Title: Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes
Date: 31st August 2006
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/health/31age.html?th&emc=th
This article talks about how genes does not play a big role in determine how long you live.
To quote the article, here are some statistics:
“
Example of heritable traits
Height 85%
Weight 70%
Intelligence 52%
Personality 50%
Vocational Interest 42%
Scholastic Acheivement 38%
Memory 22%
Life span 3%
“
Free music? It is legal… If so who pays the music industry?
Take a look at the NYTimes aticle at the bottom. If it really comes true, then it would really be attractive to all music lovers, though the songs have to be new and updated.
Aticle Name: Universal Music Group and an Online Site Plan a Joint Venture to Challenge iTunes
Date: 30th August 2006
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/technology/30music.html?th&emc=th
Quotes:
“Though the venture is not the first to try a free ad-supported approach, the backing of Universal, with millions of songs in its catalog from thousands of artists like Eminem and Gwen Stefani, Elton John and Gloria Estefan, Count Basie and Hank Williams, promises to give it instant credibility and scale. “
”The announcement reflects the music industry’s eagerness to experiment with various digital business models and to find a way to overcome piracy and illegal copying, which remain a big problem despite the record companies’ efforts to enforce their copyrights in court. “
“And the songs will be encoded in the Microsoft WMA format, meaning they will probably not work on Apple iPod portable music players. “
“Neville Hobson, a spokesman for SpiralFrog, said the company hoped to pursue licensing deals with the other major record companies — Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music — to augment its deal with Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi. “
This is good news for students! Now they only have to remember 8 instead of 9 since Pluto is not a “planet” anymore.
1) Press release by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) here:
http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html
Highlights:
‘a “planet” is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. ‘
‘This means that the Solar System consists of eight “planets” Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.’
2) The press release on the formal definition can be found here:
http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0602/index.html
3) Wikipedia has a well updated article on it too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_redefinition_of_planet
4) The NYTimes has also an editorial on it (you might need an subscription):
Title: And Now There Are Eight
Date: August 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/opinion/25fri3.html?th&emc=th
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/fashion/10SCHOOL.html?th&emc=th
Titile: An Impressionable Age
Subtitle: Dressing for school with a growing sense of sophistication
A most interesting article, with a impactful picture*.
Guess their age! Pardon my ignorance, but they did not look 12 at first sight. (Yes, they are 12…)
Interesting sections from the article:
“Today boys and girls “have got style in their minds,” Mr. Cohen said. “All of a sudden, dressing up is an important component of their lives.’’ Large numbers, he added, are forsaking “raggy, utilitarian clothing for statement pieces. “
“Paradoxically, their (student’s) desire to look older is stoked in part by designer fashions — baby-doll dresses, shrunken blazers, schoolgirl jumpers and the like — that have an emphatically youthful demeanor. Often on the runways, “there is no real delineation of what is ‘child’ and what is ‘adult’ anymore,’’ said Gloria Baume, the fashion market director of Teen Vogue. “
”There are practical reasons, too, why fashion has become seductive to both teenagers and their parents. “Many of them rationalize that it’s less expensive to buy clothes than it is to buy a new computer, calculator or phone,’’ said Robert Passikoff the president of Brand Keys, a market research company.”
*Image Linked from NYTimes.com at http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/10/fashion/10scho.1.600.jpg
