WEIRD, WEIRD

Cows get helicopter ride

Cows in Switzerland have been airlifted to the bottom of their Alpine meadows.

The strange spectacle saw a handful of the animals taken by helicopter off the mountain ridges in the Klausenpass region in the centre of the country.

The bovines were suspended by a length of cable below the chopper as they were transported in mid-air, while farmers used guide ropes to help the cattle land safely.

The cows were then moved into more conventional trailers, although some of the fitter animals made their way down the mountainside using their hoofs.

Farmer Jonas Arnold told Sky News: "One reason for the helicopter transport is that you can't reach some pastures by car, and the other is that some cows are injured, so they don't have to walk all the way down.

"I didn't ask a cow how it feels after such a flight as it couldn't answer, but it's only a short distance and it has to keep going.

"It was only a short, calm flight. I didn't notice any difference between the ones that flew and the ones that walked normally."

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Mumbling is a sexual turn-on

Women are turned on by men who mumble as it makes the sound more masculine, scientists have found.

Hollywood stars such as Marlon Brando and Tom Hardy have been accused of mumbling their words on the screen, but the study found that it is attractive to the opposite sex.

However, men find more precise pronunciation attractive in a woman as they believe it shows femininity.

Dr Daniel Stehr, from the University of California, recorded 42 people -- 21 male and 21 female -- speaking short sentences and then asked 124 new participants to judge how attractive the voice sounded after listening to the audio.

He said: "From a sexual-selection standpoint, males with traits that are slightly more masculine than average are typically preferred.

"In this context, it would make males with less clear speech more attractive."

Stehr added: "Vocal traits can be relevant cues to attractiveness -- a likely outcome of the forces of sexual selection."

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Coffee found to have health benefits

Drinking three cups of coffee a day can lower the risk of stroke and deadly heart disease.

The largest-ever study into the popular beverage's impact on health has revealed that light to moderate coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Participants in the research were separated into three groups, with no coffee consumed by 22 per cent, light to moderate (half a cup to three cups a day) by 58 per cent, and high (over three cups per day) by 20 per cent.

It found that a moderate coffee intake led to a 21 per cent lower risk of stroke and 17 per cent lower risk of death from fatal heart disease.

The study's author Dr Judit Simon, from the Heart and Vascular Centre at Semmelweiss University in Budapest, said: "Our results suggest that regular coffee consumption is safe, as even high daily intake was not associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality after a follow-up of 10 to 15 years.

"Moreover, 0.5 to three cups of coffee per day was independently associated with lower risks of stroke, death from cardiovascular disease, and death from any cause."