Facial expressions such as smiling or crying develop before birth, new study shows

We all knew that babies develop a considerable amount of their personality and basic facial features while still in the womb but didn't know to what extent they aready arrived with aspects like facial expressions. 

Now scientists have discovered that facial expressions develop while babies are still in the womb. Babies develop a range of facial movements that can actually be identified as smiling or crying. A team of researchers have for the first time been able to show that as a pregnancy moves from 24 to 36 weeks gestation, fetal facial movements become increasingly complex.

The researchers examined video-taped fetal facial movements obtained by 4D ultrasound machines in the later stages of pregnancy. After the fetuses had been found to be healthy at their 20 week scan, the group recorded the same fetuses several times between 24 and 36 weeks of gestation.

Fetuses at 24 weeks, the first stage of observation, were able to move one muscle in their face at a time.They could open their mouth, for example, or stretch their lips. By 35 weeks gestational age, fetuses combined a number of facial muscle movements. They could stretch their lip, lower their eyebrows and deepening the nasolabial furrow all at the same time. Isolated movements are turned into recognisable and increasingly complex expressions, Science Daily reports. Now that's pretty amazing! 

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2038025/Facial-expressions-smiling-crying-develop-birth-new-study-shows.html#ixzz1Y5Zz1xOg

Holiday terror as passenger attempts to open plane doors at 36,000ft while screaming 'We are just on a flight simulator'

There are a lot of very unstable people out there as the following story demonstrates. A holidaymaker who tried to open the doors of an aircraft at 36,000ft while shouting 'It's OK we are just on a flight simulator' has been arrested. 

The 22-year-old man had to be restrained by air hostesses and passengers before being tied down with seatbelts.Travellers aboard Thomson flight TOM1269 from Majorca to Newcastle were left terrified when the man, of Ashington, Northumberland, tried to throw open one of the emergency doors. 

What would you do if this happened  to you? I didn't think it was even possible for one person to have the wherewithal and strength to open an aircraft door mid flight.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037731/Passenger-tries-open-plane-doors-36-000ft-screams-flight-simulator.html#ixzz1Y2J3J2i9

University Challenge contestant got 'offensive' remarks

Why is it that we judge attractive women using a different criteria? It does seem at times that men can be both good looking and handsome but not women. A number of former University Challenge contestants have reportedly fallen victim to unwanted attention after being on the television quiz show. One of them, Marine Debray, told BBC Breakfast she was not expecting to see the amount of offensive remarks about her that subsequently appeared on internet forums.

Why then is she held to a different and probably higher standard than say a male counterpart? Could it be that despite the 35-40 years of Feminism, men still cannot get their heads around the fact that a woman can actually compete with them intellectually and in fact should by all accounts be instead at home washing their dishes and ironing their clothes? "Ug ug" said the man in the cave!!


http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/email/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14850777

Re: Furnished condo for rent - LPN, Soi Onnuch (77) - 36.67 sq mtrs - baht 9,000/month

If anyone's looking for a nice, well-maintained condo in the heart of Bangkok, here are some pics and the full ad:

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A motorcycle ride gets you to BTS Onnuch in 3 mins. TESCO is opposite the BTS station. There's food shops, cafes, dry cleaning and laundry, a massage shop, two convenience stores (both 24 hours), two gyms, a pool, all within the LPN complex. From the condo, you can walk to Big C in 5 mins and there's a fresh food market directly across the road from Big C along with many other shops. The LPN complex has its own WiFi at additional cost. 1-year let - 2 months + 1 month down If interested, leave a message on this blog and I'll get back to you. Thanks

Definitely "man's best friend"!

At a time when officials in Thailand have just received 14 million baht for the unfortunate dogs who were caught in terrible conditions being sent to slaughter in Vietnam, its great to hear a good news or "shaggy dog" story! Dogs, while they cannot speak, have an ability to communicate a selfless sense of comfort, understanding and well-being. They are the most underestimated social animals out there.

A report in Arab News says German scientists have been experimenting with sniffer dogs and found they can accurately detect lung cancer by smelling breath samples. In a study carried out by researchers from Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany, the dogs were able to correctly detect lung tumors in 71 percent of patients, suggesting a similar technique could be used for early detection in future.

“In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs’ keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease,” said Thorsten Walles, who led the study and published its findings in the European Respiratory Journal on Thursday.

Lung cancer, mostly linked to smoking, is the second most common form of cancer in men and women across Europe and causes more than 340,000 deaths per year. It is also the most common cause of death from cancer worldwide.

The disease is notoriously hard to detect in its early stages and scientists have been working on using breath tests for possible future screening programs. The sniffing method relies on identifying so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are linked to the presence of cancer.

I wrote another blog on dogs and their ability to sniff different forms of cancer. I'll look for it and post the link here.

It's great to know that these pooches are getting the respect they deserve!

Udder Genius: Daisy The Cow's Great Escape

Who says cows are stupid? Here's a report about a cow that must surely avoid the slaughterhouse now that she's obviously a smart one!

A farmer whose herd of cattle kept escaping each night had a shock when he installed CCTV - only to discover it was an inside job.

By day, Tom Grant drives a tractor. By night, he solves mysteries - mysteries like cows on the move!

He was locking his cattle inside each night but finding them outside each morning.

Tom said: "I was a wee bit suspicious because I thought there was a bit of rustling in the area and that maybe there were boys about during the night trying to steal one of them."

If cattle rustlers were targeting his farm on the Irish border, Tom was determined to catch them.

His brother Vincent mounted surveillance and discovered it was an inside job.

Daisy - that's Daisy the cow - had her captors licked.

She was using her tongue to open the two bars on the gate and lead the herd to freedom.

They were witnessing "udder" genius.

Vincent Grant: "I was amazed. I never saw anything like it before and thought here is a cow with unusual intelligence. It is something to capture on camera."

Daisy has not only mastered the skill of picking locks, she has become an internet sensation.

Pictures of the great escape on the hills of South Armagh are trending on Twitter.

Her owner - a fan of George Orwell's Animal Farm - says it puts paid to the theory that cows are dumb animals. He thinks it is time for more research on the bovine brain.

The jail-breaking heifer is the pride of her herd - a new outlaw in Ulster's so-called 'Bandit Country'.

Few would question her intelligence or skill.

She's just too modest to moo about it.

Blundering Barclays bank staff go home... and FORGET to lock up or set the alarms

They say that a fool and his money are soon parted! Can you believe that a bank as big as Barclays could do something as stupid as leave their doors open and go home?

"Bank customers had to stand guard after a branch of Barclays was left unlocked for almost four hours. Even the cashiers' service area and the route to the vault were left open to passers-by in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on Saturday afternoon. The blunder was only noticed when a customer went into the branch to withdraw cash and found no staff present. Customer Lesley Phillips and two other customers investigated further and discovered the entire bank in The Broadway had been left unlocked."

Do they really deserve our money? Does this kind of ineptitude really warrant a bank like this one that makes 3.5 billion every quarter to be called a "major high street bank"?