Few will have seen a sky like it. Yet this extraordinary-looking cloud formation wasn't photographed in exotic climes, but in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on a recent August evening. What is it and how did it form?

The bobbly clouds that make this image so startling are called mammatus clouds - a name derived from the Latin word for breast. They hang under the main body of other clouds.

"There is one prerequisite for a mammatus formation - a big thunderstorm - because they form on the back edge of retreating storms," says BBC broadcast meteorologist Peter Gibbs.

In storms, air moves in rapid "up draughts" and "down draughts" and mammatus clouds are essentially pockets of air and water droplets which have descended in downward draughts, he says.

While the whole cloud might measure 0.5 of a mile (0.8km) across, each mammatus cloud or "udder" is several metres wide.

They are also referred to as "supplementary features" because they are arguably not clouds in their own right, says Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who runs the Cloud Appreciation Society. Mammatus formations can be seen on any type of cloud but look most dramatic on the cumulonimbus thunderclouds seen here, he says.

They will usually last no more than five to 10 minutes.

Grey, brooding cumulonimbus clouds cause thunderstorms. They are menacingly dark because they are about four to five miles (6.4 - 8km) thick or tall, according to Mr Gibbs.

They contain ice crystals which frequently produce hail stones and torrential rain.

According to experts, the low lying sun at 7.30pm, when this picture was taken is what makes this formation so spectacular, because it highlights the edge of the clouds and brings out their formation.

"The lighting is just right in this photo - but mammatus formations are not just a British phenomenon, they can be seen all over the world," adds Mr Gibbs.

• Mammatus formations are not that uncommon, they occur after most thunderstorms, says Mr Gibbs.
• But dramatic scenes like this are only captured about once a year, says Mr Pretor-Pinney.
• The clouds are about 15 miles (24km) away in this photo, he estimates.
• Mammatus clouds might be behind some UFO sightings.
• "These visually arresting clouds draw attention to the beauty and drama of what is happening in the sky - and people spend too long looking at their feet," says Mr Pretor-Pinney.
• The picture was taken by Ian Pattison, 31, on 12 August.

Protestors say the M&S policy is more than just a storm in a DD cup

Marks & Spencer has defended a policy of charging extra on some of its bras that are bigger than a size DD.

The iconic High Street retailer said that the added cost - typically £2 - was "standard industry practice".

The retailer said it found customers "were happy to pay a small premium for the specialist work" needed to make larger sizes.

But the policy has drawn protests with 900 people joining a Busts 4 Justice protest group on the Facebook website.

Its founders argue it is unfair that smaller bras are cheaper, because this logic does not apply to other clothes.

'Unfair tax'

Beckie Williams, 25, from Brighton, said she set up the social networking site group after an "unsatisfactory" correspondence with the retailer.

She said M&S replied to her letter claiming the extra material needed lay behind the higher price at the tills.

If you don't charge a size 20 woman more for a pair of trousers, then why should you pay more for an E cup bra? Beckie Williams

"That's fair enough", Ms Williams told BBC Radio Five Live. "But they don't apply the same policy to other clothes that use more material and more resources to make as well.

"I just think it should be one policy for all items of clothing."

'Comprehensive collection'

The M&S website advertises the Ceriso Polka Dot Padded Bra for £12, rising to £14 for the version for DD to G sizes.

There are similar differences in price for other ranges, though many of the store's more basic designs cost the same, no matter the size.

M&S said it offers "the most comprehensive DD+ collection and one of the most competitively priced on the High Street" and offered the same choice of colour, styles and shapes for all customers "no matter what size they take".

It also said the majority of its customers had told it they were happy to pay a small premium for the specialist work on larger size bras.

"Our bras are much less expensive than many other specialist larger cup size lingerie retailers, where they could cost around £60 or more," the firm added.

'Never benefited'

Ms Williams said that £2 was not a huge sum to pay but that it was still "an unfair tax".

"This is not something that we have chosen," she said.

"And I have been a size 8 all my adult life, but have never benefited from smaller priced pants.

"If you don't charge a size 20 woman more for a pair of trousers, then why should you pay more for an E cup bra?"

Most of the those posting comments on the Busts 4 Justice site are supportive of the women's efforts.

Apparently is called "Harry Potter and the Nightclub Stabbing"...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7418311.stm

Mr Hofmann thought LSD could have uses treating mental illnesses

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102.

Mr Hofmann first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal uses of a crop fungus.

He accidentally ingested some of the drug and said later: "Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror".

He hoped LSD could be used to treat mental illness, but it became a popular street drug in the 1960s.

'Turn on, tune in, drop out'

While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann ingested some of the drug through his fingertips.

He went home and experienced what he described as visions of "fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours".

The drug was popularised by Harvard professor Timothy Leary who suggested that people "turn on, tune in, drop out".

Rock stars and the counter-culture of the 1960s picked up LSD as a wonder drug but horror stories began to emerge of users suffering permanent psychological damage.

LSD was made illegal in many countries beginning in the late 1960s.

    You can get your coffin printed now. For example, 89-Year-old Eric Thornton used to be a tram-driver, so...



The BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7358089.stm

Apparently, somebody had theirs done up to look like a kit-kat bar!

My own football team won the championship and promotion to the top division for the first time since 1989.

16 years ago, my dad's football team, Aldershot, went bust and dropped out of the Football League in England. They reformed as Aldershot Town, and started again at the bottom of the football pyramid, trying to get back to through the minor leagues to the football league again.

Tonight, they finally did it with a 1-1 draw in Exeter which means they have won the Conference - the division immediately below the Football League. I'm thinking of all those years with my dad, listening to his delight at every promotion, and his cursing every time they lost an easy home game (or "shit in the nest" as he so eloquently used to put it).

They had started well this season, but he died last autumn so he never saw how they went on to storm to the top of the table. They're so far ahead, they've won their championship with half a dozen games to spare. So next year they'll be back in the football league where they belong. If there's any way he could know about this, I hope he's broken out into a mischevious grin!

And he'd be doubly delighted on Saturday if my team win as well - one more win and Hamilton return to the Scottish Premier for the first time since 1989. I miss talking football with my dad.

Just hoping our little friend is successfully removed with no complications.

Woke up this morning to find an inch of snow lying on the street. This isn't much, but it's about as much as we've had here in four years! Look out the front window (North) and the sky is grey and heavy, and it's trying to snow. Look out the back window and it's blue skies and sunchine all the way. I think I'm sitting on an isobar this morning.