Toothpick used by Dickens sold

NEW YORK -" An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has been sold at a New York City auction for US 9,150 dollars.

It was being offered by heirs to the Barnes & Noble family and was up for sale in December at Bonhams New York.

The pre-sale estimate was US 3,000 dollars to US 5,000 dollars.

The auction house says the buyer did not want to be identified.The toothpick is engraved with the author's initials and has a retracting mechanism.

An authentication letter from sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth says the British writer of "A Christmas Carol" and "Oliver Twist" used the toothpick "when travelling and on his last visit to America."

The famous author Dickens died in 1870.

Courtesy:AP

Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopus

SYDNEY- " Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter," unusually sophisticated behaviour that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 metres), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot.Julian Finn and Mark Norman of Museum Victoria in Melbourne observed the odd activity in four of the creatures during a series of dive trips to North Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008. Their findings were published recently in the journal Current Biology." Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specialises in cephalopods who was amazed said. "I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh."Octopuses often use foreign objects as shelter. But the scientists found the veined octopus going a step further by preparing the shells, carrying them long distances and reassembling them as shelter elsewhere.That's an example of tool use, which has never been recorded in invertebrates before, Finn said."What makes it different from a hermit crab is this octopus collects shells for later use, so when it's transporting it, it's not getting any protection from it," Finn said. "It's that collecting it to use it later that is unusual."The researchers think the creatures probably once used shells in the same way. But once humans began cutting coconuts in half and discarding the shells into the ocean, the octopuses discovered an even better kind of shelter, Finn said.The findings are significant, in that they reveal just how capable the creatures are of complex behaviour, said Simon Robson, associate professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Townsville."Octopuses have always stood out as appearing to be particularly intelligent invertebrates," Robson said. "They have a fairly well-developed sense of vision and they have a fairly intelligent brain. So, I think it shows the behavioural capabilities that these organisms have."

There is always debate in the scientific community about how to define tool use in the animal kingdom, Robson said. The Australian researchers defined a tool as an object carried or maintained for future use. But other scientists could define it differently, which means it's difficult to say for certain whether this is the first evidence of such behaviour in invertebrates, Robson said.Still, the findings are interesting, he said."It's another example where we can think about how similar humans are to the rest of the world," Robson said.

Courtesy:AP

What did the clean dog say to the insect?

Long time no flea!

*****

How do you find where a flea has bitten you?

Start from scratch!

******

What do you call an elephant in a phone box?

Stuck!

****

What do you get when you cross a porcupine with a balloon?

POP!

******

Where do hamsters come from?

Hamsterdam.

******

What kind of snake is good at maths?

An adder.

******

What do you give an elephant with big feet?

Plenty of room!

******

What has six eyes but cannot see?

Three blind mice!

********

Joey: I lost my dog.

Lauren:Why don't you put an ad in the newspaper?

Joey: Don't be silly! He can't read

********

Why aren't elephants allowed on beaches?

They can't keep their trunks up!

Sprint Queen rewarded with a silver medal

Sri Lanka's famous Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe who put Sri Lanka on the Olympic map by coming third in the 200 metres event at the Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia is to be finally rewarded. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that she will now be rewarded with the silver medal .

This confirmation was made by the IOC in Lausanne to the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) on Tuesday, December, 15, Winner of the women's 200 metres event Marion Jones admitted having taken banned drugs during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and the IOC had decided to confiscate the gold medal she had won.

Speaking to the media the sprint Queen , Susanthika Jayasinghe said that she was glad that finally justice was done and added that this incident was a good lesson to those who cheated at such events.

Sri Lanka won the first silver medal at an Olympics Games, because of the feat achieved by the 400 metre hurdler, Duncan White in the 1948 Olympic Games.

Spoken English to be introduced as a subject

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Education Ministry focused special attention towards the introduction of 'Spoken English' as a subject in the schools curriculum, commencing from 2011.According to Education Ministry statistics, the ability of spoken English of 80 per cent of children in Government schools is not up to the mark and therefore it has become imperative that 'Spoken English' be introduced to the school curriculum, as early as possible.

Speaking to the Junior Observer, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha explained that President Mahinda Rajapaksa realised the importance of the student population of the country learning Information Technology (IT) and English, and named the Year 2009 as the Year of 'IT and English'.

He said English Language is a weapon to face future global challenges. The Minister also said a knowledge of English is necessary to learn not only 'Information Technology, but also other subjects such as science and mathematics.

"As you are aware, a majority of important books, magazines and journals are published in the English Language and therefore teachers must be given a comprehensive knowledge of the language for the benefit of the younger generation," he explained. The Education Minister also pointed out that in order to fulfil this task, his Ministry will launch a massive 'Spoken English' language programme for the benefit of Government teachers, especially those who lack the ability to converse in English.Meanwhile, a senior Education Ministry official said that 50 per cent of English teachers are not very fluent in the language although they have paper qualifications.He said as an initial step in this programme, Government teachers who are not competent in Spoken English will be trained and thereafter 'Spoken English' subjects will be introduced to the school curriculum from 2011.