Peter Norfolk: 'I like to think I have changed the standard of quad tennis'

Boxing Day, 1979, 2pm. A fortnight after his 19th birthday, Peter Norfolk was taking a left-hand bend on his Kawasaki when he hit something; he still doesn't know what. He went over the handlebars, and his bike landed on top of him. He broke his back and several ribs, and stopped breathing. A year later, when he finally came out of Stoke Mandeville hospital, he was paraplegic, paralysed from the chest down.

"I'd been pretty active at school," Norfolk says. "Football, rugby, cricket. Squash was my big thing. After the accident, I was determined to stay that way. Fighting spirit, if you like. I tried a load of sports – archery, swimming, table tennis, basketball. Nothing really grabbed me."

Then, in 1989, a decade after his crash, he returned to Stoke Mandeville to watch the annual games long called the Wheelchair Olympics, and saw a demonstration of wheelchair tennis. "It was a lightbulb moment," he says. "A real 'that's what I want to do.'"

Part of the appeal, he says, was "selfish: in tennis, there was only myself to blame if I lost". He found a coach at his local tennis club in Farnborough who was willing to help, and nearly a quarter of a century later has been selected for ParalympicsGB in his third Games.

A double gold medallist in the singles competitions at Athens and Beijing, he has also won the US Open twice and the Australian Open four times. In the doubles, he holds Paralympic silver and bronze medals and a clutch of Grand Slam titles. Norfolk competes in the quad division, open to athletes whose impairment affects three or more limbs: in 2000, he suffered a further spinal complication which left him losing strength in his right hand, arm and shoulder.

"My racket started flying out of my hand, and I didn't understand why," he says. "I needed another operation, a difficult one, a spinal cordectomy. Afterwards, I had to learn to play with my racket strapped to my hand. It's been a lot of hard work and training. But I like to think I have changed the standard of quad tennis. That's the legacy I'd like to leave."

Norfolk hasn't had the best of seasons since winning the Australian Open earlier this year, and admits to concern about the added pressure ParalympicsGB's athletes may feel following their able-bodied colleagues' "sensational" performances.

But at 51 years of age, he is thrilled still to be representing his country, and to be beating much younger players. "It will be a very exciting competition," he says. "The support will be phenomenal. Now it's up to us to harness it to our benefit."

Article by "Mr.Jon Henley"

Ben Rushgrove on sprinting at London 2012: 'All I can do is run as fast as I can'

If you live in the Bath area, you might spot Ben Rushgrove, British sprinter, silver medallist at Beijing, on his way to the corner shop. He would be the one with the very long stride, "overtaking the other pedestrians on the footpath". His mother has said that as a child, learning to put one foot in front of the other, he had only one speed: fast. "Well," he says, "my mum likes to put that one out there. But, yes, I always remember being enthusiastic about running. I've always wanted to get somewhere quickly. The bottom line is, I am impatient I want things done yesterday. I'm always wanting to be doing something, going somewhere. When I look in my diary and there's nothing in it, my heart sinks. I can relax when the occasion arises, but generally I am happy when I've got something to do." He says he never walks at a leisurely pace.

Fast is Rushgrove's business. He is one of Britain's strongest medal hopes when he takes to the track for the 200m on Friday 31 Aug and the 100m, his preferred event, on Saturday 1 September. He says it is the intensity of the shorter sprint – the months of training, the tense hours of build-up to the off, and then all over before you know it – that he loves. "You don't have the luxury of thinking when you're running. In fact, if you think too much, your brain interferes with your speed. I run the race every time I train. Every time you train, your body learns how to run this race better. Every time you do a start, your body instinctively knows what to do.The idea is that when you turn up in London all you are doing is the same thing you have done a million times."

That's sort of true, of course, but not entirely. Such is Paralympics fervour that Rushgrove can't shop in Sainsbury's without people wishing him good luck. He was an unknown in Beijing, winning his silver despite having two broken bones in his foot. "The interest has skyrocketed." For all the practice races, all the reliance on instinct to take over, when he takes his place on the starting block, the noise of the stadium swirling around him, it won't be a day like any other, will it? Actually, the noise of the stadium is on his mind. Rushgrove is classified as profoundly deaf, though that's not a definition he likes (he prefers: "I function very well in a hearing world"). He runs with a hearing aid and although in his event he isn't alone in that, he worries that the crowd will be so lively he won't be able to hear the starter and vital hundredth-seconds of reaction time may be lost. "It's very important for everyone to be really quiet at the start of the race."

Those fractional moments will be even more important if Rushgrove, who has cerebral palsy, is having what he calls "a CP day". On those days, "the muscle tone goes through the roof. Picking things up becomes more challenging. You have to think more about everything. But if it happens, it's not as if we can say: 'Postpone the race! Rushgrove's having a CP day!' We have to try to work with it." Hot baths help, but when the stadium finally goes quiet, "All I can do is stand on the start line and run as fast as I can. Either it will be good enough or won't be good enough. In athletics it's very stark. You know very quickly whether what you've done is good enough or not. it's quite a brutal reality-check if you cross the line and haven't done what you thought you would."

Rushgrove is "sincerely hoping" for a medal but he promises that Team GB "will do Britain proud. Anybody watching will not be able to not be amazed. They will be flabbergasted by the times and speeds and difficulties these people have, and the way they overcome them."

Article by "Miss.Paula Cocozza"

Israeli scientists: smoking may slow Parkinson's disease

JERUSALEM, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers are one step closer to discovering a treatment for Parkinson's disease, after finding a genetic mechanism connected to cigarette smoking that keeps the degenerative disease from progressing.

The team of Israeli researchers, who have been engaged in the study since 2000, announced their results earlier this month in the Parkinson and Related Disorders medical journal.

The findings determined a link between nicotine dependence and a protective mechanism which prevents the development of the disease.

The current study was conducted by a team of Israeli scientists from the Hadassah University Hospital, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Belinson Hospital and Tel Aviv University, as well as an Italian research institute.

Out of 677 Parkinson patients that were tested, 438 never smoked, while 239 do or used to.

According to the study, the CHRNB5, CHRNB4 and CHRNB3 genes become dependent on nicotine and at the same time are responsible for preventing the progress of the illness.

The discovery helped researchers understand exactly how nicotine prevents the damage to the brain chemical dopamine, which researchers believe to be connected to the development of the illness.

"The combination of genes we identified is important as it allows us to better understand the mechanism by which smoking reduces the likelihood of Parkinson's," team director Prof. Benjamin Lerer, director of the Psychiatric Biology Laboratory in Hadassah Ein Karem hospital, told the Ha'aretz daily.

However, he stressed that smoking-related illnesses outweigh the benefits, and that they are looking for a new treatment aimed at the genes they have discovered -- which does not include the hazardous habit.

The link between smoking and Parkinson's disease prevention was first established in a 2001 report published in the medical journal Epidemiology.

It then found that people who smoke (or used to smoke in the past) are 60 percent less likely to develop the disease, which damages the central nervous system, than non-smokers.

Additionally, past research found other positive influences of nicotine, among them, in bettering concentration and memory, as well as helping schizophrenics control their symptoms.

Tatyana McFadden, Paralympics racer: 'I love the training, no matter how tough it is'

 At 23, Tatyana McFadden is already a veteran Paralympian. The first international wheelchair racing competition she entered was the Athens Games in 2004, when she was 15, winning a silver medal in the 100m and a bronze in the 200m. In Beijing, she took home three silvers and a bronze. This year, older and stronger, she hopes to add a gold medal to her haul.

She is in with a good chance. Last year, she won four gold medals at the IPC World Championships and won the Chicago marathon. At London 2012, she will be competing in the 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and marathon: "so my training has been varied. In the autumn I concentrate on marathon training; in the spring I concentrated on track work. I go to the gym a lot to build strength." She says she is happy with how it has gone. "The training has always been pretty tough, and you have your hard days but that just makes you stronger."

Born in St Petersburg, McFadden spent the first six years of her life in a Russian orphanage. She was born with spina bifida, a condition that affects the development of the spine and resulted in paralysis, and the orphanage didn't have a wheelchair for her to use. In 1994, Debbie McFadden, then commissioner of disabilities for the US health department, visited the orphanage and decided to adopt Tatyana.

In the US, she was encouraged to become more active to build her strength and found competitive sport suited her character. "I did many different sports – wheelchair basketball, archery, swimming. When I started racing, it was a natural fit for me. "I like the speed, and the competition and I love the training, no matter how tough it is," she says.

McFadden is known to her teammates as Beast. "At first I wasn't sure about it," she says. "It's kind of a manly name, but it stuck. I got it after my win for my first marathon, about how strong I was and how fast I could climb hills."

While she took to sport naturally, it wasn't easy for her to participate. She successfully sued Maryland state for equal access to sport at her high school after a lawsuit lasting four years. "All I wanted to do in high school was get involved in sport and be on a par with my peers," she says. "That was a very tough battle but it was worth fighting for because it gave other people the opportunity to do sport." One of them, she points out, is her younger sister, Hannah, who will be racing against her in the 100m. "I think the law has been passed in 15 other states now," she says. "It was like a domino effect. There are a lot more disabled athletes out there, and it's all about starting locally – that's how Paralympic sport will grow, if you allow people to get involved."

Article by "Miss.Emine Saner"

Tanzania: Rural Group Demands Monkey Meat During Census

Karatu — THE Hadzabe who live in some parts of Lake Eyasi basin, in Karatu District, Arusha Region are demanding monkey's meat and "gongo" as a condition for them to take part in the population and housing census.

However, officials in the district say they were not ready to hunt monkeys or baboons and give to the Hadza people, but were willing to look for zebras instead.

"We are prepared to send a hunting team to get them Zebra meat for their special census treat next Sunday," said the Karatu District Commissioner Mr Daudi Ntibenda. The DC added that the bushmen also demanded bhang and illicit liquor known as "gongo".

"We also refused them their demand for eating monkeys because under hunting regulations there are some wildlife species that cannot be killed. These include monkeys," he said. But during a meeting between the bushmen and district officials in the Mang'ola ward of Karatu, members of the Hadzabe community maintained that being small scale subsistence hunters, monkeys have always been their main source of meat.

They were, however, happy with the proposal to get zebra meat. "We have earmarked 12 counting stations in the area resided by the bushmen," stated Ms Margaret Martin, the Arusha Regional Chief Statistician and area Census coordinator.

She said the only way to gather the bushmen at one location is to provide them with something interesting to eat and use the occasion to collect their data.

Living deep in the forests, the Hadza Bushmen residing in (Lake Eyasi area of) Karatu and in the vast Yaeda Valley stretching between Mbulu District of Manyara Region and Singida Region, have for years been avoiding National Census exercises and only a few of them have been turning up to be counted in the past.

In 1975 the number of Hadzabe people in Yaeda was estimated to be around 5,000 but in recent years, local researchers have been reporting that the Hadza population had dropped to hardly 1000.

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Turkey sees 2 mln drop in tourism due to crises

Despite the decrease in the overall 2012 tourism data so far, the
 ancient city of Ephesus attracts 1 million locals and foreigners
 in the first seven month of the year. REUTERS photo

Some 2 million fewer tourists visited Turkey this year due to tensions with Syria, political problems with Iran and continuing weak demand from Israel, according to Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay.

Despite the more anemic figures, the minister is satisfied with the tourism figures so far this year.

Noting that the events in Syria, Iran and Israel have affected Turkey’s tourism sector, he said: “This year we did not see as many tourists as we saw in 2011. However, we still hope that we will see more tourists than we saw in 2010.”

Günay told Anatolia news agency yesterday that Turkey was expecting to host up to 33 million tourists in 2012, despite a fall in visitors coming from Israel and Syria as well as the economic crisis in Europe.

Over $25 billion is expected to be earned from tourism, Günay said, adding that Turkey hosted 31.4 million tourists in 2011. According to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), Turkey earned $23 billion from tourism last year, he said.

-  Anatolia News Agency

Sleepy woman flies Pakistan to France... and back again

A Frenchwoman endured an 18-hour journey from the Pakistani city of Lahore to Paris and back again after sleeping through her plane's stop in the French capital, officials said on Wednesday.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are investigating how ground crew failed to notice the woman during the plane's two-hour stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The woman, named as Patrice Christine Ahmed, who is married to a Pakistani, left Lahore at noon on Tuesday to fly to Paris via Milan, but did not wake up to get off the plane, airline spokesman Sultan Hasan told AFP.

The woman did not mention her mistake to cabin crew and the matter only came to light when she was stopped by immigration officials on arrival back in Lahore on Wednesday morning -- after a 12,000-kilometre (7700-mile) round trip.

Hasan said PIA were investigating the incident and the French subcontractor responsible for passenger handling in Paris.

"We have put questions to this French firm also about the incident but it is also the responsibility of the passenger to disembark at the destination," he said.

"It is a passenger's responsibility to check about the destination and disembark when the plane arrives at the particular airport." PIA later arranged to send the woman back to Paris with another airline because none of its own flights were available, but said that the party responsible for the negligence will pay for the extra ticket.

"It depends who is at fault. If it is a mistake by the local firm, they will pay and if the woman herself is responsible than she will have to bear the cost," Hasan said.

China to put $240 bln into city

In a bid to fight a relative slowdown in economy, China plans to pour $240 billion to boost basically autos, electronics and petrochemicals industries, in Chongqing, a southwestern metropole. These city initiatives might help drive an economic rebound, an economist says.

The three-year plan is the fifth Chinese city to announce multibillion-dollar investment plans. The others are Changsha in central China, Guangzhou in the south and Nanjing and Ningbo in the east.

China’s economic growth slowed to a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the quarter ending in June despite government stimulus efforts. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting 8 percent growth for the year but revenues for some companies in industries such as shipbuilding are down 50 percent.

UK man who failed to overturn euthanasia law dies

Tony Nicklinson. Photo / Twitter

Tony Nicklinson found living with locked-in syndrome so difficult that he petitioned Britain's High Court to overturn his country's ban on euthanasia. On Wednesday, his lawyers announced he died at home.

In January, the 58-year-old asked the High Court to declare that any doctor who killed him with his consent would not be charged with murder. Last week, the court rejected his request, a decision that Nicklinson said had left him "devastated and heartbroken."

Nicklinson was a former corporate manager and rugby player who suffered a stroke in 2005 that left him unable to speak or move below his neck. He required constant care and communicated mostly by blinking, although his mind had remained unaffected and his condition was not terminal.

Nicklinson had argued that British law violated his right to "private and family life" as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, on the ground that being able to choose how to die is a matter of personal autonomy. He had previously described his life as "a living nightmare."

One of his daughters said on her father's Twitter account that he died "peacefully this morning of natural causes." His family said later that he died of pneumonia.

Police said they would not be investigating Nicklinson's death. "We can confirm he passed away," a police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. "His death certificate has been signed by a doctor, so it is not a matter for Wiltshire Police or the coroner."

-  AP

Taken by Storm (Raised by Wolves, #3) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Bryn knows first-hand that being the alpha of a werewolf pack means making hard decisions, and that being human makes things a thousand times worse. She's prepared to give up her humanity, but the wolf who promised to Change her is waiting - though for what, Bryn doesn't know. Still human, she must take her place in the werewolf Senate, the precarious democracy that rules the North American packs. Standing side by side with werewolves who were ancient long before she was ever born is enough of a challenge, but Bryn soon learns that the Senate has been called to deal with a problem: the kind of problem that involves human bodies, a Rabid werewolf, and memories that Bryn, Chase, and the rest of their pack would rather forget. With bodies stacking up and political pressure closing in from all sides, Bryn and her pack are going to have to turn to old enemies and even older friends for help - especially when it starts to look like this time, the monster might be one of their own.

The Campaign (2012)

The Campaign is a 2012 comedy film starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two Southerners vying for a seat in Congress to represent their small district. The screenplay for the film was written by Eastbound & Down writer Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy, and is directed by Jay Roach.

Plot: Democratic Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) of North Carolina's 14th District is running for his fifth term unopposed. However his campaign is damaged when his image as a law-abiding Christian husband is shattered by the revelation of his affair with one of his supporters, when Cam accidentally leaves a sexually explicit voice message on a local family's phone.

Corrupt businessmen, brothers Glen (John Lithgow) and Wade Motch (Dan Aykroyd), use this opportunity to convince Marty Huggins (Zack Galifianakis), tourism director for the town of Hammond and son of one of their associates, Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox), to run against Cam on the Republican ticket, as part of a plan to profit from illegal dealings with Chinese companies. Cam at first underestimates Marty and humiliates him by playing a video biography highlighting Marty's dim-witted nature. The Motch brothers then hire Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) to be Marty's campaign manager. Tim reinvents Marty as a successful entrepreneur and family man. Marty's popularity rises due to his effective campaign while Cam's is further damaged when he accidentally punches a baby. Cam later runs a campaign portraying Marty as an Al Qaeda terrorist, and Marty exposes Cam as a fake Christian by asking him to recite the Lord's Prayer, which he fails to do. Cam attempts to restore his religious image by visiting a church of snake handlers, but he gets bitten by a snake. A video of the bite is leaked into the Internet and goes viral, increasing Cam's popularity.

When Cam's son plans to slander his competition for class president, Cam realizes he has set a bad example and visits Marty to make peace. A drunken Cam tells Marty that he originally became a politician to help people, citing that as class president he had a dangerous, rusty slide removed from the playground. After Cam leaves, Wattley convinces Marty to call the police and report Cam for driving while drunk. Cam is arrested and his campaign is again damaged. Marty then portrays Cam as dim-witted by publishing a "communist manifesto" that Cam had written in 2nd grade, and later showing a video of Cam's son addressing Marty as "dad". A furious Cam attacks Marty, resulting in Cam accidentally punching Uggie, the dog from The Artist, once more suffering in his popularity levels. Cam gets revenge on Marty by seducing his neglected wife Mitzy (Sarah Baker) and recording the act. The released sex tape humiliates the Huggins family and causes Cam's campaign manager, Mitch (Jason Sudeikis), to abandon him. Marty retaliates by shooting Cam in the leg on a hunting trip, increasing his own popularity.

Pioneering comedian Phyllis Diller dies at age 95

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Phyllis Diller, the former housewife whose raucous cackle and jokes about her own looks made her one of America's first female stand-up comedy stars, died in her sleep on Monday at age 95, her longtime manager said.

Diller was found in her bed at her home in the affluent Brentwood section of Los Angeles by her son, Perry, who had come to visit her, manager Milt Suchin said.

"She had a smile on her face, as you'd expect," Suchin told Reuters.

Her publicist, Fred Wostbrock, called her "a true pioneer" and "the first lady of stand-up comedy."

A friend and fellow comic, Joan Rivers, said on Monday that Diller cleared a path for a younger generation of female stand-up artists to trade on their jokes alone.

"Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny," Rivers said in a message posted through Twitter.

Diller created an indelible persona with her distinctive braying laugh, a cigarette holder, teased hair, outlandish costumes and a fictional lout of a husband she called Fang.

Her act consisted of rapid-fire jokes and one-liners that often spoofed social pretenses by poking fun at herself ("I went bathing nude on the beach the other day; it took me 20 minutes to get arrested") as well as a world of invented characters.

In addition to husband Fang - "What would you call a man with one tooth that was 2 inches long?" - there was her mother-in-law Moby Dick, her skinny sister-in-law Captain Bligh and her neighbor Mrs. Clean.

Diller prided herself on keeping her jokes tightly written and boasted that she held a world record for getting 12 laughs a minute.

A late-bloomer by show business standards, Diller got her start at age 37, making her debut at San Francisco's Purple Onion in 1955 as she broke into the male-dominated comedy circuit. Her first national exposure came as a contestant on Groucho Marx's TV quiz show "You Bet Your Life."

At that time Diller was a housewife who had raised five children, as well as a newspaper columnist, publicist and radio writer.

She discovered a flair for stand-up jokes at school parent-teacher meetings and similar gatherings and decided to make comedy a career at the urging of her then-husband, Sherwood Diller. The couple divorced in 1965 and a second marriage to singer Warde Donovan ended 10 years later.

Diller gradually adopted the props, zany wardrobe and stage persona that would become her trademark.

FROM HOUSEWIFE TO COMIC

"If I showed you my opening night photo, I looked like the woman next door," Diller once said. "And it took me a while to realize that people don't pay to see the woman next door. They can look at her for nothing."

A series of TV appearances followed and Diller soon became an instantly recognized star. She made her movie debut in 1961 with a small part in Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" and played the title role in a 1970 Broadway production of "Hello Dolly!"

Diller also developed a close friendship with the late comedy great Bob Hope and co-starred with him in three movies. She was a frequent guest on his television shows and accompanied him on a Christmas visit to U.S. troops in Vietnam.

Another contemporary of Diller, stand-up veteran Don Rickles, saluted her as a "great comedienne" whose "memorable teaming with Bob Hope brought female comics to the forefront."

Ellen DeGeneres tweeted that Diller was "the queen of the one-liners" and Whoopi Goldberg called her a "true original."

Diller, who was an accomplished pianist, built a career around lampooning her looks but she also spent a fortune perfecting them. By her count, she had more than 20 plastic surgeries.

Diller, who titled her 2005 autobiography "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse," counted her ability to laugh at herself as one of her greatest comic assets. In a 2004 interview with Reuters she said she regarded her audiences as her greatest teacher.

"I let them laugh with me, at me, which makes the audience very comfortable," she said. "I've learned everything from them. ... You're a comic and you're not a success until you hear laughter."

In later years, she suffered from heart problems and fractured her pelvis in a fall but continued to work in clubs and on television well into her 80s. She provided the voice of an insect in the 1998 animated movie "A Bug's Life, appeared in the 2005 comedy documentary "The Aristocrats" and supplied the voice of Peter's mother in 2006-2007 episodes of the cartoon TV series "Family Guy."

Suchin said she made a guest appearance last year on the daytime drama "The Bold and the Beautiful."

Diller and her first husband had five children.

Young jewelry designers to exhibit at Tendence's Talents program

Recycled materials turned into geometrical and retro-styled creations are among the elements to be showcased by the young designers selected to participate at this year's Talents program at the Tendence fair, August 24-28.

For the 11th edition of the Talents Program, 40 young designers will present their creations at the Tableware and Furniture section while 19 others will exhibit their jewelry at the Giving section of the fair.

Tendence, one of the biggest international consumer goods fair, organizes Talents to give young designers the chance to present their creations to an international audience of industry experts and potential customers.

Sonja Ackermann from Frankfurt, recent graduate of Offenbach University of Art and Design, will be presenting her homemade pieces of jewelry created with materials such as vinyl, cable connectors and platinum.

Brazilians Ayumi and Flávio Hobo will present their collection designed for the I Want my Hobo brand, which uses materials such as fabric, pearls and recycled plastic.

From Sweden, Elin Sigrén will be presenting the Sägen jewelry collection, which combines porcelain with graphic retro-patterns from the 1950s and 1960s with silver.

Former architect and designer Alice Bo-Wen Chang from Taiwan will be presenting the Bodyspace/bodyscape series focusing on two- and three-dimensional geometrical shapes. All of the artist's jewelry is made in silver combined with other metals such as gold.

The Soap Bubble collection to be exhibited by jewelry designer Vivian Meller includes pendants, rings and earrings that come in the shape of a ring and can be use to make soap bubbles.

http://tendence.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/besucher/willkommen/erleben.html

PARIS: NEW CAMPAIGN TO END RUDENESS IN FRANCE

More and more visitors who come to France have realized one thing: the lack of manners French people have. Considered as a rude culture, people from France have a low reputation when it comes to manners and politeness. However, the good news is that the Paris transport board, also called RATP, has decided to put an end to this annoying rudeness by launching a campaign that would show locals how to behave accordingly in order to create a positive impression on tourists.

The campaign features large posters where people from Paris are depicted as animals, while the people around them are shocked and stare at them. According to a Press Release published recently, the RATP officials decided to create a website where people can upload their photos showing rude situations and express their frustration.

Among the animals we can discover a hen that holds a mobile phone and yells at it while the bus is full of people, a donkey that spits with nonchalance a chewing gum on a train platform, and a sloth that sits on a bus seat while people stare at him.

The campaign is created not merely on stereotypes, but on certain data. According to a recent survey organized by the RATP's media department, more than 96% of all passengers had witnessed a certain degree of "uncivil" behavior, either on the bus, tram, metro or other Paris public transportation. Unbelievably or not, this survey done this year comes exactly two years after another survey of more than 1000 visitors and tourists in Paris. According to the study, Parisians are the rudest people in Europe.

One of the most famous French teachers and authors, Cécile Ernst, declared that almost all rules of integrity were thrown out of the window in the early 1960's, when the Parliament contested and rejected strict social conventions. According to her, people are not that keen on social codes and regulations.

This trend has expanded all over Paris. More and more students lack discipline and are unable to behave according to moral and social codes. Instead of that, they are extremely proud they can be different and see their incivility as a form of liberation. As Ms. Ernst stated they think that laws can only create slaves, and they want to be free and independent.

According to the most recent survey of RATP, not just the tourists are affected by the snooty and selfish behavior of the French people. Many people from other countries living in Paris are dissatisfied with the way the locals treat them and declared they would like to move to another city and country. There is even a top 10 list of the most annoying behaviors of the French people. Number one is loud chatting through cell phone.

Headline Aug23,2012/ "Wir Mussen Wissen.Wir Werden Wissen!"

"WIR MUSSEN WISSEN. 

WIR WERDEN WISSEN!"

Yes of course: We must know. We will know! This great Nation of Germany and Germans, has ever nurtured some of the greatest, and, countless Dreamers, Musicians, Thinkers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Batlle Commanders, of all all times! Today, I honour the students of Germany with a Headline Quote in German, from their unique mathematician, David Hilbert; And I also honour Prof Dr Klaus Achtel, at whose feet, the ignorant and unworthy, Me, learnt informally many many pearls of wisdom, and 'Syllabus Design', and Discipline. thank you, Sir! Do say hello hello to Mrs Achtel and Christopher for me!

But no matter how formidable the obstacles and painfully slow the progress, President Bill Clinton reverts in no time to his usual optimism when it is suggested that the numbers must be daunting. "Yes, they are. But let's assume we need six million people getting their medicine. If our Foundation alone account for two million of that, if we can do a third of that 2008, then we've done heck of a lot there. That's the only point I am making. We think we can go from three hundred thousand to two million in 2 more years, so if we can do that, then..."

As fluent as Clinton sounded when reciting statistics, however, the numbers alone don't feed his determination. What seemed to motivate him, as ever and always, was human love and care. Day after day in Africa, in visits to the grimmest rooms, in dingy and horrid hospital wards, where doctors and nurses persevere in the worst circumstances, and in clinics where the patients must confront the overwhelming social stigma of their disease just to show up for treatment, Clinton's energy and focus never flagged. 

At Mnazi Mmoja Hospital on the edge of the sea in Zanzibar, the peeling walls and dark, muddy floors contrasted starkly with the gorgeous blues of the water and sky. The odours hinted of terrible sanitation. Until very recently this place offered no AIDS treatment at all. A situation that reflected traditional prejudices among the Island's overwhelmingly Muslim population. Clinton climbed the stairs to the second floor to meet patients, talked quietly with their doctors. Currently treating fifty six HIV infected patients , but planned to scale up to 2000 within the year. 

The doctors showed Clinton a boxy machine, and essential item, purchased by the Clinton Foundation and the Swedish government. CD4 T-cell counter measures the health of a patient's immune system. And then Clinton touches all inspirations: 'I am thrilled to be in Zanzibar! Just now, I shook hands with an eleven year old orphan child who knows that his is HIV positive.His circumstances have changed. he doesn't have to be stigmatized. And he doesn't have to resign himself to an early death."

Same day, and later, in another shabby building in Stone Town, the island's ancient moorish city, he held sick children on his lap and promised their mothers that he would continue to send them the medicine that keeps them alive, for free. I hope and pray that the World understands that: 

Heroism in any age is a mix of accident and idealism !?

Good night and God bless.

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

The Number One Smartphone Use? Checking The Weather, According To One Study

Does it surprise you that over two-thirds of smartphone owners say they could not "live without" their devices?

Probably not, particularly if you own a smartphone yourself. Something you might find more interesting is what we tend to do with our mobiles.

According to a recent study from Online Publishing Associates (OPA), 29 percent of smartphone owners get local news from their phones, while 31 percent use these devices to watch videos.

But the number one regular activity accomplished on smartphones? Forty-seven percent say they use their devices to perform the mundane task of…checking the weather.

You can view the full list compiled by OPA below:

-  Huffingtonpost.com

Oil Companies Allowed To 'Incidentally' Harm Polar Bears

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Oil companies operating in the Chukchi Sea of Alaska's north-west coast will have a negligible effect on polar bears and walrus, according to a federal Appeals Court ruling Tuesday that backed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules on harassment of the animals.


A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the agency correctly issued rules that provide legal protection to oil companies if small numbers of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally harmed.

"We're glad that the court has reaffirmed the appropriateness of our conservation measures," agency spokesman Bruce Woods said.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued over the rules, claiming both individual animals and entire populations must be analyzed for protection. Center attorney Rebecca Noblin said the Appeals Court agreed but concluded the Fish and Wildlife Service had done sufficient separate analyses. Noblin called the decision disappointing.

Chilean students call to mobilize and continue protests

Almost 500 students protest outside the municipal building in
Providencia, Santiago. (Courtesy of La Tercera/ Flickr)

Secondary student leaders called for a deepening of student mobilizations Monday after more than a week of school occupations and confrontational marches in Santiago.


“The call we make is for a national mobilization,” Cristofer Sarabia, spokesperson of the National Coordinator of Secondary Students (Cones), told the press. “We make a call to mobilize, but in the manner in which each school will define.”

In Chile, student occupations are generally decided on democratically by the student body of individual schools.

Minutes after Sarabia’s speech, police stormed the then-occupied Instituto Nacional, one of Santiago’s most symbolic public schools, detaining 101 people in the process.

Clashes like this are likely to get worse in the coming days as the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES), a parallel student organization, announced a national strike set for Thursday.

“As students, we make an extensive call to social organizations that have been supporting us, to students who have been mobilizing and to academics who in recent days have been increasingly at the demonstrations,” said ACES spokesperson Eloísa González.

González was particularly vocal in her rejection of the Public Order Control Law, or Hinzpeter Law, which is currently in Congress and proposes increased punishment for unauthorized protests and occupations. Under the law, the occupation of public property is seen as a crime and could carry a three-year jail term.

“Today, high school students are very clear that we strongly reject any law that criminalizes the social movement and the student movement like the Hinzpeter Law,” González said.

Still hanging in the balance is the role of the Student Federation of Universidad de Chile (FECH), an organization that was at the helm of last year’s protests. Universidad de Chile’s main campus has been occupied since late Thursday night by a small group of students standing in solidarity with protesting high schoolers, but the FECH has yet to condone or condemn the occupation.

The departments of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Philosophy and Humanities, Social Sciences, Communication and Agronomy in the university voted in favor of a strike to support the occupation of the institution, according to FECH president Gabriel Boric.

University Director Victor Pérez called for the “immediate peaceful eviction” of the main campus in the institution and he reiterated the symbolic nature of the occupation of one of Chile’s leading higher institutions.

“I can understand their arguments but I do not condone this action,” he said. “The main campus represents a symbol of our house of studies and of the Republic. It is an icon of our pluralist public education — secular, diverse, tolerant and intellectually free.”

FECH leaders say the organization will make its final decision Tuesday.

By Tom Murphy - The Santiago Times

Med school students face 'huge' debts

As orientation week for new students begins at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Sudbury, some may find they're disoriented by the prospect of more financial debt.

First year tuition is currently pegged at $21,000 — and climbing — but the total for their four years could be much more.

Student Zsolt Toth said he looks forward to his time at medical school, but added he knows it will come at a price.

“I think it's huge and it certainly is stressful,” he said.



“I've been lucky enough to work for seven years and pay off all my debts. I only have my mortgage left, but now I'm starting off that debt growth again."

Tuition for medical school is like a whole new mortgage for students, according to the financial aid officer at NOSM, who said it costs students anywhere from $200,000 to $250,000 to complete the four-year program.

"It's definitely not what people might think of the money that's out there and how they're established and everything else,” Bryan Stamm said.

“For new physicians coming out, there's a lot of steps and hurdles that they come through financially before they can get on that positive side of things."

Stamm said the university, community and province offer a number of bursaries to cover tuition costs, however students inevitably have to take out a line of credit to help defray costs.

Once their residency is over, Stamm said it takes students an average of five years to begin repaying their debts.

-  CBC News 

Emmanuel Adebayor completes £5m move to Tottenham

Emmanuel Adebayor has completed a £5m move to Tottenham Hotspur from Manchester City.

The Togo striker impressed during a loan spell with Spurs last season, scoring 17 Premier League goals.

Adebayor will be among the top-earners at White Hart Lane, but City will subsidise the 28-year-old's wage, having paid him £175,000 per week.
The former Arsenal man revealed the news on Twitter:  "Tottenham here I come! I'm hungry for goals. Get ready."
Adebayor had two years to run on his City contract, having been sent out on loan for most of the previous two seasons to Real Madrid and then Spurs.
"I am pleased to be signing for Spurs on a permanent basis after finally agreeing my departure with Manchester City," Adebayor added.
"It may have taken longer than expected but I am delighted to be back at Tottenham Hotspur. I really enjoyed my time here last season and I am hoping we can achieve great things together again."
It is understood Spurs refused to break their strict wage structure to accommodate Adebayor. But with the player refusing to accept a big pay-cut, the Premier League champions were forced to accept having to continue to pay the player the difference between his new wage of around £80,000 and his earnings at City in order to complete the deal.
The development completes a protracted saga, which has dragged on throughout the summer after a disagreement over Adebayor's right to a loyalty bonus pay-off from City.

Adebayor's Spurs record

Games: 37

Goals: 18

Assists: 12

Yellow cards: 8

- BBC.co.uk

Kevin Pietersen absence is no tragedy but...

The ECB have left Kevin Pietersen out of World Cup Twenty20 squad and while understandable it's a sad day for cricket.

"Both sides are at fault - the bottom line is Kevin Pietersen is not playing international cricket, which is a tragedy."

These are the words of legendary former Australian bowler Shane Warne on learning Kevin Pietersen will not be part of the England squad travelling to Sri Lanka for the Twenty20 World Cup in September.

Undoubtedly the word tragedy is overstating the situation. The defending champions England will still travel to Sri Lanka with the loud and raucous Barmy Army trailing behind them, tooting their horns. There is no tragedy involved but Warne is right that the whole situation is regrettable, and very sad.

Although Warne is a good friend of Pietersen, even he couldn’t defend the recent actions of the South African born player. Sending abusive texts about your captain - Andrew Strauss - is already scandalous but to send them to the opponents during a crucial Test series is unforgiveable.

Especially if many already see you as a South African in England clothing.

However, Kevin Pietersen fell out with England selectors before the infamous text messages were sent.

Read More Here

Farah leads heavyweight lineup in Birmingham

(Reuters) - Britain's double gold medalist Mo Farah will lead a glittering cast of 42 London Olympic medal winners, including 16 champions, when he races over two miles at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Sunday.

Farah, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 2012 Games, broke the British indoor record for two miles this year and could this time threaten Steve Ovett's outdoor mark of 8:13.51 set in 1978.

Another British gold medalist, Greg Rutherford, faces Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor of the U.S. in the long jump.

Australia's Mitchell Watt and American Will Claye, who were second and third in the long jump, also compete.

All three medalists from the 110 meters hurdles - champion Aries Merritt, runner-up Jason Richardson and Hansle Parchment - will be in action in Birmingham.

Perennial rivals and Olympic gold and silver medalists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and U.S. sprinter Carmelita Jeter go head-to-head again in what should be another keenly contested women's 100 meters.

Mars rover: Wind sensor damaged on Nasa's Curiosity

Nasa has reported its first setback in the Curiosity rover mission to Mars.

A sensor on the robot's weather station that takes wind readings has sustained damage.

The mission team stresses this is not a major problem and will merely degrade some measurements - not prevent them.

It is not certain how the damage occurred but engineers suspect surface stones thrown up during Curiosity's rocket-powered landing may have struck sensor circuits and broken the wiring.

Nasa is describing the news as an isolated "disappointment" in what has otherwise been a spectacular start to the mission.

Javier Gomez-Elvira, the principal investigator on the broken instrumentation - the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (Rems) - said he was hopeful of finding a good way to get past the issue.

Read More Here

Star is caught devouring planet

The team thinks the planet was destroyed as its
ageing star expanded in size 

Astronomers have found evidence for a planet being devoured by its star, yielding insights into the fate that will befall Earth in billions of years.

The team uncovered the signature of a planet that had been "eaten" by looking at the chemistry of the host star.

They also think a surviving planet around this star may have been kicked into its unusual orbit by the destruction of a neighbouring world.

Details of the work have been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The US-Polish-Spanish team made the discovery when they were studying the star BD+48 740 - which is one of a stellar class known as red giants. Their observations were made with the Hobby Eberly telescope, based at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.

Rising temperatures near the cores of red giants cause these elderly stars to expand in size, a process which will cause any nearby planets to be destroyed.

"A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the Sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth's orbit some five billion years from now," said co-author Prof Alexander Wolszczan from Pennsylvania State University in the US.

-  BBC.co.uk

How hungry birds use social networking to survive

The Marsh Tit is one of the birds in the study that used social
networking skills to find new food sources.

SCIENTISTS have discovered that humans aren’t the only ones who find out about the hottest new grazing spots via social networking.

The birds, they’re into it too. Namely blue tits, great tits and marsh tits.

No, filthy buggers, that’s not some kind of pun. Tits are a breed of bird that can mostly be found in the UK and Europe.

Researchers from the Australian National University in Canberra and Oxford University discovered that the birds used social networking to communicate about new food locations.

The birds were equipped with tags to monitor their activity and the scientists built sunflower feeders in four small areas across two sites of woodland near Oxfordshire, known as Higgins Copse and Cammoor, and fitted them with antennae.



Between December 2010 and January last year in winter the researchers placed feeders in set locations well-known to the birds, measuring their patterns of associations in the feeding flocks, their "social-network".

They recorded 7790 separate food visits at Higgins Corpse and 11,866 visits at Cammoor, with 81 and 68 different birds.

After this data-collection period a single feeder was installed at a location that was not known for its food resources, so that no bird would have any pre-existing knowledge of the site.

They then recorded who discovered these new feeders, and in what order. They repeated the experiment several times at in each woodland area.

Much like on Facebook, the scientists found that birds “in the know” that were more connected to the social network, were more likely to find new food sites than those on the “periphery”.

The less socially connected birds would just have to go hungry.

“It has parallels with social networking sites like Facebook (or indeed with the friendship networks humans maintain in everyday life) in that having lots of friends from many different groups means that a person potentially has access to more information from lots of diverse sources,” lead researcher from the Australian National University, Lucy Aplin told News Limited.

-  News Limited Network

Dr Martin Luther King audio tapes discovered in Tennessee home

Civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King delivers his famous speech "I Have a Dream"
in Washington DC in front of crowd of over 300,000 people. Source: AFP

A US man says he has discovered the audio tape of an interview with civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King that was never published, in which King calls the movement "one of the greatest epics of our heritage".

Stephon Tull says he recently found the nearly pristine reel-to-reel recording marked "Dr King interview, December 21, 1960" in dusty boxes in his father's attic in Tennessee.

His father interviewed King in 1960 for a never-written memoir.

The tape captures King talking about the importance of the civil rights movement, his definition of non-violence and how a recent trip to Africa informed his views. New York collector Keya Morgan authenticated the tape and is arranging a private sale this month.

Many recordings of King are known to exist. But one historian said the interview is unusual because there's little audio of King discussing his activities in Africa, while two of King's contemporaries said it's exciting to hear a little-known recording of their friend for the first time.

Tull wasn't sure what he had found until he borrowed a friend's reel-to-reel player and listened.

"No words can describe. I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press.

"I found ... a lost part of history."

Tull said his father, an insurance salesman, had planned to write a book about the racism he encountered growing up and later as an adult.

He said his dad interviewed King when he visited the city but never completed the book.


Tull's father is now in his early 80s and under hospice care.

The interview was made four years before the Civil Rights Act became law, three years before King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech and eight years before his assassination.

- AP

Canada ‘caved in to racism’ in banknote design

The head of Canada’s central bank has apologised for a decision, made in 2009 based on feedback from focus groups, to remove the picture of an Asian-looking woman on its new 100 dollar banknote.


The new polymer banknote, in circulation since November 2011, shows a female scientist peering down a microscope, as well as a bottle of insulin. The image was supposed to celebrate Canada’s medical innovations.

But in 2009 the bank made the decision to change the picture fearing that it would “racialise” the note.

Before it was released, eight focus groups tasked with examining the public reaction to the new note decided that it showed “an inappropriate stereotype – that Asians have an affinity for the sciences.”

“Some [members of the focus groups] have concerns that the researcher appears to be Asian,” said a 2009 report commissioned by the Bank of Canada from The Strategic Counsel, which was obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

“Some believe that it presents a stereotype of Asians excelling in technology and/or the sciences. Others feel that an Asian should not be the only ethnicity represented on the banknotes. Other ethnicities should also be shown.”

The revelation caused outrage in the country’s large Asian community – 1.4 million Canadians can trace their ancestry to China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.

- France24.com

Soros becomes one of Man U’s top investors

US billionaire George Soros has bought a stake in English Premier League football club Manchester United, despite its weaker public debut in New York earlier this month.
Quantum Partners, the investment arm of Soros’ company, bought 7.85% of the total Class A shares, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed. Quantum’s stake in the company cost about US$43.4 million. The deal makes Soros one of the club’s biggest backers behind the Glazer family.
The Glazer family retains control through Class B shares, which enjoy 10 times the voting rights in the company attached to Class A shares.
Manchester United shares have had a rough start since their Wall Street debut on August 10 at an initial price of $14 a share. The club earned $233 million from the IPO, which is nearly $100 million less than the anticipated $330 million. However, the club is valued at about $2.3 billion, making it the most valuable sports team in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
The club’s shares also fell after the $37.7 million purchase of Dutch striker Robin van Persie from Arsenal FC last week.
Manchester United have been English champions a record 19 times and boast many famous players, such as England's Wayne Rooney. The club has an estimated global fan base of 659 million people, according to a survey carried out last year by market researcher Kantar.

Philippines, 6th fastest growing in the world: wealth report

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is expected to be among the fastest growing economies in the world between 2010 and 2050, according to a study released by Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.

In the 2012 Wealth Report, the Philippines is forecast to post a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.3% during the period, making it the 6th fastest growing economy in the world.

FAST GROWING. The Philippines is projected to be among the fastest growing economies in the world, according to the 2012 Wealth Report. This and the graphics below are taken from the report released by Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.

This 2012 Wealth Report mirrors a study released in January by HSBC, which forecast that the Philippines could become the world’s 16th largest economy by 2050.

HSBC, the multinational British bank, cited demographics and rising education standards to help the Philippines grow by an average of 7% annually over the next 40 years.

GM to recall nearly 250,000 SUVs for potential fire hazard

CHICAGO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- General Motors (GM) will recall 249,260 sport utility vehicles as an electric short issue in the driver's door could cause overheating and fire, according to a company filing with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The recall notice, reported on Aug. 15 to the NHTSA and now published on the government agency's website, applies to 2006 models of the Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT and GMC Envoy XL, and 2006- 2007 models of the Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier, SAAB 9-7x, and Isuzu Ascender vehicles.

NHTSA said the recall only affects the above cars that were originally sold or currently registered in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

GM reported an issue with the driver's door that could lead to a short in the car's circuit board, which could then cause the power locks and windows to become inoperative or overheat.

"Fluid may enter the driver's door module, causing corrosion that could result in a short in the circuit board. A short may cause the power door lock and power window switches to function intermittently or become inoperative. The short may also cause overheating, which could melt components of the door module, producing odor, smoke, or a fire," the NHTSA filing noted.

NHTSA said the recall's remedy plan is still being finalized, but that GM would notify Buick, Chevrolet and GMC owners for further action. Isuzu and Saab owners would be notified by Isuzu Motors and Saab Cars North America.

Spanish youth struggling!

The world’s youth has been one of the hardest hit by the global economic slowdown, especially in the eurozone. The youth unemployment rate in Spain is 53%, double the national rate. 

They’re stuck looking for employment in a nation with the highest unemployment in Europe. At this job center in Spain’s capital, Madrid, the number of people seeking help and benefits over the last year has jumped nearly 10 percent. And half of those are young people.