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

Wi-Fi laptops may damage sperm? Give over!

Before we heard that cell phones can cause cancer. Now we are told that Wi-Fi laptops may damage sperm? Has the world gone mad or what?


© Gert Vrey - Fotolia.com 

Sperm samples placed beneath a laptop with a wireless internet connection for just four hours were found to have reduced motility and more DNA damage compared with other samples stored under the same conditions but away from the laptop.

The study, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, collected sperm samples from 29 healthy men, aged 26 to 45. Each of the samples were then separated into two pots.
One set of samples was placed beneath a laptop connected to the internet via Wi-Fi as it downloaded information, while the other set was stored under identical conditions - including temperature - but away from the computer.

The researchers found that exposure to the laptop resulted in a significant decrease in sperm motility and a significant increase in DNA fragmentation. Around 25 per cent of the sperm in samples exposed to the laptop stopped swimming compared with 14 per cent of those kept away from the computer. Similarly around nine per cent of the sperm exposed to the laptop showed DNA damage compared with three per cent in the control samples.

So there you have it. Get a desktop!

Read more: http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/wifi-laptops-may-damage-sperm.htm

Facebooked on charges: Hitting 'like' may land you in jail (in Thailand)

Things are starting to get ridiculous. Thailand has always had some of the harshest and most outdated media laws but now the country just took another giant leap back into the Dark Ages!

AFP Photo / Tang Chhin Sothy

Apparently, according to RT.com, fifteen years behind bars is the price you could pay for “liking” some Facebook pages in Thailand, and this is just part of a global trend as Big Brother’s hand is increasingly extended to social networks.

Thailand’s information minister has warned that people “liking” or “sharing” Facebook pages considered derogatory to the King and the royal family will be charged with violating the country’s lèse majesté laws, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He advised them to “unlike” the pages and to remove any comments posted or risk harsh penalties, The Bangkok Post reports.

Thailand is notorious for strictly enforcing its laws protecting the dignity of the sovereign, regardless of the perpetrator’s nationality. In 2007, a Swiss man was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for spray-painting posters with the King’s image. Luckily for him, the subject of his portraits pardoned him after four months.  

In 2009, an Australian writer was sentenced to three years in prison for writing a novel which contained a passage considered offensive to the royal family. Once again, he got lucky after the King pardoned him too.

The Thai authorities are now turning their attention to cyberspace in the quest to clamp down on offenders. This year, US citizen Joe Gordon was arrested for posting excerpts from a banned biography of the King on his website and is currently waiting for the court’s ruling after he pleaded guilty to insulting the royal family.

Although all these episodes portray a quirky but harmless national law, the reality is that nobody is immune from being arrested for their internet activities, even (and perhaps especially) in the Western world.

The British police arrested some Facebook users for allegedly inciting disorder, looting and burglary during this summer’s riots in the country. They were eventually sentenced to four years in prison. In the United States, six teenage girls were detained after they used Facebook to send invitations to participate in a so-called “Attack a Teacher Day.” The punishments they received were not as severe, however: they were released into the custody of their parents and were suspended from school for several days.  

Although prosecuting people for their online activities is nothing new, the number of activities that could get you in jail has been on the rise. And although Thailand has its own eccentric legislation regarding freedom of speech, there is also an alarming trend in the West: the internet, once a bastion of free speech, is now monitored by the authorities who seek to interpret what they read as evidence of a crime.

When will these governments ever learn that the more you try to suppress people's opinions, the more you close off their society, the more you inadvertently invite people to express themselves in other ways, and such ways are not always friendly and convivial. As William Blake famously said, "Better to murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire." Amen brother!

Source:  https://rt.com/news/facebook-thailand-prison-offensive-remarks-383/

The Future has arrived...Bionic contact lens 'to project emails before eyes'

We've all watched the old sci-fi favoutires from Star Trek to Dr. Who, from Torchwood to Blakes Seven, but the gadgets we saw them using like Captian Kirk's teleporter gizmo ("Beam me up Scotty!") was just a thing of the show, and like all of the gadgets therein, it was just part of the escapist magic of the show, never really anything we thought would actually come into the real world. Well now all that has changed.

 

The vision is to stream real-time information in front of the eyes

 

A new generation of contact lenses that project images in front of the eyes is a step closer after successful animal trials, say scientists. The technology could allow wearers to read floating texts and emails or augment their sight with computer-generated images, Terminator-syle.

Researchers at Washington University who are working on the device say early tests show it is safe and feasible. But there are still wrinkles to iron out, like finding a good power source. Currently, their crude prototype device can only work if it is within centimetres of the wireless battery. And its microcircuitry is only enough for one light-emitting diode, reports the Journal of Micromechanics and "our next goal is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens” said lead researcher Professor Babak Praviz.

But now that initial safety tests in rabbits have gone well, with no obvious adverse effects, the researchers have renewed faith about the device's possibilities. They envisage hundreds more pixels could be embedded in the flexible lens to produce complex holographic images. For example, drivers could wear them to see journey directions or their vehicle's speed projected onto the windscreen.
 
Similarly, the lenses could take the virtual world of video gaming to a new level. They could also provide up-to-date medical information like blood sugar levels by linking to biosensors in the wearer's body.

Dr Praviz and his team are not the only scientists working on this type of technology. A Swiss company called Sensimed has already brought to market a smart contact lens that uses inbuilt computer technology to monitor pressure inside the eye to keep tabs on the eye condition glaucoma.

One wonders what will come next? Electronic chip implants that are placed in your hands and eyes to help you play better table tennis or golf? Extra digits or metatarsal implants to help you play better football? Technology is ushering in a quiet new but revolutionary world at breakneck speed.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15817316

'Average' height yields most children

Forget the "Tall, dark, and handsome" myth. If you are an Average Joe like me, you'll apparently have more babies or so the latest research suggests.



What role does height have in the number of children?
 
Scientists studying men in the US said those who were 178cm (5ft 10in) were the most reproductively successful.Writing in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, they said such men produced, on average, more than two-and-a-half children. The authors said it might be due to men of average height marrying earlier.

There have been studies which suggest that women prefer a taller man, such as those looking at the choices made during speed or online dating. Gert Stulp, one of the researchers at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, said that in Western societies it had been thought that taller men also had the most children. He reviewed previous studies on height and children as well as publishing new data from the Wisconsin Study, which followed school leavers in 1957 for the next 50 years. There was data on 3,578 men.


Mr Stulp told the BBC: "Contrary to popular belief, tall men do not have most reproductive success. It is average-height men who have the most reproductive success." In the study of US men, it seems one possible explanation is in the marriage data. "It really seems average height men get a partner earlier than both shorter and taller men, so this is a possible mechanism.

So there you have it. Mr. Average is the winner in this one!

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15779275