မလုပ်ချင်ဆုံးအလုပ်၊ မလုပ်လိုသောအလုပ်ကို အခုရက်ပိုင်းမှာ လုပ်နေမိတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ လုပ်သင့်လုပ်ထိုက်တယ်လို့ ယူဆမိသည့်အတွက် မျက်နှာပူပူနဲ့ လုပ်နေမိတယ်။ တော်သေးသာက ဖုန်းနှင့်သာဆက်သွယ်ပြီး လုပ်တယ်ဆိုတော့ မျက်နှာပူသက်သာလို့ ဖြေသာမိပါတယ်။
ဘယ့်အလုပ်များဘာလိမ့်။
ဆင်းရဲပင်ပန်းစွာ အလုပ်ကြိုးစားပြီး ရှာဖွေစုဆောင်းထားသော ချွေးနည်းစာ တစိတ်တပိုင်းလေးကို တစုံတရာအတွက် အလှူငွေများ ထည့်ပေးကြပါရန် မေတ္တာရပ်ခံနေမိသောအလုပ် ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
ဘယ့်တစုံတရာအတွက်များဘာလိမ့်။
မိမိတို့ဘဝ အတတ်ပညာတွေပြည့်စုံပြီး တင့်တောင့်တင့်တယ်ဖြစ်အောင် မြေတောင်မြောက်ပေးခဲ့သော အနန္တေ အနန္တ ဂိုဏ်းဝင် အာစရိယဆရာသမားများကို ပူဇော်နိုင်ရန် ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
Monday, December 13, 2010
မလုပ်ချင်ဆုံးအလုပ်၊ မလုပ်လိုသောအလုပ်
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Technology China's fastest supercomputer Tianhe-1 sets new record
Updated: 2010-10-28 17:11
BEIJING - China's Tianhe-1 has overtaken Nebulae to regain top spot as China's fastest computer according to a new list of China's Top 100 supercomputers released Thursday.
On the biannual world TOP 500 list published in June, China's Nebulae machine took the second spot only after the US' Jaguar system, while Tianhe-1 took seventh place.
Housed at the National Center for Supercomputing in northern port city of Tianjin, Tianhe-1, meaning Milky Way, has a sustained computing speed of 2,507 trillion calculations, or 2.507 petaflops, per second.
It has a theoretical speed of 4.7 petaflops per second, according to a R&D research member of Tianhe-1. A petaflop is equivalent to 1,000 trillion calculations.
Nebulae housed in Shenzhen is capable of sustained computing of 1.271 petaflop per second (PFlop/s) on the Linpack benchmark, a measure for ranking supercomputers in world Top 500 list.
The US leads the world in supercomputing and is home to more than half of the top 500 supercomputers. The Jaguar system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has a speed of 1.75 PFlop/s.
The enhanced Tianhe-1 has upgraded Intel CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, and new domestically developed Feiteng-1000 CPUs have been installed, the developer the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) said.
Tianhe-1 has begun trial use among target clients including Tianjin Meteorological Bureau and the National Offshore Oil Corporation data center. "It can also serve the animation industry and bio-medical research," said Liu Guangming, director of the National Center for Supercomputing in Tianjin.
In September 2009, the NUDT created Tianhe-1 with a sustained computing speed of 0.5631 PFlop/s, the fastest supercomputer in China at that time.
The new technical data of Tianhe-1 has been submitted to the world Top 500 list and the next list will be released in November.
Related readings:
Supercomputer ranks second fastest in world
Chinese supercomputer ranked second-fastest
Xinhua
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Walking 6 to 9 Miles a Week May Help Save Memory
Brain's gray matter doesn't seem to shrink with this amount of exercise, study finds
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Walking about six miles a week appears to protect against brain shrinkage in old age, which in turn helps stem the onset of memory problems and cognitive decline, new research reveals.
"We have always been in search of the drug or the magic pill to help treat brain disorders," noted Kirk I. Erickson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and the study's lead author. "But really what we are after may be, at least partially, even simpler than that. Just by walking regularly, and so maintaining a little bit of moderate physical activity, you can reduce your likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease and [can] spare brain tissue."
A report on the research, which was supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging, is published online Oct. 13 in Neurology.
Erickson and his colleagues began tracking the physical activity and cognitive (or thinking) patterns of nearly 300 adults in 1989. At the start, all participants were in good cognitive health, they averaged 78 years old and about two-thirds were women. The researchers charted how many blocks each person walked in a week.
Nine years later, they were given a high-resolution MRI scan to measure brain size. All were deemed to be "cognitively normal."
But four years after that, testing showed that a little more than one-third of the participants had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
By correlating cognitive health, brain scans and walking patterns, the research team found that being more physically active appeared to marginally lower the risk for developing cognitive impairment.
But more specifically, they concluded that the more someone walks, the more gray matter tissue the person will have a decade or more down the road in regions of the brain -- namely the hippocampus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the supplementary motor area -- that are central to cognition.
And among the more physically active participants who had retained more gray matter a decade out, the chances of developing cognitive impairment were cut in half, the study found.
However, the researchers stressed that the relationship between walking and gray matter volume appears to apply only to people who regularly walk relatively long distances that equal about six to nine miles a week.
Walking more than the six- to nine-mile range, however, did not have cognitive benefit, the study found.
"That's because the size of our brain regions can only be so large," Erickson said, adding that the opposite isn't true. "So with no exercise, there can be significant deterioration and decay with age."
However, he added, "what we often tend to think of as an inevitable component or characteristic of aging -- memory decline and brain decay -- is clearly not inevitable. There's plenty of evidence now, and this study is part of that, that shows that we can retain our brain tissue and retain our memories well into late adulthood by maintaining an active and engaged lifestyle."
Dr. Steven V. Pacia, chief of neurology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, described the study's finding as both "intriguing" and an "undoubtedly positive message to send to the public."
"My first reaction to studies like this is that only in America do we have to prove to people that it's good to walk," he said with a chuckle.
"But it stands to reason that being active as we age is going to have a beneficial effect on the brain, just as being inactive is going to have a negative impact," Pacia noted. "Because the brain lives in the environment of the body."
But there may be a catch. "This is just an observational study," Pacia noted. "And while we may assume that the relationship between the brain and activity is a prevention-of-atrophy issue -- just like it is with muscle and bone -- this study doesn't actually prove that. We don't yet know enough about the use-it-or-lose-it notion with respect to brain and exercise. So we do need more research to look at that."
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more on healthy aging.
SOURCES: Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of psychology, University of Pittsburgh; Steven V. Pacia, M.D., chief, division of neurology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Oct. 13, 2010, Neurology, online
Last of Chilean miners is raised safely to surface
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer 
AP/Roberto Candia
Miner Luis Urzua, the last miner to be rescued, celebrates next to Chile's President Sebastian Pinera after being pulled to safety.
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – The last of the Chilean miners, the foreman who held them together when they were feared lost, was raised from the depths of the earth Wednesday night — a joyous ending to a 69-day ordeal that riveted the world. No one has ever been trapped so long and survived.
Luis Urzua ascended smoothly through 2,000 feet of rock, completing a 22 1/2-hour rescue operation that unfolded with remarkable speed and flawless execution. Before a jubilant crowd of about 2,000 people, he became the 33rd miner to be rescued.
"We have done what the entire world was waiting for," he told Chilean President Sebastian Pinera immediately after his rescue. "The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing."
The president told him: "You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter." With Urzua by his side, he led the crowd in singing the national anthem.
The rescue exceeded expectations every step of the way. Officials first said it might be four months before they could get the men out; it turned out to be 69 days and about 8 hours.
Once the escape tunnel was finished, they estimated it would take 36 to 48 hours to get all the miners to the surface. That got faster as the operation went along, and all the men were safely above ground in 22 hours, 37 minutes.
The rescue workers who talked the men through the final hours still had to be hoisted to the surface.
In nearby Copiapo, about 3,000 people gathered in the town square, where a huge screen broadcast live footage of the rescue. The exuberant crowd waved Chilean flags of all sizes and blew on red vuvuzelas as cars drove around the plaza honking their horns, their drivers yelling, "Long live Chile!"
"The miners are our heroes," said teary-eyed Copiapo resident Maria Guzman, 45.
One by one throughout the day, the men had emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. While the operation picked up speed as the day went on, each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.
"Welcome to life," Pinera told Victor Segovia, the 15th miner out. On a day of superlatives, it seemed no overstatement.
They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal, and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for about $1,600 a month.
The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix — 13 feet tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and some wheels had to be replaced, but it worked exactly as planned.
Beginning at midnight Tuesday, and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered the nearly half-mile to where 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5 and entombed the men.
Then, after a quick pep talk from rescue workers who had descended into the mine, a miner would climb in, make the journey upward and emerge from a manhole into the blinding sun.
The rescue was planned with extreme care. The miners were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic. They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes from the unfamiliar sunlight and sweaters for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.
As they neared the surface, a camera attached to the top of the capsule showed a brilliant white piercing the darkness not unlike what accident survivors describe when they have near-death experiences.
The miners emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven. Several thrust their fists upwards like prizefighters, and Mario Sepulveda, the second to taste freedom, bounded out and led his rescuers in a rousing cheer. Franklin Lobos, who played for the Chilean national soccer team in the 1980s, briefly bounced a soccer ball on his foot and knee.
"We have prayed to San Lorenzo, the patron saint of miners, and to many other saints so that my brothers Florencio and Renan would come out of the mine all right. It is as if they had been born again," said Priscila Avalos. One of her brothers was the first miner rescued, and the other was due out later in the evening.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said some of the miners probably will be able to leave the hospital Thursday — earlier than projected — but many had been unable to sleep, wanted to talk with families and were anxious. One was treated for pneumonia, and two needed dental work.
"They are not ready to have a moment's rest until the last of their colleagues is out," he said.
As it traveled down and up, down and up, the rescue capsule was not rotating as much inside the 2,041-foot escape shaft as officials expected, allowing for faster trips.
The first man out was Florencio Avalos, who emerged from the missile-like chamber and hugged his sobbing 7-year-old son, his wife and the Chilean president.
No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.
News channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage of the rescue. Pope Benedict XVI said in Spanish that he "continues with hope to entrust to God's goodness" the fate of the men. Iran's state English-language Press TV followed events live for a time. Crews from Russia and Japan and North Korean state TV were at the mine.
The images beamed to the world were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.
Among the first rescued was the youngest miner, Jimmy Sanchez, at 19 the father of a months-old baby. Two hours later came the oldest, Mario Gomez, 63, who suffers from a lung disease common to miners and had been on antibiotics inside the mine. He dropped to his knees after he emerged, bowed his head in prayer and clutched the Chilean flag.
Gomez's wife, Lilianett Ramirez, pulled him up from the ground and embraced him. The couple had talked over video chat once a week, and she said that he had repeated the promise he made to her in his initial letter from inside the mine: He would marry her properly in a church wedding, followed by the honeymoon they never had.
The lone foreigner among them, Carlos Mamani of Bolivia, was visited at a nearby clinic by Pinera and Bolivian President Evo Morales. The miner could be heard telling the Chilean president how nice it was to breathe fresh air and see the stars.
Most of the men emerged clean-shaven. More than 300 people at the mine alone had worked on the rescue or to sustain them during their long wait by lowering rocket-shaped tubes dubbed "palomas," Spanish for carrier pigeons. Along with the food and medicine came razors and shaving cream.
Estimates for the rescue operation alone have soared beyond $22 million, though the government has repeatedly insisted that money is not a concern.
The men emerged in good health. But at the hospital in Copiapo, where miner after miner walked from the ambulance to a waiting wheelchair, it became clear that psychological issues would be as important to treat as physical ones.
Dr. Guillermo Swett said Sepulveda told him about an internal "fight with the devil" that he had inside the mine. He said Sanchez appeared to be having a hard time adjusting, and seemed depressed.
"He spoke very little and didn't seem to connect," the doctor said.
The entire rescue operation was meticulously choreographed. No expense was spared in bringing in topflight drillers and equipment — and boring three separate holes into the copper and gold mine. Only one has been finished — the one through which the miners exited.
Mining is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 percent of state earnings, and Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.
It went so well that its managers abandoned a plan to restrict images of the rescue. A huge Chilean flag that was to obscure the hole from view was moved aside so the hundreds of cameras perched on a hill above could record images that state TV also fed live.
That included the surreal moment when the capsule dropped for the first time into the chamber, where the bare-chested miners, most stripped down to shorts because of the underground heat, mobbed the rescuer who emerged to serve as their guide to freedom.
"This rescue operation has been so marvelous, so clean, so emotional that there was no reason not to allow the eyes of the world — which have been watching this operation so closely — to see it," a a beaming Pinera told a news conference after the first miner safely surfaced.
The miners' vital signs were closely monitored throughout the ride. They were given a high-calorie liquid diet donated by NASA, designed to prevent nausea from any rotation of the capsule as it travels through curves in the 28-inch-diameter escape hole.
Engineers inserted steel piping at the top of the shaft, which is angled 11 degrees off vertical before plunging like a waterfall. Drillers had to curve the shaft to pass through "virgin" rock, narrowly avoiding collapsed areas and underground open spaces in the overexploited mine, which had operated since 1885.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the rescue had "inspired the world." The crews included many Americans, including a driller operator from Denver and a team from Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., that built and managed the piston-driven hammers that pounded the hole through rock laced with quartzite, some of the hardest and most abrasive rock.
Chile has promised that its care of the miners won't end for six months at least — not until they can be sure that each man has readjusted.
Psychiatrists and other experts in surviving extreme situations predict their lives will be anything but normal. Since Aug. 22, when a narrow bore hole broke through to their refuge and the miners stunned the world with a note, scrawled in red ink, disclosing their survival, their families have been exposed in ways they never imagined.
Miners had to describe their physical and mental health in detail with teams of doctors and psychologists. In some cases, when both wives and lovers claimed the same man, everyone involved had to face the consequences.
As trying as their time underground was, the miners now face challenges so bewildering that no amount of coaching can fully prepare them. Rejoining a world intensely curious about their ordeal, they have been invited to presidential palaces, to take all-expenses-paid vacations and to appear on countless TV shows. Book and movie deals are pending, along with job offers.
Sepulveda's performance exiting from the shaft appeared to confirm what many Chileans thought when they saw his engaging performances in videos sent up from below — that he could have a future as a TV personality.
But he tried to quash the idea as he spoke to viewers of Chile's state television channel while sitting with his wife and children shortly after his rescue.
"The only thing I'll ask of you is that you don't treat me as an artist or a journalist, but as a miner," he said. "I was born a miner and I'll die a miner."
Associated Press Writers Frank Bajak, Franklin Briceno, Peter Prengaman, Vivian Sequera and Eva Vergara contributed to this report.
Associated Press
26 miners free as Chile rescue goes off flawlessly
Published October 13, 2010 | Associated Press
With remarkable speed — and flawless execution — miner after miner climbed into a cramped cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, was hoisted through 2,000 feet of rock and saw precious sunlight Wednesday after the longest underground entrapment in human history.
By midafternoon, 26 of the 33 miners, including the weakest and sickest, had been pulled to freedom, and officials said they might even be able to bring everyone out by midnight.
After 69 days underground, including two weeks during which they were feared dead, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. The operation picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.
"Welcome to life," President Sebastian Pinera told Victor Segvia, the 15th miner out. On a day of superlatives, it seemed no overstatement.
They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal, and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for about $1,600 a month.
The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix — 13 feet tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and its wheels needed lubricating at least once, but it worked exactly as planned.
Beginning at midnight Tuesday, and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered the nearly half-mile to where 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5 and entombed the men.
Then, after a quick pep talk from rescue workers who had descended into the mine, a miner would strap himself in, make the journey upward and emerge from a manhole into the blinding sun.
The rescue was planned with extreme care. The miners were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic. They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes from unfamiliar light and sweaters for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.
As they neared the surface, a camera attached to the top of the capsule showed a brilliant white piercing the darkness not unlike what accident survivors describe when they have near-death experiences.
The miners emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven. Several thrust their fists upwards like prizefighters, and Mario Sepulveda, the second to taste freedom, bounded out and led his rescuers in a rousing cheer.
"We have prayed to San Lorenzo, the patron saint of miners, and to many other saints so that my brothers Florencio and Renan would come out of the mine all right. It is as if they had been born again," said Priscila Avalos. One of her brothers was the first miner rescued, and the other was due out later in the evening.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said some of the miners probably will be able to leave the hospital Thursday — earlier than projected — but many had been unable to sleep, wanted to talk with families and were anxious. One was treated for pneumonia, and two needed dental work.
"They are not ready to have a moment's rest until the last of their colleagues is out," he said.
As it traveled down and up, down and up, the rescue capsule was not rotating as much inside the 2,041-foot escape shaft as officials expected, allowing for faster trips.
The first man out was Florencio Avalos, who emerged from the missile-like chamber and hugged his sobbing 7-year-old son, his wife and the Chilean president.
The last out was slated to be shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited with helping the men endure the first two and a half weeks without outside contact. The men made 48 hours' worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow bore hole to send down more food.
No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.
Chile exploded in joy and relief when the rescue began just after midnight in the coastal Atacama desert. Car horns sounded in Santiago, the Chilean capital, and school was canceled in the nearby town of Copiapo, where 24 of the miners live.
News channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage. Pope Benedict XVI said in Spanish that he "continues with hope to entrust to God's goodness" the fate of the men. Iran's state English-language Press TV followed events live for a time. Crews from Russia and Japan and North Korean state TV were at the mine.
The images beamed to the world were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.
Among the first rescued was the youngest miner, Jimmy Sanchez, at 19 the father of a months-old baby. Two hours later came the oldest, Mario Gomez, 63, who suffers from a lung disease common to miners and had been on antibiotics inside the mine. He dropped to his knees after he emerged, bowed his head in prayer and clutched the Chilean flag.
Gomez's wife, Liliane Ramirez, pulled him up from the ground and embraced him. The couple had talked over video chat once a week, and she said that he had repeated the promise he made to her in his initial letter from inside the mine: He would marry her properly in a church wedding, followed by the honeymoon they never had.
The lone foreigner among them, Carlos Mamani of Bolivia, was visited at a nearby clinic by Pinera and Bolivian President Evo Morales. The miner could be heard telling the Chilean president how nice it was to breathe fresh air and see the stars.
Most of the men emerged clean-shaven. More than 300 people at the mine alone had worked on the rescue or to sustain them during their long wait by lowering rocket-shaped tubes dubbed "palomas," Spanish for carrier pigeons. Along with the food and medicine came razors and shaving cream.
Estimates for the rescue operation alone have soared beyond $22 million, though the government has repeatedly insisted that money is not a concern.
The men emerged in good health. But at the hospital in Copiapo, where miner after miner walked from the ambulance to a waiting wheelchair, it became clear that psychological issues would be as important to treat as physical ones.
Dr. Guillermo Swett said Sepulveda told him about an internal "fight with the devil" that he had inside the mine. He said Sanchez appeared to be having a hard time adjusting, and seemed depressed.
"He spoke very little and didn't seem to connect," the doctor said.
The entire rescue operation was meticulously choreographed. No expense was spared in bringing in topflight drillers and equipment — and boring three separate holes into the copper and gold mine.
Mining is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 percent of state earnings, and Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.
It went so well that its managers abandoned a plan to restrict images of the rescue. A huge Chilean flag that was to obscure the hole from view was moved aside so the hundreds of cameras perched on a hill above could record images that state TV also fed live.
That included the surreal moment when the capsule dropped for the first time into the chamber, where the bare-chested miners, most stripped down to shorts because of the underground heat, mobbed the rescuer who emerged to serve as their guide to freedom.
"This rescue operation has been so marvelous, so clean, so emotional that there was no reason not to allow the eyes of the world — which have been watching this operation so closely — to see it," a beaming Pinera told a news conference after Avalos was brought to the surface.
The miners' vital signs were closely monitored throughout the ride. They were given a high-calorie liquid diet donated by NASA, designed to prevent nausea from any rotation of the capsule as it travels through curves in the 28-inch-diameter escape hole.
Engineers inserted steel piping at the top of the shaft, which is angled 11 degrees off vertical before plunging like a waterfall. Drillers had to curve the shaft to pass through "virgin" rock, narrowly avoiding collapsed areas and underground open spaces in the overexploited mine, which had operated since 1885.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the rescue had "inspired the world." The crews included many Americans, including a driller operator from Denver and a team from Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., that built and managed the piston-driven hammers that pounded the hole through quartz and silica, some of the hardest and most abrasive rock there is.
Chile has promised that its care of the miners won't end for six months at least — not until they can be sure that each man has readjusted.
Psychiatrists and other experts in surviving extreme situations predict their lives will be anything but normal. Since Aug. 22, when a narrow bore hole broke through to their refuge and the miners stunned the world with a note, scrawled in red ink, disclosing their survival, their families have been exposed in ways they never imagined.
Miners had to describe their physical and mental health in detail with teams of doctors and psychologists. In some cases, when both wives and lovers claimed the same man, everyone involved had to face the consequences.
As trying as their time underground was, the miners now face challenges so bewildering that no amount of coaching can fully prepare them. Rejoining a world intensely curious about their ordeal, they have been invited to presidential palaces, to take all-expenses-paid vacations and to appear on countless TV shows. Book and movie deals are pending, along with job offers.
Sepulveda's performance exiting from the shaft appeared to confirm what many Chileans thought when they saw his engaging performances in videos sent up from below — that he could have a future as a TV personality.
But he tried to quash the idea as he spoke to viewers of Chile's state television channel while sitting with his wife and children shortly after his rescue.
"The only thing I'll ask of you is that you don't treat me as an artist or a journalist, but as a miner," he said. "I was born a miner and I'll die a miner."
Associated Press Writers Frank Bajak, Franklin Briceno, Peter Prengaman, Vivian Sequera and Eva Vergara contributed to this report.
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Chile Frees First of 33 Miners in World's Longest Mine Rescue
By Matt Craze - Oct 12, 2010 8:46 PM PT
Chilean rescue workers pulled the first of 33 trapped miners to the surface in the world’s longest underground mine rescue.
Florencio Avalos emerged from the San Jose copper mine at 11:12 p.m. New York time after spending two months trapped in a tunnel more than 600 meters (1,970 feet) underground, according to images broadcast by state television channel TVN.
“I am so overwhelmed with emotion because it’s been so long since we have seen him,” Avalos’ father Alfonso said in comments broadcast by TVN. “I am so content, so happy. Thank God that he emerged so strong.”
Avalos, wearing protective glasses, embraced his wife and son and Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera before being taken to a mobile hospital unit as rescuers shouted “Long Live Chile.” Pinera will oversee the rescue of the 32 remaining men over the next 24 hours to 48 hours at the mine in the Atacama Desert.
The four-meter long “Phoenix” capsule painted in the red, white and blue colors of the Chilean flag will act as an elevator, hoisting the miners to the surface through a 26-inch wide rescue hole.
The miners were discovered alive on Aug. 22 after being trapped since Aug. 5, when the mine’s access collapsed. The miners’ only contact with the outside world was through six centimeter wide drill holes that were used to discover them and through which they receive food, water and medicine.
The survival of the San Jose miners surpasses a 25-day rescue of three coal miners in a flooded mine in Guizhou, China in 2009.
‘Chile Unites’
“Chileans and the entire world are not going to forget this night,” Pinera told the more than 1,000 reporters gathered at the mine site. “When Chile unites, and it always happens in adversity, we are capable of big things.”
Pinera, who wore the same red jacket he used in the aftermath of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February, will stay near the rescue site alongside Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales. One of the 33 miners is Bolivian.
Pinera’s approval rating has increased since his government started the rescue operation more than two months ago, while Mining Minister Laurence Golborne has become the most popular member of the president’s cabinet.
Pinera’s popularity grew to 57 percent in September from 54 percent in a May poll, Santiago-based research group Center for the Study of Contemporary Reality, or CERC, said in a report published Oct. 7. The Sept. 3-13 poll of 1,200 people has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Three Groups
The miners are being split into three groups for the rescue. The first will provide information to rescuers and possibly help with the operation, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. The weakest will then come out, followed by the rest. The last to be rescued will be shift foreman Luis Urzua.
“I’m nervous, my stomach is in knots,” Maria Segovia, the sister of trapped miner Dario Segovia, said in an interview at the site dubbed “Camp Hope.”
The 33 men were given meals rich in minerals and protein to prevent nausea and stabilize blood pressure during the ascent and examined remotely by medical officials on the surface. Ten have been identified by authorities as being the most in need of special care, Manalich said.
They’ll wear elastic bands on their lower extremities and a waistband during the 15- to 20-minute ascent that will help ensure proper blood circulation and prevent a reduction in arterial pressure and possible fainting, the health minister said. Rescue workers will supply the miners with emergency oxygen in case dust on the ascent causes breathing problems.
The miners want to wait until all 33 are brought to the surface so they can travel to the hospital as a group, the health minister said today. Authorities are instead seeking to fly miners to hospital as soon as possible so they can undergo examinations and any necessary treatment, Manalich said.
“Miners are fighters,” said Mario Castillo, 39, who has worked to bring lighting and equipment to the rescue site during the past two months. “The big lesson from all of this is that we have to be united. This is for the world.”
Bloomberg
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
UFO closes Chinese airport
UFO closes Chinese airport
By Our Foreign Staff
Published: 9:36AM BST 05 Oct 2010
An airport in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, was forced to shut to prevent passenger jets crashing into a UFO, according to reports.
Three flights to Baotou from Shanghai and Beijing were reportedly forced to circle the airport until the UFO disappeared.
Two other flights were diverted away from Baotou and to the nearby cities of Ordos and Taiyuan. The airport was shut for around an hour "to guarantee safety" according to a spokesman.
Witnesses reported a bright light shining in the sky on September 11 around two-and-a-half miles away from Baotou airport, before suddenly vanishing.
The incident was the eighth reported UFO sighting in China since the end of June.
Xiaoshan International airport near the eastern city of Hangzhou was shut down on July 8 because of a UFO, although officials later confirmed the object sighted above the airport had been part of a military test at a nearby airbase.
In the far-western province of Xinjiang, another sighting on June 30 is thought to have been a missile test.
A number of sightings in Sichuan province may also be linked to the local custom of flying illuminated kites at night.
Telegraph
Friday, October 1, 2010
China Launches Second Robotic Moon Probe
SPACE.com Staff
space.com – Fri Oct 1, 9:45 am ET
An unmanned moon probe blasted off from China Friday (Oct. 1) to begin the country's next phase of lunar exploration and set the stage for even more ambitious spaceflights to come.
The Chinese moon probe, called Chang'e 2, launched at 6:59:57 a.m. EDT (1059:57 GMT) from the Xichang Space Center in southwestern China's Sichuan province, according to state media reports. It should take about five days for the spacecraft to enter orbit around the moon.
The Chang'e 2 spacecraft soared into space atop one of China's Long March 3C rockets. It launched on Oct. 1, National Day in China – a holiday that commemorates the 61st anniversary of Communist rule in the country.
Chang'e 2 is the second step in China's three-phase Chang'e moon exploration program, which is named after China's mythical moon goddess. Chang'e 2 will test out technology and collect data on possible landing sites for the Chang'e 3 spacecraft, which is scheduled to land on the moon in 2013, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency has reported.
According to media reports, the mission has a cost of about $134 million.
Chang'e 2 will eventually swoop down to an orbit just 9 miles (15 km) above the lunar surface to take high-resolution pictures of landing areas for the Chang'e 3 mission, Xinhua has reported.
After snapping the photos, Chang'e 2 will retreat to an altitude of about 62 miles (100 km) to conduct a study of the lunar surface and dirt.
The Chang'e 1 probe launched in October 2007 and conducted a 16-month moon observation mission, after which it crash-landed on the lunar surface by design, in March 2009.
The Chang'e missions are just one prong of China's burgeoning space program, which has seen three successful manned spaceflights, including the nation's first spacewalk on the most recent mission, the Shenzhou 7 flight of 2008.
SPAC
Monday, September 13, 2010
Walking helps keep body and brain young
By Dorene Internicola Dorene Internicola – Mon Sep 13, 6:00 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Everyone knows that walking limbers the aging body, but did you know it keeps the mind supple as well?
Research shows that walking can actually boost the connectivity within brain circuits, which tends to diminish as the grey hairs multiply.
"Patterns of connectivity decrease as we get older," said Dr. Arthur F. Kramer, who led the study team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"Networks aren't as well connected to support the things we do, such as driving," he said. "But we found as a function of aerobic fitness, the networks became more coherent."
Kramer's walking study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, tracked 70 adults from 60 to 80 years old over the course of a year. A toning, stretching, strengthening group served as a control against which to evaluate the previously sedentary walkers.
"Individuals in the walking group, the aerobics training group, got by far the largest benefits," he said, and not just physically.
"We also measured brain function," said Kramer, whose team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain networks. A group of 20-to-30-year olds were tested for comparison.
"The aerobic group also improved in memory, attention and a variety of other cognitive processes," Kramer said. "As the older people in the walking group became more fit, the coherence among different regions in the networks increased and became similar to those of the 20-yr olds," Kramer explained.
But the results did not happen overnight. Effects in the walking group were observed only after they trained for 12 months. Six-month tests yielded no significant trends.
The findings come as no surprise to Dr. Lynn Millar, an expert with the American College of Sports Medicine. She said while walking might seem like a simple activity, the brain is actually working to integrate information from many different sources.
"When we walk we integrate visual input, auditory input, as well as input that's coming from joints and muscles regarding where the foot is, how much force, and things like that " said Millar, a professor of Physical Therapy at Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
"It's that old concept: if you don't use it you lose it," she said. "In order for something to be beneficial we need to do it repetitively, and walking is a repetitive activity."
Millar, author of "Action Plan for Arthritis," said while some changes are inevitable with age, they don't have to happen as quickly as they do in some people.
"We know reaction time gets slower as we age, but activity is a big modifier," she said, "so if we do trip we'll be able to get that leg out and catch ourselves."
Kramer, who also works with the military and people with disabilities, continues to work on mediating the negative effects of aging with lifestyle choices.
"We're interested in understanding brain plasticity but we're also interested in doing something about it," he said. "We can wait for that wonder drug or we can do something today."
Reuters
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Bionic legs allow paralysed man to walk again
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:26 AM on 16th July 2010
When Hayden Allen suffered a spinal cord injury in a motorbike accident five years ago, doctors told him he’d never walk again.
But today a revolutionary product developed by a New Zealand biotech company has enabled him to do just that.
Mr Allen has been one of the first people in the world to use Rex, the Robotic Exoskeleton - a pair of robotic legs that supports and assists a person who usually uses a wheelchair.
It lets them stand, walk and go up and down steps and slopes.
‘I’ll never forget what it was like to see my feet walking under me the first time I used Rex,' said Mr Allen.
‘People say to me, "Look up when you’re walking" but I just can’t stop staring down at my feet moving.’
Rex users move from their chair into Rex, strap themselves in and control their movements using a joystick and control pad.
The equipment weighs 38kg (84lb) and is individually made for each user.
It is powered by a lightweight, long-life rechargeable battery.
Mr Allen, a mechanic, also spoke of how liberated he felt around his workshop as he now has far more access to machinery - and he can finally talk to people at eye level again.
Dr Richard Roxburgh, Auckland neurologist and medical adviser to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, said: ‘For many of my patients, Rex represents the first time they’ve been able to stand up and walk for years.
‘There are obvious immediate benefits in terms of mobility, improved social interaction and self-image.
'There are also likely to be major long-term health and quality of life benefits through reducing the complications of being in a wheelchair all the time.
‘I think that this will also enable people to stay well longer; this means that those who have conditions where disease-modifying treatments are coming over the next five to ten years will be in better shape when those treatments finally arrive.'
Each Rex battery-powered machine will last for one day’s typical use.
Potential customers must complete a medical appraisal including checks with their own doctor to ensure their general health and suitability before they can begin the process of fitting and training.
Rex is expected to cost about $150,000 (£98,000).
CEO of Rex Bionics, Jenny Morel, says they expect to conclude internal testing of Rex shortly and will then have a preliminary release in Auckland, New Zealand to allow the company to track what happens when people take Rex home.
Sales are expected to commence in New Zealand by the end of 2010 and elsewhere in the world by the middle of 2011.
Original source
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Buddhism Wins Best Religion in the World Award
Linda Moulin | 15.07.2009 | 16:55
Tribune de Geneve
In advance of their annual Leading Figure award to a religious figure who has done the most to advance the cause of humanism and peace, the Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has chosen to bestow a special award this year on the Buddhist Community. "We typically prefer an under-the-radar approach for the organization, as we try to embody the spirit of modesty found in the greatest traditions," said ICARUS director Hans Groehlichen in a phone conference Monday. "But with organized religion increasingly used as a tool to separate and inflame rather than bring together, we felt we had to take the unusual step of creating a "Best Religion in the World" award and making a bit of a stir, to inspire other religious leaders to see what is possible when you practice compassion."
Groehlichen said the award was voted on by an international roundtable of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the spiritual spectrum. "It was interesting to note that once we supplied the criteria, many religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own religion," said Groehlichen. "Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of our membership, so it was fascinating but quite exciting that they won."
Criteria included factors such as promoting personal and community peace, increasing compassion and a sense of connection, and encouraging preservation of the natural environment. Groehlichen continued "The biggest factor for us is that ICARUS was founded by spiritual and religious people to bring the concepts of non-violence to prominence in society. One of the key questions in our voting process was which religion actually practices non-violence."
When presenting the information to the voting members, ICARUS researched each of the 38 religions on the ballot extensively, offering background, philosophy, and the religions role in government and warfare. Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World, because we could find literally not one single instance of a war fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other spiritual tradition."
At least one Catholic priest spoke out on behalf of Buddhism. Father Ted O'Shaughnessy said from Belfast, "As much as I love the Catholic Church, it has always bothered me to no end that we preach love in our scripture yet then claim to know God's will when it comes to killing other humans. For that reason, I did have to cast my vote for the Buddhists." And Muslim Cleric Tal Bin Wassad agreed from Pakistan via his translator. "While I am a devout Muslim, I can see how much anger and bloodshed is channeled into religious expression rather than dealt with on a personal level. The Buddhists have that figured out." Bin Wassad, the ICARUS voting member for Pakistan's Muslim community continued, "In fact, some of my best friends are Buddhist." And Rabbi Shmuel Wasserstein said from Jerusalem, "Of course, I love Judaism, and I think it's the greatest religion in the world. But to be honest, I've been practicing Vipassana meditation every day before minyan (daily Jewish prayer) since 1993. So I get it."
Groehlichen said that the plan was for the award to Buddhism for "Best Religion in the World" to be given to leaders from the various lineages in the Buddhist community. However, there was one snag. "Basically we can't find anyone to give it to," said Groehlichen in a followup call late Tuesday. "All the Buddhists we call keep saying they don't want the award." Groehlichen explained the strange behavior, saying "Basically they are all saying they are a philosophical tradition, not a religion. But that doesn't change the fact that with this award we acknowledge their philosophy of personal responsibility and personal transformation to be the best in the world and the most important for the challenges facing every individual and all living beings in the coming centuries."
When asked why the Burmese Buddhist community refused the award, Buddhist monk Bhante Ghurata Hanta said from Burma, "We are grateful for the acknowledgement, but we give this award to all humanity, for Buddha nature lies within each of us." Groehlichen went on to say "We're going to keep calling around until we find a Buddhist who will accept it. We'll let you know when we do."
Original source
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Extreme hot weather grills Myanmar
May 10, 2010
Myanmar people have been suffering from the impact of extreme hot weather this summer in terms of diseases, business and water shortage in various part of the country.
Summer season in Myanmar lasts from March to May, and April represents the hottest month.
As a rare phenomena in several decades, this year is experiencing excessive heat strike, with the day temperatures in central Myanmar reaching a record high of between 43 and 45 degree Celsius, 5 to 6 degree Celsius above April average maximum temperature.
The Myanmar authorities have stopped traders in the country from exporting rice in order to reserve for domestic demand due to less production.
Meanwhile, thousands of fish, bred in ponds in the country's southwestern Ayeyawaddy division, died of heat during the current summer season.
There was even worse case that all 100,000 fishes died in a single day in Twantay township, Yangon division.
Fish breeders feared that such cases would continue as long as there is no rainfall.
The excessively high temperature also led to water shortage in many villages in the country.
As an alternative, the villagers are digging up wells near the dry ponds to get water.
The heat wave has also spred flu and skin allergy and the lack of electricity and water intensified the suffering.
There was news report about a sudden death of a taxi driver in Yangon when heat struck him inside the car.
The authorities have advised people to remain indoor in the day time to prevent from exposure to excessive heat.
Amid the extreme hot weather, Myanmar's cyclone-ravaged Ayeyawaddy division has enjoyed a rare heavy rainfall last Thursday.
In the Ayeyawaddy delta, which was destroyed by deadly cyclone Nargis in May 2008, over 180,000 people are now suffering from fresh water shortage due to the summer heat.
Source: Xinhua
Heat wave kills 2 people in Myanmar
22:05, May 11, 2010
Two people have died of heat strike in Myanmar's former capital of Yangon over the past few days, the local weekly Yangon Times reported Tuesday.
The two drivers of three-wheelers were dead under scorching noon sun after they dropped their passengers at the destination.
Frightened by the tragedy, all other drivers stopped their business immediately in the afternoon but resumed in the evening to avoid the life-threatening temperature, the report said.
Summer season in Myanmar lasts from March to May, and April represents the hottest month.
As a rare phenomena in several decades, this summer is undergoing excessive heat wave.
The day temperatures in central Myanmar posted a record high at between 43 and 45 degree Celsius, 5 to 6 degree Celsius above April average maximum temperature.
People are forced to choose to remain indoor in the day time and knowledge about prevention from heat is being publicly disseminated.
Source:Xinhua
Many village water ponds in Myanmar dry up due to summer heat
May 5, 2010 8:16 pm
YANGON, May 5 — Drinking water ponds in many villages in Myanmar have dried up due to excessively high weather temperature during the current summer season, according to local sources on Wednesday.
Because of lying near the sea, the villages normally get salt- water.
As an alternative, the villagers are digging up some tube-wells near the dry ponds, the sources said.
Meanwhile, thousands of fishes, bred in ponds in the country's southwestern Ayeyawaddy division, died of heat stress daily, according to local fish breeders.
The phenomena is the worst in the last two decades, they said.
There were even some cases that all 100,000 fishes died in a single day in Twantay township, Yangon division, fish breeders in the township said, fearing that such cases would continue as long as there is no rainfall.
The month of April falls within the summer which lasts from March to the end of May in Myanmar.
The day temperatures in central Myanmar this summer have reached a record high in over four decades, peaking at between 43 and 45 degree Celsius in such regions as Minbu, Magway, Mandalay, Monywa, Chauk and Mingyan as well as in Yangon over the past week, which are 5 to 6 degree Celsius above April average temperature.
April represents the hottest month of Myanmar and this year it is experiencing excessive heat.
(PNA/Xinhua)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Lack of sleep linked to early death
Wed May 5, 9:44 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – People who get less than six hours sleep per night have an increased risk of dying prematurely, researchers said on Wednesday.
Those who slumbered for less than that amount of time were 12 percent more likely to die early, though researchers also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours and premature death.
"If you sleep little, you can develop diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol," Francesco Cappuccio, who led research on the subject at Britain's University of Warwick, told AFP.
The study, conducted with the Federico II University in Naples, Italy, aggregated decade-long studies from around the world involving more than 1.3 million people and found "unequivocal evidence of the direct link" between lack of sleep and premature death.
"We think that the relation between little sleep and illness is due to a series of hormonal and metabolical mechanisms," Cappuccio said.
The findings of the study were published in the Sleep journal.
Cappuccio believes the duration of sleep is a public health issue and should be considered as a behavioural risk factor by doctors.
"Society pushes us to sleep less and less," Cappuccio said, adding that about 20 percent of the population in the United States and Britain sleeps less than five hours.
Sleeping less than six hours is "more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift work"
The study also found a link between sleeping more than nine hours per night and premature death, but Cappuccio said oversleeping is more likely to be an effect of illness, rather than a cause.
"Doctors never ask how much one sleeps, but that could be an indicator that something is wrong," said Cappuccio, who heads the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick.
Research showed no adverse effects for those sleeping between six and eight hours per day.
AFP
Monday, February 1, 2010
Healthy adults need less sleep as they age
Mon Feb 1, 1:03 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Healthy older adults need less sleep than their younger counterparts and, even with less sleep under their nightcaps, are less likely to feel tired during the day, a study published Monday showed.
The time spent actually sleeping out of eight hours in bed declined progressively and significantly with age, the study published in SLEEP, the official journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, said.
Older adults, aged 66-83, slept about 20 minutes less than middle-aged adults (40-55 years), who slept 23 minutes less than young adults aged 20-30, the study said.
The older adults woke up significantly more often and spent more time awake after initial sleep onset than younger adults.
Deep, or slow-wave sleep, thought to be the most restorative phase of sleep, decreased with age, the study said.
But although older adults slept less deeply and less overall, and their sleep was less continuous than their younger counterparts', they also showed less need for a quick kip during the day.
The study was conducted at the Clinical Research Centre of the University of Surrey in England and involved 110 healthy adults without sleep disorders or complaints.
Forty-four of the participants were young, 35 middle-aged and 31 older adults.
They slept normally one night, the baseline night, then had two nigths where their sleep was interrupted, followed by one recovery night.
During the baseline night, younger adults spent an average of 433.5 minutes asleep compared to around 410 minutes for middle aged adults and 390 for older adults.
On the same night, the younger adults had 118.4 minutes of deep sleep, compared to 85.3 minutes for middle-aged adults and 84.2 minutes for older adults.
But when asked to lie in a comfortable position on a bed during the day and try to fall asleep, young adults nodded off in an average of 8.7 minutes, compared with nearly 12 minutes for middle-aged adults and just over 14 minutes for older adults.
AFP
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Myanmar discovers over 100-ton jade stone in northern state
English.news.cn 2010-01-29 14:22:07
YANGON, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has discovered a raw jade stone weighing 115 tons at Phakant mining area in the country's northernmost Kachin state, the local Newsweek journal reported Friday.
The jade stone, the second largest one to be mined in the past decade, was excavated by Max Myanmar company, the report said.
The world's largest jade stone weighing about 3,000 tons was discovered in Phakant in 2000.
The giant jade stone, measuring 21 meters long, 4.8 meters wide and 10.5 meters high was found at a depth of 12 meters underground, an earlier report said.
The country also claimed that it possesses the world's largest ruby weighing 21,450 carats, the largest star sapphire weighing 63, 000 carats, the biggest peridot weighing 329 carats and the biggest pearl weighing 845 carats.
There are six mining areas in Myanmar under gem and jade exploration, namely, Mongshu and Namhyar in Shan state, Mogok in Mandalay division, Khamhti in Sagaing division, Moenyin and Phakant in Kachin state.
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
The government's Central Statistical Organization revealed that in the fiscal year 2008-09, Myanmar produced 32,921 tons of jade and 18,728 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 201,081 mommis (754 kilograms) of pearl.
Editor: Anne Tang
Xin Hua
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Girls may learn math anxiety from female teachers
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – Mon Jan 25, 7:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.
Young students tend to model themselves after adults of the same sex, and having a female teacher who is anxious about math may reinforce the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls, explained Sian L. Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago.
Beilock and colleagues studied 52 boys and 65 girls in classes taught by 17 different teachers. Ninety percent of U.S. elementary school teachers are women, as were all of those in this study.
Student math ability was not related to teacher math anxiety at the start of the school year, the researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
But by the end of the year, the more anxious teachers were about their own math skills, the more likely their female students — but not the boys — were to agree that "boys are good at math and girls are good at reading."
In addition, the girls who answered that way scored lower on math tests than either the classes' boys or the girls who had not developed a belief in the stereotype, the researchers found.
"It's actually surprising in a way, and not. People have had a hunch that teachers could impact the students in this way, but didn't know how it might do so in gender-specific fashion," Beilock said in a telephone interview.
Beilock, who studies how anxieties and stress can affect people's performance, noted that other research has indicated that elementary education majors at the college level have the highest levels of math anxiety of any college major.
"We wanted to see how that impacted their performance," she said.
After seeing the results, the researchers recommended that the math requirements for obtaining an elementary education teaching degree be rethought.
"If the next generation of teachers — especially elementary school teachers — is going to teach their students effectively, more care needs to be taken to develop both strong math skills and positive math attitudes in these educators," the researchers wrote.
Janet S. Hyde, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the study a "great paper, very clever research."
"It squares with an impression I've had for a long time," said Hyde, who was not part of the research team.
Hyde was lead author of a 2008 study showing women gaining on men in math skills but still lagging significantly in areas such as physics and engineering.
Girls who grow up believing females lack math skills wind up avoiding harder math classes, Hyde noted.
"It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology," she said.
Beilock did note that not all of the girls in classrooms with math-anxious teachers fell prey to the stereotype, but "teachers are one source," she said.
Teacher math anxiety was measured on a 25-question test about situations that made them anxious, such as reading a cash register receipt or studying for a math test. A separate test checked the math skills of the teachers, who worked in a large Midwestern urban school district.
Student math skills were tested in the first three months of the school year and again in the last two months of the year.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
AP
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Salt reduction could save 92,000 U.S. lives a year
By Gene Emery Gene Emery – Thu Jan 21, 1:49 am ET
BOSTON (Reuters Life!) – Shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States, while saving $24 billion in health costs per year, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The benefit to the U.S. population would be comparable to cutting smoking by 50 percent, significantly lowering obesity rates and giving cholesterol drugs to virtually everyone to prevent heart attacks, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues.
Such a goal, they said, is readily attainable.
Salt, which contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease, is widely overused in the United States, with 75 to 80 percent coming from processed food. Men typically consume 10.4 grams per day. For women, the average is 7.3 grams. Its use is rising.
A reduction of 1 gram would prevent 11,000 to 23,000 strokes, 18,000 to 35,000 heart attacks and 15,000 to 32,000 deaths from any cause, the researchers reported in New England Journal of Medicine.
Women would benefit the most.
"Even if the federal government were to bear the entire cost of a regulatory program designed to reduce salt consumption, the government would still be expected to realize cost savings for Medicare, saving $6 to $12 in health expenditures for each dollar spent on the regulatory program," the researchers wrote.
In a commentary, Dr. Lawrence Appel and Cheryl Anderson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said the new study may be underestimating the benefits.
They said it did not take into account how it would help children or the fact that lower salt intake may reduce the risk of stomach cancer, kidney disease, congestive heart failure and osteoporosis.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Reuters
Monday, January 18, 2010
Chemicals coat apples decades after Alar scare
By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer, – Mon Jan 18, 5:06 am ET
YAKIMA, Wash. – More than two decades after parents dumped apples from children's lunch boxes because of concerns about a chemical applied to the fruit, most researchers agree the crop is safer although most of it still carries pesticide residue.
Growers saw prices plunge after a 1989 television report led to widespread fears apples were coated in a cancer-causing chemical called Alar, used to enhance crunch and color. The public outcry led the government to ban some chemicals and increase oversight, while growers adopted new approaches to spraying apples and reduced the use of harsh chemicals.
But in 2005, the last year results were available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found pesticide residues on 98 percent of the apples it tested. All the residue was at levels within federal guidelines.
Such statistics leave consumer groups and health experts conflicted.
"The mix of pesticides today is less toxic than it was 20 years ago," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president for policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group. "But we still have a lot of pesticides left over. I think we're due for another look at whether we're doing the best we can to protect the public from pesticides in food."
Few apple growers will forget the February 1989 "60 Minutes" episode that opened with a story about Alar, featuring an apple marked with a skull and crossbones. The report stemmed from a Natural Resources Defense Council study that concluded Alar posed a cancer danger, particularly to children.
Public outcry was immediate and some parents panicked — reports circulated about apple juice being poured down the drain and a mother sending police to stop her child's school bus to retrieve her lunch. Actress Meryl Streep took up the cause, demanding Alar be banned.
Some still question the science behind the report, arguing that consumers would have to eat many more apples than normal to get sick.
Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician who was one of the scientific reviewers for the 1989 study, declined to sign off on it, fearing in part that consumers could confuse long-term effects with immediate danger.
"I actually agreed with them that the Alar was probably breaking down into a carcinogen," said Goldman, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency's toxics program under the Clinton administration and is now a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"I didn't agree with the way they were communicating the risk," she said, "and I was worried that what they were doing was more alarmist than it needed to be."
Another reviewer, Frederica Perera, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, signed off on the findings.
"I think the report was a reasonable report," she said.
The EPA had already labeled Alar a probable carcinogen and its maker, Uniroyal Chemical Co., voluntarily withdrew it for use on U.S. food crops. EPA studies later showed Alar, while still a carcinogen, was only one-twentieth as potent as estimates in the report.
Today, Alar is applied only to nonedible, ornamental plants such as flowers in the U.S., but it is still approved for food crops in some countries.
Wendy Gordon, who co-chaired NRDC's Mothers and Others group with Streep, said the report's breakthrough was in improving pesticide standards for young children.
"The original standard was based on a healthy young adult male. Many years later, the regulation was changed, and the standard was changed to account for these more vulnerable populations," she said.
At the time of the report, red delicious and McIntosh apples were the most common varieties in the U.S., and growers applied Alar to both. The going price for a 42-pound box of red delicious applies fell from $15.46 in February 1989 to $8.29 by June that year.
Apple growers were shocked by the 1989 report, and for many, the Alar dispute still burns, said George Allan of Allan Bros. apple growers in Naches, Wash. Some growers still won't watch a Meryl Streep movie, he said, although he acknowledged enjoying her recent hit "Julie and Julia."
But growers learned from the experience, he said: "In the past 20 years, we've basically reinvented ourselves."
They worked with scientists to better understand pests and develop alternatives for controlling them. Federal regulations now require farm workers to wait longer before re-entering orchards where chemicals have been applied. The federal government also banned many harsh chemicals and limited the application of others before harvest.
"I don't know whether there are more or fewer pesticides in use today than there were 20 years ago," said Bill Jordan, the EPA's senior policy adviser for the Office of Pesticide Programs. "But the pesticide residues that are on apples today are safer."
Many growers also have planted new apple varieties that require less harsh chemicals to control pests or improve the fruit's quality. Red delicious apples, which required heavy treatment, now make up 30 percent of the crop, down from 70 percent in 1989.
Elisa Odabashian, West Coast director of Consumers Union, eats an apple a day. She grew up in Cashmere, a small river town surrounded by apple orchards near Wenatchee, a central Washington city billed as the Apple Capital of the World. She hesitates to criticize an industry that has supported family and friends, remarking on the strides made to improve safety.
"Is an apple with pesticide residue an unsafe product? I wouldn't call it that," she said. "We have advised that on products like apples, where you tend to eat the skin, that's a good candidate for buying organic."
Associated Press
Friday, January 15, 2010
WiFi Suit: Arthur Firstenberg Sues Neighbor For Using Electronics
Thu Jan 14, 5:58 pm ET
A Santa Fe man who alleges he suffers from "electromagnetic allergies" is suing his neighbor because she refuses to turn off her gadgets, he claims.
According to the Santa Fe Reporter, Arthur Firstenberg, the plaintiff, has been sleeping at friends' homes or in his car to avoid the electromagnetic waves created by his neighbor Raphaela Monribot's cell phone, wireless network, computer, compact fluorescent lightbulbs and dimmer switches.
Firstenberg claims he suffers from Electromagnetic Sensitivity, or EMS, which induces "nausea, vertigo, diarrhea, ringing in the ears, severe headaches and body aches, crippling joint pains, insomnia, impaired vision, impaired muscular control," as well as other potentially life-threatening ailments.
According to Firstenberg, he first started experiencing symptoms when he was in college in the 1980s and has been a vocal opponent of wireless systems being established in public buildings, though he has met with little success.
When Firstenberg first hired Monribot to cook meals for him in his home, Monribot had initially made concessions by turning off her phone and computer. However, when she moved in next door, she refused to keep her phone, computer and wireless network turned off when not in use. When asked if she could use a landline instead of her iPhone, Firstenberg says Monribot "flatly refused without explanation."
The battle against Wi-Fi isn't one Firstenberg is fighting alone.
He's part of a group of Santa Fe residents who are pursuing legal means to remove all Wi-Fi hotspots from public locations because they claim the wireless internet waves aggravate their "electromagnetic allergies." To add merit to their case, they are classifying their "allergy" or "sensitivity" as a disability and are claiming the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.
The Huffington Post
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Pi buster: French software whiz claims record
Fri Jan 8, 10:08 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – A French software engineer said on Friday he was claiming a world record for calculating Pi, the constant that has fascinated mathematicians for millennia.
Fabrice Bellard told AFP he used an inexpensive desktop computer -- and not a supercomputer used in past records -- to calculate Pi to nearly 2.7 trillion decimal places.
That is around 123 billion digits more than the previous record set last August by Japanese professor Daisuke Takahashi, he said.
Takahashi, using a T2K Open Supercomputer, took 29 hours to crunch Pi to 2.577 billion digits.
Bellard took 131 days, comprising 103 for the computation in binary digits, 13 days for verification, 12 days to convert the binary digits to a base of 10 and three final days to check the conversion.
The gear cost "a bit less than 2,000 euros" (3,000 dollars), Bellard, who earns a living as a software consultant in digital television in Paris, said in an email exchange.
"It is a completely standard PC. The only unusual thing is that it has five 1.5-teraoctet hard disks. Mainstream PCs generally have only one 1-teraoctet disk."
Bellard has placed on his website details of the achievement, including the use of a high-powered mathematical engine called the Chudnovsky algorithm that chewed through the computation.
Extracts of the 2,699,999,990,000-digit outcome have been published so that they can be compared to preceding records in order to gain independent verification, Bellard told AFP.
Files containing the digits are also being offered to any outside organization keen on hosting the record, he said.
Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, kicks off with 3.14159... in a string whose digits are believed never to repeat or end.
Bellard said he was "not especially interested" in Pi's digits but more in taking up the gauntlet of writing the software to carry out the arithmetic.
"Optimising these algorithms to get good performance is a difficult programming challenge," he wrote.
AFP News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
