I am still laughing at that comment, "Hell has frozen over". I could not help think of KISS when I saw them, and I agree about Daz. Isn't that a soap powder?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightshade
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I am still laughing at that comment, "Hell has frozen over". I could not help think of KISS when I saw them, and I agree about Daz. Isn't that a soap powder?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightshade
yupp Daz the soap you can belive in... great adverts though :D :p
anyway the only thing that makes watching Eurovision fun is listening to Terry Wogan get into his grumpy act.
Report: Ozone Hole May Disappear by 2050
TOKYO - The ozone hole over the Antarctic is likely to begin contracting in the future and may disappear by 2050 because of a reduction in the release of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting gases, according to a team of Japanese scientists.
The findings are based on a series of numerical simulations carried out by Eiji Akiyoshi of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, near Tokyo, using projected emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and other gases blamed for the ozone hole.
According to a report posted Friday on the institute's Web site, the hole is at its largest now but is likely to gradually start contracting around 2020 and disappear by around 2050.
The team's findings are in line with research by other scientists.
Some, however, have suggested the hole won't heal until much later because old refrigerators and air-conditioning systems — many in the United States and Canada — are still releasing ozone-killing chemicals. Both countries curbed those chemicals in newer products.
Satellites and ground stations have been monitoring the ozone hole over the South Pole since its discovery in the 1980s.
Chlorofluorocarbon levels in the earth's atmosphere have been declining since the mid-1990s due to international efforts to reduce emissions.
source
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5009250.stm
"The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said."
{snip}
"The British scientist developed the web in 1989 as an academic tool to allow scientists to share data. Since then it has exploded into every area of life."
Comic book heroine Batwoman is to make a comeback as a "lipstick lesbian" who moonlights as a crime fighter, a DC Comics spokesman has confirmed. Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month.
In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.
52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007.
The series is set in a world in which established superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman no longer play a part.
Reinvention
The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe.
Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle - who replaces the character's previous white incarnation - and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored team of Chinese superheroes.
Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively.
The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole.
Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5030518.stm
A couple in Italy have been arrested for using a World War II bomb as a garden ornament. The bomb, dropped by the RAF during a raid over Arezzo in northern Italy, still contained high explosive but had never gone off.
The couple said they were convinced it was harmless.
The bomb had been transformed by the couple into a garden fountain to decorate the grounds of their new home, and had 60kgs of TNT in it.
Police said if someone had smoked a cigarette near the bomb, it could well have blown up the house.
Incredibly, it had been moved several times.
The businessman, who runs a construction company, had found it eight years ago while digging at a work site near Arezzo.
He had contacted police but the find was never followed up.
Convinced it was empty, he dragged it to his warehouse where it remained.
Then two years ago, he decided to install the bomb in his new garden feature.
This week, while chatting to a policeman over a beer, he casually asked whether he needed a licence to keep it. The next morning a squad of military policeman arrived at the house, and the man and his wife were arrested.
Under Italian law, all unexploded ordnance must be reported.
The couple have since been bailed and the bomb successfully defused.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5038368.stm
Students are outsourcing coursework in a phenomenon dubbed "contract cheating", academics have found. Researchers at Birmingham's University of Central England found coursework being put out to tender on the internet and suppliers bidding to finish it.
The students used legitimate websites normally used by businesses offering freelance project work.
The researchers found one in 10 of all bid requests submitted to one website were from students.
It appears to be a twist on the well-established practice of buying essays via websites which are advertising for such business.
Lecturer Thomas Lancaster carried out the research with his colleague Robert Clarke.
'Middle men'
In a two-month period they identified 236 unique individuals outsourcing coursework - 102 of whom were from the UK, from 46 separate institutions.
They also found individuals who were advertising dozens of assignments from more than one institution.
Dr Lancaster said this suggested agencies were acting as "middle men" and offering to do coursework before outsourcing it themselves.
Dr Lancaster first became alerted to the practice when he found a piece of work he had assigned was being put out to tender on one of the websites.
He said: "What we've identified is a new type of cheating where students put their coursework out to tender and suppliers bid to complete it.
"This type of cheating is cost effective for students, because many of the suppliers are internationally based and can complete the set assignments for a few dollars a time."
'Serious concern'
Dr Lancaster said the majority of cheats identified through the website had previously requested between two and seven pieces of work.
He said: "We believe this shows that this form of cheating is becoming habitual.
"As an academic community, we need to take stock of this situation.
"More automated detection techniques are needed to monitor these sites and assessments and academic policies need to be reconsidered to remove the potential for contract cheating to be committed.
"There is a serious concern that, unlike plagiarism, academic institutions are not yet fully aware of the potential prevalence of contract cheating and the measures that can be taken to avoid it."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5071886.stm
That's really sad. Do they have any idea how much trouble they could save by doing it themselves?
The former Lakeland home of the author of Peter Rabbit has been recreated brick-for-brick in Japan. Beatrix Potter used the money earned from the sale of her children's classic, to buy Hill Top Farm in Sawrey, Cumbria in 1903.
A full-size replica has now been built at a children's zoo near Tokyo.
Despite the popularity of Potter's books in Japan, less is known about the author and it is hoped the recreation of the farm will redress the balance.
'Earthquake proof'
George Wallace, a university professor teaching English literature in Tokyo, has seen both the original and the copy.
He said: "It is an almost exact replica, although it does not have the aged look of the original.
"And buildings in Japan have to be earthquake-proof, so there are one or two small changes."
Richard Foster, who runs The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness on Windermere, and is chairman of Cumbria's Japan Forum, said it was a good link to the area.
"It's a little bastion of the Lake District out in Japan.
"A nice, light-hearted place for people to go and sample Britain, and in particular, the Lake District."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/5070620.stm
It's goodbye to Baa Baa Black Sheep and Humpty Dumpty for children in primary schools in a central Indian state. The Madhya Pradesh government has banned the teaching of English nursery rhymes in primary schools to "reduce Western influence" on children.
Indian rhymes will now replace their popular English counterparts.
"There is no need for English rhymes when there are Indian rhymes to infuse patriotism in children," says state education minister Narrotam Mishra.
He has asked government primary schools from now on to teach Indian rhymes and tales from the life of Ahilya Bai, the legendary ruler credited with building a number of leading temples in India.
"We want our children to have value education in local colour," Mr Mishra was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times newspaper.
'Churlish'
Many teachers and parents say they are unhappy with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run state government's move.
"They were melodious rhymes and children love to recite them as much as they love to recite Indian rhymes," Renu, a school teacher, told the BBC.
"Seeing everything in the light of native and foreign, ours and theirs, is not always good," added a parent.
The BBC's Faisal Mohammad Ali in Bhopal says the decision to drop English rhymes is being seen as part of the BJP's efforts to "nationalise" education and press for Hindu thoughts and values in the syllabus.
Leading academician Zamiruddin told the Hindustan Times that the decision was "churlish and thoughtless" unless the government replaced the rhymes with equally popular and easy-to-learn Indian ones.
Private schools are unaffected by the move - and of course nobody can stop the children reciting English rhymes away from state school classrooms, our correspondent says.
'Controversial'
English nursery rhymes have been the subject of many controversies around the world in recent years.
In 2000, education chiefs at Birmingham City Council in the UK published guidelines warning that the rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep should not be taught in schools because it was "racially offensive".
The guidelines were dropped after black parents condemned the advice as ridiculous.
Three years ago, tongue-in-cheek Canadian researchers found that some nursery rhymes send dangerously inaccurate messages to young listeners.
They were concerned that characters in popular rhymes suffer major injuries without receiving proper treatment.
The characters include Humpty Dumpty, who had a great fall, and Jack and Jill, who tumbled down a hill.
A similar study by British doctors found nursery rhymes expose children to far more violent incidents than an average evening watching TV.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5079002.stm
Physicist Stephen Hawking and his daughter are to write a science book for children which will be "a bit like Harry Potter", but without the magic.
They aim to explain theoretical physics in an accessible way to youngsters.
Professor Hawking became famous for his bestseller A Brief History of Time, which attempted to simplify cosmology, the Big Bang and black holes.
His daughter Lucy said their forthcoming project would be aimed at people like her own eight-year-old son.
"It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," she said.
She did not provide any further details, nor a likely publication date.
Professor Hawking - a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge - has sold more than 10 million copies of A Brief History of Time since it was first published in 1988.
source
When a little girl wrote to CS Lewis asking him for an explanation of the Chronicles of Narnia, she never expected to get a reply. But the letter Anne Jenkins from Hertfordshire received when she was just 10-years-old is to be displayed in Queen's University's new CS Lewis Reading Room.
Anne wrote to the Belfast born author in 1961 after being intrigued by a particular passage in The Silver Chair.
Recalling that time, Anne said she was fascinated by the books and the mystical world of Narnia.
"I just used to scrutinise them quite carefully and it was a little bit at the end of The Silver Chair, that I just didn't understand what he was saying," she said.
"It was where the dead king Caspian is brought back to life by Aslan the lion's blood and Eustace says 'hasn't he died' and the lion says 'yes he has died, most people have you know, even I have, there are very few people who haven't'.
"For some reason this stuck in my brain , so I asked my parents what does he mean by saying that most people have died?
"They didn't know, so they said that I should write and ask him."
Christian theme
And as far as Anne is aware, her letter is the only known document from the author which supports the argument that Alsan represented Jesus Christ.
Anne said she has often thought about what exactly was in the author's mind at the time he wrote to her.
"I think it must have been the mood he was in at the time, his wife had died a couple of years before, maybe he was just thinking about it a lot at the time," she said.
"I see it as a coincidence, but maybe not."
In the letter Lewis simply states that the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of the "Crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection".
He also explains that the story of Prince Caspian "tells the restoration of the true religion after the corruption".
"If you read the letter he wrote to other children, none of them are like this at all," Anne said.
Anne believes the letter is just too important a piece of historical literature not to be shared with the world.
"The letter could easily have got lost it is just lucky I have kept it safe all of these years, she said.
"The letter is so valuable and really needs to go into the public domain now rather than where I've kept it in a wardrobe, which is quite appropriate."
The letter will be displayed in Queen's University's new £44m library, which is due to open in 2009.
Until then it will be kept in the university library's special collection.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5078462.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl...9274/img/1.jpg
Heart Association Urges Trans Fats Limits
The American Heart Association has become the first big health group to urge a specific limit on trans fats in the diet — less than 1 percent of total calories — in new guidelines released Monday.
Also for the first time, the organization's dietary guidelines include lifestyle recommendations, including an emphasis on getting exercise and not smoking.
A panel of specialists in nutrition and heart disease reviewed more than 90 studies to update the dietary advice the association released in 2000. The guidelines are for healthy Americans ages 2 and older.
Rather than slavishly counting calories and grams of fat, people should try something simpler: getting in the habit of cooking with healthier oils, and balancing calories consumed with calories burned through exercise, said Alice Lichtenstein, a Tufts University nutrition expert who chaired the guidelines panel.
Trans fats, or trans fatty acids such as partially hydrogenated oils, are in many cookies, crackers, breads, cakes, French fries and other fried foods. They contribute to heart disease risk by raising LDL, or the bad cholesterol.
Avoiding them and keeping a healthy diet is challenging while eating out as much as Americans do, panel members noted.
Last week, a consumer group sued KFC to try to get the company to stop frying its chicken in trans fats, and other fast-food chains have been pressured to lower such fats as well.
"Total fat reduction alone is not the only answer. It is important what kind of fat you eat," said Linda Van Horn, a Northwestern University dietitian who helped draft the guidelines.
Among the panel's other recommendations:
_Limiting saturated fats to no more than 7 percent of daily calories, down from the 10 percent formerly recommended and the 11 percent most Americans consume. Saturated fats are in meat and dairy products, and in coconut and palm oil.
_Getting at least half an hour of exercise a day.
_Eating fruits and vegetables (not fruit juices) that are deep in color, such as spinach, carrots, peaches and berries.
_Choosing whole-grain, high-fiber foods.
_Eating fish, especially oily fish like salmon and trout, at least twice a week. (Children and pregnant women should follow federal guidelines for avoiding mercury in fish.)
_Choosing lean meats and trying vegetable alternatives.
_Consuming fat-free and 1 percent fat milk and other dairy products.
_Minimizing calories from beverages and avoiding ones with added sugars.
_Adding little or no salt to foods.
_Drinking alcohol in moderation.
The guidelines were published in the association's journal Circulation. For a free brochure, visit http://www.americanheart.org or call 1-800-AHA-USA1.
source
Life mirrored art - or at least a nursery tale - when a West Vancouver woman came home to find a bear munching oatmeal in her kitchen. The bear was said to have entered the house through an open sliding door, the Vancouver Province newspaper reported.
"It sounds like a nursery rhyme," Sgt Paul Skelton told the paper.
But unlike Goldilocks - caught stealing food in the Three Bears' house in the popular children's story - this bear did not flee when found.
"It appeared to be a one to two-year-old bear - a juvenile - within the kitchen enjoying some oatmeal it had obtained by breaking a ceramic food container," Sgt Skelton said.
"When she saw it, she did the right thing. She vacated the area and called us."
Not aggressive
But the bear paid scant attention as police arrived on the scene, and continued tucking in with little sign of fear or remorse.
"The bear didn't appear to be aggressive and wasn't destroying the house, so they just let it do what it was doing.
"Eventually the bear decided to make its way out of the residence and down toward a forested gully," Sgt Skelton said.
Intrusions are common in the area as bears come out of hibernation, the paper reported, and are happening later than usual this year because of heavy winter snows, according to police.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5097124.stm
Dressed in chic black attire and face covered with a trendy mask, he runs like the wind, leaps over treetops and skyscrapers and fights evil forces with the help of his supernatural powers.
He is Bollywood's very own superhero, in the film Krrish which will hit Indian screens a week before Hollywood's Superman Returns makes its debut.
Well known film director Rakesh Roshan's latest offering has his son and popular actor Hrithik Roshan starring in the film.
Krrish is a sequel to his previous 2003 blockbuster, Koi Mil Gaya (I Found Someone).
Inspired by Steven Spielberg's 1982 feature E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Koi Mil Gaya was about a mentally-challenged young man who meets an alien and is granted supernatural powers by the extra-terrestrial.
Krrish takes the story forward and revolves around the man's son, who is born with similar extraordinary powers and uses them to fight an evil scientist.
New genre
Set in Singapore, the film has the trademark Bollywood song and dance sequences.
Director Rakesh Roshan told the BBC News website that he decided to explore the new genre of an Indian superhero because "nobody else seems to be trying out anything unusual".
"Most of the films revolve around family subjects, dramas and love themes and no one seemed to move away from it," he said.
"I decided I had to take these steps, try something different and raise the bar, increase the standard of films being made here."
Roshan also said a film around a larger-than-life character was possible now because Hrithik fits the bill perfectly.
"Before Hrithik, there was no one I could think of who could play a superhero. His personality and physique made it possible for me to conceptualise such a being," he said.
Eagerly awaited
Indian films have traditionally starred heroes who are capable of extraordinary feats such as fighting any number of men at any given time to emerge victorious. They are also seen jumping out of fast moving trains with as much alacrity as getting atop a galloping horse.
But this is possibly the first time an indigenous hero styled after Spiderman and Superman is being introduced to Indian audiences.
Roshan hired foreign technicians and signed on well-known Hong Kong-based action director Tony Ching Siu-tung, to choreograph all the action sequences.
Siu-tung has already gained recognition for his work in films such as The House Of Flying Daggers, The Hero and Shaolin Soccer.
Krrish was made on a budget of 450 million rupees ($10m) a big-budget film by Bollywood standards.
Trade analyst Vinod Mirani says it is one of the most awaited films of the year because of its novelty and the successful track record of the director.
"We've never had anything like this before.
"Our version of a superhero was Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was constantly portrayed as the saviour of the people. Now film audiences have grown and I think we are ready for something new," he says.
He adds: "Rakesh Roshan has delivered some great hits because he understands the audience and makes even the most unlikely scripts plausible to the people. If he succeeds in doing so with this film as well, then this one will also be as big a hit as his last release."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5098600.stm