The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Marathon trophy from 1896 Olympics goes on display Posted: 28 Aug 2012 07:03 AM PDT  The Breal's Silver Cup has been described as one of the most important pieces of memorabilia associated with the Olympic Games — Reuters pic The Breal's Silver Cup, which stands just six inches tall, has been described as one of the most important pieces of memorabilia associated with the Games. When it was sold in April by the grandson of the victor, Greek athlete Spyros Louis, it smashed the previous auction record for an Olympic artefact. The Athens-based Stavros Niarchos Foundation paid more than €650,000 (RM2.5 million) to acquire the cup. It said it wanted to keep it in Greece, which won it 116 years ago and is now in its deepest recession since World War Two. "In these tough times, all Greeks must follow the bravery, resilience and fighting spirit that made Spyros Louis win," Andreas Dracopoulos, head of the foundation, said yesterday when the trophy went on display. "We must work hard, this time not to win a cup but to stand, proud, on our feet again." Athens' Acropolis museum will keep the cup, named after French philologist Michel Breal, until Sept next year. It will eventually go on display in a planned new cultural centre. Louis was the only Greek athlete to win at the 14-nation 1896 Games in Athens. He finished the 40km race first after the previous leader, Australian Edwin Flack, collapsed in the final stages. He was hailed as a national hero and presented with the cup, a silver medal, an antique vase, an olive branch and a diploma by Greece's King George I. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who visited the museum on Monday, said the trophy's purchase and return to Greece at a time of crisis was symbolic. "We will win this marathon, we will overcome the hurdles," said Samaras. "This cup is a symbol of the victory we owe to our history, ourselves and our children." — Reuters |
| Study: Pot-smoking teens have lower IQ Posted: 28 Aug 2012 06:49 AM PDT  The results showed an average decline in IQ by 8 points. — AFP pic The findings underscore the fact that marijuana use "is not harmless", researchers say, particularly when it comes to adolescents. For their study, researchers from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, followed more than 1,000 New Zealanders who started smoking up in their teen years and continued to use cannabis for years afterwards. Dependent users were defined as those who used more than once a week and who continued to smoke up despite health, social and family problems. The results showed an average decline in IQ of 8 points when their tests at age 13 and 38 were compared — a significant slide that can put teens at a major disadvantage later in life, researchers point out, given that higher IQ has been linked to higher education, income, better health and a longer life span. The study also found that quitting pot-smoking did not appear to reverse the loss. The reason: before the age of 18, the brain is still developing and continually being remodelled, making it particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of drugs. For the cognitive test, subjects at the age of 38 were assessed on their memory, processing speed, reasoning and visual processing. Those who used pot as teens scored significantly worse on most of the tests, assessments corroborated from interviews with friends and family who reported that those who used marijuana were more apt to have short attention spans and to be forgetful. The findings, which were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences yesterday, build on previous research which likewise found that marijuana use at a young age can impair cognitive flexibility, defined as the ability to switch behavioural responses according to different situations. — AFP-Relaxnews |
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