PakMonitor - News Around The Globe

11-YEAR-OLD UK GIRL HAS HIGHER IQ THAN EINSTEIN

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEe-WG3E6jhjGkqO6OuX_lR6PFiVQb07yCH8DeM8L2-0vAq10g6_Xi0eo2O0XRYYjKlqnZlqffsN3Z4sHG7vpdIpHtFAUegR8X4XCQuh4VgIaA7dzNHkSeLVkwk-38zH2iGK0sy7q_hg/s1600/Cerys-Cooksammy-Parnell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEe-WG3E6jhjGkqO6OuX_lR6PFiVQb07yCH8DeM8L2-0vAq10g6_Xi0eo2O0XRYYjKlqnZlqffsN3Z4sHG7vpdIpHtFAUegR8X4XCQuh4VgIaA7dzNHkSeLVkwk-38zH2iGK0sy7q_hg/s1600/Cerys-Cooksammy-Parnell.jpg" width="320" /></a>An 11-year-old schoolgirl in the UK has achieved the highest possible score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test, making her brainier than scientists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Cerys Cooksammy-Parnell, the grade six schoolgirl took up the Mensa IQ test with the aim of beating her father's score of 142. Surprisingly, Parnell not only trounced her father in the test but also scored the highest mark possible in the test, scoring 162 on the Cattell B scale, 'The Daily Express' reported. Cerys, from Northampton, UK, took the supervised test on July 27 this year with her father Dean, who is already a member of the genius group Mensa and has an IQ of 142. "My primary aim was to beat my dad who is very smart but I didn't expect to beat him by such a huge margin," she said. "I am not sure if this score is a good thing or a bad thing as I know she will be questioning everything I tell her to do. We are a bit blown away," Dean, a lawyer, said. Cerys is one of the youngest people to have taken the test as it is only offered to children aged over 10 and a half, the report said. Cerys says she loves pop music, texting her friends and watching TV. "At 11, I do not have many intellectual discussions with my friends and to be honest there is more to a person than their IQ," she said. "I like working with numbers so I think I would like to work for a bank or even one day become the Governor of the Bank of England," she said. Cerys has been invited to join British Mensa's 21,000 members, who all have IQ scores in the top two per cent of the country's population. "Cerys' score shows that she has great potential," John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, said. Although, Einstein never took an IQ test as none of the modern intelligence tests existed during the course of his life, but experts believe he had an IQ of around 160.

11-YEAR-OLD UK GIRL HAS HIGHER IQ THAN EINSTEIN

An 11-year-old schoolgirl in the UK has achieved the highest possible score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test, making her brainier than scientis...

AUSTRALIAN DOCTORS BRING WOMAN BACK FROM THE DEAD

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In a near-miraculous incident, doctors in Australia have saved the life of a 41-year-old woman who was clinically dead for 42 minutes after suffering a major heart attack. Vanessa Tanasio was rushed to hospital last week after the heart attack, but was declared clinically dead soon after arrival. Doctors at Melbourne's MonashHeart hospital managed to unblock vital arteries and return her heart to a normal rhythm, using a high-tech machine that kept blood flowing to Tanasio's brain, AAP news agency reported. Hospital authorities described her survival as "astonishing". Tanasio, a mother of two from Narre Warren, Melbourne, needed numerous defibrillator shocks, including one in the ambulance on her way to hospital, doctors said. "I'm feeling excellent. For someone who has been dead for nearly an hour of this week I am feeling tremendously well," Tanasio said. Emergency medics used a device called LUCAS 2 to keep her blood flowing while doctors worked to unblock the arteries to her heart. Tanasio, a sales representative, said she had no history of heart problems, the report said. "This has taken me completely by surprise. I am relieved to still be here for my children," she said.

AUSTRALIAN DOCTORS BRING WOMAN BACK FROM THE DEAD

In a near-miraculous incident, doctors in Australia have saved the life of a 41-year-old woman who was clinically dead for 42 minutes aft...

BELGIAN ACADEMY TRAINS BUTLERS FOR THE SUPER-RICH

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The exclusive School for Butlers and Hospitality in Brussels has found a niche training people to cater to the needs of the world's wealthy, with the Belgian academy drawing applicants from around the globe. "The most important thing for a good butler is to have a good personal attitude and know how to provide maximum service with minimum intrusiveness," School for Butlers and Hospitality director Vincent Vermuelen told EFE. The academy will offer its first four-week course in September at the Plaza Hotel in Brussels for 6,980 euros ($9,380). About 100 candidates from around the world applied for the 12 slots in the class. Butlers are in demand in the wake of the financial crisis even though the public has the idea that they only exist on television series and in novels about Victorian England. Five-star hotels, embassies, yachts and mansions are among the employers of white-gloved butlers. The luxury market's strength throughout the economic crisis has led more people to seek employment as butlers, who can earn from 50,000 euros ($67,195) to 180,000 euros ($241,901) annually, based on experience and the type of employer. The School for Butlers and Hospitality is able to charge high tuition because of the quality of its instructors and courses, as well as the opportunities that its certificates open up, Vermuelen said. The Middle East, Russia and China are the markets with the greatest demand for butlers, with academies opening to train people in these areas.

BELGIAN ACADEMY TRAINS BUTLERS FOR THE SUPER-RICH

The exclusive School for Butlers and Hospitality in Brussels has found a niche training people to cater to the needs of the world's w...

AT LEAST 175 PEOPLE WERE DEAD AFTER EARTH QUAKE HITS SOUTHWEST CHINA

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BEIJING (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 175 people and leaving more than 180 missing and 1,400 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province, causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 km). Chinese state media said it was felt most strongly in Yunnan as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.The official Xinhua news agency said the epicentre was in Longtoushan town in Yunnan's mountainous Ludian county.Communications have been seriously affected and rescuers have begun arriving on the scene, the report said.Pictures posted online by state media showed troops stretchering people away and cars damaged by fallen bricks.Many people rushed out of buildings onto the street after the quake hit, electricity supplies were cut and at least one school collapsed, Xinhua added, with more than 12,000 houses having collapsed and 30,000 sustaining damage.Ludian resident Ma Liya told Xinhua the streets were like a "battlefield after bombardment".The government is sending 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rain forecast for the coming days will add to the misery, the report said.Ludian is home to some 265,900 people, Xinhua added.This region of China is frequently struck by quakes, with one killing more than 1,400 in the same part of Yunnan in 1974.A quake in Sichuan in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Matt Driskill and Gareth Jones)This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

AT LEAST 175 PEOPLE WERE DEAD AFTER EARTH QUAKE HITS SOUTHWEST CHINA

BEIJING (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 175 people and leaving more than 180 ...

'BOYFRIEND TRACKER' APP DOWNLOAD COUNTER RISES IN BRAZIL

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Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying operation, with data from billions of calls and emails swept up in Washington's top secret surveillance program. Yet when it comes to the cloak and dagger effort of catching philandering lovers, all high-tech weapons appear to be fair game - at least to the tens of thousands of Brazilians who downloaded "Boyfriend Tracker" to their smartphones before the stealthy software was removed from the Google Play app store last week, apparently in response to complaints about privacy abuses and its potential to be used for extortion or even stalking. "Brazilians are a jealous people, what can I say? Of course it's going to be popular," said Marcia Almeida, a 47-year-old woman in Rio whose marriage ended seven years ago in large part because of what she said was her husband's infidelity. "It's a different type of spying," she said of comparisons to the NSA surveillance program. "You're checking up on somebody you know intimately, not some stranger." The app, called "Rastreador de Namorados" (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a "private detective in your partner's pocket." Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner's location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying. Similar apps are marketed for smartphone users in other countries, including Europe and the U.S., but Boyfriend Tracker is the first that has made any impact in Brazil, a country still irate as it learns more about Washington's snooping. Brazil has sent a government delegation to meet with U.S. leaders about the spy program that was revealed by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has been on the run since May and was recently granted asylum in Russia. Google spokeswoman Gina Johnson said by email that as a policy the company doesn't comment on why apps are removed. Critics say even as advertised, apps like Boyfriend Tracker can violate privacy rights, and they warn that in the wrong hands they could be used for more sinister purposes, like stalking. Some in Brazil argue it breaks an anti-online harassment and hacking law in place since April. The law is named after Brazilian actress Carolina Dieckmann, who had nude photos of herself leaked by hackers in 2012 after she refused to pay about $5,000. However, similar apps popular on Google Play market themselves to parents as a means of monitoring how teenage children use the phone and where they are at any given moment. Matheus Grijo, a 24-year-old Sao Paulo-based developer behind Boyfriend Tracker, says it has attracted around 50,000 users since its launch about two months ago, most since the site began attracting media attention two weeks ago. Grijo insists his lawyer vetted the app and determined it does not violate any Brazilian laws. Despite being removed by Google, it is still available via direct download from his company's website. A disclaimer on that website stipulates the app is for "social and recreational use" and absolves the developer of responsibility for any misuse. The first line of the download instructions says a woman installing the tracker on her boyfriend's phone should do so "with his consent." "We are waiting for Google's position on the removal of `Boyfriend Tracker' from Google Play, which we consider an error," read a posting on a Facebook page Grijo set up for the app. To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon. Grijo said the app began as a joke between him and his girlfriend but the idea quickly caught on among their friends. "In Brazil, we have this culture of switching partners really quickly, so this is a way of dealing with that," said Grijo. "People really appreciate having a tool to help them find out whether they're being cheated on." He acknowledged that "of course some people are against it, but on balance the response from users has been positive." He said he's received messages of gratitude from around 50 people who used the app to ferret out their partners' infidelity. While cheating in Brazil cuts both ways, the app is clearly marketed to women suspicious of their male partners, right down to the name. Postings on the app's Facebook page exhort: "Girls, share this." Still, Grijo insisted he personally has never given his girlfriends any reason to worry. "I've had three steady girlfriends until now but I've never had these kinds of issues," he said.

'BOYFRIEND TRACKER' APP DOWNLOAD COUNTER RISES IN BRAZIL

Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying oper...

FACEBOOK'S NEW ALGORITHM WILL SURFACE QUALITY CONTENT

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Earlier last week reports had emerged that Facebook replaced its famous EdgeRank system with a better algorithm to surface the most important news on your News Feed. The social networking giant has now confirmed that it has indeed updated its News Feed algorithm to showcase “high quality” content from pages that you’ve liked. Facebook has updated its algorithm to be able to bring the right kind of content at the right time to News Feeds of users who will appreciate it. Facebook had been facing some flak for being unable to surface content from pages that were liked by users for a while now. This tweak in its algorithm should solve this issue. In a blog post announcing the new algorithm, Facebook's Varun Kacholia wrote, “Our goal is to show the right content to the right people at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important to them. As part of that we want to make sure that the best quality content is being produced, surfaced and shared. Our latest update to the News Feed ranking algorithm helps ensure that the organic content people see from Pages they are connected to is the most interesting to them.” Kacholia writes that in order to figure out what high quality content meant, Facebook surveyed thousands of users to understand what they wanted to see. Questions asked to users includes “Is this timely and relevant content”, “Is this content from a source you would trust,” “Would you share it with friends and recommend it to others.” “Is the content genuinely interesting to you or is it trying to game News Feed distribution? (e.g., asking for people to like the content)”. Most interestingly, Facebook bunched memes with low quality posts while asking users about high quality posts. The social networking website will be punishing posts by pages that are actually memes since it considers them to be low quality. Facebook will be taking into consideration issues like whether users have hidden posts from the page recently or frequently. This will qualify those posts as low quality ones. Important factors also include how complete the Facebook profile of the page is and whether or not the fan base for a particular page overlaps with other known high quality pages. The algorithm is supposed to be quite intuitive and will keep learning to classify high quality posts and pages as and when users keep interacting with them and sending in more feedback. Kacholia writes that this new algorithm had been tested with a small group of audiences first and it worked well as it not only drove up the interaction on these pages but also saw users hiding lesser stories throughout. For pages that are seeing good engagement already, this new algorithm will assure that your content is seen by people who matter and more fans of your pages as the quality of your posts improve. Thanks to better insights rolled out by Facebook recently. Page admins should be able to figure out the kind of posts that drive up engagement as well as targeting and timing. Looks like Facebook has finally got its act together as far as content is concerned

FACEBOOK'S NEW ALGORITHM WILL SURFACE QUALITY CONTENT

Earlier last week reports had emerged that Facebook replaced its famous EdgeRank system with a better algorithm to surface the most impor...

IMPLICATIONS OF WIFI ON AIR INDIA AIRCRAFT

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Air India finally did something to make us sit up and take notice. They announced that they would provide wi-fi facilities to people on board their aircraft. This is great, but we don't think they've thought through some of the funnier consequences of their decision. Here are some examples:</div>
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1. Neighbours will become less irritating: That old aunty who talks about her back problem, that fat man who takes over half your seat in addition to his own - all of them can be vanquished by one simple medicine - WhatsApp.</div>
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2. Less babies will get bad wishes: Every person who ever wants to sleep on an aircraft is always greeted by a baby with magnificent lungs and a bad mood, and all such people spend the entire flight wishing for bad things to happen to the baby. But now, with Facebook available as a distraction, crying babies won't even be noticed.</div>
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3. The lack of in-flight entertainment won't matter: Air India has everything except on-demand movies on seats, but with WiFi, it won't matter any more. Everyone will just switch on their torrents together.</div>
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4. Corporate workers will be even more harassed: Conference calls. Urgent emails. Powerpoint slides. Excel models. All these were once not expected from an employee on a flight. No more. With WiFi, Air India has essentially transported your boss on the seat next to you.</div>
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5. There will be no more queues once the flight stops: In India, we queue up in the aisles 10 minutes before the flight doors open, so that we can feel that our normal life, with smartphones and Facebook and Twitter, is closer to us. After internet on planes, our life will be in our hands the whole time. The in-flight attendants will have to pull people out of seats.</div>
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6. People will start flying for the free WiFi: We in India do crazy things to get free WiFi. We sit in coffeeshops for hours, buying coffees that we don’t need or want. We sit in public places and try desperately to crack the insecure passwords. Basically, WiFi is, for us, a red rag to a bull, and we will do anything to get it. Even if it involves paying thousands of rupees for a flight ticket.</div>

IMPLICATIONS OF WIFI ON AIR INDIA AIRCRAFT

Air India finally did something to make us sit up and take notice. They announced that they would provide wi-fi facilities to people on b...