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WEEKLY UPDATE: Ice flows detected on Saturn’s largest moon
WASHINGTON: The European-American Cassini-Huygens space probe has detected traces of ice flowing on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, suggesting the existence of an ice volvano, NASA said Tuesday.
The radar image sent back to Earth by the probe “looks very much like it’s something that oozed across the surface” of the moon, said Cassini radar team member Ralph Lorenz of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The probe’s radar mapped a 230-square-kilometre area of Titan from an altitude of 2,494 km, NASA said in a statement. —AFP
Johnson, Joyner-Kersee in US Athletics Hall of Fame
INDIANAPOLIS: Two-time Olympic 400m champion Michael Johnson and three-time Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee led a group of 10 inductees for the United States Athletics Hall of Fame.
Olympic marathon winner Joan Benoit Samuelson, triple jumper Michael Conley, long-retired standouts Jack Davis, Otis Davis, John Pennel and Gerry Lindgren plus coach Stan Huntsman and administrator Evie Dennis complete the lineup. All will be inducted at ceremonies on December 3 at Beaverton, Oregon.
Johnson owns world records at 200 and 400 metres. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, he became the first man to win both at the same Olympics. His nine world outdoor championships are the most of any athlete in history.
Joyner-Kersee, who won four world titles, was considered a supreme all-around athlete. Her 7,291 points remains the world record in the women’s heptathlon. —AFP
Special diets don’t mean more weight loss
NEW ORLEANS: Dieters looking for tricks to lose weight got more bad news with the publication of a study showing diets that restrict certain food groups do not take any extra weight off.
A study of 80 overweight or obese people showed that they all lost the same amount of weight regardless of whether they were on an extra low-fat diet or one targeted at the so-called glycemic index, which aim to cut foods that affect insulin.
“No matter how you lose weight, you lose the same amount of weight,” added Dr Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre and president-elect of the American Heart Association.
The Heart Association has stuck with its recommendations that weight loss requires a boring but effective approach — eating less, exercising more, and basing the diet on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and little fat or meat.
But the group regularly supports research aimed at seeing if there may indeed be quicker ways to weight loss, because losing weight is one of the best ways to prevent heart disease. —Reuters
Snake-charmer quits after 50 years, 24 bites
KUALA LUMPUR: It was the last fang for Malaysian snake-charmer Bidin Mat Hashim when a cobra bit him in front of a Korean television crew. After 24 snakebites in a 50-year career, he’s calling it quits.
Bidin has been handling snakes since the age of 15. Apart from his wife and nine children who have urged him to quit for years, Malaysia’s snake population may also be relieved by Bidin’s retirement — he says he has caught more than 20,000 of the reptiles over the years. —AFP
Thousands queue for Halo 2 game
NEW YORK: Hordes of video game fans queued outside more than 6,500 stores across the United States overnight to get a copy of the new Halo 2 game whose first day takings are expected to rival a Hollywood blockbuster.
Microsoft, makers of the adventure game, has predicted launch day receipts of between 75 million and 100 million dollars in the US and other markets.
About 1,000 people lined up outside a store in New York’s Times Square for a special midnight opening to sell the game in which super-soldier “Master Chief” must save the Earth from alien invader “Covenant”.
As the heavily armed “Master Chief” has to fight his way out of trouble — virtually firing at will — the game is banned for those aged under 18. —AFP
Eminem earns fifth UK No.1
LONDON: American rap star Eminem scored his fifth British number one single on Sunday as his Just Lose It shot to the top of the charts in its first week on release, the Official UK Charts Company said.
The track is taken from Eminem’s fourth album “Encore”, due for release next week, and is one of seven new entries in this week’s British top ten. — Reuters
Baby saved by five-year-old sister
BRISBANE: A mother described on Wednesday how her 14-week-old baby girl was stalked by a dingo and saved by her five-year-old sister.
Georgia Corke was alone in a hotel room with her baby sister Scarlett on Fraser Island off the Queensland coast of north-eastern Australia last Friday when the native wild dog entered the room, coming dangerously close to the baby.
Georgia stepped in front of the animal and began screaming for help from her parents, who were in the bathroom of the Kingfisher Bay eco-tourism resort which often has dingoes wandering through the grounds. — AFP
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