Waiting room news 22 august 5 by Nick Moore

H FRES

Waiting Room News

World $4.5m PAYOUT: A man forgotten for five days in a US jail without food or water had reportedly won a $4.5 million settlement from the US Government. Daniel Chong, 25, survived by drinking his urine, after his jailers from the Drug Enforcement Agency failed to remember he was being held in their facility, ABC News reported.

Australia SMOKES UP: The tax on smokes would rise by 12.5% each year for four years, raising $5.3 billion over the forward estimates. The tax rises would increase the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes by more than $5 by 2016. PM Kevin Rudd said cancer was a “number two killer” in Australia therefore a “number one priority” for the Government, ABC News reported.

GERMAN police seized an open-top car that had been converted into a travelling swimming pool, with water and wooden decking, after it was seen driving with four men aboard, Nine News reported. $3.8b WILL WIN: The daughters of a Maharaja won a 21-year legal battle to inherit his $3.8 billion estate. An Indian court ruled Harinder Singh Brar's will had been forged to award his fortune to a trust managed by his servants and lawyers. His estate included forts, a palace, vintage cars, and jewellery, Sky News reported.

Entertainment ELLE WEDS: Model Elle Macpherson, 49, was said to have wed her billionaire fiance Jeffrey Soffer, 44, in Fiji. The couple, who announced their engagement in March, apparently swapped vows before family and friends. They started dating in 2009, split in March 2012, and were engaged this March after reconciling in November 2012. DENG LAWYERS UP: Wendi Deng Murdoch hired a new lawyer, New York lawyer William D. Zabel, to negotiate her divorce from News Corp billionaire Rupert Murdoch, BusinessWeek.com reported. Zabel had represented women in high-profile divorces including that of former GE chief Jack Welch.

UNLIKELY DEFENDER: Jake Merfeld, the husband of a US mum of two who was videotaped trying to hire a hit man to kill him, defended his wife at her sentencing, telling the judge “she is a godly woman”. Julia Merfeld, 21, was jailed after she pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder last month, ABCNews.go.com reported.

Odd Spot

Volume 22 August 5

ROCK CHICKS: 612 ABC host Kelly Higgins-Devine and Moore4Mums.com editor Felicity Moore at the Exhumed final, Chermside, Saturday, August 3. BAND BOMBSHELL: Diddly Squat and The Roseberys were named joint Brisbane winners of 612 ABC’s band competition Exhumed in a “bombshell”. More than 500 people filled a Chermside venue on Saturday, August 3, to listen to the six finalists of the national competition for bands that never quite made it. U.S. JETS HERE: US international politics publication Foreign Policy reported the US Air Force planned to dispatch fighter jets and tanker aircraft to northern Australia in the next year. The magazine said it was part of a US strategy to expand its air defence presence in the Pacific and South-East Asia, ABC News reported.

Did You Know? TALK show queen Oprah Winfrey made an estimated $US77 million from June 2012 to June 2013. Pop star Lady Gaga earned $US80 million in the same period. Source: Forbes.com

COMMANDO RETREATS: Despite being forced to carry on alone with her planned US holiday with Steve “the Commando” Willis, Michelle Bridges was said to be coping well after her split from her Biggest Loser co-star, who had apparently moved back home to work things out with his partner, Froso, TheWest.com.au reported.

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World BEAR ATTACKS: An American camping in Canada was seriously injured after being gored by a polar bear, hospital authorities said. He was attacked in Torngat Mountains National Park, known for polar bears, ABC News reported. Guns are banned in Canada’s national parks. COFFIN MYSTERY: Archaeologists had found a mysterious coffin-within-a-coffin under the UK carpark where the remains of England's King Richard III were found more than 500 years after he fell in battle. The grave could belong to Sir William de Moton of Peckleton, who died between 1356 and 1362, ABC News reported.

Odd Spot DALE Irby, a teacher in Dallas, Texas, wore the same polyester shirt and vest for his yearbook photo for 40 years, Telegraph.co.uk reported. It started as a mistake but became a running joke.

Australia NOT COOL: Heatwave-related deaths in Australia’s major cities were set to quadruple by mid-century. There would be more than 2000 heat deaths in 2050 compared with about 500 recorded in 2011, a federal report warned. The meteorological bullet would hit Brisbane and Perth hardest, with deaths predicted to climb to nearly 800 in each city by 2050, compared with less than 200 in 2011, Fairfax reported.

Well Said:

“Life is only froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own.” – Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon LAST SUPPER: A north Queensland man thought to be asleep at a table was actually dead for up to 48 hours, according to police. Townsville neighbours noticed the 50-year-old man sitting at his dining room table with a plate of food and grew suspicious when they noticed he did not move for nearly two days, a police spokeswoman said, Fairfax reported.

Entertainment HAWKINS SWOOPS: Ex-Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins and her husband Jake Wall had spent $1.66 million on their sixth investment property. It’s a knock-downrebuild in their home suburb of North Curl Curl on Sydney's Northern beaches, PropertyObserver.com.au reported. JOLIE TOP EARNER: Aussie starlets Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Naomi Watts failed to make Forbes magazine's 2013 list of Hollywood's highest earning actresses, topped by Angelina Jolie who pocketed an estimated $US33 million last financial year, $10 million of which as the face of fashion house Louis Vuitton.

Did You Know THE Good Reverend Pow Jackson, Pipitty L. Jackson, and Mutley P. Gore Jackson the 3rd – those are the names pop singer Mariah Carey has given to her new dogs, according to PeoplePets.com.

ANCIENT FIND: Ancient “halls of the dead” more than 1000 years older than Stonehenge had been found under elongated burial mounds in the UK. The two earth “long barrows”, created by the setting ablaze wooden long houses, were thought to date to about 3800BC.

CARE LEAP: More than one million Australian children were now in child care, a jump of 30% since Labor won government in 2007, the Child Care in Australia report showed. It also showed shows fee increases had remained stable at around 6.9% for nearly a decade. Nearly half of kids aged three to five were now in care, TheAustralian.com.au reported.

MEANWHILE: Jolie, 38, made a private whirlwind visit to Sydney last week. She flew in on a commercial flight from Tokyo with son Pax, nine. The visit came less than two months after Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt, visited Sydney to promote his film, World War Z, when he was also with Pax.

Odd Spot

Fun Fact

Did You Know?

BRITISH women spent 59 days of their lives shaving their legs, a study found. And 35% of women polled said it was their least favourite beauty chore. The second most detested was hairstyling, with eyebrow plucking third.

“

$US6 BILLION - that’s how much tax the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, says he’s paid in total. He has given $28 billion to charity and was still worth $56 billion. His three kids will inherit ‘just’ $10 million each. Source: Guardian, Fairfax

You actually deserve to have a family. And once you meet yourself, and truly love yourself, then you attract that.”

ACCORDING to Aboriginal legend, there is a cave on the Wessel Islands off Australia’s north filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era. African 1000-year-old coins had been found on the islands, News Ltd reported.

— Former Friends actor Jennifer Aniston’s mantra to herself, told to Glamour magazine.

C BE KIND: Please place me back neatly for the next person to enjoy. THANK YOU! Technology

Health SLIM CHANCE: Rich kids were thinner than their poorer classmates, who were more likely to grow obese in primary school, an Aussie study showed. Poorer kids overweight or obese when they started school were more likely to put on weight as they grew up, News Corp reported.

TV TACKLED: Facebook, seeking to break the dominance of television over advertising budgets, planned to sell TV-style ads for as much as $2.5 million a day, sources said. The world’s largest social-networking site, which had 1.15 billion members, expected to start offering 15-second spots to advertisers this year, Bloomberg reported.

Business FUEL SCHEME HIT: An investigation into shopper-docket fuel discounts led the ACCC competition regulator to warn the scheme might push up the price of petrol and create an unassailable duopoly similar to that enjoyed by the supermarket giants, Faiirfax reported.

Northern Life GUM THREAT: People with poor dental hygiene or gum disease might be at a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. UK researchers studied brains from dead dementia patients and found they contained unusually high levels of Porphyromonas gingivalis, a type of bacteria that causes gum disease, IndianExpress.com reported.

Did You Know? ANXIETY, or excessive worrying, is the most common psychological problem in Australia and affects 14% of the population, according to the Bureau of Statistics. TEST NEARER: Researchers were closer to a blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's. A technique published in the journal Genome Biology showed differences in fragments of genetic material in the blood could be used to identify patients. The test was accurate 93% of the time in trials.

Odd Spot

SMART MOVE: Nearly two-thirds of Australians owned a smartphone, according to research that showed more time was being spent online using the devices. From ownership rates of 37% in 2011, penetration had soared to 64.6%, driven by new models, slicker operating systems, and improving networks, Sky News reported. SNEAK SNAPS: A poll found that 8% of British adults had admitted taking photos of attractive strangers on public transport and at the doctor's surgery. Based on a Nokia survey of 2076 people, researchers estimated that nearly five million were concerned that risque photos of themselves might end up on Facebook.

Fun Fact

THE 2014 Mercedes S-Class offers a $350 option that wafts perfume through the car. There are four scents: Nightlife, Sports, Downtown and Fireside. The system atomises the perfume and distributes it throughout the passenger area.

THE sun’s core is so hot that a piece of it the size of a pinhead would give off enough heat to kill a person 160km away. Source: QI television show

Did You Know? AT some point, genes from at least eight retroviruses became incorporated into human DNA. They now perform important functions in reproduction, yet are entirely alien to our genetic ancestry. $4.2b RESORT: Chinese tycoon Tony Fung has proposed to build a $A4.2 billion casino and resort project in Australia's Cairns city, close to the worldheritage Great Barrier Reef, a move set to accelerate competition in the country's gambling and tourism market.

Did You Know? THE antioxidant concentration in hot cocoa was almost twice as strong as red wine, two to three times stronger than green tea and four to five times stronger than black tea, a study at Cornell University determined.

MORE than 23,000 Northsiders a week are within arm’s reach of a Waiting Room News. Call Nick Moore on (07) 3359 0797 to discuss advertising for $49 a week.

Q: Via lactea is the classical Latin name for which celestial body?

Q: Which is the only number in English with its letters in alphabetical order? Q: Is Helsinki the capital city of Norway, Sweden or Finland? A: Finland

A: The Milky Way

A: Yazz

Q: What is the highest Australian mountain?

Q: What did baseballer Babe Ruth keep under his hat to stay cool? A: A cabbage leaf

Q: Which singer had a hit with the 1988 dance track The Only Way is Up?

A: Forty

Fun Fact:

FAMILY of ducks waiting for their morning bread, Wavell Heights, Wednesday, July 31.

BOOM BLOWN: Soaring commodity prices brought a combined benefit to the commonwealth budget of $190bn over the past decade but $182 billion of that had been spent or devoted to tax cuts by the Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments, excluding the $87bn of stimulus spending in the GFC, News Corp reported.

A: Mawson Peak, on Heard Island, stands 2750m

C BE KIND: Please place me back neatly for the next person to enjoy. THANK YOU! Health BREAST BOOST: Breastfed babies scored better on intelligence tests down the road, a study suggested. It found that each month of breastfeeding bolstered a 0.3-point increase in intelligence by age 3 and 0.5-point increase by age 7, ABCNews.go.com reported.

Science NOVEL FIND: A new and unusual antibiotic compound, called anthracimycin, had been extracted from a marine micro-organism found in sediments off the coast of California. The discovery of novel antibiotics was rare, and experts said resistance to the drugs posed a grave threat to human health, BBC News reported.

Business BUILDING BLOW: The number of home building permits fell sharply in June, dampening what had been encouraging signs that record low interest rates were boosting activity. Approvals to build or renovate houses and apartments fell 6.9% from May, the ABS said.

Northern Life GO TO BED: Australian researchers had found that a preference for staying up late had a direct link to anti-social behaviour and so-called Dark Triad traits. The Dark Triad traits consisted of narcissistic and selfish actions, cunning or deceitful behaviour and psychopathic tendencies, DailyMail.co.uk reported.

Fun Fact THERE are 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and a German supercomputer calculated there were 500 billion galaxies in the universe. Source: BBC Schools online

REST EASIER: Camping could reset the biological clock that governed sleeping patterns, said scientists who found the body clocks of eight volunteers synchronised with sunrise and sunset after spending time in the great outdoors. Electric light affected sleep, they said.

Odd Spot PEOPLE’S closest friendships were formed with their colleagues – particularly if their workplace environment was stressful, research conducted by the Lancaster University in the UK concluded.

CLEARING a path, end of Bilsen Rd, Virginia, Thursday, August 1. PICK AND STICK: Monogamy in primates such as humans emerged as a protection against one of biology's more questionable courtship gestures - killing a mother's children so she would mate with you instead, TheAustralian.com.au reported about University College London research. HOT TEMPERS: As the world became warmer, people's tempers were likely to get hotter. A large study found that aggressive acts such as violent crimes and waging war became more likely with each added degree. The researchers analysed 60 studies on historic empire collapses, recent wars, and US violent crime rates.

Fun Fact IF YOU drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side. Source: QI television show

UP AND DOWN: Commercial building activity would grow 7% over the next financial year, economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel said. But for the three years from June 2015 construction would begin to drop as some big public projects were completed, according to the report, News Corp reported.

Did You Know? AT the Santa Rita do Sapucaí jail in Brazil, inmates can pedal to generate electricity in return for a cut in their sentences - a day off for every 16 hours of effort on bikes hooked up to batteries. PAPER LOSS: The New York Times sold The Boston Globe to the owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team for almost $US80 million. The price was less than a tenth of what The Times paid for The Globe when it bought the paper for $US1.2 billion in 1993, ABC News reported.

Did You Know? AN original Apple-1 sold for $US640,000 at an auction in Germany in November. The computer was priced at $US666.66 (about $US2700 in current money) when made in 1976, The New York Times reported.

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Q: Which sea captain commanded the First Fleet to Australia?

Q: Which is the only state in the US that begins with the letter ‘P’? Q: Is jujitsu a Japanese martial art or paperfolding craft? A: Martial art

A: Navel gazing A: Arthur Phillip

A: Paul Newman

Q: Cut, clarity. colour, and carat set the value of which gemstone?

Q: If you indulge in some omphaloskepsis, what are you doing?

A: Pennsylvania

Q: Who starred in movies The Hustler, Hud, Harper, and Harry and Son?

A: A diamond