Sydney, July 30 : Tourists have voted the United States as the most popular tourist destination, knocking Australia and the United Kingdom to the second and the third position, respectively, says a new poll.

Since its debut in 2004, Australia has always come out on top of the Lonely Planet Travellers'''' Pulse Survey.

But this year, for the first time, the US collected 1509 of the 17,500 votes from 132 countries, followed by Australia with 1222.

The United Kingdom took out bronze (965 votes) while Italy (836 votes) and New Zealand (648 votes) rounded out the top five.

Melbourne, July 30 : Computer games have always been considered a waste of time, but now schools in Australia are looking at ways to use them to help kids learn.

Helen Stuckey from Australian Centre for the Moving Image said that the fun kids derive from playing a game could be applied to learning.

A study on what makes gaming so much of fun revealed a phenomenon called ‘flow’ - a feedback loop between the level of challenge and the level of skill.

"Flow happens not when you''re relaxed but when you''re actively involved in something that''s quite difficult in a task that stretches you and challenges your ability," The Daily Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

Melbourne, July 30 : While binge drinking is normally associated with young revellers, a new Australian report has a different story to tell. According to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Health Index, baby boomers are nudging the bottle harder than their kids.

The report has found almost 10 per cent of people aged 55 to 64 had 20 or more standard drinks in a week, compared to eight per cent of those aged 18 to 24.

But the survey found Australians were trying alcohol for the first time at a younger age.

The GSK survey questioned random samples of less than 100 people from each Australian state and territory.

Melbourne, July 30 : When it comes to driving, it looks like Australian men are not such great fans of women, for a new survey shows that most blokes don''t like being a passenger while their partner is driving, with most believing that females aren''t good drivers.

According to a survey of 3000 readers of motoring mag Australian Top Gear, only 15 per cent feel comfortable when their wives or girlfriends were driving.

Almost 50 percent said that they liked to point out serious flaws in their partners driving skills and many admitted they were embarrassed.

Melbourne, July 30 : If there is one dubious record that New South Wales would love to do without, it would be the label that it has Australia and the world’s laziest parliament.

According to news. com. au, the parliament in this Australian state sits less than parliaments’ in India and in some war-torn African countries.

NSW will sit for 48 days in 2008, while Piccoli claimed Victoria sat for 66 days a year, South Australia for 58, Western Australia 57, Tasmania 53 and Queensland 50.

The UK''s Parliament sits 146 days of the year, South Africa 104, Kenya 88, Canada 135, US Congress 150 and India 81.

Sydney - Mourner