Global Breaking News - Sunday, December 22, 2024
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[Misc] (HL-20190414~20190420) Weekly Headlines
최고관리자 | 19-04-12 10:34
(Mon) Study says moderate drinking raises stroke risk
가벼운 음주에도 뇌졸중 위험 증가하는 것으로 드러나
You may have heard that one or two alcoholic drinks a day can be good for your health. But, now it might be time to put down the glass as a major study has just debunked that myth. The research found that moderate drinking increases your risk of a stroke by 10 to 15 percent. And for heavy drinkers, consuming four or more drinks a day, blood pressure rises significantly and the risk of stroke increases by around 35 percent. It was previously thought that alcohol could have a protective effect against stroke. This latest study used data from a 160,000-strong cohort of Chinese adults - many of whom are unable to drink alcohol due to genetic intolerance. The World Health Organization estimates that around 2.3 billion people worldwide drink alcohol, with average per person daily consumption at 33 grams of pure alcohol a day. That's roughly equivalent to two 150 ml glasses of wine, a large bottle of beer or two 40 ml shots of spirits. Europeans are still boozing the most, despite drinking 10 percent less per person than they did in 2010, the WHO says. Current trends point to a global rise in per capita consumption in the next 10 years.
(Tue) IKEA is trying out rental furniture
이케아, 가구 렌탈 서비스 개시해
Normally you buy IKEA furniture. Soon, you may be able to rent it instead. The company will test out furniture leasing in 30 markets. It has already been running in five countries. IKEA would certainly not be the first rental furniture company but they say they're trying to tap into a growing market for more sustainable products. In fact, they're calling this store in western Germany its first "sustainable store." "The idea is to respond to customers (who) have different lifestyles today. People have more temporary living solutions. It can be students, it can be temporary situations like when you have the first kid, you have special needs. And it all comes with the knowledge from our side that people sometimes simply don't have the money to afford a whole new home." IKEA's business model has already come under pressure from the rise of online retail and a growing reluctance among shoppers to travel to its vast out-of-town stores - only to have to assemble the furniture themselves. Rental furniture would likely also require some assembly, according to a spokesperson. IKEA says the plan is to develop subscription-based leasing offers to encourage products to be reused as many times as possible before being recycled.
(Wed) Lab-grown meat could hit supermarkets 'in 5 years'
실험실에서 배양한 인공 고기, 5년 뒤엔 먹어볼 수 있게 돼
This might look like regular meat, but it was actually grown in a lab. It's sustainable and ethical but it doesn't come cheap. Cultured meat, made from animal stem cells, typically has a production cost of around 20,000 dollars per kilogram. So, scientists are working on a viable, cost-effective alternative to the real deal. Tissue engineering experts at the UK's University of Bath are testing a revolutionary method - growing these animal cells on blades of so-called 'ghost' grass. It's had its plant cells removed with detergent, which Dr. Marianne Ellis says makes it the perfect scaffold for the fake meat cells to grow. "Cells seem to really like growing on them. And the great thing about grass in particular is it’s striated, there are lines on the grass - you can see them with your eye - and the muscle cells will actually align with this structure." The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said industrialized farming contributes on a "massive scale" to climate change, and demand for meat is expected to double between 2000 and 2050 due to population increase. Researchers say the only way to meet demand without huge cost to the environment is to find a solution to meat substitutes. Cuts of meat like steak have connective tissue, blood vessels and fat cells which currently make it too complex to reproduce, but Bath's lab say they hope simpler lab-grown products like burgers and meatballs will be on supermarket shelves in the next five years.
(Thu) Versatile wearable tech unveiled at London show
런던에서 공개된 다용도 웨어러블 기술
Wearable technology is always evolving. And some of the very latest ideas have been on display at this recent tech show in London. Everything from a device to help prevent accidents at work, to this garment for golfers to improve their swing: "You might be asking yourself 'why does anybody need to know that much information about their swing?' But when you are operating at the professional or the elite athlete levels, even the most marginal gains could have the biggest benefit. It could make the difference between winning and losing a tournament." The 18 sensors are worn on the garment under the golfer's clothing and they monitor the swing motion. They connect to an app which generates a 3D avatar of the player and their performance. Elsewhere, this portable wrist device is designed to replace detectors on patients' fingers commonly used by hospitals to measure the oxygen level of the blood. And Catapult's device monitors athletes' performance by capturing data for sports scientists to analyze. "The data captures about a thousand data points per second per athlete. All that information is then processed in our software application in order for the coach, the sports scientists, the practitioners to be more informed about a player's performance." Around 300 exhibitors were showcased at the recent Wearable Technology show, now in its sixth year.
(Fri) Screens saturating your life? Try these for size
디지털 스크린이 지긋지긋하신가요? 이걸 한번 써 보세요.
Google Glasses were a huge flop - but what about shades that filter out technology? An American company called In Real Life Labs creates lenses that block out screens, taking the digital detox to another level. "We found this effective if you're, say, going to a sports bar, if you're at a restaurant with a TV screen, if you're at the airport and there's screens all around you and you just want to escape the noise you can slap these on your face and boom all the screens go out." The lenses use rotated polarized glass, and block light from LED and LCD monitors, among other things. IRL Labs is working on refining the lenses, so they also block smartphones, tablet screens and digital billboards, too. "We were really inspired by the fact that Americans spent over 10 hours a day looking at a screen. The average modern person is exposed to 5000 ads per day. That's a lot of things coming at you constantly and so the benefit is to have some solace and a break from that...I definitely dream of a world where everyone is more in control of media advertisements, technology as opposed to feeling victimized and controlled by those different entities." The company reached its $25,000 kickstarter goal within three days last October, and now has thousands of backers from 50 countries. "The irony is that we've been approached by a number of Fortune 500 brands that are interested in partnering and such a backlash to technology and these big tech companies are suddenly not looking as good. That a lot of brands like lifestyle brands wanna align themselves with like the anti tech movement.”
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Constitutional Court orders revision of abortion ban by end of 2020
The Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that the country’s decades-old abortion ban runs counter to the Constitution, paving the way for a revision of the criminal code 66 years after it was established. In a landmark decision that overturned its 2012 ruling, the court ruled 7-2 that criminalizing all abortions -- even in the early stages of pregnancy -- restricts pregnant women’s rights to self-determination by forcing them to maintain the pregnancies. The court saw that a fetus is considered as close to be a human being after 22 weeks of pregnancy. Before that period, women’s rights to self-determination outweighs a fetus’s right to life as giving birth and child-rearing have a “decisive” impact on women’s lives, according to the verdict.
Court acquits man accused of eating fried chicken to dodge conscription
A man accused of putting on weight by eating fried chicken to avoid mandatory military service was acquitted of breaking the law on conscription, Incheon District Court said Sunday. The 22-year-old college student reportedly underwent a physical examination for military service in August 2016. The test showed that the man, who weighed 106 kilograms and was 169.6 centimeters tall at the time, had Body Mass Index of 36.8. People with BMI of 33 and higher can be exempted from full-time military service and work as a public service worker.
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