Mice star as Olympic food tasters
White mice are to take part in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - their task to protect international athletes from food poisoning. The mice will be fed milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil and seasonings, the city's health inspectors said.
Mice show adverse reactions within 17 hours, while laboratory tests take much longer, they said.
Poor hygiene in food handling and low standards in distribution have made food poisoning rife in China.
The move is part of the huge effort the Chinese are making to ensure the showpiece event passes off smoothly.
24-hour guard
All the food and ingredients to be prepared in Olympic kitchens will fed to the mice a day before they are served to athletes, state news agency Xinhua quoted Zhao Xinsheng of the Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau as saying.
Infected food can then be traced and destroyed in time.
More than 10,000 competitors will be staying at the athletes' village during the Games.
The kitchens will also have 24-hour guards, storage will be constantly monitored and transportation will have global positioning systems.
Zhen Xiaozhen, of the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, said the food served would be Western, complemented by Chinese dishes.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says nothing is being allowed to stand in the way of the perfect Olympics.
Stray cats and dogs will vanish from the streets, he says, and anti-aircraft guns, small planes and rockets will be used to disperse rain clouds, ensuring there will be blue skies over Beijing for the duration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/6153382.stm
Chris, 12, is pint-sized barman
A Doncaster pub has the country's youngest bartender - Chris Hardacre, who is just 12 years old. His father David is licensee of the Star but Chris has just passed all the exams to rival him.
The law now allows him to serve behind the bar - with adult supervision - but not to drink the profits.
He gained his National Licensees' licensing certificate after studying for only a few weeks and is now qualified to dispense the ales.
"I just like being around the pub," said Chris. "It's a good atmosphere and the people are nice.
"I thought it would be a good idea to study all about it."
His proud father said his son approached him with the idea, so they sent away for all the information.
"He studied the law and spent three weeks revising before the exam - and passed."
Regulars at the Star said they liked the father-and-son combination, though all said Chris was better-looking than his dad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/s...re/6193924.stm
Germany plans adults' playground
In Germany plans have been suggested to build a new playground - not for children, but for elderly people.
The authorities in the city of Nuremberg are hoping to get enough funding for a playground tailored to suit the needs of the elderly.
They would incorporate activities to keep fit and stimulate the mind. If it proves a success, the idea could be adopted across the country.
If children can go to a playground, then why not pensioners as well.
This is the argument put forward by Horst Foerther, the deputy mayor of Nuremberg, who is planning to build the playground.
It will have giant chess boards, areas for card-playing and, for the more adventurous, it will have a running track and even a badminton court.
But there will be no swings or slides - the aim is to help elderly people keep fit and stop them getting bored.
Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe - with an ever growing number of pensioners, experts have often warned that a demographic crisis is looming in the not too distant future.
"This country in two decades in the future will be a country of old people, a country of less innovative potential in the economy, a people living from the social systems and a country which is not compared to that what Germany was in the past," says Professor Klaus Bade, a researcher at Osnabrueck University.
The deputy mayor of Nuremberg, Horst Foerther, said he got the idea of a playground for the elderly after travelling to Hong Kong.
He said he saw many pensioners practising Tai Chi outside in parks and realised that elderly people in Germany could benefit from more social activities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6204292.stm
UK's Vicky Pollards 'left behind'
Britain's teenagers risk becoming a nation of "Vicky Pollards" held back by poor verbal skills, research suggests. And like the Little Britain character the top 20 words used, including yeah, no, but and like, account for around a third of all words, the study says.
Lancaster University's Professor Tony McEnery who conducted the research said vocabulary size was defined early on.
His study of blogs, questionnaires and speech found teenagers used half the words of average 25 to 34-year-olds.
His study of a database of teenage speech suggested teenagers had vocabulary of just over 12,600 words compared with the nearly 21,400 words that the average person aged 25 to 34 uses.
Prof McEnery said in his study: "Of note when examining the word 'no' is the frequency with which the word is accompanied by the word 'but'.
"These words occur in the sequence 'but no' or 'no but' almost twice as frequently in teenage speech as it does in young adult or middle aged speech."
The sequence is particularly reminiscent of Vicky Pollard's trademark "Yeah but, no but".
"I think it was extremely well observed as most comedy often is.
"When things are funny it is because they ring true with people," said Prof McEnery who conducted the research conducted by Tesco Internet phone.
Verbal skills
But he says there is a serious point to the research, which is to highlight what he sees as the neglect of verbal communication skills in schools.
"While the school curriculum shows a strong focus on literacy, speech has been relatively neglected in the curriculum," he said.
Employers often complained that new employees were unable to answer the telephone in the formal way required of them for work and that they were also intimidated by speaking formally in meetings, the professor added.
He put this down to a lack of training and the overuse of technologies such as computer games and MP3 players.
"This trend, known as technology isolation syndrome, could lead to problems in the classroom and then later in life.
"Employers are already complaining that first jobbers are lacking basic verbal communication and it seems things could be set to get worse.
"Kids need to get talking and develop their vocabulary."
Tesco, which commissioned the report, said it was responding by launching a scheme which allows all UK comprehensive schools to interact and communicate with other schools around the country using its internet phone technology.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6173441.stm
Mass mouse escape on Saudi plane
More than 100 passengers on a Saudi plane were left panic-stricken by the unexpected appearance of furry fellow flyers - dozens of mice. The small rodents - about 80 in total, according to a local newspaper - escaped from the bag of a man travelling on the domestic flight.
An airline official said the aircraft was at 28,000 feet (8,500m) when mice began scurrying around the cabin.
Some of the mice fell on passengers' heads, Al-Hayat newspaper reports.
The incident occurred on a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from the capital, Riyadh, to north-eastern town of Tabuk.
The flight landed safely and the bag's owner was detained by police investigating how he managed to get the mice onto the plane.
No explanation was given for the man's live cargo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/6183587.stm
Japanese finds scorpion in jeans
A Japanese woman trying on a pair of jeans in a shop got a shock when she was stung by a scorpion hidden inside. The woman, on the southern island of Okinawa, ended up in hospital for five days as a result of the sting, which was not life-threatening.
Local health officials captured the 5cm (2 inch) scorpion, which was believed to be a Chinese bark scorpion.
It is thought to have travelled inside the jeans from China, where they were made.
Officials told the Mainichi Daily News that the woman, who was not named, felt a sudden pain in her right knee as she tried the trousers on.
When she rubbed the area with her hand, the scorpion then stung her right index finger.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/6192373.stm
Europe's 'biggest dinosaur' found
Fossils found in Spain belong to what was probably Europe's biggest ever dinosaur, according to scientists.
Turiasaurus would have been 30 to 37 metres long, and would have weighed between 40 and 48 tonnes.
Writing in the journal Science, researchers say the beast is probably the only member so far discovered of a European group of Jurassic reptiles.
The world's biggest recorded dinosaur is Argentinosaurus, a South American reptile twice as heavy.
Like the rest of the giant long-necked sauropods, Turiasaurus riodevensis was a herbivore, despite the fierce appearance of its teeth.
Big-boned
Fossils came to light in 2004 at Teruel in eastern Spain, and the scientists responsible, from the Fundacion Conjunto Paleontologico de Teruel-Dinopolis, have just published a formal analysis.
Although languishing some way behind Argentinosaurus, Turiasaurus was a substantial specimen.
At 1.79m long, its humerus (upper arm bone) is one of the largest ever recorded, while one of its claws is comparable with a rugby ball or American football.
The discovery site also contains teeth from theropod dinosaurs, Stegosaurus remnants, and fragments from fish and turtles.
By comparing its features with other European dinosaurs, the scientists deduce that it belongs to a previously unknown clade, or grouping, which evolved in the Jurassic period (200 to 145 million years ago).
Teeth excavated in France, Portugal and the UK are similar, indicating that Turiasaurus, or more likely its close relatives, ranged across the continent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6201251.stm
