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Scientists map melting history of Greenland’s ice sheet

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 17 (ANI): Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have mapped the history of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland’s ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast.

By analyzing every single annual layer in the kilometres long ice cores, researchers can get detailed information about the climate of the past.

But now, the Danish researcher Bo Vinther and colleagues from the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with researchers from Canada, France and Russia, have found an entirely new way of interpreting the information from the ice core drillings.

“Ice cores from different drillings show different climate histories. This could be because they were drilled at very different places on and near Greenland, but it could also be due to changes in the elevation of the ice sheet, because the elevation itself causes different temperatures,” explained Bo Vinther about the theory.

Today, the ice sheet is more than three kilometres thick at its highest point and thinning out towards the coast.

Four of the drillings analyzed are from the central ice sheet, while two of the drillings are from small ice caps outside of the ice sheet itself.

By comparing the Oxygen-18 content in all of the annual layers from the four drillings through the ice sheet with the Oxygen-18 content of the same annual layers in the small ice caps, Bo Vinther has calculated the elevation course through 11,700 years.

Just after the ice age the elevation of the ice sheet rose slightly because when the climate transitions from ice age to warm age, there is a rapid increase in precipitation.

But at the same time, the areas lying near the coast begin to decrease in size, because the ice is melting at the edge.

When the ice melts at the edge, it slowly causes the entire ice sheet to ‘collapse’ and become lower.

The calculations show that in the course of about 3,000 years, the elevation changed and became up to 600 meters lower in the coastal areas.

But in the middle, it was a slow process, where the elevation decreased around 150 meters in the course of around 6,000 years.

It then stabilized.

The new results show the evolution of elevation of the ice sheet throughout 11,700 years and they show that the ice sheet is very sensitive to the temperature.

The results can be used to make new calculations for models predicting future consequences of climate changes. (ANI)

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NASA concludes tests for prototype Moon rovers

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 16 (ANI): NASA has concluded two weeks of technology development tests on two of the agency’s prototype lunar rovers.

“These tests provide us with crucial information about how our cutting edge vehicles perform in field situations approximating the moon,” said Rob Ambrose, Human Robotic Systems project lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“We learn from them, then go back home to refine the technology and plan the next focus of our research,” he added.

The annual studies featured an intensive, simulated 14-day mission.

Two crew members, an astronaut and a geologist, lived for more than 300 hours inside NASA’s prototype Lunar Electric Rover.

The explorers scouted the area for features of geological interest, then donned spacesuits and conducted simulated moonwalks to collect samples.

The crew also docked to a simulated habitat, drove the rover across difficult terrain, performed a rescue mission and made a four-day traverse across the lava.

Throughout the test, the crew provided updates via Twitter and posted pictures and video online.

Prior to the test, NASA’s K10 scout robot identified areas of interest for the crew to explore.

NASA’s heavy-lift rover Tri-ATHLETE – or All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer – carried a habitat mockup to which the rover docked. (ANI)

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Research team all set to explore sacred Maya pools of Belize

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 14 (ANI): A team of expert divers, a geochemist and an archaeologist is all set to become the first to explore the sacred pools of the southern Maya lowlands in rural Belize.

The expedition, made possible with a grant from the National Geographic Society and led by a University of Illinois archaeologist, will investigate the cultural significance and environmental history and condition of three of the 23 pools of Cara Blanca, in central Belize.

Called ‘cenotes’, these groundwater-filled sinkholes in the limestone bedrock were treated as sacred sites by the Maya, according to University of Illinois archaeologist Lisa Lucero, who will lead the expedition next spring.

“Any openings in the earth were considered portals to the underworld, into which the ancient Maya left offerings,” said Lucero. “We know from ethnographic accounts that Maya collected sacred water from these sacred places, mostly from caves,” she added.

Studies of shallow lakes and cenotes in Mexico and Guatemala have found that the Maya also left elaborate offerings in the sacred lakes and pools.

Items found on the bottom of lakes in these regions include masks, bells, jade, human remains, figurines and ceramic vessels decorated with animals, plants and the gods of fertility and death.

“Diving the sacred pools of Cara Blanca, in central Belize, is necessary to determine if they have similar sacred qualities,” Lucero said.

“Once underwater, we will first have to cut out some of the jungle wood so that we can even reach the bottom,” said Patricia Beddows, a lecturer of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University and an expert diver who has explored cenotes on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

“After mapping for fragile Maya artifacts, we will also take water data and manually drill sediment cores,” she added.

“The sediment samples will provide a record of changes in surface and water conditions,” Beddows said.

“Were the Maya challenged by droughts in the area? Did the water quality suddenly go bad due to sulfur or other geologic factors? We hope these cenotes will provide a rich story of linked human and environmental conditions,” she said.

One of the three pools the researchers will explore has a substantial Maya structure on its edge, likely ceremonial.

Preliminary investigations of the structure conducted by archaeologist Andrew Kinkella, of Moorpark College, turned up a lot of jars and the fragments of jars.

“This could indicate that the site was important for collecting sacred water,” Lucero said. (ANI)

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Four giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 13 (ANI): A team of archaeologists has found four giant stone hand axes from the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, dating back to the Stone Age, which suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today.

The discovery of the axes is part of the finding of thousands of stone tools on the lake bed, which sheds new light on how humans in Africa adapted to several substantial climate change events during the period that coincided with the last Ice Age in Europe.

Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford are surveying the now-dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi.

Their research was prompted by the discovery of the first of what are believed to be the world’s largest stone tools on the bed of the lake.

Although the first find was made in the 1990s, the discovery of four giant axes has not been scientifically reported until now.

Four giant stone hand axes, measuring over 30 cm long and of uncertain age, were recovered from the lake basin.

Equally remarkable is that the dry lake floor where they were found is also littered with tens of thousands of other smaller stone-age tools and flakes, according to the researchers.

According to Professor David Thomas, Head of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, “Many of the tools were found on the dry lake floor, not around its edge, which challenges the view that big lakes were only attractive to humans when they were full of water.”

“As water levels in the lake went down, or during times when they fluctuated seasonally, wild animals would have congregated round the resulting watering holes on the lake bed,” he said.

“It’s likely that early human populations would have seen this area as a prolific hunting ground when food resources in the region were more concentrated than at times when the regional climate was wetter and food was more plentiful and the lake was full of water,” he added.

The research team has investigated islands on the floor of the lake – remnants of former sand dunes – which suggest the region’s climate has also been both windier and markedly drier than it is today.

“The interior of southern Africa has usually been seen as being devoid of significant archaeology. Surprisingly, we have found and logged incredibly extensive Middle Stone Age artefacts spread over a vast area of the lake basin,” Professor Thomas said. (ANI)

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Ang Lee ‘working on film version of Life of Pi’

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Nevada (US), Sept 9 (ANI): Oscar winner Ang Lee is working with a writer on film adaptation of Yann Martel’s fantasy “Life of Pi” about a boy from Pondicherry, India, who survives 227 days after shipwreck, according to reports.

Lee is quoted as saying: “It’s a very strong story, but it’s hard to crack.”

Acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, welcoming the film adaptation of this India influenced story, urged Lee to handle the Pi’s spirituality exploration and holistic edge with cultural sensitivity.

Expected to be released in 2011, Canadian Martel’s (Manners of Dying) Man Booker Prize and other awards winning novel is an adventure tale about 16-years old Pi Patel stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, orangutan, an injured zebra, and a hungry Bengal tiger in Pacific Ocean on his voyage from India to Canada.

It has sold well over one million copies and was a global publishing phenomenon. Keith Robinson adapted it into a play and toured England.

Oscar nominated M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen); and Dean Georgaris (What Happens in Vegas) have already dropped this project after preliminary exploration.

The Fox 2000 high profile film adaptation will be produced by Gil Netter (Personal Effects). (ANI)

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‘Street fighter’ Katich must replace ‘soft’ Ponting to revive Aussies: Ex-players

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Aug 30 (ANI): Australia needs a street fighter like Simon Katich to trigger a revival, after calls for sacking of Ricky Ponting in the wake of the Ashes loss under the Tasmanian’s captaincy for the second time in four years

Australian cricket has lost the ruthless cutting edge cultivated by Steve Waugh that made them one of the most feared teams, according to former players.

Former Test wicketkeeper Steve Rixon said Ponting is a magnificent batsman, but he will never be regarded as a great captain, and added that Australia have lost their killer instinct under him.

Ponting became the first Australian captain in 119 years to lose consecutive series on English soil, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Rixon says the take-no-prisoners psyche cultivated by Waugh has been eroded.

“I don’t relate to the brand of cricket we are playing under Ricky. We aren’t playing the sort of cricket that has made us ruthless and a team that no one really likes to play,” Rixon said.

“Teams aren’t capitulating under pressure like they used to. We seem to have a more timid nature . . . and that could certainly have a bearing on a tight series like the one in England.

“We’re struggling against sides we should be beating. England is renowned for capitulating under pressure, but we never got ruthless or flexed our muscle,” he said.

“If we’re going to look at change, I’d be looking at Simon Katich. Simon is a tenacious leader. I worked with him at NSW and I know what he can offer as a captain. He’s tough, he won’t take a backward step, he plays aggressive cricket – and that is synonymous with the Australian style,” Rixon said.

Former Test all-rounder Greg Matthews also likes the way Katich leads from the front.

“Before the Ashes series, I felt the strongest man in Australian cricket was Simon Katich. His character, his intent, he bats like his life depends on every ball. It’s just obvious for me. If I was in the trenches, he’d be the first guy I’d pick,” Matthews said. (ANI)

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Exotic vegetable cultivation picks up in Jammu and Kashmir

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Gopalpura (Jammu and Kashmir), Aug 29(ANI): Vegetable farmers in Jammu and Kashmir have opted for cultivation of exotic vegetables, as it has turned out to be more beneficial to them than growing the indigenously grown varieties.

Mohammed Shafi, a farmer and a seed dealer from capital Srinagar has been experimenting with the cultivation of exotic vegetable varieties bringing most of the seeds from European Union nations.

Shafi has been growing varieties like red cabbage, savoy type cabbage, green rocket, Broccoli, B Sprouts, red fire lettuce and a host of others.

He also claims that the medicinal values of these vegetables are very high and are used in curing different kinds of ailments like the stomach ulcer.

“It has good medicinal values. I read in an American journal about the medicinal value of Broccoli which helps to cure a big disease like stomach ulcers. It has food value and medicinal value hence people are now slowly getting aware of its benefits,” said Shafi.

Meanwhile, Bashir Ahmed Dar, Director of Agriculture department of Jammu and Kashmir, believes that the farmers in the state are steadily getting aware of the potential in cultivating these varieties.

Dar also said that the clientele of these vegetables is the upper middle class due to which the prices are high.

“They are very good vegetables hence we thought of introducing it here. We have broccoli, lettuce, Chinese cabbage and gradually people are consuming it. However, its consumption is among the people from the high society. There is a demand of these vegetables in hotels and also from the tourists coming here,” Dar said.

It is believed that Jammu and Kashmir can be a vast market for such vegetables as the valley has a seasonal edge over other states

These vegetables have an advantage of withstanding temperature fluctuations during the spring in Kashmir. They mature in lesser number of days than the open pollinated types. By Parvez Bhatt(ANI)

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Non-lethal blast waves can cause brain injuries even without direct head impacts

August 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 27 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have discovered that non-lethal blast waves can cause human brain injury even without direct head impacts, which could lead to an enhanced understanding of head injuries and improved military helmet design.

Using numerical hydrodynamic computer simulations, Lawrence Livermore scientists Willy Moss and Michael King, along with University of Rochester colleague Eric Blackman, have discovered that non-lethal blasts can induce enough skull flexure to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain, even without direct head impact.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from mechanical loads in the brain, often without skull fracture, and causes complex, long-lasting symptoms.

TBI in civilians is usually caused by direct head impacts resulting from motor vehicle and sports accidents. TBI also has emerged among military combat personnel exposed to blast waves.

As modern body armor has substantially reduced soldier fatalities from explosive attacks, the lower mortality rates have revealed the high prevalence of TBI.

But, TBIs resulting from blast waves without head impacts have not been well understood.

To tackle this puzzle, the research team used three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to prove that direct action of the blast wave on the head causes skull flexure, producing mechanical loads in brain tissue comparable to those in an injury-inducing impact, even at non-lethal blast pressures as low as 1 bar above atmospheric pressure.

The Army’s Advanced Combat Helmet replaced the older Personal Armor System for Ground Troops helmet.

Its Kevlar shell provides ballistic and impact protection, and its reduced edge cut, although reducing area of coverage, improves soldiers’ field of vision and hearing.

In particular, the team showed that blast waves affect the brain very differently from direct impacts.

The primary source of injury from direct impacts is the force resulting from the bulk acceleration of the head.

In contrast, a blast wave squeezes the skull, creating pressures as large as an injury-inducing impact and pressure gradients in the brain that are much larger.

This occurs even when the bulk head accelerations induced by a blast wave are much smaller than from a direct impact.

“The blast wave sweeps over the skull like a rolling pin going over dough,” said King, LLNL co-principal investigator.

Although the simulations show that the skull is deformed only about 50 microns, “this is large enough to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain,” according to Moss.

“The possibility that blasts may contribute to traumatic brain injury has implications for injury diagnosis and improved armor design,” he added. (ANI)

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Archaeologists to explore how prehistoric Italians made their living at end of the Ice Age

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 25 (ANI): Archaeologists at the University of Bradford are all set to lead an exploration into how prehistoric people made their living in Italy at the end of the Ice Age.

According to a report in Bradford Telegraph and Argus, the research aims to find out how hunter-gatherers in Mediterranean Europe survived before farming became widespread and why the transition to agriculture was a smooth one.

Researchers will use high-precision dating to accurately age occupation layers in archaeological cave sites and identify which animals were being hunted by the prehistoric people by studying bones found at sites. he team will also use isotope analyses to identify if the hunted animals migrated seasonally.

“This project brings together cutting edge scientific analyses and traditional archaeological approaches for understanding in the past,” said lead researcher Dr Randolph Donahue.

“It will assist us in explaining how and why people shifted smoothly towards adopting agriculture in Mediterranean Europe following its introduction from the Near East,” he added.

The work will include a study of the production and use of stone tools discarded at the sites to understand how prehistoric people were using the caves.

The results of these combined methods will evaluate which of two theories best explains the food procurement strategies of hunter-gatherers in Mediterranean Europe during the end of the Ice Age.

The first theory suggests prehistoric people followed herds of animals year round in order to hunt them for food while the second theory suggests people moved around the landscape far less by relying far more heavily on small animals, fish and plants.

The project involves more than 20 researchers at ten universities and research centres in the UK, Italy and Germany. (ANI)

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Boeing set to test unmanned aircraft in Australia

July 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Brisbane, July 12 (ANI): Australian scientists and US aviation giant Boeing are set to test unmanned aircrafts, which would share airspace with piloted passenger planes without causing any collision.

In a non-descript shed in suburban South Park in Seattle, a team of young Boeing engineers are overseeing an experiment that provides a startling glimpse into the future.

Their 30-metre by 15 metre by five-metre-high unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) “swarming” laboratory looks like a small indoor cricket shed with model rotor aircraft parked on the concrete floor.

Suddenly the UAVs are airborne and swarming around the shed, their pre-determined tracks, altitudes and collision avoidance mechanisms already programmed in using advanced algorithms that could ultimately spell the end of piloted aircraft, The Courier-Mail reports.

The aim of this cutting edge science is to build the mathematical models that will allow uninhabited aircraft to fly safely in controlled airspace.

Boeing’s new Australian research chief Bill Lyons talks about the aim behind the experiment: “To allow (unmanned) systems to operate at least as well as human piloted systems.”

The algorithms developed in the swarm lab will soon be put to the test in the skies above Kingaroy in southern Queensland in the world’s first ever trial of unmanned aircraft inside controlled airspace.

Airspace authorities in both the US and Australia, highly wary of having pilotless drones in potential conflict with airliners carrying hundreds of passengers, will require 100 per cent guarantees before they will allow the two to mix.

Senior Boeing engineer John Vian said the major challenge for unmanned aircraft operating in controlled air space is safety.

“We don’t know how these systems will develop. For these systems to be viable they have to be reliable and totally autonomous. We develop the technology, how it is applied is up the customer,” Dr. Vian said. (ANI)

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Microscopic ‘beads’ may revolutionise organ transplantation

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 7 (ANI): If Medical College of Georgia researchers are to be believed, organ transplantation in future may include microscopic beads that create “designer” immune cells so that patients may tolerate their new organ.

Dr. Anatolij Horuzsko, reproductive immunologist at the MCG Center for Molecular Chaperone/Radiobiology and Cancer Virology, has already used this approach successfully in mice with skin grafts.

“It’s absolutely natural,” says the researcher.

The degradable microparticles deliver the most powerful known form of HLA-G, a natural suppressor of the immune response, straight to dendritic cells, which typically show the immune system what to attack.

The microparticles are given right after a transplant, just as dendritic cells are giving the immune system a heads up to get busy attacking the new organ.

Dr. Horuzsko says that microparticle therapy likely would be needed for just a few weeks, until the dendritic cells have learned instead to ignore it.

“It’s like a calming effect and once tolerance is established, we don’t need it any more,” he says.

His team compared the success of HLA-G microparticles with the dendritic cell marker to those without a marker, those with were much more efficient at getting where needed and acting.

He says that those without direction likely were consumed by garbage eaters called macrophages.

“We want to create in kidney transplant patients, the same tolerance to the new kidney,” says Dr. Horuzsko, who reckons that HLA-G microparticles could be doing just that within five years.

He presented the patented process along with his other latest HLA-G findings during an opening lecture of the 5th International Conference on HLA-G in Paris, July 6-8.

Dr. Horuzsko believes that marked microparticles also have treatment potential in diseases where the immune system attacks normal tissue, such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

He is currently working in collaboration with Dr. Laura Mulloy, chief of the Section of Nephrology, Hypertension and Transplantation Medicine in the MCG School of Medicine, to find out whether higher natural levels of HLA-G already are giving some transplant patients an edge, by comparing HLA-G expression in those who keep and reject their transplanted kidneys. (ANI)

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Robotic grasshopper to help explore Mars’ rocky geography

July 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 6 (ANI): Scientists have come up with the first robotic grasshopper based on the spring mechanism the insect has to propel itself, which may help explore Mars’ rocky terrain.

The Jollbot was masterminded by Rhodri Armour, who spent a year building the robot with colleagues at the University of Bath.

The robot, which can jump and roll, enjoys an edge over other machines due to its ability to launch itself over obstacles.

The remote-controlled Jollbot runs on a motor connected to a battery pack and a series of springs around the circumference, which help it leap up to half a metre.

Weighing only one kilogram, it has been made from soft plastic, and borrows dynamics from insects when it bounces on landing.

Armour said: “I was inspired by the way insects like the grasshopper jump around in extremely rough environments. Even with their comparatively long legs, an insect’s small size limits the possibility of using its muscles to directly provide the contraction needed for take-off.”

The researcher added: “That means all insects and smaller jumping animals use some sort of spring mechanism to store muscle energy and release it when required. It’s a bit like a mechanical catapult – with a lengthy energy storage phase and rapid release.”

The boffin further revealed that the project was meant to be low-cost, adding: “Jollbot was always intended to be inexpensive and as such many could be sent on exploratory missions in place of a single conventional robot. This would allow for some of them to fail.”

Dr David Williams, director general of the British National Space Centre, said that the University of Bath’s research helped boost homegrown innovation in space exploration.

He added: “We wish the project all the best.” (ANI)

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Murray approaches every match without fear

July 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 3 (ANI): British tennis star Andy Murray has said that he approaches every match without fear, and adds that he is on a mission to end 71 years of British hurt of not winning a Wimbledon men’s final.

According to The Sun, success on Centre Court will make Murray the first Britisher to crack the final frontier since Bunny Austin in 1938.

Around 13million television fans are expected to be on the edge of their seats as he fights American Andy Roddick in today’s semi-final.

Victory would mean a probable clash on Sunday with five-time champion Roger Federer, who takes on Tommy Haas.

Murray, 22, said: “I never go on court fearing anyone. If you want to get to the top, you have to think you can win against the best players in the world regardless of where you are ranked, how old you are and your experience.

“I am pleased to be in the semi-finals but this is a tournament I want to win.”

Murray has won six out of eight matches against both Roddick and Federer. (ANI)

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U2 pay tribute to Jackson during Europe tour

July 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 2 (ANI): U2 paid tribute to Michael Jackson as they began their first tour in three years in Barcelona.

Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, who will be performing at 15 stadiums across Europe, dedicated Angel Of Harlem, originally penned about Billie Holiday, to the late King of Pop.

“We met Michael Jackson many times over the years and he was an unspeakable talent,” British tabloid The Sun quoted Bono as saying.
The singer, at the end of the song, also quoted from the Jackson hits Man In The Mirror and Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough in front 90,000 fans at Camp Nou.
The rockers will take their “360° Tour” across the continent, covering France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and more over the next two months. (ANI)

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Astronomers discover new class of black holes

July 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 2 (ANI): An international team of astronomers has discovered a new class of black hole, more than 500 times the mass of the Sun.

Astronomers made the finding in a distant galaxy approximately 290 million light years from Earth.

Until now, identified black holes have been either super-massive in the centre of galaxies, or about the size of a typical star (between three and 20 Solar masses).

The new discovery is the first solid evidence of a new class of medium-sized black holes.

A black hole is a remnant of a collapsed star with such a powerful gravitational field that it absorbs all the light that passes near it and reflects nothing.

It had been long believed by astrophysicists that there might be a third, intermediate class of black holes, with masses between a hundred and several hundred thousand times that of the Sun.

However, such black holes had not been reliably detected until now.

The team, led by astrophysicists at the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in France, detected the new black hole with the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope.

“While it is widely accepted that stellar mass black holes are created during the death throes of massive stars, it is still unknown how super-massive black holes are formed,” said the lead author of the research paper, Dr. Sean Farrell, now based at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester, UK.

“One theory is that super-massive black holes may be formed by the merger of a number of intermediate mass black holes. To ratify such a theory, however, you must first prove the existence of intermediate black holes,” he added.

“This is the best detection to date of such long sought after intermediate mass black holes. Such a detection is essential. While it is already known that stellar mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars, the formation mechanisms of supermassive black holes are still unknown,” said Farrell.

“The identification of HLX-1 is therefore an important step towards a better understanding of the formation of the super-massive black holes that exist at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies,” he added.

HLX-1 (Hyper-Luminous X-ray source 1), lies towards the edge of the galaxy ESO 243-49.

It is ultra-luminous in X-rays, with a maximum X-ray brightness of approximately 260 million times that of the Sun. (ANI)

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Ponting is a crap captain, says ex-Oz pacer Thomson

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, July 1 (ANI): Former Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson has described current Australian cricket skipper Ricky Ponting as a “crap captain”.

Thomson is of the view that Ponting should never have been given the Australian captaincy five years ago and believes England has the advantage going into this year’s Ashes series.

Thomson, who snared 200 Test wickets, also believes the inclusion of spinner Nathan Hauritz in Australia’s Ashes squad further highlights those deficiencies.

The Sun quoted Thommo, as saying: “I thought Ricky was c**p when he was first captain in 2004 and nothing much has improved since then. I’m not the only one who thinks that. I’ve always bagged him and everyone at home thinks he’s s**t at the captaincy. He’s a great player but captaincy is a totally different thing.”

“He was in a side that had very good players and now he’s got a side that has average players. He’s still left wanting. You see it on him – he gets frustrated. He worries when the players don’t do what he’s used to with the ball when he passes it to them,” he added.

“The choices he makes, his field settings and the things he does are never right. England has the edge in the captaincy department. But while England have a better captain, Australia have a better line-up,” he said. (ANI)

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South Carolina Gov. Sanford’s love letters to mistress show his knack for writing

June 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 28 (ANI): South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s e-mails to his Argentine mistress Maria have fascinated both hopeless romantics and serious politicos alike.

If reports are to be believed, the emails are colorful, descriptive, and unabashedly romantic, at times to the point of being schmaltzy and embarrassing.

“Do you really comprehend how beautiful your smile is? Have you been told lately how warm your eyes are and how they softly glow with the special nature of your soul?” the Politico quoted Sanford as having written.

In between the mushy parts, the two of them write about everyday events.

While Maria talks about taking a lazy day trip and reading an Alan Greenspan book, Sanford writes about meetings in New York, the National Governor’s Conference and an invitational with then-presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

According to reports, the letters give the impression that Sanford was a real romantic with a knack for writing.

“The most cherished gift a lover can give and receive is a love letter from the heart,” says romance coach Leslie Karsner, who sells prewritten love letters through a website called ‘Love Letters Now’.

“It’s very romantic, especially with forbidden love. If you take the politics out of it, it’s the story of a man whose heart was captured and he was willing to run the risk of being caught.

“He’s good at keeping her on the edge. He’s good at encouraging future discussions. He’s a busy governor, so the moments they have together are fleeting, and these letters become that much more valuable,” Karsner adds.

When asked what makes the letters so effective, psychologist and relationship coach Anne-Renee Test notes that Sanford and Shapur are about their emotions in the letters.

Test points out that Sanford even compares Shapur’s affections to the unconditional love he felt from his mother.

“They talk about the intensity of teenage love, which is extremely powerful, very real, and it can feel very intense like this. That’s the same intensity you read in these letters. They’re beautiful. I’m jealous,” says the expert.

Sex has been indirectly mentioned, but not detailed, in the letters.

Sanford writes: “The erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night’s light – but hey, that would be going into the sexual details.”

Maria responds: “I never gave you sexual details but you don’t need to. . .close your eyes and just remember. I’ll do the same.”

The one aspect of their letters that may appear negative is that both the governor and his mistress acknowledge that they may never see one another again.

“Although I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to meet again, this has been the best [thing] that has happened to me in a long time,” she writes, noting later that the situation is likely “hopelessly impossible” and that the love letters may pose a danger to his career.

“I genuinely enjoyed our special friendship…but it was all safe. Where we are is not,” he wrote. (ANI)

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Anna Friel vows not to ‘do Hepburn impression’ in West End show

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 27 (ANI): Actress Anna Friel has pledged not to mirror “an Audrey Hepburn impression” in the West End show of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The former Brookside star, who bore a striking resemblance to Hepburn, swore to add an “edge” to the character of Holly Golightly in the new stage production.

“My Holly will have a lot more rough edges than Audrey’s,” The Sun quoted her as saying.

“One of the scary things at first for me was thinking, ‘Gosh, people will assume they’re coming to see an Audrey Hepburn impression’ and that won’t be happening,” she added.

The stage adaptation of Truman Capote’s 1958 novel is due to begin in September. (ANI)

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Facedown burials in ancient times was a way to humiliate the dead

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): A new research has suggested that burying the dead facedown in ancient times wasn’t unusual or accidental, but a widely used way to humiliate the dead.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the first global study on the facedown burials suggests that it was a custom used across societies to disrespect or humiliate the dead.

Lead study author Caroline Arcini of Sweden’s National Heritage Board detected a common thread in the burials she studied, “that society sanctioned this apparently negative treatment of the dead.”

The unnerving burials often appear to signify “behavior that is out of the norm-it is not accepted, what (the dead) have done,” she said.

Shaming the dead “is most probably a deep-rooted behavior in humankind,” she added.

Arcini searched existing literature to make the first ever catalog of facedown burials from around the world.

She found descriptions of more than 600 bodies from 215 grave sites, from Peru to South Korea.

Dating from 26,000 years ago all the way up to World War I, these so-called prone burials include men, women, and children, though the majority were men.

Facedown burials occurred in all sorts of graves, including single graves, double graves, and mass graves.

In locations with several prone burials, the dead were often buried in shallow graves toward the edge of the cemetery, most of them without coffins.

According to Arcini, the phenomenon has various possible explanations.

Some people had their hands and feet tied together, suggesting they had been criminals or prisoners of war.

Other burials indicate the practice was linked to social status, as in the case of 80 bodies found in a Mexican cemetery that dates to between 1150 and 850 B.C.

There, 6 men are sitting in their graves, while the other 74 are in a prone position, Arcini noted.

“It might be that the people (buried in a sitting position) are high priests, and the others are in a lower social position,” she said.

The archaeologist highlights religious and cultural conflict as another potential factor.

“The highest frequency of facedown burials in Sweden, for instance, dates to the period of the Viking age when Christianity arrived in the region,” Arcini said.

“Pagan Vikings may not have accepted those who converted to Christianity and may have buried the bodies in a way that reflected their dislike,” she explained.

“Rule-breaking nuns and convicted witches were also buried in prone positions,” she added. (ANI)

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Serena ‘Williamsova’ doesn’t recognize flood of Russian new-ovas!

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 23 (ANI): In a bizarre attack on the growing Russian crowd in the tennis arena, Serena Williams has labelled the Eastern Europeans players as a bunch of nobodies.

“I just know the standard: everyone is from Russia,” the Daily Express quoted her, as saying.

Williams wrote on her Twitter page that she doesn’t “really recognize anyone,” and is so swamped by Eastern bloc-sounding names that she has started considering herself Russian.

“Sometimes I think I’m from Russia, too. I feel like, you know, OK, all these new-ovas. I don’t know anyone. I don’t really recognize anyone. You know, that’s just how it is. I think my name must be Williamsova,” she wrote.

Earlier in the day, she came through the first round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Neuza Silva of Portugal at Wimbledon.

The two-time Wimbledon singles champion admitted that she is never going to be a popular member on the women’s circuit, and claimed that she did not invite the “drama” that followed her.

Her father Richard compares her with Mike Tyson, in that both have that aggressive edge, and Serena said: “I’m like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama and everyone in the house hates them.

“No matter what they do, drama follows them. I don’t want to be that girl. I don’t want drama in my career. There always seems to be something happening so people don’t support me,” she said. (ANI)

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