Sitting for long hours kills you fast!

Sitting for 11 hours or more in everyday life increases our chances of dying within three years, irrespective of whether we are physically active or not, an Australian study has found.

According to the study by University of Sydney, the people who remained sedentary for half day had a 40 percent increased risk, even when physical activity and weight was taken into account, the Daily Mail reported.

"These results have important public health implications. That morning walk or trip to the gym is still necessary but it's also important to avoid prolonged sitting," according to study leader Hidde van der Ploeg.

"Our results suggest the time people spend sitting at home, work and in traffic should be reduced by standing or walking more."

The results showed physical activity was still beneficial - inactive people who sat the most had double the risk of dying within three years than the active people who sat least.

Among the physically inactive group, those who sat the most had nearly one-third higher chance of dying than those who sat least.

The research was commissioned by the Cardiovascular Research Network and supported by the National Heart Foundation Australia's NSW Division.

Heart Foundation CEO Tony Thirlwell said being inactive was a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is responsible for over 17 million deaths a year worldwide.

"Watching TV, using computers and electronic games can involve sitting for long periods and have become a big part of leisure time," he said.

"But we know that people who spend less time on these things have better health than those who spend too much time on them." Credit : santabanta.com

Indian granny is the oldest woman sharpshooter

78-year-old Indian woman is believed to be the world's oldest female professional sharpshooter.

Chandro Tomar has entered and won over 25 national championships across India as well as raising six children and 15 grandchildren.

"I wanted to do something useful with my life and show people my capabilities," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

"As soon as I shot my first pistol I was hooked. And now I've shown everyone there's no disadvantages to my age. If you're focused you can do anything," she said.lmost ten years ago Tomar took her granddaughter to a local firing range in Johri village, in Uttar Pradesh, India.

She wanted to learn a new skill but was too shy to go alone. In the end it was Tomar who was welcomed into the club with open arms.

"As I was waiting around I decided to have a go. The coach spotted me and was amazed at my aim.

"He told me to come back so I did. Initially I was just supporting my granddaughter but I enjoyed it so much it became a passion and I looked forward to going to the club every week," she said.

While Tomar tended to her daily chores on her farm and raised her family, she practiced her aim whenever she could using stones and throwing them at water bottles.

"I was surprised when I saw a pensioner in our group but she picked it up pretty quickly," the club's coach, Farooq Pathan, who set up the shooting club with two friends in 1998, said.

"She was so good some of the men stopped turning up altogether to avoid being humiliated by her, a old woman. She has the ultimate skill, a steady hand and a sharp eye," he said.

Now she's a national treasure, known throughout India for her skill, even winning gold at the Veteran Shooting Championship held in Chennai.

Australian kids think yoghurt grows on trees: study

SYDNEY: Most Australian children in their last year of primary school think cotton socks come from animals while one-quarter believe yoghurt is from plants, a study warning of the growing gap between city and country found.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) survey of almost 1,000 students in grades six and 10 found widespread misconceptions about food processing and farming.

An overwhelming majority knew where potato chips and coffee came from but almost 20 percent of the younger age group -- aged between 10 and 12 years -- thought pasta came from animals and scrambled eggs from plants.

Some 75 percent said cotton socks were an animal product and 27 percent believed yoghurt was derived from plants.

"Primary industry plays a vital role in Australian's economy and society, but the gap between rural and urban communities is growing, contributing to a lack of understanding of where food and other basic necessities of life come from," the study said.

The agricultural lobby group which commissioned the survey, the Primary Industries Education Foundation (PIEF), said the findings were of concern as Australia prepared to confront food security and climate change challenges.

"The people who will need to solve the problems related to food security are either currently in school or are yet to be born," said foundation chief Cameron Archer.

Agriculture is a major part of Australia's economy, with two-thirds of all produce shipped overseas. Exports were worth Aus$34.2 billion ($36.6 billion) in 2010-11 and are expected to come in at $34.5 billion in 2011-2012. (AFP)

Japan scientist makes violin strings from spider silk

TOKYO: A Japanese scientist said Tuesday he has made violin strings out of spider silk and claims that -- in the right hands -- they produce a beautiful sound.

Thousands of the tiny strands can be wound together to produce a strong but flexible string that is perfect for the instrument, said Shigeyoshi Osaki, professor of polymer chemistry at Nara Medical University.

Osaki, who has been working with spider silk for 35 years, has previously suggested the material could be used for surgical sutures or for bullet proof vests, but his passion for the violin inspired him to create something with a musical twist.

In the process of weaving the threads, their shape changes from cylindrical to polygonal, which means they fit together much better, Osaki told AFP.

"During the assembly of normal threads there are many spaces between individual fibres," he said.

"What we achieved left no space among the filaments. It made the strings stronger. This can have all sorts of applications in our day-to-day lives," he said, adding 300 female Nephila maculata spiders had provided his raw materials.

The strength and durability of spider silk is not a new discovery, with previous studies showing it can withstand high temperatures and the effects of ultraviolet light.

Osaki once produced a rope spun from spider silk that he said could theoretically support a 600 kilogram (1,300 pound) weight.

Now his latest creation is making waves among musicians, who have praised
the sonorous quality of the spider silk violin strings for their "soft and profound timbre".

"Professional violinists have said they can tell the difference" whether the strings are on a Stradivarius or on Osaki's own $1,200 violin, he said.

"It's one thing to create scientifically meaningful items, but I also wanted to produce something that would be socially accepted by ordinary people," he said.

Details of Osaki's research will be published in Physical Review Letters, a journal of the American Physical Society. (AFP)

Human origins traced to worm fossil in Canada

TORONTO: Paleontologists have traced the origins of humans and other vertebrates to a worm that swam in the oceans half a billion years ago, said a study published Monday.

A new analysis of fossils unearthed in the Canadian Rockies determined that the extinct Pikaia gracilens is the most primitive known member of the chordate family, which today includes fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals.

The research published in the British scientific journal Biological Reviews identified a notochord or rod that would become part of the backbone in vertebrates, and skeletal muscle tissue called myomeres in 114 fossil specimens of the creature.

They also found a vascular system.

"The discovery of myomeres is the smoking gun that we have long been seeking," said the study's lead author, Simon Conway Morris of the Cambridge University.

"Now with myomeres, a nerve chord, a notochord and a vascular system all identified, this study clearly places Pikaia as the planet's most primitive chordate.

"So, next time we put the family photograph on the mantle-piece, there in the background will be Pikaia."

The first specimens of Pikaia were collected by early explorers of the Burgess Shale in 1911. But the animals were overlooked as an ancestor of earthworms or eels.

It was not until the 1970s that Morris suggested the five-centimeter (two inch) long, sideways-flattened, somewhat eel-like animal that likely swam by moving its body in a series of side-to-side curves could be the earliest known member of the chordate family.

"In particular, it was our use of an electron microscope that allowed us to see very fine details of its anatomy," Jean-Bernard Caron, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto and the study's co-author, told AFP.

"It's very humbling to know that swans, snakes, bears, zebras and, incredibly, humans all share a deep history with this tiny creature no longer than my thumb," he said. (AFP)

Amir Khan scared of spiders

LONDON: Boxing sensation Amir Khan makes a living from being an intimidator in the ring, but there is a creature that intimidates the boxer.

Khan has revealed that he is so scared of spiders that he runs home every time he sees one.

In an interview the boxer said: 'If I see one in my bedroom I have to call my whole family and even when they do take it out, I won’t sleep in my bedroom.’

Giant moth discovered in Himalayas

LONDON: A photographer has spotted a giant moth on a trip to document the biodiversity of the eastern Himalayas.

Early one morning Sandesh Kadur was driving through Arunachal Pradesh in the far north-east of India, when he rounded a bend in the road and saw "a ginormous moth" sitting by a pothole.

He got out to take photos, and as he did so the moth went into a defensive posture, spreading its wings and leaning forward to make itself look as big as possible. It remained still for several minutes, so one of Kadur's colleagues was able to step behind it; the moth's wingspan was wider than his face.

As well as the moth's intimidating size, the striking patterns on its wings may also ward off predators.

Venomous animals like wasps and poison frogs use similar colours to deter animals. In fact, in China the atlas moth is known as the snake's head moth, because the patterns on the tips of its wings look slightly like the heads of snakes.

Kadur eventually decided that the moth wasn't safe sitting in the road, so he manoeuvred it to the side. Some people are scared of moths but these monsters only live for a couple of weeks as adults and don't eat at all.

All their feeding is done during a voracious larval stage when they go from egg to pupa in just four to six weeks - these are very hungry caterpillars indeed.

Turning rural women into engineers!

TILONIA: It gives no degrees and the teachers and pupils often do not share a common language, but India's Barefoot College has been transforming the lives of rural women for four decades.

Located in Tilonia village, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital of the western desert state of Rajasthan, Barefoot is a collection of environmentally friendly dome-shape buildings.

Inside, about a dozen teachers give classes in subjects ranging from the basics of solar engineering, dentistry, mechanics or public health, to radio DJing.

All the pupils sitting on the floor or leaning on old desks are women, some of them illiterate grandmothers from remote villages. Almost everyone is poor, many are unable to read or write, and some come from as far away as Tanzania.

Barefoot was started by social entrepreneur Sanjit "Bunker" Roy in 1972 and
has been breaking taboos ever since, educating women who are often second-class citizens discouraged from getting an education.

Magan Kanwar, who teaches solar engineering, remembers being told by her
father-in-law she should focus on knitting sweaters rather than dreaming of attending the school.

"But I just wanted to do something more than cooking and producing babies.
This college gave me a chance to find the purpose of my life," she told AFP.

Lots of the women at the school have heavy-drinking and abusive husbands, she says, meaning their studies give them some independence and crucially can secure an income and a future for their children.

"If there's no food for their kids at least the women can work and look after them, educate them, run the household," she explained.

One of her pupils, 47-year-old Masamba Hameez Makami from Tanzania, will
return home to install solar-powered lanterns in her village, which has no electricity, giving her neighbours lights at night for the first time.

Her stay at Barefoot is funded by the Indian government, which provided 28 scholarships last year for women from Africa to do the six-month solar engineering training programme.

"Very soon I will be able to electrify my whole village," says the mother of seven from Zanzibar.

To overcome the language barrier, Kanwar uses sign language and colour-coded circuits to explain the solar process to Makami, who speaks Swahili, an east African language.

"We women have our own code words," Kanwar says wryly as she solders electric wires to a circuit board.

Barefoot's founder Roy, named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010, believes that the key to improving living conditions in poor areas is empowering rural women -- the theme of this year's International Women's Day on Thursday.

Training older women rather than focusing on men is the key, he said.

"Men are very restless, compulsively mobile. The moment you give them a certificate they leave their villages," Bhagwat Nandan, a senior coordinator at the college, told AFP.

"We deliberately confer no degrees," he explained. "People are obsessed with the idea of getting degrees, certificates and recognition but we recognise the hands-on, learning-by-doing process."

The model has been copied in 17 states across India and emulated in 15 countries in Africa and several more in Asia and South America.

Courses typically last between six to nine months and are free for students, thanks to funding from a range of donors including the Indian government, international agencies, and private and corporate foundations.

An estimated 10,000 women students have passed through the college's doors, while alumni are running more than 800 night schools across India providing a multiplier effect as knowledge gets passed on by word of mouth.

The establishment is a model of grass-roots cooperation and frugality.

No one working there earns more than $150 a month but everyone receives a
living wage. Living conditions are simple, with many classes taken on the floor.

The institution, powered entirely by solar energy, also makes sure nothing is wasted.

Bhanwar Gopal, an artist, prepares colourful masks for plays and puppet shows by recycling World Bank reports.

"We keep getting these reports that no one reads, so we decided to put them to some use," Gopal said. "We use the World Bank paper to fight poverty and social problems in our own style." (AFP)

Super-human brain technology sparks ethics debate

LONDON: A British ethics group has launched a debate on the ethical dilemmas posed by new technologies that tap into the brain and could bring super-human strength, highly enhanced concentration or thought-controlled weaponry.

With the prospect of future conflicts between armies controlling weapons with their minds, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics launched a consultation on Thursday to consider the risks of blurring the lines between humans and machines.

"Intervening in the brain has always raised both hopes and fears in equal measure. Hopes of curing terrible diseases, and fears about the consequences of trying to enhance human capability beyond what is normally possible," said Thomas Baldwin, a professor of philosophy at Britain's York University who is leading the study.

"These challenge us to think carefully about fundamental questions to do with the brain: What makes us human? What makes us an individual? And how and why do we think and behave in the way we do?."

The Council, an independent body which looks at ethical issues raised by new developments in biology and medicine, wants to focus on three main areas of neurotechnologies that change the brain: brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), neurostimulation techniques such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and neural stem cell therapy.

These technologies are already at various stages of development for use in the treatment of medical conditions including Parkinson's disease, depression and stroke, and experts think they could bring significant benefits, especially for patients with severe brain disease or damage.

GROWING FAST

But they also have huge potential outside the health context. In military applications, BCIs are being used to develop weapons or vehicles controlled remotely by brain signals, and there is big commercial scope in the gaming industry with the development of computer games controlled by people's thoughts.

Speaking at a briefing to launch the consultation, Baldwin said the estimated total global market for all neurotechnologies - including pharmaceuticals for the treatment of brain disorders - is around $150 billion.

"Setting pharmaceuticals aside, the value of the market for the devices and technologies we are dealing with is something in the region of $8 billion, and growing fast," he said.

Kevin Warwick, a professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading and a supporter of more neurotechnology research, said some experimental brain technologies had great potential in medicine.

"From the brain signals, a brain computer interface could translate a person's desire to move ... and then use those signals to operate a wheelchair or other piece of technology," he said. "For someone who has locked-in syndrome, for example, and cannot communicate, a BCI could be life-changing."

But he and Baldwin also stressed there are concerns about safety of some experimental techniques that involve implants in the brain, and about the ethics of using such technology in other medicine and other fields.

"If brain-computer interfaces are used to control military aircraft or weapons from far away, who takes ultimate responsibility for the actions? Could this be blurring the line between man and machine?" Baldwin said. (Reuters)

20 kgs of plastic found in dead giraffe: Indonesian zoo

SURABAYA: A male giraffe that died in an Indonesian zoo was found to have 20 kilograms of plastic in its stomach, officials said Saturday, the latest suspicious animal death at the facility.

Kliwon, 30, was born at Surabaya Zoo, the biggest in the country, and was its last remaining giraffe, living alone in its pen for 13 years. It died on Thursday.

"We got the autopsy results last night. They found a plastic lump weighing around 20 kilograms and 60 centimetres in diameter in his stomach," zoo spokesman Anthan Warsito told.

The giraffe was also found to be infected with tuberculosis.

The plastic probably came from food wrappers the animal ingested after visitors tossed them into its pen over several years, Warsito said.

The incident comes after a spate of suspicious animal deaths at the zoo, including a critically endangered Sumatran tiger, and the disappearance of three baby Komodo dragons believed to have been stolen for the black market. (AFP)

Victorian farmer Phillip McCauley grows 385.1kg pumpkin

SYDNEY: Australian farmer Phillip McCauley has grown a massive 385.1 kg pumpkin in his farm.

The dairy farmer from Cora Lynn, Victoria, says he has given up on gourds now after growing a piffling metre-long one, and quit with the huge tomatoes too.

In the extreme vegetable world, the Atlantic Giant pumpkin stands tallest. It is the biggest thing going and Phillip's best shot at glory.

And after growing Victoria's biggest ever pumpkin, a 385.1kg monolith that has smashed the old record by 130kg, the Cora Lynn dairy farmer is ready to take on the world.

"The Australian record is 518kg, a guy from New South Wales. I'm breathing down his neck,'' Phillip says. "I never thought I could get that until I grew this one.''

A 200mm rain dump three weeks ago forced Phillip to pull up his pumpkin, dubbed "The Big One''. It was a third under water.

"This was still growing. I reckon it would have gone close to 450kg,'' he said. "I know if I put all the effort into it I can get the Australian record.''

Queensland's record is disputed between a pumpkin grown by LNP backbencher Lawrence Springborg's 304kg effort and a 330.4kg by Toowoomba horticulturalist Clinton McGrath.

India biggest consumer of heroin in Subcontinent: report

NEW DELHI: United Nations drug report 2011 has said that India is the biggest consumer of heroin. Of the 40 tonnes produced in south Asia, nearly 17 tonnes are consumed in India, the biggest consumer in the region with the trade valued at $1.4 billion.

While speaking at the release of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) annual drug report for 2011, Narcotics Control Bureau director general O P S Malik said the rising student population in some cities in south and western India has been the biggest consumer of drugs.

Besides heroin and designer drugs use, the upwardly mobile population in metros have also been reason for India's rising demand for cocaine. More than 23 kg of cocaine was seized in Mumbai last year, a small percentage of the total consumption.

INCB, a UN agency, reports that only 15 out of 40 tonnnes of heroin produced in the region was trafficked towards south-east Asia, Africa, North America, China and Europe. The rest all was consumed in the region, and majority of them is in India.

The report estimates nearly three million opiate users in India, half of them being synthetic opiates. And of the 17 tonnes of pure heroin used, eight tonnes are of Afghan origin and nine tonnes are indigenously manufactured.

London fashion students hail green as the new black

LONDON: Could "green" be the new black? Perhaps only if you can imagine wearing stilettos made from pistachio nuts and coffee beans and clothes from orange peel, fungi and mould.

While the fashion pack are hitting the catwalks at Paris Fashion Week, students at London's Kingston University have taken up the challenge of trying to lower the industry's carbon footprint by using biodegradable materials to produce luxury clothes, shoes and accessories for home and car interiors.

The fashion industry has a high environmental footprint.

The manufacture of synthetic fibers like polyester alone produces nearly five times as much carbon dioxide per kilogram as some organic cotton and more than twice as much as hemp, according to a Stockholm Environment Institute study.

According to waste industry reports, more than one million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year, with most going to landfill and only 25 percent recycled.

InCrops, an initiative based at the University of East Anglia, sponsored the Kingston fashion project, asking students to create designs that show renewable raw materials derived from crops can be used to create low or zero carbon fashion.

A range of futuristic fabrics, garments, and designs will be unveiled at an event at Kingston University on Thursday.

Apart from stilettos made from pistachio shells and coffee beans, designs include a wood-chip corset by British designer Stefanie Nieuwenhuyse, which was unveiled at London Fashion Week last September and modeled by singer Pixie Lott in Vogue.

Other designs include a bodice made from orange peel by Hoyan Ip and scented jewelry made from biodegradable plastic.

"InCrops' interest in the luxury sector gave us a steep challenge as many fashion practitioners have failed to successfully communicate the relationship between fashion and bio-waste," said Nancy Tilbury, MA Fashion course director at Kingston University.

"Our students rose to the challenge and produced excellent work that has been sought after by musical artists and the fashion press."

Designers have made progress in recent years in bringing organic cotton and recycled materials to the high street, but whether orange peel dresses will be worn in the future remains to be seen. (Reuters)

Pakistan sets World Record in Art in CIE

KARACHI: Art reaches beyond all social, cultural and religious bounds and so its significance is far-reaching and profound. Where people may think that the importance of arts is ebbing away, Samrah Tariq proves it otherwise.

Setting a world record in CIE exams 2011 in Art, Samarah, from Happy Home School, Karachi, is the only student from Pakistan to have set benchmarks of accomplishments and achieved CIE Outstanding Achievers Awards this year.

In a subject less opted in Pakistan yet drawing enormous traction through out the world, Samarah’s achievement has only manifested the fact that despite lack of rudimentary encouragement and incentives, Pakistan's got burgeoning talent that wins its way through all hurdles.

"It was the best moment of my life to hear my principal breaking the news of my achievement. The only feelings I had were of awe and happiness. My inspirations are my art teacher and my mother who showed faith in my work and skills."

Rubeena Shafiq, the proud art teacher said, ‘ Where art as a subject is somehow underrated in terms of the career opportunities it reaps for the students in Pakistan, it is a widely revered discipline and offers great paths in terms of career as well. By snubbing the importance of art, we in fact limit and underrate the importance of free expression and creativity-things that have led us to the state of disillusionment we are in, at present.'

Last year also, the award was secured by another gem from St. Josephs Convent School, Karachi.

While these outstanding achievers make us proud, it is hoped that they stay sure-footed to set benchmarks of excellence in both academics and non-academics and continue to make their country proud.

US state's biggest lobster returned to Atlantic Ocean

PORTLAND: The biggest lobster ever caught in Maine, a 27-pounder (12.25 kg) nicknamed "Rocky" with claws tough enough to snap a man's arm, was released back into the ocean after being trapped in a shrimp net last week, marine officials said.

The 40-inch (one-meter) male crustacean, about the size of a 3-year-old child, was freed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, said Elaine Jones, education director for the state's Department of Marine Resources.

"All the weight is in the claws," Jones said. "It would break your arm."

The lobster was caught near the seaside village of Cushing and brought to the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay. The state restricts fishermen from keeping lobsters that measure more than 5 inches from the eye to the start of the tail.

Because he became acclimated to the water near the aquarium, the lobster was released in West Boothbay rather than where he was caught.

Scientists are unable to accurately estimate the age of lobsters of this size, said Jones.

The marine lab has no record of a larger lobster being caught in the state, she said. The world's largest recorded lobster was a 44-pounder (20-kg) caught off Nova Scotia in 1977, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Maine lobstermen hauled in a record 100 million pounds (45.4 tons) of lobsters last year, due in part to overfishing of predators such as haddock, cod and monkfish. (Reuters)

How 30-ton dinosaurs actually had sex

Gigantic dinosaurs weighing more 30-tons and longer than four-storey buildings made love just like dogs do, scientists have revealed.

It is a well known fact that dinosaurs ruled the Earth at some point and they could only have done this by being good at mating, but how they actually made love had been a mystery till now.

"The most likely position to have intercourse is for the male behind the female, and on top of her, and from behind, any other position is unfathomable," the Daily Mail quoted Kristi Curry Rogers, Assistant Professor of Biology and Geology at Macalester College in Minnesota as telling the Discovery Channel.

However, some experts have questioned this line of thinking and suggested that dinosaurs romped in water.

Stuart Landry, a biologist, believes that big dinosaurs would just fall over on land and would have needed water to provide support.

Gregory Erickson, a paleobiologist at Florida State University backs Rogers' findings.

"It's going to be very touch and go. It's an awkward thing," Erickson said.

"I've heard speculation that they did it in the water, but they're not aquatic animals. Just because they're large animals, doesn't mean they can't mate on land - after all, elephants do it," he added.