Dr. Slump - Arale & Goku

Yummy Chocolate Fudge Fondue

This smooth, glossy chocolate sauce is best served in little cups, surrounded by an assortment of flavour-contrasting dippers. (serves 6)

Ingredients

150g (5oz) light muscovado sugar
50g (2 oz) unsalted butter
200g (7oz) plain chocolate, chopped
1tsp vanilla extract
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) soured cream
2 bananas
200g (7 oz) sweet raisin bread
Handful of strawberries (and cherries if available)

How to make

Put the sugar in a small heavy-based saucepan with 100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) water. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about four minutes until the syrup is bubbling vigorously and looks dark and treacly.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and immerse the base in cold water to prevent further cooking. Add two tablespoons water, taking care because the syrup is likely to splutter. Return the saucepan to the heat and cook, stirring, until the syrup is smooth and glossy.

Add the butter, chocolate and vanilla extract and leave until melted, stirring frequently until the mixture is completely smooth. Stir in the cream and leave to stand while you prepare the dippers.

Cut the bananas diagonally into chunky pieces. Cut the bread into small bite-sized chunks. Reheat the sauce until it is warm but not piping hot and pour into small serving cups. Arrange the fruit and bread around the cups to serve.

Source : China Daily

Forced laughter makes people happy

Nearly a thousand people laugh heartily together for half an hour every morning in a park in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. The Guangzhou Daily took a closer look at those happy people.

They are members of a group named Laughing Club, and when they get together, all they do is laugh.

Zhang Lixin, the initiator of the club and dubbed the 'laugh leader', told the paper that he himself benefited from laughing. He started after he read some advice in a book and tried giggling after quarreling with his wife to relax.

After laughing for a few days, Zhang found himself more outgoing and relaxed. Soon his wife joined him, bringing the family more laughter and causing less bickering.

When he got to know a kind of 'laughing yoga' is good for the health, Zhang went to Bombay to learn from locals, and, integrating with Chinese medicine, developed what he learned into more than 30 ways of laughing.

The 'lion bellow' is to shout with the fingers outstretched near the ears. There is the 'open mouth laugh', the 'bow-pulling laugh', the 'welcoming laugh' and even the 'quarreling laugh', with different arm motions of every laughing manner.

The 'laugh movement' swept over Shenzhen in a matter of months, attracting tens of thousands of people to join, and has spread to nearby cities such as Guangzhou.

Every morning at the lakefront and at eight pm on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the mountain peak square in Lianhua Mountain Park, club members, largely middle aged and elderly people, gather to laugh and scream loudly.

An old man surnamed Jin told the paper he has been participating in the laugh sessions since last May, and that he is now more relaxed and better-tempered. Also, his stiff shoulders feel much better as he claps his hands when he laughs.

An increasing number of office workers are joining the happy squad. Mr. Wang, a civil servant in Shenzhen's Futian district, said he doesn't have any trouble sleeping after one of the laughing sessions.

Some companies have caught on to the laughing movement and have approached Zhang to train their staff.

Zhang believes laughing provides people with an easy way to de-stress from the pressures of modern society and work, which is why he is trying to popularize the pastime.

Source : China Daily

Young husband, old wife happy together

Thirty-eight-year-old Li Yucheng married 68-year-old Ma Yuqin in the winter of 1997 with most of their relatives and friends fiercely opposed but are now living happily ever after, according to newsphoto.com on November 11.

The couple met in the village of Linghai, Liaoning Province in 1995 when Li joined a Yangko dance team directed by Ma. They soon fell in love and got married, with little support from friends or family.

"You can't imagine the hardships we've been through in the past nine years," Ma told newsphoto.com. "Relatives on both sides did their utmost to fight against our marriage. My son saw me like an enemy and wouldn't allow me to go back home."

"I can understand why they did that. After all I'm 30 years older than Li," she added.

So the newlywed couple built a shabby hogan in the paddy field one kilometer away from the village and lived there to avoid criticism from the village folk.

Nine years have past since their wedding, and most of their friends and relatives have changed their attitudes and accepted the couple.

They finally tolerated the peculiar marriage and saw clearly that Li was an honest and tolerant man, and Ma was a persevering woman.

Source : China Daily

I love this news, so jealous you two look so happy -_-'

Nicole Kidman is pregnant!

Nicole Kidman is reportedly pregnant.

The Moulin Rouge actress allegedly broke the happy news to her country singer husband Keith Urban when she visited him at a California rehabilitation clinic, where he is being treated for alcoholism.

According to reports, Nicole - who has two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, Isabella, 13, and 11-year-old Conor - took two home pregnancy tests to be doubly sure before making the trip to the Betty Ford Clinic on October 29.

A source told the National Enquirer magazine: "Keith was happy, but uneasy, about the news. He knows how desperate Nicole has been to have a baby, but the timing couldn't be worse for him."

Despite Keith's reservations, the pair - who married in Australia four months ago - looked very much in love as they strolled round the gardens of the clinic hand-in-hand and canoodled on a bench.

Nicole, 39, was by her Grammy award-winning husband's side when he voluntarily enrolled himself on the 30-day rehab programme on October 19.

At the time, Keith - who has previously admitted to a cocaine addiction - released a statement, saying: "I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones that love and support me.

"One can never let one's guard down on recovery, and I'm afraid that I have."

Source : China Daily

Surayud Chulanont, A soldier who answered to the people

In the late 1960s, when Surayud Chulanont was leading a platoon of Thai soldiers against communist insurgents in the country's northeastern provinces, he was plagued by a recurring vision in which he encountered a band of guerrillas at close range. In it, after a spell of bloody fighting the rebels fled into the forest. Surayud gave chase, but paused over a body sprawled face down in a pool of blood. He turned over the corpse and realized he'd killed his own father.

Payom Chulanont, the father, was a former soldier who had left the army and his family to become a rebel leader. Surayud, now 59, was a teenager in cadet training school the last time his father had visited the family home. It was a strained reunion, during which Payom explained that he had lost faith in the army because he believed it was more concerned with enriching itself and cementing its influence than protecting the weak and powerless. Though they were later adversaries, Surayud credits his father with providing a foundation for his own beliefs about what it means to be a soldier and what role the military should play in Thailand. "He taught me how to be a good officer," Surayud says. "He taught me how to be a good citizen of this country." Those lessons drove Surayud to become perhaps the most important Thai military figure of the modern era. No man has done more to modernize and professionalize the Thai army and, despite significant—and lasting—resistance, infuse it with the ideals he learned from Payom.

During the insurgency, and for decades afterward, the military was notorious for interfering in elections, staging coups and abusing human rights with impunity. Reports of involvement in drug, weapon, timber and people smuggling were common. Surayud managed to maintain a spit-shined reputation, but his journey was not without controversy. On May 17, 1992, soldiers fired on a crowd of pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok, killing 52 and wounding more than 100. Surayud was then commander of the élite special forces. He had been lobbying his superiors to resolve the situation without using force, but his men had also been seen dragging protesters through the lobby of the Royal Hotel. Days later he told a national television audience that he deplored the loss of life and that he had not given any orders to shoot, an account that was never disputed. Still, the realization that he couldn't prevent the carnage crystallized decidedly contrarian views that had been gelling since he last saw his father: "It convinced me that the army should never be involved in politics."

By 1997, however, he had been assigned a desk job with few duties and was considering retirement. But the then Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, who wanted to reform Thailand's army, asked Surayud to become commander in chief. Surayud accepted and immediately targeted what he calls the "military Mafia," transferring corrupt soldiers out of positions of influence or forcing them out of the service altogether. "I've made enemies," he acknowledges, "but I believe in the rule of law." While the task is far from over, even critics recognize his impact.

On the tactical front, he created rapid-response units to deal with threats along Thailand's borders, using them to fend off incursions by Burmese troops and ethnic Wa guerrillas seeking to attack refugee camps in Thailand or flood the country with drugs. He acted swiftly and harshly against armed infiltrators who harmed Thai citizens. But he also ended a policy of pushing refugees, especially ethnic Karens, back into Burma and into the jaws of the Burmese army. "He's been a friend to us," says Pastor Robert Htway of the Karen Refugee Committee. Surayud has also sought in several instances to resolve potential bloodbaths with negotiated surrenders, such as in a 2001 standoff with the so-called God's Army during which Thai forces surrounded rebels who had killed six Thai citizens, cut off their supplies and waited for them to give up.

Under his term the army joined the U.N. peacekeeping effort in East Timor, the first time Thai soldiers had ever taken part in such a mission (they're performing similar duties in Aceh and will soon be dispatched to Afghanistan). Though Surayud regrets he was never able to win salary increases for his soldiers, he says he's proud that he managed to procure better rations, housing and equipment for them. For Thailand, his biggest accomplishment was the near-wholesale refurbishment of the military's public image. "He made people trust and believe in the army," says Adul Khiewboriboon, who has every reason not to. His son was killed during the crackdown on the 1992 demonstrations, but now he says, "Because of Surayud, we no longer fear our own soldiers."

Such plaudits did not translate into job security, however. Surayud clashed with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra due to the latter's promotion of a looser, more business-friendly approach to Burma's military junta. Last August the PM named Surayud supreme commander—a loftier but less influential post—and installed loyalists into the army's top ranks. The move, says Sunai Phasuk of Forum Asia, was "a major setback for political reform and the move to separate the armed forces from politics." Officers Surayud had sidelined for suspected misconduct were recalled, but he refused to criticize Thaksin—to do so would constitute military meddling in politics.

This October, Surayud faces mandatory retirement. Despite the unfinished business, he'll take with him praise from an uncommon coalition of fellow soldiers, human-rights activists, editorialists and defense analysts. There are periodic calls for the man who tried to remove the military from politics to enter the political arena himself. Surayud doesn't rule it out, but for now he plans to trade in his fatigues for saffron robes and become a Buddhist monk. After so many battles, he wants to seek peace.

Source : Times Magazine

Jobless, graduate turns to chat room

A paper posted to a campus information board at Peking University reads "Graduate from Guanghua. Still unemployed. Looking for means to make a living. Thanks for your attention" on October 25, 2006 with Gao Jian standing beside it and using his cell phone.

Still jobless months after his graduation, Gao, a graduate from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, a renowned management school, has lost hope and resorted to 'pei liao' (a person who is paid to listen to other's problems), the Beijing News reported on October 26, 2006.

Gao had tried to find a job, and almost succeeded, but is still unemployed. He said many potential employers were so unprincipled that they would take back initial job offers after agreeing to give a potential employee a job. He said he had signed contract with a national department and later took a physical exam for a job at a renowned enterprise, but both rejected him without telling him why.

Gao denied that he had high expectations. "I have tried almost every kind of place, including a private enterprise with only 30 employees," he said.

In his post on the campus forum, Gao said he felt he was cheated after so many failed attempts at finding a job. He said he has experienced other ups and downs in his life and is ready to share his experiences with those who have similar problems in chat rooms to help them out.

He claimed his aim is to help them rather than just engage in casual chats and the pay would be whatever the person seeking help wants to pay.

Some students asked Gao what he would base his advice on, and Gao said his experience and extensive reading of psychology texts. Other students told him he must fit into society. "Why should I ask for help in job-hunting? Why do enterprises come to recruit on campus when they don't want to hire anyone indeed?" retorted Gao, adding he has always been shy about asking-for-help.

Ma Huaxiang, deputy Party secretary of the school, however, denied Guanghua students have problems finding jobs. He cited a survey on current Guanghua graduates, which puts their annual average earnings as high as 170,000 yuan, with that of those in foreign-funded banks being 500,000 yuan..

The deputy secretary refused to comment on Gao, explaining the student has no link with the school since he has graduated.

Source : China Daily

Steve Irwin - Crocodile Hunter

Steve Irwin, 44, the hyper-enthusiastic, danger-courting Australian wildlife conservationist who gained a worldwide following for his television show "The Crocodile Hunter," was killed by a stingray Monday while filming at the Great Barrier Reef for a new documentary series called "Ocean's Deadliest."

Irwin was swimming off the northeastern Australian coastline, 60 miles north of Cairns, when the ray's whip-like tail struck him, and the poisonous barb apparently punctured his heart. He was taken by his boat, Croc One, to a rescue helicopter that flew to the community of Low Isle. Despite attempts at resuscitation, he was pronounced dead.

Irwin was known for getting melodramatically near claws and jaws of land and sea creatures. This was the allure of his television franchise, mostly seen by American audiences on the Animal Planet cable channel during the past decade.

"While most shows use long lenses, we get right up close so the audience feels like they're smack in the middle of the bush," Irwin told Entertainment Weekly magazine. "One time, a 10-foot saltwater croc grabbed me on the hand and - whap! - pulled me into the water. Luckily, I swung around and landed on his head, which gave him a bit of a shock and gave me just enough time to get away."

In the tradition of Jacques Cousteau, Irwin was credited with popularizing wildlife science. He staked out animals in their habitat while lecturing to viewers in a whisper and keeping ever alert to a sighting. He was typically gowned in khaki shorts and short-sleeve shirts, giving him the appearance of an African explorer, and his shaggy blonde hair, parted in the middle, gave him a friendly, boyish air.

His signature was an explosion of exclamations, typically "Crikey!" when in awe, "Gorgeous!" when showing off some reptile's charms or "Danger! Danger! Danger!" when even he knew it was wiser to keep a distance from an aroused animal.

He boasted in his thick Australian accent of hand-feeding the world's most venomous snakes without being bitten. However, a 13-year-old female saltwater crocodile once took a large bite from part of his legs, a snack Mr. Irwin defended from the animal's perspective: "The poor little female was just defending herself."

He carved such a distinctive personality that he launched a mini business empire of toys and games based on his programs. He starred in a feature film in 2002 - "The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course," in which the CIA goes looking for a fallen satellite that has been swallowed by a crocodile - and was a pitchman for Pentax cameras and FedEx.

Irwin also was much parodied, memorably on the "South Park" comedy show, and his catchphrases were used in college drinking games. He lampooned himself on the NBC show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" by wrestling an inflatable crocodile in a kiddie pool - one of hundreds of promotional appearances he made all over the world.

He was a national icon in Australia, where Prime Minister John Howard invited Irwin to a prawns and Chablis barbeque welcoming President George W. Bush in 2003. To much derision, Irwin had called Howard "the greatest leader Australia has ever had and the greatest leader in the world," and he soon backed down by saying, "Oh, mate, politics. Give me a break. It's far safer in a crocodile farm." At times, Irwin's derring-do led to negative press, most famously in 2004 when he cradled his infant son while feeding a dead chicken to crocodiles inside a zoo pen. He claimed the child was never in danger, and Mr. Irwin was never charged with any crime.

When not filming his specials, Irwin and his American-born wife oversaw the Australia Zoo, a popular wildlife park started by his parents.

"Our whole passion to be on this planet is to educate people about wildlife," he said in 1998. "I will die doing that. I have a gift."

Stephen Robert Irwin was born Feb. 22, 1962, in Essendon, Victoria, in Australia, where his father worked as a plumber and his mother was a maternity nurse.

His parents were amateur naturalists, and in 1970 they moved to the Queensland community of Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. They bought four acres to start their park. which opened to the public in 1973.

Irwin spent much of his youth helping his parents nurse injured birds and raise kangaroos. He was overjoyed on his sixth birthday when his parents bought him his very own 11-foot-long scrub python.

One of his defining early childhood experiences was "jumping" a crocodile in the Australian outback with his father's permission. The father-son team caught with their bare hands or bred nearly all the 150 crocodiles at their park.

After high school, Irwin joined the government's Crocodile Management Program, a plan to relocate the aquatic reptile when they came into contact with people, and he distinguished himself nationally in the art of crocodile capture.

His work also took him to Australian rainforests, and he became accomplished in studying goannas, a type of lizard.

"Living like a possum, I'd occasionally come down out of the trees for a feed," he wrote in a memoir. "Fortunately God blessed me with orangutan arms. To study arboreal animals, you've got to become one: I could climb anything."

In the early 1990s, he took over his parents' park and headed a cougar conservation effort. He also filmed a 10-hour television documentary about his work called "The Crocodile Hunter." But the producer, John Stainton, was so mesmerized by Irwin's own amateur video tapes that Stainton persuaded an Australian network to devote an entire series to Irwin.

The show proved popular in limited syndication, and the Animal Planet channel began airing the program in 1996. It became the channel's most popular offering, won a Daytime Emmy Award for best children's series and led to spin-offs such as "Croc Files."

In 1992, he married an Oregon-born naturalist, Terri Raines, who became his filming and writing partner. She and their two young children, Bindi Sue and Robert, survive, as does Irwin's father.

Irwin's insistence on face-to-face meetings with his subjects sometimes brought him trouble from authorities.

While filming in Antarctica in 2004 for a documentary, he was criticized by animals rights groups for allegedly violating an Australian prohibition against human interaction with the wildlife.

"Totally beat up, mate," he told an interviewer. "Like I'm tobogganing over there, the penguin's over there - what's the big deal? Don't know what they're on about there. Don't understand that one at all."

Nothing came of the controversy, but Irwin had long spoken out about the need for such proximity to animals.

"The day has come where we can't keep looking at wildlife on a long lens on a tripod, which, historically, nature documentaries have done," Irwin said. "Then there's this voice of God telling you about the cheetah kill. After 450,000 cheetah kills, it's not entertaining any more."

At 4, he almost lost his nose to his father's sulfar crested cockatoo and was thereafter frightened of parrots.

Source : The Hutchinson News

Coffee Lovers Good News

Are you the one who love coffee? Yes, I do! so this news is actually for you then!

For decades, coffee lovers sipped their favorite beverage under a cloud. Coffee, like cigarettes and greasy food, was thought to be unhealthy stuff.

But, despite the occasional new red flag ¡ª and the fact that caffeinated coffee does cause real sleeping problems for many people ¡ª most of the scientific news on coffee these days is downright sunny.

"Coffee has gotten a bad rap," says Peter Martin, professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and head of a research group that has received grants from coffee producers. "In the past, people were mostly interested in demonstrating how bad coffee was. ... Unfortunately, a lot of these negative findings stick with people over time."

Among the ills linked to coffee in the past: pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer and heart disease.

Follow-up studies refuted the cancer links. And the newest, biggest studies show that coffee ¡ª though it can temporarily raise your heart rate and blood pressure ¡ª probably does not contribute to heart disease, at least in most people.

"At this point, I wouldn't say coffee is good for your heart, but I would say that it is unlikely to be bad," says Frank Hu, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Meanwhile, the possible benefits of coffee now include decreased risks of:

Parkinson's disease.

Alzheimer's disease.

Suicide.

Liver damage in alcoholics.

Gallstones.

It won't surprise coffee drinkers to hear that the beverage, at least when caffeinated, also has been found to improve mood and memory, increase safe driving in tired drivers and boost endurance in athletes. Some speculate that coffee might aid weight loss, but that has not been proven.

One possible coffee benefit that has excited interest lately is an especially important one: Large studies now suggest that people who drink coffee have a significantly reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Because diabetes is a major, growing cause of disability and death, researchers are trying to figure out just what ingredients in coffee might confer the benefit. One thing they know: It's not the caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee seems to work at least as well as the high-test version.

"A cup of coffee is about 2% caffeine and 98% other stuff," says Terry Graham, chair of the nutritional sciences department at the University of Guelph in Ontario. The "other stuff" might easily include "another 50 or 100 active compounds," Graham says.

Among them are quinides, fats that are produced when coffee beans are roasted. Some studies suggest these fats may favorably affect blood-sugar control.

Scientists also are interested in anti-oxidants ¡ª substances that may protect against cell damage and inflammation. One recent study showed that coffee is the biggest source of anti-oxidants in the American diet (both because coffee is rich in the substances and because we consume a lot more coffee than blueberries and broccoli).

No scientist would suggest coffee as a substitute for more nutritious anti-oxidant-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

And most aren't ready to urge non-coffee drinkers to take up the habit. Caffeinated coffee, especially, remains a problem for many people, including insomniacs and anyone prone to coffee-induced jitters. And while most experts believe a daily 8-ounce cup or two is OK for pregnant women, the safety of larger amounts remains in question. Nursing moms should abstain, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But the rest of us? We can drink up without guilt.

Source : UASToday.com

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

Actually I don't like peanut but I may try this one once...

For the best flavour, use a good-quality peanut butter with no added sugar. The crunchy coating is made by rolling the cookie mixture in roasted (but unsalted) peanuts before baking. (makes about 20)

Ingredients

115g unsalted butter, softened

125g crunchy peanut butter

140g light muscovado sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2tsp real vanilla essence

225g self-raising flour

200g roasted unsalted peanut halves

several baking trays, greased

How to make

Put the soft butter, peanut butter, sugar, beaten egg, vanilla and flour in a large bowl. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

When thoroughly combined, take walnut-sized portions of the dough (about a tablespoon) and roll into balls with your hands. Put the peanut halves in a shallow dish, then roll the dough in the nuts. Arrange the balls well apart on the prepared trays, then gently flatten slightly with your fingers.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 12-15 minutes until light golden brown.

Let cool on the trays for a couple of minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container and eat within five days or freeze for up to a month.

Source : China Daily