Candles are a girl's new best friend

EDINBURGH: Candle flames contain millions of tiny diamond particles, a British university professor has discovered.
Research by Wuzong Zhou, a professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews in Fife, revealed that around 1.5 million diamond nanoparticles are created in a candle flame every second it is burning.
Dr Zhou used a new sampling technique to remove particles from the centre of the flame, which is believed to have never been done before, and found that it contained all four known forms of carbon.

''This was a surprise because each form is usually created under different conditions,'' he said.
The diamond particles were burnt away in the process, he said, but the discovery could lead to future research into how diamonds could be created more cheaply, and in a more environmentally friendly way.
''This will change the way we view a candle flame forever,'' he said.
He uncovered the secret after a challenge from a fellow scientist in combustion, he said. ''A colleague at another university said to me: 'Of course no one knows what a candle flame is actually made of.'
''I told him I believed science could explain everything eventually, so I decided to find out.''

Father develops cystic fibrosis game to help daughter

 

His daughter's treatment for her cystic fibrosis was something David Day used to dread.

Like the 9,000 or so other people with cystic fibrosis in the UK, four-year-old Alicia has to breathe into a tube for up to 10 minutes each day to stop mucus gathering in her lungs and digestive system.
As he saw her undergoing the boring and painful daily exercises, the University of Derby lecturer realised he might be able to harness the expertise of his colleagues to ease her suffering.
Now they have developed a range of computer games to help Alicia endure her treatment, which he hopes could benefit other children with the condition.
The games involve a device which connects breathing tubes to the computer so children can control characters and shapes on screen by exhaling at a certain pressure.
'Cry and scream'

'Britain's first pre-Roman planned town' found near Reading

 

Archaeologists believe they have found the first pre-Roman planned town discovered in Britain.

It has been unearthed beneath the Roman town of Silchester or Calleva Atrebatum near modern Reading.
The Romans are often credited with bringing civilisation to Britain - including town planning.
But excavations have shown evidence of an Iron Age town built on a grid and signs inhabitants had access to imported wine and olive oil.
Prof Mike Fulford, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, said the people of Iron Age Silchester appear to have adopted an urbanised 'Roman' way of living, long before the Romans arrived.

Gallery unveils its newest, nearest and dearest

THE National Gallery of Victoria revealed the most expensive acquisition in its 150-year history yesterday: a small, honey-and-jewel-toned religious painting by Italian High Renaissance painter Antonio Allegri da Correggio.
Its $5.2 million price tag was paid for by a single benefactor, businessman Andrew Sisson.
NGV director Gerard Vaughan beamed with almost maternal pride at the revelation of Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, 1514-16, yesterday. When the work was listed for sale as the star of the Sotheby's July auction in London, there was media speculation it might be snapped up by the Getty Museum - Dr Vaughan said it was the first widely authenticated work by Correggio on the market for 50 years. ''It's possible there will never be another.''

Advertisement: Story continues below

German 'terror' at cheek pecks

A german etiquette group has called for a ban on work colleagues kissing one another in the office saying the peck on the cheek is a form of ''terrorism''.
The German Knigge Society - knigge translates as etiquette or correct behaviour - says the practice has flourished in offices in recent years.
Women kiss women, men kiss women, usually once, sometimes twice in the way of the French. In a society with rules more rigorous than most, sensibilities have become deeply offended.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Seeing as how Germans can go their whole working lives referring to the person next to them in the formal ''Sie'' instead of ''du'', a kiss has become something of a threat to the accepted order of things.
At school they are taught to keep a respectful distance when greeting a stranger, to shake their hand and to bow the head ever so slightly. Not for them the high fives of Wall Street, dress-down Fridays and group therapy hugs.
Now the Knigge Society has ruled on the vexed issue of office kissing and says it must go. It says it has reacted to many callers who have inquired over recent months about what to do if someone should attempt to kiss them in a greeting.
Hans-Michael Klein, chairman of the group, said: ''This is valid immediately. There should be no kissing, at least not in the office.''
In an attempt to show he was not living in another century, or in another galaxy, Herr Klein said inquiries had flooded into his offices from such varied cities as Berlin, Munich and Dusseldorf.
''The suspicion for many remains that there is, or may be, an erotic component to the kissing,'' he said. ''Kissing simply gets on the nerves of many at work. It is a form of terror.
''In business the handshake is considered the correct greeting ritual.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/german-terror-at-cheek-pecks-20110810-1imqa.html#ixzz1V4ppNQMV

Earth at seven billion

In an era of high anxiety, few issues rattled people in the 1960s and 1970s more than the Earth’s seemingly runaway population growth. The sense of imminent overcrowding doom was chillingly articulated by Paul Ehrlich, the Stanford University biologist whose 1968 book, The Population Bomb, became an unlikely bestseller, propelled in part by the academic’s numerous appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The swelling ranks of humankind would lead to “hundreds of millions” dying of starvation by the 1970s, a substantial increase in the global death rate and assorted ecological disasters, he predicted. Involuntary sterilization might be needed to lessen the coming cataclysm.
“We can no longer afford merely to treat the symptoms of the cancer of population growth; the cancer itself must be cut out,” he wrote. Four decades later, the Earth’s population has doubled and the United Nations predicts a newborn’s arrival some time this fall will push the total to seven billion souls.
By 2050, another two billion humans are likely to be jostling for elbow room. Yet the doomsaying predictions of Prof. Ehrlich and others have in most cases failed to materialize. The world still has more than its share of misery: Almost one billion people go hungry every day and 1.4 billion live in extreme poverty. But as the population expanded at a pace never seen before, the overall death rate dropped rapidly, life expectancy climbed and the number in poverty — though still huge — shrank.

Tens of millions moved into the middle class in China, southeast Asia and India.
“Every indicator of human well-being that you can measure … there’s no question it’s better today, no matter how many people we have,” said Hania Zlotnik, head of the UN’s population division.
“On the whole, society has been extremely successful, both in reducing population growth from its peak and making life better for most people.”
Since The Population Bomb exploded in the late 1960s, the Green Revolution has made agriculture exponentially more productive, feeding billions more, while economies that were near collapse are now thriving. Meanwhile, many demographers predict the population size will not keep spiralling out into “oblivion,” as Prof. Ehrlich suggested, but level off by the end of this century.
“In the end, it’s always the same story,” said Pierre Desrochers, a geography professor at the University of Toronto. “People forget that human beings are not just mouths that eat, but brains to work out new solutions.”
Still, experts warn there is no reason to be complacent — the number of humans keeps expanding and those average improvements in well-being obscure pockets of calamity. Many parts of the world — sub-Saharan Africa most prominent among them — still have high fertility rates and widespread, grinding poverty.
“The problems are here and now,” said Joel Cohen, head of the laboratory of populations at New York’s Rockefeller University. “People forget there are a billion chronically hungry people; every day those people wake up and they’re hungry all day, and they go to sleep hungry.”
And if their moribund economies do take off — as everyone hopes — they could add to climate change and other worrying environmental problems, originally the product of the developed world.
As it turns out, population expansion is not just a simple question of reproduction run amok, but a subtle interplay between death rates, birth rates and economics.
For much of human history, population levels changed little, says Frank Trovato, a sociology professor and population expert at the University of Alberta. While women had many babies, their fecundity barely kept pace with mortality rates fuelled by disease, hunger and war.
By the mid 18th-century, though, cities and towns in Europe, at least, were becoming increasingly crowded and dirty, health improved, food became more abundant and the population started to increase. Later improvements in public health — like sewers that separated disease-ridden human waste from drinking water — kept people alive even longer, while the Industrial Revolution raised general well-being.
History indicates that as life expectancy increases and more children survive into adulthood, birth rates decline.
There is always a gap, though — called a demographic transition — before fertility slows enough to tally with the rising longevity. When it does, couples have enough children at most to replace themselves. During the transition period, however, the numbers rocket up.
By the 1960s, fertility rates had dropped to near-replacement levels in the industrialized world, but remained higher elsewhere. World population, only one billion in 1800, climbed to two billion by 1927, three billion by 1959, four billion by 1974 and six billion by 1998, according to UN figures.
The number is projected to tick over to seven billion some time around Oct. 31, with the milestone baby more likely to be born in India than in any other country.
Fears about population growth date back centuries, suggesting an almost innate human anxiety about the effects of too many human beings.
Prof. Desrochers points to the early Christian theologian Tertullian, who argued 1,800 years ago the world’s “teeming population” was overly burdensome, and pestilence, conflict and other deadly events were a useful “remedy” to prune the overgrowth.

A gathering of Wongs

Every 45 seconds, another Wong is born.
As one of the world’s most prominent last names, Wongs number more than 60 million worldwide – nearly as many as the population of the U.K. Smith – the most popular name in much of the English-speaking world – has a mere five million members.
Over the weekend, 1,200 Wongs gathered in Toronto for the Wongs’ National Convention, a two-day celebration of all things Wong. Delegates took a bus trip to Niagara Falls, participated in a family lion dance and mingled over Wong-themed drinks. On Saturday night, the delegation sat down for a 10-course meal said to be the largest Chinese banquet in Canada. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty even dropped in to tell the Wongs about his plan to boost trade missions to China, if re-elected.
The assembled Wongs hailed from across Canada and the United States – with some even making the trek from Hong Kong.
Toronto hosts around 3,000 of the world’s Wongs, according to the telephone directory Canada411.com. All told, the assembled delegates represented 0.0002 per cent of the global Wong population.
Canada’s Wongs get together once every three years in one of six rotating Canadian cities. The convention was organized by Wong Kung Har Wun Sun Association, a 49-year-old group established to help ease new immigrants into Canadian society.
This year, the Association officially unveiled the Wong Coat of Arms. Created with the official endorsement of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, the symbol features a crest flanked by a panda and a polar bear wielding a pickaxe and a hammer, a salute to the Wongs’ legacy as gold miners and railroad labourers.
The symbol is Canada’s first coat of arms to include Chinese characters – although Asian symbology has made appearances in Canadian heraldry before. In 2007, Alberta Lieutenant Governor – and former CFL player – Norman Lim Kwong got a coat of arms featuring two Chinese dragons propping up a crest decorated with footballs.
The first Canadian Wongs arrived in Victoria in 1858. Like most of Canada’s early Chinese immigrants, Wongs came across the Pacific as railway labourers or to work in the B.C. gold fields. In the 150 years since, the Wong name has found its way throughout Chinese-Canadian history.
In 1982, Sudbury’s Peter Wong became Canada’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor. Five years later, Toronto’s Bob Wong would become the first Chinese-Canadian cabinet minister when he took a post as Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. Vancouver-born Randall Wong is Canada’s first federally-appointed Chinese-Canadian judge.
Wong Who’s Who, an online hall of fame of notable Canadian Wongs, includes Toronto City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Richmond MP Alice Wong and astronaut Terry Wong.
Wong is an anglicized version of Huang, a Chinese word meaning yellow – a colour that the Chinese typically associate with Mother Earth. The words use as a surname is thought to date back to the Huang Kingdom, an ancient Chinese city-state that stood for more than 1,400 years until 648 BC when their homeland was overrun by the neighbouring Chu Kingdom. Survivors from the conquest adopted the Huang name in remembrance of their fallen homeland.
For the media, the Toronto gathering was an irresistible opportunity to try out the occasional Wong pun. “Hanging out with the Wong crowd,” read a headline in the Toronto Star. “Canadian family takes up arms to write a Wong,” wrote the Vancouver Sun in describing the Wong Coat of Arms.
National Post
thopper@nationalpost.com

10 New Earthly Wonders

UNESCO has just unveiled the newest members of their World Heritage List, which celebrates notable natural and cultural sites around the globe. To be considered for inclusion, a place has to meet at least one of ten criteria, which range from "representing a masterpiece of human creative genius" to being an area of "exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance." The Class of 2011 includes prime examples of all, including the world's top flamingo foraging site, elaborate Persian gardens, and the legendary stomping ground of Lawrence of Arabia. Here are 10 sites that made the cut.

The striking Ningaloo Coast is comprised
of both marine and land-based treasures.

Courtesy of Sergio Pitamitz/SuperStock

 

Ningaloo Coast (Australia)

Made up of nearly 2,335 square miles of Australia's remote western coast, the striking Ningaloo Coast is comprised of both marine and land-based treasures. In the water off the Ningaloo Coast, you'll find one of the longest near-shore reefs in the world and a wealth of diverse sea life, from sea turtles to an annual visit from whale sharks. On the land side, a network of underground caves and groundwater streams help support the coast's biodiversity.

South of Tokyo, this archipelago of over 30 islands is often called the "Galapagos of the Orient."

Courtesy of IlovePhotoandApple/Getty

Ogasawara Islands (Japan)

South of Tokyo, this archipelago of over 30 islands is often called the "Galapagos of the Orient" because of its diverse ecosystems, landscapes and native species. Since the islands have never been near a continent, the native flora and fauna have developed through unique evolutionary processes. Along with over 440 documented native plant taxa, the Ogasawara Islands are home to close to 200 endangered bird species, numerous types of fish and coral, and the Bonin Flying Fox, a bat that's in danger of extinction. Only two of the islands are inhabited, with about 2,440 residents in total.

The area around three interconnected shallow lakes—Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Elementaita—is home to a stunning arena of bird and mammal life.

Courtesy of Nigel Pavitt/JWL/Aurora Photos

Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley (Kenya)

Set in Kenya's Great Rift Valley region, the area around three inter-connected shallow lakes—Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru and Lake Elementaita—is home to a stunning arena of bird and mammal life. Great Rift Valley is considered the most important foraging site in the world for the lesser flamingo (the smallest species of flamingo at 3 feet tall)—countless of which can be spotted there—and it's also a top nesting and breeding ground for great white pelicans. Black rhino, lions, Rothschild's giraffe, greater kudu and cheetahs quench their thirst at the lakes.

The majestic Wadi Rum—the largest desert valley in Jordan—was the famous stomping ground of the real-life Lawrence of Arabia.

Courtesy of Michael Runkel/SuperStock

Wadi Rum Protected Area (Jordan)

The majestic Wadi Rum—the largest desert valley in Jordan—was the famous stomping ground of the real-life Lawrence of Arabia. The Wadi Rum covers 286 square miles in the southern part of the country and is notable both for its natural and cultural wonders. In addition to photo-perfect desert landscapes marked by caverns, narrow gorges and massive cliffs, there is evidence of 12,000 years of human habitation here. Petroglyphs, archaeological remains, 20,000 inscriptions and 25,000 rock carvings offer insight into the lives the early residents of Wadi Rum.

Peaceful and picturesque, the area is dotted with causeways and artificial islands.

Courtesy of St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum

West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou (China)

It's easy to see why this lake, surrounded by hills on three sides, has been inspiring poets, artists and scholars since the 9th century. Peaceful and picturesque, the area is dotted with causeways and artificial islands, as well as man-made beauties like temples, pavilions and pagodas. Over the years, the West Lake cultural landscape has influenced garden design in China, Japan, and Korea.

The nine gardens date back to different periods since the 6th century B.C.

Courtesy of Alireza syz/Wikimedia

The holy month of fasting

According to Islamic teachings, Ramadan, the ninth month of the Hijra calendar, is the month of fasting. Fasting is a universal practice. The Quran mentions that fasting was a common practice in all religions: "Believers, fasting has been prescribed for you, just as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard yourselves against evil" (2:183).
The Arabic equivalent of fasting is called 'saum'. It means abstinence, which is the spirit of Islamic fasting. In the month of Ramadan, believers abstain from food and drink for a limited period each day, that is, from dawn till sunset. They eat and drink during the night. This practice continues for a month.
Ostensibly, fasting means to abstain from food and drink but, in spirit, it includes abstaining from all kinds of undesirable activities. Staying away from food and drink during the day is symbolic abstinence. Ramadan is, in essence, a form of annual training for living a responsible life. Being of responsible character means doing what is wanted and refraining from all such deeds as are undesirable. Ramadan inculcates this kind of responsible character.
The month of Ramadan begins with the sighting of the moon. It is reported that when the Prophet of Islam saw the new moon of Ramadan, he said: "O God, make this month for us a month of peace and submission." This saying of the Prophet is like a pledge and the month of Ramadan begins from the taking of this pledge. According to the pledge, believers are required to live in peace, that is, be non-violent. This is the true spirit of the month of Ramadan.
During the month, believers are required to study the Quran more and more, in prayer and out of prayer. Through the study of the Quran in this month, we are reminded of the message of the Quran; we rediscover the teachings of the Quran, and we reshape our minds according to Quranic tenets.
There is a special prayer, said daily in the month of Ramadan, called tarawih. It is observed after the isha prayer during the night. The faithful establish contact with God through the Quran, which is the Book of God.
The Prophet of Islam has said that the month of Ramadan is the month of philanthropy. Fasting makes believers more sensitive about hunger. They realise the seriousness of hunger, so they are more and more engaged in philanthropy during this month. As an incentive, the Prophet of Islam said that philanthropy in the month of Ramadan was rewardable more than in any other month.
The last 10 days of the month of Ramadan are the days of etikaf, that is, going into seclusion. Etikaf means sitting in the mosque for a limited period. It is a practice which saves one from all kinds of distraction. Etikaf is a period of meditation, contemplation, introspection, and self-improvement.
Ramadan is much more than fasting; it is the fostering of a culture of abstinence aimed at purifying thought, speech and general behaviour. The message of Ramadan is: be selective, differentiate between right and wrong; don't allow your desires to dominate you, but follow principles; abandon all immoral things forever just as you have abandoned food and drink for a month.
Ramadan makes people conscious about dos and don'ts. Ramadan is a course in spiritual development. It is a living practice and not just a ritual.
Source: The Times of India

Ukrainian zookeeper to spend five weeks living in lion enclosure

KIEV — A Ukrainian zookeeper plans to spend five weeks living in an enclosure with two lions to raise funds for the zoo.
Alexander Pylyshenko, who entered the lions’ enclosure on Tuesday, said he plans to spend the next 35 days painting pictures of the lions which he will sell to raise money for new buildings.
The 40-year-old even intends to help a pregnant lioness give birth during his time with the lions, the zoo said.
“I hope that my attitude and the optimism with which I approach this project will be understood by people,” he said in a statement on the zoo’s website.
He told a local newspaper, Nash Gorod, that he planned to take showers and use a toilet outside the enclosure but would sleep on a wooden platform inside.
The private zoo in the town of Vasylivka in western Ukraine, around 500 kilometres from Kiev, has two lions, named Samson and Katya, living in a bare enclosure.

Source: National Post

Plastic heart gives dad Matthew Green new lease of life

A 40-year-old father who was dying from heart failure is set to leave hospital after receiving an artificial heart.

Matthew Green is ready to go home and await a transplant after surgeons at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire replaced his heart with an implant.
His new plastic heart is powered by a portable driver in a backpack, which he said had "revolutionised" his life.
It is thought to be the first time a UK patient has been able to go home with an entirely artificial heart.
Around 900 similar operations have been carried out around the world.
Mr Green said: "It's going to revolutionise my life. Before I couldn't walk anywhere. I could hardly climb a flight of stairs and now I've been up and I've been walking out and getting back to a normal life.
"I went out for a pub lunch over the weekend and that just felt fantastic, to be with normal people again."
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Mr Steven Tsui said without the device Mr Green, from London, might not have survived the wait for a heart transplant operation.
"At any point in time there may be as many as 30 people waiting for a heart transplant on our waiting list at Papworth, with one third waiting over a year," he said.
'Excellent recovery'
"Matthew's condition was deteriorating rapidly and we discussed with him the possibility of receiving this device, because without it, he may not have survived the wait until a suitable donor heart could be found for him."
He said for the first time a patient was walking the streets of Britain without a human heart.
Mr Green, who is married and has a son, had been suffering from Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a heart muscle disease that results in arrhythmia, heart failure and occasionally sudden death.
His health had declined over recent years, meaning the only option available to him was a heart transplant.
Earlier, he thanked the Papworth staff for making "it possible for me to return home to my family".
"Two years ago I was cycling nine miles to work and nine miles back every day, but by the time I was admitted to hospital I was struggling to walk even a few yards," he said.
"I am really excited about going home and just being able to do the everyday things that I haven't been able to do for such a long time, such as playing in the garden with my son and cooking a meal for my family."
The SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart Mr Green received is used as a bridge-to-transplant for patients dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure, where both sides of the heart are failing.
The device works in the same way as a heart transplant in that it replaces both failing ventricles and the heart valves they contain, thus relieving the symptoms and effects of severe heart failure. However, it is not suitable for long-term use.
Mr Tsui, director of the transplant service at Papworth, said the operation on 9 June "went extremely well".
"Matthew has made an excellent recovery," he said.
"I expect him to go home very soon, being able to do a lot more than before the operation - with a vastly improved quality of life - until we can find a suitable donor heart for him to have a heart transplant."
Mr Green will leave Papworth with a backpack containing a 13.5lb (6kg) portable driver to power his new heart.
Papworth Hospital carries out 2,000 major heart operations a year - more than any other hospital in the UK. Its first heart transplant, in 1979, was a UK first and the hospital has been using mechanical devices to support patients with end-stage heart failure since the 1980s.
The Total Artificial Heart is a modern version of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart of the 1980s. In November, 1986, a patient received a Jarvik heart and was supported for two days before receiving a transplant.
It is understood that other patients with mechanical hearts have been sent home before, but never with both ventricles replaced.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The NHS has a long and proud track record of innovation that has driven major improvements in patient care in the past.
"The success of this procedure at Papworth Hospital is an excellent example of how the NHS can continue to provide the best treatment and outcomes for its patients in the future."
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said that for some patients, with severe heart failure, transplantation is their only hope of long-term survival, but donor hearts are not always available.
He added: "Patients with mechanical hearts must remain permanently linked to a power supply via tubes that pass through the skin, which is a potential source of infection.
"With this artificial heart, the power supply is small enough to fit in a shoulder bag so patients can walk around and go home."
Source: BBC News

South Korean clinic treats web addicts

Internet gaming has gripped South Korea's youth

In the blue-green hills outside Seoul, Kang Ji-won is spending his afternoon on the badminton court. With his Dad.

The family match might not have the focused excitement of the computer games he is used to, but like all the children here, Ji-won is learning to spend time away from the internet.
It is something South Korea is increasingly concerned about. Internet addiction has long been recognised as a clinical condition here. And a number of high-profile cases of addicts who neglect themselves - or their children - to the point of death, have raised awareness even further.
But the question of how to treat it has proved much tricker.
The family camp in the hills is an attempt to prevent internet addiction, rather than cure it.

 

Kang Ji-won gets angry on the internet

Ji-won does not seem much at risk.
"When I'm not on the internet, I'm really friendly to my family, but when I'm on the internet, I'm angry when they call. I don't know why, but it's bad. I'm trying to fix it, but it's hard."
And harder still for those already addicted. That is why a neurologist at Gongju National Hospital has opened a brain clinic offering a new kind of treatment: brain scans to guide recovery.
Dr Lee Jae-won said: "Some people question why we need to use medical treatment for a habitual disorder."
"But if the condition has got so bad that the brain is not functioning as it should be, medical treatment is very effective."
The brain scans show which areas of the addict's brain are functioning abnormally, and how badly affected they are. Dr Lee uses anti-depressants and therapy to try to correct them.
Teenager Jong-soo is having a dozen electrodes stuck to his head. Jong-soo is not his real name - internet addiction carries a stigma here.
It takes doctors about ten minutes to carefully attach each of the electrodes. One by one, their thin coloured wires trail through his hair to a machine by the bed. On the other side of the glass panel, Dr Lee watches the results come in:
"The results from internet addicts were very similar to patients with ADHD, and also other forms of addiction - in the way the brain functionality had been depressed."
Anti-social Jong-Soo's parents say he used to play games all night, without sleep or toilet breaks; that he became aggressive and anti-social. So far, he has spent two months at Dr Lee's brain clinic, and he says he is improving.
He says the craving to play games has faded now, though not completely disappeared.
I ask him what's the appeal of online gaming.
"Curiosity," he says, "the fun, the thrill. When I play, I get immersed so much that it's hard to distinguish the cyber world and the real world, sometimes it's just hard to adapt to the real world."
Dr Lee believes there are two types of internet addicts: shy people, who prefer the anonymity of the cyber-world, and those - like, he says, Jong-soo - who are attracted by graphic violence, and the illusion of power.
Like many politicians, Dr Lee wants more regulation of the games themselves. Earlier this year, the South Korean parliament passed a new law to restrict internet use. Nicknamed the 'Cinderella Law', it will ban teenagers from playing online games after midnight.
But game manufacturers argue they're being picked as easy targets - it's cheaper and quicker to restrict them than to tackle the real task of changing Korea's underlying social culture, they say.
Dr Lee agrees it's not just a matter of the games themselves. He also believes Korean parents - and the competitive education system here - are pushing their children too hard; driving them to seek escape online.
Weaning the world's most connected nation away from the world's most exciting online games isn't only a job for politicians or doctors, he says, but for everyone.
Source: BBC News

S.African man wakes after hours in morgue fridge

JOHANNESBURG: A South African man awoke to find himself in a morgue fridge — nearly a day after his family thought he had died, a health official said.

Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the man awoke Sunday afternoon, 21 hours after his family called in an undertaker who sent him to the morgue after an asthma attack.

Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo said he thought the man was around 80 years old.

"When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," Maqolo told this news agency.

But a day after staff put the body into a locked refrigerated compartment, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost, the morgue owner said.

"I couldn't believe it!" Maqolo said. "I was also scared. But they are my employees and I had to show them I wasn't scared, so I called the police."

After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together.

"I was glad they had their firearms, in case something wanted to fight with us," Maqolo said.

He said the man was pale when they pulled him out.

"He asked, 'How did I get here?'" Maqolo said.

The health department said the man was then taken to a nearby hospital for observation and later discharged by doctors who deemed him stable.

Kupelo, the health department spokesman, urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm that their relatives are really dead.

The man's family was informed that he was alive during a family meeting convened to make funeral arrangements. They're very happy to have him home, Maqolo said.

But Maqolo said he is still trying to recover from the traumatic experience.

"I couldn't sleep last night, I had nightmares," he said. "But today I'm much better." (AP)

Source: The News

Saturn’s water mystery solved?

Planetary scientists claim they have finally solved a 14-year mystery by discovering the source of the water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere.
A team, led by Paul Hartogh of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, says that the Herschel space observatory has found that giant jets of vapour from the planet’s moon Enceladus are responsible for Saturn’s water.
The latest discovery around Saturn has revealed that the planet’s sixth-largest moon Enceladus is covered with ice and is providing water to Saturn, creating a rain-showering halo, the International Business Times reported.
The water vapours are visible as tiger-like stripes of gas and ice that escape at the southern pole of the moon and become a main water-source vapour for Saturn’s upper atmosphere, say the planetary scientists.
In fact, the ring is 10 times greater than Saturn’s radius, and Enceladus continues to feed the ring of water vapours during its orbit. The findings also show that Saturn’s moon is the only one which carries influence in regard to the chemical composition toward its parent planet, says the team.
“There is no analogy to this behaviour on Earth. No significant quantities of water enter our atmosphere from space. This is unique to Saturn,” said team leader Paul Hartogh, a project scientist from the Max Planck Institute.
In fact, Enceladus consists of icy geysers that release water into space, forming a donut-shaped region. Only a small percentage of water from Enceladus actually reaches Saturn while the rest freezes or falls onto nearby moons.
Due to the incremental amount of water entering Saturn’s lower levels, clouds are not observable after it condenses. —PTI
Source: The Asian Age

South Korean scientists create glowing dog: report

Cloned ... the beagle glows in the dark under ultra-violet light, top, and appears normal under daylight. Photo: Reuters

South Korean scientists say they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Yonhap news agency reported.
A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.
The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog's food.

Advertisement: Story continues below

"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.
He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.
The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.
The latest discovery published in 'Genesis', an international journal, took four years of research with roughly 3.2 billion won spent to make the dog and conduct the necessary verification tests, Yonhap said.
Reuters
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/south-korean-scientists-create-glowing-dog-report-20110728-1i0wi.html#ixzz1TNCkjtf0

Japan weighs whalers' future

The Japanese Government is formally weighing up its whaling fleet's Antarctic future - including for the first time an option to not return south.
A Fisheries Agency of Japan review committee has taken evidence on all options, with most wanting to continue despite conservationist harassment, the well-informed newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said.
It said a minority opinion of the committee acknowledged that, after 25 years, Japan had failed to gain international support for the research, and proposed that it be scaled down or halted.

Advertisement: Story continues below

The review committee was set up in April to take expert opinion on whether Japan should continue whaling in the Antarctic, Yomiuri said.
For the first time last season, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's three ships were able to outlast the whalers.
With the key factory ship Nisshin Maru unable to break free of pursuit, the whalers managed to catch only 172 whales from a self-awarded quota of up to 985.
At the recent International Whaling Commission meeting in Jersey, Britain, Japan's commissioner Kenji Kagawa said the government made the difficult decision to recall the whaling fleet part way through its season last February to protect human lives.
"But I would like to stress that our decision does not indicate any change in Japan's whaling policy," Mr Kagawa said.
However, the Fisheries Agency that supervises the fleet has been unable to obtain support for the ships from the Japan Coast Guard.
If the fleet is to return, it must find a way to secure ships and whalers against harassment by Sea Shepherd.
Yomiuri said the review's majority stated: "Research whaling is justified on the basis of an international treaty. It should be continued without yielding to heinous interference."
The minority said: "If we cannot gain understanding on the research whaling in the international community, we should scale it down or halt it."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/whale-watch/japan-weighs-whalers-future-20110728-1i1bp.html#ixzz1TNBr4o00

From $220 to $400,000: Rachel's dream becomes a reality

Rachel Beckwith ... fatally injured in a car accident. Photo: AP

In honour of her ninth birthday, US girl Rachel Beckwith asked friends and family to donate money to bring clean water to an African village. Rachel was close to meeting her goal of raising $US300 ($270) when she died after a car accident last week.
In her memory, strangers have now made her dream come true many times over.
By Wednesday afternoon, about 10,000 people had donated more than $US400,000 to non-profit organisation charity: water in Rachel's honour, many in gifts of $US9 each.

Advertisement: Story continues below

On a website set up by Rachel and her mother before her birthday, she explained the inspiration for her project.
"I found out that millions of people don't live to see their fifth birthday. And why? Because they didn't have access to clean, safe water so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before," she wrote. "I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday."
By her birthday on June 12, $US220 was raised and the page was closed.
But, last Wednesday, Rachel was injured in a 13-car pile-up in Bellevue, Washington. Over the weekend, she was taken off life support and a pastor from her church arranged for the donation page to be reopened.
On Monday, Rachel's mother, Samantha Paul, who was also injured in the accident and has declined to be interviewed, thanked donors online for their generosity.
"I am in awe of the overwhelming love to take my daughter's dream and make it a reality. In the face of unexplainable pain you have provided undeniable hope," Ms Paul wrote. "I know Rachel is smiling!"
Her little sister, Sienna, was also in the car but was not seriously injured.
The total raised by Rachel's appeal for charity: water has been growing exponentially since the weekend, increasing by nearly $US100,000 on Wednesday.
"We've all been so deeply moved by Rachel's unselfishness," said the group's founder Scott Harrison, who used his own 34th and 35th birthdays to raise money to bring clean drinking water to Africa.
Charity: water estimates each $US20 donation is enough to provide one person with clean drinking water for 20 years.
In the past five years, the New York-based charity has raised $US48 million and supported 3962 water projects in Africa, Asia and Central America. The money is spent mostly to dig wells, improve water systems or catch rainwater and the projects usually serve entire communities.
Rachel's fund-raising campaign has quickly become the largest in the history of charity: water, which depends mostly on individuals to invite their friends and families to give money to celebrate a birthday or wedding or other event, spokeswoman Sarah Cohen said.
Rachel was inspired to support the charity when Mr Harrison spoke at her church.
Donors wrote on Rachel's page that they were humbled by her generosity, called her an angel, and some even asked her to say hello to dead relatives.
"What great things can be accomplished by the wish of a little girl," wrote a donor who identified herself as Leann Groby and who donated $US15.
A number of donors were inspired to start their own charity: water pages.
"What a gift from God her charity will be for so many people who will never know her," wrote Gregory Chiartas, who donated $US50 on Wednesday and set up his own page to seek more donations from his friends.
Jeremy Johnson, assistant pastor at Eastlake Community Church in Bothell, which Rachel's family attends, said the community was thankful for the outpouring of support and love for Rachel.
By email, he declined requests for interviews, saying the church was happy about how the campaign had grown and did not want to get in the way of the family or make anyone think they were trying to promote the church.
"Our primary focus now is to make sure that the family doesn't have to incur crippling expenses related to medical or funeral bills. It is to this that we now direct our energies," Mr Johnson wrote.
Another church member is raising money to help the family with their expenses.
AP
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/from-220-to-400000-rachels-dream-becomes-a-reality-20110728-1i1cy.html#ixzz1TNBTECS4

Woman has healthy baby at 50

A 50-year-old Queensland woman has made history as the oldest Australian woman to fall pregnant naturally and give birth to a healthy first child.
A semi-retired Gold Coast real estate agent, Anthea Nicholas, had a ''one-in-several-million'' chance of conceiving without in vitro fertilisation, and her chances of miscarriage were up to 70 per cent. Ms Nicholas has told the Australian Women's Weekly that she had put her symptoms of nausea down to the early effects of menopause. It was her husband, Peter Byrne, who suggested she might be pregnant. When it was confirmed, Ms Nicholas's reaction was fear - about the pregnancy and that people would accuse her of being too old to be a new mother.
''I knew the odds for us would be horrendous,'' she said. ''I had massive fear, there's no other word for it.'' But the fears vanished when Nicholas Jay was born perfectly healthy five weeks ago.

Advertisement: Story continues below

The gynaecologist, Andrew Cary, said the birth was ''a miracle'', as Ms Nicholas also had a condition that would make pregnancy and delivery difficult in a woman of any age.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/woman-has-healthy-baby-at-50-20110727-1i07o.html#ixzz1TNAlTqYo

Check Out the Skinniest House in the World

There are skinny houses. And then there is Jakub Szczęsny's Keret House, which could make Calista Flockhart look like a fatty. At its most generous, the proposed place, in Warsaw, Poland, will clock in at 4 feet wide. At its narrowest, it'll be just 28 inches wide -- thinner than the average doorway. And we complain about our sardine can in New York...
The house (officially an "art installation," because it doesn't meet Polish building code) is slated to fill a crack between a pair of buildings in Warsaw's Wola district. When construction's finished in December, it'll be the thinnest house in Warsaw and possibly the whole world. We did a quick Google search and couldn't find anything leaner.
Szczęsny designed the house to be a work space and home for Israeli writer Etgar Keret. It'll also be a "studio for invited guests -- young creators and intellectualists from all over the world." If, that is, they're willing to drop half their body weight to fit inside.
Kidding, kidding. In all seriousness, though, the house is a pretty remarkable feat of architecture. If everything goes according to plan, Szczęsny will manage to squeeze in designated rooms for sleeping, eating, and working. The place will have off-grid plumbing inspired by boat sewage technology and electricity lifted from a neighbor. To save space, the entry stairs will fold up at the press of a button and become part of the first floor.
Aesthetically, the Keret House isn't gonna win any beauty contests. It's been compared to everything from a pregnancy test to a sanitary napkin. (Our vote is for "pregnancy test.") Our biggest concern, though, is that it's hardly got any windows. How's it going to "produce creative work conditions," as ArchDaily reports, and "become a significant platform for world intellectual exchange," if it feels like a sensory deprivation chamber? Won't Keret go insane? But maybe that's the point. It's not like he'd be the first artist to benefit from going crazy.




Source: Yahoo 

Blainville's beaked whales enter stealth mode

 

Blainville's beaked whales, which are among the world's most enigmatic cetacea, go silent in shallow waters.

Researchers have discovered that the whales refuse to communicate with each other near the surface.
By becoming silent, the whales enter a stealth mode that prevents them being detected by predatory killer whales.
The study, one of the first to record how beaked whales communicate, also recorded sounds made at the deepest recorded depth by any mammal.
Beaked whales are deep-diving, toothed whales.
Little is known about them, in part because they spend so much of their time in the ocean depths.
Some species have been barely sighted, and scientists suspect there may be more species of beaked whale awaiting discovery.

Keeping silent near the surface is an unexpected behaviour and strikingly in contrast with that of other toothed whales”

Dr Aguilar and colleagues writing in Marine Mammal Science

Also, very little is known about how beaked whales communicate or avoid predators.

So Natacha Aguilar of La Laguna University in Tenerife, Spain and colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, US and Aarhus University, Denmark, conducted the first study into how beaked whales communicate when diving.
Using suction cups, the researchers attached electronic listening devices to eight Blainville's beaked whales, recording them for 102 hours in total.
They recorded the sounds made by the whales though the water column, as they came up to breathe and swim near the water surface, and also as they dived to depths of 900m.
The results, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, revealed that Blainville's beaked whales fell silent once they entered waters that are shallower than 170m.
Above this depth, the whales did not communicate with one another at all, while they were also silent when ascending from dives: a climb through the water that could take an average of 19 minutes.
That is despite the fact that these whales spend 60% of the lives swimming in waters shallower than 170m, and would be expected to communicate with one another to maintain social ties, particularly as they swim and dive in close knit groups.
When the whales swam in deeper waters, they did sound off.