Kids in illegal Xinjiang missionary spot rescued

Police on Wednesday rescued 54 children who were being held at an illegal missionary spot in Xinjiang, according to Tianshannet, a news website run by the regional government's information office.
A police station in Hotan, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, received a report on Wednesday from parents who said their children and others were being held at a missionary spot in the city.

The police rushed to the scene to rescue the children. During that attempt, a suspect in the case set off an explosive device, starting a fire.

Fifty-four children were rescued, 12 of whom were burnt and sent to a hospital.

Three suspects in the case were also detained, two of whom were injured. Three policemen were also injured.

In an initial investigation, local police determined the missionary was operating illegally.

The case is being investigated further.  ( chinadaily.com.cn)

Chile capital declares air pollution alert

CHILE has issued an environmental alert for its capital city because of air pollution.

Santiago is bordered by the snow-capped Andes mountains and smog from cars and factories is often bottled up.

City officials have placed limits on industries and on the circulation of cars.

It is the first environmental alert for Santiago this year.

Pollution is common during the southern hemisphere's autumn and winter months, and recent dry conditions have made the situation worse.

'Renaming Of 

The University Of Lagos'

By Abel Abel Inis

University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Education Correspondent, SAM

Following the President's statement of the renaming of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University, in his 2012 Democracy day (29th may) speech, reactions have continued to trail the decision.

Several alumni of the university have condemned the action of the president, stating that though the president had a good intention in immortalising the Late Chief M.K.O Abiola, the execution was very poor. Adding that there were other ways of immortalising the late former president, like erecting a national monument in his honour, naming a university of agriculture after him or better still naming the National stadium after him. 

The students and staff of the university were so outraged that they embarked on protests both within and outside the school's premises. The school has since been under lock and key. Though the president said he held wide consultation before arriving at the decision, there was little indication that stakeholder like The Senate, House of Representatives and the Vice-Chancellor of the university were taken along.

The question asked by some Nigerians however is


'What is the implication of the president's decision on the academic standard of the school?'

There seems no possibility of both parties coming to an agreement as the President says 'there's no going back on the decision'.

The late M.K.O Abiola was a renown entrepreneur, a sports lover and the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, in 1993. He was later removed from office by the Military government, incarcerated and later died under controversial circumstances. Since then political activist and indeed Nigerians have been clamoring for the late former president to be honoured.

Toddler hangs off balcony by his neck

LOCALS were shocked in China's Guangzhou province when this toddler was spotted hanging 12 metres off the side of a building.

The youngster appeared to have slipped on the balcony and got his head stuck in the railing - which ended up saving his life.

As a crowd gathered below, holding out a yellow blanket in case he fell, a neighbour shimmied along the outside wall to support the child’s feet until we was able to pull himself back up through the railing.

Einstein was right, neutrino researchers admit

TOKYO — Scientists on Friday said that an experiment which challenged Einstein’s theory on the speed of light had been flawed and that sub-atomic particles—like everything else—are indeed bound by the universe’s speed limit.

Researchers working at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) caused a storm last year when they published experimental results showing that neutrinos could out-pace light by some six kilometers (3.7 miles) per second.


The neutrinos were timed on the journey from CERN’s giant underground lab near Geneva to the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy, after travelling 732 kilometers (454 miles) through the Earth’s crust.

To do the trip, the neutrinos should have taken 0.0024 seconds. Instead, the particles were recorded as hitting the detectors in Italy 0.00000006 seconds sooner than expected, the preliminary experiment had shown.


The findings threatened to upend modern physics and smash a hole in Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which described the velocity of light as the maximum speed in the cosmos.

But CERN now says that the earlier results were wrong and faulty kit was to blame.

“Although this result isn’t as exciting as some would have liked, it is what we all expected deep down,” said the centre’s research director Sergio Bertolucci.

The initial findings had been greeted with a combination of excitement and scepticism, even from those involved in the experiment, urging other physicists to carry out their own checks.

“If this result at CERN is proved to be right, and particles are found to travel faster than the speed of light, then I am prepared to eat my shorts, live on TV,” Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of theoretical physics at Britain’s University of Surrey, declared at the time.

© 2012 AFP

Naked students strip in protest, clash with police

Formula 1 fans attending a Grand Prix cocktail reception in Montreal certainly got more than they bargained for, as riot police clashed with semi-naked students in the city streets, arresting 39 people.
Thousands of men and women stripped to protest planned tuition hikes and embarrass the hosts of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Protesters told reporters they were naked for a number of reasons:to show the government they have been transparent in their demands to freeze tuition fees, to garner more media attention to their cause, and to discourage police from handling them roughly.
But despite the students baring all, riot police still used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to break up the crowds, eventually arresting nearly 40 people. Still, blazing sirens, revving engines and hovering helicopters did nothing to dampen the protesters’ mood – the crowds dispersed only when it started to rain on their parade.
Montreal police spokesperson Ian Lafreniere said most people were arrested because police had reason to believe they were preparing to commit crimes and damage property.
Since February, hundreds of protesters have been arrested and clashes have erupted sporadically as more than 165,000 students have refused to attend class and tens of thousands have taken part in nightly demonstrations.

The pain in Spain falls on the science game

SPAIN, on the edge of an economic abyss, will cut research grants and subsidies by 22.5 per cent, seeking to preserve quality as it reduces quantity in R&D, says science secretary Carmen Vela.

"Only those scientists who can demonstrate that they are pushing the frontiers of our knowledge will be allotted resources,'' she writes in the journal Nature.

"We want to support only the really competitive projects that are bearing fruit, or that show the potential to do so through recent results, and which aim to improve the daily lives of our citizens.''

Ms Vela says there will be a new public agency to evaluate and fund R&D, a smaller number of better-funded grants for young researchers, and an effort to reduce duplication.

"Currently, there is a biotechnology research centre or a science park in almost every Spanish region,'' she says.

The online response to her article, so far, has been sceptical.

"The temptation is clear, fund a few and forget the rest,'' says one commenter.

"This brings the country to an obvious loop -- the best, the excellent, are in those centres that receive the most.''

Japanese scientists pave way to everlasting life

Japan, which already tops the world’s life expectancy list, now has another tool to cement its leading position. The country’s scientists say they have discovered a protein responsible for ageing and learnt to control it.
A group of scientists from Osaka University have found that one of the components of the human complement system is directly responsible for ageing, Russia’s ITAR-TASS quotes Japanese media on Saturday. The C1q protein, the researchers say, is to blame for human cells getting old.
Part of the immune system, the complement system helps or “complements” the body in clearing away germs. The C1q protein was earlier thought to be merely a building block in the system.
Having established the protein’s true role, however, the scientists claim they have also learnt to control it, almost completely blocking cells’ ageing process. The discovery, they claim, could easily become a key to everlasting life.
But there is also a different side to the story.
By casting the protein “into sleep” and slowing the ageing process, scientists also block the body’s entire immune system. So far, a way of stopping the ageing and keeping the immune system working has not been found.
But the researchers say they are hard at work, so who knows? Perhaps one day before too long we might be able to stay young – and healthy at the same time.

Amazing chance for student designers by Autodesk

Autodesk 2012
Young Malaysian Animators Again Won Awards
at PANORAMA Design Challenge

The AUTODESK PANORAMA 2012 is specially designed for students where they get together and share their experiences with the cream of crop design enthusiasts across various countries; and get trained by world-class industry experts to hone up their skills and knowledge. Selected finalists will take part in a 4-day boot-camp held at Singapore from the November 25 to November 29 2012.

The experience at the bootcamp will provide an eye-opener forwhat it takes for you to succeed in the industry. Distinguished guest speakers and mentors from renowned companies will host in-depth dialogues and share their invaluable experiences with you. And what’s more, you will gain exclusive coverage by regional media giant, Animax!

Submission will start in 1 July 2012*, but Registration is now open! So click here to join us now!

Why optimists usually win - people who look on the bright side can 'hypnotise themselves' to overcome challenges

Thinking positively about something really might make it happen, psychologists say. Simply anticipating something good can gear up hidden circuits in the brain to drive you towards it.  Thinking about a happy outcome plants a 'suggestion' in the mind, in a similar way to a hypnotist. 

Two psychologists at the University of Victoria, New Zeland said: ‘Once we anticipate a specific outcome will occur, our subsequent thoughts and behaviors will actually help to bring that outcome to fruition.’It can't work magic, obviously, but researchers say effects of suggestion are more powerful than people think and can change behaviours and even outcomes.If someone shy expects that a glass of wine will help him loosen up at a cocktail party, he will probably feel less inhibited, approach more people, and get involved in more conversations over the course of the evening.

And although he may give credit to the wine, his expectations of how the wine would make him feel played a major role, the researchers say.

Pyschologists Maryanne Garry and Robert Michael of Victoria University in New Zealand met with Irving Kirsch of Harvard, and the three pooled their research into the effects of suggestion.Dr Garry said: ‘We realized that the effects of suggestion are wider and often more surprising than many people might otherwise think.’

Many studies have shown that deliberate suggestion can influence how people perform in tasks, which products they prefer and even how they respond to medicines - the placebo effect.Dr Garry says the reason for this lies in our ‘response expectancies’, the ways in which we anticipate our responses in various situations.The expectancies led to automatic responses which can lead to the outcome we were expecting all along.And non-deliberate suggestions can have the same effect, said Dr Garry.She said: ‘Simply observing people or otherwise making them feel special can be suggestive.’

But this can be worrying ‘because although we might then give credit to some new drug or treatment, we don’t realize that we are the ones who are actually wielding the influence.’The team say that unintentional suggestions have important implications for academic research.Dr Garry said: ‘In the scientific community, we need to be aware of - and control for - the suggestions we communicate to subjects.‘

Recent research suggests that some of psychological science’s most intriguing findings may be driven, at least in part, by suggestion and expectancies. ‘For example, a scientist who knows what the hypothesis of an experiment is might unwittingly lead subjects to produce the hypothesized effect-for reasons that have nothing to do with the experiment itself.’

Outside the realm of the laboratory the effect can also be seen - for example in eyewitness identification, when the 

number of false identifications increase when the person organising the line-up knows who the suspect is.

The authors say it is still not clear where the boundary between suggestion and reality lies.Dr Garry said: ‘And, if a ‘real’ treatment and a ‘suggestion’ lead to a similar outcome, what differentiates between the two? ‘If we can harness the power of suggestion, we can improve people’s lives'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2156431/Why-optimists-usually-win-Simply-thinking-positive-thoughts-lead-people-overcome-tough-challenges.html#ixzz1xJha1oW0

Jobseeker says he's been turned down for 200 posts because he's 'too clever'

A 'completely unemployable' man who has been to university four times says he has been dumped on the scrapheap because he is too clever to work.  

Mark Schwalbe, 52, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, claims to have applied for more than 200 jobs and has been rejected for every one because he has too many qualifications.Each employer has told him his CV is too good and he is overqualified for the menial jobs he has applied for, he claims.This is because he has multiple A-levels, a degree and a masters degree as well as an HND and years of experience in the care sector.

He says he has applied unsuccessfully for jobs at fast food chain McDonalds and also high street giants Primark, Wilkinsons and Morrisons.His frustrations have boiled over to such an extent he wrote to David Cameron and Nick Clegg to tell them about a situation he says is making him miserable.

I have gone for factory and warehouse jobs where I have been told I am too qualified. Someone even said to me "we don’t want a genius asking why they’re being asked to push a broom".

'I am totally unemployable. I’ve written to David Cameron and Nick Clegg telling them about my situation. There are so many people out there without work. 'If I can’t get a job with my qualifications there is no wonder other people remain on the dole. 'I’ve gone for a huge range of jobs, including minimum wage jobs. I am prepared to get stuck in, I want to work but nobody is interested . I feel terribly isolated.'

But only last week a desperate jobseeker who applied for 15,000 jobs with no success in the past ten years resorted to advertising himself by wearing a 'hire me' sandwich board.

Robin Norton, from Birmingham, has a Masters degree in history and several NVQs but has been overlooked by an endless slew of employers.He has now taken drastic action, spending an entire day wearing a sign reading 'hire me please' and walking up and down the M5 slip-road at Bromsgrove junction in Worcestershire.

Mr Schwalbe says he used to work as a care manager but ended up as full time carer for his own mother years ago and has been unable to find a job since. He is currently working a volunteer at a drugs rehabilitation project. 

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said today its work programme and tailored advice and support help people in Mark’s position, and thousands others who have been out of work for up to 15 years had been helped back to work.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156468/Jobseeker-says-hes-dumped-scrapheap-clever--whats-really-stopping-him.html#ixzz1xJgVAibr 

Schoolboy cracks age-old maths problem

A 16-year-old schoolboy has solved a mathematical problem which has stumped mathematicians for centuries, a newspaper report said. The boy put the historical breakthrough down to “schoolboy naivety.” 


Shouryya Ray, who moved to Germany from India with his family at the age of 12, has baffled scientists and mathematicians by solving two fundamental particle dynamics problems posed by Sir Isaac Newton over 350 years ago, Die Welt newspaper reported on Monday. 

Ray’s solutions make it possible to now calculate not only the flight path of a ball, but also predict how it will hit and bounce off a wall. Previously it had only been possible to estimate this using a computer, wrote the paper.

Ray first came across the old problem when his secondary school, which specializes in science, set all their year-11 pupils a research project.

On a visit to the Technical University in Dresden pupils received raw data to evaluate a direct numerical simulation – which can be used to describe the trajectory of a ball when it is thrown. 

When he realised the current method could not get an exact result, Ray decided to have a go at solving it. He puts the whole thing down to “schoolboy naivety” - he just refused to accept there was no answer to the problem. 

“I asked myself: why can’t it work?” he told the paper.

Ray has been fascinated by what he calls the “intrinsic beauty“ of maths since an early age, according to the report. The boy was inspired by his engineer father who began setting him arithmetic problems at the age of six.

He recently won a youth science competition at the state level in Saxony and won second place in the Maths and IT section at the national final.

Originally from Calcutta, Ray couldn’t speak a word of German when he came to Dresden four years ago – but now he is fluent. Since then, he was moved up two classes in school and is currently sitting his Abitur exams two years early. 

But Ray doesn’t think he’s a genius, and told the paper he has weak points as a mathematician, as well as in sports and social sciences.

Ray, whose recent breakthrough may have earned him a paragraph in the schoolbooks of the future, is currently deciding whether to study maths or physics at university.


Source:http://www.thelocal.de/education/20120523-42687.html

More young people going bankrupt

Germany's robust economy has reduced the number of private bankruptcies in the first quarter of the year -but the number of young people going bankrupt has jumped by over a third, new statistics show.


According to the Hamburg-based economic research group Bürgel, 32,760 Germans filed for bankruptcy in the first three months of 2012 - 3.7 percent less than in the same period last year.

This downward trend is being attributed to sinking unemployment and good economic growth, but there is a worrying counter-development – younger and older people are going bankrupt at disproportionally high rates. 

The number of men over 60 filing for bankruptcy rose by 5.9 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of last year. This has been put down to dropping pension levels and the lower wages.

But the most dramatic figure came from the other end of the age scale - the number of bankruptcies among people aged between 18 and 25 increased by 35.6 percent to 2,980. 

The insolvency experts say that young people are often more vulnerable to bankruptcy as they have less experience of dealing with money, and are less likely to save. 

Germans have massively increased their borrowing in the past decade - with total amount of private debt climbing from just over €500 million in 1999 to well over €6.2 billion in 2010. The number of bankruptcy cases jumped from 3,357 to 108,798 in the same period.


Source:http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120608-43043.html

I've been to the future and it really aches

A Berlin hospital has found a novel way to give medical students a taste of life at 75. A suit which stiffens the joints, distorts the vision and makes everything difficult to do. James Gheerbrant climbed inside it to seek the wisdom of ages.


When I catch my reflection in a mirror, I look not unlike an astronaut. A stiff, bulky bodysuit covers me from neck to ankle; thick white gloves protect my hands; my head is concealed beneath a sturdy silver helmet. A visor is secured over my eyes: everything is covered. 

Under the suit I am also wearing a vest that is rigid and heavy like a Kevlar jacket, and straps that fasten tightly over my knees and ankles. As I extend one tightly swaddled leg in front of the other, I can’t help but imagine that I am beginning the solemn walk towards some distant launch-pad. But this is not space travel. This, in its own way, is time travel. 

My futuristic ensemble was actually the Age Man Suit, a garment that simulates the physical effects of ageing. In a small room of Berlin’s Evangelical Geriatrics Centre, I experienced the real final frontier: old age. 

"The suit mimics the feeling of being roughly 75 years old," geriatrist Dr Rahel Eckardt said. At least, that’s what I think she said – the helmet contains ear-defenders that impaired my hearing. 


When Eckardt completed her medical studies at Berlin’s Free University in the mid-90s, geriatrics as a subject did not even exist. For the new generation of aspiring doctors, such a gap in the syllabus is unthinkable. 

Already 14 percent of hospital patients are over 80, and this figure will rise to more than 20 percent by 2030 according to the Federal Statistics Office. 

This represents a slow-motion epidemic which will challenge every aspect of medical care – yet because it is not dramatic or glamorous, it is not attracting new doctors.

The dreams of aspiring medics are simply not often filled with ideas of day-to-day management of long-term conditions like dementia and arthritis. 


The outfit was developed by Gundolf Meyer-Hentschel in the 1980s and is still manufactured by the company that bears his name. As well as its use in the training of medical students, the suit is also frequently employed by industrial designers seeking to better tailor their products to older clients, and has even been worn by actors in order to get into character for a play.

All would testify to the validity of Meyer-Hentschel’s original mission statement: "Things that people have not yet lived through can only be understood through personal experience."


source:http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20120530-42857.html

Headline June10,2012/ The Literary Lion

THE LITERARY LION

The most brilliant editor of a magazine ever to have worked in this country

Jason Epstein’s assessment is shared by virtually scores and scores of writers who have been published by Robert Silvers in The New York Review of Books. For it was always perceived and later understood that once Bob had a faith in a writer he would let him have all the time and space in the world.

A measure of his success is the number of “Nobel Prize" winners - among them Saui Bellow, Joseph Brodsky, V.S. Naipaul, J.M. Coetezee, Derek Walcott, Peter Medawar, and Steven Weinburg - whose work has appeared in the magazine, and the roster of important thinkers who have graced its pages, including Hannah Arendt, Gore Vidal, Vladmir, Nabakov, Edmund Wilson, Noam Chomsky, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Jon Didion, and Isaiah Berlin.

The New York Review of Books came into existence by accident. In 1959, Silvers, then an Editor of Harper's, had commissioned a group of writers including Alfred Kazin and Kingsley Amins to investigate the state of writing in America. The supplement included Elizabeth Haardwick's hard hitting essay "The Decline of Book Reviewing".

In 1962 when New York's newspapers went on strike and left publishers with virtually nowhere to have their books advertised, let alone reviewed, Jason Epstein, along with his wife, Barbara, were inspired to come up with a magazine to fill the gap. They immediately invited their friend Bob Silvers to edit it. The new publication had no backing, but Brooke Astor, a principal benefactor of New York Public Library, and others provided the funds to launch the magazine, allowing Bob and his co-editor,Barbara Epstein , to publish exactly what they chose.

But Epstein's death later left the contributors devastated. Despite the long late hours Bob spent at his desk, he was no anchorite. On the contrary he held key position in New York's intellectual life and enjoyed playing an important, albeit covert role in the political scene. One must witness the magazine's splendid and courageous coverage of the war in Iraq.

The acuity of his perceptions is matched by the keen intelligence of his longtime companion. Grace Dudley, who had been a sharer in her beloved editors' infinite curiosity about the miseries and splendors of today's world!!

Thanks to !WOW!  Have a great weekend!

Good night and God bless! 

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless!

Aston Martin Vantage review: Cheap for the brand

The new Vantage V8 is not the first Aston Martin with only eight cylinders, just the newest. While other models from this hallowed company boast V-12s exclusively, Aston Martin decided to let the Vantage go downmarket a little, equipping it with a smaller engine and dropping the price to within view of $100,000.

But even at $150,000, what do you get for your money? The white, winged badge looks cool and the body boasts head-turning style. The V-8 under the hood delivers plenty of power with an enjoyable exhaust note, while the rigid body lends itself to sharp cornering. And the coachwork certainly speaks luxury.

However, cars at a quarter of the price feature much better cabin tech. Aston Martin embedded what is essentially a portable navigation device into the dashboard, identifiable as a Garmin from the screen design, but not quite the latest Garmin. Controlling what was designed to be a touch-screen device with console buttons becomes very tedious. And despite having a perfectly useful color LCD in the car, Aston Martin places all the phone and stereo system information on a much smaller monochrome radio display. This pricey status symbol is not quite up with the times.

One fixable problem with the Vantage V8 is the single-clutch automated manual transmission, the fix being not to option it. The transmission takes so long with its shifts that it renders the car nearly undrivable, at least in day-to-day traffic. The base transmission is a six-speed manual, which should solve the problem and be much more enjoyable to use.

Source: reviews.cnet

Intel takes on cities and supersonic cars

From cities to mobile phones, chipmaker Intel is aiming for ubiquity and backed by Number 10. Matt Warman reports. 

Never mind the billions of chips sold since Intel was founded in 1968: it’s two words - Intel Inside - and a five-note jingle that turned the company into one of the world’s most valuable brands.

And over the last couple of weeks, the firm’s position at the heart of Britain’s technology scene has been further cemented. In a rare event hosted by the Chancellor, George Osborne, at Number 10 Downing Street, the chipmaker was hailed as a key part of the bid to turn the UK into Europe’s technology hub.

Mr Osborne’s special adviser, Tim Luke, went further: he praised Intel for being “the real people at the edge of defining Moore’s Law [which predicts the growth in computer power].” And he added that the “person making the pitch” for the latest Intel investm ent in the UK was none other than the Chancellor himself.

Last month the company announced a £45million investment in a UK-based Research Institute looking at the future of modern, “sustainable connected” cities, building on its existing investments in the UK’s Tech City hub in East London, which Downing Street hopes will turn the area into a British version of Silicon Valley. This week, the company also chose Britain to launch the first mobile phone to use its chips in the developed world.

That Future Cities Institute, however, underlines the scale of Intel’s ambition. Martin Curley, director of innovation and research at Intel, says the company sees the possibility of “substituting silicon” in a host of new situations. He talks of the idea of the “city as a platform”, which means the increasing, live automation of transport systems, water systems and a series of other problems that beset big urban environments. London’s Cycle Hire Scheme, for instance, has yielded reams of new data about where users (whose data is anonymised) go and potentially where lucrative places to set up new businesses might be. Analysis of the use of electric vehicles in Ireland may also allow 'smart scheduling’ of recharging so that the technology can implemented more easily, and even integrated with car sharing schemes and the driverless cars that companies such as Google are already working on.

Similar analysis of workers’ movements for Westminster Council has allowed workforces to be encouraged to work away from the office. Several floors of office space have been freed up and are now rented out instead.
Intel is even investing in a new bid to break the land speed record – its chips will power the new 'Bloodhound’ car so that it can be modelled and adjusted as it hopefully goes through the speed of sound.
Silicon, according to Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner, has never been more important. “As the world needs processing power for more and more tasks, we need the hardware to do the calculations right,” he says. Intel is not the only chipmaker in the world, but it seems that the company is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.(Telegraph)

 

 

Kinsight uses Kinect sensor to find lost keys and wallets

Forgetful geeks need never lose keys, phones or even cutlery at home again.

Two computer science researchers have developed a depth-camera based system that keeps track of household objects as they are moved around a building.

The project - dubbed Kinsight - relies on several of Microsoft's Kinect sensors attached to a computer running the team's software.

Although the project is still at an experimental stage, it has been shown to work in a "real-world scenario".

Details of the system were recently outlined at a conference in China and were subsequently reported by New Scientist.

"Imagine if we had a system that could keep account of all the objects that we interact with in our daily lives," the researchers said.

"By keeping track of the locations of the objects, we could build a smart search engine for our home that could answer queries like - where are my eye glasses, or my TV-remote, or my wallet?"

Although alternative solutions, such as the use of radio-frequency identification chips already exists, the men said their system was many times cheaper due to the high cost of RFID readers.

What goes where

The researchers noted that running a computer program that simultaneously tracked all the owner's objects in real-time would be too processor-intensive.

So they based their design around the principle that objects only change locations when humans move them.

As a result the system focuses on tracking human figures and then looking for objects that have changed position in their vicinity.

Although the Kinect sensor's capabilities are limited - it only sees objects up to 11 feet (3.4m) away and only provides "skeleton data" at 15 frames/second - the Kinsight program has commonsense notions built into it to improve accuracy: so it knows that a coffee cup is most likely to be found at a study desk, or kitchen sink, but not inside a bath.

"This means that, when in doubt, an object recognition algorithm can use this knowledge to identify an object by analysing the likelihood of it being at some location, or looking for the candidate objects in their other locations," the researchers said.

On the move

Algorithms were also created to help the computer learn the appearance of objects and the context they were likely to be used in by analysing the data gathered.

To prove the system worked the two scientists labelled 48 objects - including knives, forks, keys and a Rubik's cube - and identified 80 possible locations around a house.

They then asked volunteers to move the items around according to randomly generated patterns.

The results suggested room for improvement - errors were more likely if the objects were very small, far away, transparent or placed too closely together - but the team said these problems should be addressed by using more sensors per room and adopting more sensitive depth-cameras.

In the meantime, they say that even when the program does lose track of possessions, it can still say were they were last seen which may still prove helpful. (BBC)

Texting at night 'disrupts children's sleep and memory'

Parents should worry less about cyberbullying and more about sleep and memory disruption when children use technology at night, an expert warns.

Neuroscientist Dr Paul Howard-Jones will tell Bristol Festival of Education on Monday that parents should limit their children's use of technology.

Dr Howard-Jones will cite evidence that night-time texting disrupts sleep more than watching television.

He wants adults to apply their offline parenting skills to the digital world.

Dr Howard-Jones will say that "most parents would discourage their children from having a midnight chat to friends on the doorstep, but having access to a mobile phone under the duvet can also be a bad idea."

He will say there is evidence that staring at a small bright screen under the covers can disrupt the secretion of the hormone melatonin which regulates our sleep cycle, more strongly than watching television.

He will add that another study suggests that teenagers who text after lights out are four times more likely to experience daytime drowsiness and yet more studies have linked playing video games even early in the evening with loss of sleep.

Dr Howard-Jones, of Bristol University, specialises in neuroscience and education and in particular on the effects of computer games and digital technology on the brain. He is also himself the father of five school-aged children.

Last year he reviewed 168 research papers on digital technology and the brain for a report summarising the science on the subject.

Scare stories

He told BBC News he believes some of the scare stories about changes to the brain brought on by use of digital technologies are overstated.

However he says the science shows that there is a definite effect on the brain, particularly in children.

He says that some recent studies have shown that use of social networking sites by teenagers is linked to positive well-being and greater social connectedness but adds that a willingness to seek the company of strangers whether online or offline is linked to poorer social well-being.

"That makes it sensible to be asking questions about, for example, the effects of social networking sites on their offline lives."

He told BBC News that reading the articles made him focus on the difficulties of monitoring and regulating his own children's use of smart phones and video games.

"All the time I was thinking 'what does this mean for my family and what does it mean for me in practice as a parent?'

"I appreciate the difficulties of monitoring and regulating their technology use. With increasing connectivity on mobile devices it's an increasingly difficult task for parents."

Justine Roberts of Mumsnet commented: "It's important that parents keep the rules very clear about digital usage and are not put off by the fact that children and teenagers may use the technology better than us.

"Just because it's technology, parents should not shy away from applying the usual parenting rules and boundaries.

"It's important to keep a dialogue open about online activities just as you would with any other conversation or activity." (BBC)

The perfect trip: Costa Rica

Tucked into the narrow Central American isthmus, Costa Rica may look small, but it conceals mysterious cloud forests, quiet beaches and extraordinary wildlife.

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca: Best for food
In a bright kitchen, Elena Brown flits between a pan, where strips of yellow plantain hiss, and a potful of bubbling sauce. Elena has spent much of her life practising the traditional cooking of the Caribbean. ‘My mum had 14 children,’ she says with a toothy grin. ‘So everybody had to take a turn.’ These days she cooks at her namesake restaurant in the seaside village of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca.

For generations, Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast has brought together English speaking settlers from Jamaica, indigenous groups from the Talamanca Mountains and Spanish creoles living in the country since Christopher Columbus dropped anchor nearby in 1502. By the 20th century, the area had developed a distinct culture: locals spoke Mekatelyu, a rapid-fire Creole dialect based on West Indian English, Calypso musicians penned ballads about banana companies and malevolent women, and the fusion of people and ingredients turned food into one of the area’s enduring symbols.

The cuisine mixes island spice with Central American heartiness. One of the most beloved dishes is the steamy soup rondón, an exquisite coconut milk concoction studded with cassava, green bananas, fish and shrimp, and laced with blazing Scotch bonnet chilli peppers.

Puerto Viejo has grown into a popular seaside destination, but the area holds on to its roots. Radio sets play contemporary calypso songs, local smallholders farm cacao (cocoa) and – on a wooden terrace fringed with hot-pink tropical flowers – Elena serves up the recipes her mother taught her, plus a few others picked up along the way. ‘I love it when people eat my food,’ she says. ‘When people come, they aren’t just eating. They’re tasting the Caribbean.’

Further information
Artisanal fishing trips and tours to cacao farms are available from ateccr.org (half-day tours from £25).

Where to eat
Grab a table at Restaurante Elena Brown, on the eastern road out of town (dishes from £5).

Where to stay
Located four miles east of Puerto Viejo in Playa Chiquita, intimate Namuwoki Lodge has eight whitewashed bungalows accented in tropical hardwoods and cosy outdoor sitting areas. There is also a swimming pool for lounging by, a whirlpool bath and a restaurant that serves excellent grilled seafood (from £75).

La Fortuna: Best for adventure
For centuries, no-one in La Fortuna knew that a volcano loomed over their town. Its last major eruption occurred around 1400, and it had then fallen into a long, deep sleep. By the time the 20th century arrived, the farmers who lived in the area referred to the towering peak simply as Cerro Arenal – Arenal Hill. The misnomer didn’t become apparent until the 1960s, when the ‘hill’ suddenly rumbled into life. Its name has since been upgraded to Volcán Arenal.

Sergio Rodríguez, a naturalist guide who grew up in the region and has lived in La Fortuna for the past 12 years, has studied the volcano and climbed it hundreds of times. The eruptions, he says, can feel otherworldly – ‘like an earthquake followed by the sound of someone turning on the world’s biggest transformer’. As he makes his way through the scrub, he tells Arenal’s story. La Fortuna sits in the foothills of the Tilarán Mountains and, for much of the 20th century, it was known as a cattle-ranching hub. Yet when Arenal began putting on its regular pyrotechnic displays in the late 1960s, the area drew the attention of international volcanologists as well as thrill-seeking travellers.

(See More On BBC Travel News)

Lindsay Lohan escapes injury after major car crash

LOS ANGELES: Actress Lindsay Lohan escaped injury in a major car crash on Friday after her Porsche collided with an dump truck on a Southern California highway.

Police said Lohan was driving her black Porsche with an unidentified male passenger on the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica on her way to the set of her latest movie project, and collided with a dump truck.
The actress and her passenger were taken to the hospital as a precaution, and released shortly after. Neither Lohan or the driver of the truck were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, police said.

"Lindsay was involved in an automobile accident today on her way to the set....She is fine and was released less than two hours later and is already headed back to the set to resume work. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the accident," Lohan's publicist, Steve Honig, said in a statement.

Celebrity news website TMZ posted pictures of Lohan's Porsche following the incident, showing a crushed front and smashed windows.

Lohan, 26, is forging ahead with a comeback after a string of legal and personal troubles since 2007, including stints in jail, rehab and court. She was released in March from almost five years of formal probation stemming from a 2007 drunken driving and cocaine possession arrest.

The actress is currently playing late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor for a Lifetime TV movie "Liz & Dick," based on Taylor's love affair with actor Richard Burton.

REUTERS

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1) by Julie Kagawa

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Prometheus (2012)

Prometheus is a 2012 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. Set in the late 21st century, the story centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as they follow a star map discovered among the remnants of several ancient Earth civilizations. Led to a distant world and an advanced civilization, the crew seeks the origins of humanity, but instead discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human race.

The film began development in the early 2000s as a fifth entry in the Alien franchise, with both Scott and director James Cameron developing ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to Scott's 1979 science fiction horror film Alien. By 2003, the project was sidelined by the development of Alien vs. Predator, and remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. A script by Spaihts acted as a prequel to the events of the Alien films, but Scott opted for a different direction to avoid repeating cues from those films. In late 2010, he brought Lindelof onto the project to rewrite Spaihts' script, and together they developed a separate story that precedes the story of Alien but is not directly connected to that franchise. According to Scott, though the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus will explore its own mythology and ideas.

The film entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases developing the technology and creatures the film required. Principal photography began in March 2011, on an estimated $120–130 million budget, with filming taking place almost entirely on practical sets and on location in England, Iceland, Spain, and Scotland. The film was shot entirely using 3D cameras.

Prometheus was supported by a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the web. The campaign released three videos that featured stars from the film, in character, which expanded on elements of the fictional universe and received a generally positive reception. Prometheus was released on June 1, 2012, in the United Kingdom and is scheduled for release on June 8, 2012 in the United States and Canada.

Gisele Bundchen launches shantytown model search

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen on Tuesday launched a contest to discover new talent in Brazil's shantytowns, promising to reward the winner with a modeling contract.

"I feel privileged to be the sponsor of this project," Bunchen said, recalling that she had been rejected by 42 agents in London at the start of her career, when she was only 17.

"I was finally taken on on the 43rd try," said the now 34-year-old, on hand for the contest launch with 30 women aged 18 to 22 vying for fame and fortune.

The contest is organized by the Central Union of Slums (CUFA) and a beauty products maker and aims "to boost slum dwellers's self-esteem."

"You have to know your good side for photos... to feel comfortable in your own skin to be beautiful and to have a lot of perseverance," she told contestants.

In a second phase of the challenge, a jury will choose one model from each of Brazil's 27 states. The final will be held in Rio in August or September.

"Even if she is white, Bundchen's being here is important because she is from Brazil where there is great racial diversity and she is renowned worldwide," contestant Rafaella Lemes, 19, from Rocinha shantytown, told AFP.

Annual summer fashion shows in Rio that opened on May 22 with bikini collections celebrating beach fun were marred this year by protests against the underrepresentation of black models on the catwalks.

Russia rout Czechs, Poles held by Greece

 Czech Republic's Petr Jiracek (C) controls the ball

Euro 2012 got off to an incident-packed start on Friday with Group A favourites Russia thrashing the Czech Republic 4-1 while Greece spoiled the party for co-hosts Poland in a drawn opening match as both teams finished with 10 men.

Russia captain Andrei Arshavin turned in an inspired performance as his side put on a breathless display of counter-attacking football in Wroclaw that blew the Czechs away.

The Russians will next face Poland who got the perfect start against Euro 2004 champions Greece when talismanic striker Robert Lewandowski scored early but the Greeks fought back and even missed a penalty in a lively encounter.

The start of the action on the pitch helped draw attention away from fears over racism at the event, which Poland is jointly staging with Ukraine and is the biggest of its kind in eastern Europe since the collapse of communism.

Djokovic & Nadal looking to become record collectors

No man has won seven French Open titles and no man in 43 years has won four grand slams in a row - and only one of these dreams will be realized at the French Open after Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic on Friday set up a lip-smacking final showdown.

Djokovic claimed he was "not good with numbers", but even he knew how high the stakes were as he turned what should have been a tug-of-war semi-final against Roger Federer into a one-way 6-4 7-5 6-3 romp.

The top seed's reward for reaching his first French Open showpiece was a Sunday date with Nadal - a man Martina Navratilova calls an "amazing" claycourt "anomaly" - after the Spaniard pulverized his "good mate" David Ferrer 6-2 6-2 6-1.    (Reuters)
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Xavi exposes fractures in Spain squad

Xavi has exposed the tensions between the Barcelona and Real Madrid contingent in the Spanish squad ahead of their European title defence by taking a swipe at Jose Mourinho.

The Barcelona playmaker admitted his club captain, Carles Puyol, and national coach Vicente del Bosque had to intervene to repair fractured morale between club rivals.
Those strains are unlikely to be assisted by Xavi’s latest assessment of Madrid’s recent title triumph as merely “efficient” and his questioning of Mourinho’s status.
“Mourinho won’t go down in football history,” said Xavi. “For me Guardiola is the best, and he has been during the four years he’s been in charge at Barça, because he’s revolutionised football.
“Barça continue to be the reference point for football the world over. Barça has also been an example, Madrid not so much. They’ve only recognised that we were better when we won.
"We’ve always been respectful, but they haven’t been so gracious. It’s a personal feeling.”

In an interview on Canal+, Xavi said Barcelona’s 5-0 La Liga annihilation of Madrid in 2010 — which he described as “the best moment of the Guardiola era” - damaged relationships in the Spain squad.
“It caused problems with some of my friends,” he said. “Puyol and Del Bosque were important in making sure everything settled down in the end.”

Japan restarts reactors to avert power crisis

Nothing less than the “survival of society” is at stake says Japan’s prime minister, justifying the decision to restart two nuclear reactors on the west coast, despite protests.

The final decision is yet to be made, but power worries from employers like Panasonic, Sharp and a host of others have forced the move. However a new nuclear regulator is not in place, and people fear the 45 other reactors will soon follow.

“I had to reach one conclusion, while the public opinion was polarised. I take full responsibility. I cannot put people’s safety and livelihoods at stake by not restarting the nuclear reactors,” explained Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Two of the Ohi plant’s four reactors will relieve supplies to the hard-pressed Osaka industrial metropolis. Polls say a full 70% of Japanese favour abandoning nuclear power altogether.

Fitch cuts Spain’s rating three notches to BBB

Fitch Ratings moved to cut Spain’s sovereign credit rating from A to BBB, a three-notch downgrade that has put the country a mere two notches above junk status. The agency further predicts a negative outlook for Spanish debt's creditworthiness.
Fitch said the Spanish downgrade reflected several realities, including the high cost of “restructuring and recapitalizing” the country's banking sector, massive government debt that is expected to peak at 95 per cent of GDP in 2015, Spain’s high level of foreign indebtedness, and the likelihood that the current recession will last well into 2013.
Fitch further cited contagion from Greece and the unlikelihood that the Spanish government had the resolve to intervene decisively to restructure the banking sector as reasons for the cut. The agency noted "the latest episode of the systemic eurozone crisis" following the inconclusive May 6 Greek general election as a factor that had darkened Spain's economic prospects.
The new rating was Spain's lowest among the "Big Three" credit rating agencies, the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's.
The downgrade follows a newfound pessimism on the part of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. On Thursday, Rajoy backed away from his position that Spain’s banking sector would not need an external bailout. He said that before speculating on how much the banking sector might need for recapitalization, the outcome of an IMF report next week and two further independent audits were needed.   (rt.com)

More Chinese students study in US

The number of Chinese students studying in the US has been rising by an average of 25% over the last three academic years.
The national college entrance exam used to be the only way for Chinese students to go to college, but not anymore as more and more are opting to study abroad especially in recent years. Countries like the United States are proving to be one of the popular destinations.

Mao Saifeng chose to study at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies simply because it ranked so highly in academic performance.

Mao Saifeng said, "So I looked at Foreign Policy and I looked at the rank and I applied to the top five. That’s it."

But he’s skeptical of things like glossy magazine adverts, trying to attract students from China.

Mao Saifeng said, "I would not look at these kinds of magazines. To me, if the university tries to promote itself, probably does not have other credibility."

Mao and his fellow graduate Yijing Zhong have specialized in energy, aiming to help China meet its future needs.

Yijing Zhong said, "Its younger generation is becoming more mature, more daring more international. That’s helping China to reach its peaceful rise, you know."

At President Clinton’s former place of learning, Georgetown University, Norean Sharpe at the McDonough School of Business says Chinese students benefit from a global outlook.

Norean Sharpe said, "The corporations, you know, they’re all multi-national now. How the global economies across boundaries, how they interact." (http://english.cntv.cn)