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Rooney coaches family parrot to speak his son’s name!

May 7, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 7 (ANI): Footballer Wayne Rooney has achieved a new ‘goal’ – he has taught a family parrot to speak his son’s name.
Wayne, 24, after getting the parrot to start talking, says he “won’t shut up”.

After befriending the pet during a visit to in-laws with family, he has been training the African Grey to increase its vocabulary for a “laugh”.

The bird after learning to speak his son, Kai’s name, however, won’t stop squawking words left, right and centre.

“It was funny at first but now it just won’t shut up,” The Daily Star quoted the footie as speaking with Match Of The Day magazine. (ANI)

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Kings name Robilliard as comeback coach

March 31, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Sydney Kings have appointed Ian Robilliard as the coach to lead them back into the National Basketball League (NBL).

The 49-year-old is a former Kings player and Australian Boomer, who played more than 250 NBL games.

He has most recently been the managing director of the Central Coast Academy of Sport.

Former Kings coach Brian Goorjian will support him in an ambassador’s role.

Kings general manager Bob Turner says Robilliard is the right man to lead the team.

“I know that a lot of people would say ‘hey, he hasn’t coached in the league’, but a lot of coaches start their career somewhere and didn’t coach in the league,” he said.

“The first thing we were looking for is a guy that’s a leader, someone who’s competitive and if you know Moose that’s a key word in his vocabulary.

“He never backs down to any challenge.”

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Dr. Satinder Sartaj takes Sufism to music lovers across the world

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Ludhiana, Aug.30 (ANI): Satinder Sartaj is today known as a poet and sufi singer not just in Punjab all over the country, even abroad among ethnic Indians.

Born in a sleepy Bajrawar Village of Hoshiarpur, Sartaj holds a Doctorate in music and is today promoting Punjabi Sufi music among music lovers.

He has performed in several countries and is a name to reckon with in the music world.

“I can say about myself that I love simplicity. I try that my poetry should be ‘simple’ and ‘uncomplicated’, which a common person can easily understand. It’s not that you use difficult vocabulary. I always try that my composition be such that the audience can hum along with it. Noted singers say that to make a simple composition is a tough task whereas to make tough composition is simple. I think ‘simplicity’ in my singing has attracted the listeners,” said Dr. Satinder Sartaj, Punjabi Sufi Singer.

He believes that when a singer writes his own verses, he can do justice to it. He can sing it with great passion.

He describes poetry as the mother of all arts. It’s something, which can’t be learned. You can feel it if the nature has given you the sense of emotions.

“I have a long way to go. My reach is among the elite in India and abroad. But, to get popularity I have to reach to rural parts of India and become popular among farmers and laborers. For that I have to really work hard,” said Dr. Satinder Sartaj, Punjabi Sufi singer

Dr Satinder Sartaj’s talent was acknowledged at the 32 nations Dubai International Cultural fest 2003 where he received the Best Sufi Singer award. By Karan Kapoor (ANI)

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Traditional toys are healthiest way of stimulating imagination: Experts

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, May 19 (ANI): Childhood development experts have stated that playing with traditional toys and games is the best way to stimulate the imagination and support learning in a child.

Dr Jon Jureidini, a child psychiatrist at the University of Adelaide, shared his concern about the shift towards electronic toys and computer games, which stop a child from being creative.

“The role of the child in play becomes more reactive,” the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.

“Much more of the content is going to be generated by the computer than would be the case if a child was playing with a doll’s house . . .

“The danger is that children aren’t having as much stimulation to their imagination and creativity.

“Playing through some distressing event helps children to come to terms with it and feel less bullied by their scary memories.

“There’s the working-through aspect and also the communication aspect,” Dr Jureidini, who uses play in therapy, said.

His thoughts on the subject were echoed by Deakin University Associate Professor Karen Stagnitti, who said imaginative play has also been shown to expand children’s vocabulary, comprehension and social skills.

Teacher Alison Woodcock said some children had to be taught how to play.

“The children are very confident on the computers these days,” she said.

“We need to help them develop skills in creative play,” she added. (ANI)

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Preschoolers’ language skills help boost their classmates’ vocabulary

May 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 15 (ANI): Young kids speak and understand language not only from what they hear from their parents and preschool teachers, but their preschool classmates also play a role in building up their vocabulary, according to a new longitudinal study.

In the study, the researchers at the University of Virginia and Ohio State University analysed over 1,800 preschoolers in over 450 pre-kindergarten classrooms in 11 U.S. states.

They tested children’s skills in “receptive language” (including their understanding of vocabulary and grammar) and “expressive language” (including their speaking skills, which also involve vocabulary and grammar) in English at the start and end of pre-kindergarten.

They observed that the kids’ abilities to both speak and understand words developed faster when they were with classmates with better language skills.

In fact, they found that going to school with children who had better language skills was even more beneficial for children who began preschool with higher language skills, and for those who were in classrooms that were well-managed.

“Classmates are an important resource for all children, especially for children who begin preschool with higher language skills,” said Andrew J. Mashburn, a senior research scientist at the University of Virginia and the study’s lead author.

He added: “This is likely because these children are better able to capitalize on their peers’ skills for learning language. These results also indicate that teachers can promote children’s language development by effectively managing children’s behaviour, which creates an environment in which children feel comfortable to converse with and learn language from one another.”

While it’s known that young children’s language abilities affect their readiness for school and later school success, the study offers ideas for designing and structuring preschool classrooms.

The study has been published in the journal Child Development. (ANI)

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Kids as young as 19 months develop cross-dialect skill

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 07 (ANI): Children as young as 19 months understand different dialects, a skill, which researchers call ‘phonological constancy.’

Everyday, we come across different accents. Even when a speaker of another English dialect pronounces words differently than we do, we are typically able to recognize their words.

Now, psychologist Catherine Best from MARCS Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, along with colleagues from Haskins Laboratories and Wesleyan University, has shed light on the early development of this cross-dialect skill.

In the study, 15- and 19-month-old American toddlers looked at a coloured checkerboard on a monitor in order to hear sets of familiar words or unfamiliar words.

They completed two tests, one with their own American dialect, and the other with a Jamaican English dialect.

The results suggested that phonological constancy is already evident by 19 months of age, but is not yet present at 15 months.

Both ages listened longer to familiar words than to unfamiliar words in the American dialect, indicating they recognize and prefer words they know.

The 15-month-olds failed to show this preference for the Jamaican dialect, suggesting poor recognition of Jamaican-accented words.

However, the 19-month-olds showed the same familiar-word preference in the Jamaican accent as in the American accent, indicating cross-dialect phonological constancy for words.

The researchers said that phonological constancy, along with the complementary ability to differentiate words from similar-sounding words or non-words, “together serve as a solid foundation on which children rapidly build a vocabulary, and later extrapolate from spoken language to the world of reading.”

The study has been described in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. (ANI)

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‘One-millionth word to be added to English language in June’

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 7 (ANI): Linguistic experts have revealed that the one-millionth word will be added to the English language next month.

The experts say since English has become the world’s main language, new words are being introduced at the rate of 14.7 a day, reports The Sun.

And they forecast the vocabulary will top the one million mark at 10.22am on June 10.

Contenders include “defriend” when pals are crossed off Internet social networking lists.

Others are “greenwashing” – coined by environmentalists to describe misleading information – and “noob,” a new computer game player.lso, the word “chiconomics” is there, which is the fashion industry’s buzzword for the slump.

In Shakespeare’s day there were only two million speaking fewer than 100,000 words.

The predictions came from the Texas-based Global Language Monitor. It is made up of academics and wordsmiths who have been tracking word creation since 2003. (ANI)

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Having a bad teacher in first year can harm kids’ entire academic life

April 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 26 (ANI): Having a bad teacher in the reception year can harm a child’s entire education, according to a new study.

Researchers at Durham University found that the effect of having an exceptionally poor – or an unusually good – teacher in the first year at primary school was still detectable six years later.

The findings suggest that many pupils are being betrayed by schools that, in an effort to rise up national league tables, concentrate their best teachers on pupils about to take their Sats tests at the age of 11.

“More effort needs to be spent on the most valuable years which are the earliest years,” Times Online quoted study’s lead author Peter Tymms, professor of education at Durham University, as saying.

For the study, the researchers analysed the progress in learning vocabulary, reading and mathematics of more than 73,000 primary school pupils who were tested at the beginning of their schooling in 1999 and then annually until 2005.

Kids who were in classes in the bottom 16 percent of progress in the reception year performed, on average, around a fifth of a level worse in their Sats test than those whose class progress was average.

On the other hand, those whose classes progressed most in reception year performed about a fifth of a level better.

According to researchers, the effect of good and bad teaching is cumulative, so if a child is unlucky enough to have a poor teacher every year of their primary school career, this would make a difference of an entire level in their test performance.

“The residual effect lasts as long as we can measure it,” said Tymms.

The study is published in the journal Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability. (ANI)

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Diabetes could lead to diminished brain power

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 12 (ANI): Failure to control type 2 diabetes may lead to poorer memory and diminished brain power, a new study has found.

According to University of Edinburgh team, severe hypoglycaemic episodes – hypos – occur when blood sugar levels drop dangerously low.

Hypoglycaemia is caused by a lack of sugar (glucose) reaching the brain, which uses it as fuel. Its symptoms include sweating, fatigue, hunger, feeling dizzy, feeling weak, a higher heart rate than usual and blurred vision More severe episodes can led to temporary loss of consciousness, convulsions and coma.

Now, in the latest study, researchers recruited 1,066 people with type 2 diabetes aged between 60 and 75.

The study was presented at a conference of the charity Diabetes UK.

To reach the conclusion, volunteers were given seven tests assessing mental abilities such as memory, logic and concentration.

The 113 people who had previously experienced severe hypos scored lower than the rest of the group. They performed poorly in tests of their general mental ability, and vocabulary.

“Either hypos lead to cognitive decline, or cognitive decline makes it more difficult for people to manage their diabetes, which in turn causes more hypos,” The BBC quoted lead researcher Dr Jackie Price, as saying.

“A third explanation could be that a third unidentified factor is causing both the hypos and the cognitive decline. We are carrying out more research to establish which explanation is the most likely,” the expert added. (ANI)

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‘Agatha Christie had Alzheimer’s’

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 4 (ANI): Agatha Christie, the much-loved author of more than 80 mysteries, suffered from undiagnosed dementia, claim scientists.

According to academics at the University of Toronto, an in-depth analysis of Christie’s novels suggests that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, The Daily Express reported.

To reach the probable conclusion, researchers studied a selection of Christie’s novels written between the ages of 28 and 82, counting the numbers of different words, indefinite nouns and phrases used in each.

They found a 15 to 30 per cent decline in her vocabulary in her last novels, and a marked increase in repetitions.

These could be signs that the Poirot author, who died aged 85 in 1976, had Alzheimer’s, said researchers.

“This adds to a trend in textual analysis of prolific public figures who may have had dementia,” added Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

“Even those who lead intellectually stimulating lives can get dementia,” Wood added. (ANI)

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TV viewing before 2 has no cognitive benefits

March 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 2 (ANI): TV viewing before the age of 2 does not improve a child’s language and visual motor skills, according to a new study.

The study, conducted at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, reaffirm current guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that recommend no television under the age of 2, and suggest that maternal, child, and household characteristics are more influential in a child’s cognitive development.

“Contrary to marketing claims and some parents’ perception that television viewing is beneficial to children’s brain development, no evidence of such benefit was found,” said Marie Evans Schmidt, PhD, lead author of the study.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data of 872 children from Project Viva, a prospective cohort study of mothers and their children.

In-person visits with both mothers and infants were performed immediately after birth, at 6 months, and 3 years of age while mothers completed mail-in questionnaires regarding their child’s TV viewing habits when they were 1 and 2 years old.

It was conducted by researchers in the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s and the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

The study is the first to investigate the long-term associations between infant TV viewing from birth to 2 years old and both language and visual-motor skill test scores at 3 years of age.

These were calculated using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III (PPVT III) and Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities (WRAVMA) test.

The PPVT measures receptive vocabulary and is correlated with IQ, while WRAVMA tests for visual motor, visual spatial, and fine motor skills.

The researchers controlled for socio-demographic and environmental factors known to contribute to an infants’ cognitive development, including mother’s age, education, household income, marital status, parity, and postpartum depression, and the child’s gender, race, birth weight, body mass index, and sleep habits.

Using linear regression models, the researchers equalized the influences of each of these factors and calculated the independent effects of TV viewing on the cognitive development of infants.

Once these influences were factored out, associations in the raw data between increased infant TV viewing and poorer cognitive outcomes disappeared.

“In this study, TV viewing in itself did not have measurable effects on cognition. TV viewing is perhaps best viewed as a marker for a host of other environmental and familial influences, which may themselves be detrimental to cognitive development,” said Schmidt.

The study has been published in the March issue of Paediatrics. (ANI)

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Long hours put workers at dementia risk

February 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb 25 (ANI): Long working hours can raise the risk of dementia, a new study has warned.

What’s more, extreme tiredness and tension could be as harmful for the brain as smoking, the study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found.

The study found that middle-aged workers clocking up more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills, including short-term memory and ability to recall words, than those working fewer than 41 hours.

To reach the conclusion, researchers led by Dr Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health monitored 2,214 British civil servants from the 1980s, reports The Telegraph.

Participants in their early 50s were put through a series of brain function tests. Those doing the most overtime recorded lower scores in two of the five key brain function tests – reasoning and vocabulary.

The researchers said: “This study shows that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age. The link between cognitive impairment and dementia later in life is clearly established.

“The difference between employees working long hours and those working normal hours is similar in magnitude to that of smoking, a risk factor for dementia.”

Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in workplace stress from Lancaster University, told the Daily Mail: “Working long hours obviously makes you very tired. If you do that on a consistent basis it’s going to affect your brain function. Long hours are not just bad for health, they are also bad for your performance.” (ANI)

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Consumers think about products either rationally or experientially

January 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, January 27 (ANI): Are you a rational or experiential consumer? Well, this customer differentiation springs from a new study that suggests that people approach problems, products, and websites differently according to distinct thinking styles.

Thomas P. Novak and Donna L. Hoffman, of University of California-Riverside, say that their study suggests that consumers tend to think either rationally or experientially.

Revealing their finding in the Journal of Consumer Research, they said that it would be suitable for markers to design experience for consumers that allow a good fit between the style and the task.

The authors describe rational thinking as “logical, effortful, and analytic,” and experiential thinking as “associative, lower effort, and holistic.”

They say that rational activities include work, carefully considered decisions, and goal-directed tasks, while experiential activities include playing, browsing, and impulse buying.

In their study report, the researchers revealed that they used a measure called the Situation-Specific-Thinking-Style measure (SSTS) to measure and predict study participants’ performance on a number of tasks, including vocabulary and geometry problems (rational) or activities such as suggesting ways to improve toys or websites (experiential).

“We found that people who reported thinking rationally performed better on rational tasks, and people who reported thinking experientially performed better on experiential tasks. In addition, the ‘wrong type’ of thinking actually hurt performance. People who approached a vocabulary or an IQ test problem in an experiential, intuitive manner actually had fewer correct answers than those who approached the problem logically,” say the authors.

The team say that though it is not possible for marketers to read consumer’s minds, they can offer opportunities for different thinking styles to be utilized.

“One approach is to design a store or website in a way that provides opportunities for consumers to think either way, and let the consumers choose what to do,” the researchers suggest.

“Since some people tend to think more rationally and others tend to think more intuitively, different people will have greater success and happiness with different activities. However, everyone is capable of thinking both ways, and sometimes just nudging yourself to think in a different direction can help you be more successful and feel more satisfied,” they conclude. (ANI)

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Israel, Vatican at loggerheads after Cardinal terms Gaza “a big concentration camp”

January 9, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

London, Jan.9 (ANI): A senior aide to the Pope has termed Gaza as “a big concentration camp”, thereby igniting a serious diplomatic rift between the Vatican and Tel Aviv.

“Defenceless populations are always the ones who pay. Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp,” President of the Vatican”s Council for Justice and Peace Cardinal Renato Martino said in an interview.

Israel has condemned the Cardinal’s statement strongly.

Responding to the Cardinal’s comment, a spokesman of the Israel’s Foreign Ministry said: “We are astounded to hear from a spiritual dignitary words that are so far removed from truth and dignity.”

“The vocabulary of Hamas propaganda, coming from a member of the College of Cardinals, is a shocking and disappointing phenomenon,” the Scotsman quoted the Israeli spokesman, as saying.

Jewish leaders in Germany also expressed their discontentment over the remarks of Cardinal Martino.

“He is either trying to nefariously disseminate anti-Israeli propaganda or he doesn”t have the faintest clue about the murderous conditions inside a concentration camp,” General Secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Stephan Kramer said.

Tension has been simmering between the Vatican and Israel since Pope Benedict”s decision last October to press ahead with the canonisation of the wartime pontiff Pius XII.

Israel has questioned the role Pius played during the Second World War, and claimed that he did not do enough to speak out against the Holocaust. (ANI)

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