Taxi please!

19 April 2011 - Nasa has given an indication of the companies it thinks may be closest to offering commercial systems to carry American astronauts into space. With its shuttles about to retire, the agency has offered $270m (£166m) of funds to four firms to help them mature designs for new orbiting vehicles. Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp and SpaceX hope to sell astronaut "taxi" services to Nasa by mid-decade. Until then, US crews will have go to the space station on Russian rockets. "The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a US commercial provider," said Ed Mango, Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme manager. "The partnerships Nasa is forming with industry will support the development of multiple American systems capable of providing future access to low-Earth orbit." The winning companies have a range of concepts under developments.

Tut's Trumpet

18 April 2011 - Tutankhamun's trumpet was one of the rare artefacts stolen from the Cairo Museum during the recent uprising, adding poignancy to a story from the early days of BBC Radio and an attempt to recreate its original sound. Among the "wonderful things" Howard Carter described as he peered by candlelight into the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 were two trumpets, one silver and one bronze. For more than 3,000 years they had lain, muted, in the Valley of the Kings, close to the mummy of the boy king. Found in different parts of Tutankhamun's tomb, both were decorated with depictions of Egyptian gods identified with military campaigns. Both became exhibits at the Cairo museum, but when it was broken into during the recent uprising, the bronze instrument vanished. Luckily, the silver one was away on exhibition tour. Egyptologists were already reeling from the loss of many of the country's antiquities, and many found the theft of one of the oldest surviving musical instruments in the world particularly poignant. Many such objects would have been looted and melted down in ancient times, says Oxford Egyptologist Margaret Maitland. "There was a real lack of precious metal so there was systemic retrieval," said Ms Maitland. The trumpet was recently found - reportedly with other Tutankhamun artefacts in a bag on the Cairo Metro.

Statue of Liberty

17 April 2011 - The US Postal Service regrets issuing a stamp featuring a photo of a Las Vegas casino's replica Statue of Liberty rather than the original in New York harbour, a spokesman has said. But the postal service printed three billion of the first-class stamps and will continue to sell them, he said. And the agency would have selected the photograph anyway, he said. A stamp collector discovered the mix-up after noting discrepancies between the stamp image and the copper original. The mix-up was first reported by Linn's Stamp News, a publication for philatelists. It points out that the photo used on the stamp shows a rectangular patch on the crown that is present on the 14-year-old statue at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, but not on the 305ft (93m) copper statue in New York. In addition, the facial features on the Las Vegas replica are more sharply defined than on the original.

One Year Blogging

16 April 2011 - It's official: in a few days I will be one year blogging away. It has been relatively easy to find the inspiration or source for the daily blogs, but overall I enjoy sharing my snippets with the world. The world seems to enjoy my blog as well, because in one year I had 11,892 pageviews. That is almost 1,000 per month! The top three visited postings were 1) 'Whole Lotta Bowing' (22 July), 2) 'Sanlitun SoHo' (7 Sep) and 3) 'Sexy Trunks' (26 Nov). The anonymous googling reader may be somewhat disappointed about the content of the 'Sexy Trunks' article, because it is not about what one thinks it is about. I am very pleased having a worldwide audience. The highest number of visitors is from the USA, but there is also a good representation from Europe and of course from Asia (including Hong Kong and Malaysia). I still cannot explain the mysterious surge in clicks from the USA in January 2011, but welcome! My blog is blocked in China, propbably because I talk about some of the 'sensitive' topics, such as Tiananmen Square and Ai Wei Wei. It is always exciting to see that people from the most exotic places find my blog too - there were clicks from Uzbekistan, Chili, Fiji, Rwanda and so on. I can only commit that I will try to keep it up - and hope that the readers will keep coming. Cheers!

Cheap Wine?

15 April 2011 - Wine costing less than £5 a bottle can have the same effect on the palate as those priced up to six times as much, a psychological taste challenge suggests. The blind test at the Edinburgh Science Festival saw 578 members of the public correctly identify the "cheap" or "expensive" wines only 50% of the time. They tasted a range of red and white wines including merlot and chardonnay. University of Hertfordshire researchers say their findings indicate many people may just be paying for a label. Two champagnes costing £17.61 and £29.99 were compared, alongside the bottles costing less than £5 and vintages priced between £10 and £30. The other varieties tasted were shiraz, rioja, claret, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc. The participants were asked to say which they thought were cheap and which were expensive. By the laws of chance, they should have been able to make a correct guess 50% of the time - and that was the exact level of accuracy seen. The findings demonstrate the volunteers cannot distinguish between wines by taste alone, the organisers of the test say.

Dyed Buns

14 April 2011 - Some things never change. Shanghai authorities have seized more than 6,000 steamed buns and the Chinese city's mayor has ordered a probe after they were found to have been dyed, expired or filled with unidentified chemicals. The allegations are the latest in a string of food safety scares to rattle consumers in China, which was rocked three years ago by a tainted milk scandal that left at least six infants dead and sickened 300,000. Mayor Han Zheng said in a statement issued late Tuesday that anyone found guilty of tampering with the popular Chinese snack would be prosecuted and pledged that the investigation results would be released to the public. "Illegal manufacturers should be punished severely according to law," the government-run Shanghai Daily quoted Han as saying. The investigation was prompted after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) aired a report on Monday detailing the allegations and singling out buns made by Shanghai Shenglu Food Co. Shenglu's "corn buns" appeared to have been dyed yellow and others sold as "black rice buns" had been dyed grey, the reports said. Old buns were also allegedly being recycled as new and chemicals were added in random amounts but not listed on the packaging as required by law, the reports said.

Little Red Riding Hood

13 April 2011 - Along with the usual sequels and spin-offs, Hollywood is about to bombard cinemas with new takes on old fairy-tales - starting with Red Riding Hood. If Red Riding Hood, with its pale teenage heroine torn between two admirers, looks a bit like Twilight, it's because it is. The live action fairy-tale is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who launched the Twilight film franchise in 2008. Red Riding Hood sees Hardwicke plunder the earliest versions of the story - before it was re-told by the Brothers Grimm - and make the hairy antagonist a werewolf. Her film is also a "whodunnit" aimed squarely at the teen market. It is set in a medieval village called Daggerhorn, where even the poorest woodcutter wears hair gel and Freudian symbolism lurks behind every tree. "The red cape can represent many things," says Hardwicke, whose other films include a big-screen re-telling of The Nativity Story in 2006.  "Power, sexuality, sensuality, loss of virginity - artists over the last four centuries have been inspired by it. "Japanese anime artists show it in tatters, with Red Riding Hood holding an axe with blood dripping down it."

Male Wolf Spiders

12 April 2011 - Male wolf spiders cannibalise older females, scientists in Uruguay have discovered. In several species, female spiders are known to eat males, but this is the first time biologists have seen the roles reversed in the wild. The male spiders were observed mating with virgins and eating older, less reproductively successful females. Researchers suggest that harsh habitats force males to prey on females for food. Their findings were published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. The species in question, Allocosa brasiliensis, is a nocturnal wolf spider found in South America's sand dunes along riverbanks and the Atlantic Ocean coast. The researchers were studying the species because its status is considered an indicator of the health of coastal habitats. After observing a male spider eating a female in the wild, Dr Anita Aisenberg and her team from the Clemente Estable Institute of Biological Research, Montevideo, set out to find an explanation for the behaviour.
"In spiders in general, females are larger than males and they are the selective sex, while males are small rovers that go out and look for potential sexual partners," explained Dr Aisenberg.

Driving in Malaysia

11 April 2011 - Recently there has been a lot of debate about the driving skills of Malaysians. Statistics reveal that men in Malaysia were 2.4 times more accident-prone than their female counterparts, The Star, a Malaysian paper, reported. That bit of information was provided by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros). Women, however, have been increasingly involved in accidents since 2006. The amount of women in road accidents jumped by almost 100% from 2006 to 2009. Miros director-general Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said that men generally possess superior psychomotor skills - this causes some of them to be sometimes excessively confident on the road. "As a result, men have the general tendency to drive at high speeds, to take chances and be a greater risk on the road," he explained. Nonetheless, Dr. Farhan said that both genders were equally at risk for being in an accident. He recommended proper risk management, driving competency and prioritisation of safety as essentials in reducing the risk of accidents.

Sinking New York

10 April 2011 - New York is a major loser and Reykjavik a winner from new forecasts of sea level rise in different regions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in 2007 that sea levels would rise at least 28cm (1ft) by the year 2100. But this is a global average; and now a Dutch team has made what appears to be the first attempt to model all the factors leading to regional variations. Other researchers say the IPCC's figure is likely to be a huge under-estimate. Whatever the global figure turns out to be, there will be regional differences. Ocean currents and differences in the temperature and salinity of seawater are among the factors that mean sea level currently varies by up a metre across the oceans - this does not include short-term changes due to tides or winds. So if currents change with global warming, which is expected - and if regions such as the Arctic Ocean become less saline as ice sheets discharge their contents into the sea - the regional patterns of peaks and troughs will also change.

Quote of the Day (32)

9 April 2011 - I read this quote from Herman Hesse's Siddartha on Facebook and I really like it: "When someone is seeking...it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything...because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal." Chapter 12, pg. 113

Tweeting for Dollars

7 April 2011 - Twitter may not yet have found a way to make money for itself but it is doing a good job of generating cash for its users, research suggests. A study conducted by a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich found that investors following stock market tweets could have achieved an average return rate of 15%. Timm Sprenger analysed 250,000 tweets sent over a six-month period. He predicts Twitter will increasingly offer specialised information to users. Thousands of stock-related messages are sent every day via tweets. Tweeting investors mark tweets according to company stock symbols. There was "a striking co-ordination" between what Twitter was saying about shares and other information from investors and analysts, he found. "I don't think it is the Holy Grail to make millions but it is a very credible and legitimate source," he said. He also found that more valuable information was retweeted, meaning that it reached a wider audience. The study formed the basis of the website TweetTrader.net where the real-time sentiment for individual stocks can be accessed. The site is currently in beta (trial).

From Here to Eternity Gay

6 April 2011 - An original version of 1951 novel From Here to Eternity is to be reissued digitally, with previously censored references to homosexuality restored. The heirs of author James Jones have struck a deal with ebook firm Open Road to put out a new edition that includes two scenes with gay content. Jones's novel, about US soldiers serving in Hawaii in the months prior to Pearl Harbor, was filmed in 1953. The uncensored version will be made available online from 10 May. It will include a scene in which Private Angelo Maggio - the character played by singer Frank Sinatra in the film - reveals he is paid to have oral sex with another man.
Another scene referring to a military investigation into possible homosexual activity will also feature in the text.

The restored version will also include profanity that was considered too extreme for Eternity's original publisher Scribner. Jones, who served in Hawaii before World War II and fought at Guadalcanal, had objected to the cuts but eventually acquiesced. "My father fought bitterly to hold on to every four-letter word in the manuscript," his daughter Kaylie told the New York Times. "The publisher was concerned about getting through the censors."

Easter Bunnies

5 April 2011 - The Swiss chocolate firm Lindt and Spruengli has won a marathon court battle to protect its golden Easter bunnies from an Austrian rival. A Vienna court has told the Hauswirth company to stop making its own chocolate rabbits wrapped in gold foil. The legal battle dates back to 2004. The Lindt bunny, sporting a red ribbon and bell, first appeared in 1952 and was given EU trademark status in 2000. The Vienna court said Hauswirth's bunny could be confused with Lindt's. A Lindt manager, Adalbert Lechner, said the judgement had confirmed his company's view that "Hauswirth harmed our trademark". "We hope the legal proceedings are finally closed with this judgement," he said. Hauswirth had argued that Lindt was using its trademark clout to crush competitors.

April Fool's

4 April 2011 - It almost went unnoticed because of the Mongolia trip, but April's fool's day has quietly passed.  Usually, it is the day when newspapers compete to come up with the most inventive spoof stories - but not every bizarre report on 1 April is fictitious. The Metro newspaper in France carried an article about French President Sarkozy and many morninng commuters thought it was an April fool's prank. Not so, as the story is in fact, entirely true. It was reported that Sarkozy uses a £10,000 armour-plated umbrella to protect him from attackers. Carried by the head of state's security guards, the rainproof device is allegedly coated in high-strength Kevlar so it can reduce the force of bullets and resist knife attacks. April's fool? Non Monsieur.

Great Pictures (32)

3 April 2011 - I am back from Mongolia, but because it's such an inspiring place with fantastic people, I publish this picture. I had a great time.

Letters from Chopin

2 April 2011 - Six letters written by Frederic Chopin, thought to be lost in 1939, have been found and donated to a Warsaw museum dedicated to the Polish composer. The letters, written by Chopin to his parents and sisters between 1845 and 1848, were believed lost after the outbreak of World War II. After it emerged in 2003 that they still existed in a private collection, moves were made to secure them. Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 but spent half of his life in France. According to museum curator Alicja Knast, the letters were last displayed in public in Poland in 1932 and were still confirmed as being in Warsaw in 1939. It is thought the letters went missing, like many other cultural artefacts, after the Nazis invaded Poland. The museum was assisted in their recovery by Marek Keller, a Polish art dealer now based in Mexico. He acquired them directly from their owners, who Knast said wished to remain anonymous. In the letters, written in Polish, Chopin describes daily life and his cello sonata in G minor, one of his few non-piano works.

Aggltinative Language

1 April 2011 - The Mongolian language  is tthe best-known member of the Mongolic language family. It sounds a bit weird, but really beautiful and musical. It may have about 5.2 million speakers, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. In Mongolia, the Khalka dialect of Mongolian, written in Cyrillic, is predominant. Mongolian has vowel-hermony and a complex syllabic structure for a Mongolic language that allows up to three syllable-final consonants. It is a typical agglutinative language that relies on suffix chains in the verbal and nominal domains. While the basic word order is subject-object-predicate, the noun phrase order is relatively free, so functional roles are indicated by a system of about eight grammatical cases. There are five voices. Verbs are marked for voice, aspect, tense and epistemic modality. In sentence linking, a special role is played by converbs. It almost like science.

100 Words

31 March 2011 - England's Italian football manager Fabio Capello claims he can manage his players with just 100 words. So how far could you get with a vocabulary of that size? Despite his sometimes colourful language, communicating with Wayne Rooney does not require a Shakespearean command of English. That's just as well, as the England manager has admitted he's having problems learning some of the basics. "If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can't speak," he told reporters. "But when you speak about tactics, you don't use a lot of words. I don't have to speak about a lot of different things. Maximum 100 words." In Capello's defence, his vocabulary appears to be far wider than 100 words. But how far would such a limited knowledge take you? For Peter Howarth, deputy director of Leeds University's language centre, Capello's defence of his language skills looks shaky. "It's a ridiculously small number, you could learn 100 words in a couple of days, particularly when you're in the country surrounded by the language," he says. "People do say that from a learners point of view, English is relatively easy to use without too much grammar ... but Fabio Capello needs a range, presumably, and to communicate emotions and a bit of nuance."

UB Fashion

30 March 2011 - Now here is something you did not know about Mongolia: there are a number of fashion shows that take place in Ulaanbaatar throughout the year. The biggest and most well know is Goyol which takes place in December over a whole weekend at the Cultural Palace. It showcases the best of Mongolian and international designers and models and normally sets the trend for the coming year’s look. Tickets for each day cost around Tg6000 but it’s well worth it for the show. Unfortunately one can’t take photographs without a photopass but a few shots from the aisles shouldn’t be a problem. Moda takes place in the State Drama Theatre and costs around Tg4000. It concentrates a little more on traditional wear than the latest cutting edge fashion but is still worth a look – especially as the show is not your standard runway fair but incorporates scene from famous Mongolian plays and also opera signing.

Cable Bill

29 March 2011 - You may have heard the story about the man living in a 14x60 trailer who got a $12,864 electric bill, or the Corpus Christie man who was billed $7.7 million by his water company, or the Canadian whose cell phone provider hit him up for $85,000--the list truly goes on and on and on. Now the outrageous bill receivers club has a new member. Yes, based on the cable bill that an American man received this week, he's either the king of pay-per-view, or the victim of one of the most extreme computerized billing glitches in the history of computerized billing glitches. Fortunately for him, it looks like it's the latter. When the Ohio man's attempt to make a payment on his cable bill to Time Warner was rejected, he learned that the company had calculated his past-due amount at more than $16 million. "All I want to do is watch March Madness," Mr DeVirgillio said. A local newspaper reported that DeVirgilio did the math and concluded that he'd have to order 1.6 million on-demand movies or a pay-per-view fight 400,000 times to accumulate $16.4 million in charges.

Genghis Tomb

28 March 2011 - For Mongolians the remains and burial place of the great leader Genghis Khan are sacred. From the period of reconstruction the desire to remember the heritage of Mongolia has resulted in an increased feeling of pride over their great Khan. The Mongolians and Japanese jointly held a prospecting expedition which made a search for the burial place of Genghis from 1990 to 1993. The expedition did not produce any results. People’s thoughts were divided on the subject and some Mongolians were angry about the expedition so the searching work was stopped. Since 1993 the Academy of Sciences has not given a grant to make a new search. In fact the expedition did not fully search territory of Khentii aimag which is thought to be his final resting place. There is a legend that if one touches upon Genghis remains, much trouble and hardship will follow.

Mongolian Customs

27 March 2011 - Mongolians traditionally were afraid of misfortunes and believe in a variety of good and bad omens. Misfortune might be attracted by talking about negative things, or by persons that are often talked about. They might also be sent by some malicious shaman or enraged by breaking some taboo, like stepping on a yurt's threshold, desecrating waters or mountains, etc.The most endangered family members were children, and that's why they would sometimes be given non-names like Nergui (Mongolian for: without name) or Enebish (Mongolian for:: not this one), or boys would be dressed up as girls.Before going out at night, young children's foreheads are sometimes painted with charcoal or soot in order to deceive evil spirits that this is not a child but a rabbit with black hair on the forehead.

Kanamara Matsuri Festival

26 March 2011 - The Kanamara Matsuri Fstival is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring held in the Kanayama shrine. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis forms the central theme of the event that is reflected everywhere—in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine once popular among prostituteswho wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan's prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony. There is also a legend of a sharp-toothed demon that hid inside the vagina of a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights. As a result, the young girl sought help with a blacksmith, who fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item. Today, the festival has become somewhat of a tourist attraction and is used to raise money for HIV research

Meep Meep

25 March 2011 - It is official: China will overtake the US and dominate global trade by 2030, a leading accountancy firm says.China's global trade is set to surge past the US' by 2030, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Currently, China's international trade is worth $2.21 trillion (£1.36tn), compared with the $2.66tn (£1.64tn) for the US. China was confirmed as the world's second-biggest economy earlier this year, overtaking Japan. According to the report by PwC, the coming years will see global trade undergo "fundamental change" as emerging economies such as China and India begin to "dominate the top sea and air freight routes". PwC's findings are in line with the World Bank's prediction that China's economy will eclipse the US by 2030, if it can sustain its growth. Its chief economist Justin Lin said on Wednesday that, if China continued to grow at an annual rate of 8%, it would be twice the size of the US economy in 20 years.

Famous First Lines

24 March 2011 - Maybe this falls under the "Quote of the Day" category, but let's look at some famous opening lines:

• Telegram message, 1844: "What hath God wrought"
• Telephone, 1876: "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you."
• Wireless communication over open sea, 1897: "Are you ready?"
• BBC Radio 1, 1967: "And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1".
• Moon landings, 1969: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
• E-mail, 1971: Qwertyuiop [probable]
• Text message, 1992: "Merry Christmas"
• Google, Jan 1996: no record of first search term, it says
• Facebook, Feb 2004: no record of first post
• YouTube, 2005: Video called "Me at the zoo", with first words: ""Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants"
• Twitter, 2006: "just setting up my twttr"

Elizabeth Taylor

23 March 2011 - Dame Elizabeth Taylor, one of the 20th Century's biggest movie stars, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 79. The double Oscar-winning actress had a long history of ill health and was being treated for symptoms of congestive heart failure. Her four children were with her when she died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, her publicist said. In a statement, her son Michael Wilding called her "an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest. We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it." He continued to say that "Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts."

.XXX Domain

22 March 2011 - Internet overseer Icann has given final approval to the creation of an internet domain dedicated to pornography. The move to create a top level ".xxx" domain - similar to ".com" and ".org" - ends a 10-year battle over the virtual red-light district. Icann gave initial approval last year, but carried out further consultation checks over the application. It is now poised to sign an agreement with the ICM Registry, which is backing the domain, to make .xxx a reality. Supporters say the domain will make it easier to filter out inappropriate content. But many pornographers worry that the move could ghettoise their content. Religious groups have argued that giving pornography sites their own domain legitimises the content. Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said in a draft paper ahead of approving the decision: "The Icann community has engaged in extensive debate as well, with this single issue generating higher volumes of community comment than nearly any other issue ever faced within Icann." The organisation oversees the internet's addressing system and demands that new top level domains, such as .biz, must be "sponsored" in that they must serve the needs of a defined community. ICM said last year that it had more than 110,000 pre-reservations for .xxx domains.

American Idol Dollars

21 March 2011 - American Idol made more money from advertising revenue than any other US TV show in 2010, according to a survey by Forbes magazine. The singing contest raked in an estimated $7.1m (£4.4m) every half hour during its last series. Far behind in second place was Charlie Sheen's former comedy show Two and A Half Men, with $2.9m (£1.8m). Data was taken from Kantar Media, who surveyed all regular prime time shows, excluding sports events. American Idol's 2010 figures were down $1m (£620,000) on the previous year. Simon Cowell was still on the judging panel in the last series, accompanied by Ellen DeGeneres, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson. Following Charlie Sheen's sacking from Two and A Half Men, it remains to be seen whether the show can continue to generate as much revenue, Kantar's Jon Swallen said. "The show is built around the interplay between two contrasting characters," Mr Swallen said. "If you remove one, it fundamentally makes it a different show. If it comes back on the air there will be a curiosity factor but after a few episodes it will have to rise or fall on its own merit. "Desperate Housewives was in third place with an estimated $2.74m (£1.7m), with medical drama Grey's Anatomy at four with $2.67m.

Ulaanbaatar

20 March 2011 - Next week I will go to Ulaanbaatar. UB has a long history, and is only now undergoing an industrial revolution. I read that UB is one of the most drab looking cities on the face of the planet, a travesty really, considering it's the capital of one the most beautiful and hospitable countries on earth. Still, as traditionalists, Mongolians love their capital. They understand that it is not an Asian beauty, but in their hearts they are aware of the city's history, culture and many struggles. Foreigners who take the time to get to know the faces that are hidden behind the gray walls will discover a hospitable and warm-hearted people. One is invited to explore the city from different angles, while at the same time do not ignore the abject poverty of many of the ex-nomads who in recent years have come to the city to find work after severe winters have killed their livestock. In this way, one will learn to unlock the city's many secrets and discover an Ulaanbaatar that is not initially revealed to the casual visitor.

Hygienic Sharks

19 March 2010 -Scientists filmed sharks off the coast of the Philippines  visiting a tropical seamount - or undersea mountain. This is a habitat for cleaner fish, which nibble off parasites and dead skin.The sharks repeatedly visited the station and swam slowly around, giving the fish time to delouse them.The findings were recently published in the journal PLoS One.This is the first time the behaviour has been seen in this species and the researchers say it shows how vital these shallow reef habitats are for the large, threatened predators. The lead researcher, Simon Oliver from Bangor University in the UK, has been studying thresher sharks for more than five years and founded the Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project. For the PLoS One Study, he filmed over 1,000 hours of footage of the sharks at a seamount off the northern tip of Cebu in the Philippines. "They visit the site very regularly," Mr Oliver told BBC News. "A huge dive tourism site has evolved around them."The sharks' behaviour suggests that they go there specifically to be cleaned."They pose, lowering their tails to make themselves more attractive to the cleaners," he explained. "And they systematically circle for about 45 minutes at speeds lower than one meter per second." This is  about half the speed at which the sharks usually swim. These reefs, which are habitats for cleaner wrasses - as the industrious little fish are known - are probably vital for the sharks' health.

Picture Perfect

17 March 2011 - Adult monkeys recognise photographs of their friends, according to scientists.In an experiment, untrained Barbary macaques showed interest in the photos and spent more time scrutinising pictures of unfamiliar animals.Juvenile monkeys were fascinated but puzzled by the photographs. They often tried to greet or touch the animal in the image.The findings suggest that the primates learn with age to understand that photos are representations of faces. As well as adding to our knowledge of their intelligence, the findings, published in the journal Animal Condition could also help in future studies of primate behaviour.
Now that we know [that they spontaneously recognise photographs], we won't be limited to working in the lab and training the animals," said lead researcher Professor Julia Fischer, from the German Primate Center and Gottingen University in Germany. "We will be able to study them in a much more natural captive setting, [studying their behaviour] by designing games for them to play."She and her team observed macaques in wildlife park in Rocamadour, south-west France, where the animals are allowed to roam around an open landscape

Manners and Courtesy

16 March 2011 - I liked this piece by Laura King in the Los Angeles Times:

Reporting from Tokyo -- She was elderly and alone, injured and in pain. When the massive earthquake struck, a heavy bookshelf toppled onto Hiroko Yamashita, pinning her down and shattering her ankle. When paramedics finally reached her, agonizing hours later, Yamashita did what she said any "normal" person would do, her son-in-law recounted later: She apologized to them for the inconvenience, and asked if there weren't others they should be attending to first.
The worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history left a trail of blazing buildings, inundated coastal communities, wrecked roadways and potentially unstable nuclear power plants. But it barely made a dent in the implacably Japanese trait of exhibiting concern for others even in the worst of circumstances.
In Tokyo and its suburbs, the quake knocked out much of the usually clockwork-reliable public-transportation system. Yet when trains finally appeared on a few crucial routes, the queue was as orderly as on any mundane commuting day. Once aboard, people sat quietly, gazing at their cellphones in hope of an elusive signal. “It would be uncivilized to try to push and shove, and what good would it do anyway?” said Kojo Saeseki, helping his wife onto a crowded train on the city’s outskirts.

The Japanese language is full of ritual apologies, uttered so often as to become almost meaningless: I am about to make a nuisance of myself — please excuse me! Some of this is a matter of mere formality. But at a time of crisis, such politesse can be the glue that holds the country together. Even though Friday's magnitude 8.9 quake was shocking and discombobulating, few would imagine burdening a stranger with their anxieties.

Zion

15 March 2011 - From the BBC: Iran has indicated it will attend the 2012 Olympics in London, despite complaining that the Games logo resembles the word "Zion".Last month the Iranians complained to the International Olympic Committee and called for the graphic to be replaced. They objected on the grounds that its resemblance to the word Zion - a Biblical term for Israel - was racist.But now the Iranian-backed Press TV has quoted an official as saying Iranians will "participate gloriously". The report by Press TV quotes the secretary of Iran's Olympic organising committee, Bashram Afsharzadeh, as saying: "Our decision, to partake [in the] Olympic Games, has nothing to do with the UK politicians. "We will make co-ordination with officials of the International Olympic Committee and we will participate and play gloriously in London Games." In its original letter to the IOC, Iran had called for the Games logo to be withdrawn and its designers "confronted".There was also a suggestion that Iranian athletes would be told not to attend. At the time, IOC president Jacques Rogge told BBC Sport: "No, it can't be serious. We will quietly reply, telling [Iran] the logo has nothing to do with racism or any political connotation."

Obama - The Icon

14 March 2011 - The Associated Press has sued several retailers including Urban Outfitters for the unauthorised use of the Hope image created by artist Shepard Fairey. Artist Fairey used an AP photo without permission to create the image, and was sued by the news agency for violating copyright. That case was settled. AP argues that using the image on T-shirts is wilful and blatant violation of the copyright of the photo.A spokesman said that using photos for free devalued the work of journalists. The news agency filed lawsuits against Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom and Zumiez seeking unspecified damages. A Nordstrom spokeswoman said in a statement that the firm was aware of the lawsuit. Representatives of the other retailers have yet to respond, AP said. In a statement, AP spokesman Paul Colford said: "When a commercial entity such as these retailers, or the company that sold the shirts to them, gets something for nothing by using an AP photo without credit or compensation, it undermines the AP's ability to cover the news. "It devalues the work that our journalists do, often in dangerous locations where they may literally risk life and limb to cover a story."

Drink Up

13 March 2011 - Drinking a glass or two of alcohol a day could protect you from developing dementia as you get older, a new Published March 2 in the journal Age and Ageing, German researchers revealed that light and moderate drinkers of any type of alcohol were 29 percent less likely to develop any kind of dementia than heavy drinkers or teetotalers. Good news for Alzheimer's disease too: light and moderate drinkers also had 42 percent less chance of developing the disease than heavy drinkers and those who abstained completely. Light drinkers in the study drank about one drink a day, or 10 grams of wine, beer, or liquor. Moderate drinkers imbibed two drinks per day. Research published last October in the journal Neurology also found that walking just 9.5 kilometers (six miles) a week may keep your brain sharper as you get older. Walking may protect aging brains from growing smaller and, in turn, preserve memory in old age.

Great Picture (32)

13 March 2011 - Today I send my sympathies to the people of Japan - struck by the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Many terrifying images has surfaced, but I stick to this simple image of people in a bookshop in Sendai, who froze when the roof ovetr their heads collapsed.

China Overheating

11 March 2011 - Confidence in Chongqing's property sector runs high, despite a raft of borrowing and buying restrictions in recent months as China's central government seeks to rein in soaring prices.

Even the introduction of a brand new city property tax failed to cool ardour.In fact, at the Lishui Jingyuan development - a very typical Chinese forest of skyscrapers that towers over the Yangtze River - sales have actually increased.In the show flat, lavishly decorated with magnificent views of the neighbours' bedrooms, sales manager Tang Yang shares her thoughts on how buyers think."People are trying their best to buy now because the government may tighten the market further," she explains.First-time buyers must now make a minimum down-payment of 30% on home purchases.For young couples, families often pool their cash to help them on to the property ladder.Further cooling measures in place now include a ban on banks offering discounts on interest rate payments.The banks have also been ordered to strictly restrict lending on home owners' equity - a typical way to raise a deposit on another mortgaged property.Those buying a second property must find a 60% deposit and pay higher interest charges. Bank loans for a third property are banned.

Bumper War

10 March 2011 - A Manchester United fan has had her bumper sticker censored after a complaint was made to police that it was "offensive". Sarah Webb-Lee, 39, from Stockport, had a car sticker which read: "On the first day God created United then completely f+++i-up up and created City." When officers told her to take it down she refused, but later agreed to have a letter removed. Police said the swear word used breached public order legislation. A neighbourhood team officer was sent round to Mrs Webb-Lee's home in Cale Green, Stockport, after a local councillor passed on to police a complaint they had received from a resident. She was informed that the language used on the sticker was offensive under the terms of Section 5 of the Public Order Act. "I couldn't believe it when they told me," she said.

Fur

9 March 2011 - With many thanks to the Big White Guy in the City of Buzz, I blog about fur today. Local newspapers reports that Hong Kong is the fur hub of the world, handling 70 per cent of globe's raw furs and 80 per cent of its processed furs. Unsurprisingly, mainland China is the biggest market. It seems odd that furs come through a city which is so hot and humid much of the year, but there it is.The article made no mention of the ethics of the fur trade, but that's not to say there haven't been protests against fur in the Big Lychee. Ethics regarding animals are quite different in the motherland and changing minds isn't easy, especially when it's so cold in northern China, and certainly when increasing numbers of wealthy mainlanders are eager to display their status.Hong Kongers have no reason to wear fur; it rarely gets much colder in the winter than 5C, and trying to prevent mold damage would be a never-ending battle. For those who want the real thing regardless, recycled furs may be the ticket: they don't involve the cruelty often perpetrated by the fur industry, and they don't involve the use of petroleum products and toxic chemicals in the manufacture of fake fur.Once fur traders figure that out, you can be certain that Hong Kong will capture the world market for recycled furs as well.

Hayabusa

8 March 2011 - Since the launch of the first "Shinkansen" train lines in the 1960s, Japan has been a world leader in the production of bullet trains. And the country's latest effort - unveiled in Tokyo - is no slouch. The Hayabusa train, which has a distinctive long nose, can travel at speeds of up to 180mph and will carve across the country from Tokyo to the northern city of Aomon in just three hours and ten minutes. The company behind the green-and-silver train, the East Japan Railways Co, says the E5 series of bullet trains will be able to travel up to 198mph by next yearm making it the country's fastest train. It is not just speed over substance either, the Hayabusa (literally "Falcon") train will be among the quietest on the tracks and for those wishing to splash out, there is even a first-class cabin that will be the envy of the airline industry. A one-way tocket in the "Granclass" carriage will cost nearly GBP 200.

Rain Trees

7 March 2011 - The public in Malaysia has been advised against drinking the "holy water" showering down from a tree in Pinang Tunggal and another in Siungai Petani. The Consumers Association of Penang  rural education officer N.V. Subbarow said it was foolish for anyone to wipe their bodies and faces with the water or to even drink it. "people are merely exposing themselves to unknown risks as the authorities have yet to run tests on the water. They should be reminded that many diseases are spread by animals and insects, including leptospirosis which is spread through water." he said. Thousands of people from afar have been flocking to see the two trees since late February. Witnesses claimed they had felt showers from the trees - a 12m high petal tree and an 18m high wild tree in Taman Ria Jaya. Subbarow said that those people making a fast buck from selling the "holy water" at MYR 5 per glass were being "irresponsible".

Sperm Quality

6 March 2011 - Sperm quality significantly deteriorated and testicular cancers increased over recent years, a Finnish study says. The study in the International Journal of Andrlogy looked at men born between 1979 and 1987. The University of Turku research suggests environmental reasons, particularly exposure to industrial chemicals, may be behind both trends. A UK expert said chemicals may affect the development of male babies. Finnish men were studied as they have previously been shown to have some of the highest sperm counts in the world. But scientists were never sure if this was because of their genetics or because they were exposed to fewer harmful chemicals.'Danger chemicals'. The researchers looked at three groups of men who reached the age 19 between 1998 and 2006.Men who were born in the late 1980s had lower sperm counts than those who were born in the beginning of the decade.Total sperm counts were 227m for men born in 1979-81, 202m for those born in 1982-83 and 165m for men born in 1987, respectively.In addition, the researchers observed that there was a higher incidence of testicular cancer in men born around 1980 compared with men born around 1950.

No photoshop

5 March 2011 - I came across an interesting website (http://thechive.com/2011/03/03/celebrity-close-ups-sans-photoshop-26-photos/) with the pictures of 26 American celebrities without being photoshopped. The portraits are rather intense, often beautiful and always captivating. I do not know who all these "celebrities" are, but there are the amazing faces of Clint Eastwood, Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett staring you in the eye. No photoshop does not mean no make-up, but these white screen gods suddenly become real people. You could almost meat them in the supermarket. Little is said about the vision of the website, but it's a great initiative. Great people, great picture, great site.

Guam

4 March 2011 - I have never been to Guam, but the name of the place has this magical ring to it. Yet, I seldomly hear of people visiting the place. I checked the Lonely Planet website, and it is explained that there are a few good reasons why Guam, a former Spanish colony and the biggest island in Micronesia, is so rarely visited. From North America or Europe, only a few airlines will take you to this US territory in the Pacific Ocean and almost every route has stops in either Honolulu, Tokyo or Seoul. And with round-trip tickets starting at $1,500, it is not exactly the cheapest place to get to either. But one will forget the long, expensive flight once set foot on the island, which is one third of the size of London and has year-round temperatures between 75 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. One million Japanese tourists flock here every year for the predictable weather, white beaches and crystal-clear Pacific Ocean. They swarm the theme-park style hotel pools, beach-side wedding chapels and the luxury shopping malls that feel like an air-conditioned, less-crowded version of Fifth Avenue. These distractions make for a happy few days away from reality, or a honeymoon, but it might be missing the point. Guam is not just about tourists offerings. The real draws are the local food and culture.

Soumaya Museum

3 March 2011 - The Soumaya Museum has opened! Designed by LAR + Fernando Romero, the Soumaya Museum will house a diverse collection of international painting, sculpture, and object art from the 14th century to the present, including the world’s second largest collection of Rodin sculptures.  Conceived as a sculpture, the museum’s amorphous form will be a contemporary icon for Mexico City that is also a functional curatorial space. The Museum is funded by Mexican rich man Carlos Slim, who can rightfully claim the title of the world's richest man. The museum will also house his private art collection. .

Quote of the Day (29)

2 March 2011 - So, Oscar season is over, but let's not forget thsi quote before we turn the page:
David Seidler, 73, accepting best original screenplay for The King's Speech:

"My father always said to me I would be a late bloomer. I believe I'm the oldest person to win this award. I hope that record is broken quickly and often."

Business Cards

1 March 2011 - Industries may change and brand names may come and go, but at least one tradition in the business world has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years. The exchange of cards between two people who are meeting for the first time is a ritual that goes back as far as business itself. For most of us, the handing over of contact details is an important moment - a clear signal that a connection has been made. But as our lives turn increasingly digital, technology is attempting to provide a range of futuristic alternatives to the old-fashioned card. Ever since the arrival of electronic communication, people have been exploring new ways to share information with each other- from swapping email addresses to trading mobile phone numbers and, increasingly, connecting through an online social network. A range of services have appeared to take advantage of this trend, including Bump Technologies, a two-year-old startup based in California's Silicon Valley. Its application, which users download to their phones, lets people trade contact details simply by tapping their handsets together. It is an approach that has a number of advantages over the traditional paper card, says Bump's Sadie Bascom - particularly since nobody goes anywhere without their mobile these days.
"It's easy, always on your phone, and you never have to remember to grab a stack of physical cards or worry about them running out."

One-dog Policy

28 Feb 2011 - Most people know of China's one-child policy, but now there is something new cooked up. China's leading metropolis Shanghai has adopted a one-dog policy, passing a law limiting homes to one dog each as it tries to curb the growing popularity of man's bast friend. The law takes effect on May 15, the China Daily reported earlier this week. Under the law, dog owners must give their pet's puppies to eligible no-dog households or to government approved adoption agencies before the pups reach three months. Anyone currently owning two or more licensed dogs will be allowed to keep them. Official estimates put the pet dog population in Shanghai at 800,000 although only a quarter of that number is registered.

Karaoke Hits

27 Feb 2011 - Some people think that Karaoke is merely an Asian activities. Not rue, and although I do not have any figures to proof it I like to share the Top Ten of Most Poplular Karaoke songs in British venues, as published by The Telegrap. Here we go go go:
1. Waterloo - ABBA
2. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
3. My Way - Frank Sinatra
4. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
5. Dancing Queen - ABBA
6. Angels - Robbie Williams
7. Like A Virgin - Madonna
8. Its Raining Men - Weather Girls
9. Summer Nights -  Olivia Newton John and John Travolta

10. I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie Minogue