May 12, 2012

Student at Oxford University apologises for leaving unborn children on pool table

An Oxford University student has apologised after leaving sperm on a pool table. Shocked students at the university’s posh Jesus College were sickened when they spotted a dodgy stain on the green baize. The college’s Junior Common Room team launched an investigation to find the culprit after the white blotch appeared two weeks ago.

Last week an anonymous letter from the student responsible has now been sent to the college. The student said he was sorry for leaving ”two teaspoons of my unborn children”. It read: ”The pool table is a piece of equipment that facilitates a multitude of complex, enjoyable and satisfying cue sports, among them pool, snooker and billiards.

”It is not, therefore, an appropriate place for me to deposit two teaspoons of my unborn children.” The JCR has now framed the letter which is displayed next to the pool table.

Student Declan Clowry, 19, who attends Jesus College, said: ”I think it’s good that he had the balls to come clean. I just hope it doesn’t become a cue for more unorthodox potting in the JCR pool room.” Another student added: ”I’m a little bit impressed by the guy. Nobody thought he had it in him.”
にほんブログ村 英語ブログ 小説・エッセイ・詩の英語へ

May 7, 2012

Lack of outdoor life blamed for high rate of myopia among East Asian kids

From: AFP May 04, 2012 10:12AM

SNUBBING the outdoors for books, video games and TV is the reason up to nine in 10 school-leavers in big East Asian cities are near-sighted, according to a new study.

Neither genes nor the mere increase in activities like reading and writing is to blame, the researchers suggest, but a simple lack of sunlight.

Exposure to the sun's rays is believed to stimulate production of the chemical dopamine, which in turn stops the eyeball from growing elongated and distorting the focus of light entering the eye.

“It's pretty clear that it is bright light stimulating dopamine release which prevents myopia,” researcher Ian Morgan of the Australian National University said of the findings published in The Lancet medical journal.

Yet the average primary school pupil in Singapore, where up to nine in 10 young adults are myopic, spent only about 30 minutes outdoors every day - compared to three hours for children in Australia where the myopia prevalence among children of European origin is about 10 per cent.


The figure in Britain was about 30 to 40 per cent and in Africa “virtually none” - in the range of two to three per cent, according to Professor Morgan.

More than other groups, children in East Asia “basically go to school, they don't go outside at school, they go home and they stay inside. They study and they watch television,” the scientist said.

The most myopic school-leavers in the world are to be found in cities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, where between 80 and 90 per cent were affected.

Of these, 10 to 20 per cent had a condition called high myopia, which can lead to blindness.

“Most of what we've seen in East Asia is due to the environment, it is not genetic,” said Professor Morgan, contrary to the common belief 50 years ago.

The researchers, collating the findings of studies from around the world, stressed that being a bookworm or computer geek does not in itself put you at risk.

“As long as they get outside it doesn't seem to matter how much study they do,” explained Professor Morgan.

“There are some kids who study hard and get outside and play hard and they are generally fine. The ones who are at major risk are the ones who study hard and don't get outside.”

The scientist said children who spent two to three hours outside every day were “probably reasonably safe”. This could include time spent on the playground and walking to and from school.

“The amount of time they spend on computer games, watching television can be a contributing factor. As far as we can tell it is not harmful in itself, but if it is a substitute for getting outside, then it is,” said Professor Morgan.

He said ways must be found to get children to spend more time in reasonably bright daylight without compromising their schooling.

“It is going to require some sort of structural change in the way a child's time is organised in East Asia because there is so much commitment to schooling and there is also a habit of taking a nap at lunchtime, which is from our perspective prime myopia prevention time.”

AFP
にほんブログ村 英語ブログ 小説・エッセイ・詩の英語へ