China climbs up Japan slides down

China now worlds second largest economy.

Conservative estimates by analysts has China overtaking USA in next decade.

But the fact is the rise in China economy is not linear and the exponential factor would indicate the USA becoming no.2 well before 10 years pass.

World's 10 biggest economies
US
China
Japan
Germany
France
UK
Italy
Brazil
Canada
Russia
Source: IMF 2010

Held back by the USA for so long - China has shown the true courage and resilience of the Chinese people - the world will be a much better place without the hegemons at the top of the ladder - a peacefull and harmonious world superpower is what has been needed for a long time and China is about to fill the position.

Early balding linked to risk of prostate cancer

A STUDY showing that men who start to go bald at 20 may be more likely to develop prostate cancer in later life suggests they might benefit from early screening or preventative therapy, scientists said on Tuesday.

French researchers compared 388 men being treated for prostate cancer with 281 healthy men and found that those with the disease were twice as likely as the healthy men to have started losing their hair when they were 20.

If the men only started going bald when they were 30 or 40, there was no difference in their risk of developing prostate cancer compared to the healthy group.

'At present there is no hard evidence to show any benefit from screening the general population for prostate cancer. We need a way of identifying those men who are at high risk,' said Philippe Giraud of Paris Descartes University, who led the study.

'Balding at the age of 20 may be one of these easily identifiable risk factors and more work needs to be done now to confirm this,' he said in a statement.

Mr Giraud, whose findings were published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology, said men identified as at higher risk of prostate cancer could be selected for earlier screening, or for chemo-prevention therapy using so-called anti-androgenic drugs like Merck's Proscar, or finasteride. -- REUTERS

'We are alone' in the universe

A LEADING astronomer has said that we are utterly alone in the universe.

The claim that there is no other form of life in the universe is likely to upset pro-alien theorists and those who dream of an encounter with an intelligent being from another planet.

'We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own,' Dr Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard University, said in an interview with The Daily Mail, a British newspaper. Astronomers have so far found a total of 500 planets in distant solar systems and believe billions of others exist.

However, Dr Smith said that many of these planets are either too close to their sun or too far away, which means their surface temperatures would not support life. He further noted that other planets have unusual orbits that cause vast temperature variations making it impossible for water to exist as a liquid.

'There are very few solar systems or planets like ours. It means it is highly unlikely there are any planets with intelligent life close enough for us to make contact,' said Dr Smith.

Stephen Hawking, however, has previously said the fact there are billions of galaxies out there makes it perfectly rational to assume there are other life forms in the universe. And researchers from the University of London recently suggested that aliens could be living on as many as 40,000 other planets.

Poor English skills bad for economy

A nation’s economy is only as good as its education system. So powerful is education that even the subtlest tweak has the propensity to either elevate or relegate a nation on the global stage.

Policy-makers therefore tread with great care when proposing policy amendments, acutely aware of the staggering impact their decisions would have on the country’s future.

Malaysia’s policy-makers, however, appeared to have lacked this attention to detail when deciding to reverse the teaching and learning of Science and Maths in English (PPSMI). And that move has placed Malaysia’s economy on shaky ground.

Cheong Kee Cheok, a Senior Research Fellow with the Faculty of Economics in Universiti Malaya, expressed grave concern over the system’s failure to produce the human resources needed to propel the country forward. And this, he warned, would severely cripple the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Malaysia.

“One of the benefits a country reaps from FDI is the acquisition of technology,” he said. “But we can only acquire it if we speak the language of technology, which is English. Unfortunately, we are losing out to the Thais, Vietnamese and Chinese in our ability to communicate in English.”

“We have enjoyed FDI for 30 years but what technology have we acquired? To a certain extent, piracy is a key indicator of a country’s technological prowess. China is able to pirate almost anything whereas our piracy is limited to DVDs.”

The inability of a nation to acquire a certain strength leaves it no choice but to be dependent on other nations. This stagnancy will gradually reduce its competitiveness and eventually ease it out of the economic supply chain altogether.

“Our lack of technological expertise will dissuade technologically capable industries from investing in Malaysia,” Cheong said. “Right now we are still locked in a supply chain but our position will shift as other nations become better.”

Fear of backlash

Another professor, who declined to be named for fear of backlash from the Education Ministry, revealed two other flaws in the education system. Both are related to the Public Service Department scholarships.

The first flaw, she said, was a shortage of scholarships for physical sciences. The second – and more alarming – flaw was that these scholarships were being awarded to students who either didn’t have the aptitude or the interest to pursue a career in physical sciences.

“Malaysia produces less than 20% of physical science graduates,” she stated. “Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and China produce 30% to 40%, which increases their preponderance for acquiring technology.”

“And because most of our graduates weren’t interested in physical sciences in the first place, they carve careers in other industries upon graduation, which further dilutes our already limited resource pool.”

She blamed the political powers for handicapping the country by using its education system as a political tool, especially in the PPSMI reversal.

Pointing to Vietnam and China as examples of governments with foresight, she said that both countries had each launched an all-English government university.

“Their governments recognised English as an international language, not a colonial one,” she emphasised. “And they essentially told their people that if they didn’t like it, then they didn’t have to come. But that opportunity was there for those who did want it.”

“Malaysia has a myopic vision. We look inwardly to see how fast we have improved without taking into account how our competitors are faring. Our education system is not producing people who can think, which is fundamental to a country’s growth.”

But it is not just the science and technology industries that are suffering the butterfly effect of the PPSMI reversal. Even the food industry is fearing for its future in the global market.

English terms

At a recent public forum organised in support of PPSMI, an entrepreneur who only wanted to be known as Mazidah related the struggle she faced in her food-processing business.

“Our previous interns weren’t exposed to Science and Maths in English and had problems understanding industry terminologies,” she recalled.

“Their working papers were downright embarrassing. I recently found out that many have opted not to pursue a career in the food industry after all because they can’t cope with the English terms.”

Her recent batch of interns, however, underwent the PPSMI and she marvelled at the difference in their capabilities. According to her, they understand the industry requirements, have better communication skills and are on top of advancements in the industry as they are able to read books written in English.

“The food industry can be very difficult if you’re not exposed to scientific terms in English,” she stressed. “And we’ll drop very far behind if we don’t do something about our education system now.”

The other issue that greatly aggravates her is the Health Ministry’s decision to hold two separate workshops on food safety management systems – one in English and one in Bahasa Malaysia (BM).

“The ministry officials told us that the BM workshop is meant for the local market and the English version is for those who wish to export their products,” she said. “But this is ridiculous! Not only will it widen the existing class divide but it will also hamper our global competitiveness.”

China's foreign reserve soar to US$2.8 trillion

CHINA'S central bank says its foreign reserves, already the world's biggest, soared to US$2.8 trillion (S$3.6 trillion) at the end of 2010.

Tuesday's announcement came as Beijing faces demands by Washington and others to ease currency controls that have swelled its reserves.

The reserves rose US$199 billion during the final quarter of the year and were up 18 per cent over a year earlier.

The reserves have soared as Beijing controls the exchange rate of its yuan by buying up money that flows into China. Washington and others complain that keeps the yuan undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage and hurting foreign competitors.

Chinese herbal tea, a time-honored healthy drink

The Chinese herbal tea or cold tea is a drink concocted from medicinal herbals to ease the summer heat in human’s body or sore throat caused by the dry winter.

Drinking herbal tea is an age-old custom in Guangdong, Guangxi provinces, Hongkong and Macau special administrative regions, where the climates are damp and hot result in people living there easily suffer from excessive internal heat. In order to repel internal humidity and heat, people collect herbs which can clear away heat and dampness from mountains and valleys to concoct into herb tea.

With many years of practice, different herbal teas have been evolved for relieving different symptoms.

Herbal tea is drinkable in four seasons, which has the functions of relieving summer-heat and body’s internal dampness.

Herbal teas’ functions can be classified as inducing sweat, relieving the syndrome of cold, moisturizing dry-heat and clearing away dampness. Herbal tea for inducing sweat and relieving internal heat is suitable for the people who suffer from excessive internal heat. Medicinal herbs of honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, scutellaria are the main ingredients of this herbal tea, which is appropriate for drinking in Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Herbal tea for relieving the syndrome of cold is mainly made up by radix isatidis, suitable for drinking in four seasons.

Concocted by medicinal herbs of root of straight ladybell, fragrant colomonseal rhizome, tuber of dwarf lilyturf and white fungus, herbal tea for moisturizing dry-heat is effective in relieving cough and easing people’s parched mouth and the scorched tongue in Fall.

Herbal tea for clearing away internal heat and dampness is good for the people who have bad breath and red and sallow complexions. Its ingredients include honeysuckle, chrysanthemum and wild Tuckahoe, appropriate for summer drinking.

Generally, herbal tea should be drunk before it is getting cold. Since most of herbs are cold in drug property, drinking too much will harm to the spleen and stomach, especially for people who lack of vital energy and are easily to feel cold. Therefore, women in the menstrual period, children and the old people are unsuitable to drinking herbal teas.

If you have no idea about your physical condition, it is better to see the doctor of traditional Chinese Medicine to choose a right herbal tea for you.

Herbal tea stores once could be found everywhere in Lingnan region (which mainly covers Guangdong and Guangxi provinces). At first, the stores classified herbs and packed them into small packages to meet customers’ different needs, and then concocted herbal tea was sold at stores with very low price. Since herbal tea tastes bitter, some herbal stores offer preserved orange peel to customers for free to ease the bitter flavor. Besides herbal tea, fruit juice, dessert and soup are also the staples of some stores.

The earliest brand of Guangdong herbal tea is Wang Laoji, which was originated by Wang Zeban in 1828 and now it has become a household name in China. In July 2004, Wang Laoji herbal tea was even on the list of KFC’s drinks.

Nowadays, herbal teas packed in fashionable cans and bottles have become popular on both the domestic and international markets. With the annual output of 2 million tons, herbal teas are exported to about twenty countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and France.

Herbal tea together with Guangdong opera, Guangdong cuisine and Cantonese is the representative of Lingnan culture.

When people who are from other provinces come to Guangzhou, the first thing he or she learns in there may not be speaking Cantonese but drinking herbal tea. Herbal tea culture is an embodiment of Lingnan culture, just like Guangzhou this big city which is magnanimous to many alien things at the same time gradually changes them unawares. When you are gradually accustomed to live in a Cantonese way, you will find that drinking herbal tea has become part of your daily life just like the Lingnan culture influences you unconsciously. Even many people who leave Guangdong for a long time still cherish the memory of different herbal teas.

Australians have world's highest rate of skin cancer

Australia's sun worshipping culture means the country's 22 million people are 13 times more likely to develop skin cancer than the global average, according to a new study released on Thursday.

The "Cancer in Australia 2010" report compiled by a government agency revealed that the sun-drenched and beach-loving nation has the globe's highest rate of deadly melanoma and one of the highest overall rates of cancer.

Melanoma - the most virulent form of skin cancer - is caused by harmful ultraviolet light from the sun.

Australia's proximity to Antarctica, where there is a hole in the ozone layer that filters out UV rays, also increases the risk.

However, higher rates of detection and tracking also explain the number of cases of cancer diagnosed each year, according to lead researcher Christine Sturrock from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

"The fact we are very good at tracking cancers goes some way to explaining this, as most other countries are not as good," Sturrock told AFP. "But we have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world."

The overall number of Australians being diagnosed with cancer increased by 27 percent between 1982 and 2007, even taking population growth into account, due in part to the country's ageing population.

However, death rates from the disease have fallen by 16 percent in the same period, which Sturrock said was the one of the most pleasing findings from the report, which analysed cancer data from across the country.

"One of the most positive findings to emerge was the dramatic decrease in deaths from cancers," she said.

The report also identified an increased incidence of lymphoid cancers, prostate cancer and breast cancer among people living in higher socio-economic areas. However, Sturrock said the reasons for this remained unclear.