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A new range of children’s shoes mean parents no longer have to rush to the shops every time their little ones’ feet grow - because the shoes can grow with them. Inchworm shoes can extend by one full shoe size so when kids’ feet grow, all parents need to do is simply adjust the shoe to fit. Inchworm shoes are available in child sizes only and cost around £48 They are altered by simply pressing a button on the side of the shoe and pulling the toe out to the required length. Parents know what size they have pulled the...

I'll grow marigolds on the moon, says scientistBy Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 17/04/2008 Marigolds could be growing on the moon by around 2015, if an ambitious effort by scientists pays off. In what marks an important step towards helping lunar colonists grow their own food, a Ukrainian team, working with the European Space Agency, ESA, has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food. Marigolds were shown to survive in crushed rock The research was presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, by...

U.S. payrolls jumped last month and the jobless rate fell, boosting the odds of moderate, consumer-driven economic growth and lowering the chances of any near-term reduction in official interest rates. Outside of manufacturing, payroll gains were broadly based, with construction and services posting healthy increases. Previous months' employment increases, meanwhile, were revised up. Nonfarm payrolls increased 180,000 in March, up from a revised 113,000 in February and 162,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday. Those months were previously reported as increases of 97,000 and 146,000, respectively. The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 4.4% last month, matching its...

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious plans for his second term may crumble if the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst is correct with her numbers. While the governor pitched a $2.1 billion surplus when he unveiled his budget in January, Elizabeth Hill estimated that due to slower-than-expected revenue projections, Schwarzenegger's plan would actually leave the state with a $726 million shortfall for fiscal 2007-08. If we assume Hill to be correct — and she often has been — this a warning that must be heeded. Economists have said that a slugglish housing market has hurt economic growth, and state revenues in January were...

WASHINGTON - The gravy train — make that the sausage, biscuits and gravy train — just kept on rolling in most of America last year, with 31 states showing an increase in obesity. Mississippi continued to lead the way. An estimated 29.5 percent of adults there are considered obese. That's an increase of 1.1 percentage points when compared with last year's report, which is compiled by Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group that promotes increased funding for public health programs. Meanwhile, Colorado remains the leanest state. About 16.9 percent of its adults are considered obese. That mark was also...

TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 10, 2006 — Any war veteran can tell you how important personal time is and how it helps soldiers cope with the separation from home and family. Sgt. Otis C. Wells, base reaction force, 122nd Engineer Company, South Carolina Army National Guard, uses his personal time to grow a garden in the middle of a desert. “I used my time between missions to work on my garden,” Wells said. “That’s what I like to do … I do it every year back home.” The native of Wagener, S.C., had to create all the tools needed to work...

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man who conned dozens of farmers out of 2 million yuan (135,770 pounds) to grow trees he said would be used in the 2008 Olympics has been jailed for 12 years, a Chinese newspaper said on Tuesday. Liu Lutang was barking up the wrong tree when he duped more than 50 farmers into contracts to buy saplings of a maple tree for 20 yuan ($2.50) each, promising them he would buy them back at a higher price after six months, the Beijing News said. "He told the farmers (they) would be used in the Olympics,"...

Absence makes the heart grow weaker 18:17 28 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Stu Hutson Loneliness is bad for the heart, suggests a new study. It shows that loneliness increases the blood pressure of those nearing retirement age to the same degree as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle. Chronic feelings of social isolation are associated with as much as a 30 mmHg rise in a person’s systolic blood pressure by the age of 65, which could easily push their systolic blood pressure over 150 mmHg, the medical definition of hypertension. The study showed that this is independent of other confounding...

(CBS) It's lunchtime at the Scotts Miracle-Gro headquarters near Columbus, Ohio, and the eating is healthy. "I'll have some salmon," a worker said. That's because the company that helps Americans grow their gardens is trying to trim its workers waists — and $24 million pear year in health care costs. So there's a full time doctor and a new clinic, which is free to workers and families enrolled in the company medical plan. There is a drive through pharmacy with generic drugs — and right next door: the new gym. It's also free to those who work out more than twice...

WASHINGTON - A looming free trade agreement with Central America likely will increase illegal immigration to the United States, two Los Angeles-area Democratic lawmakers and a Los Angeles-based El Salvadoran activist warned Wednesday. Reps. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, along with Sergio Barahona of the Central American Resource Center maintained the pact, known as CAFTA, would depress wages and exacerbate poverty particularly among farmers. That, they said, would spur a move to cities, and if the jobs are not plentiful enough to sustain migration, people will seek jobs outside their countries both legally and illegally. "Guess what...

Cpl. John Wilson looked out for his fellow Marines. But the Marines didn't look out for Wilson. I first met Wilson a year ago as he was about to return to the Marine Corps. Wilson, a 1997 graduate of Wayzata High, had completed his four-year hitch in the Corps, but he had decided to reenlist out of a sense of obligation to his fellow Marines. "I see Marines dying, and I don't want to be sitting here just watching," Wilson, 27, said then. He's back home now, much to the relief of his family members, who didn't want him to...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - With the help of the Catholic Church, Australian researchers have successfully grown adult stem cells harvested from the human nose, avoiding the ethical and legal problems associated with embryonic stem cells. Australia bans creating human embryos to harvest stem cells but scientists may use embryos left over from IVF (in-vitro fertility) treatment. Stems cells harvested through other means, such as from the nose, is legal. Head researcher Alan Mackay-Sim of Griffith University said the adult stem cells taken from inside the nose could potentially be used to grow nerve, heart, liver, kidney and muscle cells. "We have...

Trees to be grown on Mars A new project from Nasa and three Mexican universities will grow trees on Mars. The Earth Formation in Mars Project will plant a special type of tree on the red planet that grows on the highest mountain of Mexico, Orizaba Peak. Nacional Autonoma University of Mexico, Veracruzana University, Veracruz University and Nasa have been researching the trees for years. Because of the high places they grow - with little oxygen and extreme cold - they are thought to be ideal for the project. Researcher Luiz Cruz Kuri told Clarin newspaper: "Orizaba Peak has the...

Fears of violence grow as face-off intensifies By Julius Strauss in Kiev and David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 25/11/2004) Ukrainian authorities defied growing pressure from the West and the demands of tens of thousands of anti-government protesters yesterday by declaring Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russia candidate, the winner of bitterly-disputed weekend elections. The announcement deepened the country's political crisis and raised fresh fears of violent clashes. Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader, had earlier accused the authorities of carrying out a coup d'etat. Mr Yushchenko said a coup had been accomplished by "rigging the elections'' and that thousands of violations of election...

A year ago, Stephen Rueff was sitting in his south Minneapolis back yard, reading a book and savoring one of those last, lovely autumn days. "Ah yes," Rueff was saying to himself. "This is why we live in Minnesota." But suddenly, serenity was blown away. One neighbor had fired up a leaf blower. Then, another. Noise, ear-piercing, peace-robbing noise, was all around him. Sad, disgusted and perplexed, Rueff retreated inside his home. "I asked myself, 'Why is it that people are in love with loud machines?' " he said.

ballot boxExpensive FunHoward Dean needs to grow up.By William SaletanPosted Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003, at 9:52 AM PT "We're going to have a little fun at the president's expense."That's what Howard Dean often says with a smile as he tears into President Bush. It's one of Dean's favorite themes. The van he campaigned in last summer bore the license plate "McFun." Now Dean is having fun again, this time at the expense of his own party.The latest fun started on Dec. 18. In a speech that day, Dean said, "While Bill Clinton said that the era of big government is...

Determining at what point life begins in the womb. To resolve the issue, then, let us take a look at life as it is born into the world. The new baby, most of the time, is said to be "alive," depending upon various and sundry "vital- signs, "Vital" from "vivus" being LAtin for "life, living." Yet, we do not conclude that the baby "became" alive at the moment of birth, for then we must concern ourselves with the prebirth "kicking" of the babe in the womb. Is it alive? Or is it just "thinking about life to come? ("For lo,...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Gov. Gray Davis faces an increasingly daunting challenge in devising a campaign to defeat the drive to recall him.</p> <p>With Arnold Schwarzenegger on one flank and two prominent Democrats on the other, grim Democrats found it hard to predict Thursday that Davis would survive the recall. Davis, who has confronted electricity shortages and budget crises, has seen his approval rating drop to a record low. Last week, a Democratic poll put it at 19 percent.</p>

Washington - His face stares out at voters this week from the covers of both Time and Newsweek as well as television screens in early primary states - and even the president's home turf. "Has anyone really stood up against George Bush and his policies?" asks Howard Dean in a spot running on three local stations in Austin, Texas, where Bush sat as governor for six years before moving to the White House. "Don't you think it's time somebody did?" Dean, the former Vermont governor, has transformed himself from longshot to serious contender for next year's Democratic presidential nomination by...

Scientists Discover Critical Cold-tolerance Gene In Arabidopsis Scientists at the University of Arizona have discovered a critical cold-tolerance gene in Arabidopsis. As published in the April 15th issue of Genes & Development, the identification of ICE1 by Dr. Jian-Kang Zhu and colleagues holds promising implications for the improvement of cold tolerance in agriculturally important crops. Cold temperature is one of the major factors affecting crop yield in temperate climates, with the farming industry loosing billions of dollars each year to freezing temperatures. Much research has focused on ways to improve crops? tolerance to cold and/or freezing temperatures, with the aim...