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BBC news for West Midlands

AskTen - Ten things you may not have noticed last week!

1. How to make good decisions faster. A simple approach can help replace your slow deliberations with fast decisions. Try this framework: [MORE]
    
2. Wonders of the weekend lie-in. If you don’t get enough sleep, it can have a serious impact on your long-term health – but the good news is, you can undo the damage if you have a lie-in at the weekend. Those who get five or fewer hours of sleep per night for seven days a week have a 65% higher mortality rate than those who typically managed six or seven hours. But among those who slept five hours during the week and then got eight hours or more at the weekend, there was no increased mortality risk. The Guardian
    
3. 'Pitiful' excuses of FTSE bosses over female board progress. Bosses at FTSE companies are using “pitiful and patronising” excuses to keep women out of the boardroom, a government-backed review has found. The chiefs claimed that women “don’t want the hassle” of sitting on a board. They also said that women struggle with “extremely complex” issues and do not “fit comfortably” into the boardroom culture. Ministers have condemned the comments as “outrageous”. Daily Mail
    
4. No-deal Brexit 'would see food run out within weeks'. Britain would run out of medicine, fuel and food within a fortnight if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal, according senior civil servants. Under a scenario drawn up for David Davis, the port of Dover would collapse "on day one" if Britain crashes out of the EU. An official said the scenario is so shocking that it has only been shared with a handful of ministers and is "locked in a safe". The Independent
    
5. Spreading gossip is toxic. Most of us spend ten hours or more per month complaining or listening to others complain about their bosses. That doesn’t include the complaining we do about our peers. Why do we do it? As we suggest when we say things like “I’m venting” or “blowing off steam”, dissatisfaction leads to a build up of emotional energy such as anger or fear in our bodies. But when we “vent”, we don’t dissipate it, we just spread it around. It makes us feel better for a short while – we always go and complain to someone who is going to agree with us, so feel comforted – but the underlying problem remains unresolved. Want to know what to do? [MORE]
    
6. The oceans are fast filling up with plastic. We’re dumping eight million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year, and the situation only looks set to get worse as the material becomes yet more prevalent. Half the plastic ever made has been produced in the past 14 years. At this rate, by 2050, there could be more plastic in the oceans, by weight, than fish. BBC
    
7. Bad week for WH Smith. The store has been rated the UK’s worst high-street retailer by Which?. Even more embarrassingly, this is nothing  new – WH Smith has won the title in five of the past eight years. The company was recently criticised for accidentally pricing toothpaste at £7.99 in one of its hospital outlets, and has also been accused of feeding Britain’s obesity problems by offering bargain chocolate at the till. Topping the list of consumers’ favourites was cosmetics chain Lush. The Independent
    
8. Who would Brits choose to play them in the movie of their life? Asked who they would like to play them in a film, the most popular choice for British men aged 18 to 24 is Tom Hardy, who is 40 years old. For women in the same age bracket, the favourite is Emma Watson, 28, and for women aged 25 to 39, it’s 27-year-old Jennifer Lawrence. YouGov
    
9. 'Holy grail' blood test could be cancer game-changer. A blood test for 10 types of cancers could eventually allow doctors to screen for the disease before patients show symptoms. The liquid biopsy test screens for cancer by detecting traces of DNA released by cancer cells into blood. It is hoped the test, described as a "holy grail" by one expert, will become part of a "universal screening" to detect cancer in patients. Daily Telegraph
    

The bottom line. 39% of GPs are considering quitting in the next five years. 14% of GPs under 50 are considering leaving, up from 6 per cent in 2005. 445 practices have shut down or merged since 2013. The Guardian