Eideard

Another popular Ryanair promotion

Ryanair has launched an enquiry after three passengers on the same flight each won a car worth €10,000 after playing its in-flight scratchcard game.

The three passengers, who were flying from Milan to Madrid last Monday, won the prize after buying one of the airline’s €2 scratchcards, despite an average of one car being won each month.

The airline blamed a printing error by Brandforce, the company which runs the game, but has promised that all three winners will receive their vehicles.

Ryanair began selling scratchcards in 2008 in an attempt to further increase its additional or “ancillary” revenues. Around a quarter of the airline’s annual earnings are generated by ancillary revenues. Its extra charges, including check-in fees, booking fees and luggage charges, have increased by up to 700 per cent since 2006.

Perish the thought that some cynical journalists are suggesting Ryanair arranged for three winning cards on a single flight to increase their sales of scratchcards. Could you imagine a reputable firm pulling a stunt like that.

Oh!

Similar to the classification of blood types, the bacteria in our guts appear to fit into one of three categories that have no relation to our nationality, age, sex and other characteristics, new research indicates. The study combined genetic information from about three dozen people in six countries, revealing that everyone falls into one of three categories they dub enterotypes, which they believe are spread around the globe just like blood types.

Humans’ guts are home to swarms of bacteria. Members of this internal ecosystem help us with all sorts of important tasks, such as digesting food, assisting our immune systems and producing nutrients such as vitamin K. And research indicates there is a connection between these micro-organisms and some health problems, including obesity and inflammatory bowel disease.

Using an approach called metagenomics, researchers sequenced genetic material collected from fecal samples from 22 people in Denmark, France, Italy and Spain, and combined that with existing data from residents of Japan and the United States.

Their analysis revealed three enterotypes determined by the relative abundance of different networks of species, according to study researcher Peer Bork, a unit head at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany…

While the type of bacteria present in the gut showed no connection to the host’s characteristics, this was not the case for the bacteria’s function. For instance, the presence of bacteria capable of breaking down starch appears to increase with someone’s age. And men seem to carry more bacteria with the machinery to synthesize aspartate, an amino acid.

The findings, detailed in the most recent issue of the journal Nature, have implications for personalized medicine, in which treatments can be tailored to an individual’s needs…

Knowledge of enterotypes may also help with the development of techniques to restore healthy gut communities, rather than killing off all of the bugs living there with antibiotics…

I imagine we’ll have about as much cooperation with political systems and corporations with a vested interest in profitable processed foods in educating folks about enterotypes – as we do with anything else found to aid in healthful living.

OTOH, this study is miniscule – and expansive work is needed to corroborate anything more than an educated guess at this stage.

Runaway! Runaway!

A polygamist Pakistani man has suffered the shame of a public beating by two of his wives, who claimed he was planning to marry in secret for a fifth time.

Mian Ishaq had to be saved by police officers who hauled his two angry wives away from a friend’s wedding reception he was attending with his third wife in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Afterwards he told reporters that he had only three wives, and rumours that he had a fourth wife and plans for a fifth were not true.

“This is a blatant lie. I am willing to swear on my life that I only have three wives,” he told reporters…

Witnesses said his two disgruntled partners arrived with relatives at the wedding reception in Gujranwala on Monday, overturning tables and shouting death threats before they started attacking their husband with shoes.

The shoe attack still works pretty well in South Asia.

A German woman was involved in three car accidents in less than an hour that left a total of seven vehicles damaged but she suffered only slight injuries from the series of mishaps, police said Tuesday.

The 69-year-old woman from Berlin first crashed into three cars while trying to pull out of a supermarket car park on the Baltic resort island of Usedom.

Then, she accidentally stepped on the accelerator and sped across a lawn before crashing into a nearby house, police said. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance but that vehicle was then hit by a truck.

“She was actually fortunate that no one was seriously hurt in any of the accidents,” said Zinnowitz police spokesman Axel Falkenberg. “The accidents were a little bit like dominoes toppling.”

Let me know if she ever plans on visiting Santa Fe on holiday. I’ll stay indoors.

Barack Obama’s transition team appointed three people to develop technology policy priorities for the Obama administration.

Blair Levin, an analyst at financial services company Stifel Nicolaus focusing on telecom, media and technology regulations, served as chief of staff for Reed Hundt when he was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Sonal Shah runs Google’s philanthropic initiatives. She’s the head of Google.org, which aims to use technology to address climate change, poverty and disease. Shah has worked for the Treasury Department and the National Security Council and serves on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board, which has been managing the transition.

The third member of the working group is Julius Genachowski, cofounder of Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital. Genachowski has worked at IAC and served as chief counsel at the FCC. He, too, is on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board.

Obama has laid out a technology plan that includes investing in scientific research, ensuring that the Internet is open and bringing broadband to more people. He has said he plans to be the first president to appoint a chief technology officer who will guide technology priorities.

Cripes. We’re still waiting to see who will be the CTO?