Superbrain" stuns Britain with genius quiz show run

LONDON (Reuters) – She's being hailed as Britain's cleverest student, a shy, bespectacled and amazingly quick-minded Latin scholar who has romped away to win the country's hardest quiz show almost single-handedly.

Gail Trimble, 26, is playing down the excitement surrounding her team's victory in the annual University Challenge on Monday, but the nation is abuzz at her polymath performance on the quiz, a favourite on TV for nearly 40 years.

Coming from behind, Trimble's four-person team from Corpus Christi college at Oxford University raced away to beat sharp rivals from Manchester by 275-190, with Trimble answering most of the dauntingly difficult questions without hesitation.

It was a typically barnstorming performance from the team captain, who has a tendency to laugh excitedly when she knows the answer, even if she seemed nervous at the start as Manchester moved into the lead and the pressure was on.

"The realm that according to Aristophanes was built by the birds to separate..." the questioner asked, getting only that far before Trimble buzzed to interrupt and correctly answer "Cloud Cuckoo Land" to impressed gasps from the audience.

"Which letter of the alphabet occurs most frequently in the line 'To be or not to be, that is the question?'" she was asked, buzzing immediately to correctly answer 'T'. Her quiz answering technique has been described as "intellectual blitzkrieg."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090224/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_quiz_1

Scientists find 2,000-year-old brain in Britain

LONDON – British archaeologists have unearthed an ancient skull carrying a startling surprise — an unusually well-preserved brain. Scientists said Friday that the mass of gray matter was more than 2,000 years old — the oldest ever discovered in Britain. One expert unconnected with the find called it "a real freak of preservation."

The skull was severed from its owner sometime before the Roman invasion of Britain and found in a muddy pit during a dig at the University of York in northern England this fall, according to Richard Hall, a director of York Archaeological Trust.

Finds officer Rachel Cubbitt realized the skull might contain a brain when she felt something move inside the cranium as she was cleaning it, Hall said. She looked through the skull's base and spotted an unusual yellow substance inside. Scans at York Hospital confirmed the presence of brain tissue.

Hall said it was unclear just how much of the brain had survived, saying the tissue had apparently contracted over the years. Parts of the brain have been tentatively identified, but more research was needed, he said.

He said it was a mystery why the skull was buried separately from its body, suggesting human sacrifice and ritual burial as possible explanations.

The existence of a brain where no other soft tissues have survived is extremely rare, according to Sonia O'Connor, an archaeological researcher at the University of Bradford in northern England who helped authenticate the discovery.

"This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the U.K., and one of the earliest worldwide," she said.

The old brain is unlikely to yield new neurological insights because human brains aren't thought to have changed much over the past 2,000 years, according to Chris Gosden, a professor of archaeology at Oxford University unconnected with the find.

He confirmed it was the oldest brain found in Britain. He noted that far older preserved brains, thought to be approximately 8,000 years old, were found in 1986 when dozens of intact human skulls were uncovered buried in a peat bog in Windover Farms in Florida.

"It's a real freak of preservation to have a brain and nothing else," Gosden said. "The fact that there's any brain there at all is quite amazing."

Hall said the brain found at York University was being kept in its skull in an environmentally controlled storage facility for further study.

Funny Videos----Comedy Central-Jokes.com---2009 Dodge Ram----Advertise Here and 25 Other Sites!

Odd News-Britain now has more rats than people

UK - Experts claim councils which have stopped weekly bin collections are to blame, along with mild winters and last year's floods.

The worst affected city is York, which has seen its rat population rise by 208 per cent in a year. Carlisle has seen a change of 142 per cent. Other areas to see a significant increase in infestation include Exeter (60 per cent) and Salford (40 per cent). Rentokil estimates there are 65 to 80 million rats in Britain compared to around 60m humans. More...
Facebook-Pics----Pics For Myspace----Political Roast----Lingerie Football Pics

Britain Adopts Islamic Law, Gives Sharia Courts Full Power to Rule...Coming to America Soon!

Britain Adopts Islamic Law, Gives Sharia Courts Full Power to Rule...Coming to America Soon!

Sharia Law-It's fun for the entire family! Cool things like:
Beheading, Stoning, beating the woman and it's so simple your children can join in!

UK - ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases. The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.


Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.
Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims....article

Share It, Post It, Email it!

Funny Sarah Palin Videos----Pics For Myspace----Cute Pics