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Cat puts Japan rail firm on track
2008-05-28 03:43:00
A loss-making Japan ese railway company is back on track thanks to the popularity of a stray cat. Wearing a black cap and posing for photos with passengers, Tama the tabby is credited with boosting Wakayama Electric Rail way's revenue by 10%. The firm had to axe all staff at Kishi station in western Japan two years ago. But Tama stuck by her post and was rewarded with promotion to station manager. The pet mascot even has her own office, a former ticket booth. The feline, who was born and raised at the station in the city of Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture, is living proof of the Japanese belief that cats are good luck. "She never complains, even though passengers touch her all over the place. She is an amazing cat. She has patience and charisma. She is the perfect station master," said Yoshiko Yamaki, a spokeswoman for the rail company. The nine-year-old - who receives cat food in lieu of a salary - won national stardom last year when t...
More About: Animals , Track

Olympic Swimmers Learn From Sharks, Dolphins
2008-05-27 03:20:00
When winning an Olympic gold medal in swimming is the goal, it helps to take inspiration from some of the best swimmers in the world -- sharks and dolphins -- and that is exactly what U.S. Olympic team swimmers have been doing as they train.From suits to strokes, coaches, researchers and other advisers are making sure that their athletes benefit from fish and marine mammals' natural swimming abilities."Some of our athletes are now wearing what are called 'shark skin suits,'" Russell Mark, biomechanics coordinator for U.S.A. Swimming, told Discovery News ."These aren't made of actual shark skin, of course, but they are slippery in feel, like sharks, and they make the wearer move faster than normal in the water by reducing friction and drag," he explained.Mark also indicated that excelling at the dolphin kick can make or break a swimmer's race."This is when swimmers push off walls and swim underwater without moving their arms, very similar to how a dolphin swims," he said.The move...
More About: Science , Sports , Nature

The Science of Fairy Tales
2008-05-22 13:30:00
Kids of any age love to read fairy tales because the storyline never limits the possibility that anything could happen. Curses, spells, and handsome princes reign in worlds beyond the reader?s imagination. But are the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality. So suspend your imagination for a moment, and look at the following fairy tales as a hard-core scientist might. Rapunzel In the Brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel, a witch holds a beautiful young woman captive in a tower. Rapunzel is blessed with a lovely singing voice and long, long blond hair. One day, her voice enchants a prince passing through a nearby forest. They fall in love, and Rapunzel lets down her hair so that the prince may use it to climb the tower to meet her. This chain of events begs readers to ask a question. Can huma...
More About: Science , Tales , Mystery , Fairy Tales

Sharks Use Strange Trick to Hunt Prey
2008-05-19 03:59:00
Like dogs, sharks rely on a keen sense of smell to track down food. But new research shows noses aren?t the only way that sharks detect smells: Their entire bodies, in fact, function as giant noses capable of even picking up the ?shape? of a smell.Running down the sides of every shark are nerve-packed strips called lateral lines. Researchers know these sensitive structures can detect the faint vibrations emitted by living things in water, but their ability to pick up scent was previously unknown. Even more surprising, researchers said, is that lateral lines can detect the 3-D ?plumes? of scents?structures resembling the turbulence left behind after waving a hand through thick fog or steam."Odor plumes are complex, dynamic, three-dimensional structures used by many animal species to locate food, mates and home sites," said Jelle Atema, a Boston University biologist and co-author of the study detailed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. When deprived of the ?o...
More About: Science , Animals , Trick , Strange , Hunt

Space Rocks Could Reseed Life on Earth
2008-05-17 03:20:00
Asteroid and comet impacts on Earth can cause catastrophic extinction events. They can also bring life back, new research shows. Many scientists believe that a massive rock from space came crashing down 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The resulting blast set forests ablaze. The skies of Earth were filled with ash that blocked out the sun, and the planet went cold. Vegetation died in the absence of sunlight. Shortly thereafter, the dinosaurs and many other life forms on Earth went extinct. Millions of years of evolution were wiped clean in an instant. It's frightening that one instantaneous event could completely change the face of life on Earth. However, a new study supports longstanding suggestions that asteroid impacts could also help spread life throughout the universe. Rocks that are ejected from the Earth ? or any other life-bearing planet ? by an asteroid impact might actually protect microbes living inside them while they float through space. Th...
More About: Science , Life , Space

Leaving science behind
2008-05-16 02:53:00
It is a cruel and poignant certainty that the children who died in the wreckage of their school during the earthquake this week in Dujiangyan, China, knew all too well that their country once led the world in the knowledge of the planet's seismicity.They would have been taught, and proudly, that almost 2,000 years ago an astronomer named Chang Heng invented the world's first seismoscope. It was a bizarrely imagined creation, with its centerpiece a large bronze vessel surrounded by eight dragons, each holding a sphere in its mouth.A complex system of internal levers ensured that if an earthquake ever disturbed the vessel, a ball would drop from a dragon's care into the mouth of a bronze frog positioned underneath. By observing which dragon had dropped its ball, Chang Heng could ascertain the location of the quake. And always, as the emperor for whom Chang Heng fashioned the device noted, the earthquakes came from the mountains in the west, where Dujiangyan lies.As we watch with mo...
More About: Science , Nature , Leaving

New variant of rare flower found in Camerons
2008-05-14 12:39:00
CAMERON HIGHLANDS: It is a plant with an awful stench but its beauty is enough to stop nature-lovers in their tracks. The Amorphophallus bufo, a rare species found in tropical and sub-tropical areas, sparked interest when news of its discovery here broke last year.But there is fresh excitement now with the sighting of a new variant with reddish and pinkish flowers. Local environmentalist and orchid enthusiast Embi Abdullah, 60, said he and his friend N. Madi were trekking when they spotted the reddish bloom in the jungles of Gunung Jasar, Tanah Rata, here. Most Amorphophallus bufo flowers were brown with white spots, he said. Within just a week, Embi and several others came across a colony of more than 10 of the plants, five of them in bloom. ?You only get to see these flowers once every five or six years,? Embi said in Brinchang here. He added that the highlands Amorphophallus bufo, measuring about 1.5m in height, was unusually tall and dwarfed other Amorphophallus species. ?The Am...
More About: Science , News , Nature , Flower , Rare

Why Do People Sleepwalk?
2008-05-12 14:33:00
If you've been recently rescued from sleepwalking, here's a possible reason why you went zombie - lack of sleep.Sleepwalkers should keep a regular bedtime to avoid unwanted evening strolls, said Antonio Zadra Universite de Montreal, who led a team that recently investigated the link between sleep loss and sleepwalking. Somnambulism, which affects up to 4 percent of adults, can cause mental confusion, bouts of amnesia and even physical injuries in those affected as they wander.Sleepwalking is common in kids, but usually they outgrow it, says Dr. Vishesh Kapur, director of the University of Washington Sleep Disorders Center at Harborview Medical Center.In the February 2008 issue of the journal Annals of Neurology, Zadra, Mathieu Pilon and Jacques Montplaisir explain how they evaluated 40 suspected sleepwalkers. Each was referred to the Sleep Research Centre at Sacre-Coeur Hospital, a Universite de Montreal teaching hospital, between August 2003 and March 2007."Our study found that s...
More About: Science , People , Human Nature

Frog With No Lungs Found
2008-04-12 04:55:00
A frog has been found in a remote part of Indonesia that has no lungs and breathes through its skin, a discovery that researchers said Thursday could provide insight into what drives evolution in certain species.The aquatic frog Barbourula kalimantanensis was found in a remote part of Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo island during an expedition in August 2007, said David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the National University of Singapore. Bickford was part of the trip and co-authored a paper on the find that appeared in this week's edition of the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology.Bickford said the species is the first frog known to science without lungs and joins a short list of amphibians with this unusual trait, including a few species of salamanders and a wormlike creature known as a caecilian."These are about the most ancient and bizarre frogs you can get on the planet," Bickford said of the brown amphibian with bulging eyes and a tendency to flatten itsel...
More About: Science , Nature , Animals , Frog , Lungs

Aubergine - Uncharted powers?
2008-04-11 02:49:00
The glossy purple aubergine (called baingun in India) is a family component of Indian curries, Greek moussakas and French ratatouille. The raw vegetable contains 15 Calories per 100g (3.5oz), but its calorific value rises steeply when it is fried: the same portion cooked in oil contains more than 300 Calories because of the extraordinary amounts of fat absorbed.The aubergine is native to India, but was also a common food in China as long ago as 600 BC, when it was called the Malayan purple melon. Chinese ladies of the time used it as a beauty aid, staining their teeth black with a dye made from its skin. The first varieties that English-speakers came across probably bore egg-shaped fruits - hence its other name of eggplant.The aubergine was both prized and feared when it was introduced to Spain by Arab traders during the Middle Ages. For centuries it was valued only as an exotic ornament in Europe because eating it was thought to provoke bad breath, madness, leprosy and even cancer....
More About: Society , Vegetables , Powers

Arthritis and copper bracelets
2008-04-10 05:52:00
There are around 200 kinds of arthritis, the two most common being osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. People with osteoarthritis should improve their diet by cutting down on highly refined and processed foods, saturated animal fats, sugar and salt, and by eating more wholegrain cereals and fresh fruit and vegetables. A healthy diet boosts the immune system and provides the sufferer with extra energy to fight the disease.Many people who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis claim that wearing a copper bracelet reduces their discomfort. However, research into this controversial area has come up with no scientific explanation. It is thought that if wearers believe in the power of such bracelets to help them, then this belief may trigger some form of self-healing. Medical science called this type of self-healing effect generated by our own feelings and thinking as 'placebo'.
More About: Mystery , Medical Science , Arthritis , Copper , Bracelets

Dogs in the air
2008-04-09 14:20:00
A pet owner must research the many requirements before taking a dog on an airplane. Different airlines have slightly different regulations, but most airlines follow the same basic set of rules in regards to flying with a dog.One universal rule is that dogs cannot fly on a plane without the owner on board. Each airline that was contacted for this article has a rule that outlaws flying unaccompanied dogs from one point to another. Realize that the airline considers dogs to be cargo. Just as you are not allowed to send your luggage across the country without also being present, same thing goes when it comes to your dog. The intent of each rule is slightly different (it's unlikely that a bomb would be inside of a dog), but the bottom line is that the airlines to not want to be responsible for your dog. However, if you absolutely must transport your dog without being present, you can contact a licensed and approved pet transportation company to get the job done for you.Before you even g...
More About: Dogs , Animals

Is leaving a cell phone on dangerous to planes?
2008-04-07 12:02:00
One of the final hurdles preventing Europeans from chit-chatting on their cell phones while hurtling through Euro airspace has been cleared, as UK regulator Ofcom, has given the OK for cell phones to be used on planes, as long as they're above 3,000 meters. (Many of the other approvals required across Europe have already been granted.)While the idea of airborne cell phone usage has been a public disaster in the U.S., Europeans seem somewhat warmer to the notion. Perhaps it's the generally shorter flights that tend to dominate Europe, or perhaps it's cultural: Cramped, loud buses and subways tend to be the norm, so the additional noise of a few people on their phones may tend to bother Europeans less than it does their privacy-and-silence-obsessed American counterparts. Just because Ofcom has signed off, though, that doesn't mean that cell phones will immediately start being whipped out as soon as that 10,000-foot bell chimes en route to Grenoble. It's up to individual airlines ...
More About: Technology , Phone , Cell Phone , Cell , Planes

Dousing the flames
2008-04-06 13:52:00
To fight fires more effectively the Greek inventor Ctesibius, who lived in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC, devised a pump to replace buckets of water, This was bettered four centuries later by the inventor Hero whose hand powered pistons forced water through a pipe and a nozzle. Emperor Augustus created the world's first fire brigade in Rome in AD6, with 7000 vigiles.Coordinated fire-fighting was rare in Roman and medieval Britain. But from the 13th century some towns required householders to own equipment - after 1574 the inhabitants of Winchester had to bring their buckets of water to quench fires. The Great Fire of London 1666, which left more than 100 000 homeless, showed the need for a more effective system.The City of London council made provision for men to patrol the city looking for blazes, but did not see the need to organise fire-fighting. That was left to insurance companies, who established private fire brigades. The first, set up by the Phoenix Fire Office in 1684, ...
More About: Science , History

Your footwear may reveal your personality
2008-04-05 06:19:00
Got a passion for buying sneakers? It could be a good sign, with a poll finding that people who buy three pairs of sneakers or more a year are far more likely to be a leadership type that other people.Mindset Media, a media company that examines personality traits of different consumers, found that people who buy more than three pairs of sneakers a year are 61 percent more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader.These qualities were defined as having ideas and vision, and a style with others that is both inclusive and decisive.The survey of 7,500 people, using market research group Nielsen's online panel, found multi-sneaker buyers were 50 percent more likely to be very assertive and 47 percent more likely to be spontaneous.Lauren Arvonio, a spokeswoman for Mindset Media, said sneaker buyers were more likely to fly by the seat of their pants."It is often said you can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear, and now we have some hard data to back that up," Arvonio t...
More About: Science , Society , Footwear , Personality

Human-Animal Embryos Announced in U.K.
2008-04-03 13:47:00
For the first time in Britain, researchers at Newcastle University in northern England said Tuesday they had created human-animal hybrid embryos, amid a political row over a disputed embryo research bill in parliament. According to the university, the research, which was first presented at a lecture in Tel Aviv on March 25, has yet to be published or verified, with a spokesman for the university saying that the institution "wouldn't claim it to be final at all." The revelation comes with British MPs engaged in a fierce battle over the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, which allows the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's governing Labor Party conceded in March that its party lawmakers with moral or ethical objections would be allowed to vote against parts of the proposed legislation when it comes before parliament this year. The embryos were created by injecting DNA taken from human skin cells into eggs derived from c...
More About: Science , Animal

Dig Begins at Stonehenge Site
2008-04-02 11:07:00
Some of England's most sacred soil was disturbed for the first time in more than four decades as archaeologists worked to solve the enduring riddle of Stonehenge : When and why was the prehistoric monument built? The excavation project, which started Monday and is set to last until April 11, is designed to unearth materials that can be used to establish a firm date for when the first mysterious set of bluestones was put in place at Stonehenge, one of Britain's best known and least understood landmarks.The World Heritage site, a favorite with visitors the world over, has become popular with Druids, neo-Pagans and New Agers who attach mystical significance to the strangely shaped circle of stones, but there remains great debate about the actual purpose of the structure. The dig will be led by Timothy Darvill, a leading Stonehenge scholar from Bournemouth University, and Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries. Both experts have worked to pinpoint the site in th...
More About: History , Site , Mystery

Installing Freeware Wisely
2008-03-30 15:19:00
Though one cannot be 100 per cent safe, there are some simple rules one can follow while installing freeware, or any software for that matter, to ensure that spyware applications do notinstall themselves on your computer.Download software only from trusted and reliable sources. If at any point you are unsure about the legitimacy or the trustworthiness of a download source, it would be advisable to look elsewhere.Though it can be a pain, it is definitely worth the while to read the Terms of Agreement of the software. Look for sentences like ?When you agree to these terms you agree to allow third party software to be installed on your computer.? Immediately avoid such programs.If you really want to install a software you downloaded, but are not sure of its integrity, you should ask someone who knows more about the subject. Even a simple Google search should bring up some answers. The golden rule is: only install software the contents of which you?re sure of.Spam is one of the leading ...
More About: Security , Internet , Freeware

Germ-phobia and death rays
2008-03-29 14:20:00
In the scientific world, Nikola Tesla is remembered principally for his work on the rotating magnetic field, which made possible the alternating-current generators that supply most of the world with electricity today. In honour of this achievement a scientific unit was named after him. The 'tesla' does not often crop up in layman's conversation, however, as it is used to calculate the force of a magnetic field. His name is also immortalised in the Tesla coil, a device that allows a transformer to generate high frequency current at a very high voltage. It is still used in televisions, radios and other modern electronic devices. He invented the coil in the course of his work on alternating current in 1891.In later years Tesla was something of a solitary eccentric, often to be seen walking to the New York Public Library from his hotel, where his room had to serve as his laboratory. Although he developed a phobia for germs, it appears he did not suspect the city's pigeons of being c...
More About: Science , Death , Personalities , Rays , Germ

A matter of give and take
2008-03-27 12:57:00
Most flowering plants produce seeds that have a built-in food supply to help the young seedling in the early stages of its life. But the orchid Dactylorchis purpurella is an exception. Its seeds are so tiny that there is no room for a food store. The seed of this flower survives only because of its relationship with a particular kind of fungus, which feeds it and helps it to germinate.The fungus, a species of the Rhizoctonia family, penetrates the seed and provides it with nutrients from the soil until it has grown leaves that can produce their own food through photosynthesis. As the orchid develops, the fungus takes nourishment from the orchid's roots. The two plants live side by side, in what at first appears to be a mutually beneficial relationship.But as the orchid takes the nutrients it needs, it actually eats away at the fungus. Eventually, when the orchid can depend on its leaves to provide enough food, it devours its life-giving partner completely.
More About: Science , Nature , Matter , Give

Living dangerously
2008-03-24 13:15:00
The Dangerous Sports Club is a group of eccentrics based in Oxford, England, who endeavour to 'act boldly in timorous, over-protected world'. 'Acting boldly' to the Dangerous Sports Club means acting like madmen to most other people. Why else would David Kirke, one of the club's founding members, have hurled himself from the Royal Gorge Bridge in 1982, 320 m (1030 ft) above the Arkansas River in Colorado? He was attached to the bridge by a length of elasticated cord tied to his ankles. At 260 m (860 ft) the cord was stretched to its limits, and so was Kirke: virtually unconscious, he dangled for over two hours before his companions could haul him back to the bridge.Grabbing the bull by the hornsHistory is full of such daredevils. The 'bull leapers' of ancient Crete, for example, used to grab the horns of a charging bull and somersault over its back. These were the forerunners of circus acts such as Hugo Zacchini, a Californian, whose fame was due as much to his showmanship as...
More About: Living , Personalities

Cause for celebration
2008-03-23 10:47:00
Children receive gits of chocolate coffins bearing their own names, sugar skulls grin merrily, and families enjoy picnics in the cemetery to sing and chat to the corpses there. There are all part of the extraordinary festivities that take place on Mexico's El Dia de los Muertas, the Day of the Dead.Mexicans believe that on this day the dead return briefly to the land of the living - and since their visit is but a short one, they deserve a joyful reception.The Day of the Dead - held on what other countries call All Souls' Day - is no more than an enjoyable reminder of the brevity and insignificance of life. The Mexican author Octavio Paz even goes as far as to say that: 'The Mexican frequents death, mocks it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it.'Such an attitude has its roots deep in Mexico's history. Between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD, long before the rise of the Aztec civilisation there, the Totonaca Indians believed that the 'underworld' of the dead was a parallel ...
More About: Society , Celebration

Saved in the nick of time
2008-03-21 03:39:00
The Arabian oryx, once extinct in the wild, has been given a second chanceAmong the horned heads of deer and antelope with which hunters used so proudly to decorate their walls, pride of place in many collections went to a noble-looking animal with a black and white face and two long, slightly curving horns: the Arabian oryx. In antiquity, this creature was revered by the Arabs, who bound its horns together, creating the original unicorn.For centuries the oryx had been a prized trophy for hunters living in the Arabian peninsula. A tough and elusive antelope, it was hard to track down on horseback in the desert, and to kill one with primitive firearms was considered a high test of manhood.The oryx has remarkable stamina, migrating over vast tracts of desert in search of new feeding grounds, but it is not a fast runner. Against a new breed of hunter, armed with an automatic rifle and riding in a four-wheel-drive vehicle or even a light plane, it stood no chance. The animal was hunted ...
More About: Time , Animals , Nick

Going over the top
2008-03-20 03:47:00
On the afternoon of October 24, 1901, several thousand people watched as a large wooden barrel careered through violent rapids towards Niagara's Horseshoe Falls. Swept along by the current, the cask disappeared over the edge. Seconds later the barrel rose up to the surface in the calmer waters 54 m (160 ft) below: it had survived its battering. And miraculously, for the fist time in Niagara's long history of daredevils, so had its passenger.Strapped and cushioned inside, school teacher Anna Edson Taylor had just celebrated her 43rd birthday with a death-defying plunge into the history books. Taylor was shocked and badly shaken and had a gash in her head; but she was alive, conscious, and within a few days had fully recovered.Anna Taylor's bravery did not bring her the cascade of riches she had hoped, and she died penniless in 1921. She is buried in a 'stunters' section of Niagara Falls' Oakwood cemetery, remembered still as the first person - and only woman ever - to survive t...
More About: Human Nature , Personalities

Spelling out our ABC
2008-03-19 14:39:00
We often say that things are 'as easy as ABC', but if it hadn't been for the Phoenicians, we might not have an alphabet at all. And without the ancient Greeks - who adapted the Phoenician alphabet before passing it on to us - all our letters would would be back to front.It is thought that the Greeks first encountered the alphabet around 1000 BC through trade with the Phoenicians, who inhabited what is now Lebanon. The Phoenicians wrote from right to left. When the Greeks borrowed their script, they experimented with boustrophedon (meaning 'plough-wise') writing: changing direction line by line, like an ox pulling a plough. Eventually, the Greeks settled on writing from left to right, and so their letters were mirror images of the Phoenician originals.To adapt the alphabet to their own needs, the Greeks had to use some of the Phoenician letters in a different way. The Phoenicians only wrote down their consonants, leaving the reader to fill in the vowel sounds. But vowels had a f...
More About: Language , Spelling

Giants of the hills
2008-03-18 02:59:00
Great figures are incised into the turf of chalk hillsides in many parts of Britain. Some, such as the Uffington Horse [374 feet (110 m)] in Oxon formerly Berks (above), were probably created by Celts around 1000 BC. The horse may represent a god or be the badge of a tribe that worshipped horses.The male figure at Cerne Abbas in Dorset, long associated with fertility, is thought to be some 1500 years old. According to local lore it is the outline of a giant who terrorised the area, stealing sheep, until the people killed him while he slept, preserving his shape by cutting a line around his body.
More About: History , The Hills , Hills , Giants

Journey to Mecca
2008-03-16 14:19:00
Every year, at the start of the last month - called Zil-Hijjah in Arabic - of the Muslim calendar, almost 2.5 million people journey to the east coast of Saudi Arabia for the hadj (al-Hajj in Arabic), the holy pilgrimage to Mecca which all devout Muslims should, if they can, perform once in their lifetime. This host of visitors comes from every corner of the globe where Islam is practised, an astonishing mixture of nationalities.The city of Mecca was the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, in AD 570, and it was he who decreed it should a site of Muslim pilgrimage. The focus of the pilgrimage is the sanctuary of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped building in Mecca which, according to Muslim tradition, was built by Abraham. (It is towards the Kaaba that all Muslims, no matter where in the world they are, turn to pray five times - Fajr, Zohr, Asr, Mughrib and Esha - every day.) Especially holy is the sacred black stone - Hajr-e-Aswad - set into one wall of the building by Muham...
More About: Religion , History , Journey

Sick of the sea
2008-03-15 03:34:00
Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson - British admiral famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars, most notably in the Battle of Trafalgar - paid a heavy price for his courage and determination. He lost an eye, an arm and ultimately his life while serving his country. But, perhaps surprisingly for Britain's greatest sailor, he suffered throughout life from seasickness.He endured five months of seasickness on his very first voyage. And as late as 1801 - 30 years after his first voyage - he wrote of 'a heavy sea, sick to death . . .. I shall never get over [it].' Yet he was not deterred from a naval career.Seamen were constantly exposed to deprivation, malnutrition and disease. And Nelson was as prone to them as the next sailor. During a voyage to the Caribbean in 1780. Nelson and 87 of his crew came down with yellow fever, fewer than ten survived.Among other ailments, Nelson suffered from recurrent malaria, scurvy, temporary paralysis and possibly tuberculosis. He also frequent...
More About: History , Personalities , Sick

Height of jealousy
2008-03-13 15:01:00
Shorter men are more likely to be jealous husbands and boyfriends than their taller counterparts, suggests a fascinating research, which may finally have proof for the controversial 'Napoleon complex'.The studies, reported in the New Scientist journal, believes it reflects insecurities among men who are not society's "ideal" height. The much-talked about 'short man syndrome' is a phenomenon where short men compensate for their lack of height by inculcating aggressive tendencies, often associated with Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler and Attila the Hun.In the study carried out by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, researchers asked men and women how jealous they were in their current relationships.In another similar study, involving 119 male and 230 female students, the participants were quizzed on their reaction if they saw their girlfriend, or boyfriend, flirting with a stranger. The findings suggested that shorter men were far more likely to say they were jealous than...
More About: Science , Jealousy

The trains that drive themselves
2008-03-12 04:06:00
In 1910, the world's first fully operational driverless railway opened below the streets of Munich. Although the train carried no passenger, only mail for the Post Office, it was hailed as having revolutionary implications for the future of rail travel in general.Decades later, despite the use of modern technology - closed-circuit televisions to monitor the movement of passengers on both the train and the platform, and microprocessors that can perform all the tasks of a human crew on a conventional train - just 20 passenger-carrying railways around the world use automatic trains and only a few of these are completely unmanned. An attendant is usually on board to control doors, start the train and cope in an emergency.Why is it that such a labour-saving and therefore economical system has had such little success? Research shows that passengers are reluctant to travel on trains without drivers because they fear they are not safe. But, since the first fully automatic unmanned system w...
More About: Science , Technology , Drive , Trains