Christmas: how to cheat at pulling crackers
Ever wanted to make the perfect snowball, win the Christmas cracker novelty every time, and impress your festive guests by creating snowflakes indoors? Science correspondent Richard Gray asks the experts who can show you how…
HOW TO WIN WHEN PULLING A CRACKER – WITHOUT FAIL
As demonstrated by the weapons experts at QinetiQ, the defence agency which, when they’re not developing technology for the MoD, like to experiment with Christmas table decorations.
* Hold your end lower than the other person’s, so the cracker tilts downwards towards you.
* To prevent the cracker tearing, use a firm, two-handed grip.
* Apply a slow, steady pull, rather than a swift tug, which will only compromise the integrity of your section of the cracker.
* Avoid twisting, as this will add stress to the cracker wrapping. For the same reason, avoid laughing too hard at Uncle Bob’s annual ‘joke’ about ‘pulling a cracker’.
Read more at The Telegraph (Thanks @ferkle)
Meet the Brit man who is set to marry his Christmas tree!
“A Brit man is set to fulfill his desire of marrying his Christmas tree.
Andy, also known as Mr Christmas, has admitted many will think he’s had too much sherry but that hasn’t stopped him drawing up plans for the ceremony.
“I love my Christmas tree more than anything else, so that’s why I want to marry it,” the Sun quoted the 47-year-old divorcee from Melksham, Wilts, as saying.
“I’ve already got a ring, although I’m not sure yet which branch I’ll want to hang it on. The only problem seems to be finding a vicar who is willing to do the ceremony,” he said.
He said that although he’d only had the plastic tree for two years, he felt it was like “his best friend” and he never tired of seeing it sitting in his living room.
“I can’t see why we can’t be joined in matrimony. I’ve heard of other people marrying their pets and so on, so why can’t I get hitched to my tree?” he added.”
Read more at Sify News
Try The McGurk Effect!
“The McGurk effect is a compelling demonstration of how we all use visual speech information. The effect shows that we can’t help but integrate visual speech into what we ‘hear’.”
(Thanks Luke)
Periodic table printed on human hair
“The table is so small that a million of them could be replicated on a typical post-it note.
Experts from the University’s Nottingham used a sophisticated combination of ion beam writer and electron microscope to carve the symbol of all 118 elements into the strand of hair. The team also used the same nano-writing technique to engrave the words “Merry Christmas” on a snowflake.
“Although writing on a snowflake is on one hand a bit of seasonal fun, it’s also a neat demonstration of the powerful capabilities of the tools that scientists use in the lab on a day-to-day basis,” says physics professor Philip Moriarty. The strand of hair used to create the periodic table was taken from the head of professor Martyn Poliakoff, an expert in green chemistry. His colleagues gave him the printed strand as a birthday present.”
World’s first animal-to-human transplant approved
“THE world’s first xenotransplantation treatment – where animal cells are transplanted into humans – has been approved for sale in Russia.
The treatment, developed by Living Cell Technologies in New Zealand, is for type 1 diabetes. It consists of insulin-producing pig cells coated in seaweed, says Bob Elliott of LCT.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed. Insulin is vital in controlling blood glucose levels, so people who lack the cells need daily insulin injections.
However, injecting the wrong amount of insulin can cause blood glucose levels to swing dangerously, causing fainting, and cardiovascular and nervous effects. These can reduce a person’s life span, Elliott says.
LCT’s treatment involves surgically implanting the replacement cells into the pancreas. The “seaweed” coating is alginate, which prevents the immune system from attacking the foreign cells.
In Russian trials, eight people with type 1 diabetes received the treatment in June 2007, while continuing to have daily injections of insulin. After a year, six showed improved blood glucose control and were able to lower their daily dose of insulin. Two of them stopped injections entirely for eight months. One person left the trial and another showed no improvement, which LCT believes was due to problems inserting the cells into the pancreas.”
Read more at New Scientist (Thanks Shaun H)
Geeks.co.uk – Man of the Year – Vote for Derren
“Following the Sports Personality of the Year, here’s an award people actually care about (we thought about a lavish televised awards bash but thought we’d keep it real) where we combine achievement with genuine personality; something the Sports Personality title manages to avoid.
Here we present the nominees for this most prestigious award, that we came up with less than a week ago, from the world of TV and film.
Derren Brown
This year Derren followed up on The Events with Derren Brown investigates and Hero at 30,000 Feet, complementing it with his Enigma tour. All three were received with critical acclaim and invoked sheer gawping awe in us geeks.”
Also nominated are Charlie Brooker, Chris Morris, Simon Amstell, Armando Iannucci and Iain Morris.
Head over to Geeks.co.uk to read more
Pope in child porn ‘normal’ claim sparks outrage
Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict’s claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn’t considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s. In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.
“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said. “It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than’ and a ‘worse than’. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”
The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church. Asking how abuse exploded within the Church, the Pontiff called on senior clerics “to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred” and to help victims heal through a better presentation of the Christian message.
More of this story at Belfast Telegraph
China bans English words in media
China has banned newspapers, publishers and website-owners from using foreign words – particularly English ones. China’s state press and publishing body said such words were sullying the purity of the Chinese language. It said standardised Chinese should be the norm: the press should avoid foreign abbreviations and acronyms, as well as “Chinglish” – which is a mix of English and Chinese.
The order also extends existing warnings that applied to radio and TV. China’s General Administration of Press and Publication said that with economic and social development, foreign languages were increasingly being used in all types of publications in China. It said such use had “seriously damaged” the purity of the Chinese language and resulted in “adverse social impacts” on the cultural environment, reported the People’s Daily newspaper.
If words must be written in a foreign language, an explanation in Chinese is required, the state body said.
Indian Man Marries and Then Sells 60 Wives To Brothels
In Darjeeling, a mountainous tea-growing district of the eastern state of West Bengal, a 27 year-old man has been arrested for duping 60 women into marrying him and then selling them into prostitution.
Bikky Biswarkarma pretended to be a well paid army officer home on holiday when over a five year period, he married at least 60 girls and then sold them to brothels in Mumbai and Pune, cities in the western state of Maharastra, for 70,000-100,000 rupees ($1,500-$2,000).
“He used to pose as an army man on leave who…wanted to get married before returning to work. He would change bases frequently to lure girls from poor families in tea gardens and villages,” said district police chief, Debendra Prasad Singh.
It was difficult for the police to take action in this case because there were few if any complaints issued by the families of the girls who never knew they had been sold to brothels.
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