Friday, December 13, 2024
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Potpourri

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Police prevents 12 people from committing suicide in China

Beijing: At least 12 people who attempted to commit suicide by jumping together from the top of a multi- story building after being cheated by a venture capital firm were stopped by the Chinese police. They climbed on the top of the multi-story development and reform commission of the Shuozhou City in Shanxi Province and threatened to commit suicide. They wanted government intervention after Ma Aibin, the head of the Shanxi Heli venture capital firm, fled with their their investment money, local officials said. Local police and firefighters, rushed to the scene and stopped them from jumping, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. (PTI)

Fifth graders 3D print prosthetic leg for turtle

Washington: A team of fifth grade students in the US has 3D printed a custom-made prosthetic leg for a badly injured turtle. Stumpy the box turtle had been short of a limb since the amputation of his injured front leg. Now, a group of fifth graders have put its school’s 3D printer to use and produced a custom-made prosthetic leg for the turtle.

When Stumpy was brought to Oatland Island Wildlife Centre in Savannah, California in September, her badly injured and infected leg prompted veterinarian Leslely Mailler to swiftly amputate the limb, Gizmag reported. After the treatment, Mailler contacted May Howard Elementary school where her daughter studied and had mentioned using a 3D printer in class. Mailler collaborated with some of the school’s science teachers and a group of fifth grade students, including her daughter, to design and produce the 3D printed prosthesis.

The team needed the new leg to be small enough to optimise mobility, yet large enough to keep the bottom of her shell from scraping along the ground. Using a software programme 3DTin, the design was finalised and printed. Attaching the prosthetic with a dollop of Gorilla glue and allowing some time to dry, the group then flipped Stumpy over and prepared to put her new limb to the test.

After a gentle prod from Mailler, Stumpy was on the move. Though the turtle found it difficult to gain traction on the tiled floor, it was able to make impressive progress on a towel. (PTI)

UK college offers selfie course for $ 160

London: A UK college here is offering its students a new course on the art of selfies and chance to become fully qualified selfie-takers. City Lit College will offer a first ever ‘selfie course’ for Euro 132 (USD 160) starting this March called “The art of photographic self-portraiture”.

The month-long course consisting of lectures and seminars will help students “improve critical understanding of the photographic self-portrait,” The Telegraph reported. Students can look forward to explore notions of identity, selfhood and memory.

“The budding photographers will be taught how to explain ideas of space, place and surrounding issues, use light and significant detail in their work and even develop new ideas to make their photography more relevant,” the report said. They would also be expected to “critique visual work from a variety of practitioners”, it said. The ‘practitioners’ could include Ellen Degeneres – whose 2015 Oscar selfie became the most retweeted ever. (PTI)

Scientists plan to grow lettuce on Mars

London: A British-led group is planning to grow lettuce on the Red Planet for future dwellers, media reports said. The plan has been proposed by a group of students at Southampton University to send a greenhouse from the Earth with lettuce seeds, water, nutrients and systems for atmospheric processing and monitoring. Under the project, called #LettuceOnMars, the greenhouse would be launched from the Earth with lettuce seeds, water, nutrients, and systems for atmospheric processing and electronic monitoring.

“To live on other planets, we need to grow food there. No one has ever actually done this and we intend to be the first,” Suzanna Lucarotti from Southampton University was quoted as saying.

If the plans are approved, lettuce could be sent to the Red Planet as early as 2018, as part of the Mars One mission to establish a human settlement there in 2025.

Following a safe landing, the Mars One lander will start to supply power and heating elements to maintain a temperature between 21 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees Celsius. Carbon dioxide, which is essential for plant life, would be extracted from the Martian atmosphere and processed before entering the growth chamber. The lettuce would then be grown without soil, and would be regularly sprayed with water and nutrients. (IANS)

Chandni Chowk to China: A common love for street food

Beijing: It is middle of the night and minus 5 degrees Celsius in Jinan, a city in eastern China, but people are still queuing up at an old and famous open street food joint to grab a bite or two of grilled lamb in the freezing winter. For tourists coming to the capital of Shandong Province, this may be an extremely surprising sight, but for 40-year-old street vendor Chia Miu, it is business as usual. “I have been parking my mobile barbecue van here for over 7 years now, irrespective of what weather it is. People, come and ask for grilled chicken or grilled lamb or sausages even at night. I love serving food to both domestic people as well as the tourists,” Chia said. The popularity of street foods in Jinan can be gauged from the fact that even in modern malls, small ready-to-eat food items are being sold on sticks, right next to a fast food restaurant. So, a burger in one hand and a tang hu lu – a sweet and sour round red-coloured fruit served on stick – in another is not an uncommon site in Shandong.

“Tang hu lu is a traditional Chinese snack food item and is very popular in China, especially among the youth. It consists of a candied fruit, sweet and sour in taste, and served on bamboo skewers. Everyone from Jinan to Beijing recognises this item immediately,” Su Wen Qi, a Jinan-based tourist guide, said. In capital Beijing, outside the National Stadium, a Chinese man on a bicycle is wooing tourists to try the same tang hu lu despite the language barrier, as they take photographs of his bicycle decked up with interesting food items. To have tasted tang hu lu is popularly considered one of those essential to-do things for tourists visiting China, and people posing for pictures while savouring the candied fruit is a common sight. James, a 30-year-old volunteer with the All China Youth Federation who recently co-hosted a group of Indian Youth Delegation to China, said: “Street foods in China are very popular the same way they are in India, especially in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk.” (PTI)

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