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For a man famed for his ego, sharing The Great British Bake Off tent with the very glamorous Nigella Lawson, a national treasure, was never going to be plain sailing.

While Macmillan stayed at the house, several police cars reportedly parked up and down nearby Church Lane to bolster security during his visits.

From our anonymous submitter:

Having reached the end of the road at a company increasingly swallowed up companies further east which you'd never believe were still afloat, I found myself headhunted for certain specialty software skills. I was reaching the final few years of my expected working span, so I jumped at the chance. The money was (to me at that time) spectacularly good, so I jumped into it.

It started when my first day was spent by me being sent home for the weeks it was still going to take to onboard me. Not bad, engaged to wait, as it were, and the first 6 months was thus and so.

The man who had interviewed me, call him Fred, was intelligent and urbane, and was a joy to meet. He and I clearly hit it off, and lo and behold I was in. It was he who gave me my first assignment, which was mathematical analysis of their core milk-cow program because they needed to find out what it did, and how it did it, so they could perhaps implement it in a more contemporary language.

So I did that, and was just about to publish my findings with him, when Fred inconveniently dropped dead suddenly. In the what-are-we-going-to-do-now-our-key-man-is-no-more confusion, we contractors were forgotten.

For the next 18 months or so (may have been more, may have been less) I was more or less ignored. I spent the time writing a development environment to work on any part of the program conveniently, all the while sitting next to a man who was constantly, forcefully and repetitiously speaking ill of the managers in his line structure. The ridiculously garrulous boss who inherited me thought little of me, and handed me the little work that came my way with active hostility. One or two good guys, but mostly a cabal of elderly men trying to preserve their little money-spinner as long as they could, and a johnny-come-lately trying to increase (and even introduce) automatic processes was less than welcome. During that time I spent quite some time on TDWTF, submitting a gem or two here and there.

No surprise when they finally kicked my arse away. No love lost there. Now working my last couple of years to retirement as a postie.

No punchline here. I want you to know that dropping dead from work is all too real and can happen to anyone.

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John Healey tried his best to be upbeat when he made his first major speech as Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday.

Erik and Lyle Menendez will have an opportunity to fight for parole earlier than expected, the California Board of Parole has ruled.

Gladiators' Comet star Ella-Mae Rayner has tied the knot for a second time with her husband James Exton as the pair jetted off to Greece for the lavish nuptials. 

Self-described domestic goddess Nigella Lawson is back, and looking fabulous as she attended the official launch of The Great British Bake Off on Monday evening.

Owners have said it's a "sad decision"

Introduces 'digital duty of care' that will mean Aussies get ‘my feed, my way’ – without algorithms if requested

The lengthy document, which bridesmaids were reportedly expected to sign ahead of the big day, featured a long list of demands designed to ensure everything went according to plan.

"A team at Google's research arm used Google Maps to reroute a small portion of drivers in 10 U.S. cities," reports SFGate — including San Francisco and Los Angeles. "Through their experiment, which was published in the journal Nature Cities in June, the researchers sought to evenly spread traffic down more corridors as the drivers head to similar destinations, in the hopes of reducing congestion." The experiments nudged up vehicle speeds by 2% on average on the congested roads, and shortened travel times by a modest 0.7%. Scientists have long thought that traffic could be eased this way, and this now demonstrates how it could actually work in the real world. The researchers collected data on weekdays in the 10 cities, which included Seattle, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Atlanta. While they studied a variety of types of roads, from city streets to highways, they found that in cities such as Los Angeles where they targeted highways, their diversions had the biggest effect, with driving speeds in those areas increasing by about 4.6%. Most cities, though, saw a smaller improvement with speeds across them increasing by just 0.5% during peak times. The Google study's findings confirm what other researchers have long suspected, said Michael Manville, a professor of urban planning at UCLA who was not involved in the study. "This is a pretty nice empirical illustration of a longstanding idea," he said. If a clogged traffic artery is on the verge of a long delay, he said, rerouting a small number of vehicles away from the bottleneck produces a "not gigantic but noticeable result...." As with other traffic interventions, there's a risk that Google's approach to spreading traffic could backfire. This concept, known as "induced demand," also applies to efforts like adding a lane to a critical highway, which temporarily relieves congestion, until traffic rises again. "You can do this, but you cannot be too successful, because if you are too successful, then more people will start driving, and essentially you'll be back to ground zero," [said Alexandre Bayen, a co-author of the study and director of UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society]. "That's why when we did the study, we only operated at the margin." The idea is to make minor improvements, enough to matter in the aggregate but not so significant that people notice and start driving more, canceling those improvements... The Google Research study also considered the potential environmental benefits of its traffic improvements. The paper highlights the carbon dioxide emission reductions resulting from the slightly smoother traffic flow and shortened travel times, which add up to a savings of about 1,000 metric tons annually. That's equivalent to the emissions of about 200 vehicles, a drop in the bucket for cities with millions of cars, the majority of which are still gas guzzlers, even in San Francisco and LA. Bayen acknowledges that while emphasizing the cumulative benefit if such efforts were sustained for a longer time. For Manville, the study is a useful proof of concept. "It is a demonstration that if we managed roads better, air would probably be cleaner," he said. According to the article, "Google's study might not just be a one-off, and city officials could decide to make use of the Google research findings, Bayen said, such as by trying to improve traffic congestion on a larger scale..." "Google declined SFGATE's requests for comment on whether the company informed city authorities or rerouted drivers about the study," the article points out.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The four-time Grand Slam champion has dominated headlines at Flushing Meadows all week with a string of unconventional runway-inspired outfits.

The managing director said that the error was a 'mistake'

The Essex County Council leader said it has “succeeded in curtailing the Government's plans” with its legal challenge against local government reorganisation.

The Essex County Council leader said it has “succeeded in curtailing the Government's plans” with its legal challenge against local government reorganisation.

Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, who had to be duct-taped to his first class American Airlines seat on Thursday night allegedly flipped out mid-flight after talking about religion.

Hazel sits in my office for our first appointment. The 16-year-old adjusts her red glasses, her brown eyes looking intently at me.

Sir David Davis said leading Special Air Service (SAS) troops were signing off due to persecution from lawyers which he warned would 'compromise' the UK's national security.

The 32-year-old pop star and 29-year-old skincare beauty founder shared a series of snaps with the glossy and answered questions in an accompanying interview.

Pamela Anderson has recalled the time she was given '10 years to live' when she was diagnosed with hepatitis C.