I’ve cut down my coffee intake over the past few years, and now prefer to drink just one or two cups of decent coffee per day rather than several cups of rubbish instant stuff.

New research suggests that the increasing popularity of coffee in the UK culture could lead to health problems, with the average person drinking 3.5 cups of coffee per day, and often opting for stronger brews.

Most people know that too much caffeine isn’t a great thing, but now the protein in coffee is being scrutinised for its health implications.

A YORKTEST spokesman said, “We’Â’re not saying don’Â’t drink coffee, but itÂ’’s obvious we are drinking much more than we used to and there appears to be a tipping of the scales in terms of what the body can take. The high street is full of coffee shops and people have coffee achines at home producing stronger coffee.

“Basically, more people are drinking more coffee and more tests are showing a positive result. Other factors may stop your digestive system from working effectively like stress and lack of exercise and that may contribute to why some items we put into our bodies, including coffee, can cause health problems.”

So, basically, coffee isn’t evil, but it’s best to limit how much you drink each day, and try not to be a slob that takes no exercise, and gets stressed out by all these health reports.

A Sunderland greengrocer, Steven Thoburn, has taken a conviction for selling a pound of bananas to the grave.

It’s all part of the ridiculous European Union rules that stipulate that the UK is no longer allowed to sell produce only in imperial measures.

However:

The Metric Martyrs campaign group and the Conservatives say a 2009 deadline for metric measures to replace imperial measures has been shelved.

Tory industry spokesman, Giles Chichester, said he had EU confirmation that the marking of goods in metric and imperial could “continue indefinitely”.

A spokesman for the Metric Martyrs group called it a “monumental victory”.

Tory MEP Mr Chichester said he had received the confirmation from the European Commission’s Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugen.

Mr Chichester said following lobbying by the Tories, the commissioner agreed it was good for British and European industry to keep imperial measurements as it would make it easier for firms to sell to the US.

Makes sense to me. I’ve nothing against either system of measurement, but there are still practical (and not just sentimental) reasons why the imperial system should be allowed to continue.

Bottom line.

1. Guns are all but freely available in the US, to anyone over the age of 18, with almost worthless checks.

2. There are always going to be those who have a grudge and/or are mentally unstable, and want to cause harm to those around them.

1 + 2 = More massacres on the scale of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and worse.

It’s inevitable.

If the US stubbornly holds to their second amendment, they can’t expect anything less.

Shootings are a tragedy. They’re never totally avoidable – regardless of any laws and controls, someone with enough motivation can get hold of a gun and use it against innocent civilians – but WHY make it SO EASY?

Gun culture – creeping its way into Britain – is an evil, twisted culture that should have no place in modern society.

The primary purpose of a gun is to kill people. If a society decides that it’s more important to ‘protect’ themselves by being allowed to ‘bear arms’, then things are only going to get worse.

More, armed, security, only instills fear and mistrust where it’s placed.

Anyone on a mission to shoot, kill, and commit suicide, will go ahead regardless. All that armed security can hope to do is to reduce the number of casualties / fatalities.

My heart goes out to those who have lost family and friends in this tragedy. Please, think about those millions of lumps of lethal metal so revered, yet so destructive.