Chile: The cosmic spectacles set to light up Chile’s skies in 2014
Lunar eclipses, meteor showers and scientific breakthroughs promise to make 2014 an exciting year for astronomers, both amateur and professional.
Not yet two weeks into the new year and Chile already boasts a new astronomy park and is looking forward to a year of celestial events and astronomical discoveries. ...
Santiago Times
Germany: Interview with Ai Weiwei: ‘My Virtual Life Has Become My Real Life’
In a SPIEGEL interview, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, 56, discusses how the authorities monitor his movements in sometimes bizarre detail and the feud with the government in Beijing that has kept him from being allowed to leave the country for three years now. ...
Spiegel
Canada: Ottawa’s first bitcoin ATM being installed in pub
Ottawa’s first permanent bitcoin ATM will be unveiled in a Byward Market pub on Thursday.
The digital currency isn’t in actual coins, but can be bought or traded on the internet and converted into real dollars.
As of Tuesday, one bitcoin was valued at about US$860.The first bitcoin kiosk in Ottawa was being installed Wednesday. ...
CBC News
Australia: Aquatic opera in fish tank takes centre stage at Sydney Festival
It is a recipe cooked up to become one of the biggest international shows to be performed at an Australian arts festival.
Take a giant water tank, dunk in half a dozen dancers and add a stage full of singers and musicians.
That is Dido and Aeneas, a choreographed opera transported from Germany to become the centerpiece of the Sydney Festival. ...
ABC News
Ireland: Brains age faster even with moderate drinking, study finds
Cognitive functions significantly reduced by excessive alcohol consumption.
The brains of middle-aged men age up to six years faster if they drink even less than two pints of alcohol a day, a major 10-year study of 5,000 British civil servants has shown.
The study, published in Neurology, found that cognitive functions – memory, problem-solving, language and attention span – were all significantly reduced by excessive alcohol consumption. ...
Irish Times
North Africa: Google Earth Enables Remote Tracking of Fish Catches
Persian Gulf governments could use Google’s free global satellite imaging program to better monitor and control fishing in their waters, say experts.
Their comments follow a study that used Google Earth to uncover huge discrepancies between reported and observed fish catches in the region.
The study, which tracked fishing from space, found that actual catches taken from Persian Gulf fisheries could be six times greater than the official numbers. ...
All Africa
Jamaica: Empty schools - Minister says 200 institutions have fewer than 100 students
Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has indicated that more than 200 schools at the primary level are operating way below their capacity.
Thwaites told The Gleaner yesterday that these schools have less than 100 students on their register.
He was, however, unable to say the number of teachers that is distributed across these 200 schools.
“We are looking at these schools, region by region, and looking at the existing number of students to the number of teachers,” Thwaites said. ...
Jamaica Gleaner
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