An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period. Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television. During the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet. ‘We still do not know how he survives,’ neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. ‘It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is.’ The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defence and military research institute. The DRDO hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters. ‘(Jani’s) only contact with any kind of fluid was during gargling and bathing periodically during the […]
BAGHDAD — Nearly 100 people died and at least 300 others were injured Monday in a series of attacks that crisscrossed Iraq, targeting security forces, factory workers and shoppers on what authorities called the deadliest day of the year. The violence – a combination of explosions and drive-by shootings at checkpoints – occurred against a backdrop of political stagnation since the March parliamentary elections, which pitted Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki against secular rival Ayad Allawi in a race so close that the outcome is still disputed. The political stalemate has given rise to fears of renewed sectarian violence, a potential hindrance to the full withdrawal of U.S. forces as scheduled for the end of next year. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. With a steady stream of bombings and security leadership in flux, some Iraqi politicians have called for the formation of an interim monitoring system until a new parliament is seated. That idea appeared to gain traction Monday, as the death toll rose throughout the day with bombings in Baghdad as well as the mainly Shiite Muslim south and Sunni Muslim west. ‘The parliament is in limbo, so who is there to […]
NORTH WALES, PA — PFIZER’S corporate jet is at the disposal of its chief executive, Jeffrey B. Kindler, for business travel and a limited number of personal trips. Top Merck executives also have use of that drug maker’s corporate aircraft. But when William S. Marth, the chief executive of the largest prescription drug supplier in the United States, travels cross-country, he flies commercial. On trans-Atlantic trips, Mr. Marth, who runs Teva North America, shuns first class, opting for business class instead. ‘The day they get their own plane,’ says Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein who tracks Teva and is a devotee of the stock, ‘is the day I downgrade them.’ Mr. Marth oversees one of the most important divisions of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, an Israeli enterprise that, despite not being a household name, is the biggest generic drug maker in the world. Teva has secured its rise through aggressive acquisitions, strategic discipline, quality control, low prices and an infectious devotion to corporate frugality. ‘We’re kibbutzniks, says Mr. Marth, 55, an Irish Catholic who grew up in Chicago and not on a citrus grove in the Negev. ‘Frugality doesn’t mean doing less. It […]
At the age of six months babies can barely sit up – let along take their first tottering steps, crawl or talk. But, according to psychologists, they have already developed a sense of moral code – and can tell the difference between good and evil. An astonishing series of experiments is challenging the views of many psychologists and social scientists that human beings are born as ‘blank slates’ – and that our morality is shaped by our parents and experiences. baby Good rabbit, bad rabbit: Simple experiments involving babies have shown that we have a strong morality instinct from an early age Instead, they suggest that the difference between good and bad may be hardwired into the brain at birth. In one experiment involving puppets, babies aged six months old showed a strong preference to ‘good’ helpful characters – and rejected unhelpful, ‘naughty’ ones. In another, they even acted as judge and jury. When asked to take away treats from a ‘naughty’ puppet, some babies went further – and dished out their own punishment with a smack on its head. Leading research: Professor Paul Bloom, of Yale University, said a series of morality […]
European Union finance ministers moved toward agreement on an unprecedented loan package worth at least $645 billion to prevent Greece’s fiscal woes from triggering a broader sovereign-debt crisis and shattering confidence in the euro. Jolted into action by last week’s slide in the currency to a 14-month low and soaring bond yields in Portugal and Spain, the 16 euro governments sketched out plans to make 440 billion euros ($570 billion) available, with 60 billion euros more from the EU’s budget, according to three officials at the talks in Brussels. An additional, unspecified sum may come from the International Monetary Fund, the officials said. ‘We are going to defend the euro,’ Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado told reporters as she arrived to chair the meeting yesterday. ‘We think we have a duty for more stability for our currency. We will do whatever is necessary.’ Europe’s failure to contain Greece’s fiscal crisis triggered a 4.1 percent drop in the euro last week, the biggest weekly decline since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse. It prompted the U.S. and Asia to urge broader steps to prevent a debt crisis from pitching the world back into a recession. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
