jueves, mayo 17, 2007

IS SOUND BEHIND THE CREATION OF CROP CIRCLES?

From an upcoming article in Atlantis Rising magazine by Freddy Silva.

For over twenty years the normally quaint古怪的and quiet English countryside has slowly been overrun蔓延於by a phenomenon more akin近似的to 'It Came From Outer Space' than to cream tea. Fields long accustomed to entertaining wheat, barley or Canola are, with increasing frequency, playing host to magnificent pictograms in the form of crop circles: areas of flattened crop as large as 100,000 sq. ft. where plants are bent an inch above soil level and gently laid down in geometrically-precise pictograms, with no visible signs of damage or human entry.
But what started as a local phenomenon in the environs of Stonehenge and Silbury Hill has since become a major British export: to date, some 8000 crop circles have been reported worldwide.

If they had their way, certain television documentaries would have you believing that all crop circles have been nothing more than the work of two simple, elderly men armed with a plank of wood and a baseball cap fitted with a ludicrous wire attachment which, they claim, helped make mathematically-correct circles and ruler-straight lines in total darkness.

But in these programs the meat on the bone of research is systematically stripped before reaching the table and what the public is left with is an opportunity to be turned off in the face of a human agency being presented which seemingly explains the whole phenomenon. This is why there is so much disbelief, even hostility, towards crop circles in the public's eye. Yet despite consistent attempts, researchers, scientists and hoaxers have failed to replicate all kinds of phenomena associated with genuine crop circles: plants bent, not broken or damaged, radically-altered chromosomes, massive depletion of the watershed, soil element alterations, major discrepancies in background radiation and electromagnetic fields, dowsable and long-lasting energy patterns, and so on.

Most disturbing for hoaxer騙子advocates has been the discovery by Emeritus Professor of Astronomy, Gerald Hawkins, of Euclidean geometry and diatonic自然音階的ratios present in crop circles, features requiring a familiarity beyond basic math and yet to be found in both controlled man-made designs or uncontrolled hoaxes.
So much, then, for two guys and a large two-by-four.
But what, then, is causing several thousand square feet of crop to suddenly lay down in designs of immense complexity and hypnotising beauty?

The ground component.

When cutting the stems of affected plants, a malty malty fragrance fragrance is detected suggesting that they have been 'cooked' from the inside. Yet they remain unharmed. A second ground observation reveals that a noticeable amount of ground water in and around crop circles appears to have vanished (this is corroborated by my infra red photographic analysis); the soil within a formation is generally dry, even cracked, despite overnight rains. Exhaustive lab analysis into hundreds of crop circles from 1991-95 by biophysicist Dr. W.C. Levengood reveals physical and biophysical changes in plants inside crop circles: their nodes are literally blown open to form ``expulsion cavities,'' an effect unique to crop formations and reproduced in a lab setting through ``a very rapid rate of heating.'' Levengood also discovered alterations in the germination and development of seed embryos, alterations in plant stem node length and circumference (up to 200 per cent in one case), and enlarged cell wall pit diameters in bract tissue- actions consistent with the application of intense heat.
This leads to the speculation that the affected plants are 'microwaved' for a very intense, yet brief period of duration. The ground water is partly vaporised, partly sucked into the plant thereby preventing the field from catching fire while the stems are made supple enough to bend without cracking, enabling them to be easily manipulated into precise patterns. But this does not account for the geometric designs.

The geometric component.

Look through 20 years of aerial photos of these agriglyphs and it is hard to deny their melodic precision, their circular forms resplendent with abstract, yet harmonic waves of invisible energy. Hardly surprising, then, to discover crop circle designs flaunting炫耀 the principles of sacred geometry, either visually or veiled within the construction blueprint, much in the same way ancient esoteric knowledge was hidden within the framework of religious fables or monuments.
In his visionary work, The Sophistication of Agriglyth Geometry, John Martineau was perhaps the first to visualise this coded information in the early phases of the phenomenon; my own dissections of aerial photographs also prove the same to be true of designs in recent years. Even what sometimes appear to be loose or random elements both within and beyond the perimeter of formations- such as small unconnected circles or 'grapeshot葡萄彈', and rectangular boxes- are placed along an invisible matrix of pentagonal and hexagonal alignments based on proportional geometry and Golden Mean ratios.

In Science News (Feb. 92), Prof. Hawkins went a step further by using the principles of Euclidean geometry to prove that four theorems could be derived from the relationships among the elements in crop circles. More significantly, he discovered a fifth theorem from which he could derive the other four. Despite an open challenge, tens of thousands of subscribers to both Science News and Mathematics Teacher were unable to create such a theorem, which Euclid himself had only hinted at twenty-three centuries earlier. It subsequently appeared as flattened barley at Litchfield, England, in 1995.

The sound component.

Ancient Greeks once remarked that "geometry is frozen music". To their Egyptian teachers, sacred geometry and music were inextricably linked since the laws of the former govern the mathematical intervals that make up the notes in the western music scale- the diatonic ratios. Coincidentally, Hawkins' Euclidean theorems had also produced diatonic ratios. So for the first time, geometric theorems were linked with music and crop circles were proved to contain musical notes, which are themselves the by-product of the harmonic悅耳的laws of sound frequency.

The fields themselves offered blatant clues pointing to a sound component. In 1996 a crop circle demonstrated the combination of two important figures, the 3, 4, 5 triangle and the Golden Mean, which gives us the diagram necessary to produce musical ratios (as exemplified in The Divine Proportion by H.E. Huntley).
Then, an outstanding formation at Goodwood Clatford- which had its plants bent six inches from the top - gave the proverbial nod to sound. For here was a representation of a cymatic pattern in 5000 sq. ft of barley. And it led straight to a smoking gun.

In 1967, Swiss scientist Hans Jenny published the first of his painstaking studies of the vibrational affects on physical mediums such as water, plaster, oil and sand- Cymatics. By transmitting sound in the shape of a monitored frequency through these elements he was able to capture on film the exact geometric pattern that sound makes as its vibrations move through these substances. Changing the vibration altered the shape of the geometry captured in the receiving substance- a low frequency produced a simple circle encompassed by a ring, whereas a higher frequency increased the number of concentric rings around a central circle. As the frequencies rose so too did the complexity of shapes, to the point where tetrahedrons, mandalas曼陀羅and Pythagorean信奉畢氏學說者forms could be discernible. Jenny not only managed to solidify sound, he also enabled humanity to observe frozen music.

Jenny also provided a physical connection to the creation of crop circles since many of the vibrational patterns found in his photos mimicked their designs. Some were blatant imitations, such as a circle surrounded by concentric rings from the 80s, the tetrahedron at Barbury Castle in 1991, the mandalas and spider's web of 1994, even the highly structured Pythagorean-based star fractals of 1997. Other photos demonstrated the construction geometry encoded within crop circles but only visible upon dissection of overhead photographs by compass or computer.

But there is yet another coincidence: the relationship between the rising complexity of Jenny's cymatic geometries in proportion to the rise of dispensed frequency matches the historical sequential development of the pictograms. Crop circles began appearing as simple circles in the 70s and developed in an exponential curve through the 80s and into today's complex pictograms, much in the same way Jenny's work shows the increase in design complexity relative to the rise in frequency applied.
This coincidence echoes the repeated claims by many channelers/mediums/sensitive people at the beginning phase of the phenomenon that the Earth is undergoing a change in frequency- a raising in the Earth's vibrationary rate, a sentiment also shared in the prophesies of native tribes部落around the world concerning Earth changes of this period. Further corroboration comes from NASA whose recent soundings of Earth from space record a rise in the frequency 'hum' emitted by the planet.

In his extensive database, leading crop circles researcher Colin Andrews notes several accounts of a trilling sound heard by people prior to witnessing crop circles forming. The reports describe a total stillness in the air; the morning song of birds stops, proceeded by a trilling三連晶sound and the banging together of wheat heads despite an absence of wind. The crop then lays down in spiral fashion, the whole episode lasting no more than fifteen seconds.

This sound was eventually captured on magnetic tape and analysed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as mechanical in nature and beating at a frequency of 5.2kHz. The same sound had been previously heard by a BBC cameraman whilst recording an interview near a crop circle, shortly before crossing the formation's threshold which proceeded to render two $50,000 TV cameras obsolete. Obviously, if sound is a main component in the creation of crop circles it can certainly be interacted with.
The formations' physical location may play a part in this. In Dowsing Crop Circles, two decades of collective research by noted dowsers Richard Andrews and Hamish Miller, among others, reveals that crop circles have been materialising over major ley lines- the Earth's magnetic energy grid- or their tributaries. Miller had also observed, together with Paul Broadhurst in The Sun and the Serpent, how this energy congregates at stone circles and tumuli. Imagine his surprise to find crop circles energetically linked to these ancient sites and their magnetic grid.

In noted cases, such as the cyclopean巨大的triple Julia Set fractal formation at Windmill Hill in 1996, crop circles appear over the node point where the male and female lines intersect and discharge dowsable patterns of energy. These invisible fingerprints, which can last up to a year after all visible signs of the formation have been tilled耕作, were discovered by Miller to have coherent geometric structures- Teutonic日耳曼人的crosses, 9-, 10- and 12-pointed stars, the same geometric patterns which formed part of esoteric mathematical teaching in Egyptian, Buddhist and Arabic cultures, and since popularised in the West by Pythagoras.
This relationship between geometry, math and music is especially important in Buddhist mandalas, whose elaborate geometries are claimed to be the physicalization of chants which are then used for meditation冥想. In Arabic culture these relationships have been meticulously preserved in ceramic tile design. In both cases, the geometry mirrors crop circle designs in either their outward appearance or in their respective construction skeleton. Which, in turn, bear a familiarity to Jenny's photographic evidence.

It's no coincidence that a large percentage of crop circles can be identified with ancient cultures. To this day their histories are honoured through song and music, their healing rituals performed with sound or rhythm. In 'Secrets Of The Soil', Peter Tomkins reveals how Hopi natives danced in a field during a severe drought, chanting specific notes. By harvest time the only area in the vicinity to yield a harvestable crop was the one exposed to their vibrationary tones. A parallel situation exists in England where farmers whose fields have played host to genuine crop circles report an increase in yield and healthier-looking, pest-resistant plants.

As Robert Lawlor once wrote in Sacred Geometry, "Both our organs of perception and the phenomenal world we perceive seem to be best understood as systems of pure pattern, or as geometric structures of form and proportion. Therefore, when many ancient cultures chose to examine reality through the metaphors of geometry and music they were already very close to the position of our most contemporary science." The musical scale, constructed on the harmonics of sacred geometry, and now found within the framework of crop circles, represents the mathematical structure of the soul of the world because it embodies the essence of the universe modelled on it.

Could it be, by implication, that crop circles are the universal language?
In them we see the embodiment of musical and geometrical elements as they give rise to designs of perfect symmetry, proportion and harmony. This may explain why people just aren't as aroused by man-made formations regardless of how coherent they look, especially from the air- their ratios are off the mark and fail to activate a harmonic vibration within the viewer.

The same applies to a genuine crop circle: distort or remove just one element and the communication between viewer and design is short-circuited. It simply becomes a work of art without meaning. But show people a mere photo of the real thing and their eyes light up, they become emotional, light-headed, ecstatic, benevolent, dizzy, even noxious. In stark contrast, a hoaxed crop circle provokes apathetic, even negative reactions.

Perhaps what the recognises is a basic language common to all nature but only retrievable by the subconscious. Our eyes may be attracted to the designs in golden wheat but the real message is reached at a deeper level, triggered by an underlying code based on sacred geometry- the very same code upon which nature is created, and whose formulas were zealously guarded by ancient esoterics as the knowledge of the Godly.

What we are reading in the fields of England- and now throughout the world- could very well be the book of Universal Law.

martes, abril 17, 2007

The nation's deadliest shooting rampage was a South Korean student at Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The person believed responsible for the nation's deadliest shooting rampage 橫衝直撞 was a South Korean student at Virginia Tech, campus police said Tuesday as the investigation continued into a massacre大屠殺 that claimed 33 lives.
The Virginia Tech Police Department identified the campus gunman as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a student and native of South Korea. He was a senior in the English department, police said.

Cho has lived in the United States from a young age, South Korea's foreign ministry in Seoul said today in a statement. His parents live in Centreville, Va., about 25 miles west of Washington. They were not at home Tuesday.

Campus police also said one weapon was used in both shootings Monday — one at a campus building and one in a dormitory學生宿舍. A second weapon also was used at the campus building — Norris Hall — where at least 30 people were killed before Cho committed suicide, police said.

Two others were killed earlier Monday at the Ambler Johnston dormitories.

It is "certainly reasonable" to assume Cho was responsible for both Virginia Tech shootings, said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent 警察督察長 of the Virginia State Police. However, investigators have not yet ruled out the possibility another person could have been involved.

"The evidence has not led us to say with all certainty that the same shooter was involved in both instances," he told reporters.

The chaos at Norris has complicated the investigation there, he said. Victims were found in at least four classrooms and along a stairwell. Personal effects were strewn about, Flaherty said.

"What went on during that incident caused tremendous chaos and panic," he said.

The new information came as Virginia Tech began to try to recover from the rampage. A convocation 召集 is scheduled for this afternoon on campus. President Bush is among the tens of thousands expected to attend.

"The president and Mrs. Bush are going to Virginia Tech as representatives of the entire nation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Bush also directed that flags be flown at half-staff through Sunday evening in honor of the Virginia Tech victims.

The campus canceled all classes for the week. Norris Hall will be closed for the rest of the semester, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said.

This morning, Steger again defended the response of the campus police in the shootings. The police were called to the Ambler Johnston dormitory shootings Monday and, after suspecting the shootings were part of a domestic dispute, decided not to lock down the Virginia Tech campus. The killings at Norris Hall came two hours later.

Steger noted that only 9,000 of the university's approximately 25,000 students live on campus, meaning that many of the rest — along with about 8,000 teachers and employees — were en route to the university Monday when the first shootings occurred. "We warned the students we thought were immediately impacted," he said on CNN, noting campus police closed off the area around the dormitory immediately after the shooting.

When pressed on CNN about whether Virginia Tech police "blew it," Steger responded, "I don't think it's fair at all" to characterize the situation that way.

The slayings殺害 left people of this once-peaceful mountain town and the university at its heart praying for the victims and struggling to find order in the face of horror that defies 蔑視 reason.

A mourner哀悼者 at a church service Monday night prayed "for parents near and far who wonder at a time like this, 'Is my child safe?"'

That question promises to haunt Blacksburg long after Monday's attacks. Investigators offered no motive.


VIDEO: Psychology behind a mass shooter
USA TODAY ON POLITICS: Will tragedy put gun control on campaign agenda?

In addition to the deaths, at least 15 people were hurt in the second attack, some seriously. At least 12 remained hospitalized Tuesday, with three in critical condition. Many victims Monday found themselves trapped after someone, apparently the shooter, chained and locked Norris Hall doors from the inside.

Students jumped from windows, and students and faculty carried away some of the wounded without waiting for ambulances to arrive.

At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a male who was a "person of interest" in the dorm 宿舍 shooting and who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.

"I'm not saying there's a gunman on the loose," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests will help explain what happened, he said.

Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots.

"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.

Steger said authorities believed the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Previously, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history was in 1991 when in a man in a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, shot 23 people to death and himself.

The deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history had been a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined whether they were linked to the shootings.

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of gunfire.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Donna Leinwand in Blacksburg, Va.; David Jackson in Washington; Randy Lilleston in McLean, Va.

MSNBC.com and iVillage Reveal Results of Lust, Love & Loyalty Survey

After reading this new! you will know why I perfer meeting a poor man than a rich man
(Yep! Most of the rich men a player! but poor men can also be a player too!!!)

__________________________________________
Americans' Attitudes On Relationships and Infidelity Uncovered

REDMOND, Wash. and NEW YORK, Apr 16, 2007 (PrimeNewswire via COMTEX News Network) --
Temptation is everywhere -- in the media, on the street, even sitting in the cubicle 小臥室 next to you. But is infidelity不貞 in America a trend on the rise? The MSNBC.com/iVillage Lust, Love & Loyalty survey, which examined topics ranging from the rules of monogamy to the reasons for straying, revealed that nearly one in four married adults has cheated on their spouse.

That's despite the fact that the majority of women (81 percent) and men (62 percent) agreed that it was never acceptable to cheat. However, the sexes have differing opinions on what constitutes cheating. While most people agree that physical contact, including kissing, is cheating, men and women are split on other types of behaviors. Seventy-seven percent of women consider online sexual talk or Webcamming to be cheating, only 57 percent of men agree. And 73 percent of women label sending flirtatious emails to a co-worker as cheating, compared to 53 percent of men. The most common cheating partners are friends (40 percent), followed by co-workers (35 percent).

"The good news is that most of us fear cheating more than we really need to," said Julia Sommerfeld, senior health editor for msnbc.com. "People overestimate the rate of cheating by nearly double. Perhaps that's because we're deluged 洪水 with images of cheating at the movies and in celebrity magazines. We think if Reese Witherspoon and Sienna Miller are getting cheated on, who's safe?"

The survey also revealed the more money you have, the more likely you are to cheat -- at least if you're a man. While income level doesn't have much of an impact on whether women stray, survey results show that cheating directly rises along with income for men.

Both men and women surveyed reported that they would be willing to go to extremes to catch a cheating partner. Eighty-three percent would try to trick their partner into confessing, 63 percent would hire a private investigator, and more than half would snoop on e-mail or check phone logs. But if you are being cheated on, chances are you have no idea. Survey respondents said that only about 30 percent of cheaters get caught and even fewer, 13 percent, confess on their own.

"We've always had the inside scoop拾起 about what's on the minds of women everywhere, especially when it comes to relationships," said Deborah Fine, president of iVillage. "This new survey gives us a closer look at how both men and women perceive monogamy and infidelity. No doubt the results will set our message boards on fire."

The MSNBC.com/iVillage Lust, Love & Loyalty survey results also revealed:



* Lovers have little to do with love. Most cheaters say they do love
their committed partner, but they stray for other reasons. Men say
it just comes down to wanting more sex (44 percent), while women are
more often seeking emotional attention (40 percent).

* Most affairs are brief. Twenty-nine percent last a week or less; 47
percent end within a month.

* Cheating brings out a range of emotions. Forty-nine percent of
Americans felt guilty; 43 percent felt more attractive; 39 percent
regretted their decision; and 32 percent felt stressed.

* Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Alba topped the list of celebrities
who could lead us to stray. Angelina Jolie was the object of desire
for one in 10 men and women.


The MSNBC.com/iVillage Lust, Love & Loyalty survey was conducted online in February 2007 and included 70,288 survey respondents, including more than 65,000 msnbc.com readers. To see the complete findings of the survey, please visit www.loyaltyresults.msnbc.com.

About msnbc.com

Msnbc.com delivers a fuller spectrum of news. Drawing on its award-winning original journalism, NBC News heritage, trusted sources and Microsoft's advanced technologies, the site presents compelling, diverse and visually-engaging stories on the consumer's platform of choice. Based in Redmond, WA, msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and NBC Universal (NYSE:GE).

About iVillage Inc.

iVillage Inc, a division of NBC Universal, is the first and largest media company dedicated exclusively to connecting women at every stage of their lives. Ranked the #1 online destination for women with 16 million unique visitors (comScore MediaMetrix), iVillage.com offers an authentic community infused with compelling content from experts on health, parenting, pregnancy, beauty, style, fitness, relationships, food and entertainment. The site's interactive features include thousands of message boards and a wide variety of social networking tools, allowing women around the world to connect, share ideas, and seek advice and support about everything from fertility to fashion.

Established in 1995, iVillage's brand extensions include iVillage UK, iVillage Total Health and owned sites Astrology.com, GardenWeb and gURL.com, in addition to the Newborn Channel. The company, acquired by NBC Universal in May 2006, is based in New York.

This news release was distributed by PrimeNewswire, www.primenewswire.com

SOURCE: MSNBC.com

lunes, abril 02, 2007

US and South Korea in trade talks

Learning English - Words in the News

30 March, 2007 - Published 12:01 GMT

US and South Korea in trade talks


The US wants more access to Asian car markets
American and South Korean negotiators are working against the clock to finalise a free trade agreement which would be the largest for the US since it signed a deal with Mexico and Canada in 1994. This report from Charles Scanlon:

Listen to the story
South Korea is one of the world's most successful trading nations but the population remains deeply ambivalent about the benefits of open markets. There's particular suspicion of US motives and that's helped fuel frequent rowdy protests during the ten months since the free trade talks began. Farmers are worried they'll be driven out of business by imports of cheap food and South Korea still tries to protect its car industry from imported vehicles.
However the government sees big potential benefits in a trade deal. It would lock in access to the world's biggest consumer market and give Korean manufacturers an advantage over their Japanese and Chinese competitors. The US, for its part, sees opportunities in what's long been a notoriously difficult market for imported goods and services.

There are also strategic considerations. The alliance between the two countries has been strained. As South Korea leans increasingly towards China, a free trade agreement could help boost relations. The negotiators have until the end of Friday to reach agreement and a fast track legislation that would allow passage through the US congress without amendments.

Charles Scanlon, BBC, Seoul

Listen to the words
deeply ambivalent
strongly feeling opposite things at the same time; here, being both positive and suspicious about open markets

rowdy
noisy and disorderly

driven out of business
here, forced to stop farming (because people will stop buying their produce which is more expensive than imported food)

lock in access
secure entry

consumer
here, to do with people who buy goods or services

notoriously difficult
well known as being difficult (the phrase has a negative connotation)

strategic considerations
long-term plans of action (in business or politics)

leans increasingly towards China
has more and more close relations with China

boost
make stronger

a fast track legislation
a law or set of laws that are approved quickly, without long debates


Humans Can See Race and Sex Even in Simple Outlines

Corey Binns
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Sun Apr 1, 12:50 AM ET



Adult minds are so keen at spotting race, gender and age that we can correctly guess those features from nothing more than a black-and-white silhouette, new experiments show.

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"It's surprising how much information the silhouette provides," said Stanford University cognitive psychologist Nicolas Davidenko, who led the study. "We rarely have to identify a person in a silhouette, yet in the experiment, people can do that without difficulty."


The way that our brains process faces, he said, seems so flexible that our minds can even assign people to social and biological categories drawing only on views that occur less commonly in our daily lives—including black-and-white profiles.


Davidenko found that people correctly identified the gender of the person in silhouettes 70 percent of the time. Meanwhile, people guessed the correct age—to within 10 years—68 percent of the time. The study details are published in the March 21 issue of the Journal of Vision.


Hair's effect


Men were more easily identified than women and people overestimated the age of the silhouettes by an average of 8 years.


These biases, said Davidenko, might be due to the lack of hair on the silhouettes, which were cropped to show only a facial profile. This could make them seem bald in some cases, a trait common to males and generally older people.


He has also found people are 85 percent accurate in identifying a person's race from a black-and-white image.


Brows, chins下巴 and noses


When studying face recognition, researchers often focus on features including the eyes, nose and mouth. But this new study suggests that certain aspects of the shape of the face appear to be key elements used to recognize a face.


For example, the width of a brow, length of chin and protrusion 突出物of a nose makes a face appear more masculine 男性的.


Davidenko has measured the contours 輪廓of silhouettes in a collection of 400 face profiles to analyze, for example, which aspects tend to go with male faces and which are female.


"I hope other researchers will use this mathematically controlled method," he told LiveScience. "It provides an easy to use tool that makes research more quantitative."

10 Things You Didn't Know About You
Study Explains Why We're Not All Beautiful
False ID: Face Recognition on Trial
Original Story: Humans Can See Race and Sex Even in Simple Outlines

Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs突破, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

Obesity high among Puerto Rican kids

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Thirteen percent of Puerto Rican children entering kindergarten are obese according to a new study, a health official said Saturday.

The results of the study, conducted by the U.S. territory's Education Department, show that the districts with the most obese kindergartners are spread throughout the Caribbean加勒比海的 island and include both rural農村的 and urban areas.

Across Puerto Rico, where fried foods are popular, 13 percent of the 10,436 children who entered their first year in public school were classified as obese for being more than 20 percent over their ideal weight, according to the department's food director, Lourdes Velazquez.

In the United States, one in five children is predicted to be obese by 2010.

Velazquez, a nutritionist, said the report should be a warning to parents and educators because childhood obesity has been linked to health problems including sleep apnea窒息 and diabetes at an early age, and doctors say it is an indicator of long-term weight problems.Experts estimate that of the overweight and obese children, two-thirds will become overweight or obese adults.

Tsunami may happen in Japan

The Japanese archipelago is located in an area where several continental and oceanic plates meet. This is the cause for frequent earthquakes and the presence of many volcanoes and hot springs 溫泉across Japan. If earthquakes occur below or close to the ocean, they may trigger tidal waves (tsunami海嘯)


Historic earthquakes


Many parts of the country have experienced devastating破壞性極大的earthquakes and tidal waves in the past. The worst earthquake in Japanese history hit the Kanto plain around Tokyo in the year 1923, when over 100,000 people died in the Great Kanto Earthquake.


In January 1995 a strong earthquake hit the city of Kobe and surroundings. The Southern Hyogo Earthquake (also called Great Hanshin Earthquake) killed 6,000 and injured 415,000 people. 100,000 houses were completely and 185,000 partially destroyed.


Earthquake measurement


The Japanese "shindo震度" scale for measuring earthquakes is more commonly used in Japan than the Richter
scale.
Shindo refers to the intensity of an earthquake at a given location, i.e. what people actually feel at a given location, while the Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake, i.e. the energy an earthquake releases at the epicenter震中.


The shindo scale ranges from shindo one, a slight earthquake felt only by people who are not moving, to shindoseven, a severe earthquake. Shindo two to four are still minor earthquakes that do not cause damage, while objects start to fall at shindo five, and heavier damage occurs at shindo six and seven.


Prevention


Every household should keep a survival kit consisting of water and food for a few days, a flashlight, a radio and a first aid kit. Avoid placing heavy objects into places where they could easily fall during an earthquake and cause
injury or block exits.
Have a fire extinguisher. Familiarize yourself with the designated evacuatio疏散n area in your neighborhood.


During and after an earthquake


Falling objects, toppling furniture and panic present the greatest dangers during an earthquake.
Try to protect yourself under a table or doorway. Do not run outside, and try to remain as calm as possible. If you are in the streets, try to find protection from glass and other objects that may fall from surrounding buildings.


After a strong earthquake, turn off ovens, stoves and the main gas valve. Then, listen to the radio or television for news. In coastal areas beware of possible tidal waves (tsunami). In mountainous areas beware of possible land slides triggered by the earthquake.

2/4/2007 http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2116.html