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Weekly update
Magician Blaine to spend seven days submerged in water
NEW YORK: Having starved himself and been frozen in ice, US magician David Blaine now plans to spend seven days submerged in a water-filled container in New York.
The latest stunt by the renowned illusionist will seem him enter a 2.5-metre high acrylic sphere on May 1 and remain submerged for a week.
A mask and air line will keep him alive, while food will be provided in the form of liquid nutrition through a tube.
At the end of the seven days, Blaine, 33, will remove his air supply and attempt to hold his breath longer than the current world record of eight minutes and 58 seconds, before finally climbing out of the human aquarium.
During the stunt, fans will be encouraged to touch the sphere and offer words of support, Blaine spokesman Pat Smith told AFP.
The magician will be hoping for a better public reaction than he received for his last major “performance” — a 44-day fast during which he was suspended above London’s River Thames in a glass box.
Detractors came up with increasingly inventive ways to taunt or unsettle Blaine such as using a remote-control model helicopter to dangle a cheeseburger in front of the starving magician.
Previous stunts have included being encased in ice for nearly 62 hours and spending 35 hours on a 30-metre high pillar that was only 56 centimetres wide.
—AFP
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From faraway stars to earthly clouds
WASHINGTON: The US space agency NASA early Tuesday began the countdown to launch two satellites designed to help unlock the secrets of Earth’s cloud cover.
The satellites, named CloudSat and CALIPSO, will help scientists from the United States, France and Canada unlock the mysteries behind snow and rain, cold fronts and heat waves as well as many other atmospheric phenomena that still remain enigmatic.
After reaching a 705-kilometre circular orbit, the new spacecraft will fly in formation with the so-called “A-Train,” a constellation with three other Earth observatories belonging to the NASA and France.
The arrival of CloudSat and CALIPSO, scientists said, will enhanced the constellation, allowing it new insight into the global distribution and evolution of clouds.
“The scientific knowledge gained from such observations will be used to improve models that predict Earth’s weather and climate,” said Ghassem Asrar, a deputy associate administrator at NASA.
According to NASA, CloudSat and CALIPSO will be able provide a three-dimensional view of the clouds as well as airborne particles called aerosols and thus help answer questions about how they form and evolve.—AFP
Tiny, eco-friendly car unveiled in Britain
LONDON: A tiny ecological car that can nip through traffic jams was launched in Britain on Tuesday after three years of research financed by the European Union.
The three-wheeled, one-metre wide vehicle runs on natural gas and consumes 2.5 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres.
Known as the Clever — Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport — the streamlined car is easy to park and can transport a driver and one passenger, seated in the back.
Researchers from Bath University, western England, have been testing a prototype of the car, which is the product of a jointly-run project by engineers from Britain, France, Germany and Austria in collaboration with BMW.
The Bath team developed a unique tilting suspension on the vehicle.
The car’s chassis tilts automatically, like a motorbike, as it turns corners, helping it remain stable.
Dr Geraint Owen, senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at Bath University said: “It’s the first vehicle that has used hydraulics to enable it to move like a motorcycle, but to drive like a car.”
The estimated cost of production, if mass-produced, is between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds.
With a maximum speed of about 100 kilometres per hour, the car goes from 0-to-40 miles per hour in seven seconds.—AFP
Elephant stampede kills man
JAKARTA: A 70-year-old man was killed when elephants rampaged through a national park in Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, state media reported on Tuesday.
A herd of elephants stampeded at the Way Kambas national park in Lampung province last week, destroying plantations cultivated by local farmers, the state Antara news agency said.
Farmer Abdul Kamit was later found dead in his cassava field, it said.
Antara said farmers cultivated five per cent of the 310,000-acre park.
Conservationists say the elephant habitat is being increasingly taken over by resettlement, plantations and industrial forest estates.—AFP
Snow forecast in Thailand for pandas
BANGKOK: A Thai zoo is hoping to build a “snow house” for its two giant pandas where they can escape the tropical heat to play in a room full of artificial snow, a zoo official said on Tuesday.
Chiang Mai zoo, in northern Thailand, had asked the government for 50 million baht ($1.3m) to build the panda play pen, project manager Prasert-sak Buntragulpoontawee said, adding that if approved it should be open by the end of 2008.
The zoo wanted to create an environment similar to the panda’s native habitat in southwest China, where the endangered animal lives in bamboo forest and snowy mountains, he said. Pandas apparently enjoy playing in snow.—APP
Swallowed by living room hole
SAN FRANCISCO: A man was crushed and suffocated to death after he fell into a hole that suddenly broke open in the living room of his northern California home, a coroner said Monday.
Jason Chellew, 32, was home with his wife when the concrete floor collapsed beneath his feet on Friday night in the town of Alta in the Sierra foothills.
“He heard something, ran and it just sucked him in,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin. “We are still trying to figure out whether it was an old mine, or because the hillsides were so saturated with rain.”—AFP
JAKARTA: A long-tailed macaque usually found in the forest high on Indonesia’s Central Java Mount Merapi, sits atop the roof or a house on April 24. Authorities warn the 2,914-metre volcano mountain rising from the densely-populated, fertile southern plain of Central Java may erupt any time and animals fleeing down the slope of a volcano are believed to be a signal that an eruption is imminent.—AFP
ISLAMABAD: Poultry workers feed chickens at a poultry farm on the outskirts of Islamabad, on April 24. About 40,000 chickens have been slaughtered in Pakistan after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at eight poultry farms on the outskirts of Islamabad. There have been no cases of infection among humans so far.—AFP
PARIS: Tourists pass by the Paris Opera on a Velovisit in Paris on April 24. The new bike has seven seats designed for a driver and six passengers who sit in a circle and can chat while pedalling. The driver holds the handlebars, which look like a steering wheel, and is responsible for braking. The Velovisit can be hired for a tour through Paris, with or without a guide.—Reuters
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