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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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French doctors are mystified at the way the grey hair of cancer patients they’re treating is returning to its natural colour. They believe that the drug imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) is responsible. Oncologist Gabriel Etienne, of the Victor Segalen University, Bordeaux, says the change is permanent after five months. The drug’s manufacturers, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, has no plans to exploit the phenomenon as the drug is also highly toxic.
The Mayor of Le Lavandou, a French Mediterranean town that is faced with a cemetery “full to bursting,” has banned local residents from dying. Gil Bernardi introduced the ban after a court rejected his plans to build a cemetery by the sea. Locals are doing their best to comply.
The saddest thing about being president of the USA, says George W Bush, is not being able to run as much. In his first major magazine interview of 2002, Bush spoke of his love of running to Runner’s World. At the age of 55, he’s in the top 3 per cent of 5- kilometre race finishers of any age. He even has an exclusive jogging club. The 100- Degree Club is composed of those members of his security team who can keep up with him on his Texas ranch runs. (As members, they get a free T-shirt.)
Diamonds are forever and now you can be too, thanks to a US company that turns cremated bodies—we’re mostly carbon—into diamonds. LifeGem, a Chicagobased company, is taking orders to make jewellery from the carbon remains, and all for as little as $US6000, which in many places is cheaper than a burial plot. Dean Van den Biesen, a company founder, says the idea came from his brother. Technicians in the US turn the carbon into graphite then forward it to a lab in Germany, where the final high-pressure, hightemperature processing is completed.
The end to World War II has finally been declared in South Australia. And that’s official. The move to end hostilities came after it was discovered that the government still held extraordinary wartime powers, which include the rationing of food and searching of homes. Premier Mike Rann said that the Emergency Powers Act (1941) was still in force, due to the end of the war not having been proclaimed. Mr Rann said the government had to revoke the act because it is now technically in breach of national competition laws.
Cadbury has apologised for some crass advertising that reflected on the disputed Indian state of Kashmir where since 1989 more than 60,000 people have been killed: “I’m good. I’m tempting. I’m too good to share. What am I? Cadbury’s Temptations or Kashmir?” said the ads. Following complaints, Cadbury India apologised for its mistake.
A South African driver is lucky to be alive after a robber’s bullet lodged in a wad of notes he was carrying in his pocket. The 44-year-old man had just collected the money from a bank when he was shot at through the windscreen of his car. The attacker then fled, and the man only realised he’d been shot when he discovered a hole in his jacket and the bullet in the money.
A vending machine that dispenses medicines has begun operating in a large pharmacy in Shanghai, China. After questioning the patient about symptoms using a touch-screen, the machine dispenses traditional Chinese remedies.
A Tamil devotee has her tongue pierced by an iron spear during a religious procession in Chandigarh, a practice that in more recent times has found its way into Western culture. Piercing spears through cheeks, tongue and other parts of the body is a proof of devotion for devotees of the Tamil religion. —AFP/AAP
The following appeared in the SIGNS 100 years ago.
(SIGNS was then known as the Bible Echo and Signs of the Times.)
Automobiles propelled by liquid air are already flying through the streets of
London and other capitals. Liquid air will solve the problems of aerial and submarine
navigation, for not only can a greater amount of power be carried in a small
space and at less weight than any other power known, but the exhaust from the
engines will furnish a pure, dry, highly oxygenated fresh air for breathing.
Extract from Signs of the Times, November 2002.
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