-
Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jan 23, 2012
January 23, 2012
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
Chinese New Year:
Happy Chinese New Year, and welcome to 4710 in the Chinese calendar --the Year of the Dragon. In Chinese: Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Quotable: "Wow! I'm still writing Rabbit on my checks!" (anon)Chinese New Year superstitions:
During the first three days, everyone should refrain from using scissors, knives or brooms, since these may cut off or sweep away any good fortune. Bad language and unlucky words are not to be spoken; death and dying should never be mentioned and ghost stories are totally taboo. Firecrackers are shot off to chase away the evil and bad spirits.
Watercooler:
In the first week after the Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy, 37 percent of travel agents report being contacted by clients booked on 2012 cruises, according to Travalliance. Travel agents estimate that close to 10% of these travelers have expressed an interest in canceling their voyage.
January is traditionally the biggest month for cruise bookings, but 20 percent of travel agents say the CC incident has negatively impacted their bookings; 68 percent say it has had no noticeable impact and 11 percent had no response.
Of those travelers booked on a cruise who contacted their travel agent, 23 percent expressed a “high” or “extremely high” level of concern over the CC capsizing while 28 percent expressed “some” concern. The top worry for 34 percent of all travelers who contacted their agent, is the safety of cruising in general, and 15 percent wanted to know how they’d be protected if something like it happened to them in the future. (Kaye)Meanwhile, the company of that capsized cruise ship is making its generous settlement offer to survivors: 30 percent off their next cruise.
Didn't take long for media to contact passengers who called the offer an insult.
The inevitable lawsuits are expected to cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, divers in Italy found another body on board the wrecked ship, a woman wearing a life jacket. That brings the official death toll in the crash up to 12. (Maiman)And... you probably won't be surprised to find out Hollywood --which has already made movies about the sinking of he Titanic, "The Poseidon Adventure" and others, is now interested in doing a special on the Costa Concordia disaster.
The Discovery Channel already has a special in the works for this Spring, which will attempt to answer the questions raised, like what Captain SCHETTINO did --or did not do-- to cause the wreck, how the crew evacuated the ship, and more.Fashion:
A new study suggests having a nose job could shave a year or two off your appearance.
Findings published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery explain doctors collected “before” and “after” photos of 53 patients who had rhinoplasty procedures. They asked 50 average people to guess the ages of the people in the photos. Half the volunteers were shown the “before” photos, and then shown the “after” pictures a month later. The rest of the volunteers looked at the “after” pictures first, then the “before” photos a month later.
The patients were judged to look --on average-- one-and-a-half years younger after their nose jobs. This was especially the case if the nose was changed in one of two specific ways:
--When the dorsal hump at the top of the nose was reduced, the patient was viewed as 1.6 years younger, compared with just 1.1 years younger for those who never had a dorsal hump.
--Patients who had a nasolabial angle --or a nose tip that is upturned-- were perceived as being two years younger than their actual age when it was reduced more than 10-degrees. Less rotation caused subjects to rate them as looking 1.3 years younger following their surgeries.
Researchers say the older a patient was at the time of rhinoplasty, the more the nose job helped them look younger. (Page) -
-