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/ 18 September 2007

MP3 players could replace stethoscopes

MP3 players/recorders detect some respiratory sounds better than traditional stethoscopes and could prove handy replacements in the future, two researchers told an international conference on respiratory diseases. By pressing a microphone directly to the chest, the researchers were able to record a whole range of respiratory sounds with different patterns.

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/ 18 September 2007

Rwanda warns Hutu rebels in the DRC

Rwanda has made a thinly veiled threat to send its troops back into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after accusing the government in Kinshasa of collaborating with genocidal Hutu extremists on its border. The Rwandan government said a Congolese army assault against a renegade Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda, is helping to strengthen Hutu rebels.

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/ 18 September 2007

Pakistan in comfortable win over Sri Lanka

A 101 partnership for the fourth wicket by Pakistan’s Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik set up a comfortable 33 win over Sri Lanka in a Super Eight Twenty20 World Championship match at the Wanderers on Monday. Pakistan scored a credible 189/6 in their 20 overs with Sri Lanka only managing 156 for the loss of nine wickets.

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/ 18 September 2007

World oil price tops $81

Oil prices topped 81 dollars a barrel for the first time on Tuesday, setting another record high amid fears of critically tight supplies for the winter season in the United States. Opec’s announcement last week that it would pump an extra 500 000 barrels per day from November has failed to stop the surge in price.

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/ 18 September 2007

Work and motherhood

"Of course they can," says Dr Venitha Pillay, feminist author and University of Pretoria academic whose single-motherhood status inspired her to undertake a study on women academics who are also mothers. Prior to conducting research for her book, Academic Mothers, Pillay found that most literature on women and work tends to be cluttered with arguments around balancing the two lives — motherhood and work.

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/ 18 September 2007

Lead me into temptation and I will write

Growing up in the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) some of us have come to believe that dominees (ministers) come in prototypes. After years of careful observation from the benches of NG Kerk places of worship, all ministers appear to be moulded during their extended theology education to sport the same look and project the same sound.

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/ 18 September 2007

Higher education safaris

It was one of the sneakiest sleights of hand ever manoeuvred by the former minister of education. No, it was not in the contrivance of the mergers. Nor, can you believe it, was it in the creation of universities of technology with the hilarious proviso that they continue to function solely as technikons; a rose by any other name.

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/ 18 September 2007

Doing the honours

The National Research Foundation (NRF) honoured 19 of South Africa’s top researchers at its annual President’s Awards, which were made in three categories: a lifetime achiever award, P-rated research awards and Arated research awards. The lifetime achiever award went to Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) and now director of Circle Capital Ventures, a black empowerment company.

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/ 18 September 2007

Evidence for a reconsideration

What colour is a polar bear? “That’s a dumb question,” you think. “Everyone knows polar bears are white.” Actually the correct answer is “black”. The reason why polar bears look white is because of the way their transparent fur reflects visible light. Their skin underneath the fur is, in fact, black.