Meadows-based outfit were due to begin their season with a tour of Serbia only for the plug to be pulled due to travel difficulties.

Wicket-keeper Alan Cunningham says: "Both our teams are unbeaten after a total of 11 matches so far this season and I don't think we would have been as sharp had we been able to tour, with its usual heavy round of socialising."

Time to take sides

UNION leaders were today urging firms to let workers watch World Cup games or risk having staff throw "sickies" to follow their team in the tournament.

The TUC says "everyone wins" if staff can watch games away from work or in an appropriate place on company premises, (so not the pub then?) and then make up the time afterwards.

Rather than having to discipline staff for taking unauthorised time off sick, the union says next month's football extravaganza is a perfect opportunity for employers to introduce flexible working hours.

Great, all we need now is a team to support.

Yeah, but no, but yeah..

JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill was one of just three MSPs who voted against building the new Forth Road Bridge when the crossing was debated in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

But it was not a sudden rebellion by the cabinet member, he just pressed the wrong button.

The voting record listed the SNP Edinburgh East & Musselburgh MSP in the No column alongside the parliament's two Greens, Robin Harper and Patrick Harvie.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald and Edinburgh West Lib Dem Margaret Smith abstained.