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Friday, April 8, 2005Professor Perry Bartlett of University of Queensland‘s Brain Institute recommends sex, cryptic crosswords and a good run to stave off dementia.

The researcher, interviewed on Australian ABC radio today [1], said that with 52,000 Australians expected to be diagnosed with dementia by the end of the year, people wishing to ward off the degenerative disorder may benefit from activities which stimulate growth of new cells in the brain, accompanied by mental exercise to select for survival of the resulting crop of new cells.

“Quite prolonged exercise is very good to make new neurones,” said the Professor. “These new nerve cells are really quite vital to our ability to function in the higher brain functions, such as memory and learning. Most of them die. We now know that we can preserve some of them by giving direct stimuli.”

Professor Bartlett explained recent research findings, including those from collaborator Jeffrey D. Macklis [2] at Harvard in the US.

“There are a lot of hormones and changes in blood that go up and down after exercise, and so that may be a lead to some of the chemicals that can drive the production of nerve cells.

“One of the chemicals that seems to promote neurogenesis is prolactin, and prolactin levels are very high in pregnant females. Prolactin levels, by the way, also go up during sex as well. So one could think of a number of more entertaining activities than running in order to regulate the production of nerve cells.

“Perhaps doing something a little more inquisitive or intellectual might be good at selecting their survival. So perhaps one should run a long distance and do the cryptic crossword or something like that,” he said.

Professor Bartlett gave the same suggestions as being potentially helpful in depression, last year in an interview on the ABC Science Show. [3]

Saturday, April 17, 2010

In a new setback to the Thai government’s efforts to ease mounting political tensions, protest leaders escaped from their hotel Friday after security forces arrived to arrest them.

One, Arisman Pongruangrong, climbed down three floors using a rope, and was rushed away by supporters thronging the building. The police say Arisman led recent rallies at the national parliament, the election commission, and satellite transmission bases.

Officials earlier Friday said the government is preparing to arrest people linked to violent clashes with security forces last Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, Thai security chief, announced the raid on the hotel as it was unfolding, saying that a Special Forces unit had closed in around a downtown Bangkok hotel.

“As I am speaking, the government’s special team is surrounding the SC Park Hotel, where we have learned that there are terrorists and some of their leaders hiding,” Suthep said.

A spokesman for the governing Democrat Party, Baranuj Smuthararaks, says arrest warrants have been issued for those suspected of being involved in the violence. Some of the suspects have been identified from photos taken during the clashes.

“Right now the government’s focusing on issuing warrants for acts of terrorism by the people who fortunately have been captured in action [in photos] by both the local and international media,” he said.

According to the New York Times, as many as five protest leaders had been staying at the same hotel as Pongruangrong. Those leaders later appeared together at a protest rally in Bangkok.

“I would like to thank all of the people who saved me,” Arisman said. “You have saved democracy.”The government says armed men infiltrated protester ranks Saturday and fired on troops trying to disperse a rally. Five soldiers and 19 protesters died during the clashes.

Thailand is facing its most severe political crisis in almost 20 years. The anti-government movement, led by the United Democratic Front against Dictatorship or UDD, demands that the government step down and call fresh elections.

UDD supporters, known as red shirts, have held protests in Bangkok for more than a month.

The UDD largely supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and remains overseas to avoid a jail sentence for corruption. Mr. Thaksin has strong support among the rural and urban poor, as well among some sections of the army and police.

Some parties in the governing coalition want to set a clear time frame for elections to ease tensions. But the government says it will only call elections once the political situation has cooled.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Dale Ogden, a 2010 California gubernatorial candidate, talks with Wikinews reporter Mike Morales about his platform.

Ogden is a member of the United States’ Libertarian Party.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

The Brazilian football referee Edílson Pereira de Carvalho was detained by the Brazilian Federal Police on Saturday in Jacareí, a city 78 kilometers from São Paulo. According to the Public Prosecution Service, he refereed games in a partial manner so that only predetermined teams could win.

The businessman Nagib Fayad was also detained in São Paulo. Both are suspected of being part of a group suspected of manipulating games in order to profit through million dollar bets on sport bettings websites.

Brazilian prosecutor Roberto Porto said that investigators have 20 thousand hours of taped phone conversations back to October 2004 and that they have no doubt that Carvalho was fraudulently refereeing football games.

According to the spokeman of the Federal Police, Victor Hugo Rodrigues Alves, a referee would be contacted by phone by Fayad who would inform the referee which team should win the game. Fayad would then place the bets on Internet websites. Part of the profit would be given to the referee. Rodrigues claimed that additional people were involved.

On Saturday the referee told Federal Police that he favored various football teams while he administered games during the Liberators of the Americas Cup, Paulista Championship, and the Brazilian championship.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

On Monday, Ukrainian towboat “Chelyabinsk” ^{((uk))Ukrainian language: ???????????} ran its barge caravan into a bridge pillar on the river Danube at Baja, Hungary. The caravan broke up, but it continued its way downstream later that day. According to multiple sources, no casualties were reported.

The caravan consisted of six grain barges pushed by Chelyabinsk, a towboat of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company. Its downstream route crossed the rail-road bridge at Baja over the Danube at about marker 1480.

The caravan moved too far left from the navigable passage and hit a pillar of the bridge around 12:54 CET (1154 UTC) while trying to turn right. Gyula Szabó, a nautical expert interviewed by TV2, attributed the event to pilot error. An eyewitness told TV2 heavy winds were a contributing factor.

The caravan broke up after the collision. Boats anchored at Baja caught the barges. A police inspection found no leaks on them and the re-assembled caravan left the scene the same day.

Talking to RTL Klub, another helmsman, Dávid Peth?, pointed out this section is hard to navigate through with this kind of setup: “[This was] a caravan of about 200 meters in length [and] 33 meters in width with a mass, together with its cargo, of about 10 thousand metric tonnes. Keeping in mind that the horizontal clearance [under] the Baja bridge averages at only 60 metres, this is very large and very bulky.” ^{((hu))Hungarian language: ?Kb. 200 méteres karaván, 33 méter a szélessége, és kb. 10 000 tonna az ? tömege, így megrakottan. Ez egy hatalmas nagy méret és egy hatalmas nagy súly ahhoz képest, hogy a bajai hídnak az átlag hajózó szélessége csupán 60 méter.} Peth? also told RTL Klub this bridge-crossing manoeuvre starts three kilometres upstream from the bridge, with no room for error.

No significant damage was reported on the bridge, and cross-river traffic did not halt. The police categorised the case as an administrative offence.

Monday, July 11, 2016

On Friday, Arsenal F.C. goalkeeper and Czech Republic football captain Petr ?ech announced retirement from international football.

Debuting fourteen years ago, ?ech made 124 international appearances and became his nation’s most capped player. The 34-year-old goalkeeper said, “This is a purely football-based decision. […] I’m now 34 and the next [international] tournament is in two years which, in football, is a very long time.”

?ech said his childhood dream was to play a match in the national jersey. He has conceded 115 goals. Debuting against Hungary, he played his last international match against Turkey in the UEFA Euro 2016 group stage.

?ech has played four Euro tournaments, winning the bronze medal in 2004. He was voted Czech Footballer of the Year eight times and won the golden ball ten times.

?ech plays for Arsenal in the Premier League. He has made 367 Premier League appearances for Chelsea F.C. and Arsenal.

Monday, January 26, 2009

A televised appeal for victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not be shown by the BBC or by British Sky Broadcasting.

The BBC had announced last week that the appeal, from the thirteen-strong charity coordination body Disasters Emergency Committee, would not be shown, leading to a media storm and intense criticism of the decision. The BBC said that it had doubts over “the delivery of aid in a volatile situation” and also that the appeal might compromise its perceived neutrality in future news reports.

The BBC said the decision was made “because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story”.

Sky joined the BBC in rejecting the appeal today. The head of the Sky News channel, John Ryley, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that “the conflict in Gaza forms part of one of the most challenging and contentious stories for any news organisation to cover. Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of that story with uncompromising objectivity.”

The channel’s foreign news head, Adrian Wells, was quoted by AFP as saying on-air that “passions are raised on this story… and that is part of the backdrop of why we’ve made the decision we’ve made.”

The BBC’s decision led to demonstrations outside some of its buildings, including a sit-in at the Corporation’s Glasgow studios, and criticism from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Labour MP Richard Burden and 11,000 viewers. Mark Thompson, the BBC’s Director-General and Editor-in-Chief, has appeared on BBC television and BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme to defend the decision.

Commercial free-to-air channels ITV, Channel Four and FIVE have all agreed to show the appeal.