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Blog: Pylons ‘may be a leukaemia risk’

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:55:32 +0000

Living too close to overhead power lines appears to increase the risk of childhood leukaemia, researchers say.
A major study found children who had lived within 200m of high voltage lines at birth had a 70% higher risk of leukaemia than those 600m or more away.
But the Oxford University team stressed that there are no accepted biological reasons for the results and that they may, therefore, be chance.
Alternatively, it may be down to the environments where pylons are located.
And they said it did not resolve the debate about whether it was unsafe to live next to power lines.
Around 1% of homes in the UK are estimated to be within 200m of high voltage National Grid power lines.
The researchers said their findings showed living in such close proximity to power lines at birth could account for five extra cases of childhood leukaemia in a total of around 400 that occur in a year – a total of 1%.
The British Medical Journal study did not look at level of exposure to magnetic fields.
But other scientists who have considered the issue have suggested that low frequency magnetic fields, such as those caused by the production of electricity, could possibly be linked to cancer.
However, others have disputed this link. And experts agree that there are likely to be many factors involved in leukaemia, including genes and the environment.
Even if the apparent risk was found to be real, the number of cases of leukaemia that would result would be very few, said the authors.

Blog: Extensive tour

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:29:56 +0000

Mr Stellmaszyk’s only concern is that voters may turn away from an entry that is without a dance routine or gimmickry, but says the song will be a hit with the Eurovision juries.
Music industry experts from all 43 countries will determine half the votes this year, and will be looking for quality of songwriting and delivery – not peripheral novelties or costumes.
The name of a world famous composer is not something they will overlook, while his musical stamp reaches far and wide
Ballads in recent years have fared well, with a simply-staged but emotional performance from Serbia’s Marija Serifovic winning the contest in 2007.
While Lloyd Webber’s Eurovision solution has been revealed, the mission has only just started, which he says he is “101% committed” to.
He has three months to polish the track, work on the staging for Moscow and nurture his protegee, who has a luxurious amount of time to perfect her performance.
And the pair’s pivotal task is to take the UK’s offering on an extensive tour of Europe for the first time.
Jade’s immediate task is to perform her song during Malta’s Eurovision final on Saturday, which is likely to be followed by other appearances aimed at picking up votes.
An early start may help the UK, with some countries not making their decision until mid-March.
The path to the Eurovision final is a long one – and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s task has only just begun.

Blog：superstitions in Britain

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:22:43 +0000

1. Luky to meet a black cat ,Black Cats are featured on many good luck greeting cards and birthday cards in England.
2. Luck to touch wood.
3. Luck to find a clover plant with four leaves.
4. A horseshoe over the door brings good luck ,but the hores shoe needs to be the right way up.the luck runs out of the horse shoe if it is upside down.
5. On the first day of the month it is luky to say “white rabbits ,white rabbits,white rabbits,”before uttering your first word of the day.
6. Catch falling leaves in Autumn and you’re have good luck .every leaf means lucky month next year.
Bad Luck
1. Unlucky to walk underneath a laddr.
2. Seven years bad luck to break a mirror.
3. Unlucky to see one magpie ,luck to see two,etc..
4. Unlucky to spill salt .if you do ,you must throw it over your shoulder to counteract the bad luck.
5. Unlucky to open an umbrella in doors.
6. The number thiteen is unlucky,Friday the thriteenth is very unlucky day ,Friday is Considered to be an unlucky day because jesus was crucified on a Friday.
7. Unlucky to pass someone on the stairs.
8. Unlucky to put new shoes on the table.
Food superstition
When finished eating a boiled egg ,push the spoon through the bottom of the empty shell to let the devil out.
In Yorkshire ,housewives used to believe that bread would not rise if there was a corpse(dead body)in the vicinity ,and to cut off both ends of the loaf would make the Devil fly over the hourse.!
Animals
Animal feature a lot in our superstition as they do in superstitions around the world One ancient British superstition holds that if a child rides on a bear’s back it will be protected from whooping -cough(Bears used to roam Britain but now they are not seen on our shores
In some parts of the UK meeting two or three ravens together is considered really bad .one very english superstition concerns the tame ravens at the Tower of London .it is believed if they leave then the crown of England will be lost.

Blog： ‘Save a fortune’

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:07:52 +0000

The judge also refused to permit either party to raise as an issue the alleged conduct of the other on the broad ground that it was irrelevant.
Ms Mills, who sacked her lawyer and represented herself in court, urged would-be divorcees to do the same thing.
You can be a litigant in person. It’s not easy, but just make sure you do all your research, save yourself a fortune,” she said.
Ms Mills made reference to the £35,000 a year their daughter would receive.
“Beatrice only gets £35,000 a year – so obviously she’s meant to travel B class while her father travels A class, but obviously I will pay for that.”
The settlement equated to £17,000 ($34,000) for every day of the couple’s marriage.
There was speculation why Sir Paul McCartney’s lawyer Fiona Shackleton left the court with her hair looking wet.
The BBC called Heather Mills who said Ms Shackleton had been “baptised in court”, but did not say whether she had thrown water at the lawyer.
A spokesman for Sir Paul McCartney said he would not be commenting on the settlement.
Sir Paul, 65, married the former model and charity campaigner Mills, 40, in 2002 but they split four years later, blaming media intrusion into their private lives.

Blog： Hip operation

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:47:02 +0000

She also feels bitter that the serial sex attacker who took Katerina’s life fled to Britain from Poland where he was under arrest for rape.
A Polish judge gave him three months bail to get a hip operation.
Left unsupervised, he did not have the operation but came to Britain, entering as a tourist, and then becoming an illegal immigrant.
Mrs Koneva said: “I am aware that he had serious criminal convictions and impending prosecutions in Poland.
“Something must be done to ensure that such a thing does not happen again.”
She also felt police would never catch her daughter’s killer.
Two months after Katerina’s killing, Princess Diana died in Paris. Public interest switched away from the murder of a schoolgirl in London.
Two years later the senior officer in the case, Detective Superintendent Hamish Campbell, was switched to the Jill Dando murder inquiry.
“That was when I felt the investigation was over. I felt very angry.”
For Mrs Koneva it is the end of a long vigil.
She attended court each day of Kunowski’s trial and collapsed outside court after hearing the pathologist’s evidence.

Blog：Health questions

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:32:08 +0000

Mr Marr told Mr Brown he wanted to ask about “something everybody has been talking about in the Westminster village… A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?”
The prime minister replied: “No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics.”
He also denied his sight is deteriorating – something he was asked about last week on US television.
The prime minister lost the sight in one eye following a teenage rugby accident and suffers reduced vision in the other eye – but he said he had recently undergone an annual check-up which showed no deterioration in the vision of his good eye.
When Andrew Marr asked again about the issue of painkiller use, the prime minister said: “I’ve already answered that question.”

Blog： Athletic youth

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:02:13 +0000

Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, a 1.68-metre (5′ 6″) fighter pilot, was born in 1965 in Liaoning province, in China’s industrial north-east.
According to official media, he was selected from 14 final candidates, beating two other finalists, Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng, partly because he showed a “calm mental state” during psychological tests.
He has an impeccable class background, being the son of a teacher and an official from an agricultural firm.
According to his older sister, he was an active child who was a keen swimmer and ice-skater. His school record was average, although he did well in sciences.
He joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) when he was 18, and graduated from the No 8 Aviation College.
He has 1,350 flying hours under his belt, and is described as “miraculously dedicated” by his colleagues.
He has been in the astronaut training programme since 1998, and earns a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan ($1,200).
Yang Liwei is married to a PLA officer, and they have an eight-year-old son.

Blog： Advanced equipment

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:48:36 +0000

Li Zengyuan, of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, told BBC World Service’s Science In Action programme that Dragon was primarily about resource managing.
Rice growing and forestry will be mapped; water availability will be assessed, and flood forecasts made; air quality measurements will be taken and the spread of deserts measured.
“We are selecting areas of a small size, to focus and develop our techniques and methodology,” Li Zengyuan explained.
The last few years have seen a number of other collaborations between China and Europe in space. Last year, the Double Star mission was launched to study the Earth’s protective “magnetic bubble”.
“The focus of the co-operation is the exploitation of Esa missions, and specifically the Envisat mission,” explained the agency’s Yves-Louis Desnos.
“We launched [Envisat] in 2002… it’s a unique opportunity to observe numerous geophysical components at the same time.
“This is really what is new about this programme. We can observe at the same time the land, the ocean, the ice and the atmosphere.”
As well the institutes in China, the Dragon Project also involves research centres in Europe concerned with environmental exploitation, including ones in the UK, France and Germany

Blog：Cigar nation faces smoking curbs

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:23:50 +0000

Cuba, the world’s best known cigar-producing country, has announced a ban on smoking in some public places.
The government said public transport, shops and other closed spaces would become smoke-free in early February.
The ban was designed to curb damage to people’s health and contribute to a change in public attitudes, it said.
More than half of Cuban adults are thought to smoke, and 30% of the country’s preventable cancer deaths are said to be linked to smoking.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, once a passionate cigar puffer, gave up the habit in 1986 and has since begun campaigning against smoking.
Cigars still generate $200m annually for the country’s economy

Blog：’Most significant ship’

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:23:11 +0000

Dr Prescott said: “Darwin’s experiences during that expedition critically influenced the development of his ideas about evolution, ultimately revolutionising the way science regards the story of life.
“The Beagle surely qualifies as one of the most significant ships in scientific history. Yet she has been forgotten for almost a century.”
Launched in 1820 from the Woolwich Royal Dockyard on the Thames the 235-tonne vessel was refitted three years later as a hydrographic survey vessel.
It then embarked on its famous career as a survey and scientific exploration ship, circumnavigating the globe twice.
The 90-foot sloop was eventually laid up at Woolwich in 1840.
It was later used by the coastguard service for anti-smuggling duties along the south-east coast of England until it was auctioned for £525 in 1870.
After this its fate remains unclear.
Dr Prescott set up the Beagle Ship Research Group in 2000 after being approached by Professor Colin Pillinger who is leading the UK-based project to land on Mars with the Beagle 2.
After examining documentary evidence, the team ruled out previous suggestions that the vessel had operated from Southend or nearby Havengore Creek.
Dr Prescott said he believed the ship had been broken up either where she sat, or nearby, but the lower part of the hull was unlikely to have been moved far.
“It seems a pair of local likely lads may have purchased the ship, breaking her up where she sat or possibly towing her to a nearby site,” he said.