Extreme exercise an 'escape from life', Cardiff Uni says
Extreme adventure challenges can help office workers deal with the "anxieties of modern life" new research suggests.
Cardiff University academics looked into the reasons why people participate in the Tough Mudder event.
The experience is "deliberately marketed" as painful, with obstacles including wires delivering 10,000 volt electric shocks.
Injuries have included strokes, heart attacks, and even death - but 2.5m people have entered.
Researchers discovered that pain helps individuals deal with the physical inactivity of office life, and allows par
Dr Rebecca Scott, of Cardiff Business School, said: "On the one hand, consumers spend billions of dollars every year on pain relief, while exhausting and painful experiences such as obstacle races and ultra-marathons are gaining in popularity."
The research, a joint project between Cardiff, Singapore's Nanyang Business School, and Kedge Business School, France, also found pain "facilitates escape" and provides a "temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness."
Professor Bernard Cova, of Kedge Business School, added: "Electric shocks and ice-cold water may be painful but they also allow participants to escape from the demands and anxieties of modern life.
"By leaving marks and wounds, painful experiences help us create the story of a fulfilled life spent exploring the limits of the body."
Cara Delevingne pens her first novel
Cara Delevingne is already one of the world's most in-demand models and actresses.
Now the 24-year-old can add author to her skillset - her debut novel is set to be published later this year.
Mirror, Mirror is described as a "gripping coming-of-age" young adult novel exploring identity, sexuality, betrayal and friendship.
Delevingne has co-written the book with Rowan Coleman, the author of 2014 novel The Memory Book.
The star said the book deal was a "pinch me" moment.
"So excited! Mirror, Mirror is a twisty coming-of-age story about 16-year-old friends Red, Leo, Naima and Rose who are all trying to figure out who they are and navigate the minefield of school and relationships," Delevingne wrote on Instagram.
"I love these characters so much, I love what they stand for, what this story represents.
"The process of putting this novel together has been life changing and something I hold really close to my heart! I cannot wait to share with everyone!"
Google balloon mistaken for UFO as it crashes in Colombia
Farmers living in central Tolima province in Colombia say they were terrified when an object they took to be a UFO crashed in a field on Sunday.
"It was smoking and a strange liquid was leaking from it," a resident of the small town of San Luis said.
Police have since identified the object as an internet balloon developed by X, a company founded by Google, to boost the signal in rural areas.
It is not yet clear what caused the balloon to crash.
'From outer space'
Tolima police commander Jorge Esguerra denied previous reports on Twitter and local media which had described the object as a satellite.
"It's a technological device used by Google which moves around and is held aloft by a balloon," he explained, adding that it formed part of X's Project Loon.
X, which was formerly known as Google X, is using the devices to extend internet connectivity to people in rural and remote areas by having the balloons, which travel on the edge of space, relay the signal.
New drug for one in five breast cancers
Many more women could be helped by a new type of breast cancer drug, say experts
Biological therapies are currently only available as part of clinical trials, but hold great promise
Experts estimate as many as one in five patients might benefit
Around 10,000 women a year in the UK might benefit from a new type of breast cancer treatment, say scientists.
Biological therapies can help fight breast cancers caused by rare, inherited genetic errors like the BRCA one actress Angelina Jolie carries.
Now a new study by experts at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute suggests these targeted drugs may also work in many other women who do not have these risky genes.
The drugs could be effective in one in five breast cancers, say the researchers.
That's 20% of patients - far more than the 1 to 5% who develop the cancer alongside having faulty BRCA genes.
One biological therapy or PARP inhibitor, called olaparib, is already used on the NHS to treat advanced ovarian cancer.
It is not yet approved as a breast cancer drug, although some UK women are taking it in clinical trials.
For the latest work, published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers looked at the genetic make-up of breast cancer in 560 different patients.
They found a significant proportion of them had genetic errors or "mutational signatures" that were very similar to faulty BRCA.
Given the close similarity, these cancers might be treatable with biological therapies too, they reasoned.
They recommended clinical trials to confirm this.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, from Breast Cancer Now, called the early results "a revelation".
"We hope it could now lead to a watershed moment for the use of mutational signatures in treating the disease," she said.
One of the researchers, Dr Helen Davies, said there was also the potential to treat other types of cancers with these drugs.
Carrying certain gene mutations, like faulty BRCA, increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, although it does not mean she will definitely go on to get cancer.
Some women - like Angelina Jolie - opt to have surgery to have their breasts removed to lower their lifetime risk.
Vicki Gilbert, 54 and from Swindon, found out she was carrying high-risk genes - but only after she developed breast cancer.
"I had been thinking about getting tested anyway because there was quite a lot of cancer on one side of my family. But then I was diagnosed with breast cancer out of the blue, before I even had a chance to go for the genetic screening."
She says finding out, even after the event, was helpful.
"When you get cancer you do think 'Why me?' I don't know for sure if it was because of the genes that I inherited. That would be impossible to say. But, for practical reasons, it is useful to know that I carry these genes."
Vicki has been free of cancer for around seven years, but still has regular checks because of her increased genetic risk.
Women can lower their lifetime risk of breast cancer by exercising regularly, eating a good diet, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding cigarettes and limiting how much alcohol they drink.
EU workplace headscarf ban 'can be legal', says ECJ
Workplace bans on the wearing of "any political, philosophical or religious sign" such as headscarves need not constitute direct discrimination, Europe's top court has ruled.
The issues of Muslim dress and the integration of immigrant communities has featured prominently in debates in several European countries in recent years.
Austria and the German state of Bavaria have recently announced bans on full-face veils in public spaces.
Rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday's ECJ rulings were "disappointing" and "opened a backdoor to... prejudice".
The ECJ ruled on the case of Samira Achbita, fired in June 2006 when, after three years of employment, she began wearing a headscarf to work.
She claimed she was being directly discriminated against on the grounds of her religion and Belgium's court of cassation referred the case to the EU's top court for clarification.
At the time of Ms Achbita's hiring an "unwritten rule" had been in operation banning overt religious symbols, and the company subsequently went on to include this explicitly in its workplace regulations, the court explained in a press release about the ruling.
That covered "any manifestation of such beliefs without distinction", and was therefore not discriminatory, it said.
Crucifixes and skullcaps
It said "an employer's desire to project an image of neutrality towards both its public and private sector customers is legitimate" - but national courts had to make sure this policy of neutrality had been applied equally to all employees.
In practice, such a policy must therefore also ban other religious insignia such as crucifixes, skullcaps and turbans, the court confirmed to the BBC.
To avoid claims of indirect discrimination, national courts must ascertain that people adhering to a particular religion or belief have not been put at a particular disadvantage, unless "objectively justified by a legitimate aim" achieved by means that are "appropriate and necessary".
For instance, the Belgian court ruling on Ms Achbita's case would need to ascertain whether it could have been possible to offer her another post not involving visual contact with customers.
Customer complaint
The ECJ also considered the case of design engineer Asma Bougnaoui, who lost her job at French firm Micropole, after a customer complained that she wore an Islamic headscarf. The court ruled that any ban on headscarf could not be based on "subjective considerations".
"The willingness of an employer to take account of the wishes of a customer no longer to have the services of that employer provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf cannot be considered a genuine and determining occupational requirement," it said.
A French court would have to determine whether the company in this case had dismissed Ms Bougnaoui solely to satisfy a customer or in accordance with a wider internal prohibition on religious symbols, the court ruled.
'Pandering to prejudice'
For years, courts across Europe have faced complex decisions on religious symbols in the workplace.
Jonathan Chamberlain, a partner at UK firm Gowling WLG, told the BBC that Tuesday's ruling reflected "what has been the UK's approach for some years".
Germany's constitutional court ruled in 2015 a ban on teachers wearing the headscarf across the country's 16 states was unconstitutional. Such as measure was only justified if religious symbols represented a "concrete danger, or the disturbance of school peace".
But John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia programme, said the ECJ's decision gave "greater leeway to employers to discriminate against women - and men - on the grounds of religious belief".
"The court did say that employers are not at liberty to pander to the prejudices of their clients. But by ruling that company policies can prohibit religious symbols on the grounds of neutrality, they have opened a backdoor to precisely such prejudice."
The British Humanist Association, meanwhile, found more nuance in the ruling, saying that while direct discrimination had been ruled out, whether the company policies constituted indirect discrimination or not "has been remitted back to the Belgian and French courts to determine".
North Korea fire 4 missiles to Japanese Ocean.
North Korea today (06) fired 4 ballistic missiles to Japanese waters. Three of them were sent to sea of the Japanese special economic zone passing 1000 kilometers (620 miles). Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shiso Abe called this as a “new threat”.
South Korean army announced that these missiles launched from Tongwang-ri. It is not clear that which kind of missiles in this launch. UN has issue a ban for any kind of nuclear or missile testing. US military forces had observed this launch and issued a notice that there is no threat for them.
US also issued a notice and said, using the name Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) name for such ballistic missile launching will be discredit by US and overcome of the UN decision.
North Korea sees the combination military exercises of South Korea with America by the name of Sole Eagle as a future invasion to them. US said North Korea producing inter continental ballistic missiles which can also be a threat to America.
Anyway North Korea will take a considerable time to make nuclear war heads to suit their missiles.
Video: Chinese man climbs stairs on his head for world record attempt
Welcome to the Guinness World Records Italian Show – a weekly video series which features the most astonishing, shocking and awe-inspiring record attempts from the seventh series of Italy’s Lo Show dei Record.
This week’s episode features an attempt from China’s Li Longlong, who can break world records standing on his head. Literally.
He first achieved the Guinness World Records t itle for Most consecutive stairs climbed on the head on the set of Chinese TV show CCTV - Guinness World Records Special in 2012, with a total of 34.
Watch him attempt to break this record on Lo Show dei Record:
Unfortunately, after a gallant attempt, Li does not manage to break the record.
The strict rules for this gruelling challenge insist that the participant must not pause for more than five seconds between steps, and that no part of the body other than the head may touch them.
