17 Reasons Why Having Intercourse Is Good for Your Health

Sex seems to be more than a hormonal discharge and some short moments of pure pleasure. Scientists show that sex is extremely beneficial for our health, while the lack of an active sex life might have negative effects. But too much sex, can also be harmful: more than thrice a week it can weaken the immune system, making us vulnerable to infections... 1. Our mental and emotional health balance is clearly influenced by sex. Abstinence is known to cause from anxiety to paranoia and depression... In fact, in case of light depressions, after having sex the brain releases endorphins, that decrease stress, inducing a state of euphoria. 2. Sex can be a beauty treatment. While having sex, a woman's body doubles the estrogen level, and this makes her hair shine and the skin becomes softer. 3. A 10-year research carried on 1,000 middle-aged menat Queens University in Belfast, Ireland, showed that sex on a regular basis increases the humans' lifespan. For the same age and health, those who had orgasms more frequently had half the death rate of men who did not have such frequent orgasms. This could be due to the plummeting stress hormones, reaction that installs after we have sex. 3. Sweating while having sex cleanse the skin pores, making the skin brighter and decreasing the risk of developing dermatitis. 4. Sex can make us lose weight. You burn all that fat and carbohydrates from the romantic dinner. Quickies of 20 minutes weekly mean 7 500 calories annually, that's as much as you consume on 120 km (745 mi) of jogging. A sex session can burn about 200 calories. This is like running 15 minutes on a treadmill! 5. Sex strengthen our muscles. You can imagine the effort made by your muscles through those pushes and flexions. It depends on your stunts in bed, of course. And it's clearly a lot more fun than running for miles. 6. The more active your sex life is, the more attractive for the opposite sex you are. High sexual activity makes the body release more pheromones, chemicals that attract the opposite sex. 7. Sex sharpens our senses, at least the smell. Following the orgasm, a rise of the hormone prolactin makes the brain's stem cells form new neurons in the olfactory bulb, boosting a person's olfactory abilities. 8. Sex is also a pain reliever, ten times more effective than typical painkillers: immediately before orgasm, levels of the hormone oxytocin rise by five times, determining a huge release of endorphins. These chemicals calm pain, from a minor headache to arthritis or migraines, and with no secondary effects. Migraines also disappear because the pressure in the brain's blood vessels is lowered while we have sex. So now we see that actually, a woman's headache is rather a good reason for having sex, not against it. 9. Kissing your partner daily means less visits to dentist. Kissing stimulates salivation, which cleanses food left between the teeth and lowers the acidity in the mouth, the main cause of the tooth decay. 10. A good sex session can be a good remedy against stiff nose, being a natural antihistaminic that helps combating asthma and high fever. 11. Having sex regularly drops the cholesterol level, balancing the ratio good cholesterol: bad cholesterol. 12. The hormones released while we have sex helps both men and women; estrogen protects a woman's heart but on the long term, it can be efficient also against Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis while testosterone strengthens the bones and muscles. 13. Sex is not beneficial not only for the heart, but also for the blood circulation, especially in the brain, because of the increased heart rate and deep breathing. 14. The sexual activity lowers the risk of getting colds and the flu. 1-2 intercourses weekly means 30 % higher levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A, that spurs the immune system. 15. Sex leads to a better control of the bladder, by strengthening the pelvis muscles controlling the flow of urine. 16. After orgasm, especially in the evening, we become sleepy. This is the effect of some good sex: it increases sleep quality. Following an orgasm, the body of both males or females becomes completely relaxed, so they may have a good deep sleep. 17. Sex fights cancer! Various researches have shown that a high ejaculation frequency and sexual activity are linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer later in life. A study found out that men who ejaculated 13 to 20 times monthly presented a 14% lower risk of prostate cancer than men who ejaculated on average, between 4 and 7 times monthly for most of their adult life. Those ejaculating over 21 times a month presented a 33% decreased risk of developing prostate cancer than the baseline group.

Beijing to share more of Great Wall with tourists

Beijing will open two new parts of the Great Wall to tourists to meet high demand for one of the world's most famous tourist attractions.

The municipal government will open the Huanghuacheng and Hefangkou sections of the Great Wall to the public and expand the popular Mutianyu and Badaling sites in the capital's northern suburbs, the official Xinhua News Agency said. No specific dates were given.

On weekends and holidays, the existing four public Great Wall sites often are crammed with tourists. Xinhua said some tourists instead scale closed sections of the wall and cause damage to the historic structure.

Kong Fanzhi, chief of Beijing's cultural relics bureau, told Xinhua the new measures aim to ease the congestion at the open sections of the wall.

Most of the wall in Beijing is in good condition, Wang Yuwei, a cultural relics protection official, was quoted as saying.

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications built throughout centuries to protect the country's ancient empire.

Wang said the city is building a Great Wall database, which will be open to the public.

Report: China plans manned space launch this month

People watch the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft which moves to the launch pad at the Jiuquan launch center in Jiuquan, China's northwest Gansu province, Saturday, June 9, 2012. China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday. 

China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday.
A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in China's desert northwest on Saturday for the mid-June flight, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an space program spokesman.
The three-member crew will dock with and live in the Tiangong 1 orbital module launched last year, Xinhua said. The government has not said how long the mission will last.
Xinhua cited Niu Hongguang, deputy commander in chief of the manned space program, as saying the crew "might include female astronauts."
The government said in 2010 that two female air force pilots had joined the astronaut program but has disclosed no other details.
China's space program has made steady progress since a 2003 launch that made it only the third nation to put a man in space on its own. Two more manned missions have followed, one including a space walk.
China completed its first space rendezvous in November when the unmanned Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 by remote control. Tiangong 1 was launched on Sept. 29.
Over the next few days, scientists will test the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, the Long March 2F rocket and ground systems, Xinhua said, citing the spokesman.
During the flight, one crew member will remain aboard the Shenzhou 9 "as a precautionary measure in case of emergency" while the others enter Tiangong 1, Xinhua said.
China has scheduled two space docking missions for this year and plans to complete a manned space station around 2020 to replace Tiangong 1. At about 60 tons, the Chinese station will be considerably smaller than the 16-nation International Space Station.
Beijing launched its independent space station program after being turned away from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. objections. Washington is wary of the Chinese program's military links and of sharing technology with an economic and political rival.

The Largest Snake

Slithering in at 48 feet long and weighing an estimated one-and-a-half tons, the largest snake the world has ever seen is being brought back to life. Sixty million years ago, in the mysterious era after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists believe that a colossal snake related to modern boa constrictors ruled a lost world. With exclusive access to what one scientist called “a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” Smithsonian Channel(TM) will tell the extraordinary true story in TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE, a two-hour special premiering

The startling discovery of Titanoboa was made by a team of scientists working in one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines at Cerrejon in La Guajira, Colombia. It is a snake that dwarfs the largest anaconda found today, and it has the size and character to challenge T-Rex in the public’s imagination.

The story behind this significant scientific revelation began in 2002, when a Colombian student visiting the coal mine made an intriguing discovery: a fossilized leaf that hinted at an ancient rainforest from the Paleocene epoch. Over the following decade, collecting expeditions led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida opened a unique window into perhaps the first rainforest on Earth. Fossil finds included giant turtles and crocodiles, as well as the first known bean plants and some of the earliest banana, avocado and chocolate plants. But their most spectacular discovery was the fossilized vertebrae of a previously undiscovered species of snake, one so large it defied imagination.

ogether with their research teams, Jonathan Bloch of the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida and Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, joined forces with one of the world’s foremost experts in ancient snakes, Jason Head of the University of Nebraska, to unlock the mysteries of this ancient time and discover exactly how Titanoboa appeared, lived and hunted. The fossilized remains revealed that, after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the tropics were warmer than today and witnessed the birth of the South American rainforest, in which huge creatures battled it out to become the planet’s top predators. Dominating this era was Titanoboa, the undisputed largest snake in the history of the world.

Most of the fossil record of ancient snakes is comprised of vertebrae like the one that launched the Titanoboa investigation. Snake skulls are almost never found as they are extremely fragile and usually disintegrate – making it almost impossible to create a full and accurate picture of these extinct creatures. But during the filming of TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE, the scientists managed to uncover not just one, but fragments of three skulls, allowing them to derive for the first time what this ancient giant looked like.

A scientifically accurate, life-sized replica of Titanoboa appears in the film and will go on display for the first time at the National Museum of Natural History beginning March 30, 2012. The exhibition will travel to museums across the country beginning in fall 2013. Titanoboa: Monster Snake is a collaboration between the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Tropical Research Institute, and is circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

The two-hour special explores how this monster snake would have lived by visiting its living cousins, boa constrictors and anacondas, in the Florida Everglades and the Venezuelan Grasslands. The scientists’ research yields some intriguing and terrifying insights, including the climate in which it lived and size of the snake. All of these clues come together to paint a picture of Titanoboa’s world, which is brought back to life in stunning CGI. Here we see how the colossal snake ruled as an ancient apex predator among a land of tropical mega-beasts.

TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE follows the scientific sleuths back to the mine, into the labs, and on an expedition to understand modern giant constrictors. It creates a picture of the then largest predator on the planet – a creature that until now has only populated fiction and nightmares, but can finally be displayed as a marvel of nature.

Tattoos

Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times

It’s hard to look authentically rebellious or menacing these days, when even well-behaved businessmen wear earrings and ponytails and college students destined for quiet suburban lives have body piercings and tattoos.

Tattoos, in particular, are not the radical brandings, the bold violations of flesh and propriety, they once were. Available in New York from almost 1,400 licensed tattoo artists, tattoos are probably better and safer now than they’ve ever been — more creative and varied, applied in many cases by serious, highly skilled body artists.

Then again, there are tattoos, and there are tattoos. It is unlikely that the ambitious professional with a single, understated, discreetly placed and wittily conceived tat, or for that matter the teenager with her boyfriend’s name and two lovebirds emblazoned in the small of her back, will ever have tattoos on the face and scalp, or a full chest or back “panel” or a tattooed arm or leg.

Some tattoo aficionados, though, have transformed large portions of their bodies into multicolored canvases for all manner of skulls, serpents, raptors, flame-breathing dragons, flowers, vines, angels, demons, daggers, buxom bombshells and portraits of heroes and loved ones.

Tattoos have been used for centuries to reflect changes in life status, whether passage into adulthood or induction into a group like the military or a gang. In recent years, tattoos have also become a fashion accessory, a trend fueled by basketball players, bands and celebrities.

A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. The report based the number on the finding by a Harris Interactive Poll in 2003 that 16 percent of all adults and 36 percent of people 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo. The poll also found that 17 percent of tattooed Americans regretted it. And a tattoo that cost several hundred dollars could require several thousand dollars and many laser sessions to remove.

Dog walker saves pet from eagle attack

A British woman out walking her two dogs along a mountain footpath in Benalmádena (Málaga) has been attacked by an eagle, who tried to make off with one of her pets. The bird dragged the dog towards a quarry, but the owner was able to hold onto the animal and save it, but got a nasty injury on her hand in the process. The sudden attack by the bird of prey, which happened last Saturday, made 43-year-old Suzanne Dodd run away from the area, but said the eagle, which was wearing bells and a lead, "did not appear to have any fear of humans". The eagle landed on top of one of her dogs, a Jack Russell terrier, and started dragging it by the head towards a nearby quarry.  The owner, however, put up a fight, grabbing the bird by one of its wings and giving it a kick to get rid of it, whilst saying to herself : "You are not going to fly off with one of my dogs". Immediately after the attack, Dodd put both dogs back on the lead and began running back down the mountain, but the eagle followed her and continued to attack her and her pets up to another 20 times.  She responded by shouting at the bird to make it go away, which in the end it did. The dog in question suffered a small injury to its snout, and Dodd went to the medical centre to have a minor injury to her left hand treated and to receive a tetanus jab. The victim, who described the attack as "surreal and horrible", admitted she got very upset and "panicked".  She has made a formal complaint to the police to try to make sure similar "dangerous" attacks don't happen on public footpaths in the future.

Tattoos, beards and 'crazy' hairstyles banned in the National Police

A LIST of 121 rules governing National Police officers' behaviour and appearance has been drawn up, and will be subject to deductions in salary or suspension of employment if they fail to comply.

Members of the National Police force are not allowed to have any visible piercings – including earrings, even for female officers – nor tattoos, hairstyles or makeup that are considered 'extravagant' or 'outrageous'.

Male officers cannot have beards and female officers must wear their hair tied back in a way that it does not fall below their shoulders.

All officers must salute their superiors and deliberate failure to do so can result in a four-day suspension of employment and pay.

Any consumption of alcohol, of any amount, on the job is totally forbidden.

National Police force members are expected to carry their truncheons 'in a natural manner' with their left arms extended and without closing their fingers around them.

They have a duty to salute and greet the public in the same way as they are expected to with their superiors.

Southern Afghanistan Suicide Bombing Kills 22

Afghan policemen stand guard as two US soldiers (C) arrive at the site of a twin suicide attack near NATO's Kandahar Air Base, June

SLAMABAD - A large double suicide bombing has killed more than 22 people and wounded at least 50 in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

One bomber blew up a crowded parking lot packed with truck drivers. The second waited until people rushed into help the injured and dying, then detonated his explosives.

One eyewitness, taken to Kandahar hospital with injuries to his hands and feet, described the attack. He says that when the first explosion took place, he ran out of his shop to where the bomb had gone off when the second explosion happened.

He says as he walked he saw dead bodies lying on the ground, then he does not remember anything after that.

Rahmatullah Atrafi, deputy police chief in Kandahar province, describes the site of the bombing as a busy marketplace fed by the main highway connecting Kandahar and Spin Boldak, a town near the Pakistan border.

He says the victims were innocent people busy selling goods, as well as eight people working for a security company that had a local office near the market.

The United States condemned the bombing, which officials say took place near a NATO base.

In a separate incident, two NATO troops were killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan.  NATO said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

The Enigma 1,800 Miles Below Us

As if the inside story of our planet weren’t already the ultimate potboiler, a host of new findings has just turned the heat up past Stygian

Geologists have long known that Earth’s core, some 1,800 miles beneath our feet, is a dense, chemically doped ball of iron roughly the size of Mars and every bit as alien. It’s a place where pressures bear down with the weight of 3.5 million atmospheres, like 3.5 million skies falling at once on your head, and where temperatures reach 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — as hot as the surface of the Sun. It’s a place where the term “ironclad agreement” has no meaning, since iron can’t even agree with itself on what form to take. It’s a fluid, it’s a solid, it’s twisting and spiraling like liquid confetti.

Researchers have also known that Earth’s inner Martian makes its outer portions look and feel like home. The core’s heat helps animate the giant jigsaw puzzle of tectonic plates floating far above it, to build up mountains and gouge out seabeds. At the same time, the jostling of core iron generates Earth’ magnetic field, which blocks dangerous cosmic radiation, guides terrestrial wanderers and brightens northern skies with scarves of auroral lights.

Now it turns out that existing models of the core, for all their drama, may not be dramatic enough. Reporting recently in the journal Nature, Dario Alfè of University College London and his colleagues presented evidence that iron in the outer layers of the core is frittering away heat through the wasteful process called conduction at two to three times the rate of previous estimates.

The theoretical consequences of this discrepancy are far-reaching. The scientists say something else must be going on in Earth’s depths to account for the missing thermal energy in their calculations. They and others offer these possibilities:

 The core holds a much bigger stash of radioactive material than anyone had suspected, and its decay is giving off heat.

 The iron of the innermost core is solidifying at a startlingly fast clip and releasing the latent heat of crystallization in the process.

 The chemical interactions among the iron alloys of the core and the rocky silicates of the overlying mantle are much fiercer and more energetic than previously believed.

  Or something novel and bizarre is going on, as yet undetermined.

“From what I can tell, people are excited” by the report, Dr. Alfè said. “They see there might be a new mechanism going on they didn’t think about before.”

Researchers elsewhere have discovered a host of other anomalies and surprises. They’ve found indications that the inner core is rotating slightly faster than the rest of the planet, although geologists disagree on the size of that rotational difference and on how, exactly, the core manages to resist being gravitationally locked to the surrounding mantle.

Miaki Ishii and her colleagues at Harvard have proposed that the core is more of a Matryoshka doll than standard two-part renderings would have it. Not only is there an outer core of liquid iron encircling a Moon-size inner core of solidified iron, Dr. Ishii said, but seismic data indicate that nested within the inner core is another distinct layer they call the innermost core: a structure some 375 miles in diameter that may well be almost pure iron, with other elements squeezed out. Against this giant jewel even Jules Verne’s middle-Earth mastodons and ichthyosaurs would be pretty thin gruel.

Core researchers acknowledge that their elusive subject can be challenging, and they might be tempted to throw tantrums save for the fact that the Earth does it for them. Most of what is known about the core comes from studying seismic waves generated by earthquakes.

As John Vidale of the University of Washington explained, most earthquakes originate in the upper 30 miles of the globe (as do many volcanoes), and no seismic source has been detected below 500 miles. But the quakes’ energy waves radiate across the planet, detectably passing through the core.

Granted, some temblors are more revealing than others. “I prefer deep earthquakes when I’m doing a study,” Dr. Ishii said. “The waves from deep earthquakes are typically sharper and cleaner.”

Euro Slides as Spain Heads Toward Bloc’s Fourth Aid Bid

The euro weakened for a second day against the dollar as Spain was poised to become the fourth of the 17 euro countries to require emergency assistance.

The 17-nation euro fell for the first time in six days versus the yen as the currency bloc’s finance chiefs plan weekend talks on a potential Spanish aid request to shore up the nation’s lenders. The Dollar Index had the biggest gain in three months as Treasuries gained after reports showed German exports tumbled and Italian industrial production shrank. Canada’s dollar declined as job growth in the nation slowed.

The 17-nation currency dropped for the first time in six days versus the yen after Fitch Ratings cut Spain’s credit grade to within two steps of junk. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

“I think the outlook is still pretty bearish for the euro,” said David Grad, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “Even a short-term surprise in terms of policy for Spain, in the big picture, things haven’t changed much. The market is still uncertain on how the situation is going to unfold going in to the Greek election next week and isn’t going to shake that off easily.”

The euro depreciated 0.5 percent to $1.2499 at 1:31 p.m. New York time after dropping 0.2 percent yesterday, paring its first five-day gain in six weeks. The common currency declined 0.7 percent to 99.32 yen, trimming this week’s advance to 2.4 percent. The yen strengthened 0.2 percent to 79.46 per dollar, snapping a four-day drop.

Trading Levels

ICAP Plc, the world’s largest broker of transactions between banks, said daily spot foreign-exchange trading volume on its EBS platform fell 25 percent in May from the same month last year. The daily traded volume was 19 percent higher than the previous month, at $130.8 billion, ICAP said today on its website.

The euro has declined 3.9 percent during the past six months, making it the worst performer among 10 developed-nation currencies, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar gained 3.2 percent and the yen climbed 0.7 percent.

“There’s little comfort for the euro within this morning’s data,” said Ian Stannard, head of European currency strategy at Morgan Stanley in London. “Within the periphery of Europe the problems are continuing. Both German exports and imports have fallen more than expected. We remain bearish on the euro. It has a lot further to fall.”

It is in everbody’s interest for Greece to stay in the euro, President Barack Obama said today in the White House briefing room. He pressed leaders of the euro zone to act quickly to resolve to bolster growth while dealing with debt.

Currency Forecasts

The shared currency will strengthen to $1.26 by year-end, according to the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Morgan Stanley forecast a decline to $1.19 by the fourth-quarter while UBS AG projected the 17-nation currency at $1.15 and Barclays Plc and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ predicted $1.18.

The euro’s rebound versus the dollar failed to breach resistance at $1.2624, the January low. Support is at $1.2288 and $1.2134, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A resistance level is where analysts anticipate orders to sell are grouped and a support level is an area where the anticipate buy orders to be clustered.

“Euro-dollar’s failed to push through $1.2625 to the top side, which for me solidifies the fact that this is simply one of these bounces that we get after a significant depreciation in currencies,” said Lauren Rosborough, senior foreign-exchange strategist in London at Societe Generale SA.

The Dollar Index (DXY), which Intercontinental Exchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six U.S. trading partners, gained as much as 1 percent to 82.890, the largest rally since March 9, before trading at 82.718. The gauge dropped to 81.911 yesterday, the lowest level since May 28.

Risk Markets

U.S. 10-year yields dropped from the highest level this month after Fitch Ratings cut Spain’s credit grade to within two steps of junk grade.

Higher-yielding currencies fell against the dollar and yen after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke refrained yesterday from signaling the central bank will undertake more monetary stimulus measures.

South Africa’s rand was the biggest loser against the greenback, declining 0.7 percent to 8.4337. Norway’s krone lost 0.3 percent to trade at 6.0627 per dollar and Australia’s dollar fell 0.2 percent to 98.75 U.S. cents after breaching parity yesterday.

Canada’s dollar fell 0.4 percent to C$1.0324 after a report showed employment rose by 7,700 jobs in May 7,700 jobs in May, Statistics Canada following gains of 58,200 and 82,300 in the prior two months.

Peso Rally

Mexico’s peso increased against all its major counterparts, rising 0.4 percent to 14.0071 per dollar. The country’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the 27th straight meeting as a pick-up in inflation and a slump in its currency offset concern that a faltering U.S. economy may undercut export demand.

The pound dropped, snapping a two-day advance against the dollar, as report showed U.K. factory-output prices unexpectedly fell in May. The price of goods at factory gates slipped 0.2 percent from April, the first decline since December, the Office for National Statistics said in London. Sterling depreciated 0.6 percent to $1.5439.

German exports, adjusted for work days and seasonal changes, slid 1.7 percent in April from a month earlier, when they gained 0.8 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said. Economists forecast a drop of 0.7 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

Italian output declined 1.9 percent from March, when it rose a revised 0.6 percent, the national statistics office said in Rome. Production slid 9.2 percent from a year ago on a workday-adjusted basis.

The euro reached a 2012 low of $1.2288 on June 1 and traded as strong as $1.3487 on Feb. 24.

Apple Co-Founder Wozniak Would Buy Facebook at Any

Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak said investors looking to make money should buy Facebook Inc. (FB) shares when the social networking site sells stock in what may be a record initial public offering for an Internet business.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Andrew Griffiths, managing director for the U.K. and Ireland at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., talks about the new Galaxy S3 smartphone. He speaks with Bloomberg Television's Alex Court in London. (Source: Bloomberg)

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc., sits for a photograph in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg

Wozniak, who built the first Apple computer with Steve Jobs and co-founded the company with him in 1976, said he would consider buying the stock regardless of its valuation this week. Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook while a student at Harvard University in 2004, combines Wozniak and Jobs’s talents, he said in an interview yesterday.

Facebook’s IPO, scheduled for May 17, plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion and values the operator of the world’s most popular social networking site at as much as $96 billion. Investors in the sale are betting the company’s database of 526 million daily active users makes it worth about 99 times the net income earned in the 12 months through March 31.

“I would invest in Facebook,” Wozniak said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Sydney. “I don’t care what the opening price is.”

A Bloomberg poll of investors conducted May 8 found 79 percent thought the valuation implied by the IPO was too high.

The Menlo Park, California-based company is offering 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35.

“It’s a bit of a gamble,” Paul Budde, an independent telecommunications analyst, said by phone from Bucketty, Australia today. “There are plenty of risks along the line.”

Technical Ability

Zuckerberg is a “real acute” businessman who mixes technical ability with the vision and corporate acumen of Steve Jobs, Wozniak said.

“I was thankful to have a partnership with Steve Jobs and I see Mark Zuckerberg closer to the combination of us,” he said. “When he speaks he speaks with a lot of idealism for the users and a lot of good ideas for the product overall.”

Wozniak is chief scientist at Fusion-io Inc. (FIO), a maker of flash-memory technology. The Salt Lake City-based company counts Facebook as its biggest customer.

Facebook contributes 36 percent of Fusion-io’s revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, followed by 24 percent coming from Apple and 14 percent from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)

Holding Out

Wozniak said Zuckerberg’s decision to hold out as long as possible before selling shares to the public was the right strategy for the social networking company.

“I’m glad they held out so long,” he said. “You don’t have to think that your only goal can be an IPO.”

Facebook announced last January that it would start filing public financial reports this year because it expected to breach a regulatory threshold on the number of its shareholders.

U.S. companies with more than 500 shareholders have historically had to publish their financial data under investor- protection laws, removing many of the attractions of being structured as a closely-held company. The 500-shareholder limit was raised to 2,000 under an act which passed the U.S. Senate March 22.

Describing himself as a “laboratory scientist” more than a businessman, Wozniak said he had mixed feelings about a potential takeover of Fusion-io amid speculation the company may become a target.

Rajesh Ghai, a San Francisco-based analyst for ThinkEquity, describes the company as a “strong acquisition candidate” and estimates its shares could fetch as much as $40 in a takeover.

Fusion-io shares closed May 11 at $21.41 and have risen 13 percent since the company first sold shares to the public in June. The stock has declined 47 percent from its Nov. 17 peak of $40.34.

“Once you have an IPO like Fusion-io did, oh my gosh you’ve now got to look at targets that you can add to your base,” he said. “You’ve also got to worry about who might acquire you. And is that good or bad? It’s sort of a sell-out in my mind.”

After the IPO, Facebook shares will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FB.

Study of Fighters Shows Brain Changes Are Seen Before Symptoms

   Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health here is, “How many times have you been knocked out cold or gotten a concussion?” Most say, “never.”

M.R.I. scans were used in the research. Some fighters had changes in their brains but showed no cognitive declines.

Then the doctors ask, “How many times have you felt dazed and stunned?” Most say, “many times.”

This is part of the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, now a year old and with results from 109 fighters — more than have ever been compiled in a single research project. The principal finding: “There are detectable changes in the brain even before symptoms appear,” like memory loss or other changes in cognitive function resulting from repeated blows to the head, Dr. Bernick said. 

The physical changes, detected by M.R.I. scans, are a reduction in size in the hippocampus and thalamus of the brains of fighters with more than six years in the ring. These parts of the brain deal with such functions as memory and alertness. While those who had fought for more than six years did not exhibit any declines in cognitive function, fighters with more than 12 years in the ring did. Thus, Dr. Bernick’s group concluded, the lag between detectability and physical symptoms probably occurs sometime during those six years.

Dr. Bernick will present these findings on Wednesday in New Orleans at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting, and the potential significance goes well beyond the health of boxers. The idea that an M.R.I. could help identify a degenerative brain disorder before a patient reports cognitive problems could help a broad range of people, from young athletes and combat soldiers to others who have been subjected to repeated blows to the head, neurologists say.

There may also be implications for understanding Alzheimer’s and other diseases among otherwise healthy elderly people, but these issues remain subjects for further study, said Dr. Jay L. Alberts, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Concussion Center. The Ohio-based clinic is the parent institution of the Las Vegas center.

“Everyone knows repeated blows to the head are not good for you,” Dr. Bernick said. “But nobody knows how you evolve from getting blows to developing long-term degenerative diseases. Now we have some sense of sequence.”

Like many doctors who study athletes’ brain injuries, Dr. Bernick has concluded that much of the research has focused too narrowly on infrequent, hard blows to the head rather than more constant lesser blows.

In other words, “We may not need to focus so much on concussions,” Dr. Bernick said. “It could be that sustaining thousands of blows that don’t knock you out could be more important” to assessing the long-term health of your brain.

Dr. Bernick’s results rest on the Las Vegas center’s ability to gather a large sample of professional boxers and mixed-martial artists, to classify them according to the amount of time they have spent in the ring, and to cross-reference M.R.I. images of their brains and results from cognitive tests.

“It’s the first study of its kind,” said Dr. Robert Stern, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Core at Boston University School of Medicine, who was not part of the research team. “It’s the first time we have a large group of athletes who have their brains hurt on a regular basis, with M.R.I. images, cognition tests, and a longitudinal aspect,” added Dr. Stern, who plans to conduct a similar study of former National Football League players.

Though Dr. Bernick intends to continue his study of boxers for at least five years, he said the preliminary findings were worth the attention of the neurology association’s annual meeting, as “nobody has the numbers we do.” And he hopes, eventually, to help inform decisions made by boxers and state boxing commissions, as well as sports medicine generally, when it comes to preventing neurodegenerative conditions.  

Dr. Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio said that brain damage caused by strong concussive blows versus lesser, but more frequent, hits was “a distinction that people are talking about, but at the moment we have no data, just a lot of hand-waving.” He said the study of boxers should help change that.

At the Las Vegas center, only three years old, there are plans to include hundreds more boxers in the next five years. For now, the brain images of 109 fighters are grouped according to the length of time each participant has fought: less than 6 years, 6 to 12 years, and more than 12 years. The number of fights is also taken into account.

Given that Las Vegas is billed as the “fight capital of the world,” Dr. Bernick seems to be guaranteed a steady stream of new patients.

“It’s exciting,” he said, “to be in a field that people know so little about.”

Scientists Invent Graphene for Wearable Electronics, Mirrors

Researchers at the University of Exeter claim to have invented the "most transparent, lightweight and flexible material ever for conducting electricity." 

The new material is call GraphExeter and is based on two graphene layers with ferric chloride molecules between them. According to the research report, ferric chloride greatly improves the electrical conductivity of graphene, but do not affect its transparency.

The inventors believe that their GraphExeter is more flexible than indium tin oxide (ITO), which is the primary conductive material used in electronics today. Due to its transparent and flexible characteristics, GraphExeter could be used in a wide variety of electronic devices including traditional products such as computers, phones and solar panels, but also in wearable electronics such as digital t-shirts and even "smart mirrors".

According to scientists, GraphExeter is the first true alternative for ITO, which they expect to run out of supply by 2017. The research group is currently developing a spray-on version of GraphExeter, which could be applied straight onto fabrics, mirrors and windows. There was no information when the material could become commercially available.

2,000 players unify in suing NFL over head injuries

A unified lawsuit on behalf of more than 2,000 National Football League players has been filed against the league in federal court alleging that the NFL failed to acknowledge and address neurological risks associated with the sport and then deliberately failed to tell players about the risks they faced, according to attorneys representing former players.


The complaint, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unites the more than 80 pending lawsuits filed against the NFL.


“I firmly believe the NFL could have and should have done more to protect Ray. That’s why I am seeking to hold the NFL accountable,” Mary Ann Easterling, widow of former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who committed suicide in April after suffering for years from dementia, said in a press release. “Having lived through Ray’s struggle, I desperately hope and pray others can be spared the pain and suffering we have endured – and still endure every day.”


NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy acknowledged the filing, but added that there was nothing new to the claim other than that it merges them all in one place.


"Our legal team will review today's filing that is intended to consolidate plaintiffs' existing claims into one "master" complaint," he said. "The NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league's many actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions."


However, many NFL players have claimed they suffer from a variety of injuries because of concussions without really knowing the severity of how badly they could be hurt playing the game.


“The NFL must open its eyes to the consequences of its actions,” Kevin Turner, a former running back for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles who has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, said in a press release. “The NFL has the power not only to give former players the care they deserve, but also to ensure that future generations of football players do not suffer the way that many in my generation have.”


Lawyers representing the NFL players cited "dementia, depression, reduced cognitive ability, sleeplessness, early-onset Alzheimer’s, and a debilitating and latent disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy" as some of the specific injuries caused by head trauma in the NFL.


“Instead of protecting the health of its players, the NFL’s response to this epidemic of brain injuries was to engage in a campaign of deceit and deception, actively concealing the risks players faced from repetitive impacts,” Christopher Seeger and Sol Weiss, co-lead counsels for the former NFL players, said in a press release. “This case is about providing security and care to former NFL players who have suffered these devastating neurologic injuries, and making the game safer for generations to come.”

Massachusetts teen convicted of homicide in texting-while-driving case

A Massachusetts teen was convicted Wednesday of homicide as a result of texting while driving and will serve one year in prison. In a landmark case for the state, Aaron Deveau, 18, was found guilty on charges of vehicular homicide, texting while driving and negligent operation of a motor vehicle in a 2011 crash that fatally injured Donald Bowley, 55, of Danville, New Hampshire, and seriously injured a passenger in Bowley's car.


"I made a mistake," Deveau said Wednesday after his mother told the district court in Haverhill, Massachusetts he would not intentionally hurt anyone. "If I could take it back, I would take it back."
Judge Stephen Abany sentenced the teen to two and a half years on the vehicular homicide charge and two years on the texting and causing injury charge. He will serve one year concurrently on both charges and the balance of both charges is suspended for five years. His license will be suspended for 15 years.


"There are no winners today," Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement. "A beloved grandfather is dead. A once active woman can no longer work and is still racked with pain from her injuries and a young man is going to jail. When we get behind the wheel of a car, we are obligated to drive with care. ... As we saw in this case, in a split second, many lives are forever changed."


 Sued for texting drivers? Teen's death inspires school to make PSA
The risks of texting while driving
In the February 20, 2011, accident, prosecutors said, Deveau's car crossed the center line on a street in Haverhill, which is in northeast Massachusetts near New Hampshire, and hit the vehicle Bowley was driving.
Bowley's girlfriend, Luz Roman, 59, was in his car with him and suffered serious injuries.


Haverhill Detective Thomas Howell testified the impact left the two "almost folded into the floorboards."
Bowley died March 10, 2011, after he was taken off life support.
"My brother received such head trauma that ... there was no hope for him," Bowley's sister, Donna Burleigh, said in court.
Roman talked about the incident's continued impact.
"Loss of sleeping, loss of my boyfriend. So many losses, I can't tell you how many," she told the judge.
Essex Assistant District Attorney Ashlee Logan argued that Deveau may have erased some of his texts or lied to police after the accident about when he was texting.


Deveau said after the crash in a taped interview with police, which was played in court, "I was tired. I was distracted. When I looked away for one quick second, I came too close to her and I was trying to hit my brakes."
His defense lawyer said authorities set out from the beginning to link texting to the crash, a cause-and-effect relationship that he contends is not valid.
Some 38 states ban text messaging for all drivers, while 31 prohibit all cell phone use by "novice drivers," according to the Governor's Highway Safety Association.

From scrubbing floors to Ivy League: Homeless student to go to dream college

It's before sunrise, and the janitor at Burns High School has already been down the length of a hallway, cleaning and sweeping classrooms before the day begins.

This particular janitor is painstakingly methodical, even as she administers a mental quiz on an upcoming test. Her name is Dawn Loggins, a straight-A senior at the very school she cleans.

On this day, she maneuvers a long-handled push broom between rows of desks. She stops to pick up a hardened, chewed piece of gum. "This annoys me, because there's a trash can right here," she says.

The worst, she says, is snuff cans in urinals. "It's just rude and pointless."

With her long, straight dark blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses, Dawn looks a bit like Avril Lavigne. But her life is a far cry from that of a privileged pop star.

She was homeless at the start of the school year, abandoned by her drug-abusing parents. The teachers and others in town pitched in -- donating clothes and providing medical and dental care. She got the janitorial job through a school workforce assistance program.

She's grateful for the work. But it's where she's going next, beyond the walls of Burns, that excites her most. She applied to four colleges within North Carolina and one dream university. She'll graduate soon before heading off, leaving her dust pan behind.

Dawn Loggins has worked as a janitor her senior year to make ends meet.

For now, there's still work to be done. She stops for a quick bite to eat in the custodial closet amid Pine-Sol and Clorox. She then darts to classes -- three advanced placement courses and an honors class.

Growing up without electricity

Dawn grew up in a ramshackle home with no electricity and no running water. She often went days, even weeks without showering. She and her brother Shane -- who was equally studious in his schoolwork -- would walk 20 minutes to a public park to fetch water.

"We would get water jugs and fill them up at the park, using the spigots in the bathroom. And we would use that to flush the toilet or cook with. Stuff like that," she says.

She confided in a staff member at school. She had trouble doing homework at nighttime because her home had no electricity and she couldn't afford candles. It was difficult to read in the dark.

"OK, we'll get you some candles. We'll take care of that," said Junie Barrett, Dawn's supervisor.

Another time, Barrett says, Dawn and her brother asked if they could use the school's washing machine to clean their clothes. "I said, 'Just leave them with me. We'll get them washed, dried,' " Barrett recalls.

"We let them use our shower facilities in the locker rooms because they had no running water. They had nothing to bathe in."

Burns High was their fourth high school since middle school, as they moved from town to town. Living the life of a rolling stone, the two had missed several months' worth of classwork when they first arrived two years ago, putting them well behind other students' progress.

Shane was outgoing, but Dawn always appeared more reserved.

Guidance counselor Robyn Putnam saw the potential in Dawn and Shane early on and enrolled them in online classes to get them caught up. The work paid off.

Abandoned by parents

Last summer, Dawn was invited to attend a prestigious six-week residential summer program, the Governor's School of North Carolina, at Meredith College in Raleigh, 200 miles east of Lawndale, to study natural science. It was a field Dawn had never studied before.

The program is reserved for the state's top students.

Putnam ferried Dawn to Raleigh to attend the elite program and took her shopping, making sure she had the clothes she needed. Other faculty members contributed funds, too.

Putnam worried Dawn's home situation could worsen while she was away. "We weren't even sure where her parents were at that time. And there was an eviction notice on the house," she says. "We kept telling her to get everything she could; we knew this was a possibility."

Dawn saw her parents for 30 minutes during the middle of the summer program during a short break. They talked about her school and how she was doing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "It was just a regular conversation," she says.

She wouldn't hear from them again for weeks.

As she prepared to leave the summer program, she kept calling her parents' phone, only to learn it had been disconnected. Putnam picked her up and brought her back to Lawndale.

"When I returned, my grandmother had been dropped off at a local homeless shelter, my brother had just left, and my parents had just gone," she says. "I found out later they had moved to Tennessee."

Her voice is steady, matter of fact. "I never expected my parents to just, like, leave."

Dawn was abandoned.

"I'm not mad at my parents. My mom and my stepdad both think that they did what was best for me," she says.

Dawn Loggins maintained an A-average despite her hardships.

In fact, she used her parents' example to drive her. "I just realize that they have their own problems that they need to work through," she says. "They do love me; I know they love me. They just don't show it in a way that most people would see as normal."

Stability in Lawndale

For a while, Dawn lived on the odd couch at friends' homes, while she figured out what to do. Sometimes, she slept on the floor. The only thing that was clear was that she wanted to stay in Lawndale, where she was active in extracurricular activities, had a boyfriend and had a job.

Her classmates there didn't make fun of her, though she had been mercilessly mocked in middle school. "It was the worst. That's when I would come home crying because the teasing was so bad," Dawn recalled.

She had lived with her grandmother until she was 12 and attended junior high at a school about an hour away from Lawndale during that time.

"My grandma loved me, and she taught me a lot. She had lots of crafts around and watched History Channel with us. But ..."

Dawn's voice halts, then begins again a few seconds later. "She never really explained to me and my brother the importance of bathing regularly. And our house was really disgusting. We had cockroaches everywhere. And we had trash piled literally 2 feet high. We'd have to step over it to get anywhere in the house."

Dawn would go without showering two to three months at a time and wear the same dress to school for weeks straight. "When I was little, it seemed normal to me. I didn't realize that other families weren't living the same way that I was. And because of that I got teased, the kids would call me dirty."

In Lawndale, a town of about 600 in the Appalachian foothills of western North Carolina, things were different. Dawn felt comfortable.

With her parents gone, she processed the options with her guidance counselor.

She could move yet again to Tennessee to be with her mother, or she could be turned over to the Department of Social Services. Putnam feared what that might bring. "If Dawn were to go into the system, she could be uprooted again and moved around," she says.

Dawn would turn 18 during the second semester, Putnam knew, making her an adult by law. So Putnam asked Dawn: "What do you want to do? She said, 'I want to graduate from Burns. To be in the same school two years.' "

So the community and Burns staff became her family.

Sheryl Kolton, a custodian and bus driver for Burns Middle School, had met Dawn before and knew her but not well. She wasn't expecting the phone call she received. "The counselor at the high school just called me one day and asked me if Dawn could come live here," Kolton says.

A few days later, she and her husband, Norm, agreed.

Shooting for the stars

With a roof over her head and the contributions of Burns staff to supplement the Koltons' income needed to house and feed a growing teenager, Dawn was seemingly in a stable environment. She admits that having her parents out of the picture helped.

"Honestly it was kind of a relief," she says. "I mean, I have a place to stay, and I have a job, and I'm going to school."

As she began her senior year, Dawn turned her laser-beam focus to her future: college. She knew she wanted a different path than her parents.

"When I was younger, I was able to look at all the bad choices -- at the neglect, and the drug abuse, and everything that was happening -- and make a decision for myself that I was not going to end up like my parents, living from paycheck to paycheck."

A straight-A student, Dawn was president of the photography club. She also had started a community service program collecting thousands of letters for active military troops and was involved in National Honor Society and band club. Before she took her custodian job, she ran cross country.

She wasn't top of her class, and she didn't have a perfect GPA, but she was smart. On paper, she had always fared well.

"I was looking at her transcript, and one of the lowest grades on her transcript is a 94 and that was for a class called Success 101, and the irony of that is just really amazing," Putnam says with a laugh.

Dawn Loggins says the worst thing about cleaning is snuff cans in urinals.

Dawn applied to four colleges within the state: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; North Carolina State University; Davidson College; and Warren Wilson College. In December, she sent one final application off in the mail, to her reach-for-the-stars choice, Harvard.

No one from Burns High had been accepted to the elite Ivy League school.

"I thought about it and just figured, 'Why not?' "

She asked her history teacher, Larry Gardner, for a recommendation letter. "I don't know how many times I started that letter of recommendation," he recalls. "Because how do you articulate her story into two pages? How do you explain this is a young lady who deserves a chance but hasn't had the opportunities?"

But after a prayer for wisdom, the words flowed.

"Once again, words fail me as I attempt to write this letter of recommendation," Gardner began. "I can promise I've never written one like this before and will probably not write one like this again. Because most students who face challenges that are not even remotely as difficult as Dawn's give up. This young lady has, unlike most of us, known hunger. She's known abuse and neglect, she's known homelessness and filth. Yet she's risen above it all to become such an outstanding young lady."

Months passed. She was accepted to the four schools in North Carolina. Each time, the acceptance letter came as part of a thick package with fat brochures and congratulatory notes.

Days went by. Nothing from Harvard.

But on a sunny day earlier this year, she came inside after tending the garden. There was a letter from Harvard, the type of letter every high school senior dreads from a university -- a regular-sized envelope, the ominous sign of rejection.

Cautiously, she opened it: "Dear Ms. Loggins, I'm delighted to report that the admissions committee has asked me to inform you that you will be admitted to the Harvard College class of 2016. ... We send such an early positive indication only to outstanding applicants ..."

She gasped when she read those words.

Gardner had the same reaction when she handed him the note at school the next day. "I just looked up at her, and kind of teared up because this is a young lady who ... " he stops, his voice breaking.

"When I first met her and had her brother in class, they were living in a home without electricity, without running water, they were showering at a local park in a restroom after most of the people at the park had left. This is a young lady who's been through so much and for her to receive this letter -- pretty awesome."

Not only was Dawn accepted to Harvard, she got a full ride. She was offered tuition, room and board, as well as assistance finding an on-campus job.

The tiny town of Lawndale rallied around Dawn again. They raised money to get her to Boston so she could see the school in person in April.

"We in a sense had a collective responsibility to get her to Harvard," says Aaron Allen, Burns High principal. "Even though Harvard was going to pay for Dawn to go on her own, this is a girl who's had multiple moves, never flown, never ridden a subway, never really been outside small town USA, North Carolina foothills, and you're expecting her to go to Cambridge all by herself?"

Barrett, her custodial supervisor, traveled to Cambridge with her. "When we went up there, it was just like she was at home. She will succeed, and she will excel."

For Dawn, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that she would attend, but her inaugural visit solidified the decision. "I just could not picture myself anywhere else, at any other college."

Helping others

Since Dawn's story has come out, she's attracted attention worldwide from well-wishers sending her everything from simple encouragement to monetary donations.

Dawn doesn't want the money. "When I get to college, I can work for what I need. And I know my future is going to be great."

She hopes to start a nonprofit organization to help other teens who've had obstacles in their educations, using the funds that have been sent to her. There are more than 200 students listed as homeless in Cleveland County, where Lawndale is located.

"There are so many kids whose futures aren't so sure, and they need help more than I do," she says. "I want them to be able to use my story as motivation. And I want the general public to realize that there are so many kids who need help."

The final pages of Dawn's high school chapter are nearing a close. She will walk across the stage today -- June 7 -- to accept her diploma. She has invited her parents but isn't sure they will be able to attend. "If they're not there, it would be for good reason."

But the one person she will look for in the crowd is her brother Shane.

"Throughout the years, no matter where I've been or been through, he's always been there for me," she says, with a rare ghost of a smile.

Shane will attend Berea College in Kentucky on a scholarship.

Dawn has learned the sort of lessons that can't be learned in school. "I love my parents. I disagree with the choices that they've made. But we all have to live with the consequences of our actions," she said.

She takes it all in stride. "If I had not had those experiences, I wouldn't be such a strong-willed or determined person."

She might just find Harvard to be easy.