Dangerous influenza? What dangerous influenza???

As of yesterday, the World Health Organization is reporting 72 deaths out of 8451 CONFIRMED H1N1 cases worldwide. That's a mortality rate of only about 0.85%. I'm not worried. Not at all.

ANA to use interpreters on Narita-Taipei flights

My question is, why not hire flight attendants who can speak Japanese and Mandarin Chinese? OH RIGHT, ANA hires flight attendants based on youth and beauty - NOT BRAINS!

TOKYO —
All Nippon Airways will begin deploying onboard interpreters to better serve passengers next Monday, starting with its Narita-Taipei flights twice a week, ANA officials said Wednesday. Six female Taiwanese interpreters in their 20s, who can speak Taiwanese, Mandarin and English, were selected from 700 candidates for the new posts. Two of them can also speak Japanese, they added.At present, only Japanese flight attendants who can speak Japanese and English serve customers aboard the Narita-Taipei flights. ANA decided to deploy an interpreter for each flight on top of those attendants because the number of Taiwanese passengers on the flights has recently increased, the officials said.Wu Yi-fan, 24, one of the six interpreters, who formerly worked as a clerk at the airline, said in Japanese she will not only translate but also try to kindly attend to passengers.On ANA flights to and from Shanghai, flight attendants who speak Mandarin currently serve passengers. The airline said it is considering having onboard interpreters serve on flights to and from mainland China and Bangkok as well in the near future.Japan Airlines has already introduced an onboard interpreter system for its flights to and from South Korea.

© 2009 Kyodo News.

Zero Yen House!

In 2004, Kyohei Sakaguchi published "Zero Yen House" - a book of homeless housing in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The publication provides a look on the different constructions and materials used by homeless people in Japan. It shows the efficiency and resourcefulness of homeless people.
In 2000, architect Kyohei Sakaguchi came across this homeless camp along a riverside in Tokyo. The homeless man who was living in it used to work for a camera company and knew his electronics, so he outfitted his house with a solar panel that let him watch TV and listen to the radio. Zero Yen House for you!

Want a Big O? Talk toYour Lover

SARAH BOESVELD

Globe and Mail Update

May 13, 2009 at 10:02 AM EDT

Ladies, talk to your lover - you just might be rewarded with a toe-curling orgasm.

In a study of more than 2,000 women, British researchers found that those with higher emotional intelligence climax more often than their peers.

Emotional intelligence, the ability to monitor your own emotions and those of others, is strongly linked to the likelihood a woman will reach orgasm during masturbation and intercourse, reports the study to be published in July's issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Emotionally intelligent women tend to know what they want and how they're going to get it, says lead study author Andrea Burri, a clinical psychologist and sex researcher in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at London's King's College. Women with lower emotional intelligence tend to be more shy and to clam up in bed.

"The ability to express your feelings and to cope with stress is a very important factor that influences your sex life; it makes you more open to sexual stimuli," she says.

Dr. Burri and her colleagues recruited 2,035 female volunteers from the Twins UK registry, which she had been using for research on genetics and sexual ability. The women, at an average age of 50, filled out two questionnaires - the first on how frequently they reach orgasm and the second asking about emotionality, self-control, sociability and well-being.

"The basic thing is really to try to express what you feel to your partner," Dr. Burri says. "Be brave and say yeah, I want it that way and I want this."

And what will the orgasm champs do with the insights her study offers?

"They might start workshops," Dr. Burri laughs.