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1st rich lady mummy

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:06:16 GMT

clipped by: aphrael202

First Greek Mummy Once Led Privileged Life

Aug. 8, 2008 -- The first evidence of artificial mummification in ancient Greece lies in a lead coffin at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, according to a Swiss-Greek research team.

Wrapped in bandages and covered with a gold-embroidered purple silk cloth, the woman lay on a wooden pallet.

The analysis of the mummified remains showed the presence of various substances including myrrh, fats and resins.

"The embalming technology was quite sophisticated," said study co-leader Frank Röhli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project. "We found different chemical components, mostly originating from oils. There were also spices. It looks like the embalming technique was partially taken over from the Egyptians."

"This is the first time that such substances were identified in material from this specific geographical and temporal setting," the researchers concluded.

women's hotel floor

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:32:31 GMT

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Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Women-Friendly Hotel Floors Return, With Modern Twists

But the floors are a variation on the originals — which were intended to provide a safe haven for women traveling alone on business but ended up being considered “a kind of sexist thing,” as one hotel analyst put it.

Instead, the new Crowne Plaza Milwaukee-Wauwatosa says it has set up a “female-friendly” enclave. Anyone booking a room on the Women’s Executive Level — the seventh floor — has access to a variety of amenities like a Victoria’s Secret robe, a blow dryer and vanity mirrors. But, and here is the difference, male guests can book a room on the floor, too.

“It’s up to the hotels,” said Gina LaBarre, Crowne Plaza vice president for brand management. “All we want is to go the extra mile to make women feel welcome.”

What many traveling women want — privacy — does not mean isolation, Crowne Plaza executives say. So they have created a hybrid that avoids fencing off a floor for female travelers.

space wish unfulfilled

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:34:43 GMT

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Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Unfulfilled space funeral for "Scotty": words from his son.

[ Editor's note: Actor James Doohan was best known in life for his role as "Scotty" on Star Trek. Since his passing, it seems he has been most often spoken of in the context of a planned "space funeral" he requested in his will. That wish has not yet been fulfilled, despite repeated attempts.

Doohan's family provided a portion of his ashes to Celestis, Inc., a subdivision of the Houston-based company Space Services which offers "post-cremation memorial spaceflights." This Saturday, August 2, 2008, those remains were part of the payload for a SpaceX rocket that didn't make it into orbit because of technical problems.

japan measures waists and health risks

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:07:46 GMT

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Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Japan, Seeking Trim Waists, Measures Millions

AMAGASAKI, Japan — Japan, a country not known for its overweight people, has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry.

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

excess baggage

Sat, 31 May 2008 06:47:19 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.

The 57-year-old man living alone -- or so he thought -- in the western city of Fukuoka installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.

"We searched the house in the man's presence. We found the woman in the closet," said a local police spokesman.

She had sneaked a mattress and several plastic bottles into the cubby hole, police said, adding that the women had been arrested.

"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the spokesman said. "She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."

It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.

sex and financial risk linked

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:01:07 GMT

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Clip Source: hosted.ap.org

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new brain-scan study may help explain what's going on in the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles - sex. When young men were shown erotic pictures, they were more likely to make a larger financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such a snake, or something neutral, such as a stapler, university researchers reported.

The arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken.

"You have a need in an evolutionary sense for both money and women. They trigger the same brain area," said Camelia Kuhnen, a Northwestern University finance professor who conducted the study with a Stanford University psychologist.

An earlier study by the same team found that the brain's reward area lit up at about the same time as risky decision-making.

python hitches a ride

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:36:39 GMT

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Clip Source: asia.news.yahoo.com

Commuters in the Philippine capital got a shock when they found an unwelcome passenger on their minibus: a 7-foot-long python.

The discovery Thursday sent passengers running and snarled traffic in the Manila suburb of Quezon City, police said Friday.

The python had wrapped itself around steel suspension bars under a "jeepney," a kind of minibus unique to the Philippines, that had traveled into the capital from a nearby province, traffic police Inspector Erlito Renegin said.

Passengers scampered to safety after the snake crawled out from under the jeepney onto the road during a stop, Renegin told The Associated Press. Other cars tried to avoid hitting it, he said.

Wildlife officials said they would return the python if someone could prove ownership, but that they otherwise would keep it and perhaps release it into the wild.

sneakers and leadership connection

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:09:16 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Got a passion for buying sneakers? It could be a good sign, with a poll finding that people who buy three pairs of sneakers or more a year are far more likely to be a leadership type that other people.

Mindset Media, a media company that examines personality traits of different consumers, found that people who buy more than three pairs of sneakers a year are 61 percent more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader.

These qualities were defined as having ideas and vision, and a style with others that is both inclusive and decisive.

The survey of 7,500 people, using market research group Nielsen's online panel, found multi-sneaker buyers were 50 percent more likely to be very assertive and 47 percent more likely to be spontaneous.

"What is interesting is that these personality traits held true across the board, regardless of age, income, or gender."

message in a bottle

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:02:50 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

SEATTLE - Merle Brandell and his black lab Slapsey were beachcombing along the Bering Sea when he spied a plastic bottle among the Japanese glass floats he often finds along the shore of his tiny Alaskan fishing village.

He walked over and saw an envelope tucked inside. After slicing the bottle open, Brandell found a message from an elementary school student in a suburb of Seattle. The fact that the letter traveled 1,735 miles without any help from the U.S. postal service is unusual, but that's only the beginning of the mystery.

After some searching, Degginger discovered Emily Hwaung is now a 30-year-old accountant named Emily Shih who now lives in Seattle. She was in the 4th grade during the 1986-87 school year at a school building that closed more than a year ago.

About 21 years passed between the time Emily Hwaung put the message in a soda bottle and Merle Brandell picked it up on the beach.

ultimate proposal foiled

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:10:08 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

The luckless 28 year-old's dreams of giving his sweetheart, Leanne, 26, the ultimate proposal have literally vanished into thin air.

Hajji, of Hackney, east London, had concealed a $12,000 engagement ring inside a helium balloon. The idea was that she would pop the balloon as he popped the question.

But as he left the shop, a gust of wind pulled the balloon from his hand and he watched the ring -- and quite possibly the affections of his girlfriend -- sailing away over the rooftops.

Hajji spent two hours in his car trying to chase and find the balloon, without success.

"But I had to tell her the story -- she went absolutely mad. Now she is refusing to speak to me until I get her a new ring."

"I felt like such a plonker. It cost a fortune and I knew my girlfriend would kill me."

"I just watched as it went further and further into the air.

"I thought I would give Leanne a pin so I could literally pop the question," he said.

He is hoping the ring will still turn up.

measurement of laughter

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:30:41 GMT

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Clip Source: news.ph.msn.com

Japanese professor Yoji Kimura believes laughter is a weapon that in healthy doses can end the world's wars. The only problem is finding a way to measure it.

And so the expert on communications has invented a machine to chart out laughter -- and a new unit of "aH" to calculate it.

"We have found that children laugh more freely, releasing 10 aH per second, which is about twice as much as an adult," Kimura, a professor at Kansai University in the western city of Osaka, told AFP on Friday.

"Adults tend to calculate whether it's appropriate to laugh and under those restraints they eventually forget how," he said.

"Laughing is like a restart function on a computer. Laughing freely is very important in the course of human evolution," he said.

In his theory, human laughter is produced in four successive emotional stages -- letting loose, then deviating from the norm, followed by freely laughing and then having the laughter overflow.

free rice

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:59:51 GMT

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Clip Source: www.freerice.com

Free Rice

“What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world? Well, at FreeRice it does . . . the totals have grown exponentially.”

- The Washington Post

“Addictive, yes. But . . . each correct answer results in the donation of rice to help feed the hungry around the globe. Perhaps that qualifies the game as a good addiction . . . one with redeeming qualities, something that’s, oh, didactic and edifying.”

- Kansas City Star

“FreeRice.com is one of the most ingenious websites of 2007. In the best spirit of the Internet, it offers education, entertainment and a way to change the world ― all for free.”

- Los Angeles Times

“Every grain of rice is essential in the fight against hunger . . . FreeRice really hits home how the Web can be harnessed to raise awareness and funds for the world’s number one emergency.”

- UN World Food Program

“The Web site offers a greater gift, the gift of awareness about world hunger.”

- NPR National Public Radio

dark side of warcraft

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:08:22 GMT

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Clip Source: us.i1.yimg.com

Although best-selling online role-playing game World of Warcraft boasts over ten million subscribers, it's also leaving in its wake an increasing list of casualties.

Even though she's never played the game, 28 year-old Jocelyn is one of the fallen. A well-spoken California resident, she divorced her husband of six years after he developed a crippling addiction to the smash online RPG.

"He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m. Weekends were worse -- it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night," she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life."

"I bought the game for him for Christmas 2004, when it first came out. By May we had our first serious discussion about where our marriage was going, and by September I had moved out," she said.

japanese men shout 'i love you'

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:51:46 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Tokyo - Dozens of men stood side by side in a cabbage patch in Tsumagoi, 90 miles northwest of the capital. It was "Shout Your Love From the Middle of a Cabbage Patch" Day, and participants on the balmy day last fall went down the row yelling, "I love you!" or "Thank you!," trying earnestly to say the words to their wives – some for the first time. Most of their spouses stood in the field, watching. Some were in tears.

These couples were participating in an event created by Kiyotaka Yamana, founder of the Japan Aisaika ("Devoted Husband") Organization. His goal is to help improve Japan's troubled approach to marriage – often regarded more as a status than as a relationship – by teaching men to appreciate their wives and express their feelings.

For many participants, shouting "I love you" in a cabbage patch was an important first step.

dallas men victimized by women

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:41:30 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

DALLAS - Well-dressed men at posh Dallas hotels and bars are being targeted by a ring of flirtatious women who may be drugging them before swiping their watches and other expensive items, police said.

One man was hurt after possibly being beaten with a high-heeled shoe, police said. Another lost his wallet while in his car with his pants around his ankles.

About a half-dozen men have reported falling victim to the scheme, Dallas police detective Mark Jenkins said. Many were business travelers, and Jenkins suspects there are others too embarrassed to file police reports.

The stylish W hotel in downtown Dallas is among the places where the alleged thefts began. Authorities said the women knew that were looking for; several of the victims wore Rolex watches.

The women have histories as prostitutes, Jenkins said.

The women may be slipping drugs into the drinks of their victims, police said.