News around the world

Car crash survivor gains new talent

A 22-year-old Australian man woke up from a week-long coma with an unexpected new talent - he can now speak fluent Mandarin! Ben McMahon was put into a coma after a serious car accident and his new language skills were triggered after he saw an Asian nurse at the hospital.

Ben told the nurse "Excuse me nurse, I feel really sore here," in perfect Mandarin. He says he wasn't instantly aware that he wasn't speaking English, and explained that he simply began speaking what felt natural to him.

Ben had learned Mandarin at school but had never reached the level where he could speak the language fluently. Ben also found he could write in Mandarin and continued to speak the language for a few days while he was recovering and then had to relearn English!

After Ben had recovered he enrolled in a Mandarin class at University, began Mandarin walking tours, entered an international Chinese language competition and even co-hosted a Chinese TV show.

One of his friends says that Ben can speak Mandarin better than some Chinese, Japanese and Korean people he knows. Doctors are not sure how the accident assisted Ben to gain the Mandarin skills but one theory is that the part of the brain that knew English was damaged and the part that deals with Mandarin woke up and took over.

-Internet

FIVE new marine reserves

The Government has opened five new marine reserves on the West Coast of the South Island. The reserves have been put in place to protect a range of marine ecosystems for conservation, science and recreation. The reserves have been named - Kahurangi, Punakaiki, Waiau Glacier Coast, Tauparikaka and Hautai. They are the first marine reserves on the West Coast outside of Fiordland.

They will protect some of the shore and seabed habitats of special marine life such as Hector's dolphins and blue penguins. Conservation Minister Nick Smith said the reserves represent a great result for conservation on the West Coast.

-Internet








 

Asteroid to pass close to New Zealand

NASA experts have announced that a newly discovered asteroid flew close to earth recently. The asteroid was the size of a small house and soared directly over New Zealand.

Don't be alarmed though, the 18m object was over 40,000 kilometres away, although in space distance that is rather close. The asteroid passed New Zealand at 6 am in the morning. The asteroid was not visible to the naked eye, but amateur astronomers saw it with telescopes. -Internet





 

FOUND: 43 missing socks!

Usually people find missing socks behind the washing machine or under their bed, but this family found 44 missing socks...in their dog's stomach!

Oregon owners rushed their Great Dane to the vet after he couldn't stop throwing up and refused to eat. The 3-year-old dog had x-rays which showed 'foreign material' in his stomach that he couldn't digest.

During a two hour surgery the vet removed 43 and a half socks from the Great Dane's stomach - most of them almost as good as new!

The dog is recovering and is feeling much better, although no one knows where the other half of one sock is. If you were this family, would you wear these socks again?

-Internet