Chinese teen kills self when blind date turns ugly

Agence France-Presse First Posted 16:39:00 01/05/2007

BEIJING -- A 17-year-old boy in northeastern China was so disappointed with the looks of a woman he met over the Internet that he hanged himself after seeing her face-to-face, state media reported Friday.

The unnamed teenager first contacted the woman -- known by her chat moniker "Qunjiaofeiyang", or "Flying Skirt" -- using the popular Chinese online messaging software QQ, Xinhua news agency said.

The girl described herself as a beautiful 19-year-old and the pair chatted on the Web for weeks before arranging a December 26 rendezvous in the nearby city of Mudanjiang, in far northeastern Heilongjiang province.

The boy arrived to discover the woman far less attractive than advertised and 10 years older than him, Xinhua said.

The boy immediately returned home, lost his appetite, and four days later hanged himself from a tree.

20 of the Greatest Questions of All Time

Where is the safest place to stand outside in a thunderstorm?

Tall, pointy objects standing alone in an open space are more likely to get struck by lightning but it’s by no means a certainty. Sometimes the flat ground next to a tall tree can be hit. A car or other enclosed metal structure is the safest place to be in a thunderstorm. Failing that, a ditch, trench or group of shrubs of uniform height is better than nothing. Keep away from boundary areas between dissimilar terrain (water and land; rock and earth; trees and fields). Also keep at least five metres away from metal objects or other people as lightning will often jump from one object to another.

Why do identical twins have different fingerprints?

Although identical twins share the same DNA, they don’t look identical cell-for-cell, because not every aspect of your physical appearance is rigidly determined by your genes. Fingerprints are formed semi-randomly as the foetus develops in the womb andare affected by such things as chance fluctuations of hormone levels. Similarly, the pattern of freckles and moles on the skin is caused by random mutations and will vary between identical twins.

Is the human race still getting taller?

The average height, at least in Western society, is increasing because of better childhood nutrition and sexual selection. But the tendency of women to find men taller than six feet (183cm) more attractive can’t be extrapolated upward, and people above 6ft 2in (188cm) are much more likely to suffer back problems. Above 6ft 8in (203cm), and the heart strains to pump blood round the body.

Why do I feel cold and shiver when I have a fever?

A fever is when your body increases its internal thermostat, found in the hypothalamus. If you exercise hard or it’s a hot day, your body temperature might increase, but the thermostat remains at around 36.8°C. When you feel hot the hypothalamus tries to correct this with sweating and increased blood flow to the skin. But with a fever, it is the thermostat that has risen. This means your body temperature is now below 36.8°C, so you feel cold and shiver, to try and raise your temperature. The higher body temperature may help fight infection by speeding white blood cell production and slowing bacteria reproduction.

What is OK short for?

The most popular theory is that OK comes from ‘oll korrect’, a deliberately misspelled writing of ‘all correct’. It was popularised in Boston newspapers around the 1840s when it was fashionable to go around spelling things incorrectly for humorous effect. Legend also has it that New York Democrats later adopted the abbreviation to promote their candidate Martin Van Buren – the initials ‘OK’ were derived from his nickname, Old Kinderhook.

Why can’t we just fill in the ozone hole with man-made ozone?

The sheer scale of the notorious hole – or, more accurately, depleted region – in the Earth’s ozone layer over the Antarctic beggars belief. At its peak each September, it spans an area bigger than the continental United States, and tens of millions of tonnes of ozone would be needed to fill it up again. Simply creating that amount of ozone, let alone getting it where it’s needed, would be astronomically expensive.

Why do fingers and toes wrinkle when left in water?

The waterproof coating on our skin gets rubbed away from areas of our bodies like our hands and feet that are frequently in contact with objects. If you immerse yourself in water with a lower concentration of dissolved salts than that of your cell contents, water will be absorbed by osmosis and cause your skin cells to swell. Since they are anchored to the tissues below, they are forced to corrugate to accommodate this.

What is a hiccup?

A hiccup comes from an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm, producing asudden intake of air. The glottis (the vocal apparatus of the larynx) slams shut at the same time, so that the column of air strikes the closed glottis to produce the characteristic, onomatopoeic noise.

Is there an easy way to prove the Earth is round?

Yes, travel. Because the Earth’s surface is curved, you’ll notice that different constellations of stars are revealed.

Can you have a fish out of water?

Yes. Several species of fish can breathe air and crawl on land. There are about 50 species of flying fish, too.

Why is sea air good for you?

It isn't, particularly. In Victorian England, seaside resorts got a reputation for having healthy air – maybe in comparison to the era's city smogs. The seaside's "bracing" smell is caused by a chemical produced by coastal bacteria, present in very low concentrations. But a study last year found that sea salt can react with chemicals in marine exhaust fumes to worsen the atmospheric pollution in a busy port.

Do plants die of old age?

Given good conditions, some plants can live for ever. It takes a change in external conditions to finish them off. But annuals die soon after seeding.

Does chewing gum really stay inside you for years?

No. Chewing gum is indigestible but it doesn't have any magic property that allows it to escape the normal digestive transit. Three days is the usual limit.

Where do phobias come from?

Around 10 per cent of the population suffer from phobias. Some may be triggered by a traumatic event while others are linked to physical problems. Studies suggest that simple phobias are partly genetic while others may be due to cultural history. For example, a fear of spiders may be passed down from the Middle Ages when spiders were associated with the plague, as victims' deserted homes became shrouded in cobwebs.

Do men have cellulite?

Yes. It's not just women who are cursed with orange peel skin, although in men cellulite tends to be in different places, usually around the neck and abdomen.

Can germs catch germs?

Yes. The germ would be an even smaller organism that attacks its host germ from within.

Why do I get more car sick in the back?

It's probably because you don't have such a good view of the horizon. Motion sickness occurs when the balance mechanism in your ear registers movement while your eyes are telling you that you are stationary.

Could we live on water and supplements?

No. As well as vitamins and minerals we need carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy and cell repair.

Do hot drinks cool you down?

Yes. They make your body think you are hotter than you really are so you sweat more and that leads to heat loss.

What would happen if there were no Moon?

The most immediate effect (other than the lack of moonlight, of course) would be on the Earth’s tides. With only the Sun’s gravitational influence, the difference between high and low tides would be reduced dramatically - as would tidal drag, which slows the Earth down at a rate adding about 0.002 seconds to the length of a day each century. Long term, the effects would be far more serious. The climate of the Earth is sensitively dependent on the 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis, and without the stabilising presence of our relatively huge Moon, the gravity of the other planets would produce big changes in this angle - as it does with Mars, whose tilt changes by 60° over a few million years.

Prepared by BBC Focus

Mental Angle is everything, Joey...

If I were Joey de Venecia...
all I'll need to win the votes is
a simple, unforgettable
mental picture.



(That I won't back off from...)

The Best Thing About Martial Law was… the nightlife and the music scene

Quick. Before Alzheimer’s sets in…

Around this time every year (when it’s time to once again commemorate Edsa1), my mind automatically rewinds to the best deal we ever got from martial rule: the fabulous ‘live’ music scene in Manila.

Night after night, you had the finest Pinoy musicians performing at a nearby club – you heard right, every club was nearby since the phrase ‘traffic jam’ didn’t exist then.

So off you’d go to Rino’s on Roxas Boulevard to catch Boy Camara & Afterbirth performing their Elton John set – Honky Tonk Cat, Take Me to the Pilot, My Song...

Immediately followed by the red-hot Emil Mijares & Time Machine with Celeste Legaspi and Anthony Castelo on vocals.

One sure thing, you ALWAYS got your money’s worth since three or four other bands were on the same bill including Pink & Purple or Bits & Pieces rocking the ‘stay in’ night away with solid tunes from Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull and Yes.

If soul music was more your bag, it’s off to Flame (down the road) with resident band Andre Wilson and the Howlers doing a string of James Brown hits and an occasional Tower of Power ditty.

A little further down the road, Eduardo's beckons with the Sangkatutak Band featuring Richard Merk and Ivy Violan.

For a bit of senti music, your destination can only be Wells Fargo… where the New Minstrels held court.

Over at Romulus, you can catch the Downbeats with the Juan dela Cruz triumvirate of Pepe Smith, Wally Gonzalez & Mike Hanopol.

Or you can detour to Calesa Bar at the Hyatt where Bong Penera & Batucada transformed every night into samba night.

A few steps down to the basement finds you at Circuit with the Hi Jacks and drummer Eddie Dizon doing their take on Chicago hits.

Your 'pilgrimage' wouldn't be complete without dropping by Pension Pilipina in Ermita for a dose of Circus (wow, Boy Katindig... Walter Calinawan... Gerry Paraiso... Paco Gamboa... Rudy Lozano... Ray-an Fuentes... Basil Valdez... Richard Tann... Hajji Alejandro... Pat Castillo... Jacqui Magno... Ceres Jacinto... and two Fil-ams from SFO) who'll make you drool with a heartstopping Earth, Wind & Fire set.

If you’re feeling extravagant and really want to impress a date, the only place to be seen in is at Third Eye (by the side of Luneta Hotel) with Philly group, Masters of Time, alternating with local rock band Red Fox. Almost every night, you’ll catch a glimpse of blaxploitation actress Pam Grier dancing the night away. A special treat for patrons was Sam Peak, sax player of Masters of Time (and future member of Philadelphia’s MFSB), jamming with Red Fox. Imagine the sound of the Stones/Hendrix punctuated and pummeled by an Afro-American sax player as big and menacing as Muhammad Ali.

Those were the golden days of Pinoy ‘live’ music when bands were diverse, daring, distinctive… long before the scene became boring and… turned comatose… to the tune of “Happy”.

Curious? Magical Effects for Benjamin Button

By: Teressa Iezzi

It was the movie many wanted to make but nobody dared try—the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," about a man who is born old and ages backwards. The premise was as enticing as it was forbidding—how do you portray this character, the soul of the story, throughout his life without using gimmicks, multiple actors or not quite convincing animation (see Beowulf). After many years (and several directors) passed, the forces of technology and personality finally aligned in the form of Digital Domain, David Fincher, the Mova Contour Reality Capture system and a contingent of other artists and inventors. Their efforts represented a technical breakthrough that'll change filmmaking from now on, but the onscreen effect was invisible.

Whether you loved the film's message of life, loss and love or the whole thing left you cold, you were evaluating it based on the story, not on the visual effects and that was Fincher's and Digital Domain's biggest achievement.

Some background: By the time Fincher started thinking seriously about the film, he and Digital Domain had worked together on numerous features and commercials. The Button team was an oiled machine, which allowed the director to focus on storytelling, not technology. "We've been working with Fincher for 15 years," says Ulbrich, who served as executive producer of VFX on Button. "There's a shorthand, a trust with him and his team (including DP Claudio Miranda, editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter and AD Bob Wagner). "What that does is minimize the process and technique and gives him creative flexibility; instead of solving effects problems he's focusing on the material."

As for Fincher's interest in the project, he says, "I like the idea of a movie where the special effect is time. How do you show time in the background or time in the foreground and have it subtly etch its way in people's faces and change the background of the world we see them in. The size of that canvas was an interesting thing."

By 2004, DD and Fincher had started working on Button in earnest. That year they provided Paramount a one shot proof of concept video and got the green light (Ulbrich jokes that at that moment he excused himself to go and be sick—they actually had to do this thing now).

The central challenge was to ensure that Pitt (rather than an animator's interpretation of Pitt) was actually playing the character throughout his life—from wizened man of 80-ish through his 70s and 60s to the actor's current age and beyond (Pitt played the character until he reached childhood. VFX company Lola provided "youthening" effects that made the actor appear onscreen as his unlined younger self).

Given that mandate and the additional challenge of the difference in body size and type between Brad Pitt and the Benjamin character (who appears as a small, stooped old man in the early part of the film), traditional animation/head replacement techniques created too many opportunities for the character to fall into the dreaded "uncanny valley" (the creeps people get when looking at a being that appears almost but not quite human).

In a rather large nutshell, here's how they did it. The first thing to know: after the initial shots of the animatronic infant, the next 52 minutes of Pitt playing Benjamin do not contain any Pitt—it's animation (until the real actor appears in make-up on the tugboat bound for Russia. A total of 325 shots of animation. VFX shops Hydraulx and Asylum also contributed many elements to the film).

Fincher shot the film (with Viper cameras) using smaller, blue-hooded actors in place of Pitt. Make-up artist Rick Baker created three painstakingly detailed maquettes (models based on casts of Pitt's face) that represented the actor at ages 60, 70 and 80. DD then created digitized versions of the maquettes. Character supervisor Steve Preeg and Barba turned to what's known as FACS (Facial Action Coding System, a body of research by psychologist Dr. Paul Eckman that categorizes the full set of universal human expressions) as a starting point for Pitt's performance. DD used the Mova Contour system to capture Pitt performing that gamut of facial expressions.

"When we first looked at doing this movie in 2004 we had something in our original R&D plan that was not dissimilar to what they built," says Barba. "When they presented their system we looked at each other like, 'they did it.'" The technology was still in its early days and Kreeg worked with the company to develop the system to fit Button's requirements. Mova's markerless system represented a significant advance in performance capture, creating a high def, "volumetric" representation of a face (or other surface). Performer's faces are covered in phosphorescent makeup and captured by a multi camera rig—this eliminates the sort of interpolation that happens with a system that uses a number of markers placed on the face to capture data.

Pitt (the whole Pitt) was also shot by multiple cameras performing the role of Button and DD artists matched the CG expressions to his overall live action performance. And then? Well, DD retargeted Pitt's captured expressions onto CG versions of the appropriately-aged maquettes, of course—hand animating where necessary, says Barba, to get the nuances right. And that's just getting started—DD faced monumental challenges in terms of tracking and compositing and lighting, in many cases building proprietary systems to accommodate the level of difficulty and to ease workflow.

Through it all, Barba says the biggest challenge was managing the team. "We've all been looking at faces since we were born; we just know when something isn't right. Artists can't always put a finger on it and maybe can't verbalize it. You get a shot that's 95 percent there and that last five percent can be really challenging especially with a talented group saying what they think is wrong."

For Fincher, the process revolved around making audiences care about Benjamin—recreating an organic life form "wasn't as important as creating a character for a moment. That's the most interesting thing for me—it had nothing to do with the shaders. It's, Oh my god he wins me over in this moment.

DD is currently at work on projects that will advance the tech and systems used on Button. "It's a game changer," says Ulbrich. "It'll be difficult to do a less realistic character now." And yes, you will see the technology used in commercials. "With computer-based visuals there's a belief that anything is possible as long as you have enough time, money and resources," says Ulbrich. "In advertising there's just never enough. It's a big advantage for our advertising clients to have tools available to them that would otherwise be cost and time prohibitive to develop for a single spot or campaign."