What’s On Stage Awards 2010 – Vote Now!
Derren has taken an early lead in the best solo performance category for Enigma, thank you to all who have voted so far. For anyone who hasn’t voted yet and wants to there’s still a little time, click the link at the bottom of the article.
“Just a month after shortlists were announced at our star-studded Launch Party on 5 December (See Photos, 7 Dec 2009), more than 25,000 people have already voted online in the tenth annual Whatsonstage.com Awards, aka the “theatregoers’ choice” and the only major theatre awards voted for by the paying public.
Amongst the performers and productions that have taken strong early leads are: Jude Law, Patrick Stewart, Miriam Margolyes, Rowan Atkinson, Patina Miller, Jodie Prenger, Derren Brown, John Barrowman, Diana Vickers, Calendar Girls, Jerusalem and Oliver!, while this year’s new category, Best West End Show, which is sponsored by Groupline and applies to long-running as well as new productions, has become an increasingly tight two-horse race between War Horse and Wicked.
There’s still plenty of time for upsets for those and other frontrunners. Voting continues until 31 January 2010. To maintain an element of surprise, results will now be hidden until 7pm on Sunday 14 February 2010 when winners will be announced and trophies presented at our Awards Concert at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre (home of Mamma Mia!).”
Read more at Whats On Stage
Or VOTE HERE
Government Appoints “Faith Advisors” To Bring Religion Further Into Policy-Making
“The Government this week appointed thirteen “faith advisors” to bring religion to the heart of the Government’s policy-making. Communities Secretary John Denham — a self-professed non-believer — said that religion was not just something the Government should call on “as a prop” when it had problems to solve, but should be respected in its own right.
The 13 advisers are supposed to “enhance ministerial understanding of, and engagement, with faith communities nationally.”
Government already has a “Faith Communities Consultative Council” (FCCC) but now Mr Denham says he wants to see “as many channels of communication open as possible” and this includes hearing from a wide range of expert voices. Mr Denham said the new panel will advise on the economy, parenting, achieving social justice and tackling climate change.”
Read more at Secularism.org (Thanks Tiram)
California’s Gay Marriage Ban Challenged
“California’s ban on gay marriage goes to trial on Monday in a federal case that plaintiffs hope to take all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and overturn bans throughout the nation.
Victory for gay rights groups in the Supreme Court, which might not choose to take the case if it is appealed that far, would make marriage a fundamental constitutional right without exception and overturn laws and state amendments limiting marriage to a man and a woman in 40 states.
A loss in the top court, two ranks above the action that starts on Monday, would derail efforts to win in state courts that have been a hallmark of the gay rights movement thus far.
The case begins in a San Francisco court presided over by District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who clearly enjoyed preliminary sessions, joking with lawyers between barrages of pointed questions.”
Read more at Reuters (thanks SonOfSam)
Human Sacrifices ‘On The Rise In Uganda’ As Witch Doctors Admit To Rituals
“Witch doctors in Uganda have admitted their part in human sacrifice amid concerns that the practice is spreading in the African country.
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son.
The latter has now given up the ritual and is campaigning to stamp it out, according to BBC News.
The African country’s government claimed human sacrifice was on the increase.
According to officials trying to tackle it, the crime is directly linked to rising levels of development and prosperity – and an increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly.”
Read more at The Telegraph
Four-year-old girl lives in cage with crocodiles from birth
“The parents of little girl Margarita Tarantina are hereditary animal trainers. They put their daughter into a cage with alligators. The girl’s parents received two alligators – Misha and Masha – shortly before Rita was born. So they were raised together and made friends. Now they cannot stand being without one another. During four years of living together, the crocodiles never bit and did not even scar the little girl.
“Alligators are brutal predators, but they have reason. The reptiles understand that Margarita is just a child and they must not hurt her,” the head of the unusual family, Sergey Tarantin says.
“They like her, and she takes advantage of it. Rita likes Misha in particular. She can play with his paw or lie on his back, while she-crocodile Masha is more capricious,” the father said.”
Head on over to Fun On to see the video (Thanks Coocumb3r)
How Birth Order Affects Your Personality
“When I tell people I study whether birth order affects personality, I usually get blank looks. It sounds like studying whether the sky is blue. Isn’t it common sense? Popular books invoke birth order for self-discovery, relationship tips, business advice and parenting guidance in titles such as The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are (Revell, 2009). Newspapers and morning news shows debate the importance of the latest findings (“Latter-born children engage in more risky behavior; what should parents do?”) while tossing in savory anecdotes (“Did you know that 21 of the first 23 astronauts into space were firstborns?”).
But when scientists scrutinized the data, they found that the evidence just did not hold up. In fact, until very recently there were no convincing findings that linked birth order to personality or behavior. Our common perception that birth order matters was written off as an example of our well-established tendency to remember and accept evidence that supports our pet theories while readily forgetting or overlooking that which does not. But two studies from the past three years finally found measurable effects: our position in the family does indeed affect both our IQ and our personality. It may be time to reconsider birth order as a real influence over whom we grow up to be.”
Read about the findings over at Scientific American (Thanks SC)
El Dorado Found?
Since the time of the conquistadors, the legend of an ancient, lost civilisation deep in the Amazon forest has beguiled hundreds of explorers and led many to their deaths. Some called their dream El Dorado. Others, most notably Colonel Percy Fawcett, the gloriously moustached British explorer (and real-life model for Indiana Jones) named it the City of Z. But no one has ever returned from the Amazon with conclusive proof that such a place existed.
Three scientists have now come close to doing just that.
Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant
“It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant.
Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body, says Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight, Pierce reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Pierce used a radioactive tracer to show that the slugs were making the pigment, called chlorophyll a, themselves and not simply relying on chlorophyll reserves stolen from the algae the slugs dine on.
“This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” said invertebrate zoologist John Zardus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. Microbes swap genes readily, but Zardus said he couldn’t think of another natural example of genes flowing between multicellular kingdoms.”
Read More at Wired
Why light intensifies the pain of migraine
“Scientists have discovered why light intensifies the pain of migraine even among the blind, potentially offering hope to millions.
Many sufferers of the debilitating head pain can find that light is a trigger and doctors often recommend lying in a dark room until an attack passes. Researchers found that light rays trigger activity in specific brain cells within seconds of hitting the optic nerve, at the back of the eye.
They believe these cells are responsible for causing the debilitating pain light can trigger in migraine sufferers. Even when light was removed the cells remained active until up to half an hour later, animal tests show. The scientists, from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, in Boston, now hope that drugs can be developed to block the signal to the brain cells, removing the pain.
It is thought that around 85 per cent of migraine sufferers are also extremely sensitive to light, a condition known as photophobia. “Migraine patients may wear sunglasses, even at night,” said Prof Rami Burstein, from BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, who added that even extremely dim lights can make migraine pain worse. But doctors have found that even blind migraine sufferers can experience photophobia.”
Read more at The Telegraph
Top 5 Unsolved Brain Mysteries
“When you compare the brain’s detectives, neuroscientists, to other detectives, the neuroscientists seem to fall short in solving mysteries. After all, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple needed only about 250 pages each to get to the bottom of their cases. Ditto for Nancy Drew. On television, Jessica Fletcher and Kojak were all able to find their answers in an hour or less, while Veronica Mars needed only about the length of a television season. Even the pride of South Florida, Encyclopedia Brown, was able to solve his cases with little more than a casebook, his trusty sneakers and a wide variety of miscellaneous factoids. If Encyclopedia Brown only required 25 cents per day (plus expenses) to solve his cases, then what’s taking neuroscientists so long to unravel the mysteries of the brain?
OK, so the brain is a bit more complex than Encyclopedia Brown’s nemesis, Bugs Meany. But with the brain only weighing in at 3 pounds (1.4 kg), you could be forgiven for wondering if neuroscientists are just big slackers. As it is, mysteries galore abound in those 3 pounds, and until fairly recently, scientists lacked the equipment to accurately study the brain. With the advent of brain imaging technology, it’s possible that they’ll continue to learn more.
The workings of the brain, however, determine such fundamental questions about personhood that we may never know everything about what’s going on. That doesn’t mean we can’t speculate, though. While we may not be able to solve these capers with clues that point to Colonel Mustard in the library with a revolver, we can dive into the current thinking on some of the brain’s famous unsolved mysteries.”
Follow the link below to read about the top 5:
5: The Case of Nature vs. Nurture
4: The Puzzle of Why the Brain Stops Functioning
3: The Secrets of Sleep and Dreams
2: Whodunit and Other Questions of Memory
1: The Conundrum of Consciousness
Read more at How Stuff Works
