Clipmarks | thekay's clips

Holocaust survivors tell love story- a must read... so sweet!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:30 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Holocaust survivors tell love story

In the beginning, there was a boy, a girl and an apple

He was a teenager in a death camp in Nazi-controlled Germany. She was a bit younger, living free in the village, her family posing as Christians. Their eyes met through a barbed-wire fence and she wondered what she could do for this handsome young man.

She was carrying apples, and decided to throw one over the fence. He caught it and ran away toward the barracks. And so it began.

As they tell it, they returned the following day and she tossed an apple again. And each day after that, for months, the routine continued. She threw, he caught, and both scurried away.

They never knew one another's name, never uttered a single word, so fearful they'd be spotted by a guard. Until one day he came to the fence and told her he wouldn't be back.

"I won't see you anymore," she said. "Right, right. Don't come around anymore," he answered.

And so their brief and innocent tryst came to an end. Or so they thought.

Chinese lawyers face pressure to drop milk lawsuits

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:42:57 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Chinese lawyers face pressure to drop milk cases

BEIJING - Lawyers advising the families of children sickened in China's tainted milk scandal said Tuesday they are facing growing official pressure to withdraw from the cases.

loose grouping of more than 100 lawyers across China have been offering free legal advice to the families of children who became ill after drinking milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine

already has helped the parents of a 1-year-old boy who developed kidney stones after drinking tainted milk to file a lawsuit against the dairy at the center of the crisis, Sanlu Group Co

At least four babies have died and more than 54,000 children have been sickened

At least 14 lawyers from Henan province who have been advising victims' families were told by officials from the provincial government's justice department to stop their activities

government has also imposed controls on media coverage of the crisis, suggesting it does not want it to become a focal point

Grandparents boost kid' development

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:50:10 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Grandparents boost kids' development: Aussie study

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Grandparents play a critical role in their grandchildren's lives, helping boost their development even through simple activities such as reading to them or going shopping together, an Australian study said.

It showed that children aged from 3 to 19 months had higher learning scores if they were cared for by family and friends -- including grandparents -- as well as their parents.

critical role grandparents play in the development of children

spend as much time as possible every day reading and spending time playing with children

Science teaching songs from the 50's- too cute!

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:00:59 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: www.acme.com

Singing Science Records

In February 1998 I found the LPs in my parents' basement. I cleaned them up, played them one last time on an old turntable, and burned them onto a set of three CD-R discs. In December 1999 I read the songs back off the CDs and encoded them into MP3, so now you can hear them on the web. They are available at either 32 Kbps (about half a megabyte each) or 160 Kbps (about two megabytes each). The higher-quality MP3 versions were encoded by Ron Hipschman.

Space Songs

Energy & Motion Songs

Experiment Songs

Weather Songs

Nature Songs

More Nature Songs

"Sunshine" vitamin D health benefits- low levels linked to MS

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:57:52 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Studies show more links between vitamin D and MS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis had far lower levels of vitamin D than other youngsters, Canadian researchers reported on Friday in studies showing more links between the "sunshine" vitamin and disease.

These were the first studies to show the effects in children, although others have shown that adults who live in northern latitudes, who get less sun exposure, may have a higher risk of MS.

They also support a growing body of studies that link low vitamin D levels with disease, including breast and colon cancer, heart disease, diabetes and tuberculosis.

Vitamin D, made when skin is exposed to sunlight and found in fatty fish like salmon, is added to milk and other foods in many countries. Evidence suggests it helps lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and boost the immune system.

children with MS had much lower levels of the vitamin than children who did not experience any other MS-like symptoms

Eoin Colfer to write 6th novel in Hitchhiker's Guide series

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:49:09 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

"Hitchhiker's Guide" series to ride again

LONDON (Reuters) - Children's author Eoin Colfer is to write a sixth novel in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, seven years after the death of its creator Douglas Adams, Penguin said Wednesday.

The Irish writer, best known for his Artemis Fowl fairy stories, has the blessing of Adams' widow, Jane Belson, to continue the bestselling science fiction saga.

Called "And Another Thing...," the new novel will be published in October 2009. Colfer said he was a big fan of the original books, which started as a BBC radio serial.

The satirical books tell the story of a hapless Englishman called Arthur Dent who travels the universe after the Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

Adams died from a heart attack in California in 2001 at the age of 49. He had hoped to finish the series with a sixth novel.

Musical taste "deines personality"

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:10:34 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Musical taste "defines personality"

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Fans of classical music and jazz are creative, pop lovers are hardworking and, despite the stereotypes, heavy metal listeners are gentle, creative types who are at ease with themselves.

"People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang," North said.

"It's not surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference."

The study concluded that jazz and classical music fans are creative with good self-esteem, although the former are much more outgoing whereas the latter are shy.

Country and western fans were found to be hardworking and shy; rap fans are outgoing and indie lovers lack self-esteem and are not very gentle.

Those who like soul music can take heart as the research concluded they are creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease with themselves and have a high self-esteem.

Thinking makes us pig out

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:16:26 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Food for thought: Intellectual activities make people eat more than when just resting, according to a study that sheds new light on brain food.

This finding might also help explain the obesity epidemic of an increasingly sedentary society in which people still have to think now and then.

The scientists had determined beforehand that the thinking sessions consumed only three calories more than resting. After the sessions, the participants were invited to eat as much as they pleased.

The students who had done the computer tests downed 253 more calories, or 29.4 percent more than the couch potatoes. Those who had summarized a text consumed 203 more calories than the resting group.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after revealed that intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose levels than rest periods, perhaps owing to the stress of thinking.

Various studies in animals have shown that consuming fewer calories overall leads to sharper brains and longer life

7 ways to learn more without more study

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:42:59 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

7 Ways to Learn More Without More Study

The abundance of new research on how teenage brains work, aside from being cool for its own sake--teen brains are developing madly, pruning synapses and insulating neurons to build a lean computing machine--is fueling a new movement to help kids make the most of the brain they've got. Think of it as a user's manual for a machine that's still being wired.

How would you like to learn more without having to study more?" Sign me up! Here's how:

1. Get to bed and go to sleep. Sleep enables memory consolidation

2. Start studying a few days in advance of a test. Memories are embedded better if the brain is exposed to information repeatedly

3. Feed your head

protein and complex carbs

4. Body exercise is brain exercise. Aerobic exercise really improves brain function

5. Learn now what you want to remember for the rest of your life

6. Harness the power of risk-taking

7. Learn what you love

Beijing cancels "re-education through labor" camp sentence for protesters

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:50:20 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Beijing cancels sentence for elderly women

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two elderly women have won a reprieve from a sentence to one year in labor camps handed down after they sought permission for a protest during this month's Beijing Olympics, a rights group said.

Human Rights in China said a Beijing municipal committee on August 29 rescinded its decision to sentence Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, to a year of "re-education through labor," less than two weeks after the decision was delivered.

The two had applied for permits to demonstrate in officially designated "protest zones" during the Games.

none of the 77 applications by citizens to protest legally in the designated Beijing parks had been approved

Human Rights in China has said 24 protesters -- critics of the Communist Party and their family members -- were detained or put under watch before the Olympics

Afghan child mortality linked to uneducated mothers

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:48:03 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Afghan child mortality linked to uneducated mothers

HONG KONG (Reuters) - High child mortality rates in conservative Afghanistan are linked not just to war but to mothers being uneducated and having little or no say when their children need medical help, a study has found.

2,474 children from 1,327 households in Kabul province found that diarrhoea (32.5 percent), acute respiratory infection (41 percent), emaciation (12.4 percent) and stuntedness (39.9 percent) were among the most common health problems

mothers are subject to a number of restrictions in the decision-making process regarding child healthcare

problems correlated most closely with mothers not having any autonomy (79.1 percent) and education (71.7 percent)

Up to 18.3 percent of the mothers also delivered their first child before they were 16, which meant they were married when they were still children

one out of every five Afghan children (or 191 out of every 1,000 live births) will not survive beyond age five

kids may be hardwired to share and share alike: study

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:17:44 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Kids may be hardwired to 'share and share alike': study

PARIS (AFP) - Humans are selfish in earliest childhood but by the age of seven or eight are keen to share equally, a developmental change so sudden that it can only be explained, at least in part, by genes, according to a study released Wednesday.

Behavioural scientists and sociologists have quarrelled for decades as to whether generosity and selfishness are inherited or result from social conditioning.

But new experiments with 229 Swiss children between the ages of three and eight suggest that Homo sapiens is probably somewhere in between: humans look out for No. 1, but also express, if not outright generosity, at least an aversion to inequality.

At least one result was unexpected, said Fehr: children with no siblings were more, rather than less, generous.

Watch Mythbusters on Wednesday aug 27th! - moon landing hoax tests

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:42:38 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

TV's 'Mythbusters' Tackle Moon Landing Hoax Claims

In 2005, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, special effects experts better known by the title of their popular Discovery Channel series, "MythBusters", were asked during an interview about the myth they would most like to test provided an unlimited budget.

Three years later, the Mythbusters are ready to share the results of their 'trip' as they devote their next show, airing on Wednesday, to the moon landing hoax claims.

So, with their feet firmly planted on the Earth (at least for most of the time, but more on that later), Hyneman and Savage, along with fellow Mythbusters Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara, set out to use science to 'bust' or confirm the truth behind the hoaxers' claims.

The Mythbusters 'NASA Moon Landing Hoax' episode debuts August 27 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel. Check local listings.

Continue reading on collectSPACE.com about how the Mythbusters tested the moon landing hoax claims.

Somalia's runners provide inspiration

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:28:32 GMT

clipped by: thekay
clipper's remarks: an inspiring article!

Clip Source: sports.yahoo.com

Somalia’s runners provide inspiration

Samia Yusuf Omar of Somalia re…
AP - Aug 18, 11:14 pm EDT

BEIJING – Samia Yusuf Omar headed back to Somalia Sunday, returning to the small two-room house in Mogadishu shared by seven family members. Her mother lives there, selling fruits and vegetables. Her father is buried there, the victim of a wayward artillery shell that hit their home and also killed Samia’s aunt and uncle.

a girl whose Beijing moment lasted a mere 32 seconds – the slowest 200-meter dash time out of the 46 women who competed in the event. Thirty-two seconds that almost nobody saw but that she carries home with her, swelled with joy and wonderment.

“I have my pride,” she said through a translator before leaving China. “This is the highest thing any athlete can hope for. It has been a very happy experience for me. I am proud to bring the Somali flag to fly with all of these countries, and to stand with the best athletes in the world.”

Tags: olympics

Woman cuffed, booked for not paying library fines

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:07:52 GMT

clipped by: thekay

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Woman cuffed, booked for not paying library fines

GRAFTON, Wis. - A Wisconsin woman has been arrested and booked for failing to pay her library fines.

Twenty-year-old Heidi Dalibor told the News Graphic in Cedarburg that she ignored the library's calls and letters as well as a notice to appear in court.

Still, she was surprised when officers with a warrant knocked on her door, cuffed her and took her to the police station to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Police Capt. Joe Gabrish says officers follow the same procedure with every warrant.

Library director John Hanson says a couple of dozen people are cited each year for failure to return materials or pay fines.

The incident cost Dalibor about $30 for the two overdue paperbacks. It cost her mother $172 to free her.