More parents lenient about young web use

More parents lenient about young web use – Despite age restrictions on some social media sites, the number of U.S. parents who would allow children 10-12 years old to have a Facebook or MySpace account has doubled in a year, a new survey showed.

Seventeen percent of U.S. parents questioned in the poll said they had no problem with a pre-teen child using a social media site, compared to just eight percent a year ago.

And 11 percent of parents admitted to using social media sites on behalf of a young child or infant, according to the online survey of about 1,000 adults by Liberty Mutual's Responsibility Project.

"More and more parents are allowing their children to have a Facebook account or to have more online activity at younger and younger ages." said Janet Taylor.

The clinical instructor of psychiatry at Columbia University at Hospital in New York described the findings as a sign of the times.

"It's not alarming. I think it means we need to be aware of what is going on and how to best utilize social media," she added in an interview.

Most parents think that children under 18 should not be able to keep their account to themselves and a third monitor their usage. Forty four percent also limit the time spent on the Internet or texting.

Facebook, which has 500 million active users, was the most popular social network among adults in the poll. Nearly 90 percent used it frequently, followed at a very distant second by the professional website LinkedIn with 6 percent, Twitter and MySpace.

Although only three percent of people questioned said they used the microblogging site Twitter frequently, they had definite ideas about what was acceptable and what was not.

Nearly two-thirds thought it was unacceptable for the staff of celebrities and CEOs to ghost-tweet for them and 46 percent didn't think celebrities should use Twitter to argue with each other.

Twenty seven percent also did not agree with CEOs tweeting about their company.

Most Twitter users follow their friends and celebrities and tweet about their daily activities or current events. Only four percent tweeted about politicians or a religious leader, while 11 percent tweeted about their own achievements and 8 percent used it to criticize other people.

When questioned about cyberbullying, most parents said they thought it was their responsibility to resolve the situation if their child was a victim and 63 percent thought teachers and schools should be doing more to stop it. ( Reuters )

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Itching really can be contagious scientists prove

Itching really can be contagious scientists prove - Itching can be "caught" just by watching someone else having a good scratch, scientists have confirmed.

It is a phenomenon that can leave entire rooms full of people scratching at the merest mention of fleas or lice. Now scientists have proven for the first time that itching really can be contagious.

In a condition known as itch transmission, the researchers have shown that the sensation of an itch can be caught visually in the same way as yawning.

They found that simply watching a video of someone else scratching was enough to induce and intensify itching in volunteers.

Even when they were given a few drops of a liquid designed to induce itching on a patch of their skin, the volunteers tended to scratch more on random parts of their body.

Researchers have shown that the sensation of an itch can be caught visually in the same way as yawning

Dermatologists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina believe itching becomes contagious because the brain becomes hypersensitive when someone nearby scratches and so misinterprets any kind of physical sensation on our skin as an itch.

Dr Gil Yosipovitch, who led the research which is published online in the British Journal of Dermatology, said: "Although it's a well-known sensation and dermatologists often feel itchy after seeing their patients scratch, contagious itch has not been studied systematically at all.

"Our results suggest there must be a central brain mechanism responsible for the generation of the itch sensation in the absence of itch stimuli. It is possible that sensory inputs from various regions, not specifically related to itch, may be wrongfully interpreted as being "itchy".

"It appears that there is low threshold for 'feeling an itch' when this suggestion appears in a visual form, or even by simply thinking/reading about it."

The researchers asked 25 volunteers to watch a series of five minute video clips that ether showed people scratching their left forearm or sitting idly.

They were either given a solution of histamine to induce itching on a patch of their skin or a few drops of harmless salt solution.

The volunteers tended to scratch twice as much when watching someone else scratching on the video compared to the video of the person doing nothing. The sensation occurred both in healthy volunteers and patients who suffered from atopic dermatitis.

The scientists also found that even when the histamine liquid was used, tended to scratch at other points in their body rather than just where the liquid had been applied.

Similar work in primates has also shown that monkeys can catch itches too and the researchers now believe contagious itching may be rooted in our evolutionary past as we evolved to live in close knit social groups.

Growing sensitive to itching when one member of the group is scratching could help to identify parasite infestations early and help to stop them spreading.

The scientists now hope to use their findings to develop new ways of treating people who suffer from chronic itching and skin diseases.

Dr Alexandru Papoiu, another of the researchers behind the study, said it appeared the mechanisms that create the sensation of itching was working "overtime" in these patients.

He added: "It is particularly interesting why humans are "vulnerable" or suggestible to cues of itch.

"If we can understand the underlying mechanism and its cause, we should have a better chance to treat itch, targeting the central nervous system stations involved."

Nina Goad, from the British Association of Dermatologists, said the study showed how much influence the mind could have on physical sensations.

She said: "This is a fascinating study looking at the power of the mind over a very physical sensation like itch.

"Many people can identify with the idea that watching other people scratch an itch leads you to feel the itch sensation yourself.

"To see this demonstrated in a clinical setting, with a view to developing treatments for common skin diseases like eczema that cause itch, is very interesting." ( telegraph.co.uk )

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‘Srawung Seni Candi Sukuh’: A celebration art

‘Srawung Seni Candi Sukuh’: A celebration art - Four dancers hurled rolls of colorful thread onto the temple’s stoned floor, pulling them gracefully in different directions across the temple yard. They repeated the ritual for 30 minutes until the temple compound resembled a spider web.

The dancers from Teater Teku, a theater group from Yogyakarta, performed in a play called Brungkat, which recounts the migration of people from the Majapahit kingdom to the slope of Mount Lawu, as told on the walls of the temple.

Dancing in silence: Artists perform in a play titled Appasili by Simon Abdul Murad from Makassar last month. The play took place in the yard of Sukuh Temple, Central Java, late December.

“The crisscross pattern [formed by the multitude of threads] depicts the migration of the Majapahit people, when the days of this large kingdom in Java were numbered,” said Ibed Surgana Yuga, the director of this drama.

Brungkat was part of Srawung Seni Candi Sukuh, a two-day celebration of art at the Hindu temple in Karanganyar, Central Java, on December 30-31.

In another performance, Frances Marzetti, an art therapist from Ireland, impersonated the Earth Goddess from her country, better known as Sheelagh, Sheela, Sile or Sheila.

The white-haired woman, clad in red clothes, moved slowly, her palms alternately facing the sky, transforming the shapes found on the temple reliefs into meditative gestures. She performed in silence, which took the lay public by surprise as they watched an unusually quiet show.

Javanese-US collaboration: Two artists, Annie Brook from the US (standing dressed in white) and Cempluk Lestari from Solo collaborate during the show.Other foreign artists also brought to the event performing arts sometimes hard to follow. The public’s enthusiasm remained high though, with crowds filling the temple’s grounds, hoping to get a better view of the rare performances.

Maya Cockburn from the UK performed another unusual dance. In her Crow, The Shapeshifter, she mimicked a crow flapping its wings and its harsh cries.

Once her hands stopped flapping, she stretched forward with one leg crossed and mumbled what sounded like a mantra, then jumped and stopped moving. A few moments later, she was flapping again and crying out: “ngaaakkk.. ngaaakkk”, inviting spectators to laugh wholeheartedly.

Purusa Pradana, a dance by Agung Rahma Putra and Kinanti Sekar Rahina from Bali, was probably the most “palatable” performance for an amateur audience. Based on the Hindu concept of creation, it emanated the warmth and sensuality of this pair of graceful dancers using long and broad scarves.

“This dance reminds us of lingam-yoni [the symbol for generative and procreative energy] inscribed on the walls of Candi Sukuh,” said Kinanti Sekar.

Purusa Pradana opened with the pair stepping down to the temple’s yard, dancing the way a couple of lovers would. Thereafter, both stopped on the left side of the main temple structure, where they mimicked a lingam (male reproductive organ) and yoni (female counterpart organ) in the process of creation.

Simon Abdul Murad from Makassar boasted his contemporary Appasili, which he created especially for the Candi Sukuh event. His movements were inspired by South Sulawesi’s traditional Pakarena dance. Candi Sukuh, which represents prosperity, according to him, also contains positive energy and the elements of virtue.

Involved in Robert Wilson’s music-theater show I La Galigo (based on a Bugis myth in South Sulawesi), Simon began his show by standing in the temple yard with a red scarf covering his bare chest and his waist wrapped in a yellow cloth.

He then walked slowly forward, moving to the sounds of a puik-puik, a traditional instrument. Simon then sat cross-legged in front of the temple, picking an earthen jug and putting it on his head. The jug broke abruptly drenching Simon, ending the play.

This year’s meeting of the arts concluded with Ketoprak Ngampung from Solo, a comedy-based folk drama group, presenting Rukun Agawe Santosa, a very amusing story promoting tolerance and harmony in a village chief election, which was unfortunately cut short by the pouring rain.

The works performed during Srawung Seni Candi attempted to push the audience and artists into reflecting deeper on the meaning of existence and the environment.

“At Sukuh I just dance to follow my conscience, reviving rituals still observed in villages. Here

there’s no strict choreography, no conventions. I’m dancing instinctively,” said a dancer from Solo, Joko Bibit.

Artist in the spotlight: Simon Abdul Murad steals the limelight in one of the scenes of his play.As the program has always been strongly supported by many traditional as well as modern groups of artists from different regions, the boundaries separating representative and non-representative arts — the latter based more on tradition, instinct and intuition — are actually very slim.

“Eventually, arts are created out of dialogues between man, nature and God. Arts spring from the voices of nature: air, water, wind, forest and also temples,” said the founder of Srawung Seni Candi, Suprapto Suryodharmo.

This event, added the leader of Padepokan Lemah Putih art community in Solo, is expected to enhance the sense of togetherness, mutual assistance and harmony.

Temple reliefs and architecture inspire virtue in life because in his view, temples are milestones of civilization and culture.

This meeting of the arts will hopefully give rise to artistic aspirations as well as dialogues between spectators, critics and performers, thus manifesting the communion between man, nature and God.

“This is indeed an attempt to revive the values of humanity, nature and divinity in the arts and culture. Today such values have been packaged into tourism products, sold into physical art forms, instead of being offered in their true soul,” noted the man affectionately called Mbah (grandpa) Prapto. ( thejakartapost.com )

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Lotus: the future

Lotus: the future - Lotus CEO Dany Bahar reveals that the Norfolk company is planning to build its own engines, and how it will finance a line-up of five new cars.

Lotus will announce a plan to build its own engines next year as part of what chief executive Dany Bahar calls “our super ambitious and aggressive expansion plan,” to launch five new road cars in the next five years as well as joining forces with the Renault Formula One team.

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar poses with the company's current flagship, the Evora

The Lotus Esprit supercar is due to be launched by the end of 2012

Three engines in total are planned: a V6, V8 and a four-cylinder, and the programme would run hand-in-hand with the development of motorsport engines for F1 and a previously announced commitment to build engines for IndyCar racing in the US. “The fact that we have announced that we will be developing an engine for IndyCar for 2012 shows you already that we are heavily interested in becoming an engine manufacturer with our own brand,” said Bahar. “We have the capacity. We build and design engines for other OEMs, so there is no reason why we cannot design and build engines for ourselves.”

The five-car model programme includes a £100,000 Esprit mid-engined supercar due at the end of 2012, a £70,000 Elan by the autumn of 2013, and by 2015, a £120,000 Elite front-engined supercar, a £35,000 Elise replacement and a £110,000 Eterne four-door super saloon. These models will all share the same basic underbody modular structure, which will debut on the Esprit in two years. In addition there will be a tiny city car project based on an existing concept from Lotus owner, Malaysian car maker Proton and another as yet unnamed car maker.

Bahar claims the required £800million funding for these cars is already in place from a variety of sources, including Proton, the banks and Malaysian oil giant Petronas. He says that although five new cars would normally require funding of more than £150million each to develop, the modular structure means the costs will only be “that of two and half new cars, which is about £500million.”

Bahar says there is about £500 million of new money in place and “with the Esprit and the city car arriving in 2012 and 2013, we are aiming at break-even by 2014. After that we will have to generate our own profit.”

“About 85 per cent of that money will go into new product development,” he says. “The rest will go into improving the site [at Lotus HQ in Hethel, Norfolk] and our motor racing programme.”

Bahar plans to recruit about 1,300 engineers in the next few years and has been in talks with the British Government about loan guarantees for the £50-60million cost of building new facilities in which to house them. “In the beginning the conversations were not fruitful, but a lot seems to have changed in the last two weeks,” he says. “We have talked to ministers and we understand the Government’s problems and we perfectly understand if they don’t choose to help us, but if they don’t, no one should complain if we chose to create 1,000 new jobs outside of the UK. At least we tried...”

At present Lotus has purchased a stake in the Renault F1 team for next year, although there is a possibility that there will be two Lotus teams because of a licence granted to Tony Fernandes to form Team Lotus, whose cars will also be on the grid unless the current court battle comes to a conclusion before the season start.

As for the wisdom of revealing an entire five-year product strategy in one go as Lotus did at the Paris Motor Show two months ago, Bahar remains unapologetic. “We will get on and engineer our new cars,” he says, “let others talk about us. We cannot take too much notice of things we cannot control.”

He claims that sceptics of the plan would be amazed to know that 65 per cent of the required supplier network is already in place for the new cars “and they are some of the world’s biggest suppliers,” he says. He is aiming to make Lotus profitable by turning it into a “British Porsche”, in reference to the successful engineering consultancies within both Porsche and Lotus, which in the past have kept the car-making operations afloat.

Bahar wants the engineering side to create at least one third of the company’s profits in future, with the other two thirds coming from building 6,000-7,000 road cars a year.

“In future we will be fighting in every sports car sector,” he says. ( telegraph.co.uk )

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