The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Face of Richard III, England’s ‘King of the Car Park’, revealed Posted: 05 Feb 2013 07:55 AM PST  Philippa Langley, originator of the "Looking for Richard" project, poses for a photograph next to a facial reconstruction of King Richard III at a news conference in central London February 5, 2013. — Reuters pic A team of university archaeologists and scientists announced yesterday that a skeleton discovered last September underneath a council parking lot in Leicester was indeed that of Richard, the last English king to die in battle, in 1485. Devotees of Richard, who have long campaigned to restore his reputation, proudly revealed a 3D reconstruction of the long-lost monarch's head today, introducing him to reporters as "His Grace Richard Plantagenet, King of England and France, Lord of Ireland". They said the face appeared sympathetic and noble — not that of a man cast by William Shakespeare as a villainous, deformed monster who murdered his nephews, the "Princes in the Tower". "I hope you can see in this face what I see in this face and that's a man who is three-dimensional in every sense," said Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society, who led the four-year hunt to find the king's remains. "It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. If ... you look into his eyes, it really is like he can start speaking to you," Langley told reporters. A 3D computer image of the face was first created based on a scan taken of Richard's skeleton after it was found in a shallow grave in the remains of a friary church, now located under Leicester City Council's social services department car park in central England. The image was then made into a plastic model. 'No slanty eyes, mean mouths' The reconstruction is faithful to an anatomical assessment of the skull, and about 70 per cent of the face's surface should have less than 2mm of error, according to the professor of craniofacial identification who created it. No portraits of Richard were used for the main facial reconstruction, although the clothing, wig, and some features such as eyebrows, eye colour and skin colour were based on paintings of the dead king. The final outcome does bear a strong resemblance to some portraits of Richard — but without some of the less flattering traits that appeared during the reign of Henry VII, his conqueror at the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field, and the Tudor dynasty that followed. Langley said it was a face without the Tudor caricatures: "No slanty eyes, no mean mouths, no clawed fingers beneath it." Wearing a black felt hat, with hair down to his shoulders, one of which was slightly higher than the other — in keeping with the discovery his skeleton had a dramatic spinal curvature - the reconstruction depicted Richard, 32 at his death, with delicate, almost feminine features. His body is due to be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral next year while the bust reconstruction will take pride of place at a visitors' centre to be opened close to the site where the body lay in a small, irregular grave for more than five centuries. "It was seeing this face which was actually the most important moment for me, the most extraordinary moment," Langley said, explaining the project had two aims: to find the remains to ensure a dignified burial and to reveal the "real Richard". "For me when this was revealed and I was looking at his face ... that was the biggest moment. Suddenly the aim of seeing the real Richard III, it came true, a miraculous dream really coming true." — Reuters |
| Couch potatoes have lower sperm counts Posted: 05 Feb 2013 06:52 AM PST
US researchers recruited 189 young men aged between 18 to 22, questioned them about their exercise, diet and TV habits and asked them to provide a sperm sample. Men in the top quarter of TV-watchers — those who watched for 20 hours or more — had a 44-per cent lower sperm count than those who watched least, meaning they said they watched "none or almost none." Another big factor was exercise, according to the study, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Men who exercised for 15 or more hours weekly at a "moderate to vigorous" rate had a 73-per cent higher sperm count than those who exercised less than five hours per week. None of the sperm levels was so low that the man would have been unable to father a child. Semen quality appears to have declined over several decades, according to studies conducted in several countries. It is unclear why this has happened but scientists suspect that sedentary lifestyles may warm the scrotum and affect semen concentrations. Physical inactivity has also been linked to increased levels of oxidative stress, in which rogue oxygen compounds degrade cells. Previous studies into physical activity and semen quality have focussed on elite athletes, such as professional marathon runners and cyclists. "We were able to examine a range of physical activity that is more relevant to men in the general population," said Jorge Charravo, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts. The study was limited by the relatively small number of volunteers and the fact that only a single sperm sample was provided, the authors acknowledged. — AFP/Relaxnews |
NEW YORK, Feb 5 — Men who watch television for 20 hours per week have almost half the sperm count of those who watch very little television or none at all, according to a study published today.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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