Giant Man Eating Catfish Caught in China

These images, reported to be gigantic catfish that was caught in a lake in Southern China, have been swirling around the Chinese internet for the last couple months. Those spreading the image claim that the 3-meter long fish may have eaten several swimmers who had disappeared in recent years. It sounds outlandish, but why not examine the pictures before deciding if it’s a fake?





Looks a hell of a lot like a whale shark to me. What do you think?

Source:- Axis

Dog adopts piglet

A dog in China has adopted a piglet, nursing it as if it were her own puppy. Huihu, from Chongqing city, adopted the piglet after her five pups were stillborn.

"She was very depressed for one week, then one night came home with a tiny black piglet following her," says owner, Lao Yi.

Lao Yi says that ever since, Huihu has reared the piglet as if it were her own puppy, nursing her and taking her around.

The two have become celebrities in the neighbourhood, attracting many visitors, according to the Chongqing Business Papers.

Lao Yi says that over the course of one month, the piglet has already put on 2kg in weight, drinking only dog milk.

World's Smallest School

An elementary school in China has just one teacher and one pupil.

Li Yongchun, 61, has been teaching at the school in Dasu village, Longjing region for over 25 years.
He explained: "At first, the school had more than 400 students, but in the '90s, more and more families migrated from the mountain village to make a living outside, and there were just over 10 students left.

"In 2000, the city education bureau decided to shut down the school after the graduation of the last student. New kids can register and board at another school in nearby Sanhe town, which is a two-hour drive away."

But the family of a third grader named Han Hongyang can't afford the boarding fee, so she became the last remaining student.

"We have been like this for more than half a year. She is my only student, and I'm her only teacher," says teacher Li.

Teacher Li teaches his student six subjects - Chinese, Mathematics, Korean, History, Geography and PE.

"During class breaks, we play badminton, ping pong and football, which is a bit hard for a 61-year-old," says Li.

In another half a year, teacher Li is to retire, and the city education bureau says then it will send another teacher to take care of the only student till her graduation, reports City Evening Post.

Man Swims Around Manhattan Three Times, Wins Record

Skip Storch isn't crazy, although you might think he is considering the feat he accomplished Thursday. Storch, a 50 year-old marathon swimmer, swam around Manhattan three times, finishing the journey in a record 32 hours, 52 minutes, 30 seconds. Why would anyone want to jump into the waters around Manhattan? For Storch, he record-breaking swim was to bring awareness to sarcoidosis. The N.I.H. describes sarcoidosis as "an inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body," with the lumps that develop affecting organ function, typically the lungs and lymph nodes.

Storch, who developed sarcoidosis after 9/11, like many New Yorkers, was swimming to raise money for Mount Sinai Hospital's sarcoidosis program. Swimming 85.5 miles over a day and a half isn't all fun and games. Storch swam unassisted (he couldn't be touched by anyone else) and has since checked into a hospital where he's being treated for muscle tears, abrasions, and hypothermia. We suppose it could have been worse?

By taking advantage of favorable currents, Storch beat the old record by 37 minutes, 30 seconds. He also set a record time for two trips around Manhattan, completing that in 20 hours, 56 minutes and 17 seconds.
Source:- Gothamist

Chinese, Japanese Sing The Same Song

More than 1,000 Chinese and Japanese performers give a chorus on friendship before the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, central China's Henan province, on September 4, to celebrate the 35 anniversary of the normalization of the diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Mother Gives Birth to Naturally Conceived Triplets Twice

Victoria Lasiter beat odds of 64 million to one
A mother of triplets has beaten odds of 64 million to one by giving birth to her SECOND naturally conceived set of triplets.

Victoria Lasita, 39, gave birth last Wednesday to Casey, Carson, and Caden, three years after her first set of triplets with husband Tim.

Planning on having “one more” baby, the couple were initially shell-shocked to discover their family would grown by three. "I guess we should have been more specific and said one more child, not one more set," Victoria told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Tim, 48, a shipping coordinator, said finding out they were expecting triplets four years ago had been a big enough surprise.

He said: "The second time she went to the doctor, she called me and said, 'We have two.' The next time she went to the doctor, she called me and said, 'We have three.'

"I said, 'Don't go to that doctor anymore.' "

But she returned to the doctor last March to be told she would be expecting three more.

Their three babies and three toddlers now join their grown children from previous marriages. Victoria has two sons, Bret, 22, and Jordan, 19, and Tim has son TJ, who is 23-years-old.

The six young children mean the Lasitas can now expect very little sleep in between preparing 168 bottles of milk every week and changing more than 300 nappies.

"We just say we'll make do," Tim said. "We always have."
The news that both sets of triplets were conceived naturally - without fertility treatments that are known to increase the risk of a multiple pregnancy - stunned local fertility doctors.

"Do you know what the odds of that are?" said Dr Glen Hofmann, medical director of the Bethesda Center for Reproductive Health and Fertility.

The odds of conceiving triplets naturally are one in 8,000 – so the chances of it happening twice are one in 64 million.

Dr. Sherif Awadalla, medical director of the Institute for Reproductive Health in Cincinnati, said it was possible Mrs Lasita's hormonal makeup could make her more likely to have multiple births. Women who conceive over the age of 35 are also more likely to have twins or triplets.

The couple's first set of triplets was born at 28 weeks. All weighed less than 3 pounds at birth but are now completely healthy and celebrating their fourth birthdays in December.

Double triplets are not completely unheard of. In May 2006 another American woman, Sharon Fontana, gave birth to her second set of triplets, also without fertility treatments.

Gold Bra Made 630 g Gold And 7.5 Karats

These are pictures of a gold bra made of 630 g gold and 7.5 karats of diamond, taken on September 1, 2007. It took 2,000 hours to make this gold bra. Currently it is on display in Beijing.

Gay Marriage Then Judge Stays Ruling

Two men sealed the state's first legal same-sex marriage with a kiss Friday morning, less than 24 hours after a judge threw out Iowa's ban on gay marriage and about two hours before he put that ruling on hold.
It was a narrow window of opportunity.

Polk County Judge Robert Hanson temporarily cleared the way for same-sex couples across the state to apply for marriage licenses in the county when he ruled Thursday that Iowa's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed marriage only between a man and a woman, violated the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection of six gay couples who had sued.

County attorney John Sarcone promised a quick appeal and asked Hanson to stay his ruling until that appeal was resolved.

A dozen gay and lesbian couples were waiting at the county recorder's office when it opened at 7:30 Friday morning.

"This might be our only chance," said Katy Farlow, who waited in a lawn chair with fellow Iowa State University student Larissa Boeck.

Just after 11 a.m., about 20 gay couples had finished applying for marriage licenses when Recorder Julie Haggerty announced she could no longer accept applications. Hanson told The Associated Press about an hour and half later that he had formally stayed his ruling.

The stay meant the recorder's office was not permitted to accept any more marriage applications from gay couples until the Iowa Supreme Court rules on the county's appeal.

Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan were among the lucky few to get their application through.
The marriage license approval process normally takes three business days, but Fritz and McQuillan took advantage of a loophole that allows couples to skip the waiting period if they pay a $5 fee and get a judge to sign a waiver.

Friday morning, the Rev. Mark Stringer declared the two legally married in a wedding on Unitarian minister's front lawn in Des Moines.

"This is it. We're married. I love you," Fritz told McQuillan after the ceremony.

Fritz explained their hurry: "We're both in our undergrad programs and we thought maybe we'd put it off until applying at graduate school, but when this opportunity came up, we thought maybe we wouldn't get the opportunity again."

Republican House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, said the ruling illustrates the need for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"I can't believe this is happening in Iowa," Rants said. "I guarantee you there will be a vote on this issue come January," when the Legislature convenes.

Gov. Chet Culver left open the possibility of state action.

"While some Iowans may disagree on this issue, I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman," the governor said.

Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, and nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples. Nearly all states have defined marriage as being solely between a man and a woman, and 27 states have such wording in their constitutions, according the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Dennis Johnson, a lawyer for the six gay couples who sued after being denied marriage licenses in 2005, said Iowa has a long history of aggressively protecting civil rights in cases of race and gender. The Defense of Marriage Act contradicts previous rulings regarding civil rights and is simply "mean spirited," he said.

Roger J. Kuhle, an assistant Polk County attorney, argued that the issue was not for a judge to decide.

Hanson ruled that the state law banning same-sex marriage must be nullified, severed and stricken from the books, and the marriage laws "must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage ..."

"This is kind of the American Dream," said plaintiff Jen BarbouRoske, of Iowa City. "I'm still feeling kind of shaky. It's pure elation. I just cannot believe it."

Kate Varnum of Cedar Rapids, another plaintiff, said she was elated but expected more legal battles: "I don't expect this to be the last one."

2 Dead in Canada Hot Air Balloon Fire

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A hot air balloon burst into flames over western Canada, burning a woman and her adult daughter to death while their families looked on, officials said Saturday. Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said.Eleven passengers were seriously injured when the balloon crashed Friday evening in a recreational vehicle park near the U.S border in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. There were 12 passengers and a pilot on board, police and witnesses said.
John Kageorge, who works for Fantasy Balloon Charters, said the fire started as the ballon was about to launch. Kageorge said three passangers did not get out of the basket before it became airborne.
"One person jumped from an unsafe distance, two stories in the air or more," said Kageorge. The mother and daughter did not jump, he said, although two of their family members made it out of the basket.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow confirmed the deaths and said relatives of the two passengers killed witnessed the fire."It's just tragic. They watched it unfold before their eyes," Morrow said of the family. "The fatalities suffered from burns."
The balloon caught fire as it prepared to launch, said Bill Yearwood, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
"The crew loaded 12 passengers and was preparing to launch when a fire erupted. The pilot asked the passengers to get out of the basket," he said. "The balloon was tethered at the time, but then broke and came loose," he added.
"They were all trying to get out."
After most of the passengers escaped, the balloon exploded in a fireball and shot up into the air. Shortly after, the burning balloon plunged to ground in the RV park, leaving a tail of thick black smoke in its wake.
"I can't tell you what exactly happened when the balloon was loosened from the tether," Yearwood said. "We will be talking to attending crew members and the pilot to find out."
He said the pilot was in stable condition.
"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon — it collapsed," said Don Randall, a resident of the trailer park who took pictures of the scene. "The basket was basically a fireball. It just dropped like a stone," he added.
"I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away.
Another resident, Karen Ashby, held back tears while she explained how she watched the coroner sift through the blackened wreckage.
"They found the bodies in here," Ashby said. "I watched them take them out."
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight.
"People were screaming and trying to get out," Frank Hersey said Friday night near a grassy field where several of the injured were being attended to by ambulance crews.

Perry Kendall said he saw what looked like something out of a movie.
"It was horrifying," said a shaken Kendall. "Just looking at people screaming and jumping out of there. Some of them, I think, had fire on their clothes. It was just awful."

Witnesses also said propane tanks from the balloon shot off and landed on the Hazelmere RV park below, setting fire to three trailers and several vehicles. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.
"We're exceptionally lucky that nobody in any of these three trailers or in the vehicles that were destroyed were caught in them," Morrow said.
The hot-air balloon, operated by Fantasy Balloons Charters based in Langley, British Columbia, was one of several balloons in flight at the time. The balloon that burned, Kageorge said, was about nine stories high.
There was a similar accident earlier this month in the central Canadian province of Manitoba, Manitoba, where 12 people were injured.

Source:- Yahoo News

Pole dancing class popular in America

Shawn Frances Lee, owner of Urban Fertility Dancer, teaches a pole dancing class in Las Vegas, Nevada August 9, 2007. Once confined to strip clubs, thin metal poles are popping up in kitchens, bedrooms and exercise studios across the United States with gym fanatics, moms and even grandmothers using them to get fit. Picture taken August 9, 2007.

Bic Pen Bow & Arrow

intro:-Bic pen bow & arrow

A Bic pen bow & arrow is a good way to waste time at work or school. Be carefull these things really fly and could poke your eye out.
Step 1:-Materials
Bic Pen
Rubber band
Step 2:-Dissemble
Take apart the pen.
Step 3:-Reassemble
Poke a hole in the center of the empty tube big enough for the end of the pen to fit.
Step 4:-Add ruber band
Cut notches on both side of the pen tube to hold the rubber band in place.
Step 5 :-Fire!
Insert the pen pull back and fire.
Source:-instructables

Everything's made of ice at Dubai bar

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Outside it was a sticky 111 degrees, but Ali Hamdan was shivering under two parkas as he sipped hot chocolate, surrounded by tables and chairs made of ice.
Chillout, its owners say, is the Middle East's first ice lounge — the latest venture in this desert Gulf emirate, which has been transformed by a mania for the biggest, first or most outlandish.

Gulf men in traditional white robes with wives covered in black cloaks, teenagers eager to experience their first cold blast and Westerners who miss the chill are flocking to the bar-restaurant to hang out in what amounts to a freezer.

Everything is made of ice: the walls, tables and chairs; cups, glasses and plates; the art on the wall, the sculptures depicting Dubai's skyline, the beaded curtains, the 7-foot-chandelier and the bar.

"It was the first time that I've been in such a cold place," said Fatima Ali, a 13-year-old Emirati, as she emerged from the restaurant, still breathless from the adventure. "It was fantastic. I took pictures to show my friends so they would come too."

Not everyone is so impressed. Some rush out after only a few minutes in the 21-degree temperature.

The $17 cover charge gets you one drink and the rental of a hooded parka, woolen gloves and insulated shoes. Customers don them outside, then spend a few minutes in the Buffer Zone, a room set at 41 degrees to adjust before entering the restaurant.

Sami al-Muhaideb, a 25-year-old Saudi travel agent, warned his friend Yousef Badr going in to expect a blast of cold air, like a freezer. Thirty minutes later, Badr emerged shivering, with a red nose.

Hamdan, 22, who works at Dubai customs, looked miserable as he sipped hot chocolate, an extra parka covering his legs. He hadn't quite dressed for the occasion, coming in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts.

"He's not happy," his colleague Marwa Kharsa, a 25-year-old from Atlanta, said with a laugh. "But I'm extremely happy. I miss the cold."

While the new, $3 million hangout, which opened in a Dubai mall in June, is expected to become a must-see tourist destination, it also is expected to raise questions about already high energy consumption in this desert land.

The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Energy consumption in the Emirates runs high for many reasons, particularly because of the air conditioning that cools houses, malls, cars and public places not only during the furnace-hot summers but in the warm winters.

Making matters worse are Dubai's audacious developments. The emirate has transformed itself into a financial and tourism center, building up its name with dramatic projects — the world's tallest skyscraper, island resorts in the shape of palm trees and maps of the world, even an indoor ski slope that still creates snow amid the inferno of summer.

Mike Ebenezer, business manager at Sharaf Group, which owns Chillout, insists it consumes only as much energy as a cold storage facility for frozen foods does.

"There are hundreds of cold storages in Dubai," said Ebenezer.

Ebenezer said that Chillout is the ninth such ice bar in the world, with others in the U.S., Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, London and Italy.

"It's a cool oasis in the middle of the desert," said Ebenezer.

"We want it to be a fashion and lifestyle statement for the Dubai people," he added. "It's the kind of place where you want to be seen."

It took 40,000 tons of ice to build the decor of the 2,400-square-foot restaurant. Every item was designed, carved and cut at a studio freezer at Iceculture Inc. in Canada and then shipped to Dubai.

Diffused lighting, from low-heat LED bulbs, constantly changes colors as it filters through the ice blocks. Sheepskin rugs cover the seats for the diners' comfort. Cocktails — which are nonalcoholic in a nod to Muslim culture — are served in ice glasses that are later discarded.

Hot drinks and food, from an Asian fusion menu, are served in stainless steel thermos containers — but still get cold within 15 minutes, diners are warned.

Putting on their parkas, newlywed Lebanese couple Yousef and Obeida Bissani, who live in Dubai, said they are used to cold winters in Lebanon but wanted to see what it's like to sit on an ice bench and drink from an ice glass.

"We didn't want to go to Ski Dubai because we have (the Lebanese) ski resort of Faraya," said Obeida Bissani, 23, who works in advertising.

Thuraya Amory, a 24-year-old Moroccan who works in sales, brought her mother, Amina, who was visiting from their homeland.

"It's the first time that I experience cold in Dubai," she said. "It's nice to do it from time to time."

Miracle triplets act as bridesmaids and pageboys at parents wedding

A happy couple had a dream wedding present when the triplets they feared they would never have were bridesmaids and page boy on their big day.

Tim and Kayleigh Stevenson were thrilled when the trio were born a year ago because he thought he could never father children after having leukaemia as a boy.

Identical twins Olivia and Caitlin and their brother Finley were the icing on the wedding cake for their mum and dad when they tied the knot at Norwich Register Office.

Kayleigh, 22, said: "The little ones made all our dreams come true. We feel so lucky as we didn't think we would have any children and then we suddenly got three.

"It was perfect to have them at our wedding, they looked lovely in their little bridesmaid and page boy outfits.

"But it was so hot they only had them on for about two hours and spent the rest of the day in just their nappies."

All smiles: proud parents share their special day

Tim, 28, a mechanic from Little Plumstead, Norwich, was hit by leukaemia in November 1981 aged three.

In 1981 and 1982 he had radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and continued having other treatment until he was eight years old.

Doctors said Tim no longer needed to have check-ups when he was 13. But they warned his mother, schoolteacher Janet, that he would never have children as a result of his treatment.

Yet just a month after they starting trying for a baby, Kayleigh - whose maiden name is Brown - fell pregnant. It was at her 12-week scan that the couple discovered they were having triplets.

The trio were born by Caesarean section 10 weeks prematurely on August 30, because doctors were worried about the health of the smallest baby, Olivia.

Caitlin weighed just 3lb 3oz, Olivia a mere 2lb 11oz with Finley the heaviest at 3lb 7oz when they were born.

Now, as they approach their first birthday, all three are bright and bubbly and doing well.

Dressed up: triplets look the part for wedding ceremony

Kayleigh said: "You can see they have different personalities already. Caitlin is the one with a little bit of attitude, Finlay is very laid back and Olivia is really cheeky.

"I don't find it too hard with three as long as we all stay in our routine. They were very hard work on the wedding day, though, they were all over the place."

The Stevensons have found there is one downside to getting married while they have three young children - it makes it impossible to go on honeymoon.

Kayleigh said: "Not a lot of people want to look after a baby, let alone three. They are quite a handful so we have decided to wait and perhaps go on honeymoon when they get a little bit older."

Egg within egg a freak of nature

Maria La Frenais got more than she bargained for when she broke an egg for breakfast.

The Glendene resident was about to start a morning fry-up when she made the unusual discovery - an egg inside an egg.

"I cracked it into the pan and out came a small yolk," she says.

"But to my amazement there was another fully formed egg in the shell.

"I then cracked open the inner egg which had a yolk the same size as the first," she says.

Ms La Frenais says the egg - described by experts as a freak of nature - was in a tray of supersized free range eggs.

"I am keeping the shells as mementoes," she says.

RARE PHENOMEON: A similar discovery was made in Australia three years ago.

Bird expert and veterinarian Kevin Turner says Ms La Frenais? discovery is odd.

"I've never seen it before," he says.

An egg within an egg was found in New South Wales in 2004.

It was the first Sydney University poultry science professor Tom Scott had seen in his 30-year career.

He says a normal egg disturbed in the shell gland could move back up into the oviduct and start production all over again, resulting in an egg inside an egg.

Auckland Zoo vet Berend Westera says the case is rare and defies logic.

He has consulted colleagues overseas who have seen similar things. They say there are documented cases from the late 1800s to 1945.

But Dr Peter Sandmeier from Switzerland has a story to beat all.

He was amazed when three eggs appeared on an x-ray of a budgie that was having trouble laying.

"The third egg was about one-third the normal size, had a normal shell and was within another egg," he says.

"The bird is fine."

BIG BREAKFAST: Maria La Frenais got two eggs for the price of one.




Source:-Stuff

Woman faces charges for kissing painting

MARSEILLE, France - A woman has been arrested on suspicion of kissing a painting by American artist Cy Twombly and smudging the bone-white canvas with her lipstick, French judicial officials said Saturday.

Police said they arrested the woman after she kissed the work on Thursday. She is to be tried in a court in the southern city of Avignon on Aug. 16 for "damage to a work of art," judicial officials said.

The painting, which is worth an estimated $2 million, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon. It is part of an exhibition slated to run at the museum through Sept. 30. Officials did not provide further details on the painting.

Twombly is known for his abstract paintings combining painting and drawing techniques, repetitive lines and the use of graffiti, letters and words.

Born in Lexington, Va., in 1928, Twombly has lived in Italy for nearly a half- century. He won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2001.

Kiss Caught on Camera Raises Issues of Big Brother Surveillance

Surveillance cameras in schools are meant to keep children safe and in-line, but a kiss, a camera and a controversy have Gig Harbor High School in Washington in an uproar.

A security camera captured two girls kissing, but it’s what happened next that sparked a surveillance debate. With Warren County schools having surveillance cameras not only in the high schools but in the middle school and elementary schools as well, you’ll want to read on because reporter Keith Eldridge’s brings you the story that asks the question: When does Big Brother surveillance cross the line?

The dean of students said he saw two girls kissing. He checked the surveillance tape then shared what he saw with the parents of one of the girls. They then pulled her out of school, which then pulled the peninsula school district into a big controversy.

“They weren’t harming other students, so I don’t think the administrators had a right to show it to her parents or anybody else,” student, Laura Varadi said.

“I think that they didn’t use the cameras like how they should. They should only be used for safety I think,” student, Jade Egelhoff said.

“We obviously made a mistake,” Superintendent Terry Bouck said. “We’re here to make sure our kids, our staff and parents are safe, but we’re not going to be monitoring public displays of affection, etc.”

But some parents ask “Why not?”

“I think that that’s fine if they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing. The surveillance is fine,” said Heidi Holmes, a Gig Harbor parent.

“We’re watching them at home, so we should be watching them at school too,” said Tim, Heidi’s husband.

The Holmes said surveillance cameras are a way of life. Helping prevent crime, identifying suspects and just giving folks a sense of security knowing the cameras are always watching.

You’ve got to figure that no matter where you are you’re probably going to be on camera, whether from that angle or this angle, you’re probably going to be on. But one store owner said it shouldn’t be for spying.

“I’m not for it, because we don’t use it that way,” store owner, Sean Whang said.

This is a debate that is not likely to end with the superintendent saying they made a mistake. It really goes to all facets of life not just schools but the workplace and all public areas.

Read More

The baby gorillas who think their keeper is the best mum in the world

For these two baby gorillas, clinging on to mum is the most natural thing in the world - even if she is making a cup of tea, rather than foraging in a tropical forest.

Six-month-old girl Kouki and ten-month-old boy Oudiki were abandoned by their separate mothers soon after they were born.

Since then, they have been hand-reared by zookeepers Donna Honey and Matt Stagg at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent.

The western lowland gorillas are now doing so well that they are being primed for a return to the wild in their native Africa.

Miss Honey, 25, said that the secret of mothering her two unlikely charges was to behave as much like a mother gorilla as possible.

"We don't tend to carry them," she said. "We encourage them to grip on to us like they would their mum. We also make gorilla noises to make them feel at home."

Children snatched off the streets to work as slaves

More than 1,000 children may have been kidnapped and sold into slave labour in a brutal human trafficking ring that has shocked and outraged China.

The children, some as young as 8, worked in brick kilns for 16 hours a day with meagre food rations. They were guarded by fierce dogs and thugs who beat their prisoners at will.

Many were abducted right off the streets of cities in the region and sold to factories and mines for as little as 400 yuan (£27). The unfolding scandal, involving negligent law enforcement and even collusion between government officials and slave masters, burst into the open this week.

Horrified Chinese have followed the stark, uncensored images of the slaves on television as they were rescued by police. Some children still wore their school uniforms.

They lived in squalid conditions with many adult workers, sleeping on filthy quilts on layers of bricks inside the brickworks, with the doors sealed from the outside with padlocks and the windows barred with pieces of wood.

Many children had festering wounds on their black feet and around their waists, apparently from burns. Some were even beaten to death by their guards.

Some 35,000 police have raided 7,500 kilns in Henan and Shanxi provinces in central China and rescued 468 people. Local officials said that 250 people had been arrested. They said the number of children forced to work in the kilns could rise to more than 1,000.

The abuses came to light only after 400 parents of missing children posted a letter on the internet pleading for official attention to their plight.

Filmed by television reporters from Henan province who accompanied the parents into the kilns to try to find their missing sons, several boys stood dazed and almost mute.

Asked if he wanted to go home, one boy gripped his filthy shirt and sobbed: “I want to. I want to.”

Zhao Yanbing, a foreman who fled a brickworks where 31 men were rescued a few days ago, described on state television how he had beaten a man in his late fifties for not working hard enough. “His performance was so bad, so I thought that I would frighten him a bit. When I raised the shovel over him I never thought that he would get up and confront me, so I slammed the shovel down on his head.” The man never got up again.

The revelations have sparked nationwide disgust. The Polit-buro, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, sent a team of officials to Shanxi yesterday to investigate.

The People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, said: “How could officials in the area have connived with such audacious and appalling behaviour to allow this situation to arise under their very eyes?” Parents of missing boys have complained repeatedly directly to government offices in Henan and Shanxi.

Yuan Cheng said that his 16-year-old son disappeared on March 28 while training to install steel window frames at the Golden Port construction site in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province. He told The Times: “When Yuan Xueyu went missing I felt numb. But now I’m even more worried because if I can’t find him when there is so much public attention, then there is no hope.”

Mr Yuan said that more children had been disappearing in the past two or three years as a building boom across China has fuelled demand for bricks.

He had joined 100 other parents at sit-down protests outside government and police offices in Henan. “They just ignored us. But the lower-level police must be protecting these illegal factories and that’s why it’s so difficult to search.”

Robin Munro, of the China Labour Bulletin, based in Hong Kong, said: “My impression is that this is not a common problem, but this kind of thing by definition is off-screen and makes me wonder just how widespread this is. It is one more sign among several of increasing lawlessness in China.”

One mother has been more fortunate than Mr Yuan. After seeing footage on Henan television, she contacted local reporters saying she thought she had seen her missing son. They accompanied her to a brickworks whose owner said all his workers were volunteers. But loading bricks beside a kiln was her missing son. She flung her arms around the teenager and burst into tears. “I never thought I would see him alive again,” she sobbed hysterically. The boy, Zhang Daohu, looked stunned and dazed.

Overworked and underpaid

A quarter of Fanglin village’s children were killed in 2001 when their elementary school exploded. Only then did the rest of the world discover that the school, in the remote mountain village in Jianxi province, had been turned into a fireworks factory using children as free labour

Merchandise for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is produced using child labourers working 13-hour days for minimal wages, according to a report released this month. The publication, by an alliance of world trade unions, said that official Olympic caps, bags and stationery were manufactured by children as young as 12

Seventy middle school students were rescued by authorities in Ningbo last summer when it was discovered that they were employed in a grape cannery under the guise of a “work-study” programme

Upgrade your memory with a chip inside your Brain

Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have demonstrated that neurons cultured outside the brain can be imprinted with multiple rudimentary memories that persist for days without interfering with or wiping out others. "The main achievement was the fact that we used the inhibition of the inhibitory neurons" to stimulate the memory patterns, says physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, senior author of a paper on the findings published in the May issue of Physical Review E. "We probably made [the cell culture] trigger the collective mode of activity that … [is] … possible."
The results, Ben-Jacob says, set the stage for the creation of a neuromemory chip that could be paired with computer hardware to create cyborglike machines capable of such tasks as detecting dangerous toxins in the air, allowing the blind to see or helping someone who is paralyzed regain some if not all muscle use.

Ben-Jacob points out that previous attempts to develop memories on brain cell cultures (neurons along with their supporting and insulating glial cells) have often involved stimulating the synapses (nerve cell connections). So-called excitatory neurons, which amplify brain activity, account for nearly 80 percent of the neurons in the brain; inhibitory neurons, which dampen activity, make up the remaining 20 percent. Stimulating excitatory cells with chemicals or electric pulses causes them to fire, or send electrical signals of their own to neighboring neurons.

According to Ben-Jacob, previous attempts to trigger the cells to create a repeating pattern of signals sent from neuron to neuron in a population—which neuroscientists believe constitutes the formation of a memory in the context of performing a task—focused on excitatory neurons. These experiments were flawed because they resulted in randomly escalated activity that does not mimic what occurs when new information is learned.

This time, Ben-Jacob and graduate student Itay Baruchi, who led the study, targeted inhibitory neurons to try to bring some order to their neural network. They mounted the cell culture on a polymer panel studded with electrodes, which enabled Ben-Jacob and Baruchi to monitor the patterns created by firing neurons. All of the cells on the electrode array came from the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain known for its role in memory formation.

Initially, when a group of neurons is clustered in a network, merely linking them will cause a spontaneous pattern of activity. Ben-Jacob and Baruchi sought to imprint a memory by injecting a chemical suppressor into a synapse between inhibitory neurons. Their goal: to disrupt the restrictive function of those cells, essentially causing the brakes they put on the excitatory members in the network to loosen. "This is like teaching by liberation," Ben-Jacob says. "We liberate the excitatory neurons to do what they want to do."

The pair chemically treated inhibitory neurons by injecting them with droplets of picrotoxin, an antagonist of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. The chemical suppression of the inhibitory neuron created a pattern kicked off by a neighboring excitatory neuron that was now free to fire. Other neurons in the culture began to fire one by one as they received an electrical signal from one of their neighbors. This continued in the same pattern, which repeated for over a day. This new sequence of activity coexisted with the electrical pattern that was spontaneously generated when the neural culture was initially linked.

A day later, they imprinted a third pattern starting at a different inhibitory synapse. Again, it was able to coexist with the other motifs. "The surprising thing is it doesn't affect the other patterns that the network had before," Ben-Jacob says.

The bottom line, the authors wrote: "these findings hint chemical signaling mechanisms might play a crucial role in memory and learning in task-performing in vivo networks." see more information:-Sciam

World's first twins born to two different women

Born minutes apart and with almost identical looks, there seems little to set Lauren and Hannah Bernaba apart from any other pair of newborn twins. But the girls are the world's first twins to be born on the same day to two different women.

First, biological mother Amy Bernaba gave birth to Lauren, weighing 7lb 10oz, then, half an hour later, surrogate mum Torry Keay delivered 7lb 3oz Hannah.

The double pregnancy happened after Mrs Bernaba and husband George had undergone IVF treatment for 12 years in an effort to conceive a baby brother or sister for their son Jeremy, now 15.

Eventually, doctors decided that 40-year- old Mrs Bernaba would almost certainly be unable to carry another baby because of a problem with her immune system.

So they tried an extremely unusual procedure, implanting eggs fertilised by Mr Bernaba's sperm into her womb and also into surrogate Mrs Keay's.

Mrs Keay became pregnant, and against all the odds so did Mrs Bernaba. Both women had straightforward pregnancies before giving birth on May 27 in neighbouring rooms in a Los Angeles hospital.

Mr Bernaba, who runs his own security business, saw Lauren delivered by Caesarean section before doctors told him Hannah was on the way.

He raced to watch her arrival and took photographs to show his wife.

Yesterday, the couple told of their joy as they settle in to life at home in Beverly Hills with the twins.

Mrs Bernaba said: "I feel so happy to have them. I can't stop smiling.

"All the strain and heartache I've been through in the past few years have definitely been worth it, just to have these very special twins."

Although the twins are not identical because they came from separate eggs, they look very alike and Mrs Bernaba said she is only now starting to tell them apart.

"They both have dark brown hair and big blue eyes, but Hannah has gold streaks in her hair and her eyebrows are slightly lighter.

"She is the lively one, while Lauren is more quiet and relaxed."

Mrs Bernaba was 24 when she gave birth to Jeremy, and the pregnancy "just happened". It was only two years later when the couple tried to conceive again that her complex fertility problems emerged.

The Bernabas spent thousands on 14 IVF attempts which resulted in only one pregnancy.

Tragically, an ultrasound scan at four months found the baby had not developed properly and had to be aborted.

Finally, Mrs Bernaba was treated by U.S. fertility doctor Dr Michael Vermesh, who has one of the world's highest IVF success rates at 50 per cent.

Dr Vermesh also produced an earlier world first when he helped a woman give birth using an embryo frozen 12 years before.

The Bernabas contacted mother-of-six Mrs Keay, 31, via a friend, and she immediately agreed to help. Mrs Keay, a hairdresser, lives in Lake Arrowhead, three hours away, with her husband Billie, who runs a construction company.

She was paid an undisclosed sum to act as surrogate.

She said: "I immediately knew I wanted to do it and Billie supported me. We have a big family and we love children and we felt so sorry for people who weren't as lucky as us.

"I was excited to be helping somebody and when we met Amy and George and saw what a lovely couple they were, we were even more convinced."

The two women, who are now close friends, had their prenatal appointments and scans together.

Doctors decided to induce Mrs Keay so she would give birth at a similar time to Mrs Bernaba's Caesarean delivery.

Mr Bernaba, 40, said: "It was really quick. They had just cleaned up Lauren and we were holding her, when they said Hannah was being born.

"They handed the baby straight to me, so I could take her to see her mum and her twin sister."

Mrs Bernaba said: "We are going to tell the girls exactly how they were born and make sure they know they're both as special as each other."

The idea of implanting a woman's embryos into the mother and a surrogate at the same time is still extremely rare.

There has been only one other set of twins born this way, Americans Connor and Cameron Payne, who were born to mother Kathy and surrogate Angel Willis 16 days apart last June.