Fake astronauts return to real Earth after fake trip to fake Mars

By Mark Brown, wired.co.uk

520 days after being locked inside a fake spaceship in a Moscow car park, a six-man team of volunteer astronauts is about to emerge back on planet Earth.

The year and a half of isolation, dubbed Mars500 and run by the European Space Agency (ESA), was designed to see how real space crews would cope with confinement, daily activities and psychological stress on a lengthy trip to the red planet and back.

The all-male crew could only shower once a week, ate canned food and received emails on a delay, depending on how "far away" they are from Earth. Their living quarters are the size of a bus and, outside of a quick stint on mock Mars, they've spent two eight-month periods in total confinement.

quoted from : http://www.chinapost.com.tw/sports/2011/10/31/321473/Taiwans-Yani.htm

SUZHOU, China, and TAIPEI -- Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng claimed her 11th title of the year worldwide after winning the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open in China on Sunday by seven shots with a 16-under-par 200.

Visual Cues Impact Judgment of Piano Performances

When it comes to classical pianists like Yuja Wang, what you see influences what you hear.

By Tom Jacobs

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/visual-cues-impact-judgment-of-piano-performances-35579/

   Pianist Yuja Wang turned the heads of fans and critics alike when she performed at the Hollywood Bowl recently in a short, tight dress. Did it affect the performance? Researchers say visual clues can influence what you hear. (Xavier Antoinet/YujaWang.com)

source: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/10/13/13-ways-youre-driving-your-co-workers-nuts/?ncid=dynalduscare00000003

The gum-snapper. The heavy-handed perfume-sprayer. The close-talker. Chances are, if you work with one of these "types," he or she drives you completely nuts. It's like how does gum-snapper not know how annoying she is?

But, that's the thing about pet peeves(vt. n. 使氣惱). While most of us are quick to point out the flaws in others, we can be completely unaware of our own. Gum snapper probably has no idea she's driving you crazy because she's too focused on the fact that you CAN'T STOP USING YOUR OUTDOOR VOICE.

To help us all become a little more self-aware in the office, and because the second week in October is National Pet Peeves Week, we asked our social media community to name their biggest workplace annoyances. Based on some of the more popular responses we got, here's a look at the many things you might be doing to drive your co-workers nuts. (Seriously, the "Chicken Dance" ringtone was only funny the first time. And even then, it wasn't all that funny.)

Nine must-learn local phrases

Knowing a few key phrases in the local language might make it easier for you to communicate with a rickshaw driver in Tokyo, Japan. (Fred Adler / BBC)

Quoted from:http://www.rd.com/slideshows/7-amazing-new-things-chefs-are-doing/

This article is seperated into different sections on the website. 

Therefore, please browse the website for the whole context.

Questions: 

Here is a short clip displaying that a penguin steals the rocks used to make a nest from his peer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlbxRBfGAr0&feature=player_embedded#t=45s

Questions:

Fear for jobs ignites 'salaryman' rush to learn English in Japan

TOKYO -- It's eight in the morning in a Tokyo office building, and a dozen middle-aged Japanese businessmen sit inside small booths, sweating as they try to talk English to the instructors in front of them.

“I hope my wife will understand my hobby,” one 40-something man says, opening his mouth widely around the English words.

He is one of legions of Japanese businessmen, or “salarymen,” struggling with a language they thought they had left behind them in school as fears mount that the growing push by Japanese companies into overseas business will mean a dark future for them without usable English.

This is especially true these days, with the strong yen and a lagging domestic market prompting more firms to look overseas for business opportunities essential for their bottom lines.

The Spillover Effect: Beware the Explosive Teen

There's only one thing harder than living in a home with an adolescent — and that's being an adolescent. The moodiness, the volatility, the wholesale lack of impulse control, all would be close to clinical conditions if they occurred at another point in life. In adolescence, they're just part of the behavioral portfolio.

Computer virus hits US Predator and Reaper drone fleet

By Noah Shachtman, wired.com 

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other war zones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the US military’s most important weapons system.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”