PC AIR airline launches maiden flight with transsexual attendants

Ray Kroc, the founder of MacDonalds famously said, "Take care of the customers, and business will take care of itself". I doubt he had the following in mind with katoeys now being offered the chance to become flight attendants.

A ladboy struts his/her stuff.

The new Thai airline, PC Air, on Thursday took officials and journalists on its maiden flight out of Bangkok under the ministrations of four third sex flight attendants. The privately-owned Thai airline’s management prides itself on its equal-opportunity employment policy for transsexuals.

It invited about 100 Civil Aviation officials and journalists on its inaugural flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani, 530 kilometres south, and back again.

"Today, we are ready to embark on the new journey and we would like to introduce our four transsexual angels," PC Air president Peter Can told the passengers before take off.

The airline, founded in 2010, made a media splash last year when it encouraged third sex candidates to apply for flight attendant positions. The cabin crew also included, 19 female and seven male flight attendants, as well as the transsexuals, airline sources said.

PC Air is to specialize in charter flights.

"Today is our proving flight with our well-trained cabin crew who has passed all the requirements by Department of Civil Aviation," Chan said. "PC Air assures you of safety and we are ready to serve all our passengers."

Thailand has a relatively high rate and social acceptance of male-to-female transsexuals, but rights campaigners have pointed to discrimination and intolerance from institutions and employers.

 Source:  http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/519342-new-thai-airline-launches-maiden-flight-with-transsexual-attendants/

Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay

I always knew there had to be some advatage to being hairy and now I know. Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported. Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim. Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.

 


















Prof Michael Siva-Jothy, from Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, recruited 29 brave volunteers to test the theory further, watching the bedbugs as they found a place to feed and removing them only as they were about to bite.

He found that more layers of both longer visible hairs and finer, "vellus" hairs near the surface appeared to work as a deterrent to the insects, with the finer hairs also acting as an early warning system. "If you have a heavy coat of long thick hairs it is easier for parasites to hide”

Prof Siva-Jothy said: "Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites - the hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement." He said they also slowed down the insect as it searched for a tasty spot to bite. 

"The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects' impact on humans." However, even though men are naturally hairier than women, they do not appear to be bitten less often.

So there you have it. If you're hairy like me, you might not make it onto the front cover of FHM, but at least you'll sleep well at night!

 More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16166134

You dirty little rat...er...friend!

I remember that Boomtown Rats song, "Rat Trap" which did for rats what the movie Jaws did for sharks - it gave them a really bad rap!" Rats throughout history in fact have been synonymous with double-crossing and cheating in love, dirty acquisitive merchants in Shakespearean literature, and of course were used to represent the Jews during Hitler's Holocaust.  But it seems they may not really be such rotters after all.

Kind and generous creatures: A rat nudges open the door to free its cagemate 

According to researchers, they are actually kind and generous. Chicago University scientists housed rats in pairs so that they got to know each other. 

They then placed one in a transparent tube inside the cage, and found that the second rat was distressed until it worked out how to free the first one.To their astonishment, not only did the creatures help cage-mates in distress, they also selflessly shared their treats with them.

Perhaps less surprisingly, the female rats seemed to be more caring than the males.

During the experiment, scientists found that the roaming rat became agitated the sight of its trapped friend, meaning it had picked up on the animal's distress, and, according to the scientists, showing the simplest form of empathy.

But the free animal went much further, learning how to open the tube door, without  being shown, and freeing its cage-mate. This said the researchers, meant the animal was 'putting itself in the other's shoes' – a much more complex form of empathy.

So next time you see a rat trespassing on your turf, remember, they may not be the nasty horrible little oiks we have always thought!

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2071722/Rats-wrongly-maligned-actually-kind-hearted-generous-creatures.html?ITO=1490