New York -The big Apple

I just returned this march from 5 days in Manhattan New York. As a frequent traveller to the USA, I always thought I wouldn’t miss anything, if I never saw New York. Well I was wrong.

I read alot about the costs of Taxi Transfers from JFK to Manhattan. I payed USD 35, the price for any transfer from JFK to Manhattan, which in my eyes, is more then good.

As of what I knew about New York, I was worried about the danger of the city. I have to say, the city is safe. Those who might get in troubles as tourists, might have forced it. I was strolling through Central Park in the early morning, starting at 6am. There was no danger at all. The views that the little lakes in Central Park offer as mirrored skyline are amazing. If you want good mirror-like pictures, check it out.

If you are looking for a good view of New York, the Empire State Building sure serves all your needs. Be aware of the Security Check to get on top. Respect it. Fact september 11th made New York security check more then you might expect. But the view you get, is just georgeous.

If you have no problems walking your feet off, simply stroll down broadway, till you reach the State of Liberty Fairy. A short visit to the State of Liberty Island is a must. If weather is good, you get a nice view of the Skyline of New York from the waterside, meaning the Islandside.

At nights, you shouldn’t miss strolling along Times Square. The Advertising professionalism is amazing. I had to take pictures of hotels. Sometimes I was impressed, that it was hard to find them, as the placement of the Advertising rather catches your eye then the Hotel-Logos. There are good restaurants, musicals, bars and more around times square.

Two more things I would love to recommend you.

There is a restaurant called Brasserie. This place offers a wonderful Double Filet Mignon.

2nd thing, always come back to the city of New York. The face changes daily.

 

children become bilingual so easily

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Jul 21, 3:08 am ET

WASHINGTON – The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?

New research is showing just how children’s brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.

“We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults,” says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.

Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.

Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn’t distinguish between the “L” and “R” sounds of English — “rake” and “lake” would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.

Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there’s a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.

Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl’s research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don’t fit.

“You’re building a brain architecture that’s a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French,” whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you’re a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.

It’s remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.

Italian researchers wondered why there wasn’t a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.

The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy’s International School for Advanced Studies.

While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.

“We’re seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty,” Kuhl says. As an adult, “it’s a totally different process. You won’t learn it in the same way. You won’t become (as good as) a native speaker.”

Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center’s Web site.

What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don’t work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

Recall that Japanese “L” and “R” difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in “motherese,” the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.

Japanese college students who’d had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated “Ls” and “Rs” while watching the computerized instructor’s face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

“It’s our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal,” says Kuhl.

But she’d rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.

“You’ll be surprised,” Kuhl says. “They do seem to pick it up like sponges.”

___

EDITOR’s NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Good Planet for Cool Planet

Seal the Deal for
our Cool Planet
World Environment Day, observed on June 5, coincides this year with the kick-off of UN’s global campaign on climate change Seal the Deal. The message to world leaders in Copenhagen is simple but urgent: seal the deal in December to protect people and the planet. CoolPlanet is promoting Seal the Deal in Europe through a new concept ‘Wear Seal the Deal” in partnership with the Belgian designer Jean-Paul Knott. Read more..

CLIK THE PICTURE  BELOW TO WATCH THE MOVIE”"HOME”"

Sex Destination Desired-Latvia the Baltic Bangkok

(19 June 2007)

Riga, the capital of Latvia, runs the risk of becoming a ‘Baltic Bangkok’, according to local authorities.

Riga has become popular with groups of men on stag trips due to low-cost flights, as well as the city’s cheap alcohol and booming strip clubs and bars.

A campaign has been launched this month to stop sex tourism in the northeastern European country. Local women are to be shown the dangers of getting involved with tourists.

travel news.

high genetics on babies

High IQ In Breastfed Babies is Genetic

Friday November 23, 2007

In the most recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it has been reported that breastfed children have increased IQ’s if they carry a particular gene, FADS2, which is involved in the genetic control of fatty acid pathways.

Past research has shown that breastfed children attain higher IQ scores than children who were fed formula, mainly because of very specific fatty acids only available in breast milk. From the newest information, we see that the association between breastfeeding and IQ is altered by a variant in FADS2. The investigators add “that genes may work via the environment to shape the IQ, helping to close the nature versus nurture debate.”

http://breastfeeding.about.com/b/2007/11/23/high-iq-in-breastfed-babies-is-genetic.htm

Bum- Bum for ham- ham

fetish , inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. The power of the fetish is thought to derive its efficacy from one of two sources. In some cases the object is said to have a will of its own; in others the source of power comes from the belief that a god dwells within the object and has transformed it into an instrument of his desires. Closely related to the idea of the power of a fetish is the notion of taboo . Here the power within the fetish is thought to be so strong that it is extremely dangerous and may be handled only by special individuals, if at all. Any object of irrational or superstitious devotion may be called a fetish.

Nostalgic for Europe’s Train Stations

Written by Anne-Lise Karam-Choueiri

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

As a kid, I was scared of train stations. I was scared the train would leave without me. Impressed by the iron mass of technology, I still had a lingering fear that the train would be coming straight at me while I was waiting on the dock. However, as I grew older and spent a year in Paris, train stations became a real mystery for me. My fear of trains disappeared, and train stations became charming. I usually tried to stay away from big crowds, yet in train stations I felt good and I often waited for a moment when I could wander in those stations. I loved to look at people, imagine their stories as they waited for a train, dank a coffee, or read a newspaper. But most of all, what I wanted to show in these pictures is what train stations really are to me: an indefinite space to which no one is attached and in which people just pass, for a second, a minute, or an hour. You see them, look at them, but will never remember them as their faces remain blurry in your mind. And, sitting in a corner, you have a fraction of a second to imagine their lives and give them a story. In the blink of the eye, they’re not there anymore…each person has a story to tell you, even though you don’t know her… These photos were taken in December 2006 in various train stations in Europe. Check out Anne-Lise Karam-Choueiri’s photo gallery for more of her impressive work: www.annelise.choueiri.com .sboxgallery {padding: 10px 10px 30px 30px;} #sboxth {padding: 0 5px 15px 0;text-align:center;font-size:10px;width:100px;} #sboxth img {border: 1px solid #eeeccc; border-width: 2px 2px 2px;} #sboxth a:hover img {border: 1px solid #3e3e3e;border-width: 2px 2px 2px;} culturemagazine.ca

Lita Ford -Kiss me deadly

Born: September 19, 1958 in London, England
Years Active: 80 ’s, 90 ’s
Genre: Rock

Biography
One of two solo stars to spring from the ashes of the ’70s all-girl hard rock band the Runaways, Lita Ford has long been a more frustrating, contradictory proposition for critics than former colleague Joan Jett. Ford is subtly feminist in her musical approach, displaying guitar heroics on the level of any male metal hero; the mere fact of her exist… Continue Bio >>

Erotic week-Sex in public places

Last year during Northeastern’s annual sex week, a magazine was put together full of articles about sex. The magazine was called “Stripped” and contained a list of “Top Ten Places to Have Sex on Campus.” The list included places like the college’s underground tunnel network and the saunas at the gym. Number one was the library.

“I know tons of people who have had sex in public places,” said Alverston, in a recent interview. “I thought it sounded fun but I never planned on actually doing it.”

Other students have admitted to similar sexual experiences, the scenes ranging from dorm showers to parking lots. Jordana Kerr, a sophomore psychology major at Northeastern admitted to doing the deed in one of the school’s indoor gymnasiums.

“I worked there life guarding,” said Kerr. “(My boyfriend and I) didn’t get a lot of alone time because we both had roommates. One night he came to visit me and we ended up having sex in the racquetball courts. It was thrilling and it was a fun experience.”

However, if someone were to get caught, the student conduct handbook mentions these types of incidents would be handled as “sexual misconduct.”

Despite prohibitions and threat of punishment, many popular television shows portray sex in public as a natural and desirable activity. An episode of Sex and the City deals with a man who can only have sex if he thinks he might get caught. An episode of Friends includes a discussion about the craziest place the characters had ever “done it.” Even Homer and Marge Simpson rekindle their sex life by doing the deed at a miniature golf course.

This generation did not invent the idea of having sex in a place besides a bed. The openness and in-your-face style however, is something new.

John D’Emilio, author of the book “Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America,” thinks that every generation feels the need to be riskier than the one before it.

“It’s almost as if young people are pushing the boundaries one step further,” said D’Emilio. “Fifty years ago co-ed dorms didn’t exist, and now they do. And there’s no longer a curfew either. If you want to break the boundaries, you have to find a new way to do that.”

How Sex Has Changed

Public displays of affection are a pretty common sight around the streets of Barcelona. Media credit/mmoorr via Flickr

Alverston’s reason for having sex in the library was different from Kerr’s reason for having sex in the racquetball courts. Both of their parents however, probably didn’t think of performing a sexual act anywhere public, for any reason.

According to experts, each generation has had a different attitude about sex and adopted different ways of expressing themselves sexually as a reflection of the beliefs at the time. Sex in public did not used to be a normal practice. D’Emilio relates this trend back to the end of the 1800’s, when it was looked at with disgust.

“At the end of the nineteenth century there was public sex emerging,” said D’Emilio. “But it took place in neighborhoods that were deemed to be sex neighborhoods like red light districts where there was prostitution. This behavior was outrageous at the time.”

Those who were not labeled as outcasts of society kept sexual acts very private. It wasn’t until the emergence of automobiles and their growing popularity did that change. At a time when mobilization was much more plausible, couples began courting in their cars. Whether taking one another on dates to the movies or a remote place for privacy, sex began to move out of the bedroom for young people.

Sex was still relatively private though, and society built structure around this principle. Gina Ogden, a sexual therapist from Cambridge said sex was purposefully very repressed in the minds and practices of people in the past.

“Before and after the explosion of sex in the 60s and 70s, people were very constrained in their thinking of sex,” said Ogden. “There were male and female dorms. There was much less ability to be overtly sexual. During the Reagan years, I was a school psychologist at a boarding school. There was a big movement against ‘public display of affection,’ and people were getting expelled for holding hands. It was awful.”

The shift in how society views sex and also how people express themselves sexually has been a drastic one since then. D’Emilio thinks that societal acceptance plays a big role.

“What has really changed since then is that the assumption has become that young people will have sex before marriage. That’s just normal,” D’Emilio said. “It doesn’t push the boundaries.”

Say what? Why do people wake up speaking in foreign accents?

What is foreign accent syndrome?

WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers…

There have been around 50 reported cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome

A man from Yorkshire claims to have started speaking in a broad Irish accent after waking up from a brain operation. Why?

He’s never even visited Ireland, but when Chris Gregory came round from brain surgery he reportedly started speaking like a native.

Mr Gregory had spent three days on a life-support machine after surgery. When he came round he sang a stirring rendition of Danny Boy from his hospital bed, much to the surprise of staff and his family.

His strange behaviour is thought to be the result of a very rare condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). People who have it start speaking in an entirely different accent. In some cases they speak fluently in a language they hardly know.

THE ANSWER Happens after a neurological condition, such as a stroke or head injury Tiny areas of the brain linked with language, pitch and speech patterns are damaged It is not actually a foreign accent, it is the listener who attaches an accent to the changes

Doctors believe it is triggered following a stroke or head injury, when tiny areas of the brain linked with language, pitch and speech patterns are damaged.

The result is often a drawing out or clipping of the vowels that mimic the accent of a particular country, even though the sufferer may have had limited exposure to that accent.

“This syndrome results in a very particular constellation of changes to the way a person speaks,” says Professor Sophie Scott, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

“They do not actually develop a whole new accent, it is the who listener attaches a particular label to what they are hearing. In the UK people are most likely to say someone with Foreign Accent Syndrome sounds French or German, while in the US people are mostly likely to be told they sound British.”

‘Distressing’

There has been an estimated 50 recorded cases since the syndrome was first indentified in the 1940s. A slight increase in cases has occurred in recent years, but this is probably because researchers are now looking out for them, says Prof Scott.

One of the first reported cases was in 1941 when a young Norwegian woman developed a German accent after being hit by bomb shrapnel during a World War II air raid. She was shunned by friends and neighbours who thought she was a German spy.

WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular part of the BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer some of the questions behind the headlines

“It can be a very distressing experience for people,” says Prof Scott. “We tend to take our voices for granted but people don’t like it when they don’t sound like themselves. Society can be very judgemental when it comes to accents.”

In 2006 Linda Walker, 60, woke from a stroke to find that her Geordie accent had been transformed into a Jamaican one. At the time she said she was devastated.

“I’ve lost my identity, because I never talked like this before,” she said. “I’m a very different person and it’s strange and I don’t like it”

The condition can be permanent or last for a few hours. Some people get help to try learn how to speak in their usual accent again, but it can be a difficult process.

“Foreign Accent Syndrome changes the melody of your speech, the rhythms and specific sounds,” says Prof Scott. “Changing that back to what it once was is not easy.”

bbc.magazine