Year: 2018

How Can I Remove Google From My Life?

Posted on Monday, 31 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Google’s motto used to be “don’t be evil,” but in the eyes of some it has now taken on the mantle of the “evil empire” from Microsoft, which Bill Gates and crew inherited from the IBM mocked in the Mac’s launch advert in 1984. The EU has fined Google €2.4bn (£2.2bn) for abusing its search

Photographs December 2018 5

Posted on Monday, 31 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Credits: The Guardian, Press Association, Readers’ Travel Photography Competition, Reuters, Ritzau Scanpix.

Life In Perspective

Posted on Sunday, 30 December, 2018Thursday, 10 January, 2019 by Zheluo Cai

Colossians 3: 1 – 4. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians reminded his readers twice to focus their minds on heavenly issues in this short passage. Given our earth-bound predilections, as we move into 2019, what can we learn from his concerns as he encouraged the Colossian

Australia Leads The World In Extinction Rates

Posted on Sunday, 30 December, 2018Sunday, 30 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Australia has the most extraordinary national parks, home to our unique wildlife, deserts, mountains, forests and sacred icons such as Uluru. We are rightly proud of them. It’s hard to pick a favourite. But I do love Wilsons Promontory, where the wombats reign supreme, and getting one of these inquisitive

Bringing Extinct Species Back From The Dead

Posted on Saturday, 29 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The pigeons are outwardly unremarkable. Thirteen birds, ages two weeks to three months, occupy a coop at an animal research facility west of Melbourne, Australia. They’re descendants of the common rock pigeon, recognisable denizens of city squares and park benches—with one small but crucial distinction. These are the first pigeons

Mars Express beams Back Images Of Korolev Crater

Posted on Saturday, 29 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The stunning Korolev crater in the northern lowlands of Mars is filled with ice all year round owing to a trapped layer of cold Martian air that keeps the water frozen. The 50-mile-wide crater contains 530 cubic miles of water ice, as much as Great Bear Lake in northern Canada, and in

The Phoenix Constellation

Posted on Friday, 28 December, 2018Friday, 28 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky. Named after the mythical phoenix, it was first depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756. The constellation stretches from roughly −39° to −57° declination, and from 23.5h to

Cancer Links Of Bacon, Red Meat And Glyphosate

Posted on Friday, 28 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The head of the UN agency that provoked a massive outcry and some ridicule when it declared that bacon, red meat and glyphosate weedkiller caused cancer has defended its work, denying the announcements were mishandled and insisting on its independence. Its outgoing director, Christopher Wild, fiercely defended the decisions and transparency of

China Applies Xinjiang’s Policing To Other Muslim Areas

Posted on Thursday, 27 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

China’s aggressive policing of Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang is being replicated in other parts of the country, particularly in areas with other Muslim communities. Over the past year or so, as Xinjiang stepped up its program of mass surveillance, detention and assimilation of Muslims, droves of law-enforcement officials from across

Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder (Part 2)

Posted on Thursday, 27 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

MYTH 4: DID IS AN IATROGENIC DISORDER RATHER THAN A TRAUMA-BASED DISORDER One of the most frequently repeated myths is that DID is iatrogenically created. Proponents of this view argue that various influences—including suggestibility, a tendency to fantasise, therapists who use leading questions and procedures, and media portrayals of DID—lead some vulnerable

Indonesia Tsunami Caused By Volcano Collapse

Posted on Wednesday, 26 December, 2018Wednesday, 26 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Anak Krakatau emerged from the Krakatoa caldera in 1927, years after the gigantic volcanic eruption of 1883. This current article brings us up-to-date on the recent eruption of Anak Krakatau.

Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder

Posted on Wednesday, 26 December, 2018Thursday, 27 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Dissociative identity disorder is a complex, posttraumatic developmental disorder. Notwithstanding the upsurge in authoritative research on DID, several notions have been repeatedly circulated about this disorder that is inconsistent with the accumulated findings on it. This article handles 6 such myths.

WISHING ALL MY READERS A BLESSED CHRISTMAS

Posted on Tuesday, 25 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Reliving The Biblical Christmas Story. Rather than just appear on earth one day, or “beam down” (to use Trek-talk), Jesus is said to have entered this world in the most orthodox of ways: childbirth. Jesus’ appearance on earth is known as the Incarnation, or what the Gospel of John calls Jesus’

A Local’s Guide To Granada, Spain

Posted on Tuesday, 25 December, 2018Tuesday, 25 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Granada is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of four rivers, the Darro, the Genil, the Monachil and the Beiro, sitting at an average elevation of 738 m (2,421 ft) above sea level, yet is only one hour by car from the Mediterranean coast, the Costa Tropical.

Photographs December 2018 4.

Posted on Monday, 24 December, 2018Monday, 24 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Credits: Agence France-Presse, Agency Photographer of the Year 2018, Anadolu Agency, The Guardian, Reuters.

World’s First No-Kill Eggs Go On Sale

Posted on Monday, 24 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The world’s first ever no-kill eggs are now on sale in Berlin after German scientists found an easy way to determine a chick’s gender before it hatches, in a breakthrough that could put an end to the annual live shredding of billions of male chicks worldwide. The patented “Seleggt” process can

The Incarnational Prequel

Posted on Sunday, 23 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

John 1: 1 – 18. The Christological use of ‘word’ in the prologue to the Gospel of John sets it apart from its subsequent use in the narrative, as well as the other Gospels. Whereas the Greek ‘logos’ is commonly used as the reason or the rational principle expressed in words and things, argument,

The Unintended Consequences Of Animal Gene Editing

Posted on Sunday, 23 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The purported birth last month of the world’s first gene-edited human babies, claimed by a Chinese scientist, spurred a wave of global outrage. Scientists denounced the (as yet unconfirmed) experiment as irresponsible, and the development reinforced fears that the redesigning of DNA is moving ahead too fast and without necessary oversight. The

Plastic Pollution At Deepest Point Of Ocean

Posted on Saturday, 22 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The deepest point on Earth is heavily polluted with plastic, scientists have discovered, showing how pervasively the world has been contaminated. The researchers plumbed the depths of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, near Challenger Deep, the lowest place on the face of the planet. They found the

The 35th Harbin Ice And Snow Festival

Posted on Saturday, 22 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The official opening date of the 35th Harbin China International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (commonly known as Harbin Ice Festival 2019) is on January 5, 2019. Sponsored by Heilongjiang Provincial Government, Harbin Municipal Government, China National Tourism Administration and some China travel companies, the Festival will last to the end of

The Perseus Constellation

Posted on Friday, 21 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Perseus is a constellation in the northern sky, being named after the Greek mythological hero Perseus. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and among the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. It is located near several other constellations named after ancient Greek legends surrounding Perseus, including Andromeda to the west and Cassiopeia to the north. Perseus

Japan To Resume Commercial Whaling After Leaving IWC

Posted on Friday, 21 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Japan is to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling next year, a report claimed on Thursday, in a move that drew condemnation from Australia, with other anti-whaling nations expected to follow suit. Japan will inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year,

Rescuing Trafficked Children In India

Posted on Thursday, 20 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Half a million passengers pass through Old Delhi railway station each day. Some of those hurrying out of its arched facade are children who will be sold to sweatshops or brothels by their adult companions. As the trains roll in – about 250 of them a day – and people

New Horizons Probe From The Edge Of The Solar System

Posted on Thursday, 20 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Four billion miles from Earth, a swarm of little worlds circles the dark edge of our solar system. The sun is so remote from this place that it appears no brighter than a star. This is the Kuiper belt, a doughnut-shaped ring of icy objects that is one of the

Think Twice About Your Child’s ADHD Diagnosis

Posted on Wednesday, 19 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Diagnosing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is inherently subjective. New research highlights how this can get especially tricky with young children. It shows that ADHD rates are significantly higher among children who are the youngest in their class compared with those who are the oldest. ADHD is characterised by difficulty concentrating and

Most Distant Known Object In Solar System Identified

Most Distant Known Object In The Solar System Identified

Posted on Wednesday, 19 December, 2018Wednesday, 19 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

A group of astronomers have identified the most distant object ever observed within our solar system. Provisionally named 2018 VG18, but nicknamed Farout by its discoverers, the body is 120 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. One AU is equal to the average distance from the Earth to the sun,

Climate Negotiators Agree On Rulebook

Posted on Tuesday, 18 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Negotiators from around the world on Saturday agreed on a rulebook to curb global warming, seeking to bolster the 2015 Paris accord amid concerns that countries would fail to deliver on their commitments despite what many scientists call a rising threat from climate change. Discussions in Poland pushed past the

12 Of The Best Places To Eat, Drink And Shop In Bangkok

Posted on Tuesday, 18 December, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has a population of over eight million, or 12.6 per cent of the country’s population. Over fourteen million people (22.2 per cent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan