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20.8.08

Dancing Locally, Stepping Globally

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY

Many hundreds of people turned up for the free open-air dance performances at Lincoln Center on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon in Damrosch Park. The dances covered quite a range, deriving from the Ivory Coast, Haiti, Brazil and, well, the Alps. That is, the Alps as rendered by Rodgers, Hammerstein and Hollywood.

Are there sociologists at work tracing the influence of Julie Andrews on child consciousness over the last five decades? The recent London and New York stage productions of “Mary Poppins,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “The Sound of Music” are all part of this phenomenon, as is the British cult show “Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music.”

The choreographer Doug Elkins’s “Fräulein Maria” (seen on Saturday night) helps us to label this aspect of culture “Acknowledge Your Own Inner Julie Andrews.” The audience gurgles with joy as the dancers hold up lengths of fabric to resemble the Alpine skyline; a white shirt is thrown over one summit to become a peak of snow. Then, yes, out comes a big shaven-headed man, then a woman, then another woman, all dressed identically as Julie, I mean Maria.

It’s all so cheerfully emblematic of a higher silliness that it’s almost wonderful, and the audience loves boosting it with participation and applause. Key roles are played with gender-swapping and multiple casts. The giddy campiness of it all overflows when the eldest von Trapp girl, played by a large man receiving the attentions of an equally large man, responds to his (lip-synched) declaration of “I am 16, going on 17” by eagerly producing a tape measure to check out his veracity.

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An Elite Playground Becomes Less So

By SETH SHERWOOD

WHEN Patrick Behr heard that Sardinia’s famously decadent Billionaire nightclub would be hosting its annual opening gala during the last weekend in June, he decided it would be the perfect occasion to discover the night life in the island’s chic northeast corner, better known as the Costa Smeralda, or Emerald Coast.

So Mr. Behr, a world traveler who lives in Frankfurt, booked a table and was soon shooting off to the Mediterranean resort with a friend in tow.

“We just want to party tonight and tomorrow night!” he shouted over the club’s loud hip-hop. The Costa Smeralda attracted him, he said, because he’d heard it was “very luxurious, very pretty, very extraordinary.”

Around him, Billionaire was living up to its bombastic name. Italian television stars and soccer gods strode over Oriental carpets to chat with European TV crews. The club’s white-haired owner, Flavio Briatore, reclined like a sultan amid bottles from the club’s Champagne list, which featured a methuselah (a mere six liters) of Cristal for 35,000 euros. Periodically Mr. Briatore, a 50-something Formula One mogul, arose to greet club visitors, who last year included Denzel Washington, Lenny Kravitz and Bruce Willis.

Absorbing the scene, Mr. Behr, 33, looked entirely within his element. But for two things: Mr. Behr is neither a platinum-selling musician nor a seven-figure C.E.O. but a humble academic, an assistant professor of finance. And he arrived in Sardinia not by Gulfstream jet but on a small airline called Air Italy that serves the recently expanded airport in the nearby town of Olbia.

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18.8.08

Olympian power secrets

David Durante: Gymnast
The comeback kid


A new Olympic gymnastics champion will be crowned on Aug. 14. The next day, David Durante, captain of the U.S. men's squad, will announce his retirement. "Ain't that a big chunk of adversity, knowing it's my last shot?" asks Durante.

Durante first spoke of retirement back in 2002 after wrapping up his collegiate career at Stanford but failing to make Team USA. "I was a good college gymnast, but I wanted to be one of the top guys in the country," he says. Durante redoubled his training efforts and, in 2003, he earned the right to flip for the stars and stripes.

But then, on the way to the '04 Games, his flips flopped at the qualifying meet and he settled for an alternate slot. After Athens, he asked himself, How bad do you want this? The answer: enough to postpone retirement a second time. "Everything is clicking for me right now," says Durante, who won the national title last year. "I'm confident I can compete at the highest level, and my results in Beijing will prove it."

Build your chest and arms
The dip is as important to gymnastics as the jump shot is to basketball. So it's essential for Durante — and it helps explain his chiseled upper body. After all, the classic dip is one of the most effective exercises for building your triceps and chest. But if you find it's hard on your shoulders — as many guys do — a simple form tweak may offer relief.

In the "up" position of the exercise, raise your thighs in front of you until they're parallel to the floor, and bend your knees 90 degrees. Hold your legs that way for the entire movement — instead of crossing them behind you. This redistributes your weight so that your torso leans forward as you lower your body, placing more of the stress on your chest instead of your shoulders.

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Six ‘Chinese’ foods that aren’t

Everyone loves fortune cookies at the end of their meal ─ but you won’t get them in China. New York Times blogger Jennifer 8. Lee, author of "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles," reveals the origins of some popular menu items.

Fortune cookies
Fortune cookies are from Japan. Fortune cookies are essentially unknown in China. In fact, a Brooklyn-based company tried to introduce them to China in the 1990s, but gave up, saying the cookies were “too American.” So where do fortune cookies originally come from? Japan. The precursor to the fortune cookie is still made in a handful of small family-owned bakeries in the Kyoto area, near the Fushimi Inari shrine. The cookies are larger, and flavored with miso and sesame, which gives them more of a nutty flavor and brown color.

The cookies were introduced in pre-World War I California by Japanese immigrants who called them fortune tea cakes at that point. A great shift in production happened around the time of World War II, when the Japanese were interned and the Japanese family-run bakeries were shut down. At the same time there was a spurt in Chinese fortune-cookie manufacturing, which transformed it into a Chinese restaurant standard. By the late 1950s, 250 million fortune cookies were being made each year. The cookies were used in the 1960 presidential campaign and in this year's Barack Obama campaign. The summary of the cookie could be put thusly: The Japanese introduced it. The Chinese popularized it. Americans consume it.

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17.8.08

Russian and Rich: Art’s New Tastemaker

By CAROL VOGEL

LONDON

ONE day in December, Dasha Zhukova wandered into the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage, a giant red-brick Constructivist-era landmark near the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. She was immediately entranced by the space, a vast parallelogram spanning nearly 92,000 square feet and an unusual array of vertical and circular windows. Designed in 1926 by Konstantin Melnikov, the garage is much loved by architects.

“I thought Moscow should have a space like this for contemporary art,” Ms. Zhukova, 27, said in an interview, sipping a cappuccino in the top-floor cafe of the Tate Modern here. “There is a huge thirst for knowledge among the younger generation for contemporary art, but most of them learn about it by going on the Internet.”

It was a serendipitous discovery for Ms. Zhukova. Thanks to her, the cavernous building will reopen next month as the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, a nonprofit institution that brings art to Moscow and schools the public on what it’s about. Its first show will be a retrospective of the artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.

Overnight, Ms. Zhukova’s new center and her connections, including a billionaire, art-collecting boyfriend, have made her an art-world It Girl. Her sudden fame attests to the seismic effect that Russian money — and in some cases Ukrainian or Georgian money — is having.

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15.8.08

Packages: Spend Your Vacations in Maine at Sebasco Harbor Resort!

Sebasco Harbor Resort has the perfect vacation package to ensure that you have a Pure Maine experience – your way! Enjoy oceanfront views on Midcoast Maine, golf, boating, tennis, kayaking, fishing, fine dining, casual dining, full-service Fairwinds Spa and more on our 550-acre resort.

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Bush, Sending Aid, Demands That Moscow Withdraw

By STEVEN LEE MYERS


This article was reported by Steven Lee Myers, Sabrina Tavernise and Ellen Barry and written by Mr. Myers.

WASHINGTON — President Bush sent American troops to Georgia on Wednesday to oversee a “vigorous and ongoing” humanitarian mission, in a direct challenge to Russia’s display of military dominance over the region. His action came after Russian soldiers moved into two strategic Georgian cities in what he and Georgian officials called a violation of the cease-fire Russia agreed to earlier in the day.

Mr. Bush demanded that Russia abide by the cease-fire and withdraw its forces or risk its place in “the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century.” It was his strongest warning yet of potential retaliation against Russia over the conflict.

The decision to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States’ commitment to Georgia and America’s allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area.

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13.8.08

While a Magician Works, the Mind Does the Tricks

By BENEDICT CAREY


A decent backyard magic show is often an exercise in deliberate chaos. Cards whipped through the air. Glasses crashing to the ground. Gasps, hand-waving, loud abracadabras. Something’s bound to catch fire, too, if the performer is ambitious enough — or needs cover.

“Back in the early days, I always had a little smoke and fire, not only for misdirection but to emphasize that something magic had just happened,” said The Great Raguzi, a magician based in Southern California who has performed professionally for more than 35 years, in venues around the world. “But as the magic and magician mature, you see that you don’t need the bigger props.”

Eye-grabbing distractions — to mask a palmed card or coin, say — are only the crudest ways to exploit brain processes that allow for more subtle manipulations, good magicians learn.

In a paper published last week in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, a team of brain scientists and prominent magicians described how magic tricks, both simple and spectacular, take advantage of glitches in how the brain constructs a model of the outside world from moment to moment, or what we think of as objective reality.

For the magicians, including The Great Tomsoni (John Thompson), Mac King, James Randi, and Teller of Penn and Teller, the collaboration provided scientific validation, as well as a few new ideas.

For the scientists, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, it raised hope that magic could accelerate research into perception. “Here’s this art form going back perhaps to ancient Egypt, and basically the neuroscience community had been unaware” of its direct application to the study of perception, Dr. Martinez-Conde said.

“It’s a marvelous paper,” Michael Bach, a vision scientist at Freiburg University in Germany who was not involved in the work, said in an e-mail message. Magicians alter what the brain perceives by manipulating how it interprets scenes, Dr. Bach said, “and a distant goal of cognitive psychology would be to numerically predict this.”

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Kids, not Russian government, attacking Georgia's Internet, says researcher

by Robert Vamosi

Initial information suggests that Internet attacks on Georgian Web sites over the last two weeks are the work of kids, according to one researcher, while another says the intensity of these attacks is short-lived when compared with attacks in Estonia last year.

In an e-mail to CNET News, Gadi Evron, founder of the Zero Day Emergency Response Team, said "although the impact on their web sites is clear, I believe this may end up being just some kids who got over-excited, with Georgia being ill-prepared to say the least. "

Posting on CircleID, Evron wrote that there are botnet attacks against .ge Web sites, but the Internet infrastructure doesn't appear to be directly attacked. "Not every fighting is warfare," wrote Evron. "While Georgia is obviously under a DDoS attacks and it is political in nature, it doesn't so far seem different than any other online after-math by fans. Political tensions are always followed by online attacks by sympathizers."

In May of 2007, the Baltic nation of Estonia was attacked online and its Internet infrastructure crippled.

On Tuesday, Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in a blog provided more information on the strength and duration of the attacks . "Compared to the May 2007 Estonian attacks, these are more intense but have lasted (so far) for less time. This could be due to a number of factors, including more sizable botnets with more bandwidth, better bandwidth at the victims, changes in our observations, or other factors."

Nazario also said that there is evidence that the Georgians had responded by attacking a Russian newspaper Web site.

Hydrogen Road Tour rolls across America

by Martin LaMonica

The stop on the tour after Portland was here at the headquarters of Nuvera Fuel Cells and now the home of the first hydrogen refueling station in the state.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Cheryl McQueary, the deputy administrator of transportation research and innovative technology at the Department of Transportation, said that the U.S. currently produces enough hydrogen to power 34 million vehicles.

Right now, however, there are only 16 hydrogen refueling stations in the U.S., used by hundreds of consumers. Most experts expect that the distribution infrastructure will develop as a series of clusters around cities like Los Angeles and New York.

"The question is not if hydrogen-powered vehicles will be available commercially, but when," Paul Brubaker, the head of the U.S. DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, said in a statement.

That's a sentiment voiced by many politicians and technologists. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles only give off water vapor as exhaust, and hydrogen can be produced domestically, potentially decreasing the use of imported oil.

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Where particles, physics theories collide


by Michelle Meyers

Considered one of the world's largest physics experiments to date, the Large Hadron Collider is a gigantic particle accelerator located in a nearly 17-mile-long circular tunnel along the French-Swiss border about 330 feet underground. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN.

In experiments scheduled to begin on September 10, the LHC will accelerate two beams of subatomic particles--called hadrons--in opposite directions to more than 99.9 percent the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles for physicists to study using special detectors.

The result is likely to push forward theories of particle physics and the fundamental building blocks of all things. The LHC was designed primarily as an attempt to product the "Higgs boson," a hypothetical particle whose observation would help confirm some of the predictions in the Standard Model of physics.

Other currently theoretical particles may also be observed for the first time, including microscopic black holes. Some have theorized that the black hole experiments could go wrong with catastrophic results, but CERN has done extensive safety analysis and has repeatedly denied any such threat.

This photo taken in 2007 shows the LHC's CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) detector, in all its kaleidoscopic beauty.

Dining Brief: Olana

By JULIA MOSKIN

OLANA

72 Madison Avenue (28th Street), (212) 725-4900, olananyc.com.

Dining at Olana is like dating a charming cad: it alternately tries to please its patrons, then forgets them completely.

It dips in and out of a Hudson River Valley theme, with some local produce and cheeses (and a name meant to honor the estate of the Hudson River School painter Frederic Church), but quickly spins into ChefLand, where lavender-saba vinaigrette and poppy seed white chocolate ganache make up the local cuisine.

There are some finely tuned flavors, as in a chilled tomato consommé ($12) and a sweet-sour sauce for pork tenderloin ($27). There are nice touches like violet-flavored tapioca pearls on a creamy dessert ($11), and a delicious garnish of corn purée and lardons served with soft-shell crabs ($18).

But nice touches too often yield to nosedives: an amuse-bouche one night looked like the wilted contents of the kitchen sink drain at the end of dinner, and the watermelon “nage” served with crab salad had the shallow flavor and sweetness of Froot Loops. A rib-eye cut of lamb tenderloin is deconstructed into six bites of meat, surrounded by bitsy baby vegetables — for $39.

Chef Al di Meglio is clearly talented and trying hard, but what this restaurant needs is a strict personal trainer, to improve tightness and tone. The house-made pasta menu, offering little in the way of fresh flavors, is just so much flab.

Service at lunch, when the restaurant is often filled with local office workers, can be very pleasant but in the evenings, the neighborhood empties out and the staff grows lackadaisical.

Dining Brief: Talay

By FRANK BRUNI

TALAY

701 West 135th Street, (212) 491 8300, talayrestaurant.com.

Sprawling over two levels, bathed in colorful lights, pulsing with music, Talay didn’t merely open two months ago in a neighborhood where showy restaurants aren’t common.

It made an entrance, and it made a wager: that a place with enough confidence and pizazz can thrive anywhere, even in an odd patch of Manhattan literally below Riverside Drive and the West Side Highway, a sort of urban canyon with a strangely (and thrillingly) remote aura.

It offers free valet parking during dinnertime. It serves a hybrid of Thai and Latin food, or rather a relay race, with a Thai dish passing the baton to a Latin dish, then the Latin dish handing the chores back over to a Thai one.

So there is a whole crispy red snapper ($24) that looks far, far to the East. But there is a pan-roasted chicken breast ($18) that glances just south of the border, its orientation flagged by a yucca purée. There is both pad Thai ($12) and a paella-style rice dish ($12 or $24, depending on the size), but no cheeky cross-pollination of the two. That’s best. The kitchen doesn’t overstretch.

It does what often tastes like slightly refined Asian-American finger food: lemongrass-scented baby back ribs ($15); crispy shrimp with a sweet chili aioli ($12); crispy pork spring rolls ($8). There is much advertised crispiness, and more Asia than Cuba in the end.

The kitchen is run by Soulayphet Schwader, who cooked at AZ back in the day, and King Phojanakong, chef and owner of Kuma Inn on the Lower East Side.

Their work at Talay won’t turn heads. But I could see a car or two pulling up to the vale

Grilled Sausages and Summer Beans With Herbs, Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions

2 pounds your favorite sausages

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

4 fresh thyme sprigs

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of sugar

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1 pound green or wax beans (use a combination for the prettiest dish), trimmed

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs, including basil and parsley

Fleur de sel or coarse sea salt, for serving (optional).

1. Prepare grill or preheat broiler. Grill or broil sausages until browned and blistered and cooked all the way through.

2. Meanwhile, prepare beans. Heat oil in a large skillet with a cover until shimmering. Add onion, thyme sprigs and a pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar. Sauté over medium-high heat until onions are golden in spots and browned around edges, about 7 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes and saute until they start to release their juices, 2 minutes. Add beans and wine and toss everything in pan. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 3 minutes. Uncover pan, add herbs and continue to cook. Toss beans occasionally, until liquid evaporates and beans are done to taste, 5 to 30 minutes, adding water to pan if it dries out. Garnish with coarse salt if you like and serve hot or at room temperature, with sausages.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Take the Bananas and Run

At 72, a superstitious Woody Allen is still working hard, but is terrified of the void, the 'meaningless flicker' of life.

By Jennie Yabroff | NEWSWEEK

Woody Allen cuts his banana into seven slices each morning. Six slices, or eight, and something bad might happen. "I know it would be total coincidence if I didn't slice it into seven pieces, and my family were killed in a fire," he says. "I understand that there could be no correlation, but, you know, the guilt would be too much for me to bear, so it's easier for me to cut the stupid banana."

Despite the odd superstition (he also avoids haircuts while shooting a movie), Allen has devoted his career to making films that consistently assert the randomness of life. That they do so in a variety of genres— comedy, drama, suspense, satire, even, once, a musical—only partially obscures the fact that, in Allen's eyes, they're all tragedies, since, as he says, "to live is to suffer." If there were a persistence-of-vision award for life philosophy, Allen would be a shoo-in.

Still, it's tempting to wonder if there's been a shift in recent years. After the glare of attention in the early 1990s surrounding his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former girlfriend Mia Farrow, the director largely disappeared. Sure, he surfaced to play his clarinet at the Carlyle on the Upper East Side, and maintained his relentless pace of a film a year, but he has not been a topic in the public conversation. It became possible to imagine that old age, combined with a seemingly stable relationship (he stopped going to therapy after he got together with Soon-Yi; the couple has been married 11 years, and they have two adopted daughters) had given him a rosier outlook.

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Cameron Diaz is Hollywood`s top-earning actresses

Los Angeles (ANTARA News/dpa) - Cameron Diaz earned some 50 million dollars over the past year to take the title of Hollywood's top-earning actress on Forbes annual list, the business magazine reported Monday.

In total, Hollywood's 10 top-earning actresses collectively banked 244.5 million dollars between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008, the report said.

Diaz's main earnings came from her lucrative role as princess-turned-ogre in DreamWorks' Shrek franchise. But she also starred in the spring comedy, "What Happens in Vegas", and has nabbed large pay cheques for her role in the adaptation of Jodi Picoult's best-selling novel "My Sister's Keeper", and a fourth installment of "Shrek".

Diaz was followed on the rich actress list by British beauty Keira Knightley, who earned 32 million dollars from starring roles in movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Atonement".

Former "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston earned 27 million dollars with starring roles in the family comedy "Marley & Me" and the dating ensemble "He's Just Not That Into You". Her income was boosted by payments from the syndication of "Friends" and endorsement deals for Glaceau's Smartwater and Heineken.

Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow tied for fourth place on the list, with each banking some 25 million dollars during the year.

Filling out the top ten were Jodie Foster, Sarah Jessica Parker, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Angelina Jolie.

Though the actresses earnings were impressive by almost anyone's standards, they were still much lower than those for top-earning male actors. According to a recently published Forbes list, Will Smith was the top earner with 80 million dollars, followed by Johnny Depp with 72 million dollars and Eddie Murphy with 55 million dollars. (*)

Gates speaks of software-writing revolution

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that the dramatic growth of the Internet would eventually help eliminate "the last constraints we have" and spark a software-writing revolution.

Gates, speaking at a forum to mark the 10th anniversary of the software giant's Asian research arm, added that technology currently being developed would transform the way people use computers, expanding their ability to interact with the machines.

Increasing Internet connectivity will greatly broaden services for users, allowing them remote access to a wide range of software and information, he said.

"People often talk about this as the Internet service revolution," Gates told a gathering of 1,600 researchers and academics in Hong Kong. "That will eventually lead to machines that have lots of server capacity, lots of low-cost computing, low-cost storage. And that will let us write software in an even more ambitious way, eliminating the last constraints we have."

The way people use computers will expand "to encompass all interactive techniques: the touch, the speech, the vision," said Gates, who stepped down in June from his full-time role at Microsoft, which he co-founded.

Gates said major developments in Internet services and computer interface, "because they're fairly developed in the labs, I can say that in 10 years will be widespread."

As for the following decade, he predicted: "You might get artificial intelligence or robotics, but those are still so undeveloped, at least in terms of widespread impact."

Gates was visiting China for the Olympic Games, attending last week's opening ceremony in Beijing, cheering on the U.S. swim team with his family and taking in other events.

The 52-year-old praised the games for being "fantastically managed."

"It really is a milestone I think, and shows the world this opportunity to all work together, and how places like Hong Kong and China will be such an important part of the future," said Gates, who planned to see some Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong before returning to Beijing.

Gates also praised the work of his company's Asian research division and voiced confidence in the power of science and technology as a force for positive change.

"Whether it's software or energy or agriculture, the promise of science is ... much greater than ever before and that's why I'm so optimistic," he said.

Microsoft Research Asia employs more than 350 researchers and engineers, funds student fellowships and partners with more than 100 university and institutions in the region with the goal of helping Microsoft innovate and develop products.

In China, it runs joint labs with mainland and Hong Kong universities.

Lennon's killer denied parole again

(CNN) -- John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, was denied parole for the fifth time Tuesday.

The New York State Division of Parole issued a release saying Chapman's request was denied "due to concern for the public safety and welfare."

Chapman, 53, is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison for shooting to death the former Beatle outside his New York City apartment on December 8, 1980.

The killer has served 24 years of his sentence at the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility and was previously turned down by the New York State division of parole in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Chapman is held in a building with other prisoners who are not considered to pose a threat to him, according to officials with the state Department of Correctional Services. He has his own prison cell but spends most of his day outside the cell working on housekeeping and in the library.

For the past 16 years he has received conjugal visits with his wife, Gloria. The visits are part of a state program called "family reunion" that allows inmates to spend up to 44 hours at a time with family members in a special setting.

Inmates must meet certain criteria to receive the privilege. Chapman has not had an infraction since 1994, said Erik Kriss, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, in previous years has submitted a letter requesting that Chapman be denied parole. Calls Tuesday to Ono's legal representative have not been returned.

Fifty letters and a petition signed by almost 1,100 people were submitted objecting to releasing Chapman, said Division of Parole spokeswoman Heather Groll. Only three letters were submitted appealing for Chapman's release.

Miss Universe 2008 to visit RI and meet President

New York, (ANTARA News) - Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza (22) of Venezuela is scheduled to visit Indonesia, among other things, to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, according to information of the Miss Universe Organization here on Monday.

"She is scheduled to meet the President and several ministers, too," Talent Development Director of Miss Universe Organization Roston Ogata told ANTARA.

Mendoza and Ogata planned to leave for Jakarta on Tuesday evening (Aug. 21) for a 10-day visit which will take them among other things to Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali and Bengkulu (Sumatra).

The Miss Universe will attend the Grand Final of Miss Indonesia Contest to be organized by Miss Indonesia Foundation (YPI) in Jakarta on August 15, 2008.

Indonesia will be the first country that she will visit since she was elected as Miss Universe 2008 in Nha Trang, Vietnam, recently.

Mendoza visited the Indonesian Consulate General office in New York on Monday before her departure to Indonesia. She was received by among others Indonesian Consul General Trie Edi Mulyani, Mrs. Sranya Marty Natalegawa, wife of the Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations, and Mrs. Non Kleib, wife of the Indonesian permanent representative in the UN.

According to Ogata, Mendoza will also plan to visit Indonesia again in October 2008 for a production of advertisement on Indonesian product.

Mendoza said Indonesia and Venezuela, as developing countries, have some similarities, including the characters of their peoples, who have smiley faces thanks to their countries` beautiful nature.

The Miss Venezuela was crowned Miss Universe 2008 on July 14, 2008. Mendoza, is a 5-foot, 10-inch, green-eyed beauty who enjoys learning languages and photography. She speaks Spanish, Italian and English fluently.(*)

The Claim: Vitamin B Can Ward off Mosquitoes

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

THE FACTS

Mosquitoes are more attracted to some people than to others; that much is known from several studies.

But the Internet is full of advertisements for pills and supplements that are supposed to keep the pests away from walking mosquito magnets. One pervasive claim is that taking vitamin B, or wearing patches and other products that are infused with it, can do the trick. Studies dating to the 1960s suggest that taking small doses of the supplement three times a day during biting season helps to produce a skin odor that mosquitoes find repulsive.

But more recent studies have shown that assertion to be a myth. In a study published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, scientists had a group of subjects take vitamin B supplements every day for eight weeks, while a second group took vitamin C and a third took no supplements. Once every two weeks, the scientists used swarms of mosquitoes to examine whether the supplements were having any effect. Although each subject’s attractiveness to the mosquitoes varied considerably, over all there was no evidence that vitamin B did anything to help.

Another study by scientists in Brazil tested it by administering vitamin B droplets to animals and exposing them to female mosquitoes (the only ones that bite). They found no difference in attractiveness between the vitamin B group and control groups.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Studies suggest that vitamin B is not an effective mosquito repellent.

Handle With Care

By CORNELIA DEAN

Last year, a private company proposed “fertilizing” parts of the ocean with iron, in hopes of encouraging carbon-absorbing blooms of plankton. Meanwhile, researchers elsewhere are talking about injecting chemicals into the atmosphere, launching sun-reflecting mirrors into stationary orbit above the earth or taking other steps to reset the thermostat of a warming planet.

This technology might be useful, even life-saving. But it would inevitably produce environmental effects impossible to predict and impossible to undo. So a growing number of experts say it is time for broad discussion of how and by whom it should be used, or if it should be tried at all.

Similar questions are being raised about nanotechnology, robotics and other powerful emerging technologies. There are even those who suggest humanity should collectively decide to turn away from some new technologies as inherently dangerous.

“The complexity of newly engineered systems coupled with their potential impact on lives, the environment, etc., raise a set of ethical issues that engineers had not been thinking about,” said William A. Wulf, a computer scientist who until last year headed the National Academy of Engineering. As one of his official last acts, he established the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society there.

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A Taste of Failure Fuels an Appetite for Success at South Korea’s Cram Schools

YONGIN, South Korea — As the sun was dipping behind the pine hills surrounding this rural campus one recent Monday, Chung Il-wook and his wife drove up with Min-ju, their 18-year-old daughter. They gave her a quick hug and she hurried into the school building, dragging a suitcase behind her.

Inside, a raucous crowd of 300 teenage boys and girls had returned from a two-night leave and were lining up to have their teachers search their bags.

The students here were forsaking all the pleasures of teenage life. No cellphones allowed, no fashion magazines, no television, no Internet. No dating, no concerts, no earrings, no manicures — no acting their age.

All these are mere distractions from an overriding goal. On this regimented campus, miles from the nearest public transportation, Min-ju and her classmates cram from 6:30 a.m. to past midnight, seven days a week, to clear the fearsome hurdle that can decide their future — the national college entrance examination.

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Russia, in Accord With Georgians, Sets Withdrawal

By ANDREW E. KRAMER and ELLEN BARRY

TBILISI, Georgia — The presidents of Georgia and Russia agreed early Wednesday morning on a framework that could end the war that flared up here five days ago, after Russia reasserted its traditional dominance of the region.

Declaring that “the aggressor has been punished,” President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced early Tuesday that Russia would stop its campaign. Russian airstrikes continued during the day on Tuesday, however, and antagonisms seethed on both sides.

By 2 a.m. on Wednesday, he and his Georgian counterpart, Mikheil Saakashvili, had agreed to a plan that would withdraw troops to the positions they had occupied before the fighting broke out.

Whether the agreement holds or not, Russia has achieved its goals, effectively creating a new reality on the ground, humiliating the Georgian military and increasing the pressure on a longtime antagonist, Mr. Saakashvili.

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11.8.08

How Did Life on Earth Get Started?

Scientists aim to repeat the 'miracle' of genesis
By Brian Vastag

On an arid outcropping of basalt in northwestern Australia, some of the oldest rocks on Earth lie exposed to the fierce sun. Formed at the bottom of an ancient ocean, this volcanic material shelters what one scientist calls the "oldest robust evidence" of life. At a scientific meeting at Rockefeller University in May, Roger Buick of the University of Washington said that the 3.5 billion-year-old rocks hold traces of carbon that once made up living organisms.

Even before Buick's discovery, ample evidence indicated that life on Earth began while our 4.5 billion-year-old planet was very young. Simple organisms certainly flourished between 2 billion and 3 billion years ago, and claims of older evidence of life have periodically surfaced. But none have been universally embraced, and Buick's claim is so new that other scientists haven't fully reviewed it.

Yet even if the geologist is right about his rocks, his discovery would leave unanswered one of life's biggest mysteries: how life actually arose. While creationists attribute that spark of life to the hand of God, scientists are convinced there's a natural explanation. Yet as close as they've come to pinning it down, some admit the particulars may never be fully resolved. Others are convinced that we're edging closer to an answer—and to settling one of the oldest and most contentious questions in science and religion.

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Is Google a Media Company?

By MIGUEL HELFT

SAN FRANCISCO — Type “buttermilk pancakes” into Google, and among the top three or four search results you will find a link to a detailed recipe complete with a photo of a scrumptious stack from a site called Knol, which is owned by Google.

Google envisions Knol as a place where experts can share their knowledge on a variety of topics. It hopes to create a sort of online encyclopedia built from the contributions of scores of individuals. But while Wikipedia is collectively edited and ad-free, Knol contributors sign their articles and retain editing control over the content. They can choose to place ads, sold by Google, on their pages.

While Knol is only three weeks old and still relatively obscure, it has already rekindled fears among some media companies that Google is increasingly becoming a competitor. They foresee Google’s becoming a powerful rival that not only owns a growing number of content properties, including YouTube, the top online video site, and Blogger, a leading blogging service, but also holds the keys to directing users around the Web.


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To Heal the Wounded

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

The pictures show shredded limbs, burned faces, profusely bleeding wounds. The subjects are mostly American G.I.’s, but they include Iraqis and Afghans, some of them young children.

They appear in a new book, “War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003-2007,” quietly issued by the United States Army — the first guidebook of new techniques for American battlefield surgeons to be published while the wars it analyzes are still being fought.

Its 83 case descriptions from 53 battlefield doctors are clinical and bone dry, but the gruesome photographs illustrate the grim nature of today’s wars, in which more are hurt by explosions than by bullets, and body armor leaves many alive but maimed.

And the cases detail important advances in treating blast amputations, massive bleeding, bomb concussions and other front-line trauma.

Though it is expensively produced and includes a foreword by the ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff, who was severely injured by a roadside bomb in 2006, “War Surgery” is not easy to find. There were strenuous efforts within the Army over the last year to censor the book and keep it out of civilian hands.

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The Old House and the Sea

THREE GENERATIONS ON THE ROCKS A blended composite of photos of Clingstone provides a panoramic view

By PENELOPE GREEN

“THIS house is always going to have rough edges,” said Henry Wood, resting his frayed sneakers on a splintered pillar. “It’s never going to look like the Breakers.”

It was another indecently beautiful day at Clingstone — a faded, shingled and, yes, very rough 103-year-old mansion set on a rock in Narragansett Bay — and Mr. Wood, its owner, was musing on what the place is not: specifically, that grander turn-of-the century folly in nearby Newport, a limestone-and-gilt palace built by a Vanderbilt in 1895.

But in fact it’s the rough edges and salt-encrusted surfaces that Mr. Wood, a 79-year-old Boston architect, treasures most about Clingstone. For nearly half a century, he has kept them (more or less) intact, and the house standing, through his own hard labor and that of others. He and a crew of family and friends who share his passion for the place’s “deep bohemian funk,” as Nicholas Benson, a stone carver from Newport, put it, have dedicated their time and skills (plumbing and wiring experience are always particularly welcome) to keeping the place from slipping into the water forever.

In 1961, when Mr. Wood bought the house with his ex-wife Joan, who is also an architect, for $3,600, it had been empty for two decades. All of its 65 windows were smashed, and its slate roof was wide open to the sky. Vandals had been creative: on the second floor, the interior shingles were embedded with marbles (they still are), which had been blasted there by some sort of firearm.

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Goodbye, passwords--you aren't a good defense



The best password is a long, nonsensical string of letters and numbers and punctuation marks, a combination never put together before.

Some admirable people actually do memorize random strings of characters for their passwords--and replace them with other random strings every couple of months.

Then there's the rest of us, selecting the short, the familiar and the easiest to remember. And holding onto it forever.

I once felt ashamed about failing to follow best practices for password selection--but no more. Computer security experts say that choosing hard-to-guess passwords ultimately brings little security protection. Passwords won't keep us safe from identity theft, no matter how clever we are in choosing them.

That would be the case even if we had done a better job of listening to instructions. Surveys show that we've remained stubbornly fond of perennial favorites like "password," "123456" and "LetMeIn." The underlying problem, however, isn't their simplicity. It's the log-on procedure itself, in which we land on a Web page, which may or may not be what it says it is, and type in a string of characters to authenticate our identity (or have our password manager insert the expected string on our behalf).

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Apple, AT&T mum on iPhone 3G issues

After his third iPhone 3G continued to cut him off in the middle of his conversations, Ryan Shaw had seen enough.

"The phone was a disappointment from the standpoint that it couldn't maintain a consistent connection with the 3G network...All the other features were fantastic," said Shaw, a sales professional living in a Cleveland suburb. But those other features weren't enough to prevent him from returning to Verizon and the BlackBerry after deciding the hassle just wasn't worth it.

Widespread complaints about the iPhone 3G's reception have spread across the Internet in the month since Apple and AT&T released the successor to the original iPhone. The companies insist that nothing is wrong, but the complaints have been mounting through e-mails, water-cooler discussions, and message boards on Apple's own Web site: iPhone 3G users are having trouble connecting, and staying connected, to the 3G networks in their areas.

Users say the iPhone 3G will switch between 3G networks and EDGE networks even when the device is sitting still. They'll lose reception in the middle of a call while traveling through a 3G-rich environment. Friends with other 3G phones on AT&T's network are not reporting similar problems. And the issues don't appear to be confined to AT&T's network: iPhone 3G users in other countries report similar problems with their new phones.

As you can imagine, this doesn't sit well with many who eagerly bought the iPhone 3G to take advantage of 3G networks, which Apple promises are "twice as fast" as the EDGE networks in its advertising material. "Frankly, if I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have paid the extra $10 a month," said iPhone 3G owner David Howard of Provo, Utah.

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DOWNLOAD ANIME


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Giant Retailers Look to the Sun for Energy Savings

Retailers are typically obsessed with what to put under their roofs, not on them. Yet the nation’s biggest store chains are coming to see their immense, flat roofs as an untapped resource.

In recent months, chains including Wal-Mart Stores, Kohl’s, Safeway and Whole Foods Market have installed solar panels on roofs of their stores to generate electricity on a large scale. One reason they are racing is to beat a Dec. 31 deadline to gain tax advantages for these projects.

So far, most chains have outfitted fewer than 10 percent of their stores. Over the long run, assuming Congress renews a favorable tax provision and more states offer incentives, the chains promise a solar construction program that would ultimately put panels atop almost every big store in the country.

The trend, while not entirely new, is accelerating as the chains seize a chance to bolster their environmental credentials by cutting back on their use of electricity from coal.

“It’s very clear that green energy is now front and center in the minds of the business sector,” said Daniel M. Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley. “Not only will you see panels on the roofs of your local stores, but I suspect very soon retailers will have stickers in their windows saying, ‘This is a green energy store.’ ”

In the coming months, 85 Kohl’s stores will get solar panels; 43 already have them. “We want to keep pushing as many as we possibly can,” said Ken Bonning, executive vice president for logistics at Kohl’s.

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Beijing 2008: Tech gets in on the Games

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are getting unprecedented online exposure, and as the usual tech suspects (both wired and mobile) are aiming to grab sports enthusiasts' attention, others are dealing with censorship issues.

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A Tall, Cool Drink of ... Sewage?

By ELIZABETH ROYTE

Before I left New York for California, where I planned to visit a water-recycling plant, I mopped my kitchen floor. Afterward, I emptied the bucket of dirty water into the toilet and watched as the foamy mess swirled away. This was one of life’s more mundane moments, to be sure. But with water infrastructure on my mind, I took an extra moment to contemplate my water’s journey through city pipes to the wastewater-treatment plant, which separates solids and dumps the disinfected liquids into the ocean.

A day after mopping, I gazed balefully at my hotel toilet in Santa Ana, Calif., and contemplated an entirely new cycle. When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

Opened in January, the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System is the largest of its type in the world. It cost $480 million to build, will cost $29 million a year to run and took more than a decade to get off the ground. The stumbling block was psychological, not architectural. An aversion to feces is nearly universal, and as critics of the process are keen to point out, getting sewage out of drinking water was one of the most important public health advances of the last 150 years.

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Langsing dengan Lipotomy

Pemeriksaan Khusus untuk Penderita Kolesterol

Menjaga tubuh tetap ramping bukan hal mudah. Terlebih bagi mereka yang sudah masuk golongan usia evergreen. Proses metabolisme tubuh seolah tak mau bekerja sama dengan keinginan tampil singset. Makin kita berumur, timbunan lemak kian terlihat di mana-mana.

Banyak cara dilakukan untuk mendapatkan kembali keindahan tubuh. Diet ketat, akupunktur, olahraga, konsumsi obat pelangsing, hingga merebahkan diri di meja operasi untuk menjalani tummy tuck atau liposuction.

Di antara ragam usaha itu ada satu cara lagi bernama lipotomy. Dia berasal dari kata lipo yang berarti lemak dan tomy yang berarti memecahkan. Teknik ini dilakukan untuk "mengambil" lemak dalam tubuh tanpa tindakan pembedahan. Proses berlangsung tanpa menimbulkan rasa sakit pada pasien.

"Pengerjaannya juga tidak lama. Satu kali perawatan 2-4 jam saja," tutur Dr Y.M. Ursula W.S, Dipl. CIBTAC, dokter di ESC (European Slimming Centre), yang terletak di Bukit Darmo Boulevard itu.

Lipotomy bisa dilakukan semua orang dengan usia 17-60 tahun tanpa ada pembedaan jenis kelamin. Tapi, program tersebut tidak untuk perempuan hamil. Sebenarnya, kata Ursula, mereka yang berusia 60 tahun ke atas bisa juga melakukannya. Tetapi, harus dicermati betul kondisi tubuhnya. Yang terpenting adalah tensi dan kandungan kolesterol. ''Kecenderungan usia tua, tensi sedikit lebih tinggi,'' tandasnya.

Normalnya kandungan kolesterol 200 mg/dl, trigliserida 150 mg/dl, dan tensi 120/80. Kalaupun angka yang dimiliki si pasien sedikit di atas angka itu, lipotomy masih diperbolehkan. Tetapi, jika selisihnya hingga dua kali lipat, kondisi tersebut harus dinormalkan dulu.

Biasanya mereka yang berusia 50 tahun ke atas banyak yang mengalami gangguan jantung dan diabetes. Lipotomy bisa dilakukan oleh pasien yang memiliki riwayat tersebut. Tetapi, untuk penyakit jantung, harus disertai tes kesehatan dahulu. Hal ini untuk mengetahui sebarapa parah penyakit yang diderita. ''Kalau payah jantung harus dipertimbangkan lagi,'' ungkap Ursula.

Untuk mengetahui adanya risiko penyakit jantung bisa dilihat melalui ukuran lingkar pinggang. Jika ukuran lingkar pinggang pria di atas 90 cm dan wanita di atas 80 cm, dia berisiko terkena jantung.

Lipotomy adalah metode pelangsingan yang langsung mengarah ke sel lemak. Sel-sel lemak pada bagian tubuh tertentu akan dipecah. Jika kebanyakan program pelangsingan hanya menghilangkan kadar air, lipotomy menghilangkan lemak di tubuh sehingga penurunan berat badan bersifat jangka panjang.

Sebelum melakukan lipotomy, pasien harus berkonsultasi dan tes kesehatan. Jika normal, pasien bisa melakukan perawatan di empat bagian tubuh sesuai keinginan dalam satu kali perawatan. Jika memiliki tensi dan kolesterol tinggi, terapi sekaligus hanya bisa dilakukan di dua bagian.

''Dikhawatirkan kalau nekat minta empat bagian ketika lemak yang keluar justru masuk darah, kolesterol bisa menjadi semakin tinggi," ujar Ursula. ''Kalau mau langsung empat bagian, ya kolesterol dan tensinya dinormalkan dulu," imbuhnya.

Pasien dengan kondisi tubuh tertentu, misalnya menggunakan alat pacu jantung atau pen, tetap bisa melakukan perawatan ini. Metode yang digunakan lipotomy 1.0. Yaitu proses pemecahan lemak dengan injeksi slimtonic. ''Sementara kalau kondisinya biasa, pasien bisa memakai teknik lipotomy 2.0. Proses sama hanya yang ini ditambah penggunaan ultrasound,'' tambah dokter yang punya hobi melukis itu.

Ursula menjelaskan, lipotomy biasanya cukup dilakukan satu kali. Hanya pasien yang ingin mengurangi lingkar tubuhnya sampai belasan cm harus datang beberapa kali. ''Kalau cuma 5-10 cm saja cukup satu kali perawatan,'' ujar Ursula.

Bagaimana hasilnya? ''Bagi lipotomy 2.0 pengurangan lingkar tubuh mencapai 3 cm dalam dua minggu. Sedangkan lipotomy 1.0 karena tanpa menggunakan ultrasound hasilnya bisa dilihat dalam waktu 1 bulan,'' jawabnya.

'Wrath of the Lich King' looking good, 'WoW' fans say


Since its launch in the fall of 2004, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft has shattered expectations at every turn.

Prior to its release, no American massively multiplayer online game (MMO) had ever reached what was then seen as the magical million subscribers level--even major hits like EverQuest and Ultima Online. Yet almost before anyone could blink, WoW, as it's known, had surpassed 4 million paying users and now has more than 10 million worldwide, and at $15 a month for most users, it may well be bringing in more than $1 billion a year.

Then, prior to the January 2007 release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, no one had ever heard of the kind of nationwide midnight madness lines associated with iPhone and Xbox launches for a game expansion. Sure enough, however, people lined up at game stores everywhere for hours for the right to be among the very first to buy Burning Crusade, and the update went on to sell millions of copies.

And now, with the second major WoW expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, in beta testing, Blizzard is getting ready to prove yet again that when it comes to American MMOs, it is the undisputed gold standard.

"It's just beautiful," said longtime WoW player and Lich King beta player Katrina Glerum. "The game really feels epic in a way that The Burning Crusade didn't....Burning Crusade felt like an extension of the (original) game. This really feels epic, and that you're part of something grand."

All Lich King players will have to upgrade from Burning Crusade, in particular because the new expansion extends the top level players can reach to 80 from 70 in Burning Crusade, and 60 in the original game.

Right now, the Lich King beta has only recently opened up to those lucky enough to get invitations--or those they have passed their access codes onto. Indeed, the codes are selling on eBay for $150 or more, a testament to the passion or many hardcore WoW players, especially given that the game is still months away from its public launch and riddled with the kinds of bugs common to early beta releases.

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Phelps wins first in quest for eight gold medals

American Michael Phelps has begun his quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals at a single Olympics by winning his first gold medal in his first event.

Phelps shattered another of his own world records.

Phelps won the 400-meter Individual Medley race early Sunday at China's National Aquatics Center in Beijing with a blistering time of 4:03.84. Phelps had set the previous best of 4:05.25 at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in June.

Phelps was under world record pace at every turn. Even so, he said immediately after the event, 'To be honest, I did not really feel that great. And going into the ready room, I started getting these, kind of like chills going through my body.'

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Juara Dunia Lomba Sauna

Ingin tahu bagaimana bentuk manusia jika direbus pada suhu 110 derajat celsius selama 18 menit 15 detik ? foto Bjarne Hermansson (kiri) di atas jawabannya. Dengan tubuh penuh peluh dan kulit memerah, warga Finlandia itu akhirnya menjuarai kejuaran dunia bertahan di ruang sauna di Heinola, 138 utara, Helsinki, ibu kota Finlandia, kemarin. Hermansson berlatih di sauna rumahnya setiap hari selama 30 tahun agar dapat bertahan di ruang "rebus" di atas 18 menit. Dia sukses menyisihkan 164 peserta dari 23 negara termasuk Kanada, Tiongkok, dan Jerman .

Russian troops in control of main Georgian cities and ports


After three days of fighting between Georgian and Russian troops in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Russian troops are said to be in control of the capital Tskhinvali.

Georgian forces have completely withdrawn from Tskhinvali, the Russian military said Sunday, thereby confirming earlier accounts by Georgia that its forces had withdrawn from the city.

But Tbilisi denied that its forces had completely pulled out of South Ossetia.

The ground fighting between Russian and Georgian forces had been the fiercest at Tskhinvali, in infantry battles throughout the night as Russian forces engaged Georgian troops holding heights overlooking the town.

'We're not fighting against the Georgian state, rather instead carrying out a peace mission,' a member of the Russian general staff, Anatoli Nogowizyn, said in Moscow Sunday.

Around 10,000 Russian troops and 300 tanks are now in South Ossetia.

Russia Sunday intensified airstrikes and a naval blockade against Georgia, as international diplomats sought ways to bring a ceasefire to the Caucasus province South Ossetia.

Georgia claimed Sunday that 15 of its cities have been bombarded by Russia.


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