The Viking heritage of Shetland

January 30, 2010 at 12:43 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Members of the Jarl viking squad burn torches during the annual Up Helly Aa Festival in the Shetland Islands

THE NEWS

“They all look the same to me”: “Caucasians and Asians don’t examine faces in the same way, according to new research. Caroline Blais, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Montreal, has published two new studies on the subject in the research journals Current Biology and PLoS One. Previous studies have shown that people collect information by mostly studying the eyes as well as the mouth of a face. “The problem is that these studies always used Caucasian test subjects,” said Blais. Blais said she had questioned the universality of facial recognitions after studies showed that Asians study faces in an overall fashion, while Caucasians break down faces into distinct parts. Blais used a camera designed to track eye movements to study 14 Caucasian and 14 Asian participants in her research. The subjects were shown 112 Caucasian and Asian faces and asked whether had seen the face before and to name the dominating trait. The study confirmed that Caucasians study the triangle of the eyes and mouth, while Asians focus on the nose, Blais said. Caucasian and Asian subjects excelled at recognizing someone of their race, yet both had similar trouble identifying someone of another ethnic group”

Old vase worth more than British couple’s house: “An old vase dumped in a spare room by an elderly couple turned out to be worth up to $850,000, it was reported today. For many years it was used as an umbrella stand in their hallway before they decided they did not like it. It had become cracked and smeared with paint, and was finally put out of sight in a back room of their bungalow, The Sun reported. An antiques expert spotted it during a valuation of the couple’s property, and was stunned to realize it was a Chinese masterpiece. The 18th century ‘lantern’ vase was expected to raise up to 500,000 pounds at auction, more than the couple’s house was worth. In perfect condition it could have gone for twice that amount. The blue and white vase, which is 18.5 inches tall, was almost certainly made for the Emperor Qianlong in about 1740, and may even have belonged to Florence Nightingale. Guy Schwinge, of Dukes auction house in Dorchester, England, said the couple were given the vase as a present and when it was sold it would change their lives. “This vase exemplifies the best porcelain of the period … The quality of the landscape painting on the vase is outstanding,” Mr Schwinge said.”

We’ve found the G-spot, say the French: “Weeks after British scientists announced that the elusive G-spot does not exist, the French have begged to differ. A meeting of gynaecologists in Paris denounced the British study as fundamentally flawed and accused its authors of disrespecting women. Researchers at Kings College had studied 1,800 women and found no evidence of the fabled erogenous zone. They said it might be a myth encouraged by magazines and sex therapists. But their counterparts across the channel – quick to defend their nation’s reputation as better lovers – say the Brits were just unable to find the spot. Conference organiser Sylvain Mimoun declared that 60 per cent of women have a G-spot, it just needs to be discovered. He said: ‘In discovering the sensitive parts of her own body, this sensitive zone will become more and more functional. But if she has never touched it and no one else has ever touched it, it won’t exist for her as a consequence.'”

Australia’s wild North again: Fishermen defend shark from croc: ” Five fishermen have fought off a hungry crocodile to defend a prized shark caught on a Territory beach. A video of the daring battle was posted on YouTube last month by the Cape Don Barramundi Fishing Lodge. It shows one angler snagging the shark from a boat while one of his mate comments: “Here we go. Another shark is attacking him”. He wrestles with the shark for several minutes before the boat is brought ashore. As the fisho reels the shark on to the beach, the group’s guide catches it with a gaff and drags it on to the sand. But the boys soon found they had competition for their prize catch. A three-metre croc silently swam up to the shore and launched itself towards the captured shark. Before the croc managed to make a meal out of the shark, the group’s guide stepped forward and whacked him on the head. Defeated, the croc returned to the water, while the victorious fishermen cautiously posed for a photo.” [Video at link]

Cougars out for a thrill: “Pop culture created the cougar phenomenon, but are older, sexed-up women merely out to break a drought of available men? Ten brief minutes trawling CougarLife.com, the world’s foremost online cougar registry, and my kneecaps were clanging like toy cymbals in a pre-school music class. Cougar Life president Claudia Opdenkelder greeted me with a snapshot of herself in bed devouring a young Robbie Pattinson double like he was a spit-roasted rabbit basted in honey-mustard. “In this day and age a cougar can take many forms – recent divorcees looking to date, yummy mummies looking to let loose or sexy singles like me,” she said. “But we have one thing in common: we are sexually charged, independent and interested in meeting young, virile men.” They are cougar, hear them roar, in increasingly large numbers too big to ignore. But is this the fate for single women in the 21st century, forced off the shelf and rallied into ravenous packs – carnivores stalking prey from pub to club? Kathy said the cougar phenomenon – popularised on the new TV show Cougar Town – evolved more through necessity than desire. “It’s hard to find a man my age,” she said. “True story. All my girlfriends in their 30s are experiencing this. All the men my age have baggage. They’ve got wives, ex-girlfriends, kids, emotional issues. “The quality of the guys out there is really low. So many hang-ups. That’s why (we’re) looking for these younger men.”

And don’t forget to catch up with all the Strange Justice before you go.