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Peter Watts, Chair of Modbury Parish Council, declared that he was speechless at South Hams recent declaration in a ‘News Release’ that there was a “housing crisis”. The same District Council, only recently, took a last-minute decision to abandon its role as developer of affordable housing in Modbury. The scheme that the District and Parish Councils had worked on for over 2 years, cost more than £30,000 in development costs and had the support of the community. Chairman Peter Watts said “This ‘News Release’ that there is a Housing Crisis is not news to anyone but SHDC. It is just words and our young people need more than that, they need homes. The District council are only now starting toContinue Reading

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South Hill Bat Project was thrilled to be nominated for an award from the Bat Conservation Trust, for work with Bats in Churches.  Church Warden Miranda Lawrance-Owen stated how affirming this was for the work being done with our bats. The campaign to help local bats keep the roof over their heads, was launched in August and has had an amazing response.  An article in the church Times stated: Just before the £30,000 project to repair the roof began at St Sampson’s, South Hill, in Callington, near Saltash, it was discovered in May that two families of bats, pipistrelles and regionally rare Natterer’s bats, had set up a maternity wing in the roof. Work was suspended for a survey, andContinue Reading

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St Margaret’s Hospice is on the search for talented sewers to take part in their Sewing Bee Challenge. The hospice is inviting people to buy materials up to the value of £10 from one of their charity shops and transform them into an item which can be worn throughout the winter months. The challenge, which runs until October 31, is themed around the ‘Winter Wardrobe.’ St Margaret’s is asking people to take before and after images of their creation and upload them to the hospice’s competition page on Facebook. The winner will be crowned the first Sewing Bee Champion of St Margaret’s 2021 and will have a certificate sent to them. The winner and runner up will be chosen anonymouslyContinue Reading

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W atercooler moments are back, and the subject to know is Squid Game. Netflix dropped the dystopian South Korean drama on Sept 17 and in just a few weeks, it’s on track to become the streaming site’s most popular series of all time, leaving reigning number one, the spoon-licking frill-fest Bridgerton, choking on its dust. Quite a feat, when you consider that Bridgerton was consumed by a captive audience who had little better to do in lockdown (82m households had watched it by the end of 2020), while foreign-language Squid Game – which isn’t just occupying the top spot in the UK but in 90 other countries too, including Qatar, Oman, Bolivia and the US – has been released afterContinue Reading

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Participants in this year’s London Marathon have together raised more than £10,000 for Calvert Trust Exmoor. The money has been generated through the fundraising efforts of Frazer, Matthew, Roy, Clive and Stacey who took part in the marathon in London through their charity places and Alice, a virtual marathon runner who covered 26.2 miles along the South West Coast Path in Cornwall. Meanwhile, Joe, a member of Calvert Trust Exmoor staff, and Jacquie, a local fundraiser, joined forces to each walk the 26.2 miles around Wistlandpound Reservoir which is home to the disability holiday centre and charity. Calvert Trust Exmoor wishes to thank the participants for their efforts: “It’s a magnificent achievement to complete the London Marathon in any formContinue Reading

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Go Bears Go is worth chancing as an each-way proposition, price-wise, for a compelling group one Dewhurst Stakes over seven furlongs of ‘good to soft’ Newmarket this afternoon and I’ve two reasons for ’tilting at windmills!’ Rossa Ryan, a raging ‘favourite’ of this column, will be aboard Go Bears Go and I’m convinced thrice-raced, unbeaten odds-on chance, Godolphin-owned Native Trail, has been vastly over-rated judged on his latest effort in Ireland where Charlie Appleby’s charge beat the Aidan O’Brien-trained Point Lonsdale (8/13!) three and a half lengths in the group one ‘National’ over a similar distance at THe Curragh. Previously Point Lonsdale had carried all before him and was rated 115; the BHA rating of 122 for Native Trail isContinue Reading

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FORMER Chelsea frontman Tammy Abraham is set to start for the Three Lions in tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra, according to Sky Sports. The 24-year-old has impressed since his £34million switch to Roma in the summer. 1 Abraham (L) in England trainingCredit: Getty Abraham has scored four times and provided three assists in just ten games in all competitions so far for Jose Mourinho’s side. And Gareth Southgate is set to reward the striker with a starting spot against minnows Andorra this evening. It will be his first England appearance since coming on as a substitute for the Three Lions against Iceland eleven months ago. MORE TO FOLLOWContinue Reading

COVID-19 could nudge minds and societies towards authoritarianism

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shutterstock Eric Crudup/Shutterstock It is a little-known fact that humans have not one but two immune systems. The first, the biophysical immune system – the one we’ve all heard much about – responds to infections as they enter the body, detecting and eliminating intruders such as the coronavirus. The second is the behavioural immune system, which adapts our behaviour to preemptively avoid potentially infectious people, places and things. The behavioural immune system is the first line of defence against infectious disease. It prompts people to socially conform with known traditions and to avoid foreign, dissimilar and potentially infectious groups. In a recently published study, my colleagues and I at the University of Cambridge examined the impact of the behavioural immuneContinue Reading

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People walk at a pedestrian crossing along the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore on September 7, 2021. Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images SINGAPORE — Singapore announced Saturday it will be opening new travel lanes for vaccinated visitors from 8 more countries. It came as its Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong predicted it will take between three to six months to get to a “new normal” of living with Covid. The Southeast Asian country will be launching more vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) — with Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S., the transport ministry announced. “All 8 countries are already open to travelers from Singapore. So the VTLs will restore two-way quarantine-free travel betweenContinue Reading