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2012年9月8日星期六

very special cat


 When there seems to be a new cute kitten gaining YouTube fame each week, it’s tough to stand out from the cat crowd.
But that’s certainly not a problem for Venus – the ‘two-faced’ cat who is the internet star du jour.
The feline’s face is perfectly divided in two – one half is jet black while the other is calico. And, as if this wasn’t enough, her eyes are different colours too – one is ice blue, the other is green.
Venus is known as a chimera cat because of her genetic composition and her different eye colours are caused by heterochromia.
Venus has several YouTube videos which have been seen about 154,000 times with thousands clicking the ‘like’ button.
Unsurprisingly, Venus now has her own Facebook page too where she has attracted more than 22,000 fans.
However, Venus is learning that world-wide fame has its downsides too as she has been unfavourably likened to Harvey Dent, Batman’s nemesis Two-Face.
Venus’ proud owner describes her lovingly as a ‘gentle’ and ‘perfect’ pet with a deceptively big appetite.
‘As tiny as she is she likes to pick the giant pieces of food from the dog food bowl rather than eat her cat food,’ the owner writes on Venus’ Facebook page.

message-in-a-bottle discovered at a Socttish beach has sparked a mystery about whether id have travelled 5,000 miles across the seas from China.


A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother and daughter at a Socttish beach has sparked a mystery about whether it could have travelled 5,000 miles across the seas from China.
  
 Now the family are trying to work out if the letter has managed the extraordinary journey across the Philippine Sea, into the Indian Ocean and through both the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic Ocean's before washing up on the shores of Great Britain.
 
 en]It is unclear when the letter was sent off, as it was written on Chinese Valentine's Day, or Qixi Festival as it is more traditionally known, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

 While the letter bears the date in line with the lunar calendar - July 7, 2012 - it could have been sent off as recently as six days ago if it followed the modern calendar, which celebrated the occasion on August 23.
 。  
 Whether the message has travelled thousands of miles from China or whether it was penned by a love-struck pair much closer to home remains a mystery.
   
 But for Nicola it doesn't matter - she was still excited to read about the Chinese love story after having it translated.
   
 She said: 'I really do hope that it is from China but even it is from nearer to home, it's still a lovely gesture and an inspiring find. It's a love story regardless of where it came from.'
  
 Nicola, who runs a beach art business in Portobello, added: 'I'm always at the beach looking for bits of driftwood but I’ve never come across anything like this before.
     
 'We saw the bottle sticking out of the sand and just thought it was junk that someone had left behind.
   
 'But after picking it up I noticed there was a piece of brown paper rolled up inside and there was some foreign writing on it.
  
 'We quite excitedly took it home and carefully uncorked the bottle and took out the sheet of paper using some tweezers.
 
 'We knew it was Chinese, but we had no idea what it said.'
 
 Unable to read the Mandarin text, Nicola turned to the internet and her Australian friend, Julie Gould, whose daughter attended a Chinese school in Sydney.

 Several hours later Julie returned with the news that it was in fact a love letter.
   
 Nicola said: 'It sounds to me like the couple are in love but cannot be together so they have sent the message to tell the world of their love.

 'I'm blown away by it to be honest - it's incredible that it has travelled all this way.'
  
 In May 2008, a message in a bottle turned up on a Hebridean beach after completing a 4000-mile sea journey from the Bahamas.

Yosemite National Park this summer may be at risk for the deadly rodent-borne hantavirus


Some 10,000 people who stayed in tent cabins at Yosemite National Park this summer may be at risk for the deadly rodent-borne hantavirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
The CDC urged lab testing of patients who exhibit symptoms consistent with the lung disease, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, after a stay at the California park between June and August and recommended that doctors notify state health departments when it is found.
Two men have died from hantavirus linked to the Yosemite outbreak and four others were sickened but survived, while the CDC said additional suspected cases were being investigated from “multiple health jurisdictions.”
Most of the victims were believed to have been infected while staying in one of 91 “Signature” tent-style cabins in Yosemite’s popular Curry Village camping area.
“An estimated 10,000 persons stayed in the ‘Signature Tent Cabins’ from June 10 through August 24, 2012,” the CDC said. “People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk of developing HPS in the next six weeks.”
Yosemite officials earlier this week shut down all 91 of the insulated tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, nesting between the double walls.
Park authorities said on Friday that they had contacted approximately 3,000 parties of visitors who stayed in the tent cabins since mid-June, advising them to seek immediate medical attention if they have symptoms of hantavirus.
Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite, one of the nation’s most popular national parks, each year, attracted to the its dramatic scenery and hiking trails. Roughly 70 percent of those visitors congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.
The virus starts out causing flu-like symptoms, including headache, fever, muscle ache, shortness of breath and cough, and can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death.
The incubation period for the virus is typically two to four weeks after exposure, the CDC said, with a range between a few days and six weeks. Just over a third of cases are fatal.

announcing new fines of up to 250 euros


The people of the Brussels will have to mind their manners from now on, with the city authorities announcing new fines of up to 250 euros (?200) for insults traded on the streets.
“Any form of insult is from now on punishable, whether it be racist, homophobic or otherwise,” a spokesman quoted Socialist mayor Freddy Thielemans as saying.
Brussels, home to the EU and many top international institutions, is known for its family-friendly and cultivated lifestyle but the mayor wants to crack down on the everyday unpleasantness found in any big city.
To do so, officials came to an agreement with judicial authorities to impose fines of between 75 and 250 euros for insults, petty theft and rough jostling where no physical harm is caused.
The spokesman for the mayor said the courts up to now had been too busy to take up such cases and as a result many police “had little incentive to take any action over such incidents”.
The issue was highlighted in a recent film by Belgian director Sofie Peeters who recorded in secret the everyday insults and exchanges she ran into on the streets of the city.

Is tenure at Harvard the stuff of nightmares


Eric Kester experienced the Harvard no one talks about.
His tenure at Harvard is the stuff of nightmares. He survived a brush with a cheating ring, being locked out of his dorm on the first day of school in just his boxers, and being the only one of his friends to move home jobless after graduation.
Kester, who graduated in 2008, admits that he barely survived “the world’s most famous university,” and he recaps it all in his recently released tell-all memoir, “That Book About Harvard.”
Kester wrote a humor column for The Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, and wrote for CollegeHumor.com after graduating. Once a publisher read about his mishaps at Harvard, Kester was encouraged to write a book.

“Everyone seemed more accomplished than me, better than me,” Kester said. “That’s a lot of the same anxiety at any college, but it’s really intensified there at Harvard.”

Kester’s lack of confidence was justified: At Harvard, he was surrounded by brilliant minds, including Mark Zuckerberg, who was one of his classmates. Kester also joked (well, actually he was serious) that everyone at Harvard was valedictorian of their high school class.
Some of the facts in the book are skewed and names changed. But Kester assures readers that the craziest stuff in his memoir—the events that seem impossible, like being caught in his underwear and experiencing party mishaps—actually did happen.
“I tell my parents it didn’t actually happen though,” Kester said. “It makes them feel better.”
Kester couldn’t catch a break from the start. On his first day at school, freshman move-in day, he locked himself out of his dorm room. He was wearing just his boxers. To get the spare key to his room, Kester had to walk across Harvard Yard, which was filled with hundreds of students and parents, in just his underwear.
“All these classmates I wanted to impress essentially just saw me do a walk of shame,” Kester said. “It made every interaction after that much more anxiety ridden.”
Kester continued to struggle with academics and what he wanted to major in. The pressure of Harvard’s culture started to push him in the wrong direction.
Calculus quickly became the biggest challenge for Kester, who originally was a business major, but then switched to anthropology.
Cue the cheating club. Classmates knew Kester was struggling in classes and looking for an easy way to succeed. He had a class with someone in a cheating ring, who introduced him to the seedy world of cheaters at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. “It kind of found me,” he said.
The cheating ring was here to help and Kester’s contact wanted to give him all the information about the most common ways to cheat. The most utilized and easiest way to cheat at Harvard is hiding answers in the bathroom. The cheating ring encouraged Kester to visit the bathroom during tests and take advantage of the answers hidden there, but at the last moment he backed out, afraid to jeopardize his academic career.
Kester admits in the book’s Note From the Author that he wrote this book to impress a girl and to impress all of his classmates who went on to big business jobs after graduation—even though he just moved home to live with his parents.
He also hopes readers understand that there are good people at Harvard, many of whom made his tumultuous college career worth it. Kester, now 26, currently teaches at Middlesex School outside of Boston.
“I understand this isn’t the Harvard everyone experienced,” Kester said. “But I hope anyone reading the book, someone going into college, or an alumnus, can relate to the anxieties we all have about college.”

10 most common sleep mistakes

Most of us have struggled at some point with sleep. Whether it’s not getting enough sleep or struggling to get up in the morning, it can be difficult to get the balance just right.
 
  However, sleep is essential if we want to be productive in life. It provides us with the energy we need to get stuff done!
 
  Here are the 10 most common sleep mistakes people make and a few tips for avoiding them!
  
  1. The snooze button
 
  Don’t EVER hit the snooze button. It really is much more beneficial to just get up on your first alarm. Think about it – the snooze button gives you an extra 10 minutes or so sleep. In the grand scheme of your day this really won’t provide you with any more energy. In-fact it does the opposite. Research has shown that ‘interrupted sleep’ can cause us to feel more tired.
  
  2. Disorganized sleeping habits
  It’s much easier to get to sleep each night (and wake up feeling refreshed) if we have a regular routine. This means going to bed at roughly the same time each night and getting up at roughly the same time each morning. If you’re disorganized with your sleeping routine, you end up interrupting your natural sleeping rhythms, which can cause insomnia and fatigue.

  3. Long naps
  
  Long naps can disrupt your sleeping rhythms so if you’re desperate for a nap then keep it under the 30 minute mark (and before 4pm). Short naps after lunch can help to restore energy levels (just make sure you don’t sleep in).
 
  4. Caffeine/stimulants
  Don’t drink any caffeinated drinks after mid-day. Caffeine stimulates your body for up to 12 hours after consumption so it’s important to restrict your intake later in the day. Be aware of supposed ‘herbal’ drinks such as green tea, which can have a high dose of caffeine. Always check the label.
 
  5. Stress & negative thinking
 
  Stress is a large reason why many people find it difficult to sleep. One of the worse things you can do is be stressed before bed. Stress produces chemicals that physically stop us from sleeping. Try and clear your mind before bed time and make an effort to think positive thoughts that aid sleep.
  
  6. Too much light
  Our bodies depend on ‘sleep signals’ to fall asleep and one of those signals is darkness. Make sure your room is as dark as possible before trying to get to sleep. Even a thin stream of light coming in through your window can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of sleep hormones and therefore disturb your sleep rhythms, so make sure your blinds are closed!
  7. Sugar before bedtime
  Sugary snacks before bedtime are a really bad idea. The sugar can disrupt the chemicals in your body causing you to wake up during the night. Limit all late night sweet treats – if you’re hungry go for a protein based snack instead.
  8. Alcohol before bedtime
  Alcohol is a sedative and therefore people get fooled into thinking it will help them get a good nights sleep. The reality is that it may initially induce sleep, however it usually drastically impairs sleep during the second half of the night which leads to interrupted sleep patterns that will leave you feeling fatigued in the morning (not to mention the hangover!)

  9. TV in the bedroom
  It can be easy to fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV. It’s important we don’t try and replicate this strategy in the bedroom though. The bedroom must only be associated with sleep. When you start to introduce mental stimulation such as a TV this can severely disrupt your sleep patterns.

  10. Worrying about sleep
  If you’ve had a few bad nights sleep, then the worst thing you can do is worry too much about it. When we place too much focus on sleeping this can cause anxiety and only make the problem worse. Try to go with the flow and let your body naturally get into a healthy sleep pattern.