What to do Today?

I love those words!

Before you Speak, Listen ,
Before you Write, Think
Before you Spend, Earn
Before you Criticise, Wait
Before you Pray, Forgive
Before you Quit, Try

Science & Football

Key Points
Science is playing a greater role in football than ever before

The England squad has been using new training techniques to boost their power

In a penalty shoot-out, keepers can spot important clues about which way to dive

'Bending it like Beckham' is a straightforward matter of physics

Despite the tears and frustrations, watching the World Cup is good for your health

You've always suspected it - and it's true – the referee is blind

Football science
There's more money in football than ever before. And this has had one important consequence - football science is now big business. It's making an impact on everything from training regimes to the design of the ball.

Are you a natural footballer?
Good footballers must have something in their genes. Researchers have discovered a link between the length of a footballer's ring finger and their ability as a player.They measured the difference in length between the ring and index fingers of top players. Players whose ring fingers were longer compared to their index fingers were more likely to be elite players. Some of the players found to have long ring fingers are Bryan Robson, Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, Sir Stanley Matthews and Gazza.

There might be a sensible explanation for this finding. When a male foetus is between eight and twelve weeks old, certain parts of his body become sensitive to the hormone testosterone. The heart, lungs and brain are all affected and so are the fingers.

It seems that fingers, although they don't help a footballer in any major way, are an indicator of how much testosterone they received at this crucial stage of development. This might increase their strength and spatial awareness.

Both are useful qualities, but what every footballer needs on top of that is rigorous training.

Science & Football

Modern media meets Colonial Williamsburg

But people far from the restored 18th-century capital of Virginia can use their portable audio players to hear costumed interpreter Bill Barker talk about portraying Jefferson or, in honor of the Fourth of July holiday, read the Declaration of Independence.

The world's largest living history museum long has used modern media to share its stories with audiences far beyond its 301-acre Historic Area, dating back to before World War II when it produced an educational film for schools.

Today, it has an extensive Web site with photo slideshows, online exhibits and interactive tours, and it offers "electronic field trips" for schools using live television broadcasts and the Internet.

It's also using something that didn't even exist a couple years ago: podcasts.

Colonial Williamsburg is creating free weekly audio programs people can listen to on computers as well as portable players to find out more about those who work there, plying old trades and playing historical figures. The idea is to educate people and, hopefully, inspire them to visit.

Modern media meets Colonial Williamsburg

Asteroid has near-collision with Earth

An asteroid hurtling through space came within a hair's breadth -- in astronomical terms, at least -- of crashing into the Earth early on Monday, US scientists said.

Apollo Asteroid 2004 XP14 was discovered by Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, a research facility which part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and which claims the title of "the world's principal detector of asteroids", said Roger Sudbury, a spokesman for the lab.

"We were the discoverer" said Sudbury of the Apollo Asteroid 2004 XP14, which passed some 432,000 kilometres from the Earth at 0955 IST.

The distance between the two bodies was slightly greater than that between the Earth and the moon -- a close shave in the vastness of outer space.

Asteroid has near-collision with Earth

Tragic loss of ‘prettiest dog’

TRIBUTES have been paid to Inverclyde's prettiest dog who died of diabetes three days after winning the title.

And the pup's best friend, a cockatiel named George, was so distraught he passed away just days later.

Lhasa apso Bonnie won the accolade for the first time at the PDSA show in Battery Park — and it was the last time she truly enjoyed herself.

But Bonnie's death proved too much for the yellow-and-grey bird who spent seven years growing up alongside her.

Devastated owner Lorraine King, 49, said: "George went quiet after Bonnie died. She used to say Bonnie's name and Bonnie would sit on the armchair and protect her.

Tragic loss of ‘prettiest dog’

Lost connection to animate Earth

There is now little doubt that our culture is unleashing a vast and accelerating crisis upon the world.

We have set in train changes to our climate that seem certain to become very dangerous indeed during the next 50 years or so.

We are wiping out so many species that biologists speak of a mass extinction faster and possibly more fatal than any other in our Earth's long history.

Our social fabric is also unravelling, and as it does so crime and massive psychological problems increase apace.

Lost connection to animate Earth