FEAST OR FAMINE

Photo: coulartsandleisure.blogspot Many moons ago – in January 2006 to be precise – NASA sent a probe, called New Horizons, on a ten-year mission to search for the edge of our solar system. It went very close to planet Pluto, our solar system’s smallest planet. On August 24, 2006, planet Pluto was stripped of its title. Pluto was demoted from planet status to dwarf planet status. The demotion was a blow to Pluto. There was much debate on its demotion with many scientists seeking its promotion to its original status. Size isn’t everything, they said. A Chihuahua is still a dog, they said. They said that it was obvious that objects of this size, thousands of miles in diameter, were planets. They argued that it had a crust and a core (the attributes of planets) and atmospheres and moons (the attributes of planets) and seasons too (also the attribute of a planet). Full planethood was assured, they said. But no, it remains to this day a demoted planet. Nine years (and 3 b...

Do you have a moral dilemma? Don’t decide in a hurry – instead, sleep on your decision and you’ll have a better answer in the morning. So say researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Oregon and John Hopkins University in America (mindfood.com, January/February 2015). University researchers maintain that if you have a moral dilemma, a “big decision” then make sure you have a nap first. When people don’t get enough sleep their moral compass decreases and they either find it harder to solve moral dilemmas or their morality declines. The same person can have different moral responses depending on their level of sleep. It’s not just that different people have different responses to moral dilemmas, but the same person can have lapses of morality. Researchers found a link between sleep and morality. Sleep seems to have an impact on people’s decision-making processes. People in a laboratory study were randomly assigned a specific amount of sleep, and th...

After people have chronic heart failure (CHF) they are usually advised to start or resume an exercise program. That helps, but so does water. Not the drinking water, but warm water. Researcher Julie Adsett at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital conducted a study in 2013 on CHF patients and quality of life. Specialized exercise programs are often conducted in hospital gymnasiums for people as a means of convalescing. It was noted that exercise was difficult for people with muscle and joint pain, or balance problems. For these people, they were less inclined to exercise. But when people exercised in warm water – in the hospital swimming hydrotherapy pool or other indoor pool – they received the same benefits as people doing land-based exercises. Water-based exercises can improve fitness, strength and balance in a group of patients with stable CHF. Warm water can help to regulate blood pressure, blood flow, and body temperature. For some, water-based exercises suit...

Revelations of aLady Detective (1864, reprinted 2013) was the second time in literature that the female protagonist was a professional detective (six months after the first fictional female sleuth). She – readers only know her as Mrs. Paschal – pre-dates the iconic Sherlock Holmes. Like the Sherlock books, WS Hayward (1835-1870) sets his fictional novel in London. It was 20 years later when the third female detective character was in print. Hence this is both a story and a retrospective glimpse of a genre in which there are few leading female characters. What do we know of this well-experienced lady detective, Mrs. Paschal? She is “verging on 40” and “rarely acts before she thinks.” Not much else. The novel presents 10 cases – they are all brief and easily solved by the readers. Her unexpected presence as she solves crimes is rationalized in phrases such as “a woman is more likely to be successful in a thing of this sort, because men are thrown off their guard when they see a...

On Tuesday January 20, Iraq defeated Palestine (2-0) to gain second spot in Group D of the AFC Asia Cup in Australia. This means Iraq meets Iran in the quarter-final on Friday January 23 at Canberra Stadium. A win by Iraq would make them strong contenders to take the winning spot in the whole Asia Cup competition. The other quarter-final matches will be Korea v Uzbekistan tonight, January 22, in Melbourne; China v Australia tonight, January 22, in Brisbane; and Japan v United Arab Emirates on Friday January 23 in Sydney. I first encountered the Iraq team – the Lions of Mesopotamia – in Baghdad in 2004. Iraq entered the 2007 Asia Cup as the Group E winner and went on to win the Asia Cup by defeating Saudi Arabia (1-0). So Iraq will be hoping to emulate their 2007 win. But first they must defeat Iran on Friday to get to the semi-finals.