WORLD NEWS 07
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You'll never guess what...
Smile like you mean it
Shrek-sy
Research based on dead baseball players claims that life expectancy can be judged by your smile Tomos Clarke Reporter
Producers of children’s movie Shrek have been left embarrassed after they arranged a saucy photoshoot with an American men's magazine. The publicity stunt, in association with magazine, features characters from the movie's fourth instalment posing with barely-clothed models. One particularly shocking example sees Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy, in a suggestive scene with a part-naked couple. “While we do respect 's creative vision, the shoot did not turn out the way originally envisioned when the idea was first presented by the magazine," said a Paramount spokesman. "In hindsight, we would have declined to include the Shrek characters in such a magazine spread."
It’s official; a sunny, smiley disposition will lead to a longer life. A recent study has suggested that the width of your grin and the depth of your laughter lines seem to have a direct effect on when you kick the bucket, perhaps due to the positive mental attitude these features represent. Anecdotal evidence has long pointed at a link between mental attitude and life expectancy, but a study published in Psychological Science by researchers at Wayne University in Michigan, America, claims to finally have scientific evidence to prove the
fact. The method used seems slightly unorthodox at first glance, as the study group for the research was the 1952 Sporting News baseball register. The ball-players were chosen as a sample group because detailed life statistics are available for all the players. Ernest L. Abel and Michael L. Kruger studied photos of all 230 Major League Baseball players
in the register; each photo came with a listing of the player’s life statistics, including height, weight, age and marital status. They then arranged the players by the width of their smiles and depth of their laughter lines into three categories: no smile, partial smile or full Duchenne smiles. A Duchenne smile is when all the involuntary muscles in the face tense, resulting in a genuine smile that cannot be faked. The resulting list was compared to the age of
A near-Deutsch experience
Marmot is a road hog A Montana motorway has a new resident – a cuddly marmot. The tiny creature, a type of squirrel, was spotted by a keen-eyed photographer. “When the car got almost on top of it, the marmot seemed to just melt into the road,” said photographer Zack Clothier. It is thought the furry critter is using the road as part of its den, though quite why it likes the peace and serenity of the crawler lane is anyone’s guess.
the players upon their death. 184 players had died at the time of the trial. Of these, those from the “no smile” section lived on average 72.9 years and the “partial smile” to 75. The happiest baseball players of all lived to 79.9 years on average, a whopping 7 years longer than their grumpy comrades. In the course of the research the team noticed that putting on a smile for show was not enough to get the benefit. Players without deep laughter lines lived significantly shorter than their wrinkly counterparts. The researchers concluded that happy individuals who are likely to smile spontaneously are more likely to benefit from the effects of positive thinking. The evidence is apparently “written all over our faces”.
SNAKES ON A, ER, BALCONY: Scales of justice SPEAKING IN TONGUES: Coma victim starts speaking German
Gareth Ludkin News Editor A Croatian teenager has miraculously awoken from a coma speaking fluent German. The 13-year-old girl from Knin in southern Croatia awoke from her 24hour coma able to speak German, although a downside to this is that so far she is unable to speak Croatian, her native tongue. This incredible occurrence has baffled doctors at Split's KB Hospital. Various experts have examined the girl as they try to find out what triggered the unusual change. Hospital director Dujomir Marasovic said: “You never know when recovering from such a trauma how the brain will react. Obviously we have some theories although at the moment we are limited in what we can say because we have to respect the privacy
of the patient.” The young teenager had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to improve her linguistic skills, however, according to her parents she was by no means fluent. Whether being able to speak German and not Croatian is an advantage or not remains to be seen. Doctors and psychiatrists hope that she will regain her native tongue before long. Psychiatric expert Dr Mijo Milas, who is continuing with tests to establish the cause of this dramatic event, added: “In earlier times this would have been referred to as a miracle, we prefer to think that there must be a logical explanation – its just that we haven't found it yet. “At the moment though any speculation would remain just that – speculation – so it's better to continue tests until we actually know something.”
Criminal hisstory Jamie Thunder News Editor A man has been arrested in South Carolina after apparently assaulting another guest with a python. Tony Smith, 29, was staying at the Executive Inn in Rock Hill when another guest asked him to turn down his music. The guest, 47-year-old Jeffery Culp, had work the next morning, and said Smith and his friends had also been racing down the corridor on chairs. The pair argued after Culp asked them to stop at around 9pm. He alleges that Smith later came up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and thrust the four-foot snake in his face. Local police records list the type of weapon used as ‘other’.
According to Culp, his attacker knew of his fear of snakes before the incident. “He [had been] out there running up and down the sidewalk with it,” Culp told his local newspaper. “I told him I don’t do snakes. I’m deathly afraid of them.” When his and his wife went onto the motel balcony for a cigarette, Culp says, Smith came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. “He said, ‘here look at this,’” Culp said. “He had the snake’s head squeezed so its mouth was open. He ran it across my face and it tried to crawl in my mouth.” He called the police, who found Smith on the balcony and arrested him on suspicion of assault and battery. Culp was left with some minor cuts, but did not require medical treatment. Smith has now been released on bail.