Aside from Semicon Taiwan 2007 – An attraction of “exiderdome” by Siemens

Friday, September 14, 2007

Semicon Taiwan goes to the final day on September 14, one of exhibitors Siemens AG imported containers named “exiderdome” to Taiwan and held an exhibition at A13 Parking Lot in Xinyi District, Taipei City for professionals from some industries such as automation, semiconductor, and electronics experiencing the advantages on automation solutions by Siemens.

For this special exhibition, Wikinews Reporter Brock interviewed Stephen Huang (International Account Manager of Automation and Drives Department, Siemens Limited) and Ken Cheng (Director of Automation and Drives Department, Siemens Limited) for information on this exhibition.

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Medical Career In Kyrgyzstan For Indian Students: Should You Believe Or Not?

Do you want to study MBBS from abroad? If yes, then Jagvimal is the best consultant which provides top medical colleges in Kazakhstan for Indian studentswho really want to make their medical career in abroad university.

Like China, US and UK, Kazakhstan also becomes a most wanted destination for medical education. From the past five years, we got the countless medical application form from the Indian students who really wish to get enrolled in Kazakhstan medical college. Every year, strength of Indian students in medical universities in Kazakhstan is amplified. Mostly aspirants go to Kazakh National Medical University, South Kazakh State Medical University, and Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh – Turkish University. When I begin to find out the explanation why Indian students prefer the medical universities in Kazakhstan, I found some interesting facts like:-

Low Tuition Fee and Living Cost- If you evaluate medical studies in India is quite cost effective while you study MBBS in Kazakhstan. To continue medical education in India you have to pay Rs. 5 Lakhs to 8 Lakhs per year along with the important donation. This amount obviously is not affordable by every student. But if you pursue your medical education from Kazakhstan medical colleges then you need to pay 10 to 12 Lakh for your total education which means this amount is not only for one year. This amount is an overall fee of your medical education. In Kazakhstan medical course is 6 years course. You see the difference of amount in India or in Kazakhstan.

Besides this other facilities is also affordable in Kazakhstan, because Kazakhstan is not a rich country so that every Indian student or middle-class aspirants can also afford the living cost in Kazakhstan. Living cost is minimal so that Indian student can enjoy the elevated excellence standard of living in an affordable financial plan.

Direct Admission in MBBS: In Kazakhstan to get enrolled in medical colleges, students don’t need to appear in any entrance exams like in India. Which means MBBS admission in Kazakhstan is accepted directly. If students secure 50% marks in PCB in an intermediate class, they are accepted to do MBBS in Kazakhstan.

English Medium: For Indian students comfort medical education is also provided in English Medium that means an Indian student doesn’t need to learn the Russian language.

Friendly Environment for Indians: In Kazakhstan, students find a friendly environment, because Russia is one of the neighboring Associates of India. For that Russian people love to know about the Indian culture. Find this kind of environment student can easily settle in Kazakhstan.

Direct Flight Connectivity: Kazakhstan’s principal city Bishkek is directly connected by air to New Delhi. Students can easily reach Bishkek and catch the direct flight to New Delhi and reached New Delhi within 3 hours.

I think these facts are quite enough to attract any Indian students towards Kazakhstan medical universities. But everything is not fine in Kazakhstan. As I told you that Kazakhstan is not a rich country that means this country has developed the country. The capital city of Kazakhstan is developed. Bishkek is the awesome city, other than Bishkek city you found the rural area in Kazakhstan. If you ignore this fact about Kazakhstan then this country is a perfect option for the Medical Education.

Mumbai Police investigations indicate Pakistani role in 11/7 serial blasts

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy confirmed today that investigations had revealed the involvement of the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba and the (banned) Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in the 11 July 2006 bombing of the city’s commuter rail network. He also stated that the attacks had been masterminded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and carried out by Pakistani and Indian nationals.

Fifteen people, twelve of whom were directly involved in the execution of the bombings are in custody, eleven of them are Pakistani citizens.

The conspiracy to carry out the attacks, which killed 190 people, was hatched in the vicinity of Mumbai, by militants who were trained in Bahwalpur, Pakistan. The Pakistani bombers entered India in batches, some through the porous Indo-Nepal border, others via Bangladesh and some through Gujarat. They then reached Mumbai around May 25, and were sheltered in Malad and Bandra by Faizal Sheikh. Kamaluddin Ansari and Ehtasham Siddiqui, (General Secretary of SIMI, Maharashtra) were also involved in the conspiracy.

The RDX explosive used in the blasts was brought from Pakistan by a man called Ehsanullah, while the ammonium nitrate was procured locally. The explosives were assembled in Chembur by Mumbai resident Mohammad Ali, between 8 and 10 July. On the day of the attacks, the bombs (each containing 2 – 2.5 kg of RDX and 3.5 – 4 kg of ammonium nitrate) were concealed in eight pressure cookers and transported to the railway stations in taxis.

From there two member teams of bombers placed the explosives on the trains and detonated them using quartz timers. One of the militants, Saleem, a native of Lahore, could not (as was the plan) get off the train before the explosives went off, as a result of which he perished in the blast between Khar and Bandra. Of the seven Indian suspects, four (Faizal Sheikh, Kamaluddin Ansari, Ehtashan Siddiqui and Naved) have been apprehended, while a search is on for the other three.

Mr. Roy described the bombings as a “professional, precise and well-planned”. The first clue his department got was a phone call made from Navi Mumbai to a place on the Indo-Nepal border. Based on this information Kamaluddin Ansari was arrested in from Madhubani, Bihar. Narco-analysis of the other suspects revealed that they were trained in Pakistan and also helped tie up other loose ends in the case. Faizal Sheikh also revealed that he had received Rs. 60,00,000 from Pakistan in the last few years. Police also recovered 26,000 Riyals, given to him by Rizwan Devra, an ISI operative living in Dubai, from Faizal’s house.

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Information, Tariq Azim, denied the role of the ISI in the bombings, saying that his country “rejected” the accusation, and that India should provide Pakistan with “any information if they have it”. “Such allegations only give benefit to the real culprits, who escape arrest,” he said.

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Shaving Your Head Advice For The First Timer}

Shaving your head – Advice for the first-timer

by

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QufeNG1LTUc[/youtube]

Les Campbell

Shaving your head is an art, one committed baldies perfect over years of figuring out what works for them. But for the first-time head shaver, a few simple guidelines will help your first head shave go smoothly.

Shaving your head bald, for some, is a scenario they’ve gone through mentally many times before actually taking a razor to their scalps. For others, their first head shave is an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment thing. I’d have to say my first head shave was a bit of both. I did have the benefit of some knowledge of head shaving technique, but I basically had to figure it out for myself. A good beginner’s guide to shaving your head sure would have been nice. In that spirit, here’s a fairly comprehensive outline of the basics, from somebody who has been bald by choice for 17 years.Be carefulOne of the mistakes people often make when shaving their heads for the first time is to forget that a previously unshaven scalp is very sensitive.It’s understandable to want a perfectly smooth head right away. I know I did the first time. Bald means smooth, and you want to be bald. But this can lead the inexperienced head shaver to shave the same areas repeatedly from multiple angles, pressing too hard on the scalp and often continuing after the shaving cream has stopped offering any lubrication and started to get sticky. The result can be nicks, irritation and ingrown hairs marring your beautiful bald head the following day. Not good.Clean your scalp, and lather wellThe first thing to consider is a clean scalp, free of dirt, excess oil, etc. If you’re shaving your head for the first time and don’t happen to have a friend who is skilled with a straight razor, I’m assuming you’ve clipped your hair to the scalp and are now covered in hair clippings. Before you go any further, wash your head with soap and water. Better yet, take a shower. If this is not practical in your particular circumstances, at least wipe your head down with a warm wash cloth.Your next concern is good lubrication. There are lots of good products out there, some specifically for shaving your head Some commercial shaving creams are better than others. I recommend if you’re going the canned shaving cream route to get a moisturizing shaving gel specifically for sensitive skin. I rather like Aveeno shave gel, with colloidal oatmeal.Canned shaving cream should still be used with a shaving brush. Put a generous amount of gel on your head, wet your brush and work that shaving cream into your scalp with a firm circular motion, kind of like brushing your teeth. Work your way around your head, wetting the brush occasionally. Don’t be in too much of a hurry. Lathering up is an important step, and it can also be fun.Myself, I haven’t used shaving cream in years. I find good bar soap (natural handmade soap, not your typical Irish Spring or Zest) does a gread job. Some kinds of hand lotion are nice, as are sugar scrubs made with natural oils. I personally like to use a sugar scrub, which exfoliates and leaves a light coating of oil that I just lather right over top of. I’ll get into scrubs in more detail in a future post.Use a good razorNow that you are lathered up, get a razor with a brand new blade. Always use a new blade on virgin scalp. I can’t stress that enough. You’ll be experiencing a bald head for the first time, so don’t make it a sore, itchy, reddish one.I’ve tried just about every popular razor, and the best one for shaving your head, in my opinion, is the Gillette Mach 3. There are cheaper razors, there are fancier ones, and there are ones made specifically for shaving your head, but of all the options, the Mach 3 is just about the best head shaving razor out there. Its design allows lather and hair to pass right through, so it requires less rinsing and unless the hair you’re shaving is longer than an eighth of an inch, it’s virtually clog-proof. And it also seems to give the greatest number of comfortable head shaves per blade than any razor I’ve tried. One blade can last me two or three weeks, and still give a good shave when its indicator strip has not only changed color, but just about worn away completely in the middle. But I’m a head shaver of almost 20 years. For a beginner, I’d recommend changing razor blades much more frequently. If the razor seems to pull or drag or feel at all uncomfortable on your scalp, change the blade. As your scalp gets tougher and you get more experience at shaving your head, you’ll figure out what works for you.Direction of hair growthThere is some debate over shaving with the grain vs against the grain. If you want a smooth head, you have to shave against the grain. However, I don’t recommend shaving the back of your neck against the grain, at least not at first. Anything above the ears is generally fine, but being a little overzealous on the first shave can make a mess of your neck. It might not be obvious at first, but by the next day it’s going to look like a pepperoni pizza.What I recommend for a first-time shaver is a simple front-to-back shaving motion. Start at the forehead, and shave toward the back of your neck in nice smooth strokes, trying not to go over the same spot more than a couple of times. You’ll get the top and sides nice and smooth. The back will feel rough if you stroke upward with your hand, but it will still be pretty smooth in the other direction. Do it this way for a week or two, and then you can try angling your strokes slightly across the grain. After a while, your scalp will get used to the shaving and you can go against the grain at the back.Never forget that if your head starts to get dry or sticky while shaving, put some more lather on, or at least wet it a little, to keep that razor gliding smoothly. This is also a good time to wet a couple of fingers and move them in little circles on your scalp. You’ll feel any spot that you didn’t get smooth, and you’ll know which direction that hair is growing in. There will be areas that require shaving in more than one direction. The crown is particularly tricky, but you also have to be careful around the hairline, behind the ears, and where the sides meet the top of your head. Feel while you shave. It will make the job easier, and it will keep your lather from drying out. For the sake of neatness and maintaining moisture, you might want to try shaving your head in the shower.Care and maintenanceAs for caring for your shaved head, I’ve never been one for creams or lotions, but you will want to keep from getting a dry scalp. An oily scalp is more likely to be a concern, as your bald scalp continues to produce oil for a head of hair that isn’t there. An occasional wipe with a washcloth or a cleansing pad in addition to your daily shower is all you need.Time of day makes a difference. The most convenient time to shave your head is most likely in the morning, but it does come at a small price. Your scalp swells ever so slighly while you sleep horizontally, and then shrinks again after you get up. That means your smooth morning head shave will not stay smooth for long. If you’re up for a little while before you shave, the swelling will have a chance to come down and you can get a closer shave. Evening is a great time to shave, as you get a very close shave, and it actually feels great to go to bed with a freshly shaved head. But evening is not usually the time for a daily shave, since it won’t be fresh for the following day. However, it is sometimes a good idea to have a second shave in the evening if you’re going out, just to freshen up your head and get rid of that five o’clock shadow.As for how often to shave your head, that’s entirely up to you. Personally, I’m so accustomed to being bald, I don’t feel clean if I get any stubble up there, so I like to shave my head every day. Some people go a few days because their scalp gets irritated. I used to, but it’s been my experience that daily head shaving actually conditions the scalp better in the long run, and keeps it cleaner, thus avoiding break-outs. Skipping days actually seems to increase my chances of skin irritation, razor burn or acne.Try it for a whileThe other deciding factor for me is that I see myself as a bald man, and that’s how I want to be seen. To me, occasional stubble detracts from my baldness. It’s a reminder that there is still the potential for hair there.In the end, you can ask ten head shavers for advice and get ten different answers. Shaving your head is a very personal thing, and if you’re committed to maintaining a bald head, you’ll do a fair bit of experimenting, which is really the only way to determine what works for you. But I hope I’ve given you a place to start.And to stray for just a moment from the nuts and bolts of being bald by choice, there is a psychological and emotional aspect that should not be ignored. Emotionally, that first shave and the knowledge that you really are bald is an intense rush, but it can also be accompanied by initial doubt or regret, as well as a significant amount of self-consciousness. You might feel just fine, but you might also feel like everybody is staring at you. For the most part, they’re not, and that feeling will pass in time. If you do decide to shave your head, commit to keeping your head bald for at least a month. You’ll be much more comfortable with your baldness by that time, your scalp will be used to shaving, and that pale, never-shaved skin tone will have evened out to match your face. And although you might be tempted, do not cover your head up with hats unless you need protection from the sun (and you will). Constantly wearing hats will just trap dirt and oil next to the most acne-prone parts of your scalp. And besides, what’s the point of being bald if people can’t see your bald head?By the way, after 17 years, baldness might feel more comfortable and natural to me, but reaching up at any hour of the day and feeling my smoothly shaved scalp is still a rush.Happy head shaving.

Les Campbell is a former journalist and committed head shaver of nearly two decades. He brings experience and insight to articles on head shaving, baldness and related issues. For more information, visit http://acomophilia.com

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Shaving your head – Advice for the first-timer}

On the campaign trail in the USA, July 2016

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The following is the third edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2016 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: two individuals previously interviewed by Wikinews announce their candidacies for the Reform Party presidential nomination; a former Republican Congressman comments on the Republican National Convention; and Wikinews interviews an historic Democratic National Convention speaker.

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Signs of de-escalation as Russia claims to pull back some troops

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The main agenda was the ongoing crisis near the Russian-Ukrainian border. On Monday, Scholz had visited Kiev, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and showed support to Ukraine against the Russian position.

After Tuesday’s meeting, a joint press conference was held, in which Scholz said, “it is our absolute duty as heads of government that Europe does not see an escalation into war.” When asked about the deployments and the threat of war, Putin said Russia does “not want war in Europe.” He later added Russia is “ready to work further together” and “go down the negotiations track”.

However, Putin called Russia’s claims valid and described the situation in Ukraine’s Donbas region as a ‘genocide’. On Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry declared it had begun to pull back some of its troops and called the deployments a ‘military drill’.

The German Chancellor said the withdrawal of some troops was a good sign. On the other hand, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said they wouldn’t accept any claims by Russia until they see it themselves and added “if we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation”. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Russia’s response of a diplomatic solution but said it had not seen ‘any sign of de-escalation on the ground’ yet.

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Mysterious power failure takes down Wikipedia, Wikinews

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

On Monday, at 10.14 pm UTC, the Wikimedia server cluster experienced a total power failure, taking down Wikipedia, Wikinews, and all other Wikimedia websites.

The servers are housed in a colocation facility (colo) in Tampa, Florida, USA. They occupy two racks, with each rack receiving electricity from two independent supplies. However, both supplies have circuit-breakers in them, and both opened at the same time, leading to a total power failure. All computers immediately went down. It’s normal for fire safety regulations to prohibit uninterruptible power supplies in colos, with the colo providing its own UPS and generator instead. The circuit breakers were on the computer side of this emergency power system, so none of the computers continued to receive power to survive the breaker trip or shut down safely.

The actual reason why the circuit breakers tripped is currently unknown.

When power was restored, it was discovered that most of the MySQL databases that store the data which makes up Wikipedia et al had been corrupted. The main database and the four slaves had all damaged the data on their hard disk drives beyond the ability of the auto-correction to repair. Only one copy survived safely, on a machine that is used for report generation and maintenance tasks, which remained 31 hours backlogged while catching up after an unusually heavy update load during the previous week.

Volunteer Wikimedia engineers worked through the night rebuilding the databases from the sole good copy onto the other servers. The Wikipedia database is over 180Gb in size, making the copying process last 1.5 – 2 hours for every server it was performed upon.

Regular back-ups of the database of Wikipedia projects are maintained – the encyclopedia in its entirety was not at risk. The last database download was made on February 9; all edits since then could only have been laboriously rebuilt from logs and recovered from the damaged database requiring much more time and effort.

Limited read-only service was established late Tuesday afternoon, with editing becoming possible 24 hours after the power failure. Final repairs continue now, as well as upgrades to prevent similar issues in the future. Server-intensive features, such as categories and ‘watchlists’ that display recent changes to selected articles to registered users, remain disabled to ease the load on the recovering systems.

The process which led to the damage originated with the operating system, disk controllers, or hard drives failing to flush the data correctly.

If the power to a database server is cut mid-write, the database may be corrupted and unreadable, however the operating system, hardware, and software are designed to make this very unlikely. In a previous incident in 2004 power was also lost to a server but the database was undamaged.

To avoid such damage, each database server saves a copy of an edit to be applied to the database on a separate storage system before making the actual update to the database itself. This so-called ‘write-ahead logging’ should ensure that in the event of a system crash, the database can be rebuilt from a ‘last-good’ state by replaying the edits saved in the log.

Earlier this year popular blogging site LiveJournal suffered a similar power failure when another customer at their colocation facility pressed an Emergency Power Off button, intended for use only by firefighters. The company suffered database corruption similar to that seen at Wikimedia.

LiveJournal are now fitting UPS to their servers to ensure that they have time to shut down safely in the event of a power failure. Wikimedia was said to be investigating the possibility of fitting similar equipment at the time of this failure.

Several pundits have suggested that the use of another database, such as the proprietary database Oracle or the free PostgreSQL, would have avoided the database corruption seen at the server cluster. A post-mortem of the incident show the failure was in the operating system, or the hardware, or some combination of the two. LiveJournal, which also uses MySQL, reported similar database corruption after their power cut.

The Wikimedia foundation only allows the use of free software on its systems, and future versions of the Mediawiki software will support the PostgreSQL database.

Users are reminded that during times of system failure or excessive demand, they can still search Wikipedia using Google. The articles may be viewed using Google’s cache.

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What Are The Causes And Treatment Of Autism?

People with autism hear, see and feel differently from others. If you are autistic, you will have autism all your life. This is not a disease and cannot be cured. Even autistic people face some difficulties but it affects everyone in different ways. Some autistic people have learning disabilities, mental health problems, or other conditions, which means that people need a variety of support. When assisted properly, an autistic person can be of great help.

How many types of Autism?

There are three types of autism spectrum disorder

Autistic disorder

Most people think of this type of autism as soon as they hear the word autism. People with autistic disorder usually speak late and face social and communication challenges and also have unusual behaviors and interests. Many people with autistic disorder also have intellectual problems.

Asperger Syndrome

People with Asperger’s syndrome usually have some symptoms of autistic disorder. They may face social challenges and may also have unusual behaviors and interests. However, they do not usually have language-related or intellectual problems.

Peripheral developmental disorder

People who have some symptoms of autistic disorder or Asperger’s syndrome may have a perversive developmental disorder. Such people usually have fewer symptoms or have a lower intensity than people with autistic disorder. Symptoms can only cause social and communication challenges.

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Symptoms of Autism

What are the symptoms of autism?

Social communication and contact problems

  • Failing to respond to your name.
  • Resist hugging or holding and like to play alone.
  • Avoiding eye contact and no face guardians.
  • Not speaking or delaying speaking or not being able to speak the words or sentences that were previously spoken properly.
  • Unable to initiate or continue the conversation or to initiate a conversation only for request.
  • Speaking with an unusual rhythm, using the sound of a song or a robot-like voice.
  • Repeating words or phrases but not understanding their use.
  • Inability to understand simple questions or directions.
  • Not expressing your feelings and being ignorant of others’ feelings.
  • Avoiding social contact by being passive, aggressive or disruptive.

Behavioral characteristics

  • Repeating certain activities, such as shaking, walking or flapping hands, or self-inflicted sings (such as head banging).
  • Developing specific routines or rituals and getting annoyed with just a few changes.
  • To move continuously
  • Behave uncooperatively or be resistant to change.
  • Coordination problems or performing strange activities (such as walking on toes).
  • Being unusually sensitive to light, sound, and touch and not feeling pain.
  • Non-participation in artificial sports.
  • Keep doing any work or activity with unusual intensity or focus.
  • Having a strange choice of food, such as eating only certain foods or consuming only certain foods.

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Causes and Risk Factors of Autism

Why does autism occur?

There is no known cause of autism spectrum disorder. The complexity and intensity of the disorder vary from person to person and that is why there are many reasons. Both genetic and environmental factors play an important role in autism.

Genetic problems

Autism spectrum disorder involves many different genes. In some children, autism may be related to a genetic disorder. For others, genetic changes can make a child susceptible to autism or create environmental risk factors. Some genetic problems are family, while others occur on their own.

Environmental factors

Researchers are currently exploring whether viral infections, pregnancy complications, or air pollution cause autism spectrum disorder.

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What are the risk factors for Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder affects children of all races and nationalities, but some factors increase their risk. like –

Gender – Boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls.

Family History – If a child in a family suffers from autism, the other child is also at greater risk of suffering from it.

Other disorders – Children with certain medical problems are at higher risk of autism.

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Neanderthals ‘knew what they were doing’: Archæologist Dr Naomi Martisius discusses her findings about Neanderthals’ behaviour with Wikinews

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Last month, a study conducted by archæologist Dr. Naomi Martisius and other researchers concluded Neanderthals living in Europe tens of thousands of years ago were more sophisticated than previously thought. The now-extinct species used to carefully select bones from a particular animal species to manufacture their bone tools, the research showed. The research was published on May 8 in Nature’s Scientific Reports journal.

Dr Martisius and her team used five bone tools discovered from Neanderthals’ sites in southwest France for this research. Four of these bone tools were found in a site called Abri Peyrony and the other one was from Pech-de-l’Azé I. These tools were just a few centimetres in size and were about 50 thousand years old, Dr Martisius told Wikinews. Microscopy analysis of these bone tools called lissoirs (smoothers) suggested Neanderthals used these tools for working animal skin to leathers.

The study stated the fauna of the sites were primarily medium-sized ungulates such as reindeer, in one layer nearly 90%. Despite the overabundance of medium-sized ungulates, Neanderthals used ribs of large bovids for making lissoirs. Dr Martisius told Wikinews this was likely due to the physical characteristics of the bovid ribs, which were “thicker” and “stronger” as compared to the “thin and flimsy ribs” of reindeers. In order to check the origins of the bone tools, the researchers used a technology called non-destructive Zooarchæology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS).

Instead of damaging the bone artefacts in order to discover its origins, the researchers collected collagen from the plastic containers in which these artefacts were kept. Collagen is a type of protein. These bone artefacts were kept in plastic containers: some were kept for about five years, some for just a few months. During this time, the collagen proteins from bone tools were stuck to the walls of its plastic containers. The collagen samples collected from the walls of the containers are broken into smaller molecules called peptides by using a chemical enzyme called trypsin.

After the trypsin has broken collagen fibres into peptides, it is analysed using a technology called Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer (ToF MS). The assisting matrix is a coloured compound. The acidic peptide is combined with the matrix, vapourised, and peptides are released. Some of them are positively-charged particles which travel across a vacuum tube in an electric field. Depending on the weight of the peptides, these molecules reach the end of the vacuum tube at different instances of time, forming a spectrum. These graphs are like unique fingerprints of a species: they are different for different species of animals. Looking at the database of such graphs, taxonomic identifications of the collagen proteins came be made.

All four bone tools from Abri Peyrony gave positive results and showed that the bones were made from large bovids, even though reindeer were more abundant during that time. One of the advantages of using bovid ribs over reindeer’s thin ribs was the bovid ribs would be more resistant to breaking during flexion, Dr Martisius said.

Dr Martisius said such non-destructive ZooMS analysis was previously conducted, but for tools no older than a few centuries. She said such an analysis had never been previously conducted for artefacts so ancient.

Wikinews caught up with Dr Martisius to discuss this research in-depth.

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NZ Finance Minister introduces 2006 budget

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Today the New Zealand Finance Minister, Hon. Dr Michael Cullen, presented the 2006 New Zealand Budget to the House of Representatives. There is a NZ$8.5 billion OBERAC surplus and a NZ$1.5 billion cash surplus.

It has been labelled as the “Bondi Budget” by National leader Don Brash, “Helen Clark and Michael Cullen believe there is a place for tax cuts – it’s called Australia” he said.

The budget allocates new operating spending of $9.6 billion and capital of $2.7 billion over the next four years.

Key issues in the budget includes:

  • The Telecom New Zealand local loop unbundling (released earlier due to leak).
  • $1.3 billion extra for transport.
  • $3 billion extra for health care, over the next four years.
  • $361 million extra for schooling
  • $166 million extra for tertiary education and skill training
  • $162 million extra for early childhood education
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