April 24, 2011

Super Bus A revolution in public transport


It's called the Superbus, and according to the people that built it, it's going to revolutionalize public transport. The Superbus drives 250 kms per hour and is fully electric. According to its makers, the Superbus is interesting for metropolitan areas that do not want to invest a lot of money into railway infrastructure for hi-speed trains. It combines the speed of high speed trains with the flexibility of road transport. The Superbus is now in the final stage of testing. Its developers hope to find partners that will help them build the vehicle on an industrial scale.


Super Bus A revolution in public transport


It's called the Superbus, and according to the people that built it, it's going to revolutionalize public transport. The Superbus drives 250 kms per hour and is fully electric. According to its makers, the Superbus is interesting for metropolitan areas that do not want to invest a lot of money into railway infrastructure for hi-speed trains. It combines the speed of high speed trains with the flexibility of road transport. The Superbus is now in the final stage of testing. Its developers hope to find partners that will help them build the vehicle on an industrial scale.


Egg Inside An Egg - Eighth Wonder of the World [Video]

A girl from Japan found this abnormal egg in her hen-house. She was recording her excitement and when she broke it in place she surprised more to see an egg inside a big egg.   I think when hen laid egg she was in inception
 

Egg Inside An Egg - Eighth Wonder of the World [Video]

A girl from Japan found this abnormal egg in her hen-house. She was recording her excitement and when she broke it in place she surprised more to see an egg inside a big egg.   I think when hen laid egg she was in inception
 

Facts about our solar system


• The Sun makes up 99.86 per cent of the Solar System’s mass! That means if all the planets were put together (including Jupiter) as well as all the asteroids it will only make up about 0.14 per cent of the Solar System’s mass.

• Jupiter’s magnetic field is so massive that it pours billions of Watts into Earth’s magnetic field everyday!

• A massive body 100km wide travelling at over 512,000km/h crashed into Mercury to form the Caloris Basin. The impact

was so great that it sent shockwaves round Mercury creating its hilly lineated terrain.

• The length of a plutonian year is 248 of our years! That means that one orbit of the Sun takes about two and a half Earth
centuries. That’s a quarter of a millennium!

• The Olympus Mons (on Mars) is the largest Volcanic Mountain on the planet Mars and the tallest known volcano in the Solar
System. It is 600km across and 27km high, which is three times as tall as the Mount Everest.

• A supernova explosion produces more energy in its first ten seconds than the Sun during the whole of its 10 billion years’
lifetime.

• The comet with the longest ever recorded tail is the Great Comet of 1843. Its tail stretched over 800 million kilometres! This is about the same distance the Earth is from Jupiter!

• The energy in the sunlight we see today started out from the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago — it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just eight minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun!

• Almost all of the heavier elements in your body (for example, calcium, iron, carbon) were made somewhere in supernovae
explosions!

• Saturn has such a low density that it would float if put in water!

• Some volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon ‘Io’ eject material at speeds of up to 1km per second! This is about 20 times faster than
the volcanoes here on Earth can manage it!

• The winds on Neptune reach at least 2,100km per hour and are capable of ripping buildings into shreds. Considering the strongest hurricanes, such as Hurricane Andrew, which only had winds exceeding 251km per hour, Neptune’s winds are
incredibly powerful. Scientists are not certain how the planet’s winds can be that fast, but some believe it is due to a
combination of frigid temperatures and Neptune’s atmosphere.— Compiled by The Surfer

Facts about our solar system


• The Sun makes up 99.86 per cent of the Solar System’s mass! That means if all the planets were put together (including Jupiter) as well as all the asteroids it will only make up about 0.14 per cent of the Solar System’s mass.

• Jupiter’s magnetic field is so massive that it pours billions of Watts into Earth’s magnetic field everyday!

• A massive body 100km wide travelling at over 512,000km/h crashed into Mercury to form the Caloris Basin. The impact

was so great that it sent shockwaves round Mercury creating its hilly lineated terrain.

• The length of a plutonian year is 248 of our years! That means that one orbit of the Sun takes about two and a half Earth
centuries. That’s a quarter of a millennium!

• The Olympus Mons (on Mars) is the largest Volcanic Mountain on the planet Mars and the tallest known volcano in the Solar
System. It is 600km across and 27km high, which is three times as tall as the Mount Everest.

• A supernova explosion produces more energy in its first ten seconds than the Sun during the whole of its 10 billion years’
lifetime.

• The comet with the longest ever recorded tail is the Great Comet of 1843. Its tail stretched over 800 million kilometres! This is about the same distance the Earth is from Jupiter!

• The energy in the sunlight we see today started out from the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago — it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just eight minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun!

• Almost all of the heavier elements in your body (for example, calcium, iron, carbon) were made somewhere in supernovae
explosions!

• Saturn has such a low density that it would float if put in water!

• Some volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon ‘Io’ eject material at speeds of up to 1km per second! This is about 20 times faster than
the volcanoes here on Earth can manage it!

• The winds on Neptune reach at least 2,100km per hour and are capable of ripping buildings into shreds. Considering the strongest hurricanes, such as Hurricane Andrew, which only had winds exceeding 251km per hour, Neptune’s winds are
incredibly powerful. Scientists are not certain how the planet’s winds can be that fast, but some believe it is due to a
combination of frigid temperatures and Neptune’s atmosphere.— Compiled by The Surfer

A new treatment ...Two-drug obesity treatment effective: study

PARIS: A new treatment for obesity that combines two existing drugs resulted in twice as much weight loss as the only approved long-term anti-obesity medication, according to a study released Monday.

A mix of Phentermine and topiramate, sold under the brand name of Topamax, was shown in clinical trials to be twice as effective as orlistat, which is commercialised in some countries as Xenical or Alli, it said.

The drug combo appears to have additional health benefits, including improved "markers," or indicators, for blood pressure, sugar levels, lipids and inflammation, it added.

Phentermine is the most widely prescribed short-term weight drug in the United States.

Topiramate is an anticonvulsant approved for treating seizure disorders and migraines. It has been shown to work well for weight loss in obese patients with type 2 diabetes, but -- taken alone -- has also been linked to cognitive and psychiatric side effects.

Lower doses taken with a controlled-release mechanism and in combination with other drugs would likely reduce those side effects, tests have shown.

Led by Kishore Cadde of the Duke University Medical Centre, in Durham, North Carolina, the new trial was conducted over 20 months with nearly 2,500 overweight or obese adults with at least two major health-risk symptoms.

The patients were divided into three groups.

One was given a once-a-day dose of 7.5 mg of Phentermine and 46 mg of topiramate, while a second group was given 15 and 92 mg of the same drugs, respectively.

The third group were given look-alike placebos.

After 56 weeks of treatment, the low-dose group dropped, on average, 8.1 kilos (18 pounds) while the high-dose group shed 10.2 kilos (22 pounds).

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds).

Overall, 62 percent of the low-dose patients lost at least five percent of body weight, while 70 percent in the high-dose cohort crossed the same threshold.

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds), with 21 percent sloughing five percent off their total weight.

The two-drug treatment was well tolerated physically, with only sporadic cases of dry mouth and constipation, according to the study, which is published by The Lancet.

The high-dose group, however, showed a higher dropout rate due to adverse cognitive and psychiatric reactions. (AFP)

A new treatment ...Two-drug obesity treatment effective: study

PARIS: A new treatment for obesity that combines two existing drugs resulted in twice as much weight loss as the only approved long-term anti-obesity medication, according to a study released Monday.

A mix of Phentermine and topiramate, sold under the brand name of Topamax, was shown in clinical trials to be twice as effective as orlistat, which is commercialised in some countries as Xenical or Alli, it said.

The drug combo appears to have additional health benefits, including improved "markers," or indicators, for blood pressure, sugar levels, lipids and inflammation, it added.

Phentermine is the most widely prescribed short-term weight drug in the United States.

Topiramate is an anticonvulsant approved for treating seizure disorders and migraines. It has been shown to work well for weight loss in obese patients with type 2 diabetes, but -- taken alone -- has also been linked to cognitive and psychiatric side effects.

Lower doses taken with a controlled-release mechanism and in combination with other drugs would likely reduce those side effects, tests have shown.

Led by Kishore Cadde of the Duke University Medical Centre, in Durham, North Carolina, the new trial was conducted over 20 months with nearly 2,500 overweight or obese adults with at least two major health-risk symptoms.

The patients were divided into three groups.

One was given a once-a-day dose of 7.5 mg of Phentermine and 46 mg of topiramate, while a second group was given 15 and 92 mg of the same drugs, respectively.

The third group were given look-alike placebos.

After 56 weeks of treatment, the low-dose group dropped, on average, 8.1 kilos (18 pounds) while the high-dose group shed 10.2 kilos (22 pounds).

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds).

Overall, 62 percent of the low-dose patients lost at least five percent of body weight, while 70 percent in the high-dose cohort crossed the same threshold.

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds), with 21 percent sloughing five percent off their total weight.

The two-drug treatment was well tolerated physically, with only sporadic cases of dry mouth and constipation, according to the study, which is published by The Lancet.

The high-dose group, however, showed a higher dropout rate due to adverse cognitive and psychiatric reactions. (AFP)

Future drugs can change the way people think and act in various life situations... Oxford researchers

It may sound like something out of a science fiction plot, but Oxford researchers say that modern conventional medicine is gradually developing ways to change the moral states of humans through pharmaceutical drugs, and thus control the way people think and act in various life situations. These new drugs will literally have the ability to disrupt an individual’s personal morality, and instead reprogram that person to believe and do whatever the drug designer has created that drug to do.

“Science has ignored the question of moral improvement so far, but it is now becoming a big debate,” said Dr. Guy Kahane from the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics in the UK. “There is already a growing body of research you can describe in these terms. Studies show that certaindrugs affect the ways people respond to moral dilemmas by increasing their sense of empathy, group affiliation and by reducing aggression.”

While this may sound good in theory, mind control is already a very dangerous side effect of existing drugs. Take the antidepressant drug Prozac, for instance, which has been known to cause those taking it to lash out in violent rages. One young boy murdered his father by beating him and stabbing him in the head, and hit his mother with a crowbar and stabbed her in the face, shortly after starting to take Prozac
But the kinds of drugs Kahane and his colleagues are referring to imply designer drugs specifically designed to not only alter one’s mental state, but also to change the way that person thinks about situations from a moral perspective. The end result is literally a type of drug-induced mind control where human subjects will be controlled by someone else, and unable to make conscious decisions for themselves.

Research on the subject, of course, tries to paint the idea of mind-control drugs in a positive light, suggesting that they could be used to help make the world a better place. Just imagine less violence, more trust, and more love, they say. This rhetoric, though, is really just a ploy to further numb the already mind-numbed masses into accepting the idea as a good thing.

Future drugs can change the way people think and act in various life situations... Oxford researchers

It may sound like something out of a science fiction plot, but Oxford researchers say that modern conventional medicine is gradually developing ways to change the moral states of humans through pharmaceutical drugs, and thus control the way people think and act in various life situations. These new drugs will literally have the ability to disrupt an individual’s personal morality, and instead reprogram that person to believe and do whatever the drug designer has created that drug to do.

“Science has ignored the question of moral improvement so far, but it is now becoming a big debate,” said Dr. Guy Kahane from the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics in the UK. “There is already a growing body of research you can describe in these terms. Studies show that certaindrugs affect the ways people respond to moral dilemmas by increasing their sense of empathy, group affiliation and by reducing aggression.”

While this may sound good in theory, mind control is already a very dangerous side effect of existing drugs. Take the antidepressant drug Prozac, for instance, which has been known to cause those taking it to lash out in violent rages. One young boy murdered his father by beating him and stabbing him in the head, and hit his mother with a crowbar and stabbed her in the face, shortly after starting to take Prozac
But the kinds of drugs Kahane and his colleagues are referring to imply designer drugs specifically designed to not only alter one’s mental state, but also to change the way that person thinks about situations from a moral perspective. The end result is literally a type of drug-induced mind control where human subjects will be controlled by someone else, and unable to make conscious decisions for themselves.

Research on the subject, of course, tries to paint the idea of mind-control drugs in a positive light, suggesting that they could be used to help make the world a better place. Just imagine less violence, more trust, and more love, they say. This rhetoric, though, is really just a ploy to further numb the already mind-numbed masses into accepting the idea as a good thing.

Stop dreaming... Watch out your dream office in real life


This unusual office is home of American innovator from where thousand of ideas are brought to to life each year. The whole center is built a 70,000 square-foot amazingly created area. Founder and CEO George Davison has created various theme in this enormous platform including a shipwrecked pirate ship, cave, giant robot, and a castle complete with turrets and a drawbridge. Move over the Disneyland-esque space includes three running waterfalls, and life-like trees with chirping birds and colorful butterflies all around.










Stop dreaming... Watch out your dream office in real life


This unusual office is home of American innovator from where thousand of ideas are brought to to life each year. The whole center is built a 70,000 square-foot amazingly created area. Founder and CEO George Davison has created various theme in this enormous platform including a shipwrecked pirate ship, cave, giant robot, and a castle complete with turrets and a drawbridge. Move over the Disneyland-esque space includes three running waterfalls, and life-like trees with chirping birds and colorful butterflies all around.










Mile-high Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia which will be exactly a mile high world's tallest building

Construction of the Kingdom Tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah is expected to cost £12billion and will comprise 275 floors, making it twice as high as the current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Hotels, offices, luxury apartments and a shopping centre will all feature in the giant structure, which is to be financed by the Saudi royal family-owned Kingdom Holding Company.


American company Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture has been employed to design and oversee development of the project. The same group was responsible for the construction of the Burj.

However, the scale of the project has attracted criticism from some experts.

Rory Olcayto, deputy editor of The Architects' Journal, commented: 'The race to build the highest skyscraper is quite futile - where do you stop?

'These buildings are missing the point and are a symbol of an old-fashioned way of thinking.

'It's much better to look at something like the 3D China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing rather than a thrusting phallic tower.'

The title of world's tallest building was held by American structures for nearly all of the 20th century, with the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and the World Trade Center all holding the honour until the Petronas Twin Towers opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998.

Mile-high Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia which will be exactly a mile high world's tallest building

Construction of the Kingdom Tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah is expected to cost £12billion and will comprise 275 floors, making it twice as high as the current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Hotels, offices, luxury apartments and a shopping centre will all feature in the giant structure, which is to be financed by the Saudi royal family-owned Kingdom Holding Company.


American company Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture has been employed to design and oversee development of the project. The same group was responsible for the construction of the Burj.

However, the scale of the project has attracted criticism from some experts.

Rory Olcayto, deputy editor of The Architects' Journal, commented: 'The race to build the highest skyscraper is quite futile - where do you stop?

'These buildings are missing the point and are a symbol of an old-fashioned way of thinking.

'It's much better to look at something like the 3D China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing rather than a thrusting phallic tower.'

The title of world's tallest building was held by American structures for nearly all of the 20th century, with the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower and the World Trade Center all holding the honour until the Petronas Twin Towers opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998.

chronic fatigue syndrome affects only about 1 in 900 teenagers but serious in teens

NEW YORK: A new survey of Dutch doctors and their patients suggests that chronic fatigue syndrome affects only about 1 in 900 teenagers - but takes a heavy toll.

Among those teens diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, more than 90 percent had at least missed "considerable" school in the last 6 months, with some saying they had not attended school at all during that time.

CFS "is a condition with severe implications for school participation etc, necessitating adequate diagnosis and treatment," study author Dr. Sanne Nijhof of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands told Reuters Health.

The impact is felt by many more people than the patient, said Dr. Katharine Rimes, who was not involved in the study.

"Missing substantial amounts of school can potentially have profound effects on their educational, social and emotional development," explained Rimes, based at King's College London. "It also has potentially serious impact on the family. If the child is off school, one parent -- usually the mother -- usually has to stay at home to care for them, and often give up their job altogether. This can obviously have adverse financial and psychological effects."

CFS is a long-term debilitating condition of disabling physical and mental fatigue, poor concentration and memory, disturbed sleep and muscle and joint pain.

There is no cure for CFS and scientists don't know what causes it. Many sufferers say they think their illness started after a viral infection, but suggested links to a virus known as XMRV were shown in a recent scientific paper to have been based on contaminated samples in a lab (see Reuters Health story of December 20, 2010).

This estimation of the rate of CFS among teens, published in the journal Pediatrics, is considerably lower than previous estimates of CFS among adults. In one Dutch study, 1 percent of adults said they had the condition.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, millions of Americans have CFS, perhaps 80 percent of whom may not realize they have it.

Nijhof explained that trying to understand why his estimate for teens is lower than previous ones for adults "would be speculative," since his study did not include adults, and different studies use different methods.

To get a better idea of how many teens in the Netherlands are affected by CFS, Nijhof and colleagues sent questionnaires to a group of general practitioners and reviewed a national registry of pediatric disorders, in which pediatricians report new cases of disorders affecting their patients. The researchers also mailed surveys to patients asking about the condition's impact on their lives.

Less than half of general practitioners returned the survey. Based on their responses, the authors estimated that 111 out of every 100,000 teens, or 0.11 percent, were diagnosed with CFS. Records from pediatricians suggested that 12 out of every 100,000 teens, or 0.012 percent, were newly diagnosed with CFS every year.

Patients were an average of 15 years old when the illness began. Half experienced symptoms for at least 17 months before they were diagnosed. In one-fifth of patients, the illness began after a severe infection. CFS occurred in five times as many girls as boys.

Of potential concern, the authors note, is that the condition appears to be "under-recognized" by primary care physicians. Only half of all general practitioners who agreed to participate in the study said they accepted CFS as a distinct diagnosis, versus 96 percent of the pediatricians consulted during the study. And nearly 75 percent of teens with CFS were not diagnosed by their general practitioners. This lack of awareness probably stems from the condition's infrequency, said Nijhof. "The average GP will not have a CFS patient in their practice."

"Adolescents with severe and long-lasting fatigue should be referred to a pediatrician," agreed Rimes in an email.

Although only half of general practitioners responded to the survey, non-responders did not appear to be any different from responders, so the results from half the group likely represent the population overall, Nijhof said in an email.

It's an important study, despite its potential limitations, said Rimes, in part because CFS is not studied in teens nearly as often as adults. "The disabling nature of the condition has the potential to have a serious adverse impact on the normal cognitive, emotional, and social developmental processes that occur at this age." (Reuters)

chronic fatigue syndrome affects only about 1 in 900 teenagers but serious in teens

NEW YORK: A new survey of Dutch doctors and their patients suggests that chronic fatigue syndrome affects only about 1 in 900 teenagers - but takes a heavy toll.

Among those teens diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, more than 90 percent had at least missed "considerable" school in the last 6 months, with some saying they had not attended school at all during that time.

CFS "is a condition with severe implications for school participation etc, necessitating adequate diagnosis and treatment," study author Dr. Sanne Nijhof of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands told Reuters Health.

The impact is felt by many more people than the patient, said Dr. Katharine Rimes, who was not involved in the study.

"Missing substantial amounts of school can potentially have profound effects on their educational, social and emotional development," explained Rimes, based at King's College London. "It also has potentially serious impact on the family. If the child is off school, one parent -- usually the mother -- usually has to stay at home to care for them, and often give up their job altogether. This can obviously have adverse financial and psychological effects."

CFS is a long-term debilitating condition of disabling physical and mental fatigue, poor concentration and memory, disturbed sleep and muscle and joint pain.

There is no cure for CFS and scientists don't know what causes it. Many sufferers say they think their illness started after a viral infection, but suggested links to a virus known as XMRV were shown in a recent scientific paper to have been based on contaminated samples in a lab (see Reuters Health story of December 20, 2010).

This estimation of the rate of CFS among teens, published in the journal Pediatrics, is considerably lower than previous estimates of CFS among adults. In one Dutch study, 1 percent of adults said they had the condition.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, millions of Americans have CFS, perhaps 80 percent of whom may not realize they have it.

Nijhof explained that trying to understand why his estimate for teens is lower than previous ones for adults "would be speculative," since his study did not include adults, and different studies use different methods.

To get a better idea of how many teens in the Netherlands are affected by CFS, Nijhof and colleagues sent questionnaires to a group of general practitioners and reviewed a national registry of pediatric disorders, in which pediatricians report new cases of disorders affecting their patients. The researchers also mailed surveys to patients asking about the condition's impact on their lives.

Less than half of general practitioners returned the survey. Based on their responses, the authors estimated that 111 out of every 100,000 teens, or 0.11 percent, were diagnosed with CFS. Records from pediatricians suggested that 12 out of every 100,000 teens, or 0.012 percent, were newly diagnosed with CFS every year.

Patients were an average of 15 years old when the illness began. Half experienced symptoms for at least 17 months before they were diagnosed. In one-fifth of patients, the illness began after a severe infection. CFS occurred in five times as many girls as boys.

Of potential concern, the authors note, is that the condition appears to be "under-recognized" by primary care physicians. Only half of all general practitioners who agreed to participate in the study said they accepted CFS as a distinct diagnosis, versus 96 percent of the pediatricians consulted during the study. And nearly 75 percent of teens with CFS were not diagnosed by their general practitioners. This lack of awareness probably stems from the condition's infrequency, said Nijhof. "The average GP will not have a CFS patient in their practice."

"Adolescents with severe and long-lasting fatigue should be referred to a pediatrician," agreed Rimes in an email.

Although only half of general practitioners responded to the survey, non-responders did not appear to be any different from responders, so the results from half the group likely represent the population overall, Nijhof said in an email.

It's an important study, despite its potential limitations, said Rimes, in part because CFS is not studied in teens nearly as often as adults. "The disabling nature of the condition has the potential to have a serious adverse impact on the normal cognitive, emotional, and social developmental processes that occur at this age." (Reuters)

A Kansas woman faces a charge of harboring a vicious animal after her pet python grabbed onto her neck

 KANSAS CITY: A Kansas woman faces a charge of harboring a vicious animal after her pet python grabbed onto her neck and would not let go until a police officer intervened.

Chrystal Wilson of Lyons, Kan., took the eight-foot-long albino snake from its cage for feeding Tuesday when it clasped its jaws on the side of her neck, Police Chief Chris Detmer said Friday. Luckily, the snake has small teeth rather than sharp fangs, he said.

A child in the house called police. Officer Max Bryant forced the jaws of the snake apart with his hands. Bryant will get a citation for bravery from the Lyons City Council, Detmer said.

"There's not too many guys or women who would grab it by the end of the mouth like that," Detmer said. The snake was not wrapped around Wilson but she was reportedly visibly upset because she could not get it off her neck, Detmer said.

Wilson is in her mid 20s and moved to Lyons about a year ago, Detmer said. She was ordered to remove the snake from the home because it poses a risk to children there, he said. She received a misdemeanor citation for harboring the snake. (Reuters)

A Kansas woman faces a charge of harboring a vicious animal after her pet python grabbed onto her neck

 KANSAS CITY: A Kansas woman faces a charge of harboring a vicious animal after her pet python grabbed onto her neck and would not let go until a police officer intervened.

Chrystal Wilson of Lyons, Kan., took the eight-foot-long albino snake from its cage for feeding Tuesday when it clasped its jaws on the side of her neck, Police Chief Chris Detmer said Friday. Luckily, the snake has small teeth rather than sharp fangs, he said.

A child in the house called police. Officer Max Bryant forced the jaws of the snake apart with his hands. Bryant will get a citation for bravery from the Lyons City Council, Detmer said.

"There's not too many guys or women who would grab it by the end of the mouth like that," Detmer said. The snake was not wrapped around Wilson but she was reportedly visibly upset because she could not get it off her neck, Detmer said.

Wilson is in her mid 20s and moved to Lyons about a year ago, Detmer said. She was ordered to remove the snake from the home because it poses a risk to children there, he said. She received a misdemeanor citation for harboring the snake. (Reuters)

Attractive man mean's long ring finger ... new research


PARIS The longer a man's fourth or ring finger is compared to his index finger, the more likely he is to be judged attractive by women, according to a study released Wednesday.

The results, published in the British Royal Society's journal Biological Sciences, unveil intricate links between foetal exposure of males to hormones, the development of certain physical traits, and what turns on the opposite sex.

It also adds to a growing body of research -- conducted under the banner of evolutionary psychology -- suggesting that the drivers of human behaviour are found, more than previously suspected, in "nature" rather than "nurture."

Earlier studies had already shown that the size ratio between the fourth and second fingers, especially of the right hand, is a reliable indicator of the extent a man was exposed to testosterone while still in the womb.

The bigger the gap between a longer ring finger and a shorter index, the greater the likely impact of the hormone.

For the new study, scientists led by Camille Ferdenzi of the University of Geneva designed an experiment to find out if women are drawn to the telltale signs of high testosterone levels in men -- a symmetrical face, a deeper voice, a particular body odour -- who have this more "masculine" finger configuration.

More than 80 women university students between 18 and 34 looked at pictures of 49 similarly aged men, and were asked to evaluate them for masculinity and attractiveness.

Smaller groups of women listened to recordings of the male voices, and smelled samples of their body odour, taken from cotton pads worn under the arm for 24 hours.

"The aim was to understand what makes a man attractive," and whether at least some of those qualities "were in part conditioned by the foetal environment," Ferdenzi said in an interview.

For the visual test, the results were unambiguous. "The longer the ring finger compared to the index -- that is, the greater the exposure to testosterone -- the more attractive the face was rated," she said by phone.

"We also found that attractiveness and symmetry in the face are highly correlated."

Such a preference might have evolved to boost a female's chances of reproductive success through mating with a more virile partner, she said.

Surprisingly, however, women did not consistently tag the same men as "masculine".

Nor did their preferences for voice or odours correspond to the longer ring-finger males.

"There wasn't any relation between the 2D-4D" -- 2nd digit, 4th digit -- "ratio and the reactions of the women to odour," Ferdenzi said.

One reason, she speculated, may be that voice and body odour are more dependent on fluctuating levels of adult testosterone than on pre-natal testosterone.

The ring-index finger ratio has also proven to be a useful indicator for gauging the risk of prostate cancer, likewise tied to high levels of testosterone.

Research published in December showed that the chances of developing the disease drop by a third in men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger.

Other studies have also found a link between exposure to hormones before birth and the development of other diseases, including breast cancer and osteoarthritis. (AFP)

Attractive man mean's long ring finger ... new research


PARIS The longer a man's fourth or ring finger is compared to his index finger, the more likely he is to be judged attractive by women, according to a study released Wednesday.

The results, published in the British Royal Society's journal Biological Sciences, unveil intricate links between foetal exposure of males to hormones, the development of certain physical traits, and what turns on the opposite sex.

It also adds to a growing body of research -- conducted under the banner of evolutionary psychology -- suggesting that the drivers of human behaviour are found, more than previously suspected, in "nature" rather than "nurture."

Earlier studies had already shown that the size ratio between the fourth and second fingers, especially of the right hand, is a reliable indicator of the extent a man was exposed to testosterone while still in the womb.

The bigger the gap between a longer ring finger and a shorter index, the greater the likely impact of the hormone.

For the new study, scientists led by Camille Ferdenzi of the University of Geneva designed an experiment to find out if women are drawn to the telltale signs of high testosterone levels in men -- a symmetrical face, a deeper voice, a particular body odour -- who have this more "masculine" finger configuration.

More than 80 women university students between 18 and 34 looked at pictures of 49 similarly aged men, and were asked to evaluate them for masculinity and attractiveness.

Smaller groups of women listened to recordings of the male voices, and smelled samples of their body odour, taken from cotton pads worn under the arm for 24 hours.

"The aim was to understand what makes a man attractive," and whether at least some of those qualities "were in part conditioned by the foetal environment," Ferdenzi said in an interview.

For the visual test, the results were unambiguous. "The longer the ring finger compared to the index -- that is, the greater the exposure to testosterone -- the more attractive the face was rated," she said by phone.

"We also found that attractiveness and symmetry in the face are highly correlated."

Such a preference might have evolved to boost a female's chances of reproductive success through mating with a more virile partner, she said.

Surprisingly, however, women did not consistently tag the same men as "masculine".

Nor did their preferences for voice or odours correspond to the longer ring-finger males.

"There wasn't any relation between the 2D-4D" -- 2nd digit, 4th digit -- "ratio and the reactions of the women to odour," Ferdenzi said.

One reason, she speculated, may be that voice and body odour are more dependent on fluctuating levels of adult testosterone than on pre-natal testosterone.

The ring-index finger ratio has also proven to be a useful indicator for gauging the risk of prostate cancer, likewise tied to high levels of testosterone.

Research published in December showed that the chances of developing the disease drop by a third in men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger.

Other studies have also found a link between exposure to hormones before birth and the development of other diseases, including breast cancer and osteoarthritis. (AFP)

heavy smoking mean's kidney cancer but more aggressive.


NEW YORK: Researchers have found that kidney cancer is not only more common among heavy smokers, it also appears to be more aggressive.

According to a study out Monday, more than one in four smokers undergoing kidney cancer surgery had advanced stages of the disease, compared to only one in five patients who didn't light up.

Researchers say about 70 percent of people with early-stage tumors survive at least five years, whereas that number plummets to just eight percent after the cancer has begun spreading.

heavy smoking mean's kidney cancer but more aggressive.


NEW YORK: Researchers have found that kidney cancer is not only more common among heavy smokers, it also appears to be more aggressive.

According to a study out Monday, more than one in four smokers undergoing kidney cancer surgery had advanced stages of the disease, compared to only one in five patients who didn't light up.

Researchers say about 70 percent of people with early-stage tumors survive at least five years, whereas that number plummets to just eight percent after the cancer has begun spreading.

Embarrassing mishap during Real Madrid's celebration Real captain Ramos drops King's Cup under a bus


VALENCIA: Sergio Ramos suffered an embarrassing mishap during Real Madrid's celebration of Wednesday's King's Cup triumph when he dropped the trophy under a bus at their victory parade.

Defender Ramos, one of the club captains and a world champion with Spain last year in South Africa, had the Cup on top of his head as the bus inched past thousands of Real fans celebrating in the centre of the Spanish capital.

As he lowered the imposing silver trophy, which weighs nine kilograms and measures 78 centimetres, it slipped from his grasp and under the front of the open-top vehicle.

Embarrassing mishap during Real Madrid's celebration Real captain Ramos drops King's Cup under a bus


VALENCIA: Sergio Ramos suffered an embarrassing mishap during Real Madrid's celebration of Wednesday's King's Cup triumph when he dropped the trophy under a bus at their victory parade.

Defender Ramos, one of the club captains and a world champion with Spain last year in South Africa, had the Cup on top of his head as the bus inched past thousands of Real fans celebrating in the centre of the Spanish capital.

As he lowered the imposing silver trophy, which weighs nine kilograms and measures 78 centimetres, it slipped from his grasp and under the front of the open-top vehicle.
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