Thursday, December 1, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Soon, pill that can make even couch potatoes 'super fit'!

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A pill that can make people as "super fit" as highly-trained athletes without moving a muscle is a step closer to reality, researchers say

They have discovered a protein, which can make muscles store and burn sugars at rates that vastly improve physical performance.

According to Daniel P. Kelly and his team at the Sanford-Burnham's Lake Nona campus in Orlando, Fla., muscle performance and fitness are partly determined by how well your muscle cells use sugar as a fuel source.

In turn, exercising improves the muscle's ability to take up sugars from the bloodstream and burn them for energy. On the flip side, conditions that reduce physical activity like obesity or chronic disease reduce the muscle's capacity to burn sugar.

When activated in mice, the suggested metabolic re-programming dramatically improves exercise performance, and the new study reveals new targets that could be explored to increase the ability of muscles to burn sugars, an avenue that could ultimately lead to new prevention or treatment methods for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

"Essentially, these transgenic mice are capable of storing and burning sugars at rates usually only seen in the trained athlete. This allows for supranormal athletic performance," Kelly said.

Kelly's mice are special because they're engineered to produce the protein PPAR /d in their muscle tissue, which is a nuclear receptor, a type of protein that binds DNA to turn genes on or off in response to outside signals, in this case, genes specific to muscle metabolism.

Kelly and his team also found that PPAR /d mice are super fit. Compared to normal mice, they ran longer and faster yet generated lower amounts of lactic acid, considered the chief mediator of exercise-induced muscle pain.

It turns out that exercise stimulates cells to assemble a complex of three proteins, PPAR /d, a protein that maintains cellular energy balance (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase or AMPK), and a protein that helps activate muscle-specific genes (MEF2A).

Together, these proteins switch on the gene that produces lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme that directs sugar-derived metabolites into mitochondria, where complete burning of the fuel is possible -- effectively converting sugar to energy. It's likely that this novel mechanism helps activate other genes involved in muscle fitness as well.

"Given the association of obesity and insulin resistance with diets enriched in simple sugars, we find these results promising as a step towards new therapeutics," he said.

"Previously, members of the PPAR protein family have proven to be difficult drug targets due to the wide variety of effects they have in a cell. However, the findings in this study suggest that strategies for activating only a subset of events downstream of PPAR /d are possible. This could lead to favourable metabolic effects on muscle and other tissues," he added.

The study has been published in the journal Genes and Development.

Swearing can help you ease pain of injury

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Scientists from Keele University have found that swearing after hurting yourself can help numb the pain of an injury

They discovered that letting forth a volley of foul language could have a powerful painkilling effect, especially for people who do not normally use expletives, reports the Telegraph.

In the study, student volunteers placed their hands in a bucket of ice cold water while swearing repeatedly.

They then repeated the exercise but, instead of swearing, used a harmless phrase instead.

Researchers found that the students were able to keep their hands submerged in the icy water for longer when repeating the swear word, establishing a link between swearing and an increase in pain tolerance.

They also found that the pain-numbing effect was four times more likely to work in the volunteers who did not normally use bad language.

The team believes the pain-lessening effect occurs because swearing triggers the ''''fight or flight'''' response.

''''Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens, who worked on the project.

''''It taps into emotional brain centres and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain.

''''Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," he added.

Zimbabwean women rapists get death threats

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Three Zimbabwean women, who have been accused of sexually attacking men, are now receiving death threats, a Harare court heard on Tuesday

The women allegedly attacked male hitchhikers to collect semen for rituals.

"We have indicated that they have received death threats. Every time they appear in a public place, they are assaulted, insulted and mocked by people," News 24 quoted defence lawyer Dumisani Mthombeni as telling the court during a pre-trial hearing.

"Any public appearance they make is an opportunity for those who have been threatening them to pounce on them. Heaven knows what may happen to them," Mthombeni added.

Sisters Sophie and Netsai Nhokwara, 26 and 24, and Rosemary Chakwizira, 28, were arrested early in October and charged with committing a string of sexual attacks on men.

Thulani Ngwenya, 24, a boyfriend to one of the women, was also charged.

The four are out on 300-dollar bail each and they surrendered their passports. Their trial date has been set for January 26.

World's first sex school opens in Austria

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A Swedish schoolmistress has opened the world's first international sex school in Austria to teach students how to be better lovers

The Austrian International Sex School in Vienna offers "hands on" lessons in seduction for 1,400 pounds a term.

Headmistress Ylva-Maria Thompson says that anyone over the age of 16 can enroll at the world's first college of applied sexuality'.

Students live in a mixed sex dormitory block where they're expected to practice their homework.

And at the end of the course, they are awarded a qualification.

"Our core education is not theoretical, but very practical," the Daily Mail quoted the headmistress as saying.

"The emphasis is on how to be a better lover.

"Sexual positions, caressing techniques, anatomical features. And we teach people hands on.

School spokesperson Melodi Kirsch also shared his thoughts on the opening of the school.

"We are confident that the school will be a great success," Kirsch said.

"Ylva-Maria has worked for a long time on this idea and has received much encouragement and interest.

The school has already been controversial in Austria.

Raunchy adverts showing a couple making love have already been banned by Austrian TV.

Agra markets join shutdown against FDI in retail

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Markets in Agra wore a deserted look Thursday as shopkeepers joined the nationwide shutdown to protest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector

All opposition parties supported the shutdown. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party workers requested shopkeepers to pull down their shutters in the morning.

The Uttar Pradesh Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal also supported the stir.

BJP corporator Kundika Sharma announced at a meeting that she and some other women activists would self-immolate outside United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi if the central government didn't rollback the move.

But SAVDHAN, another organisation representing the businessmen of the city, said the protest was uncalled for and unnecessary because the central government has said it was for the states to take appropriate action, and the policy would not be thrust upon them.

Man shot in buttocks by own dog

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An American man who was duck hunting on the Great Salt Lake near Brigham City was shot by his dog in the buttocks.

The 46-year-old man from Brigham City and his friend went duck hunting on Sunday about 8:30 a.m. on the north end of the Great Salt Lake near the bird refuge, about 10 miles west of Brigham City when the incident occurred.

According to Box Elder County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Kevin Potter, the two had their canoe-like boat in a shallow marsh area when the man got out of the boat to either set up or collect decoys, and laid his 12-gauge shotgun across the bow of the boat.

After the man got out of the boat, the dog inside the vessel jumped up on the bow and stepped on the gun, which fired and shot the man in the buttocks.

Medical crews later removed 27 pellets of birdshot.

"(The dog) did something to make the gun discharge," the Deseret News quoted Potter as saying.

"I don't know if the safety device was on. It's not impossible the dog could have taken it off safety," he said.

The men called 911 and walked to the main road to wait for emergency crew.

Potter also said that the fact the man was wearing waders most likely helped prevent a more serious injury.

Potter said that the gun was fired from approximately 10 feet away.

Occupy Los Angeles tossed

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Nearly 1,400 officers storm the camp, arrest 200 during eviction

Around 1,400 police officers stormed the Occupy Los Angeles encampment yesterday morning, pulling down tents and arresting at least 200 people, two days after a deadline passed for the protesters to clear out.


Not going down without a fight: Police officers pull down structures
and carry away the protesters from the site who initially refused to leave
even after the mayor had announced for a 11clean-up. pic/afp

LAPD chief Charlie Beck told reporters that he had "never been prouder" of his police force.

He was joined in praising the operation by mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Police officers flooded out of Los Angeles City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp. Officers in helmets and wielding batons surrounded the camp from the streets. Defiant campers who were chanting slogans as the officers entered the park, booed when an unlawful assembly was declared, which paved the way for officers to begin arresting those who did not leave.

Officers immediately took down a tattooed man with a camera on City Hall steps and wrestled him to the ground as someone yelled "police brutality." Police then arrested at least a dozen more protesters.

Miley Cyrus's music video for Occupy
Miley Cyrus has filmed a music video featuring powerful images from the worldwide Occupy movement and encouraging protesters to 'never give up'. Priscilla Grim, co-editor of The Occupied Wall Street Journal said that Miley's music video tribute 'rocks' in spirit, but that she doubts whether the teenager would have the courage to join them on the streets.


French man ordered to pay wife Rs 7 lakh for lack of sex

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A court in France has ordered a man to pay 10,000 euros (Rs 7 lakh) in damages to his long-frustrated ex-wife after he failed in his marriage "duties" by withholding sex from her for years.

In the ruling, an appeals court in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence upheld an earlier decision to award the damages for "absence of sexual relations".

In its ruling, the court said the man's wife deserved the damages due to the suffering she endured because of her sexless marriage.

"The wife's expectations were legitimate in the sense that sexual relations between married people are an expression of their mutual affection and part of the duties that proceed from marriage," the court said.

It dismissed the husband's argument that health problems and long working hours had simply reduced the opportunities for the couple to have sex.


Winehouse dress fetches Rs 35 lakh at auction

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The dress worn by Amy Winehouse on the front of her Back To Black album has sold for more than �40,000 (Rs 30 lakh) at auction.

The polka dot chiffon dress was bought by a South American fashion museum, with the proceeds going to the foundation set up by the late singer's family in her memory.

Winehouse was found dead at her home in Camden, north London, this July after a lengthy -- and public battle with drink and drugs.



Her father Mitch was at the auction in central London to see the dress fetch �43,200 (Rs 35 lakh) after the winning bid was made by the Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile.

He said, "We are just over the moon and we owe a great debt to the designer, Disaya, who donated the proceeds from the sale."

Mitch Winehouse said, "We are very proud to be helping these deserving causes and have been overwhelmed by the support the foundation has received. We are willing to consider a wide range of projects, as there are so many great organisations out there working with young people in need. We are researching and meeting with different groups who offer support in the areas we wish to fund. We are particularly keen to make donations in Camden, a place very close to the family's hearts as Amy's home."

He added, "Amy would be so proud that her name is making a difference to young lives and especially that her music is directly making life better for vulnerable young people."

Also included in the sale, organised by Kerry Taylor Auctions, were dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor.

"In my opinion, what makes this particular dress so special, is that it is an emblematic reminder of the magic voice and sublime talent of Amy Winehouse -- a sound that resonates with an entire generation and always will. I am pleased to help raise funds for her charity and encourage fans, the music industry and museums the world over to bid with us on November 29."


Posted by Harshad at 7:32 AM

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