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China fears Everest is shrinking
By Louisa Lim
BBC News, Beijing
China is to re-measure the world's tallest peak, Mount Everest, because of fears it may be shrinking. A recent survey found the summit had dropped by 1.3 metres (4 ft) because of global warming.
The height of the mountain, which lies on the border between China and Nepal, has long been a subject of controversy.
It was first measured in 1954 by an Indian surveyor, who used an optical instrument called a theodolite and calculated Everest to be 8,848m tall.
But in 1999, American scientists re-measured the mountain using global positioning satellite technology.
They - and the National Geographic Society - concluded that the peak was two metres higher.
But now global warming is melting glaciers on the world's highest mountain, apparently causing it to shrink.
Chinese scientists will map Everest in March to check estimates that it is more than a metre shorter than before.
No matter how big it really is, Mount Everest's height is unlikely to stay constant.
The movement of the earth's tectonic plates is forcing the Himalayas upwards, reportedly causing Everest to grow by about a centimetre every year.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4204539.stm)
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'Alexander,' 'Catwoman' Lead Bad Pix Nominations
By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This could be the year in which Alexander the Great conquers Catwoman and President Bush (news - web sites) wins a prize as worst actor.
Nominations for the 25th annual Razzies, which honor the worst films of the year, were announced on Monday with "Catwoman," the Halle Berry box office bomb, besting "Alexander," Oliver Stone's much maligned tale of the bleached blond conqueror, by seven nominations to six.
In addition, the president made the list for worst actor for his film clip appearances in "Fahrenheit 9/11," a movie he might well consider the worst of the year. Also nominated for their appearances in the politically-charged film about the Iraq (news - web sites) war were Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The Razzies are a traditional spoof award made at Oscar time by the non-profit Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. The group's prizes are given out on Feb. 26, the day before the Oscars (news - web sites). Never has one of its films gone on to win an Oscar.
"Catwoman" and "Alexander" were nominated for Worst Picture, a category which also drew "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2," Ben Affleck's career-eroding "Surviving Christmas," and "White Chicks," the Wayans brothers dress-up, gender-bending comedy that left critics cold.
Bush was nominated for worst actor along with Affleck for "Surviving Christmas" and "Jersey Girl," Vin Diesel for "Chronicles of Riddick," Colin Farrell for "Alexander." Ben Stiller was nominated for "Along Came Polly," "Anchorman," "Dodgeball," "Envy" and "Starsky & Hutch."
Halle Berry was nominated for worst actress for "Catwoman," Hilary Duff for "Cinderella Story" and "Raise Your Voice," Angelina Jolie for "Alexander" and "Taking Lives," Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for "New York Minute" and Shawn and Marlon Wayans in their incarnation as the Wayans sisters in "White Chicks."
The nominations for worst screen couple include: Ben Affleck and either Jennifer Lopez or Liv Tyler in "Jersey Girl," Halle Berry and either Benjamin Bratt or Sharon Stone in "Catwoman, George W. Bush and either Rice or his pet goat in "Fahrenheit 9/11," the Olsen twins in "New York Minute," the Wayans Brothers, in or out of drag, in "White Chicks."
Worst supporting actress were Carmen Electra for "Starsky & Hutch," Jennifer Lopez for "Jersey Girl," Rice for "Fahrenheit 9/11," Britney Spears for her cameo role in that same movie and Sharon Stone for "Catwoman."
Val Kilmer was nominated for worst supporting actor for "Alexander." Also nominated were California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) for "Around The World in 80 Days," Rumsfeld for "Fahrenheit 9/11," Jon Voight for SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2" and Lambert Wilson for "Catwoman."
"Catwoman" led with seven nominations to six for Alexander, five for "Fahrenheit 9/11," five "White Chicks," and four for "SuperBabies."
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ure_razzies_dc)
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'Aviator' Gets 11 Academy Award Nods
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The Howard Hughes epic "The Aviator" led Academy Awards (news - web sites) contenders with 11 nominations Tuesday, including best picture, plus acting honors for Leonardo DiCaprio (news), Cate Blanchett (news) and Alan Alda (news) and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.
The boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby" and the J.M. Barrie tale "Finding Neverland" followed with seven nominations each, among them best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood (news), Morgan Freeman (news), Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp (news).
Eastwood also got a directing nomination for "Million Dollar Baby."
The other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait "Ray" and the buddy comedy "Sideways."
Along with Eastwood, Jamie Foxx (news) also scored two nominations, as best actor for the title role in "Ray" and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in "Collateral."
Foxx's dead-on emulation of Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.
Starring as aviation trailblazer and Hollywood rebel Hughes, DiCaprio also was nominated for best actor. He and Foxx will compete against Depp as "Peter Pan" playwright Barrie in "Finding Neverland"; Eastwood as a cantankerous boxing trainer in "Million Dollar Baby"; and Don Cheadle for "Hotel Rwanda," starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.
The best-actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for "Boys Don't Cry" over Annette Bening (news), who had been the front-runner for "American Beauty."
This time, Swank was nominated as a bullheaded boxing champ whose life takes a cruel twist in "Million Dollar Baby." Bening was chosen for "Being Julia," in which she plays an aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival.
Both actresses won Golden Globes for the roles, Swank for best dramatic actress, Bening for actress in a musical or comedy.
Also nominated for the best-actress Oscar were Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in "Maria Full of Grace"; Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in "Vera Drake"; and Kate Winslet as a woman who has had memories of her ex-boyfriend erased in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Joining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees are Taylor Hackford for "Ray"; Mike Leigh for "Vera Drake"; and Alexander Payne for "Sideways."
Scorsese, arguably the most prominent modern filmmaker who has never won an Oscar, also has never delivered a best-picture winner. Considered a nominal best-picture favorite, "The Aviator" offers him a shot to finally triumph on Oscar night, though Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a formidable competitor.
"The Aviator" won the Golden Globe for best-dramatic film, but Eastwood beat out Scorsese for the directing prize at the Globes. Eastwood is a past Oscar winner for best-picture and director with 1992's "Unforgiven."
Along with Foxx in "Collateral," Alda was nominated for supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in "The Aviator" while Freeman was picked as a worldly-wise ex-boxer in "Million Dollar Baby." The other nominees: Thomas Haden Church as a bridegroom out for a final fling in "Sideways"; Clive Owen as a coarse lover in "Closer."
For supporting actress, academy voters picked Blanchett, who plays Katharine Hepburn (news) in "The Aviator"; Laura Linney as the title character's sexually adventurous wife in "Kinsey"; Virginia Madsen as a deceived lover in "Sideways"; Sophie Okonedo as innkeeper Rusesabagina's wife in "Hotel Rwanda"; Natalie Portman as a gutsy stripper in "Closer."
It was the best year ever for black performers, who had five of the 20 acting nominations. The most previously was three, including the 2001 Oscars (news - web sites) when Halle Berry (news) and Denzel Washington both won the lead acting prizes.
"Sideways" star Paul Giamatti (news) was overlooked for a nomination, a surprise given that he had been a contender for most previous film honors. Liam Neeson, who had the title role in "Kinsey," also missed out, as did the movie, which had considered a best-picture contender.
Mel Gibson (news)'s religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" missed out on main categories, but did pick up nominations for cinematography, makeup and original score.
Michael Moore's gamble to hold his hit film "Fahrenheit 9/11" out of the documentary category — to boost its best-picture prospects — backfired. The movie was shut out across the board.
Moore won the documentary prize two years ago for "Bowling for Columbine."
Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me," which hilariously chronicles his monthlong feed frenzy on an all-McDonald's diet, was among the documentary nominees.
Also nominated was "Born into Brothels," "The Story of the Weeping Camel," "Tupac: Resurrection," and "Twist of Faith."
With its epic scope and dazzling re-creation of early Hollywood, Scorsese's "The Aviator" could claim the inside track as front-runner for best picture. The film won the Golden Globe for best dramatic picture.
Yet unlike last year, when "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" went in as the odds-on favorite and swept all 11 of its categories come Oscar night, the outcome is more uncertain this time.
"The Aviator" could finally bring Scorsese the best-picture and directing wins that have eluded him during his distinguished career. But Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a heavyweight opponent that could spoil Scorsese's chances.
The fairy-tale comedy "Shrek 2" and the superhero adventure "The Incredibles" will duke it out for the animated feature film Oscar, along with the undersea romp "Shark Tale."
Nominated for foreign-language film were Sweden's "As It Is in Heaven," France's "The Chorus," Germany's "Downfall," Spain's "The Sea Inside" and South Africa's "Yesterday."
Nominees in most categories are chosen by specific branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites), such as directors, actors and writers. The full academy membership of about 5,800 is eligible to vote in all categories for the Oscars themselves.
ABC will broadcast the Oscars live Feb. 27 from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. Chris Rock is the show's host, the first time since 1996 that either Billy Crystal (news), Whoopi Goldberg (news) or Steve Martin has not been master of ceremonies.
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ar_nominations)
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Tobacco spit catches truck thief
A US man who stole a lorry was arrested after he choked on the truck driver's tobacco spit which he mistook for a drink.
The 26-year-old man stole the lorry, which had been left with the engine running, from a shopping centre in Vancouver, Washington.
He mistook the absent driver's tobacco-spit cup for a soft drink and took a swig, reports the Columbian.
The thief started choking and had to stop and call 911 for medical help, according to a Vancouver police department report.
Meanwhile, the driver, who had left the truck to wash his hands, had returned to see someone driving off and called police who quickly caught up with the man.
(http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1245833.html?menu=)
oops! :goof: no idea what the link is about!
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LOL... what's that linky? 'be sure to respond' nudge? *giggles*
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i want to see "Born into Brothels."
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State Senator Wants Cockfights, with Gloves
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors.
The Oklahoma legislature outlawed the blood sport in 2002 because of its cruelty to the roosters, which are slashed and pecked to death while human spectators bet on the outcome.
But State Sen. Frank Shurden, a Democrat from Henryetta and a long-time defender of cockfighting, said the ban had wiped out a $100-million business.
To try to revive it, he has proposed that roosters wear little boxing gloves attached to their spurs, as well as lightweight, chicken-sized vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits and help keep score.
"It's like the fencing that you see on the Olympics, you know, where they have little balls on the ends of the swords and the fencers wear vests," said Shurden. "That's the same application that would be applied to the roosters."
Janet Halliburton, president of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, which led the drive for the 2002 law, said Shurden is really seeking to loosen the ban.
"What this is going to do is make a platform for him to continually try to amend the existing ban," Halliburton told The Oklahoman newspaper.
The State Senate will consider Shurden's proposal next month
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ng_oklahoma_dc)
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Turin shroud 'older than thought'
The Shroud of Turin is much older than suggested by radiocarbon dating carried out in the 1980s, according to a new study in a peer-reviewed journal. A research paper published in Thermochimica Acta suggests the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old.
The author dismisses 1988 carbon-14 dating tests which concluded that the linen sheet was a medieval fake.
The shroud, which bears the faint image of a blood-covered man, is believed by some to be Christ's burial cloth.
Raymond Rogers says his research and chemical tests show the material used in the 1988 radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage.
This was responsible for an invalid date being assigned to the original shroud cloth, he argues. "The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud relic," said Mr Rogers, who is a retired chemist from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US.
Fire damage
He says he was originally dubious of untested claims that the 1988 sample was taken from a re-weave.
"It was embarrassing to have to agree with them," Mr Rogers told the BBC News website.
The 4m-long linen sheet was damaged in several fires since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a church blaze in 1532.
It is said to have been restored by nuns who patched the holes and stitched the shroud to a reinforcing material known as the Holland cloth.
"[The radiocarbon sample] has obvious painting medium, a dye and a mordant that doesn't show anywhere else," Mr Rogers explained. "This stuff was manipulated - it was coloured on purpose."
In the study, he analysed and compared the sample used in the 1988 tests with other samples from the famous cloth.
In addition to the discovery of dye, microchemical tests - which use tiny quantites of materials - provided a way to date the shroud.
These tests revealed the presence of a chemical called vanillin in the radiocarbon sample and in the Holland cloth, but not the rest of the shroud.
Vanillin is produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound found in plant material such as flax. Levels of vanillin in material such as linen fall over time.
'Older date'
"The fact that vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibres, Dead Sea scrolls linen and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old," Mr Rogers writes.
"A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old."
In the 1988 study, scientists from three universities concluded that the cloth dated from some time between 1260 and 1390. This ruled it out as the possible burial cloth that wrapped the body of Christ.
That led to the then Cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, admitting the garment was a hoax.
Michael Minor, vice-president of the American Shroud of Turin Association for Research commented: "This is the most significant news about the Shroud of Turin since the C-14 dating was announced in 1988.
"The C-14 dating isn't being disputed. But [the new research] is saying that they dated the rewoven area."
But since the announcement of the results, several attempts have been made to challenge the authenticity of these tests.
"The sample tested was dyed using technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the crusaders' last bastion fell to the Mameluke Turks in AD 1291," said Mr Rogers.
"The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about AD 1290, agreeing with the age determined in 1988. However, the shroud itself is actually much older."
Some now hope the Vatican will give approval for samples of the shroud to be re-tested.
But, says Mr Minor, "the church is very hesitant, very reluctant for that to be done, because they've been given so many conflicting opinions".
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4210369.stm)
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A new family in the neighbourhood :eek:
Shed skin sparks hunt for snake
The shed skin and two eggs of a snake have been found in a residential street in East Sussex, leading to fears that a python could be on the loose.
They were found in a back garden in Leicester Villas in Hove, three months after notices went up alerting the public that a snake had gone missing.
The posters about the missing pregnant Burmese python that had escaped from a home nearby were thought to be a hoax.
Snake expert Jeremy Adams, who saw the skin, said: "My hunch is it is dead."
The assistant keeper of natural sciences at the Booth Museum, in Brighton, said he believed the cold winter weather would have killed the python.
He added that he could not confirm if it was the skin of a Burmese python, or when it might have been shed.
Burmese pythons feed on rats, mice and small animals, and can reach more than 20ft in length in the warm.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/s...es/4214089.stm)
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The Cop Without a Clue...
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish police officer has confessed he robbed a bank and later investigated the crime himself, telling reporters at the time police had no clues.
A court in the central town of Bollnas Monday officially charged the 36-year-old for the armed robbery on Dec. 17, court documents said Tuesday, adding he had pleaded guilty.
The amount of money stolen was not disclosed but was described as sizeable. An hour after the crime the police officer returned to the bank as a leading police investigator handling the case.
Colleagues became suspicious when he bought a new car in mid-January, paying 219,000 Swedish crowns ($31,400) in cash using banknotes from the robbery, the court said.
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...weden_crime_dc)
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Any insomniacs?
Listen to music to help you sleep
Forget counting sheep, next time you are having trouble dropping off to sleep try putting on a jazz CD. Researchers have shown just 45 minutes of relaxing music before bedtime can make for a restful night.
The Taiwanese researchers studied the sleeping patterns of 60 elderly people with sleep problems. They told the Journal of Advanced Nursing, how the technique was easy to learn and lacked the side-effects of other treatments.
The study participants were either given a choice of music to listen to before going to sleep or nothing at all.
The music group were able to choose from six tapes that featured soft, slow music - around 60-80 beats per minute - such as jazz, folk or orchestral pieces.
Listening to music caused physical changes that aided restful sleep, including a lower heart and respiratory rate, the researchers found.
Sweet dreams
The people in the music group reported a 35% improvement in their sleep, including better and longer night-time sleep and less dysfunction during the day.
Lead author Professor Hui-Ling Lai, of the Buddhist Tzu-Chi General Hospital and the University of Taiwan, said: "The music group reported a 26% overall improvement in the first week and this figure continued to rise as they mastered the technique of relaxing into sedative music."
Professor Jim Horne, from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, said: "If anyone is a bit agitated before they go to bed then anything that can help calm them down and relax is a good thing.
"Some say making sure older people sleep less in the afternoon and get plenty of exposure to daylight can help them get a better night's sleep."
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4228707.stm)
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Japan snaps up 'lucky' Kit Kats :brow:
Students in Japan have reportedly caused sales of Kit Kat bars to soar, by adopting them as lucky charms. The name of the chocolate bar resembles a Japanese expression - "kitto katsu" - used by students to wish each other luck before exams. The phrase has been translated roughly as: "I hope you will win."
Kit Kat has introduced a range of flavours designed for the famously sweet-toothed Japanese market, including green tea flavour. Other variations include passion fruit, white chocolate, and lemon cheesecake.
Determined pupils
The multinational food company Nestle, which makes the bar, said it had noticed a surge in demand.
"We're finding that parents are buying them for their children for exam days," Yuko Iwasaki, a spokesman for Nestle Japan, told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"But also some determined pupils are buying Kit Kats for themselves as a sort of reminder that they are really going to give these exams their best shot," he added.
The Kit Kat was invented by Britain's Rowntree confectionery company back in 1935, but until 1937 was called the Chocolate Crisp.
The Kit Kat name is thought to derive from a club of the same name in 1920s London.
It has long been the most popular chocolate bar in the UK.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4230471.stm)
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