The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Lights off for Earth Hour’s crowdfunding call Posted: 29 Mar 2014 07:27 AM PDT The Singapore-based campaign by conservation group WWF was boosted by Hollywood star power, with "The Amazing Spiderman-2" stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx leading ceremonies at the city-state's Marina Bay district. Comic-book hero Spiderman is this year's "ambassador" for Earth Hour, which was launched in Sydney in 2007. Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge were among the first landmarks around the world to dim their lights for 60 minutes during today's event. An estimated 7,000 cities and towns from New Zealand to New York are taking part. Hong Kong's stunning waterfront skyline was unrecognisable this evening, with the city's tallest skyscraper, the International Commerce Centre, stripped of the vast light show usually wrapped around its 118 stories. Blazing neon signs advertising some of the world's largest brands were shut off, leaving the view of the heavily vertical southern Chinese city peppered only with tiny lights from buildings' interiors. Earth Hour partnered with payments giant PayPal to allow donors to contribute to specific projects from Russia and India to Canada and Indonesia, using Asian fundraising site Crowdonomic. Earth Hour chief executive Andy Ridley said before the lights went off in Singapore that the event had moved beyond symbolism to concrete action. "If you want to get real social change you need to have symbolism," he told AFP. "We are seeing some really big outcomes." Projects under the "Earth Hour Blue" crowdfunding scheme – which aim to raise more than US$650,000 in total – include a turtle centre in Italy and funding for forest rangers in Indonesia. The event is being marked in more than 150 countries, organisers said, estimating that thousands of cities and towns would have taken part by the time the ceremonies began in Singapore. The projects seeking crowdfunding include a US$24,000 effort in the Philippines to bring fibreglass boat technology to coastal communities affected by super typhoon Haiyan in November last year. In Nepal, US$100,000 is being sought for a programme called "A Flame Called Hope" to provide access to biogas energy for 150 households in the Terai region, reducing the need for wood as fuel and helping protect the habitat of endangered wildlife, according to the Earth Hour website. Spiderman-2 star Garfield told journalists that he was a personal supporter of the Nepal project. "What they are doing is turning waste into energy, it's like the cycle of life right there, if only everyone knew how simple it was," he said. Earth Hour will see other landmarks including the Empire State Building in New York, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow switch off their lights for an hour starting at 8.30pm local time today. – AFP, March 29, 2014 |
| Cholesterol drugs aid erectile function, says study Posted: 29 Mar 2014 05:12 AM PDT In the study presented at the American College of Cardiology conference, experts performed a meta-analysis on 11 previous randomized, controlled studies on erectile dysfunction and statins. In them, men answered survey questions that scored their sexual ability on a five-point scale. Among men who had high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction – and who were taking statins – there was a statistically significant increase in erectile function, amounting to a 24.3% boost in their self-reported scores. "The increase in erectile function scores with statins was approximately one-third to one-half of what has been reported with drugs like Viagra, Cialis or Levitra," said John Kostis, director of the Cardiovascular Institute and associate dean for Cardiovascular Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "It was larger than the reported effect of lifestyle modification," said Kostis, who was the lead investigator on the study. The drugs may help erectile function by coaxing blood vessels into dilating properly and improving blood flow to the penis. While statins are not recommended as a primary treatment for erectile dysfunction in patients with healthy cholesterol levels, the added benefit may encourage more men who need statins to take them. However, he added that statins can also be a "double-edged sword," since previous research has shown they can decrease testosterone, which cuts back on sexual drive and energy. The benefits of statins prevailed over the side effects in 10 of 11 studies reviewed, he said. As many as 30 million men in the United States are believed to suffer from erectile dysfunction, which is more common in men over 40 and can be caused by heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, tobacco use, depression and stress. – AFP, March 29, 2014 |
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