JUST ONE PUFF...

BY: NAFEESA JOHAR

There was a time when smoking was termed as the icon of cool. The leather clad heroes and the queens of the silver screen all looked incomplete without the little white stick in their hands. But not anymore.

Recently we have been seeing a continuous decline in the concept of celebrity smoking or celebrities endorsing such products publicly or off-screen. The once much glamorized phenomenon that was adopted by almost every teenager has now been shunned by celebrities and deemed extremely harmful for their personal and professional life. But has it effected teens yet?

Earlier advertisements showing rugged men in shiny cars, a cigarette in their mouth and women by their side were posted all over the world encouraging youngsters to follow suit. Indeed the first Marlboro advertisements featured cowboys smoking in a barn with the slogan “The Marlboro Cowboy” printed all over the cigarette box. According to The University of Minnesota Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center 60-80% of the teenagers between the ages of 13-18 had started smoking the time when the first dozen cigarette advertisements were aired. These seductive ads not only persuaded first time smokers to give it a try but assured the on-going smokers that smoking was still “in fashion”.

A 24 year old student Ali says that he had first started smoking when he was just 12 years old, after his friends had told him that it was cool. “I was encouraged by my class mates to join them in their after school smoking session. I had seen them smoking before and it seemed cool to me so I joined in”. What started as a puff or two quickly turned into an addiction as Ali says that now he can’t give it up no matter how much he wants to.

Ramsha another student says “My male friends smoked long before I did, but then my female friends started the habit too. They got a lot more attention from the guys. A friend of mine dreams of losing weight by smoking as she had seen some model do the same. It’s pathetic to see them waste their lives”.

According to an article published in people.com in 1998 former Calvin Klein model Christy Turlington was diagnosed with emphysema at the age of 26, soon after which she quit smoking. The disease was diagnosed after she had started to shed a lot of weight and had visited the New York hospital for a voluntary scan. Now she has started campaigning against smoking.

In 2004 U.K had put a ban on celebrities who smoke on-screen which was later on followed by U.S.A in October 2009, because it encouraged teens so much. The after effects of smoking were displayed publicly when close up shots of stars such as Lindsay Lohan, Johny Depp, Shahrukh Khan and Bipasha Basu were taken having patchy skin or bloodshot eyes. Celebrities were reported developing lung and heart related diseases. In June 2008 Amy Winehouse, was diagnosed with early-stage emphysema- a disease that strikes people above 40 years of age. The then 24 year old singer said that it had been due to her addiction to smoking and drugs. Similarly the original Marlboro Man, actor David Mclean died in 1995 due to lung cancer caused by excessive smoking. All these incidents were caused due to extreme smoking habits. Now the oh-so-cool trend seems more sleazy than stylish.

7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars

A group of seventh-graders in California has discovered a mysterious cave on Mars as part of a research project to study images taken by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the red planet.



The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars.The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question.


The newfound hole on Mars resembled features seen on other parts of Mars in a 2007 study by Glen Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.Cushing suggested that these anomalous pit craters are like skylights — places where a small part of the roof of a cave or a lava tube had collapsed, opening the area below the surface to the sky.


The caves are thought to result from volcanic activity on the red planet. At some point lava channels likely carved out caverns in the rock, and then left behind tunnel, or "lava tubes," when the eruptions were over. They would have been covered when a solid ceiling of cooled material settled on top, and then sections of the ceiling likely collapsed at some point to form the skylight entrances.

Scientists aren't sure what type of materials or deposits could be stored inside. "This pit is certainly new to us," Cushing told the students. "And it is only the second one known to be associated with Pavonis Mons."He estimated the pit to be approximately 620 by 520 feet (190 by 160 meters) wide and 380 feet (115 meters) deep at least.


The young researchers had initially set out to hunt for lava tubes, a common volcanic feature on Earth and Mars."The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars," Mitchell said. "Do they occur most often near the summit of a volcano, on its flanks, or the plains surrounding it?"

The class commissioned a main photo and a backup image of Mars' Pavonis Monsvolcano, targeted on a region that hadn't been imaged up close.The pictures were taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter using its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument. Both images showed lava tubes, as the students had hoped.But the backup photo provided another surprise: a small, round black spot. It was a hole on Mars leading into the buried cave, researchers said.

The students have submitted their site to be further imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which could reveal enough detail to see inside the hole in the ground.

"The Mars Student Imaging Program is certainly one of the greatest educational programs ever developed," Mitchell said. "It gives the students a good understanding of the way research is conducted and how that research can be important for the scientific community. This has been a wonderful experience." SPACE.COM

Hiding In Plain Sight

HELENA, Mont. – The aging Frank Dryman, a notorious killer from Montana's past, had hidden in plain sight for so long that he forgot he was a wanted man.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, Dryman detailed how he invented a whole new life, with a new family, an Arizona wedding chapel business — and even volunteer work for local civic clubs."They just forgot about me," said Dryman, in his first interview since being caught and sent back to the prison he last left in the 1960s. "I was a prominent member of the community."That is, until the grandson of the man he shot six times in the back came looking.

Dryman had been one step ahead of the law since 1951 when he avoided the hangman's noose, a relic of frontier justice still in use at the time.Less than 20 years later he was out on parole. Not content with that good fortune, he skipped out and evaded authorities for four decades. After a while he even forgot about hiding and signed up for V.A. benefits from his days in the Navy in 1948.

Now the 79-year-old Dryman is back behind bars, likely for what remains of his life.He was caught only after his long-ago victim's grandson got curious and started poking around.Dryman was hitching a ride from Shelby cafe owner Clarence Pellett on a cold and snowy day in 1951 when he pulled a gun and ordered Pellett out of his own car and began firing.

Dryman does not deny the crime — just that he's not the same man today. He has been Victor Houston for decades. At the time of the murder, and after being discharged from the Navy for mental issues, he was going by yet another name: Frank Valentine."That kid, Frank Valentine, he just exploded," Dryman says of his crime. "I didn't shoot that man in the back. That wild kid did. That's not me."Victor Houston tried to make up for it by being an honor citizen."

Dryman says he served his time, which he did until paroled. But a Montana Parole Board not accustomed to leniency on those who walk away from supervision was not impressed with Dryman's subsequent good deeds. Last month the board sent him back behind bars to serve what remains of his life sentence.Dryman said he disappeared from parole in California to get away from a wife he didn't like. He said he's not sure why he just didn't leave the wife and remain on parole.

But once gone, he said, he didn't look back. His new wife and family knew nothing of his past. He put down roots in Arizona City painting signs, a trade learned in prison, and performing weddings."I never thought I was a parole violator. I was Victor Houston. I never looked over my shoulder," Dryman said. "I just forgot about it."
On his birthday he used to get two cards from his brother: one for Houston and one for Valentine."I thought it was cute. I had no fear," Dryman said. He said the details of his past are just coming back: the shooting, his original sentence and the cause he became for opponents of the death penalty, and his first stint in prison."Only since I have been back here did I start to think about it," said Dryman. "To be honest, I didn't even remember the victim's name."

Dryman understands he is not likely to get out again now. And he is not kindly disposed to the victim's grandson, the Bellevue, Wash., oral surgeon who became intensely interested in a piece of family history he knew nothing about. Clem Pellett compiled reams of old documents and tracked down his grandfather's killer with the help of a private investigator."I can't blame him for what he did," Dryman said. "But I think it was so wrong he spent so much money getting me here. I feel it is unfair."

Many in the Pellett family do remember the murder. A dozen descendants showed up at the parole hearing when Dryman was rearrested to testify against his release, saying the killing had forever changed the history of the family. They said as kids they lived in fear of hitchhikers — even in fear of Dryman. Some remembered Dryman's courtroom outburst at his first trial that resulted in conviction and a hanging sentence.

"He turned to the judge and said, 'I'm going to kill you,' he turned to the jury and said 'I am going to kill you' and he turned to the crowd and said some stuff like that," said Clem Pellett. "He was an angry young man who felt powerless." Pellett only learned the details of the case last year after cleaning out boxes of old newspaper clippings. His own parents never talked about the murder. He had never even really known the Montana side of his family, where the pain of the killing still lingers.

Pellett, without even talking to those relatives, began a quest to learn more, compiling old records, court transcripts, ancient arrest records for Dryman's petty crimes prior to the shooting — all of which he used to track down his grandfather's killer.

Pellett said he was driven by an intense curiosity, and would now like to meet with Dryman to fill in holes in the story that he may chronicle in a book. Dryman doesn't think he will agree to the meeting.

He also denounces the allegation that he made a courtroom death threat, which Clem Pellett said was confirmed through his research. Dryman lives in a low security wing of the Montana State Prison, wears prison-issue clothing and due to failing eyesight walks with a cane to avoid tripping. Being interviewed in the same parole board room where was he returned to prison for life, Dryman said of Clem Pellett, "He's already got me here, he should be happy. I think they got their pound of flesh, and I accept it."

One of the original prosecutors in the case also never forgot about Dryman. "It was a very notorious case, perhaps the biggest of the time," said John Luke McKeon, now 85. McKeon, a very young assistant attorney general assigned to the case despite his own opposition to the death penalty, said the Montana Supreme Court threw out the hanging sentence amid some of the most intense arguments over the death penalty the state had seen.

McKeon wrote a letter to the parole board in late May asking for leniency, telling the board he thinks Dryman has paid for his crime. But it got there after the board made its decision. The former prosecutor doesn't see any way out for Dryman this time. "I don't think the governor's going to give him exoneration," he said. "I think he is going to die in prison."

Campaign to save the Arabic language in Lebanon

When Randa Makhoul, an art teacher at a school in Beirut, asks her students a question in Arabic, she often gets a reply in English or French.


"It's frustrating to see young people who want speak their mother tongue articulately, but cannot string a sentence together properly," she said at the Notre Dame de Jamhour school in the Lebanese capital. Mrs Makhoul is just one of several Lebanese teachers and parents who are concerned that increasing numbers of young people can no longer speak Arabic well, despite being born and raised in the Middle Eastern county.

She welcomes a government campaign to preserve Arabic in Lebanon, called, "You speak from the east, and he replies from the west". "This campaign aims to raise awareness about the importance of protecting Lebanon's official language," says Amal Mansour, media spokesperson at the Lebanese ministry of culture.

"We encourage the learning of foreign languages, but not at the expense of the country's mother-tongue."

Polyglot country

Arabic is the official language of Lebanon, but English and French are widely used.

I regret that my parents did not concentrate on developing my Arabic... It's too late now, but maybe for the younger students in the country something can be doneLara Traad Student, aged 16

Most Lebanese speak French - a legacy of France's colonial rule - and the younger generation gravitates towards English. A growing number of parents send their children to French lycees or British and American curriculum schools, hoping this will one day help them find work and secure a better future. Some even speak to their children in French or English in the home.

Even with Arabic, there is a big difference between the classical, written form of the language and the colloquial spoken Lebanese dialect. The classical language is almost never used in conversation - it's only heard on the news, in official speeches, and some television programmes.

As a result, many young Lebanese struggle with basic Arabic reading and writing skills, and it is not uncommon for students as old as 16 or 17 to speak only broken Arabic.

Wider problem

The problem is seen in several parts of the Arab world where foreign schools are common - the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and most North African states.

Campaign flyers show Arabic in the web-friendly Latin script Citing the wide gap between the formal language and its various colloquial forms within the Arab world, Egyptian philosopher Mustapha Safwaan once wrote that classical Arabic is theoretically a dead language, much like Latin or ancient Greek.

But language expert, Professor Mohamed Said, says classical Arabic is a unifying force in the Arab world. "Classical Arabic is the language of communication, literature, science, philosophy, the arts - it is something that unites the Arab world," says Mr Said, a senior Arabic language lecturer at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

According to Mr Said, colloquial dialects in the Arab world should not be seen as separate linguistic entities, but a continuance of the classical Arabic form. Lebanon's language campaign is the first of its kind to be launched by an Arab government. The culture ministry organises talks in schools to raise awareness among pupils about the importance of protecting their mother tongue, and encouraging them to take pride in it.

Mrs Mansour, the ministry spokeswoman, says the government hopes that protecting the Arabic language in Lebanon will in turn protect the country's identity and heritage. Whether the initiative is enough to change how Lebanon's youth communicate and express themselves is another matter.

Mexico prison gang fighting kills 28

A clash between rival gangs in a prison in Mexico's north-western state of Sinaloa has left some 28 inmates dead. The violence came as dozens were killed on another day of apparent drug-related violence in Mexico.

In the western state of Michoacan, 12 police officers were killed in an ambush by suspected drug cartel gunmen. Both Michoacan and Sinaloa are home to rival drug gangs that have been fighting turf wars and battling security forces. Most of the prisoners killed in Mazatlan jail in Sinaloa were shot dead.

Members of one gang armed with pistols and an assault rifle had forced their way into a cell-block holding prisoners from a rival gang and began shooting, officials said. Two police officers and a prison guard were wounded as they tried to stop the violence. Police and soldiers later regained control of the prison. Local media reports said some of the victims belonged to the Zetas drug gang, which has been fighting the Sinaloa cartel for control of smuggling routes.

Sinaloa state governor Jesus Aguilar warned last week of serious overcrowding at the prison, and asked that serious offenders be transferred.

Ambush

The ambush in Michoacan hit a federal police convoy as it was returning to Mexico City, officials said. Ten police officers were killed in the ambush by suspected cartel gunmen Gunmen blocked the road with trucks and machine-gunned the police vehicles outside a school in the town of Zitacuaro. Police say they killed and wounded some of the attackers, who fled.

Michoacan is the headquarters of La Familia, one of Mexico's most violent drugs gangs. Last year the cartel was blamed for the murder of 12 federal agents, whose tortured bodies were dumped on a highway in Michoacan. At least 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon ordered the army and federal police to combat the cartels.

On Friday, nearly 40 people were killed in two separate attacks blamed on drugs gangs - one in Ciudad Juarez on the US border, the other in Ciudad Madero in north-eastern Tamaulipas state. BBC NEWS

Alienated

I am walking on the shores of the sea, waiting for the waves to touch my feet
The blazing sun and the clear blue waters are new to me
I am not of this world...not from this time

We come from the land of the soil
Where things are dipped in honey and presented by grains of rice
In this new world of which i know nothing
I stand alone time and time again

Though the beings here are not wrong
They act like they do everyday
But all this is new to my eyes
I am not comfortable amongst the big and the green

The eyes glare at me, the mouth snarls at me, the teeth bares at me, the fingers poke me
I hide away in my ship that got me here
Behind my cubicle, amongst the ferns
I feel safe here in my atmosphere

I come here for a short time, wanting to go back, wanting to run away
Is it the world or is the green?
I donot know
Though it fascinates me to be here
Yet i know that i dont belong
Somehow the snarls and the glares attract me more
I move to the edge of my seat
Peeping around to see shyly

The monster opens it's eye slowly
Turing as i turn
Gliding as i glide
Twisting as i twist
Gets hold of me
Opens it's huge jaws and comes to bite me
I smile slyly at him
He doesnot know who i am

Though i am new to this world

The blazing sun and the clear blue water unknown to me

I can smite him where he stands

Can rule what he cant

Can take what he desires

Can crush him as he cries

And finally when i have his hand

I will raise it to the sky

And with all the force that i have in me

Bring it down on my head

And finish what never began

By: Nafeesa Johar

Walk the mile

An ancient shoe uncovered-archeologists intrigued

WASHINGTON – About 5,500 years ago someone in the mountains of Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather shoe ever found.

It'll never be confused with a penny loafer or a track shoe, but the well-preserved footwear was made of a single piece of leather, laced up the front and back, researchers reported Wednesday in PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science.

Worn and shaped by the wearer's right foot, the shoe was found in a cave along with other evidence of human occupation. The shoe had been stuffed with grass, which dated to the same time as the leather of the shoe — between 5,637 and 5,387 years ago.

"This is great luck," enthused archaeologist Ron Pinhasi of University College Cork in Cork, Ireland, who led the research team."We normally only find broken pots, but we have very little information about the day-to-day activity" of these ancient people. "What did they eat? What did they do? What did they wear? This is a chance to see this ... it gives us a real glimpse into society," he said in a telephone interview.

Previously the oldest leather shoe discovered in Europe or Asia was on the famous Otzi, the "Iceman" found frozen in the Alps a few years ago and now preserved in Italy. Otzi has been dated to 5,375 and 5,128 years ago, a few hundred years more recent than the Armenian shoe.

Otzi's shoes were made of deer and bear leather held together by a leather strap. The Armenian shoe appears to be made of cowhide, Pinhasi said.

Older sandals have been found in a cave in Missouri, but those were made of fiber rather than leather.The shoe found in what is now Armenia was found in a pit, along with a broken pot and some wild goat horns.But Pinhasi doesn't think it was thrown away. There was discarded material that had been tossed outside the cave, while this pit was inside in the living area. And while the shoe had been worn, it wasn't worn out.

It's not clear if the grass that filled the shoe was intended as a lining or insulation, or to maintain the shape of the shoe when it was stored, according to the researchers.The Armenian shoe was small by current standards — European size 37 or U.S. women's size 7 — but might have fit a man of that era, according to Pinhasi.

He described the shoe as a single piece of leather cut to fit the foot. The back of the shoe was closed by a lace passing through four sets of eyelets. In the front, 15 pairs of eyelets were used to lace from toe to top.

There was no reinforcement in the sole, just the one layer of soft leather. "I don't know how long it would last in rocky terrain," Pinhasi said.He noted that the shoe is similar to a type of footwear common in the Aran Islands, west of Ireland, up until the 1950s. The Irish version, known as "pampooties" reportedly didn't last long, he said.

"In fact, enormous similarities exist between the manufacturing technique and style of this (Armenian) shoe and those found across Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn for thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse region," Pinhasi said.While the Armenian shoe was soft when unearthed, the leather has begun to harden now that it is exposed to air, Pinhasi said.Oh, and unlike a lot of very old shoes, it didn't smell.

Pinhasi said the shoe is currently at the Institute of Archaeology in Yerevan, but he hopes it will be sent to laboratories in either Switzerland or Germany where it can be treated for preservation and then returned to Armenia for display in a museum. Pinhasi, meanwhile, is heading back to Armenia this week, hoping the other shoe will drop.

The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the Chitjian Foundation, the Gfoeller Foundation, the Steinmetz Family Foundation, the Boochever Foundation and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.