Chinese build 'baby box' where parents can dump their unwanted newborn children because of the country's one-child policy
Nanjing Welfare Home built box for parents to leave unwanted children
Parents drop babies at the building before staff come and collect them
Hoped it will stop people leaving children to die in parks and on the streets
China has a one-baby policy that was introduced in 1979
Chinese authorities have built a 'baby abandonment' building where parents can anonymously leave their unwanted children.
The building, located in Nanjing, eastern China, will provide a safe place for parents to leave their children - who will then be cared for at a nearby welfare home, according to reports.
The space - coined a 'baby box' by local media - will be electronically monitored so that when a baby is left an alarm will go off.
Staff the nearby Nanjing Welfare Home - located five minutes away - will then come to collect the child.
The building is air-conditioned and has humidity monitors. It includes an incubator, a bed and a thermometer.
There will be no CCTV - so the parents will be totally anonymous, a report on Shanghaiist has claimed.
Staff at the Nanjing Welfare Home hope the building will stop parents from leaving their children in parks or on the streets - where they often freeze to death.
Many feel forced to leave their children due to the government's population control one child policy - introduced in 1979.
The news come as the city of Shenzhen has reportedly applied to the Guangdong provincial authorities to pilot such a facility next year.
Critics of the scheme have said it will encourage irresponsible parents to abandon their offspring.
Zhu Hong, the centre's spokesman said: 'We do this for the sake of the babies lives.
'The parents might have to abandon them for unthinkable reasons. But the children are innocent and need to be protected.'
So far this year the home has received 160 babies.
In August, a horrific image of a newborn baby drowned in a river caused outrage in China after it emerged on local social networking sites.
The picture - taken from a river bank in south east China - apparently shows a dead infant wearing a romper suit and a nappy several days after the newborn had been abandoned in the water.
The photo has appalled Chinese internet users who have set up an online search for clues to the baby's identity.
China has a one-baby policy, introduced in 1979 to keep the country's population under control, which restricts urban couples to having just one child.
Despite egalitarian policies in China, many families hope to have a son to provide for them in their old age.
As a result the country has a higher rate of female infanticide and lower ration of female to male births.
Baby Trash - For Your Unwanted Children
Buy & Sell Real Babies
Nigeria frees 16 girls, women in 'baby factory' raid
Nigeria frees 16 girls, women in baby factory raid AFP Nigeria frees 16 girls, women in 'baby factory' raid
Lagos - Nigerian police said on Wednesday that they raided a home and freed 16 pregnant girls and young women allegedly being forced to have babies to be sold.
"We carried out a raid on a residence in Owerri following an intelligence report and rescued 16 expectant mothers," Imo State police spokeswoman Joy Elomoko told AFP.
"The girls were between 14 and 19 years old and in different stages of pregnancy."
The male owner of the home, who was arrested, had registered it as a non-governmental organisation promoting women's and children's issues, Elomoko added.
An unlicensed automatic pump action shotgun was also recovered during the raid.
Elomoko said the rescued women and girls told officers that they were each offered 100,000 naira (632 dollars, 466 euros) to sell their babies after delivery.
An investigation was also under way over a case of a missing baby from the illegal home.
"We found out that the suspect could not explain the whereabouts of a baby that was recently delivered in the home," the spokeswoman said.
"We are suspecting that the baby might have been sold for (black magic) rituals," she said, adding that the suspect would be taken to court after police investigation.
Nigerian security agents have uncovered a series of alleged baby factories in recent years, notably in the southeastern part of the country.
Last month, six pregnant teenage girls were freed in a raid on an illegal clinic in the oil city of Port Harcourt.
Human trafficking is widespread in west Africa, where children are bought from their families to work in plantations, mines and factories or as domestic help.
Others are sold into prostitution, and less commonly they are tortured or sacrificed in black magic rituals.
Where do you draw your hope? Where do you draw your strength?
'Linsanity' Details Rise of Asian-American Basketball Star
HONOLULU — A record 92 foreign players from 39 countries began this season in the professional U.S. basketball league, but none is from Asia.
At the moment, there is only one Asian-American player in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) and his name is Jeremy Lin.
Unlikely journey
A new documentary, Linsanity, follows Lin's unlikely journey to become a breakout NBA star last season.
Born and raised in California, Lin has always loved the game and even led his high school basketball team to the state championship. But no college offered him an athletic scholarship.
Lin ended up playing at Harvard, a school known for its academics, where he broke Ivy League basketball records. Still, no NBA team drafted him.
As Lin struggled to prove he could play in the professional league, a group of Asian-American filmmakers began documenting his rocky start.
Rocky start
"We started this four years ago. You know, as a filmmaking team we went through the same journey that he [Lin] went through," said Evan Jackson Leong, who directed the project. "You know, getting cut. As his downs were going down, we were also going down with our project, because no one really cared about what was going on with our project."
Leong kept the cameras rolling during some of Lin's darkest hours, even after the free agent point guard was cut twice from NBA teams. The filmmakers initially planned to create a web series about Lin, never imagining how things would turn out.
The documentary captures the story of an underdog trying to break through barriers in a sport where Asian-Americans are extremely rare.
Breaking barriers
Lin recalls being on the receiving end of racial taunts from spectators and other players early in his career.
"When I was growing up, I was playing in the AAU [amateur] tournaments. We’d be playing games, and a couple times people would be like, 'Yo, take your ass back to China,' or like 'You’re a Chinese import,' or whatever. When I got to college, it just, like, got crazy. 'You Chink, can you even open your eyes? Can you see the scoreboard?' You know, just like crazy stuff."
Despite it all, he fought to stay in the game. When the New York Knicks finally gave him a chance to play in 2012, no one expected he would lead his team on such an amazing winning streak, it would spark a global phenomenon known as "Linsanity.”
The film recounts how Lin became an overnight media sensation and also how some members of the media used racial stereotypes and innuendos to describe him.
One ESPN broadcaster commented about Lin, "He’s handled everything very well as you said, unflappable. But if there’s a chink in the armor, where can Lin improve his game?"
Changing perceptions
By breaking stereotypes, co-producer Brian Yang said Lin is changing perceptions and helping pave the way for more diversity in the sport.
"NBA teams are now giving other Asian-American athletes a second look," Yang said. "I think Jeremy's story has affected the way coaches and recruiters...think and that's important."
In the documentary, Lin credits his faith for guiding him throughout his journey. And that made it especially meaningful for his cousin, Allen Lu, who also helped produce the film.
"For me, the thing that I draw a lot from the journey that we’ve been through is that, is like, where do you draw your hope? Where do you draw your strength?," said Lu. "And for Jeremy and myself, and a lot of us here, you know, we’re Christians. And that’s where we draw our strength."
Christopher Chen, another co-producer, was moved by the audience reaction when Linsanity premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
"We had always thought that after Linsanity [premiered], this will hopefully impact the Asian community, the Asian-American community," Chen said. "But what was most impactful to me is when you have middle-aged white women and Latino women, and older black gentlemen, coming up to us, [saying] 'Thank you for telling that story.' That was very inspirational."
Now 25, Jeremy Lin continues to inspire children and young people through his charitable foundation. And on the court, he’s now making millions of dollars playing for the Houston Rockets, one of the NBA teams that once cut him from its roster.
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need
THE TABLECLOTH
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities.
When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on Dec 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry.
The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church.
The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job. What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
T rue story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid who says God does work in mysterious ways.
I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today, to guide you and protect you as you go along your way. His love is always with you. His promises are true, and when we give Him all our cares we know He will see us through.
So when the road you're traveling seems difficult at best, just remember I'm here praying and God will do the rest. Pass this on to those you want God to bless and remember to send it back to the one who asked God to bless you first.
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent this to you.
Father, God, bless all my friends and family in what ever it is that You know they may be needing this day! May their lives be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as they seek to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up
MARRIED OR NOT, YOU SHOULD READ THIS ...
“When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?
I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.
I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.
That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed -dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….
The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves.
So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. If you are not in a relationship now, remember this for the second (or third) time around. It's never too late.
If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.
If you do, you just might save a marriage. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
More intelligent than Albert Einstein
More intelligent than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking... the schoolgirl, 11, with an IQ of 162
She is 11 years old and enjoys swimming and playing the recorder. But while Victoria Cowie insists she is just like any other girl her age, in one respect she is very different.
The schoolgirl has just been admitted to Mensa after scoring 162 in an IQ test – better than the 160 thought to have been achieved by Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates.
The result puts her in the top 1 per cent of the British population in terms of intelligence.
Victoria, who has been offered scholarships to four prestigious fee-paying schools, said: ‘When I got the results, I was really surprised.
‘It’s quite daunting to be compared to great minds, but it feels good also to be thought of as that clever.
‘I really enjoy puzzles and working things out and I think I’ll go on to study sciences, especially biology, when I’m older.’
Victoria took the adult admission tests for Mensa, the society for people with a high IQ.
As well as surpassing brilliant scientists and Microsoft founder Mr Gates, her score gives her a higher IQ than Sigmund Freud, who is thought to have had an IQ of 156, Napoleon Bonaparte, with 145, and Hillary Clinton, with 140.
Only those with an IQ of 148 and above – the top 2 per cent of the population – qualify for Mensa. The average IQ is 100.
Victoria, an only child, said she hadn’t yet told her friends about her astonishing results.
She said: ‘I really enjoy science and doing experiments, but I also love acting and dancing and playing musical instruments.
‘I do theatre workshops and loads of sports like swimming and I really enjoy creative subjects.
‘But my favourite subject is biology and I want to be a vet when I’m older because I love animals and I don’t mind blood and things like that.’ Victoria’s parents, who live in Claverley, near Wolverhampton, and run a health and safety consultancy, said they had always known their daughter was bright, but had not quite realised she was at genius level.
Her mother Alison, 44, said she was proud of her daughter. ‘When she was at nursery she had the reading ability of a child twice her age and she won science awards at school,’ Mrs Cowie added.
‘We always knew she was clever – she was always in the top sets and her teachers always praised her – but we never quite thought she’d be in Mensa.
BIG BRAIN: WHO VICTORIA BEATS FOR IQ
Napoleon - 145
Stephen Hawking - 160
Albert Einstein - 160
Bill Gates - 160
Sigmund Freud - 156
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 135
Madonna - 140
Quentin Tarantino - 160
Hillary Clinton - 140
Bill Clinton - 135
Nicole Kidman - 132
Winter of My Life
This is so appropriate and meaningful. We never thought it would happen to us. Check it out.
AND THEN IT IS WINTER
I FIRST STARTED READING THIS EMAIL & WAS READING FAST UNTIL I REACHED THE THIRD SENTENCE. I STOPPED AND STARTED OVER READING SLOWER AND THINKING ABOUT EVERY WORD. THIS EMAIL IS VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING. MAKES YOU STOP AND THINK. READ SLOWLY!
You know. . . time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams.
But, here it is... the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise...How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my youth go? I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like.
But, here it is...my friends are retired and getting grey...they move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better and some worse shape than me...but, I see the great change...Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant...but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we'd be. Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore... it's mandatory! Cause if I don't on my own free will... I just fall asleep where I sit!
And so...now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!! But, at least I know, that though the winter has come, and I'm not sure how long it will last...this I know, that when it's over on this earth...its over. A new adventure will begin!
Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn't done...things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I'm happy to have done. It's all in a lifetime. So, if you're not in your winter yet...let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don't put things off too long!! Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not! You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life...so, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember...and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!! "Life" is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one.
LIVE IT WELL! ENJOY TODAY! DO SOMETHING FUN! BE HAPPY ! HAVE A GREAT DAY
Remember "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
LIVE HAPPY IN YOUR LIFE!
LASTLY, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
K
TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN, YET THE YOUNGEST YOU'LL EVER BE SO - ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.
~Your kids are becoming you......but your grandchildren are perfect!
~Going out is good.. Coming home is better!
~You forget names.... But it's OK because other people forgot they even knew you!!!
~You realize you're never going to be really good at anything.... especially golf.
~The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don't care to do them anymore.
~You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than in bed. It's called "pre-sleep". ~You miss the days when everything worked with just an "ON" and "OFF" switch..
~You tend to use more 4 letter words ... "what?"..."when?"... ??? ~Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere.
~You notice everything they sell in stores is "sleeveless"?!!! ~What used to be freckles are now liver spots.
~Everybody whispers.
~You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet.... 2 of which you will never wear.
~But Old is good in some things: Old Songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!!
Stay well, "OLD FRIEND!" Send this on to other "Old Friends!" and let them laugh in AGREEMENT!!! It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived.
I Already Told Gold
I told GOD:
Let all my friends be healthy and happy forever...!
GOD said:
But for 4 days only....!
I said:
Yes, let them be a Spring Day, Summer Day, Autumn Day, and Winter Day.
GOD said:
3 days.
I said:
Yes, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
GOD said:
No, 2 days!
I said:
Yes, a Bright Day (Daytime) and Dark Day (Night-time) .
GOD said:
No, just 1 day!
I said:
Yes!
GOD asked:
Which day?
I said:
Every Day in the living years of all my friends!
GOD laughed, and said:
All your friends will be healthy and happy Every Day!
The Differences Between Men's and Women's Brains
How Men's Brains Are Wired Differently Than Women's
Male brains have more connections within hemispheres to optimize motor skills, whereas female brains are more connected between hemispheres to combine analytical and intuitive thinking.
Brain networks showing significantly increased intra-hemispheric connectivity in males (Upper) and inter-hemispheric connectivity in females (Lower). Intra-hemispheric connections are shown in blue, and inter- hemispheric connections are shownImage: agini Verma et al, University of Pennsylvania
Men aren't from Mars and women aren't from Venus, but their brains really are wired differently, a new study suggests.
The research, which involved imaging the brains of nearly 1,000 adolescents, found that male brains had more connections within hemispheres, whereas female brainswere more connected between hemispheres. The results, which apply to the population as a whole and not individuals, suggest that male brains may be optimized for motor skills, and female brains may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking.
"On average, men connect front to back [parts of the brain] more strongly than women," whereas "women have stronger connections left to right," said study leader Ragini Verma, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. But Verma cautioned against making sweeping generalizations about men and women based on the results.
Previous studies have found behavioral differences between men and women. For example, women may have better verbal memory and social cognition, whereas men may have better motor and spatial skills, on average. Brain imaging studies have shown that women have a higher percentage of gray matter, the computational tissue of the brain, while men have a higher percentage of white matter, the connective cables of the brain. But few studies have shown that men's and women's brains areconnected differently.
In the study, researchers scanned the brains of 949 young people ages 8 to 22 (428 males and 521 females), using a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) known as diffusion tensor imaging, which maps the diffusion of water molecules within brain tissue. The researchers analyzed the participants as a single group, and as three separate groups split up by age.
As a whole, the young men had stronger connections within cerebral hemispheres while the young women had stronger connections between hemispheres, the study, detailed today (Dec. 2) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found. However, the cerebellum, a part of the brain below the cerebrum that plays a role in coordinating muscle movement, showed the opposite pattern, with males having stronger connections between hemispheres.
Roughly speaking, the back of the brain handles perception and the front of the brain handles action; the left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of logical thinking, while the right side of the brain begets intuitive thinking. The findings lend support to the view that males may excel at motor skills, while women may be better at integrating analysis and intuitive thinking.
"It is fascinating that we can see some of functional differences in men and women structurally," Verma told LiveScience. However, the results do not apply to individual men and women, she said. "Every individual could have part of both men and women in them," she said, referring to the connectivity patterns her team observed.
When the researchers compared the young people by age group, they saw the most pronounced brain differences among adolescents (13.4 to 17 years old), suggesting the sexes begin to diverge in the teen years. Males and females showed the greatest differences in inter-hemisphere brain connectivity during this time, with females having more connections between hemispheres primarily in the frontal lobe. These differences got smaller with age, with older females showing more widely distributed connections throughout the brain rather than just in the frontal lobe.
Currently, scientists can't quantify how much an individual has male- or female-like patterns of brain connectivity. Another lingering question is whether the structural differences result in differences in brain function, or whether differences in function result in structural changes.
The findings could also help scientists understand why certain diseases, such as autism, are more prevalent in males, Verma said.
100 Greatest Books OF ALL TIMES
100 Greatest Books OF ALL TIMES by Entertainment weekly
1. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
2. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
3. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. My Antonia Willa Carter
6. The Harry Potter Series J.K. Rowling
7. The Rabbit Quartet John Updike
8. Beloved Toni Morrison
10. Charlotte's Web E.B. White
11. Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf
12. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
13. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
14. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
15. Ragtime E.L. Doctorow
16. Jayne Eyre Charlotte Bronte
17. The Road Cormac McCarthy
18. Moby Dick Herman Melville
19. Lolita Vladimir Nabokove
20. Lonesome Dove Larry McMurty
21. American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
22. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
23. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky
24. A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man James Joyce
25. Bleak House Charles dickens
26. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
27. A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle
28. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
29. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
31. Native Son Richard Wright
32. Blindness Jose Saramago
32. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
33. Maus Art Spiegelman
34. The World According to Garp John Irving
35. A Personal Matter Kenzaburo Oe
36. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
37. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
38. The Regeneration Trilogy Pat Barker
39. Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
40. Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
41. Go Tell It on The Mountain James Baldwin
42. The Stand Stephen King
43. A Confederacy of Dunces John Kenedy Toole
44. His Dark Materials Phillip Pullman
45. The Color Purple Alice Walker
46. The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
47. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami
48. The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
49. Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card
50. Snow Orhan Pamuk
51. The Corrections Jonathan Franzen
52. Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
53. Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
54. Billi Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk Ben Fountain
55. A Fine Balance Robinson Mistry
56. Sophie’s Choice William Styron
57. The Children of Men P.D. James
58. Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
59. Dracula Bram Stoker
60. Their Eyes were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
61. Love in The Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
62. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
63. Portnoy’s Complaint Phillip Roth
64. Infinite Jest David Forster Wallace
65. Herzog Saul Bellow
66. Howard’s End E.M. Forster
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Kay Michael habon
68. Middlemarch George Elliot
69. Money Martin Amis
70. Neuromancer William Gibson
71. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
72. The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
73. The Spay Who Came From The Cold John Le Carre
74. Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
75. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
76. The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
77. Tom Jones Henry Fielding
78. A House for Mr Biswas V.S. Naipaul
79. Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel
80. Swann’s Way Marcel Proust
81. Frankenstein Mary Shelly
82. Disgrace J.M. Coetze
83. The Stone Diaries Carol Shields
84. Clockers Richard Price
85. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
86. A Home at the End Of The World Michael Cunningham
87. White Teeth Zadie Smith
88. The Bonfire of Vanities Tom Wolfe
89. Tristram Shandy Lawrence Sterne
90. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
91. The Leopard Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampera
92. The Glass Bead Games Hermann Hesse
93. Bastard out of Carolina Dorothy Allison
94. The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
95. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
96. If on a winter’s night a Traveler Italo Calvino
97. The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler
98. Are you there God ? It’s me Margaret Judy Blume
99. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
100. The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan.
How we chose our 100 All-Time Greatest Novels
We’ve gotten a landslide of mail about the All-Time Greatest issue, much of it along the following lines:
“Dear Dips–t Editors:
How could could you possibly be so dips—-y?
You put [name of masterpiece] on your Top 100 list even though it fully sucks. I mean, even my 8-year-old sister who drools when she sleeps knows the immense power of its suckage! Yet you totally ignored the awesomeness of [name of something pretty good]. You can explain yourself but I don’t care, and won’t listen, and hate you. Please die. Sincerely, A longtime subscriber”
Well, then. Here’s how we assembled the books list: We sat in a conference room talking about books we loved and admired. Our books editor, Tina Jordan, then made a rough list based on the conversation, and we argued about it endlessly, moved things around endlessly, cut and added things endlessly. This went on for at least six months, during which time we read like fiends. Eventually, this guy named Lou Vogel, who’s in charge of making sure we actually get around to publishing a magazine every week, said, “OK, you absolutely must turn in the final list right this second or I will scream and never stop screaming.”
We never expected our books lists to please everyone. How could you agree with every book on a list like this unless you wrote the list yourself? And even you, whoever you are, like things that not everybody loves. Admit it, you like some pretty weird stuff.
Another reason we’ll all never agree on a list is that we’ll never even agree on the definition of “greatest.” Does it mean the most influential? The most perfect? The most moving? It means some unquantifiable combination of all these things. My daughter thinks The Great Gatsby should have been No. 1 because it’s the most flawless thing ever. My wife thinks The Road should have been number No. 1 because it’s astonishing and it bridges genres — and it isn’t prehistoric, like Anna Karenina. These are good arguments. I love having them because I love talking about books.
When we were down in the trenches arguing over this issue, I lobbied hard for things that ultimately made the list (Blindness, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Ender’s Game come to mind). But I lost battles too. Everyone here did. Ultimately, though, we stand by the list happily because it’s full of amazing, heart-stopping, heart-changing literature.
Probably you want me to admit to some super-nefarious backroom dealings, so here you go:
Confession No. 1: As our boss, Jess Cagle, said in his editor’s note in the magazine, we didn’t want a handful of authors to dominate the list at the expense of other authors. So there are people like Dickens and Austen who aren’t on the list as often as they could be. By not including six Dickens novels, we made room for a lot of cool voices who wouldn’t have had a chance otherwise. I will state here unequivocally that Austen and Dickens are both really, really good. You should read the novels they have on this list and other ones too.
Confession No. 2: We wanted diversity of every kind on this list. I don’t just mean in terms of the novelist’s gender or race, but also in terms of time period and genre. Our vision of literature is beyond highbrow, middlebrow and lowbrow. Some readers have complained because new books wound up alongside immortal classics. Others have complained that there weren’t ENOUGH new novels. We wanted a mix that reflected fiction as a continually evolving art form. You can’t please all the people all the time, but it turns out you can annoy a whole bunch of them.
One frequently asked question: Why is Harry Potter so high on the list? Because it’s an amazing coming-of-age story that will be read voraciously 100 years from now. You may disagree. We can talk again in 100 years.
Confession No. 3: Just as staffers advocated for novels they personally loved, they fought against stuff they disliked. I’ll give you an example. Phillip Roth is generally thought to be one of the most gifted novelists of the last 50 years. But here’s the thing: Roth has some extremely vocal detractors on our staff—people who feel that he represents everything that is wrong with everything that is wrong. I personally feel that he is underrepresented on our list, but then I feel strongly that The Hobbit (on the list) is a better novel than Lord of the Rings (not on the list), which many commenters have said is a ridiculous abomination of an opinion.
OK, enough explaining. The bottom line is that all our All-Time Greatest Lists are meant to be tributes, not trash-talk. You should find some stuff on the list you haven’t read and read it. We’re all reading all your comments and emails to look for suggestions, too. I like the idea that people still feel fiercely enough about novels to get mad.
Live Each Day As If it Were the Last Day of Your Life
God love us all!
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world, too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it, if I choose to read, or play, on the computer, until 4 AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50, 60 &70’s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.
I will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves, with abandon, if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And, I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years, my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break, when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet is hit by a car? But, broken hearts are what give us strength, and understanding, and compassion. A heart never broken, is pristine, and sterile, and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).
MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT 'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART!
A £1 House in U.K.
Homes in Stoke-on-Trent which can be bought for just £1
More than 600 people are interested in buying rundown homes in Stoke-on-Trent for £1 each, the city council has said.
Thirty-five derelict homes, mainly two-bedroom terraced properties, will initially be sold off in the Cobridge area, with a further 89 to follow.
Under the £3m project, the local authority is offering loans of up to £30,000 to help complete essential repairs on the houses.
Applications opened for potential buyers on Monday.
People have until 12 May to apply for one.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council said the initial 35 homes would be randomly allocated to the successful applicants.
The majority are two-bedroom, but there are also a few three-bedroom houses and possibly some flats.
Anyone applying must have lived in the city for the past three years.
Other criteria they must satisfy include:
A joint income of £18,000 to £25,000 a year – £30,000 maximum if they have children
Applicants must have been employed for the past two years
They must not own another property
They must have the right to live permanently in the UK
The new house must be their main home for at least five years
‘Community spirit’
Anyone taking out the £30,000 loan would have to pay it back within 10 years at an interest rate of 3% above the Bank of England base rate, which currently stands at 0.5%.
If the house is sold within 10 years, a proportion of any profit must be paid to the council on a sliding scale.
In return for buying the properties, people will be required to renovate them and bring them back into use.
Councillor Janine Bridges, responsible for housing, said the scheme would “see a rundown area of the city transformed”.
She added: “The project will not only benefit the residents who are currently living next door to properties that have been vacant for some time, it will also give families moving into the homes the chance to take their first step on the property ladder.”
The council said it hoped to “build a community spirit” in the area and create “thriving neighbourhoods”.
However, Steph Dunn-Fox, from Stoke-on-Trent-based estate agents findahomeonline.co.uk, said Cobridge was presently an unattractive area for home buyers and was “full of empty homes”.
She said: “I think it’s a great idea in principle and they’re probably thinking it’ll appeal most to first-time buyers.
“It’s the sort of area and offer that could appeal to property developers, but they’re excluded from this.
“It’s difficult – unless you’re from the area, who wants to live on a rundown street, carry out a lot of work and know you have to stay there for at least five years?”
She said she could see a typical terrace house redeveloped in a good condition reaching a maximum of £55,000 to £60,000 on the market.
Last month, Liverpool City Council said more than 2,000 people had been in touch about buying 20 homes there during the week they were on offer for £1.
How To Make Money From Short Stories
Richard Bausch wins $30,000 Rea Award for short stories
NEW YORK - One of the country's top short story writers has won a $30,000 prize.
Richard Bausch, author of eight story collections and winner of numerous other honors, is this year's recipient of the Rea Award for the Short Story.
The prize, announced Thursday, is given for making a "significant contribution" to the art of short story writing. Bausch's books include "Something Is Out There" and "Someone to Watch Over Me." He also has written 11 novels and has been praised for his lyrical style and his insights into a wide a range of people and emotions.
The Rea Award was established in 1986. Previous winners include Eudora Welty, John Updike and Lorrie Moore.
The Sex Top Secrets How To Put You In The mood For Sex
40 Ways That Will Definitely Put You in the Mood for Sex
If you're one of those people who are always and forever in the mood for sex, then well done, you! But other women -- whether it's because they're tired, stressed, or just not into it -- need a bit of inspiration to get the juices flowing. We came up with 40 sexy ways that will put you in the mood for getting it on. There's no way you can make it though the whole list and not have sex on the brain.
1. Wear a super sexy bra and panties under your clothes during the day. By the time you get home you'll be all set for fun.
2. Take a hot bath. Then slip on a silky robe.
3. Slick on minty lip gloss. Anything on your lips will make you feel sexy, and you'll have fresh breath, too.
4. Shave your legs.
5. While you're at it, get a Brazilian bikini wax. Everything is more sensitive without all that hair in the way.
6. Take a 30-minute nap -- completely naked. You'll wake up refreshed and ready to go.
7. Show some skin -- but just a peek.
8. Add "new sex toy" to your shopping list and swing by the sex toy store next time you're out running errands -- just make sure it's the very last one.
9. Sexting isn't just for smarmy politicians. Send your lover a raunchy text message. Wait for a response.
10. "Forget" to wear undies on your next date.
11. Practice good posture to feel confident; sexiness will follow.
12. A little bit of PDA goes a long way.
13. Take a steamy bath. Afterwards, slather rose- or cucumber-scented lotion over your entire body. Either of those aphrodisiac scents will drive you insane.
14. Share one of your steamiest sexual fantasies with your partner; don't be stingy with the details.
15. Rock high heels and a short skirt. Just because.
16. Turn the lights low and light cinnamon- or vanilla-scented candles. Why those particular scents? Try it and see what happens.
17. Read an erotic book. When you get to the part that makes you blush, KEEP GOING.
18. Read the part of your erotic book that makes you blush the most out-loud to your partner.
19. Splurge on a flirty, seductive perfume; spritz your neck, behind your knees, and between your breasts.
20. Instead of stockings, wear thigh highs under your dress held up with a sexy lace garter.
21. Drink a half a glass of red wine -- just enough to help you relax, but not too much to make you drunk.
22. Bright red lipstick works like a charm.
23. Watch a sexy movie. What? Don't know any? Last Tango in Paris or Unfaithful are a good place to start.
24. Masturbate more. But don't go overboard! Find a good balance.
25. Clench your girl parts (i.e. do Kegels).
26. Sign up for a pole dancing or cardio strip-tease class; practice makes perfect!
27. Text your partner a descriptive play-by-play of everything you plan to do to him/her once you are alone.
28. Melt some dark chocolate. Dip strawberries (or other fruit) into the chocolate and feed to your lover. Demand (playfully) he/she do the same for you.
29. "Read up" on new sex positions online. Hey, you have to stay current.
30. Oysters and bubbly wine isn't just a cliche: It really works.
31. Do yoga.
32. Go to a strip club with your girlfriends. Seeing other women be sexy can do wonders for your own sexual self esteem.
33. Watch a Ryan Gosling movie.
34. Flirt with your super hot crush at the gym.
35. Think about sex. Stuck in traffic or in line at the grocery store? Fantasize about what you want your partner to do to you when you get home.
36. Treat yourself to a lingerie shopping trip. Try on a variety of options. Buy the one that makes you feel feminine, fierce, beautiful, and drop-dead sexy.
37. Get a massage.
38. Mentally replay the hottest night you and your partner spent together down to every last dirty detail. Repeat.
39. Tell your lover to take a sexy photo of himself/herself and text it to you during the day.
40. Do #39 for your lover.
The Secrets How To Have The Hottest Sex In Your Life
50 Things You Can Try Tonight to Have the Hottest Sex
In celebration of my latest book, Hot Sex: Over 200 Things You Can Try Tonight, I've decided to round up 50 sexy or sex-filled things that you can do -- easily. Well, depending on the kids and time, and without much prep, to help keep things cayenne-pepper hot in the sexy time department. And I want you to add to the list too, please!
Ready?
1. Kiss like you did before you had ever done anything else.
2. Breathe together, holding and hugging each other while you do it.
3. Eat seductively. Really pay attention to how you lick ice cream or chew meat off a bone.
4. See how long you can stay turned on without taking any of your clothes off.
5. Dry hump with your clothes, or at least your underwear, on.
6. Rub your hair all over his body.
7. For at least one minute, both of you stare into each other's eyes.
8. Set up email accounts using aliases. Then send dirty emails and pictures to that account.
9. Play a game of striptease.
10. Collaborate on a piece of erotic writing or storytelling. You write/recite a paragraph, then your partner does the same. Go back and forth until you finish the story.
11. Buy a pair of nitrile gloves and give your partner a gloved hand job. (Trust me, it feels different.)
12. Wear a mask.
13. Wear a wig.
14. Try a new condom, heck, try the female condom.
15. Use a string of pearls (plastic beads will do just fine), and masturbate his penis.
16. Masturbate him with a banana peel. Try warming it in the microwave for five seconds for warmer, happier times.
17. Use lube. Lots of lube.
18. Use silicone lube and get it on in the shower.
19. Be blindfolded or do the blindfolding.
20. Find three things in the kitchen (like a spatula, wooden spoon, honey) that you can play with sensually.
21. Fingerpaint each other's breasts.
22. Rock around the clit. With your finger, go clockwise from 12 on back, and counterclockwise. See what time feels best.
23. Rent a porn and reenact a scene.
24. Masturbate for each other. Cheer, hoot, and holler for your lover.
25. Read each other an erotic story from a sexy book.
26. Play a board game but change the rules to make them sexy.
27. Try a board game designed to inspire monogamy.
28. Have sex in your car, even if it's parked in the garage.
29. Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles around something or someone.
30. Figure out a new sex position using pillows.
31. Turn on an electric toothbrush ... use them on his, or her, nipples.
32. Use any vibrator ... on him, in the area known as the perineum, between the bum and the balls.
33. Have a sexy chat, either by video or text, and yes, even if you live together, do it from separate rooms.
34. Have a contest to see who can come first, or who can hold out longest.
35. Pick out your partner's outfit and dress them up before you dress them down.
36. Buy a wireless vibrator and go out dancing, and let your husband or boyfriend control the remote.
37. Have sex first thing in the morning.
38. See how high you can bring your sex energy through breathing.
39. Get kinky -- try light spanking or flogging.
40. Try a vibrator built for two.
41. Make love outdoors.
42. Go on a date to a cheap hotel room.
43. Pay your partner for sex.
44. Give, or get, a lap dance.
45. Slow dance like it's the first time, but not that first awkward time. Unless, of course, awkward turns you on.
46. Write down some fantasies and put them in a hat. Then pick out a fantasy and act it out. Include a list of props in your fantasy.
47. Give each other head rubs.
48. Massage each other using a soy-based hot wax candle.
49. Leave the lights on. Get naughty. If you feel extra frisky, leave the blinds open too.
50. Make a meal out of aphrodisiac foods. Feed it to each other, or eat the food off one another.
Orgasm Without Hands
The Hands-Free Orgasm
Is getting off without contact really possible?
Orgasms can be mysterious, mind-blowing, lengthy, elusive or—as we just learned—hands-free.
From Em & Lo comes the tale of a college freshman who attends a "How To Have A Genderless Orgasm" workshop in lieu of his art history class. Led by Barbara Carrellas, author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-first Century, the students go through breathing, muscle-contracting and chakra-balancing exercises to reach climax.
"When the instructor gives the command, we’re to breathe 30 quick breaths in unison — it’s an individual exercise, yet we’re working as a group to achieve "orgasm." Heavy breathing, chests heaving, students moaning. Even the normally taciturn ones are sighing audibly. A tingling sensation starts in my lower belly and seems to travel up into my head (like, the head head, where my brain is). The music becomes a loud and powerful tribal chant. People begin to curl over into the fetal position. Climax is achieved!"
Orgasm without sex or masturbation? The mind is a powerful beast, indeed. As the blogger describes, the sensation wasn't exactly like the orgasms he's experienced before: "If this is an orgasm, it’s the strangest one I have ever had. (I’m not entirely convinced)." But, the post-climax serenity he experiences is unlike anything he's ever felt. True to Tantra, the goal of the "genderless orgasm" (for men) is not ejaculation but harnessing and getting pleasure from the body-connecting-with-Earth energy.
Extending or enhancing orgasm seems to be on many a short list; and using the power of the mind and breathing exercises, a G-spot shot or—gulp—Orajel and two condoms, are just some of the ways people are doing it.
The Bulgarian Mystery
Belogradchik, Bulgaria - The Belogradchik Rocks and the Belogradchik Fortress
Danube River Cruise Shore Excursion from the Viking Neptune
The Belogradchik Rocks (Bulgarian: Белоградчишки скали, Belogradchishki skali) are a group of strange shaped sandstone and conglomerate rock formations located on the western slopes of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) near the town of Belogradchik in northwest Bulgaria. The rocks vary in color from primarily red to yellow; some of the rocks reach up to 200 m in height. Many rocks have fantastic shapes and are associated with interesting legends. They are often named for people or objects they are thought to resemble. The Belogradchik Rocks have been declared a Natural Landmark by the Bulgarian government and are a major tourist attraction in the region.
The Belogradchik Rocks (also spelled Belogradshick or Belogradschik) are one of the natural wonders of Bulgaria. These huge reddish limestone and sandstone rocks tower over the small town of Belogradchik and form part of the walls of the Belogradchik Fortress, which was first built by the Romans about 100 AD.
Danube River cruises in eastern Europe often include a half-day at Belogradchik from Vidin so that passengers can stroll the streets of the town and climb the numerous steps and ladders to the top of the Belogradchik Rock formations. The view from the top is spectacular, and knowing that many of the old steps date back to Roman times makes the walk even more interesting. Those who have mobility problems can still enjoy the Belogradchik rocks and fortress from very near where the coach parks at the entrance to the Belogradchik Fortress.
At first glance, one might think these photos were from the Southwestern part of the USA, until the Roman walls and Bulgarian signage are sighted!
Deported for Being Too Handsome
Crime of Passion: Three Men Forcibly Deported from Saudi Arabia for Being “Too Handsome”
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TV Emirates reported recently that three United Arab Emirates nationals were deported from Saudi Arabia for the crime of being “too handsome.”
This is certainly an uncommon criminal accusation, but one that we can relate to (some of our writers are banned in 26 countries for the opposite reason).
The three men were manning a booth representing the UAE at a cultural event in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh when the Saudi Mutaween (“religious police”) stormed the UAE booth and carried the men off, with women in the crowd presumably fainting left and right due to their sheer handsomeness.
Apparently, the Mutaween feared that women attending the event were likely to “fall in love” with the three men, prompting the arrest and forced deportation.
We can only assume that Brad Pitt is banned entirely from entering the country and that his face is covered by mosaic in all of his films in the Middle Eastern nation.
A Girl Without Bones
New drug gives growth to girl born with no bones
Nurses didn't know a breakthrough drug was on the horizon when they dressed the tiny little girl in a pink outfit for a hospital photographer to take her picture.
It was a photograph for her parents -- an image of solace so they could remember Janelly Martinez-Amador free of tubes. Doctors told them then there was nothing more they could do for a child without bones.
Born with the most severe form of hypophosphatasia -- a genetic disorder that prevents skeletal mineralization -- the girl didn't have the ribs to support breathing. Her parents, Salvador Martinez and Janet Amador of Antioch, were facing the prospect of having to decide whether to continue life-sustaining interventions.
But Janelly held on long enough for a last chance at life. At age 2 years and 8 months, she entered a clinical trial involving an experimental medicine at Monroe Carrel Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville. Four years later, Janelly can dance.
One of 11 children worldwide enrolled in the clinical trial, she was the runt of the bunch. Her disease was so pronounced she could not move her body. Her bones didn't even show up on X-rays. She was also the youngest and technically didn't meet the trial's 3-year-old age requirement.
But Vanderbilt physicians had been telling Dr. Michael P. Whyte, a metabolic bone disease specialist with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, about Janelly.
Whyte was about to start a clinical trial for a new drug, a biologic enzyme called asfotase alfa, that he wanted to try on toddlers with hypophosphatasia. Although this genetic disorder can cause a wide spectrum of bone loss in people of all ages, patients diagnosed as infants like Janelly have the most severe form. They usually die.
Janelly was diagnosed at about 4 months old.
"We started noticing she wasn't growing as she should at that point, and she wasn't gaining the weight as she should at her age," Martinez said with the aid of a Spanish interpreter.
The baby responded to hugs as if in pain.
Pediatricians thought Janelly might have cancer when they sent her to the Vanderbilt hospital. Vanderbilt diagnosed the severe form of hypophosphatasia -- a rare disorder that occurs in only one of every 100,000 infants.
Complications from the disease worsened to the point that Janelly spent months in the intensive care unit before her first birthday. She had to get a tracheotomy and depend upon a ventilator to live. When her parents brought her home from the hospital, they also took home a ventilator.
They held onto to hope for a cure.
In February 2009, Janelly began treatment with a medicine that had been developed by Canada-based Enobia Pharma Corp. and put on fast-track approval status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because it was an "orphan drug" -- the first possible treatment for a disease. Shriners Hospitals for Children and Enobia, which has since been acquired by Connecticut-based Alexion, funded the clinical trial.
Janelly had a special port surgically inserted in her abdomen so she could receive infusions of this bone-targeting enzyme.
One of the 11 children in the trial started showed skeletal improvements as early as three weeks into treatment. All the others had "striking" skeletal healing by six months -- except for Janelly.
"We were fearful that her bone disease was so terribly severe that it might not work," said Whyte, who had never met Janelly but had read her case history when he enrolled her in the study.
Her parents were the first to notice a change. They saw her gaining muscle control before medical imaging detected bone growth. Doctors initially were discouraged.
"We kept hearing from all the other sites that patients were having significant improvements," said Dr. Jill H. Simmons, a pediatric endocrinologist at Vanderbilt children's hospital. "We kept getting skeletal surveys and seeing no evidence of calcification. We really weren't seeing any improvements in her for six months."
Although no one could see it, the enzyme was sticking like snowflakes falling in darkness.
"We were very concerned when the therapy started that there was no mineral in her bones to target with enzymes," Whyte said. "So, would the enzyme find its way to bone and hook onto something to help her? But apparently -- although you couldn't see the mineral on an X-ray, you didn't see any bones on X-ray -- there was still enough there that the first molecule or enzyme to land did something."
After almost a year of treatment, Janelly finally was able to move all her limbs. After 18 months of treatment, doctors could see ribs forming.
"It was literally within those few weeks that her pulmonologist really started to notice significant improvements and was able to back her off on a ventilator," Simmons said. "It was fascinating how the calcification of those ribs really significantly turned her around."
These days, Janelly darts around in a stroller, sits up to watch television and rolls across the carpet. She dances as gracefully as any ballerina, interpreting the music with hand movements, from her stroller. Although she will soon turn 7, she's still the size of a toddler. Her bones have just begun to grow.
The tracheotomy tube prevents her from talking, but she makes noises and responds to stimuli. She goes to Harris-Hillman Special Education School. The long-term effect on her learning ability from the delay in her physical development remains a mystery.
Janelly recently went back into Vanderbilt to have the port removed from her abdomen. Instead of intravenous infusions, she has grown big enough to receive the enzyme treatment via three shots a week.
This month, Whyte traveled from St. Louis to Nashville, where he met Janelly for the first time.
"Her fingers, can I feel them?" he asked her parents, before caressing Janelly's hands to find the tiny bones.
A Penis On MARS !
Nasa Mars Rover Accidentally Draws Penis On Red Planet
Nasa's $800m Mars Exploration Rovers have accidentally drawn a penis.
The twin exploration vehicles Spirit and Opportunity were launched nine years ago, in an effort to search the surface of Mars for signs of water erosion and possibly even life.
According to Nasa, since then the rovers have driven over more than 10km of Martian land, directed by teams back on Earth combined with autonomous cameras designed to avoid potential problems with the terrain.
It appears that part of the robots' programming involves spinning in tight circles to test nearby terrain and find new routes.
Humorously, depending on your age perhaps, that has the unfortunate consequence of drawing a certain shape on the surface, which when discovered by Reddit essentially crashed Nasa's website.
The image was posted on Nasa's site and appears to be a genuine picture from the Martian surface - albeit one taken at an unfortunate angle.
It's not clear which of the rovers drew the shape, or even when it was made.
Nasa lost communication with the Spirit rover in 2009 after it became stuck in some sand. Meanwhile the Opportunity is still traversing the surface on its way to the Endeavour crater.
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