column1

LET the games begin!!!! Two weeks of international soccer for Port Moresby residents. What more can we ask for leading into Christmas. It will be celebrations for some and others back to the drawing board.
***
NOW read on, certain food words can interact with stress and genetics to trigger unhealthy eating, two new studies suggest. The findings were presented at the Obesity Week, a meeting in Los Angeles hosted by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and The Obesity Society.
***
ONE study included 17 obese people and 12 normal-weight people whose brain activity was monitored while they looked at words describing high- and low-calorie foods.
***
“OUR study found that individuals with obesity had a stronger response to words associated with high-calorie foods – such as chocolate spread and chicken wings – in a widespread neural circuit spanning multiple areas of the brain,” study leader Susan Carnell said in Obesity Society news release. Stress made the obese participants more likely to want high-calorie foods.
***
MUD volcanoes are formations created by the geological emission of liquids and gases. They are frequently associated with earthquake zones, and when they erupt, they release an often acidic slurry as well as methane and other hydrocarbon gases. Some mud volcanoes also spew flames when they erupt,
though the volcanoes themselves tend to be relatively cool.
***
THE Hope diamond is one of the largest blue diamonds known. Discovered in India, the original 115-carat stone was sold to King Louis XIV in the 1660s and remained part of the French crown jewels until a theft in 1792. In 1830, London banker Thomas Hope purchased a 45.5-carat diamond, now believed to have been cut from the stolen French jewel. After changing hands many times, the Hope diamond was eventually donated to the Smithsonian by jeweller Harry Winston.
***
RICHARD Jenkins, better known by his stage name Richard Burton, was a dark, introspective actor who specialised in portraying conflicted men. His tempestuous marriage to Elizabeth Taylor led to an acting partnership that vaulted Burton to the top rank of stardom. Together they made 11 films, including Cleopatra and The Taming of the Shrew.
***
QUOTE of the day: All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.  – Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936)
***
[email protected]