The swimsuit round of the Miss England contest is set to be cut after 50 years.

It's thought the move was made after last years winner 'Combat Barbie' Katrina Hodge said it should be given its marching orders.

Miss England organisers say the round will be replaced by one involving a sports challenge which will be overseen by Hodge.

While she posed for underwear firm La Senza, Hodge has said the swimsuit round was nerve-racking for contestants who were already going through enough.

Bare in mind this is some who has served with the Royal Anglians on the front-line and was commended for bravery in Iraq… but is scared by wearing a bikini in public.

A man who started losing his hair in his early twenties has started having his bald scalp painted rather than shave his head or wear a wig.

Philip Levine came up with the idea when he first noticed his hair was receding. He says he wanted to try something different because he didn't want to look like all other blokes with a shaved head.

And the 28-year-old doesn't, he thinks of designs and gets a professional body painter to realise them on his head -  they regularly take over two hours to complete.

He says he's had things raging from a smily face to giant wave on his noggin --  though he's not had a short back and sides painted on yet.

Stressed city workers are being offered jars containing 'fresh air' from rural and seaside spots -- to help them relax.

Each jar is said to contain 0.42 grams of fresh air and have the ability to relieve stress for up to 10 minutes.

It's all part of a plan by the National Trust to get more people visiting the countryside during their free weekend on 20-21 March.

Bosses say hundreds of the jars were left open in spots from gardens and forests to seaside resorts, before being sealed and labeled.

They will now be sent to people who are feeling stress and apply online. Is it just us, or does this sound like a load of hot air to you too? 

An irate TV reporter threw a tantrum (and his notepad) on live TV when he botched a line during a report.

It's not know if Gordon Boyd forgot he was live on WVLT TV-- but the watching studio host sure looks surprised by the outburst.

Boyd had been reporting on the trial of a child killer in Tennessee when he stumbled over one of his lines and missed a word.

When that happened, he screwed his face up and in an act of frustration hurled his notepad at the floor.

Cameras quickly cut to the studio where a bemused anchor blamed it on "technical difficulties" -- we guess 'technically' he messed up and got angry.

A car which is powered by coffee beans has completed a 210 mile journey from London to Manchester, just.

Dubbed "car-puccino" the vehicle used the equivalent of more than 10,000 espressos to make the trip - interrupted by filter cleaning and coffee refuelling stops every 70 miles.

The 1988 VW Scirocco was converted by BBC Bang Goes The Theory host Jem Stansfield, to turn coffee grounds into flammable gasses that can be used in the engine instead of petrol.

As the car arrived in Manchester cab driver tooted their horn and people waved and shouted at the car… they were probably trying to order a cappuccino.

Some pet products are barking mad -- like this high chair for dogs which allows them to join their owners at the dinner table.

'Pet High Chair' offers a doggie dining experience like never before, rather than clamouring for scraps dogs sit alongside the family.

The device clamps to a table with the dog sitting in a nylon fabric seat and gently restrained by two tethers allowing it to eat from the table.

Makers say the seat promotes a "refined" dining behaviour from dogs and is "more 'conducive to eating and conversation".

However, all we want to see is someone use these to recreate the classic Coolidge, Dogs Playing Poker paintings.

Using 4051 decks of playing cards a US architect has built the world's largest house of cards.

Bryan Berg took 44 days to complete the structure which is a replica of the Venetian Macau casino in China and uses over 218,000 cards

Unbelievably the structure - which is over 10 metres long and three metres tall - is completely freestanding and does not use glue or tape to hold together.

Which means that towards the end of his 44 day build Bryan must have been really hoping he didn't need to sneeze.

It's official - women are best at handling the family purse strings, according to new research.

The female of the species are better at budgeting and keeping track of their spending and are also less likely to build up debt on a credit card or through a loan, it emerged.

Fewer women than men also turn a blind eye to their finances and ignore mounting debts, pay bills late or forget to pay them altogether.

And they also make more of an attempt to chip away at debts while men prefer to make minimum payments.

Maybe these superior budgeting skills somehow explain how they can usually afford a new pair of shoes.

Toy firm Mattel has announced it will release a range of Barbie dolls based on the TV show Mad Men.

The doll are said to come complete with the iconic 1960s style and aesthetic of the show which chronicles the lives of the men and women a NY advertising agency.

Leading man Don Draper; his wife Betty Draper; Sterling Cooper partner Roger Sterling; and bombshell office manager Joan Holloway have all be recreated by Barbie designer Robert Best.

Don Draper is said to wear his classic, polished red-lined suit and comes accessorised with a hat, overcoat and brief case.

However, the $75 (£40) dolls are not expected to ship with miniature cigarettes and glasses of whiskey… Barbie simply wouldn't allow them in her dollhouse.

There's a good chance this vista looks strangely familiar to you, but you can't quite place it.

That's because it's the real-life landscape used as the default wallpaper for Windows XP, making it one of the most viewed images ever.

While many people think the Windows image is a digital creation, it was actually snapped in California’s Sonoma Valley.

Photographer Chuck O’Rear took it as he drove along Highway 121. And he must be glad he did, he received one of the largest amounts ever paid to a living, working photographer.

It is predicted the image has been seen by and enjoyed by billions of people -- even some Mac users.