http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards Truly unusual, strange and weird things and websites. en Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:52:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19374&goto=newpost Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:07:38 GMT http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6581/ratimagesul5.jpgPHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor...

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.28) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.

($1 = 3,900 riel)

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080827/...RaHnqYBbms0NUE ]]> Truly Unusual Asia News pavelino http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19374 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19373&goto=newpost Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:49:44 GMT LiveScience Staff

LiveScience.com

A baby's first words are often "mama" and "dada," much to the delight of parents. Now scientists think they know why.

Beyond the obvious - Mommy and Daddy are around a lot and babies are drawn to them - languages in many cultures have apparently made the task easy by creating words for mothers and fathers that feature patterns of repeating sounds, a new study suggests.

To arrive at this finding, brain scans were made of 22 newborns (age 2 days to 3 days) while they listened to recordings of made-up words. They heard words that end in repeating syllables, such as "mubaba" and "penana," as well as words without them, such as "mubage" and "penaku."

Brain activity increased in the babies' temporal and left frontal areas whenever the repetitious words were played. Words with non-adjacent repetitions ("bamuba" or "napena") elicited no distinctive responses from the brain.

This suggests "mommy" and "daddy" are well-chosen words to teach a baby, and it also indicates that the ability to more easily recognize these sorts of repetitive sounds is hard-wired in the human brain.

The research, led by University of British Columbia post-doctoral fellow Judit Gervain, was published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It's probably no coincidence that many languages around the world have repetitious syllables in their 'child words,'" Gervain said, citing "papa" in Italian and "tata" (grandpa) in Hungarian as examples.

"The language center of most right-handed adults is located on the left side of the brain," Gervain said. "This is consistent with our finding with newborn babies and supports our belief humans are born with abilities that allow us to perceive and learn our mother tongue systematically and efficiently."

"The brain areas that are responsible for language in an adult do not 'learn' how to process language during development, but rather, they are specialized - at least in part - to process language from the start."

LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...abysfirstwords ]]> Conspiracies Interrogation room pavelino http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19373 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19372&goto=newpost Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:20:19 GMT DARWIN, Australia (AP) -- An Indian woman gave birth to a healthy boy aboard a jet airliner while flying to Australia to reunite with her husband.... *Link To Original Article... DARWIN, Australia (AP) -- An Indian woman gave birth to a healthy boy aboard a jet airliner while flying to Australia to reunite with her husband....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19372 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19371&goto=newpost Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:14:50 GMT HOSCHTON, Ga. (AP) -- This small northeastern Georgia town's population boom is frightening. In a bid to break a world record for scarecrows and scare up some fun for the fall season, thousands of straw-stuffed newcomers are creeping across town....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19371 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19370&goto=newpost Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:00:12 GMT BUNOL, Spain (AP) -- Spanish revelers have pelted each with 113 tons of ripe tomatoes in an annual food fight. Town hall says an estimated 40,000 people took part in the hour of messy fun in the... BUNOL, Spain (AP) -- Spanish revelers have pelted each with 113 tons of ripe tomatoes in an annual food fight. Town hall says an estimated 40,000 people took part in the hour of messy fun in the village of Bunol near Valencia. The ritual dates back to the 1940s....

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Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19369 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19368&goto=newpost Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:01:31 GMT CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- A 12-year-old boy took his grandmother's car and led police on a chase at speeds up to 60 mph before swerving to avoid spikes in the road and crashing into a fence, police said....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19368 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19366&goto=newpost Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:05:58 GMT FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) -- A judge has decided that a suburban Seattle woman who registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote has spent enough time in the legal doghouse.... *Link To... FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) -- A judge has decided that a suburban Seattle woman who registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote has spent enough time in the legal doghouse....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19366 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19365&goto=newpost Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:07:09 GMT De QUEEN, Ark. (AP) -- Firefighters were right on top of this blaze.... *Link To Original Article... De QUEEN, Ark. (AP) -- Firefighters were right on top of this blaze....

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Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19364 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19363&goto=newpost Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:09:08 GMT WATERVILLE, Wash. (AP) -- Some people may lose sleep on the job or even lose the stapler off their desk. Dane Keane loses fingers.... *Link To Original Article... WATERVILLE, Wash. (AP) -- Some people may lose sleep on the job or even lose the stapler off their desk. Dane Keane loses fingers....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19363 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19362&goto=newpost Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:01:48 GMT NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player - too good, it turns out.... *Link To Original Article... NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player - too good, it turns out....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19362 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19361&goto=newpost Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:15:18 GMT NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player - too good, it turns out.... *Link To Original Article... NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player - too good, it turns out....

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Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19360 http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19359&goto=newpost Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:18:13 GMT SAN DIEGO (AP) -- It was the little engine that couldn't - because it was thirsty for fuel....

Link To Original Article ]]> Truly Unusual News Weird Bob http://www.trulyunusual.com/wards/showthread.php?t=19359