News

If you think economics is all boring tables and pie charts - all "footsies" going up or down and other seemingly inexplicable events described in the pink bit of the newspaper that most of us discard - think again.

Steven Levitt, an economist at the University of Chicago and editor of the Journal of Political Economy, has won widespread praise and fame on both sides of the Atlantic for making economics, and specifically statistics, exciting.

There isn't a "footsie" in sight in his new book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Instead, Levitt applies economics to everyday life.

Taking something of a surreal approach to stats, his book analyses data to answer such eclectic questions as: Why do crack dealers tend to live with their mothers? Why is a man called DeShawn likely to have different job prospects from a man called Jake?

And the most controversial question of all in the book, is there a link between rising numbers of abortions and falling crime rate? (If you're itching to know the answers, don't worry - all will be revealed in a mere moment.)

Distasteful

Freakonomics has stoked controversy, become an international bestseller and won itself a cult following to boot. It has already topped the New York Times bestsellers' list and the Canadian non-fiction book chart, and Levitt has been hailed even by the normally stuffy Wall Street Journal as the "Indiana Jones" of economics.

"What I do is actually quite simple," he tells me during his whistlestop and, by the sound of things, quite exhausting trip to London to promote Freakonomics, published here this week.

"My book simply shows that you can use data to understand a modern world that seems incredibly complex. We show that, sometimes, you can make a little headway to understanding the world and its weird phenomena if you are armed with some of the ideas of economics, as well as the data."

My book is very politically incorrect, but not purposefully or ideologically incorrect

Steven Levitt
So, to return to the three taster questions posed above. Levitt carried out an economic analysis of a drugs cartel to show that the reason crack dealers tend to live with their mothers is because it's all they can afford.

He found that a crack-dealing outfit is usually a pretty ruthless pyramid-shaped organisation, where those at the top make a lot of cold hard cash but those who dispense the wicked white stuff on street corners tend to earn less than the US minimum wage.

Levitt analysed job market data to show that those with a "black" name - that is favoured by African-America families - such as DeShawn, are likely to have worse job prospects than those with a "white" name, such as Jake.

Why? "The kind of parents who name their son Jake don't tend to live in the same neighbourhoods or share economic circumstances with the kind of parents who name their son DeShawn," he writes in Freakonomics.

"A DeShawn is more likely to have been handicapped by a low-income, low-education, single-parent background. His name is an indicator - not a cause - of his outcome."

Snapshot

Then there is Levitt's economic analysis of abortion and crime rates, which has rattled America. He claims that Bill Clinton's apocalyptic warning of a crime wave in the 90s did not come to fruition because of Roe vs Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling of 1973 that legalised abortion in the USA.

He argues that the women most likely to have taken advantage of Roe vs Wade were poor and unmarried, whose kids - if they had been born - would apparently have "led unhappy and possibly criminal lives".

Do you see where the argument is heading? In a nutshell, Freakonomics claims that legalised abortion killed off many future criminals, using data to show that 20 years after Roe vs Wade there was a dip in the crime rates. It's a distasteful claim and it has stuck in the throats of many in the USA. But Levitt stands by it.


Levitt: Data can reveal a lot
"We simply followed the data and that is where we ended up," he says. "My book is very politically incorrect, but not purposefully or ideologically incorrect. It's just that we went with the numbers, regardless of whether our conclusions might cause offence."

This is a common theme in Levitt's book, indeed he says that relying on data to make sense of seemingly peculiar things is "the only unifying theme of the book".

But can we really hope to understand the world through stats, data, percentages and tables? Can making sense of society and why people behave as they do be reduced to a number-crunching exercise?

Isn't there a danger that Levitt overlooks political and social forces and the fact that people can shape their destinies, even if it's not in circumstances of their own choosing, in favour of turning humanity into something to be studied under a microscope?

Social phenomena

"No one individual could hope to explain everything that is going on in modern life," he says. "But we can offer a snapshot of why certain things happen. The data can reveal a great deal about people and their lives."

To me, this reliance on data is both the strength and weakness of Levitt's book. It is what makes his book fascinating and quirky, providing new ways of looking at old problems. But it also means that social phenomena are only ever described - and described in narrow numerical terms - rather than analysed or potentially resolved.

Indeed, when I suggest that some of the issues highlighted in Levitt's book are as susceptible to political solutions as much as statistical analysis, and that sometimes DeShawns do get as good jobs as Jakes, he responds: "Yes, but we cannot fundamentally reorganise society - that would be politically untenable and too expensive.

"Well, maybe someone smarter than me - one of those true scholars, perhaps - could tell us how the world should be. But I'm interested in using my skills as an economist to describe the world we're in now."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4674897.stm

well, i was in a car crash...roll over. I read in the news another kid rolled his car but everyone in the car died. I walked away with scratches....pretty weird.

glad you're okay, JWright.

Not quite news, but new research on old news (and interesting, nonetheless) --

Cell Phone Use Quadruples Car Crash Risk

TUESDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Drivers distracted by cell phone conversations quadruple their risk of a serious accident, according to new research out of Australia.

The University of Sydney study also found that hands-free mobile phones are no safer than handheld mobile phones while driving.

Researchers analyzed data on 456 drivers who owned or used mobile phones and had been in a traffic crash resulting in injuries requiring hospitalization.

As part of the study, they interviewed the drivers and used phone company records to assess their mobile phone use immediately before the crash and during trips occurring at roughly the same time of day 24 hours, three days, and seven days before the crash. This meant, in effect, that researchers could compare crash risks in the same driver at the same time of day, with the only difference being whether or not they were using their cell phone.

Reporting Tuesday in the online edition of the British Medical Journal, they found that cell phone use occurring in the 10 minutes prior to a crash was linked to a quadrupled risk of having an accident. The researchers also found similar results for the interval of up to five minutes before a crash.

This link between mobile phone use and increased crash risk held true irrespective of driver age, sex, or whether or not he or she was using a hands-free mobile phone, the researchers added in a prepared statement.

(http://articles.health.msn.com/id/100108359)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut Tuesday joined a growing effort to weed out marijuana-flavored candy from store shelves when its attorney general said he would sponsor a statewide ban on "Pot Suckers" lollipops.

Five other states have either banned or are considering a ban on the candy, causing New Jersey distributor ICUP to suspend further sales of the green candy as of June 28.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the candy was being sold in novelty stores in large malls throughout the state, marketed with slogans such as "Every lick is like taking a hit."

The candy, which is flavored with hemp essential oil, does not contain THC, the hallucinogenic compound in marijuana, but Blumenthal called it "a gateway product" that "glamorizes drugs for children."

The candy has been banned by the Chicago City Council and in Suffolk County, New York. The New York City Council and the states of Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia are considering legislation to ban them.

ICUP president Steve Trachtenberg said reaction to the Pot Suckers "borders on ridiculous."

"Is it a novelty? Yes. Was it meant to encourage kids to use drugs? Absolutely not," he said, noting that more than 70 percent of U.S. candy consumption is by adults.

Trachtenberg said that in addition to suspending distribution of Pot Suckers because of the backlash, his company has put on hold plans for related items, including a hemp-flavored chocolate candy Buzz Bar.

Other marijuana-flavored candy products have found their way to the market place in recent months including "Kronic Kandy," made in the Netherlands and sold in the Atlanta area, and items from the Mary Jane Candy Company including "Ganja Pops" and "Icky Sticky Nuggets."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050713/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

In a benchmark study released today, researchers found an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborns, including 7 dangerous pesticides-some banned in the United States more than 30 years ago.....pretty sick stuff or what!?!?

In addition to the pesticides found, chemicals from 2 widely used household products-Teflon and Scotchgard-were found in every baby tested....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JWright

In a benchmark study released today, researchers found an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborns, including 7 dangerous pesticides-some banned in the United States more than 30 years ago.....pretty sick stuff or what!?!? . . . In addition to the pesticides found, chemicals from 2 widely used household products-Teflon and Scotchgard-were found in every baby tested....

---

Wow, that sounds like some scary, twisted stuff.
By the way, you may want to cite your sources, in case of copyright. ;)

A Canadian teenager caught driving at almost twice the speed limit told police he had overdosed on a protein drink and was looking for a toilet. Hayder Mobarak, 19, was caught driving at 195km/h (121mph) on a highway near the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

"I was taking a protein shake and if you overdose it's really painful... I wasn't thinking, I was in pain," he told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

A local judge fined him $760 and banned him from driving for 30 days.

An official from Ontario's provincial police told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that having to go to the toilet was probably the second most common excuse for speeding given to police.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4688133.stm

Woman Gives Birth to Two Sets of Twins

TRENTON, N.J. - LeAnn and Stephen Beloyan struggled for more than a decade to start a family. Then just weeks into LeAnn's pregnancy, they discovered they were having not one, but two sets of identical twins.

"We were elated and overwhelmed, and concerned about how we were going to handle all this," Stephen Beloyan, 39, said Saturday, when two of the babies were expected to go home.

Lauren, Sarah, Benjamin and Samuel each were born a minute apart on June 7 by Caesarean section at Capital Health System's Mercer Campus.

Eight weeks early but otherwise healthy, the newborns weighed from slightly more than 2 pounds to 3 pounds.

"It's been an exciting process and a long process. We're grateful for the attention. We want our kids to know how special and how rare they are," said LeAnn Beloyan, 37, who was put on bed rest 21 weeks into her pregnancy and was admitted to the hospital a few weeks before she gave birth.

Lauren and Benjamin — slightly bigger than their siblings — were expected to go home Saturday. Sarah and Samuel had some minor complications from the premature birth. But doctors say they are growing and are expected to likewise go home soon.

"The prognosis for all the babies is good," said Dr. Naheed Abedin, one of the family's neonatologists.

The Beloyans struggled for 12 years to have children. They turned to in vitro fertilization in May 2004, which increases the odds of multiple births since more than one embryo is often implanted to improve the chances of conceiving.

According doctors at Capital Health System, the odds of having two sets of identical twins from the same pregnancy are anywhere from 1 in 8 million to 1 in 25 million.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/twins_tim...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-)

By Rhys Blakely, Times Online

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the Harry Potter books as "subtle seductions," capable of corrupting young Christians, in two letters which have now been published online.

However, despite criticism from the pontiff, it would appear the boy wizard Harry has built a fanbase close to the headquarters of Catholicism. Amazon.co.uk, the online bookseller, today revealed it had received advance orders for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, published on Saturday, from over 90 countries - including the Vatican.

The Pope's comments were included in two letters to Gabriele Kuby, the German religious author, who had sent him a copy of her book, Harry Potter - gut oder böse? (Harry Potter: Good or Evil?)

In one response, dated March 2003, he wrote in German: "It is good that you enlighten us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable, and precisely because of that have a deep effect and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it could properly grow."

He also thanked the author for her "instructive" book, in which Frau Kuby says the hugely popular Potter novels risk corrupting young people, preventing them from developing a proper sense of good and evil. She argued this could harm a child's developing relationship with God.

In a second letter sent to Kuby on May 27, 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger "gladly" gave his permission for Frau Kuby to make public "my judgement about Harry Potter."

He also encouraged her to send her book to the Vatican prelate.


The letters, parts of which had already been made public, have been published on the LifeSiteNews site just days before the publication of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

"We do note that these letters were written some time ago and certainly way before he became Pope," said Neil Blair, a spokesman for Christopher Little, JK Rowling’s literary agent.

It is not the first time Harry Potter and Pope Benedict have gone head-to-head. Earlier this year the Pope's new book Salz der Erde (Salt of the Earth) overtook advance sales of The Half-Blood Prince in the German bestseller list with a five-figure print run being ordered to meet demand


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...692541,00.html

A Manet uncovered in Swiss flea market?

GENEVA (AFP) - A Swiss antiques dealer believes he has found an unsigned work of master impressionist Edouard Manet, but has run into a brick wall in the labyrinthine corridors of the art world in his bid to get the painting recognised.

Jules Petroz and his wife Aicha made the discovery at Geneva's Plainpalais flea market in 1997. "I'd seen this ordinary pastel-on-paper sitting on the ground for some time. No one wanted it," he said.

"But this time I noticed a small tear in one corner and glimpsed what appeared to be an oil painting underneath. I hid my excitement and bought it for 15 Swiss francs (10 Euros)."

Back home, he ripped off the pastel and he and Aicha gasped at the quality of a painting that revealed a red-headed beauty with bare breasts.

Petroz, who freely admits he is not an expert on impressionists, immediately took the painting to the Geneva offices of Christie's and Sotheby's.

Both houses pronounced it a likely masterpiece and said it resembled the work of Edouard Manet. But they stressed the only way it could be sold or auctioned was to get a certificate of authenticity from the Wildenstein Foundation in Paris, which has exclusive rights to attribute the works of the 19th-century master.

Petroz immediately wrote a letter to what he would discover was one of the world's most powerful and secretive art houses. He enclosed an enlarged photograph of the painting and offered to pay all expenses if Daniel Wildenstein would come to Geneva to inspect it.

Wildenstein's response to Petroz reads in part: "Unfortunately in my opinion the painting you have sent me is not a work of Manet. It resembles the work of a later painter, about 1900, for it certainly does not lack in quality."

Four years later, Daniel Wildenstein died at the age of 84, leaving his vast collection of impressionist paintings estimated at around eight billion dollars to his sons Guy and Alec.

But a few months later, Petroz received a visit from leading Paris art dealer Charles Bailly.

"He came to my apartment to see the painting but gave no reaction and made me no offer at that time."

Bailly called again a few months later. "He said he would be at the Geneva airport that afternoon. 'Bring the painting!' ... But it was too late to get it out of the bank vault.

"I went anyway and he told me 'I know who painted it. Give it to me for six weeks. It should be worth around 3,000,000 francs (about 450,000 euros). I will give you half. Take it or leave it.' I asked him who the painter was but he said he couldn't tell me, so I told him I would leave it."

Bailly, who could not be reached for comment, has in the past denied making Petroz any offers for the painting.

"Of course I'd like some money because I've never had much and if the Wildensteins wait long enough I may get hungry enough to sell it for less than it is worth. They can afford to play the waiting game. I don't know if I can," said Petroz.

He noted that the last Manet sold at Christie's in May for 2.9 million dollars.

In the intervening years, Petroz has done a lot of research on the painting which he believes is of Mery Laurent, a courtesan who was the subject of many other Manets.

He learned that Mery Laurent came by her unusual name because that was the way Dr. Thomas Evans, her British lover and dentist to French royalty, pronounced Marie.

"Around 1874 Evans set Mery up in a building on the rue de Moscou not far from Manet's studio and around the corner from a canvas shop whose stamp is on the back of 'my' portrait. Coincidence? I think not."

Petroz thinks Manet and Mery Laurent became lovers, something neither wanted their 'official lovers' to know about. He speculates this is the reason the painting was hidden or covered up and unsigned.

The painting has also intrigued many art and antique dealers in Geneva and Paris, but when asked about the Wildenstein Foundation and its monopoly on authentication, they all refused to be quoted.

One French dealer in the Louvre des Antiquaires in Paris, insisting on anonymity, explained only a work depicted in the Wildenstein Foundation's "catalogue raisonne" (complete works monograph) is considered authentic and without this seal of approval, no auction house or antique dealer will touch it.

For the moment, it's not at all clear who will certify certain impressionist paintings following the death of Daniel Wildenstein. Sophie Pietri, a curator at the Foundation says there is a committee but when pressed, she referred to the Foundation's extensive files compiled in 1930.

"Monsieur Petroz can always give us the opportunity to give his painting a closer examination including any new information he may have found," she said.

But Petroz says he is afraid to take his painting across the border to France because of outstanding lawsuits against the Wildenstein family and allegations of selling stolen art to Nazi collaborators.

The Wildensteins have called the allegations a misunderstanding, but recently lost a court case against American author Hector Feliciano, who first published the charges in his book "The Lost Museum: the Nazi conspiracy to steal the world's greatest works of art".

Petroz has been advised by people in the art world either to hang the painting on the wall and enjoy it or to sell it for a few thousand euros.

But he has decided instead to present it to art experts and the general public at Geneva's Grand Chapiteau antiques fair October 6-9 on the site where it all started, the grounds of Plainpalais.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/afplifes...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-)

Ever been baffled by the bard? Vexed by his verse? Or perplexed by his puns? London's Globe theatre thinks it has the answer: perform Shakespeare's plays in Shakespeare's dialect.

In August the theatre will stage an "original production" of Troilus and Cressida - with the actors performing the lines as close to the 16th century pronunciations as possible.

By opening night, they will have rehearsed using phonetic scripts for two months and, hopefully, will render the play just as its author intended. They say their accents are somewhere between Australian, Cornish, Irish and Scottish, with a dash of Yorkshire - yet bizarrely, completely intelligible if you happen to come from North Carolina.

For example, the word "voice" is pronounced the same as "vice", "reason" as "raisin", "room" as "Rome", "one" as "own" - breathing new life into Shakespeare's rhyming and punning.

'Visceral' text

Giles Block, the play's director, believes the idea could catch on. He first tried the technique for three performances of Romeo and Juliet last year.

"I think it helps the audiences enter more into the visceral nature of the text. It brings out the qualities of the text, the richness of sound which is closer to our emotions than the way we speak today," he says.

The actors have been coached by David Crystal, one of the world's most prominent language experts. He prepared the phonetic script by meticulously researching the rhymes, meter and spellings within Shakespeare's plays - as well as contemporary accounts of how the language was pronounced.

"We can deduce the value of a vowel from the way words rhyme. We can deduce whether a consonant was sounded from the way puns work," he said in an earlier interview.

For example, in Romeo and Juliet the word "mine" is used to rhyme with "Rosaline" - showing clearly that "Rosaline" rhymed with "fine" rather than "fin", he said.

Toilet humour

Philip Bird, who plays the Trojan king Hector (pronounced 'Ecter), admits the he felt "apprehensive" at first, but he says within a matter of minutes the material becomes "totally understandable". He says the "earthy, gutsy, grounded" accent forces the actors to find different ways of portraying power and seniority.

"When you're asked to play someone who is powerful or of high status, you act class, you act posh - but with this production it is not available because everyone spoke the same way 400 years ago."

But the accent also resurrects some classic Shakespearean puns. Ajax, who is the butt of many jokes in the play, is pronounced "a-jakes" - which, conveniently, is an Elizabethan word meaning toilet.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4694993.stm

Get ready to e-mail this one to your friends...

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050720/...RpBHNlYwM3NTc-)

The American bankers will be kicking themselves because they didn't think of this first! :D

Injecting excitement into the faintly dreary business of using a cash machine may seem a tall order, but one Japanese bank is trying its best. Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank is introducing fruitmachine-style games of chance which run while the ATM processes its more mundane transactions.

Get three sevens, and your withdrawal fee is waived; three golds promise a jackpot of 1,000 yen (£5; $9).

The purpose of the gimmick, says the bank's Yoshi Enami, is simply "fun".

Trying harder

There is a more serious intent, however.

Since Japan's economy turned sour a decade ago, its once-complacent banks have had to work harder to attract custom.

And cash machines have been relatively slow to catch on, not least because most banks still insist on charging for withdrawals.

In order to persuade clients to use their machines, Japanese banks have introduced a range of inventive selling-points.

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, for example, has pioneered biometric security technology, and is working on ATMs that scan the veins in a customer's hand.

Rival Resona, meanwhile, has profited by locating machines at unusual sites, such as race courses and noodle bars.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4700053.stm

Medication Triggered Madness Of King George

LONDON (Reuters) - Far from making him better, the medication used to treat the madness of England's King George III may actually have made him worse, according to research published Friday.

One of the longest serving British monarchs who ruled for nearly 60 years, George had five very public bouts of madness culminating in his death -- blind, deaf and insane in January 1820.

The generally accepted theory has been that his fits of insanity -- the best documented lasting from October 1788 to February 1789 and triggering a constitutional crisis -- were due to a genetic disorder that caused variegate porphyria.

But there was no explanation of why the disease that causes symptoms such as lameness, hoarseness, acute abdominal pain, insomnia and temporary mental disturbances hit so late in his life or why the bouts were so deep and lasted so long.

Now a team of scientists from Britain and Australia have found high concentrations of arsenic in samples of the king's hair and suggested it came from the antimony-based medicine administered -- sometimes by force -- to cure him.

"If George III did indeed inherit the inborn error of metabolism that causes porphyria, he would be sensitised to the effects of arsenic and other heavy metals," they wrote in Friday's issue of the Lancet medical journal.

"Indeed, amounts of toxic metal insufficient to induce frank poisoning would, in all probability exacerbate porphyric attacks in a susceptible individual," they added. "The toxic metal most abundant in our findings was arsenic."

And it was not that the king's physicians were trying to kill him. Even into the 20th century arsenic was widely used as a medicine.

The researchers found that the principal tonic administered to the king during his bouts of insanity was emetic tartar which contained antimony which in turn was commonly contaminated by up to five percent arsenic.

According to medical records of the time, George was sometimes forced to take medicine that would have contained up to nine milligrammes of arsenic a day -- well below a lethal dose but easily enough to cause chronic poisoning.

"The presence of arsenic in a sample of the king's hair provides a plausible explanation for the length and severity of his attacks of illness; and contamination of his antimonial medications is the probable source of the arsenic," the scientists wrote.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050722/...RpBHNlYwM3NTc-)

This article contains a rather startling revelation concerning Papa Hemingway, but you'd never know it from the headline. Whether his claim is true or not remains to be seen.

A rap artist has translated some of the best known works of poet Geoffrey Chaucer into hip-hop to make them appeal to schoolchildren. Canadian Baba Brinkman wants modern teenagers to warm to the 14th-century Canterbury Tales.

He is to tour English schools with his versions of the Pardoner's Tale, Miller's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale.

Some of Chaucer's original bawdier language had to be "toned down" for his young audience.

Miller light

Baba told the BBC News website: "All the themes of rap music are there in the tales: jealousy, anger, greed, lust.

"The Miller's Tale in particular contains a lot of references to genitalia and body humour. Some of it had to be censored to make it suitable for children."

Baba had the idea of converting Chaucer into rap when he was doing a masters' degree on the poet in the late 1990s.

He said: "I tried to keep the rap versions as close as possible to the original, so I went through the tales line-by-line.

"It was a painstaking process to convert Chaucer into a rhyme scheme that young people would like."

The tales have been condensed for performance, but with the aim of maintaining their original sense.

For instance, the phrase "goone towards that village" translates to "hit the streets".

Getting it down

Baba said: "My work is really part of a tradition because Chaucer took his tales from classical literature and put them into the English used in his day. It was an original thing to do.

"The Knight's Tale came from a 10,000-line story from Boccaccio, which Chaucer brought down to 2,000. The rap version takes it to 400 lines.

"I don't want to replace Chaucer's version, which is wonderful, but it should help young people to see how vibrant his stories are and make them more interested."

His visits to classes of 15 and 16-year-olds are part of a Cambridge University project to encourage children to love literature.

Research associate Sarah James said: "Sometimes children find Chaucer's language hard to understand as it's 600 years old.

"Rap is a wonderful way to get through that and hooking them into the stories. Hopefully it will inspire some of them to go further and read the original texts."

Baba's motives might not be very far removed from Chaucer's.

Ms James said: "We know, from several illustrated medieval manuscripts, that Chaucer's works were read aloud for entertainment.

"Most people in those days could not read and even those who could would have found books very expensive.

"Baba is fantastic at conveying the sense of poetry and storytelling."

Chaucer, who lived from around 1340 to 1400, was also a courtier and diplomat.

Six of his tales were adapted into modern-day TV versions for the BBC's Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in 2003.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4721073.stm

Lennon lyric sheet could break record

LONDON (Reuters) - A handwritten song lyric used by John Lennon and found on the floor of a television studio in 1967 is set to fetch 500,000-600,000 pounds ($870,000-$1.04 million) at an auction Thursday, organizers said.

The manuscript is part of a pop memorabilia sale featuring clothes, paintings and musical instruments from Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and others.

The "All You Need Is Love" manuscript was used by Lennon during a television performance by the Beatles and could be seen on film footage dropping to the floor after the song was performed, said Ted Owen, director of auctioneers Cooper Owen.

A girl working for the BBC at the time retrieved the lyric from beneath Lennon's music stand. She has provided a letter of authenticity for Thursday's sale.

"If this lyric reaches 500,000 pounds, and it could well go for a lot more, it would have doubled the world record price (for a pop manuscript)," said Owen.

Other highlights include a military-style tunic worn by Lennon that inspired the Beatles' famous "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" record sleeve.

Owen expects the sale to fetch 1.5-2.0 million pounds and the Lennon memorabilia alone to raise 1.2 million pounds.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050728/...RpBHNlYwM3NTc-)

Australia's foreign minister asked for a date, the US deputy secretary of state played a cowboy, and the Japanese team ran wild with a rugby ball.
But the stars of a skit at a dinner after the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Laos were the Russians, participants agreed.

Dressed as a Jedi knight, Darth Vader, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stole the show.

Cloak-clad and with a lighted sword, Mr Lavrov brought the house down.

Helped by his assistant, Mr Lavrov entertained delegations from the 10-member Asean group by launching a tirade to the tune of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar hit.

Asean, Superstar... Do you think you're what they say you are? Asean, Asean! Why we accept whatever you have done? he chanted.

"We'd have managed better if we'd had it planned. Why'd we chose such a remote Aseanis land?" the Russian minister quipped.

His assistant replied: "You didn't do your homework, it's Asean way. You are too suspicious, their motives are good."

Rugby gag

Other performances included Australian FM Alexander Downer crooning "It's now or never", and US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick belting the Wild West hit "Oh my darling Clementine".

The Japanese - aiming to host the rugby World Cup in 2011 - appeared on stage with a rugby ball.

They chanted that the Asean team can "stand tall and catch the high ball".

However, most of the participants agreed that the Russians were the star performers.

"The Russians were out of this world," Indian diplomat Sanjay Panda was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

The skits are a regular feature of the gala dinners at the end of the annual Asean foreign ministers summit.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4728347.stm

The lighthouse which inspired a Virginia Woolf novel has been saved from closure. Officials from UK lighthouse authority Trinity House had planned to axe the Godrevy landmark near St Ives, Cornwall, by 2010.

However, a public outcry has forced the authority's re-think.

Protesters said closing the site which inspired Virginia Woolf's best known work To The Lighthouse would put lives at risk.

Light dimmed

Trinity House had argued modern navigational aids such as global position systems by satellite meant there was no need for lights.

But after numerous meetings with harbour authorities, fishermen's associations and other organisations in Cornwall, Trinity House said that in the best interests of protecting the safety of mariners the lighthouse should stay.

However, there will be some changes. The power of the light will be reduced to have a range of 10 miles (16km) instead of 12 miles (19km).

But county councillor and Mayor of Hayle Terry Lello, who campaigned to save the light, said it was the right decision that would benefit many sailors; including local fishermen.

She said: "For larger ships I didn't think there was such an issue for them, unless their navigational equipment broke down.

"But this means a huge deal to small craft users who would traverse the northern coast and who don't have that equipment and can't afford it. So this, to them, is securing the future of fishing in Hayle."

The octagonal white tower marks a reef called the Stones and has been in service since 1859.

Woolf's novel To The Lighthouse drew on her memories of childhood holidays in St Ives.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4738211.stm

Bob Dylan's song Like a Rolling Stone has topped a poll of rock and film stars to find the music, movies, TV shows and books that changed the world. The 1965 single beat Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel into second place in the survey for Uncut magazine.

Sir Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Robert Downey Jr, Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Lou Reed were among those who gave their opinions.

Rocker Patti Smith said of the winning song: "It got me through adolescence."

Ex-Beatle Sir Paul picked Heartbreak Hotel as his number one choice. He said: "It's the way [Presley] sings it as if he is singing from the depths of hell. "His phrasing, use of echo, it's all so beautiful. Musically, it's perfect."

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange was the highest-placed movie at number five, followed by The Godfather and The Godfather II films.

The Prisoner was the top-ranking TV series at number 10 while Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road was the highest book, in 19th place.

Actors Edward Norton and Juliette Lewis and ex-Beach Boy Brian Wilson also took part in the poll, marking the magazine's 100th issue.

Uncut editor Allan Jones said: "This list has been a massive undertaking and considering which films have had a greater cultural impact than Bowie, for example, has fuelled many discussions.

"What we have been left with is Dylan as the most seminal artistic statement of the last five decades - but I'm sure others will disagree."

MUSIC, FILMS, TV AND BOOKS THAT 'CHANGED THE WORLD'
1. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
2. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
3. The Beatles - She Loves You
4. The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. The Godfather and The Godfather II
7. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
8. Taxi Driver
9. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
10. The Prisoner
Source: Uncut magazine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/4747739.stm

French Muslim-Themed 'Beurger King' Opens

PARIS - Muslims in France are having it their way with "Beurger King" — a new fast-food restaurant that caters to the country's large Islamic population.

The bright and colorful eatery was launched in July in an eastern Paris suburb crowded with immigrants and dilapidated housing projects. Its name plays on the French word "Beur," meaning a second-generation North African living in France.

The menu at Beurger King Muslim, or BKM, is standard fast-food fare: burgers, fries, sundaes and doughnuts, and prices are comparable to those at major chains. But the beef and chicken burgers are halal — meaning made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws.

Waitresses wear Islamic head scarves, as do many of their customers.

Mouna Talbi, 24, traveled 55 miles to Clichy-sous-Bois with her husband and two small sons to try it out.

"I was so happy to come here that I had tears in my eyes when I walked in," she said, watching her sons climb on colored blocks in the play area as she ate a halal burger.

After the success of Mecca Cola, a soft drink marketed to French Muslims, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a Muslim-themed, fast-food restaurant opened in the country with Western Europe's largest Islamic population.

Talbi's children always clamor for fast food, but this was the first time they've been able to order something other than fish, she said.

"A woman in Muslim dress feels at home here," she said, sitting in a red tunic and matching head scarf.

Three Muslim friends from the Paris suburbs set up the restaurant after seeing similar restaurants in Thailand and Algeria.

They saw a demand for a clean, family-oriented halal fast-food restaurant that would offer an alternative to the big non-halal chains and the many downscale halal street vendors.

One of the founders, Morad Benhamida, 33, said he and his partners worked for almost two years on a business plan to convince French backers.

"I was shocked when my bank manager believed in the project straight away," he said, sitting under an umbrella on the restaurant's terrace.

Burger King, the U.S.'s second-largest fast-food chain, has no restaurants in France, according to its Web site. When asked about the Muslim restaurant, Lauren Hammann, a spokeswoman for Burger King Corp. in Miami, would only say: "We are aware of the matter and we're looking into it."

Benhamida said the business plan showed the halal meat came from reputable wholesalers and was inspected twice daily. But he had not anticipated how successful the idea would be.

"I was very surprised because people really liked the restaurant, so much so that we have tripled stocks since opening a month ago," he said. "It seems like magic."

He is planning to hire eight new employees in fall, expanding his staff of 28.

In an area with high unemployment, people are grateful to find work. Some female employees said they took the job because they were allowed to wear head scarves, unlike workers in other French fast-food restaurants.

Female customers also seemed happy. Cherifa Halimi, 19, sat in a booth sipping drinks with four friends, all dressed in black flowing gowns covering all but their hands and faces.

"There are a few changes they could make to give the place a completely Muslim image," Halimi said. "The television is OK, but there shouldn't be any music.

"But I'd like to work here."

Muslim diners said they felt more misunderstood in France since last month's terror attacks in London.

"Even the media demonizes the image of Islam in this country," Ahmed Talbi said, sitting in a booth opposite his wife. "People are afraid of terrorist attacks here, too."

Customers, including non-Muslims, said the restaurant was not segregating Muslims but showing a normal, peaceful Muslim activity that was open to all.

"Both Muslims and other people feel at ease here," Talbi said. "Maybe this kind of place will help to correct the bad image of Muslims and tell the world to stop talking nonsense about us."

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050806/...ZoBHNlYwM3NTE-)

Wood pigeons in Whangarei, New Zealand, are having to be rescued by locals after becoming drunk. The birds have taken to eating guava berries after a hard winter killed off much of the forest vegetation that forms their normal diet.

However, the berries then ferment and cause intoxication.

A total of 26 birds have been rescued in the last month, said Robert Webb of the Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre.

"The birds are coming into the city to look for food and are eating the guava berries which gets them paralytic.

"We have to sober them up, give them lots of water and fresh liquids and keep them for a few days," he added.

Although the centre has had to deal with double the number of injured wood pigeons than is normal at this time of year Mr Webb expects their drunken antics to tail off in the coming weeks.

"The berries will finish soon and new shoots will grow in the forest and then they can feed there," he said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4131674.stm

"Rocking up" to a restaurant for a "Ruby Murray" is now officially part of the English language, with the phrases making it into the Oxford Dictionary. The latest edition defines rock up as arrive, or turn up, and Ruby Murray as rhyming slang for a curry.

Other new words to make the cut include "lush" - meaning very good - and "phishing", sending fraudulent emails to get hold of personal information.

The old rhyming slang for tea, "Rosie Lee", also makes it for the first time.

And "chav" appears, an increasingly used derogatory word to describe a "young lower-class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of [real or imitation] designer clothes".

New words being added simply reflect the fact that the language naturally keeps expanding, said researchers at the Oxford Dictionary of English.

Lollywood

"To suit the pace of lifestyle there is even a growing tendency to mix words together to make entirely new ones called blends," they said.

A person who approaches passers-by in the street looking for donations or subscriptions to a charity is now officially a "chugger" - a mixture of charity and mugger.

A type of English used by speakers of Hindi - "Hinglish" - is another new entry this year.

And Lollywood joins Bollywood in the English language, this time describing the Pakistani popular film industry based in Lahore.


Vicky Pollard, from the BBC's Little Britain, was the ultimate "chav"

Musical references like "beatbox", "Europop", "J-pop" (Japanese pop music), and "sing-jay" (a Dj who raps and sings) also make the grade.

On the technology front, "chip and pin" (a new way of paying for goods by debit or credit card) makes it into the dictionary, as does "gamepad" (hand-held controls for video games).

"Podcast" (digital recording of a radio broadcast made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player) is also included.

Researchers said the dictionary now included 350 ways of insulting someone, but only 40 expressions to compliment them.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4136108.stm

It costs $100m but conditions will be cramped for the voyage in Soyuz
A US firm that has already sent two wealthy space tourists into orbit is now offering a trip around the moon. Virginia-based Space Adventures was on Wednesday unveiling a deal with Russian space officials for the $100m voyage.

Two passengers will join a Russian pilot for a trip lasting from 10 to 21 days, depending on whether they stop at the International Space Station.

In 2001, financier Denis Tito became the first space tourist, spending $20m on what proved a controversial tour.

Mr Tito's visit to the ISS sparked a row between Nasa and the Russian space agency.

Booster rocket

Space Adventures says its research suggests that between 500 and 1,000 people around the world could afford to undertake the trip, which could go ahead as early as 2008.

The passengers would be sent up in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a vehicle that would be cramped and quite uncomfortable for an extended trip, according to space experts.

Because the craft does not have the power to reach the moon unaided, it would have to dock with a booster rocket sent up separately which would propel it towards the moon.

Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, says the timing of the announcement - a day after the landing of the Space Shuttle - was not a dig at Nasa.

"We believe private space flight and space exploration can go hand in hand," he told the New York Times newspaper.

Another Space Adventures client, Greg Olsen, has been undergoing training for a voyage to the ISS in October. He will be the third space tourist.

South African Mark Shuttleworth visited space in 2002.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4139188.stm

The authorities in the Indian capital Delhi have turned to microchips to tackle the growing problem of stray cows roaming the streets. A court had earlier ordered authorities in south Delhi to offer a reward of $45 to anyone delivering a stray cow.

The authorities then sell the cow to a new owner but they are concerned people might take advantage by bringing back the same cow for the reward.

A $11 microchip in the cow's gut will now show a cow already brought in.

Protected

Commissioner of the local municipal corporation, Rakesh Mehta, said the chips would allow resident welfare associations to determine whether the cow brought to the local authorities was a stray one or not.

"Otherwise, people can sell their own cows for quick money," he said.

Following the earlier Delhi High Court order, a number of cows and buffaloes have been brought to the authorities by people eager to receive rewards.

Cows are revered as sacred among Hindus and are protected by law.

There are nearly 40,000 thought to be roaming the streets of the Indian capital.

Officials say unauthorised dairy farms are one of the main causes.

They say stray cows pose a serious traffic hazard.

This week a woman broke her arm after a cow being chased by residents slammed into her.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4141296.stm

Men do have trouble hearing women, scientists find

LONDON (AFP) - Men who are accused of never listening by women now have an excuse -- women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to than other men's, a report said.

The Daily Mail, quoting findings published in the specialist magazine

NeuroImage, said researchers at Sheffield university in northern England discovered startling differences in the way the brain responds to male and female sounds.

Men deciphered female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engaged a simpler mechanism, it said.

The Mail quoted researcher Michael Hunter as saying, "The female voice is actually more complex than the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx between men and women, and also due to women having greater natural 'melody' in their voices.

"This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male voice."

The findings may help explain why people suffering hallucinations usually hear male voices, the report added, as the brain may find it much harder to conjure up a false female voice accurately than a false male voice.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britains...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-)

Quote:

---

Men who are accused of never listening by women now have an excuse -- women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to than other men's, a report said.

---

And here I was thinking it had something to do with selective attention/hearing! :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scheherazade

And here I was thinking it had something to do with selective attention/hearing! :p

---

Me too, and I belong to the male population! Finally, I have a decent excuse to use when someone accuses me of not listening! :D

Bees prefer floral paintings - even if they have never seen flowers before, scientists have suggested. University of London's Queen Mary college researchers put four paintings - two of flowers - beneath bees' flight paths, and tracked where they landed.

The bees landed on the floral two most. Van Gogh's Sunflowers was favourite.

The study, made on three colonies raised in captivity and which had never seen flowers, was reported in the journal Optics and Laser Technology.

About 11% of approaches to the flower paintings ended with a landing, compared to just 4% with the other paintings, the study found.

As well as Sunflowers, the team showed the bees Paul Gauguin's A Vase of Flowers, Patrick Caulfield's Pottery, and Fernand Leger's Still Life with a Beer Mug.

The bees flew towards the Van Gogh picture 146 times and landed on it 15 times.

A Vase of Flowers produced 81 approaches and 11 landings.

Caulfield's Pottery produced 138 approaches but only four landings.

And Still Life with a Beer Mug attracted bees on 117 occasions, but again only four landings.

Blue appeal

Professor Lars Chittka said: "The results show that the flower paintings have captured the essence of floral features from a bee's point of view, and that these features are recognised by bees that have never been exposed to flowers before.

"Flowers contain all the goods that a bee needs to thrive - pollen and nectar - and selection has therefore favoured bees with 'aesthetic preferences' for those flowers which offer the best bonanzas."

A bee's favourite colour is blue, he added, which is associated with high-nectar flowers.

This could be why the bees were strongly drawn to the blue "Vincent" signature in Van Gogh's painting, as well as the blue blooms in A Vase of Flowers, and a light blue square in Still Life with a Beer Mug.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4150200.stm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mono

Finally, I have a decent excuse to use when someone accuses me of not listening!

---

Yes: 'It is not me, dear! It is your vocal cords/melodious voice!' :D

Google pauses online books plan

Google has put the brakes on its programme to digitise the books in several major university libraries.

In its blog, the search giant said it would temporarily stop scanning copyrighted texts until November to allay concerns about the plan.

The company's library project aims to put millions of volumes online and accessible everywhere via the web.

Google's plan has come under fire from several groups who object to what they say are violations of copyright.

Google is pumping $200m (£110m) into creating a digital archive of millions of books from four top US libraries - the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and of the New York Public Library - by 2015.

It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK's Oxford University.

'Grave misgivings'

Google says the aim is to make the text of the world's books searchable by anyone in the world, especially when it comes to out of print and obscure texts.

"We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher programme in order introduce their work to countless readers around the world," wrote Google Print's Adam Smith on the Google blog.

"But we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too."

In an attempt to assuage concerns about copyright, Google has stopped scanning books which are in copyright until November.

The pause is designed to allow publishers to tell Google which books should not be included in the scanning programme.

But the changes do not seem to go far enough for leading publishers.

The trade body of the US publishing industry, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), said it still has "grave misgivings" about the project.

"Google's announcement does nothing to relieve the publishing industry's concerns," said AAP president Patricia Schroeder in a statement.

"Google's procedure shifts the responsibility for preventing infringement to the copyright owner rather than the user, turning every principle of copyright law on its ear," she added.

link

That should seem like some whiskey!

Bottle of rare Irish whiskey for sale at $182,000

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A rare bottle of Irish whiskey is up for sale at a record 100,000 pounds, making it the world's most expensive single malt.

The whiskey -- spelled whisky in Scotland -- dates from the late 1800s and is believed to be the last surviving bottle from the Nun's Island Distillery in County Galway, western Ireland, which ceased production in 1913.

"It is a lot of money but it's like looking for the last dinosaur really," spirits expert Ken Thomas told Reuters on Friday. "This is surely one of the rarest bottles in the world."

Thomas, who runs a specialist drinks store in southwest England, is selling the whiskey via his Web site -- whiskyandwines.com -- on behalf of its owner, who inherited it.

"This woman walked in with the bottle in an old carrier bag and said she thought it might be worth money, and the more I looked into it the more exciting it became," Thomas said.

He said he believed the whiskey would be in good condition should its eventual buyer actually pull the cork.

"Whiskey is renowned for holding its own," he said.

Irish whiskey is generally smoother than Scotch, due to differences in the processing of the barley from which it is made. It is also often distilled three times as opposed to twice for Scotch, and lacks the "peaty" taste associated with single malts from Scotland.

The previous record price paid for a bottle of "the water of life" was 32,000 pounds, forked out by a businessman in a hotel in southern England two months ago.

The man and his friends reportedly polished off most of the 1943 vintage Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt in an evening.

Earlier this year, a Hong Kong dealer bought six bottles of 1937 Glenfiddich Rare Collection for $48,500 each.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050815/...RpBHNlYwM3NTc-)

A Roman Catholic nun has staged a protest over the filming of the Da Vinci Code at Lincoln Cathedral. Sister Mary Michael knelt in prayer outside the building for 12 hours to object to the production of the film, which stars Tom Hanks.

The 61-year-old believes the film, based on a book written by Dan Brown, contains heresy.

Tom Hanks and the Sony Pictures film crew are believed to have witnessed the nun's protest.

Large donation

Sister Mary Michael said she did not care about the effect on them.

"It matters to me what God thinks, not what the film crew think.

"When I face almighty God at my final judgement, as we all will, I can say I did try my best. I did try my best to protest," she said.

Producers were barred from filming at Westminster Abbey because the book suggests the church is covering up the truth about Jesus' life.

The novel portrays Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene and fathering a child.

The Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, the Very Reverend Alec Knight, stepped in and allowed production there.

The film company offered a donation of £100,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/4155422.stm

Alleged Burglar Caught After Calling Mom

VILLA RICA, Ga. - A home invasion was solved by a phone's redial button when an accused burglar in this west Georgia town allegedly used the phone to call his mother for a ride after breaking in.

According to sheriff's investigator Alan Lee, a resident of Villa Rice returned home Sunday from a few days out of town and was missing credit cards, a check book, cell phone and jewelry. The victim tried hitting redial on her phone, and the mother of 23-year-old Kevin Tucker answered.

The call led to the arrests of Tucker and 18-year-old Brittany Leigh-Anne Smith, said Lt. Shane Taylor. Taylor said a deputy spoke with Tucker's mother, who said the two had called and asked her to pick them up from the residence.

The mother did not pick up the couple, and they spent the night in a motel. Police arrested them at about 12:30 a.m. after they checked out, with the stolen property in their possession. Both were charged, though they claimed innocence.

"Both pointed their finger at each other," Taylor said.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl)

Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a five-year sex ban he imposed on the kingdom's teenage girls a year early. The girls have had to wear large woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity since 2001. These are to be burnt in a huge ceremony on Tuesday.

The sex ban was imposed to fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, at almost 40% of the population.

The king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again.

He took a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife just two months after imposing the sex-ban in September 2001, sparking unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace.

Ban enforced

No official reason has been given about why the sex ban was ended a year early.

The BBC's Thulani Mthethwa in Swaziland says the ban was very unpopular with young Swazis.

He says that few girls in urban areas wore the tassels, known as "umchwasho".

Many were unhappy that King Mswati's daughters were rarely seen wearing the tassels.

But our correspondent says that in rural areas, the tassels were common because the ban was enforced by local chiefs and some schools insisted that girls wore them to get a place.

"I have it in command from his majesty to order all the national flowers [virgins] to converge on Ludzidzini [royal palace] on Sunday so that they can drop the woollen tassels on Monday," said a spokeswoman for Swaziland's girls, Nkhonto Dlamini, in a broadcast on national radio.

King Mswati now has 11 wives and two more fiancees.

His late father, King Sobhuza II, who led the country to independence in 1968, had more than 70 wives when he died in 1982.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/default.stm

Residents of Los Angeles have been hailing a new hero, a fugitive alligator basking in a city lake, which has outwitted captors for over a week. Dozens of local residents have been gathering daily at the lakeside in a city park, hoping for a glimpse of the elusive seven-foot reptile.

Officials have decided to suspend their search, hoping their prey will relax and become easier to snare.

They say they are still confident of capturing the animal.

No-one knows its origins, though authorities in the US city suspect it is an abandoned pet.

Alligators are not native to the state of California.

'Gator therapy'

Jay Young, an alligator wrangler, has made several unsuccessful attempts to capture the creature, nicknamed Carlito and Harbor Park Harry, since it first made an appearance in the lake on 12 August.

Now chasers have decided to take a break, hoping to get the reptile to lower its guard.

"The gator is stressed, and we don't want him scared or sick," Mr Young said.

"We're going to get him back to kind of relaxing and laying on the lily pads and having a good time again, so we're doing therapy for the gator," Harbor Area parks superintendent Ron Berkowitz told local TV.

Visitors have been tempting the alligator with food such as tortillas, French bread and doughnuts, but to no avail. It has not been seen since Wednesday.

T-shirts are on sale with alligator logos.

If captured, the animal will be taken to Los Angeles Zoo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4167866.stm

Gonzo Journalist's Sendoff Set for Sat.

DENVER - Firework shells carrying the sealed ashes of "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson arrived in an armored truck at his mountain home as final preparations were being made for his star-studded farewell.

The shells were scheduled to be launched Saturday night from a 150-foot-tall monument erected behind Thompson's house in Woody Creek, just outside Aspen. The event will be private, open to about 250 invited guests including Thompson's longtime illustrator, Ralph Steadman, and actors Sean Penn and Johnny Depp.

"We haven't noticed a lot of curiosity seekers or pilgrims, but the buzz and the excitement is increasing every hour," family spokesman Matt Moseley said Friday. "People are coming into town, people invited to the event, and I've been getting calls from fans who'll say things like 'I'm coming in from Wisconsin with a case of Chivas.'"

The scotch whiskey was a favorite of Thompson's.

The counterculture writer fatally shot himself six months ago in his home at the age of 67. Friends and family have said Thompson was rundown by pain and physical problems including hip replacement surgery and a broken leg.

Thompson is credited with helping pioneer New Journalism — or, as he dubbed his version, "gonzo" journalism — in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. His most famous work is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," a wild, sprawling satire featuring "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

His widow, Anita Thompson, 32, has said she plans to publish at least three new books of her late husband's unpublished letters and stories and is looking for a permanent archive for his works.

Anita Thompson has said she doesn't want Saturday's farewell to be a solemn event. She said the memorial will include some reminiscence, readings from Thompson's work and performances by both Lyle Lovett and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

She said Depp, who grew close to Thompson after portraying him in the 1998 film version of "Fear and Loathing," funded much of the celebration.

"We had talked a couple of times about his last wishes to be shot out of a cannon of his own design," Depp told The Associated Press last month. "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out."

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050820/...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-)

Convicted felon's 'Cures' tops book charts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He went to prison for fraud and was ordered by the U.S. government to stop touting health products on infomercials, but Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" is a bestseller.

Trudeau, who for years sold snoring remedies and memory enhancers through long-format commercials dressed up as talk shows, says he is a consumer advocate battling the "unholy alliance" of drug companies and government regulators.

"It's all about money. The drug industry does not want people to get healthy," he says in a commercial for his book. Trudeau says he has sold about 4 million copies of the book in under a year, a huge amount for a self-published book marketed initially only through the Internet and television infomercials.

The book -- whose back cover says "Never get sick again!" and "Learn the specific natural cures for herpes, acid reflux, diabetes ... cancer ... and more!" -- has topped the Publishers Weekly nonfiction bestseller list for the past three weeks.

That attracted the attention of the New York Consumer Protection Board, which issued a warning this month that Trudeau promised cures he did not deliver.

"This book is exploiting and misleading people who are searching for cures to serious illnesses," said Teresa Santiago, who chairs the board. "From cover to cover, this book is a fraud," she said, adding that a doctor quoted apparently endorsing the book died in 2001.

Trudeau filed a lawsuit to stop the Consumer Protection Board from approaching TV stations to persuade them not to air his infomercials.

He says he recommends herbs, vitamins and other alternative treatments and, while urging people to consult doctors, lists cures such as shark cartilage for tumors and organic dark chocolate for stress.

"There are multiple ways to cure cancer without drugs and surgery," Trudeau told Reuters, adding that drug companies eschew natural products because they are unprofitable.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine said it is spending over $120 million this year investigating everything from acupuncture to chamomile tea and the
National Cancer Institute spends another $128 million.

'PARANOID FANTASY'

Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who runs a Web site called Quackwatch, described Trudeau's book as "a collection of false ideas" that included dangerous advice such as the claim that sunscreen can cause cancer so it should not be used.

"The danger of the book is it's an attempt to shape public opinion so people don't trust science-based healthcare."

Barrett said he too was suspicious about excessive profits in the drug industry, but said it was "paranoid fantasy" to suggest they would suppress or ignore cures.

"A lot of people are angry because drugs are so expensive," he said, explaining the book's draw. "He's promising magic."

In September, Trudeau agreed to pay $2 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit over his claim that "Coral Calcium" could cure or prevent cancer but admitted no wrongdoing. Trudeau agreed to stop marketing health products but he was allowed to market books.

The FTC called the case an example to "other habitual false advertisers," prompting a lawsuit from Trudeau.

FTC attorney Laura Sullivan said the regulator was watching Trudeau carefully but had taken no action over the book.

Sullivan said the FTC sanction barring him from making infomercials for anything but books was "extraordinary" and followed a string of previous fraud charges that were settled.

Trudeau, 42, was jailed for 22 months in the early 1990s over credit card fraud -- something Trudeau dismissed as nothing more than a youthful indiscretion.

Reader reviews on Amazon.com revealed strong opinions, including complaints that his book refers readers to his Web site for more information.

Trudeau's site offers monthly membership at $9.95 and lifetime membership for $499. He said he charges because he takes no advertising and he spends $1.5 million a week on infomercials.

"I'm doing this virtually as a nonprofit," he said. "I'm not doing this for the money. It's a passion."

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050822/...RpBHNlYwM3NTc-)

Woman Offended by Doc's Obesity Advice

ROCHESTER, N.H. - As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' "

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern. The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate.

Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

Bruce Friedman, chairman of the board of medicine, said he could not discuss specific complaints. Assistant Attorney General Catherine Bernhard, who conducted the investigation, also would not comment, citing state law that complaints are confidential until the board takes disciplinary action.

The board's Web site says disciplinary sanctions may range from a reprimand to the revocation of all rights to practice in the state.

"Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone," said board member Kevin Costin.

Other overweight patients have come to Bennett's defense.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," Mindy Haney told WMUR-TV on Tuesday. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but acknowledged that she initially didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Doctor Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050824/...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-)