The BBC reports

Uttering expletives when you hurt yourself is a sensible policy, according to scientists who have shown swearing can help reduce pain.

A study by Keele University researchers found volunteers who cursed at will could endure pain nearly 50% longer than civil-tongued peers.

They believe swearing helps us downplay being hurt in favour of a more pain-tolerant machismo.

The work by Dr Richard Stephens’ team appears in the journal NeuroReport.

Dr Stephens, from Keele’s school of psychology, came up with the idea for the study after swearing when he accidentally hit his thumb with a hammer as he built a garden shed.

We have all done it

Filed under: Shed News by Wilco - 2892Commentshttp://www.shedblog.co.uk/2009/07/13/sheddie-says-swearing-helps-with-pain/Sheddie+says+swearing+helps+with+pain2009-07-13+09%3A44%3A32Wilco

According to the local

A 14-year-old boy injured by a pensioner’s homemade booby trap returned home from the hospital on Wednesday, police in Dillenburg-Manderbach in the state of Hesse told The Local on Wednesday.

A 78-year-old garden lot owner installed the device at the entry to his garden shed as a protection against thieves, but decided against locking the door, police said.

The retiree’s young victim was playing hide-and-seek with friends in the area when he climbed a fence to hide in the shed on Sunday. But he failed to see the warning hung in the window and was injured by a gunpowder explosion when he opened the door. The boy sustained facial burns and an eye injury which put him in the hospital for three nights.

Filed under: Shed News by Wilco - 2622Commentshttp://www.shedblog.co.uk/2009/04/08/pensioner-injures-child-with-explosive-shed-booby-trap/Pensioner+injures+child+with+explosive+shed+booby+trap2009-04-08+20%3A09%3A55Wilco

The kent news reports

Two teenagers were spotted wheeling a trolley loaded with a small garden shed away from the B&Q store in Sturry Road, Canterbury last week.

Police were called and one man ran off but police found him and another teenager nearby.

The shed was found abandoned in Dickens Avenue and has now been taken to Canterbury Police Station.

I wonder if the Canterbury Police will be sharing their sheds

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According to this Press release from thomson local

A year-long study conducted by Thomson Local showed that the garden and bathroom are clear favourites for homeowners to enhance as they opt to ‘improve not move’.

Searches for garden design on thomsonlocal.com increase by 182%, whilst garden centres and nurseries saw a 159% jump.

The surprise result was the massive 231% increase in searches for garden sheds, showing an increased demand for the timber structures.

Thomson Local product and marketing director Gary Brown, said: “The increase in demand for home improvement services in a relatively short space of time is a simple reflection of the fact that less people are moving house due to the current economic uncertainty.”

“That said,” he added. “I would not have expected the garden shed to be a high growth area.”

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An auctioneer inadvertently triggered a full-scale police alert when he unearthed a hand grenade in a garden shed.

Charles Hanson, of Hansons Auctioneers in Lichfield, had been instructed to clear the home of Mary Craddock in Lichfield Road, Brownhills, following her death earlier this year at the age of 94.

Mrs Craddock had shared the home with her sister Ann Seedhouse until she died four years ago aged 92.

As he was rifling through an old chest of tools in the garden shed, Mr Hanson spied the grenade – thought to date back to the First World War – nestling in the corner.

Express and Star reports

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The birmingpost reports

FAMILIES were evacuated from their Birmingham homes after a huge stash of explosive chemicals was discovered inside a blazing shed.

Fire crews woke 100 sleeping people from their beds at homes in Longbridge at 4.30am yesterday after the fire.

An industrial tank of acetylene gas, used for welding, was being stored alongside two huge drums of diesel in a metal-clad outhouse on Thurlestone Road.

Northfield Fire Station commander Andy Simmonds said: “Acetylene is dangerous and unpredictable when subjected to any heat and has the potential to go off like a bomb.

“Potentially it can be catastrophic so we put out emergency procedures into action.

“It’s a chemical which should never be stored in a domestic property so we were concerned to find such a large cylinder alongside two 45-litre drums of fuel. We will be talking to the homeowner and giving him some advice.”

So a warning for sheddies looking to use these chemicals, and a worry for potential shed burnage.

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According to the shed friendly Metro

A live marble shark – one half of the only breeding pair in the UK – has been stolen from a shed.

The 2ft-long female mottled brown shark was taken from a garden in Farnborough, Hampshire. It was kept in an aquarium in the brick shed.

Owner Peter Newman, 68, discovered the door of the shed open and all the lights on inside. He then realised the shark was missing.

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