Waiting Room News 18, July 8 by Nick Moore

H FRES

Waiting Room News

World ESCALATOR INJURY: A 32-year-old woman was severely injured after fainting on an escalator and catching her hair in the moving stairs at a New York subway station. She suffered cuts to her face, leg and arms, and had collapsed as the result of an epileptic fit, Nine News reported.

Australia BUYERS SLUGGED: Premiums had soared for the supposed “insurance” that a quarter of all homebuyers had to pay when taking out a loan. Lenders Mortgage Insurance for a borrower with a typical 10% deposit on a $500,000 property had risen from less than $6000 last year to nearly $9000, News Corp reported.

Volume 18 July 8

Entertainment GEM ROLE: 2012 X Factor winner Samantha Jade would play Kylie Minogue in Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS, News Ltd reported. Minogue was romantically linked to INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.

Northern Life AUCTION ANGER: A pair of Manhattan socialites were suing their son’s school for $500,000 after it allegedly tricked them into bidding $50,000 for a finger painting by kindergarteners. The Heinemanns allowed the school to bid for them but claim a school official made a teacher bid against them, resulting in the $50,000 price.

Odd Spot AS at June 15, at least 5109 Americans had died by shooting in the US in the past six months, compared with 4409 US soldiers killed in Iraq. Source: Online magazine Slate

PHOTO FORTUNE: A US collector had become an overnight multi-millionaire after a set of 65 photographic glass negatives he picked up at a garage sale for $US45 a decade ago turned out to be genuine Ansel Adams works valued at $US200 million, ABC News reported.

DOYLE ‘PLOT’: Channel Seven executives had been plotting for weeks to axe Melissa Doyle from Sunrise before the popular presenter “resigned” on air, sources told Fairfax Media. The move was seen as a pre-emptive strike against plans by former Sunrise producer Adam Boland to revamp Channel Ten’s morning line-up. FINDING the silver fleece, Teneriffe Festival, Vernon Tce, Saturday, July 6. TOP TIPPLES: Tasmania’s whisky industry was receiving high praise from the world's top whisky critic, Jim Murray. In his 2013 World Whisky Bible, Mr Murray called a Sullivans Cove drop “a staggering achievement” and described a whiskey from the Tasmania Distillery as “one of the world whiskies of the year”. DRUNKS IN TANK: The first so-called drunk tanks opened in Sydney, in the City and Randwick, as part of the NSW Government’s crackdown on alcohol-related violence. Five men aged from their late teens to their early 20s were the tank's first tenants, with each fined $200 on their release in the morning.

Did You Know? TALK show queen Oprah Winfrey made an estimated $US77 million from June 2012 to June 2013. Pop star Lady Gaga earned $US80 million in the same period. Source: Forbes.com

BROSNAN GRIEVES: Actor Pierce Brosnan was devastated after his daughter lost her three-year battle with ovarian cancer. Charlotte Brosnan died last week, aged 41, from the same disease that killed her mother, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, in 1991, News Ltd reported.

C Visit issuu.com/waiting-room-news and read Waiting Room News for FREE anytime you like. World RESCUE ‘FAKE’: A Bangladeshi factory worker claimed the rescue of Reshma Begum, 19, after 17 days trapped under rubble was a hoax. The male co-worker said Ms Begum had escaped from the collapsed garment factory in Dhaka days before her apparent rescue, The Mirror reported. DEATH FOR DANCE: Two teenage girls had been shot dead in an apparent honour killing in Pakistan after a video circulated showing them dancing in the rain. According to Dawn newspaper, five masked men barged into their house and opened fire last month. Their mother was killed with them, Telegraph.co.uk reported.

Australia $57K PAYRISE: Queensland MPs were to get a $57,000 payrise after Crown Law advice a pay freeze four years ago was unlawful. They were entitled to an annual salary $500 less than that of a federal Lower House member, who receive a base salary of $195,130. That would take the base salary for Queensland MPs to $194,630, which is a $57,481 increase.

Northern Life

SCOOTING to it, Edinburgh Castle Rd, Kedron, Thursday, July 4.

Entertainment BLACK WEDDING: Punk rocker Avril Lavigne went the untraditional route and wore an edgy black wedding gown, paired with a black bouquet of roses, to say “I do” to her beau and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, 38, in France, NYDailyNews.com reported. GANDOLFINI GAFF: The will of late Sopranos star James Gandolfini was “a disaster” that could see more than $US30 million of his $US70 million estate go to the Government, a lawyer told the Daily News. Due to its set-up, 80% of the estate was subject to death taxes of about 55%, and the bill was due in nine months.

DALE Irby, a teacher at Dallas, Texas, wore the same polyester shirt and vest for his yearbook photo for 40 years, Telegraph.co.uk reported. It started as a mistake but became a running joke.

SWEAR ABUSE: Australia’s first Muslim frontbencher, Ed Husic, was subjected to “extreme” abuse after he chose to swear his oath of office on the Koran. Mr Husic, a parliamentary secretary, suffered torrents of anti-Islamic attacks on social media but said he “will not jump because of harsh words in dark corners”, Telegraph.co.uk.

THE Good Reverend Pow Jackson, Pipitty L. Jackson, and Mutley P. Gore Jackson the 3rd – those are the names pop singer Mariah Carey has given to her new dogs, according to PeoplePets.com.

NEW SAINTS: Pope Francis had given the go-ahead for his late predecessor John Paul II to be sainted by the end of the year. Polish-born John Paul II was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. John XXIII, who led from 1958 to 1963, was to be canonised at the same time.

$1.3b OFFER: The WA Government had offered $1.3 billion to the Noongar people to settle native title claims over Perth and the southwest. The offer included the setting up of a perpetual trust into which the Government would invest $50 million each year for 12 years. More than 300,000ha of Crown land would also be held by the trust, ABC News reported.

TRUMP PAYDAY: A beauty queen must pay Donald Trump’s Miss USA organisation $US5m for defamation, a US federal judge ruled. Sheena Monnin resigned as Miss Pennsylvania in 2012 after publicly claiming the contest was rigged, BBC News reported.

Odd Spot

Fun Fact

Did You Know?

Odd Spot

BRITISH women spent 59 days of their lives shaving their legs, a study found. And 35% of women polled said it was their least favourite beauty chore. The second most detested was hairstyling, with eyebrow plucking third.

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$US6 BILLION - that’s how much tax the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, says he’s paid in total. He has given $28 billion to charity and was still worth $56 billion. His three kids will inherit ‘just’ $10 million each. Source: Guardian, Fairfax

In the mornings I like to do my sun salutations, and then I try to find some time to jump for joy. I feel it really energises me and sets me in a great mood.”

Did You Know

ACCORDING to Aboriginal legend, there is a cave on the Wessel Islands off Australia’s north filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era. African 1000-year-old coins had been found on the islands, News Ltd reported.

— Miranda Kerr, model.

C BE KIND: Please place me back neatly for the next person to enjoy. THANK YOU! Technology

Health SMOKE DEATHS: About 7.4 million people would be spared premature death by 2050 due to the tobacco control measures that had been put in place in 41 countries from 2007-2010 under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a study showed.

ROBOT CONFUSED: Honda’s popular robot Asimo struggled to recognise gestures on its first day as a museum guide at the Miraikan science museum in Tokyo. The machine battled to differentiate between museum-goers raising their hands to ask a question and raising their hands to take photos, BBC News reported.

Business GROWTH GLOOM: Australia’s economists believed the economy was likely to be weaker than the Government had forecast in 2013-14, with predictions that falling commodity prices and slowing business investment would cut growth and push up unemployment, Fairfax reported.

Northern Life IVF RISK: Compared with spontaneous conception, in vitro fertilization was associated with a small, yet significantly increased risk for mental retardation, but not autistic disorder, according to a population-based, prospective cohort study published in the July 3 issue of JAMA, Medscape.com reported.

Did You Know? ANXIETY, or excessive worrying, is the most common psychological problem in Australia and affects 14% of the population, according to the Bureau of Statistics. DEFECT SPIKE Marriage between first cousins doubles the risk of children with birth defects, according to a study seeking answers to the higher than expected rates of deaths and congenital abnormalities in the babies of the UK’s Pakistani community, Guardian.co.uk reported.

Odd Spot

GAME THEORY: There was no link between violent videogames and anti-social behaviours, Queensland University researchers said. The test had participants play a violent or non-violent game, and then be subjected to a pro-social test. Both game players showed equal pro-social behaviour, Escapistmagazine.com reported. 3D FLOP: The BBC was to suspend 3D programming for an indefinite period due to a “lack of public appetite” for the technology. Kim Shillinglaw, the BBC’s head of 3D, said it had “not taken off” with audiences who found it “quite hassly”, BBC News reported. A Doctor Who special in November will be shown in 3D.

Fun Fact

THE average Australian household paid $8.94 a week in bank fees, a reduction of 19c a week compared with the previous year. Customers paid a record $11.3 billion in fees last year, the Australian Bankers Association admitted.

THE sun’s core is so hot that a piece of it the size of a pinhead would give off enough heat to kill a person 160km away. Source: QI television show

Did You Know? AT some point, genes from at least eight retroviruses became incorporated into human DNA. They now perform important functions in reproduction, yet are entirely alien to our genetic ancestry. DOLLAR HIT: Bearish bets for the Aussie dollar were turning savage, with Credit Suisse slashing its 12-month forecast to US75¢ after conceding the currency was “normalising” quicker than it expected. TD Securities said the Aussie would trade around US90¢ for the rest of the year.

Did You Know? THE antioxidant concentration in hot cocoa was almost twice as strong as red wine, two to three times stronger than green tea and four to five times stronger than black tea, a study at Cornell University determined.

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Q: Via lactea is the classical Latin name for which celestial body?

Q: In grammar, ‘the slimy snake slithered slowly’ is an example of what? Q: Is Helsinki the capital city of Norway, Sweden or Finland? A: Finland

A: The Milky Way

A: Yazz

Q: What is the highest Australian mountain?

Q: What did baseballer Babe Ruth keep under his hat to stay cool? A: A cabbage leaf

Q: Which singer had a hit with the 1988 dance track The Only Way is Up?

A: Alliteration

Fun Fact:

SOME dogs give their pet humans a run around, 7th Brigade Park, Chermside.

HOUSES UP: A recovery in the home building sector seemed to be taking hold, with approvals for houses gaining for the fifth month in a row. Approvals for fully detached houses rose 2.5% in May, seasonally adjusted, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. Total building approvals for new homes fell 1.1%.

A: Mawson Peak, on Heard Island, stands 2750m

C BE KIND: Please place me back neatly for the next person to enjoy. THANK YOU! Health FIGHT DEMENTIA: Keeping mentally active by reading books or writing letters helped protect the brain in old age. A lifetime of mental challenges led to slower cognitive decline after factoring out dementia’s impact on the brain, said a US study, published in Neurology.

Science SKULL MYSTERY: A centuries-old skull of a white man found near Taree in NSW in 2011 was raising questions about whether Captain James Cook really was the first European to land on the country’s east coast. Testing revealed it possibly belonged to a white man born around 1650, News Corp reported.

Business NET BOOM: Australian women’s fashion brand Kirrily Johnston lamented local boutiques were “dropping like flies” in tough retail conditions as it announced it was entering voluntary administration. It blamed “GFC issues” and “manufacturing bad luck”, Nine News reported.

Northern Life HIV GONE: Two patients had been taken off their HIV drugs after bone-marrow transplants seemed to clear the virus from their bodies, doctors at a US hospital reported. One of the patients had spent nearly four months without taking medication with no sign of the virus returning, BBC News reported.

Fun Fact THERE are 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and a German supercomputer calculated there were 500 billion galaxies in the universe. Source: BBC Schools online

TEST WIDENS: More women could now be tested for ovarian and breast cancer risk regardless of their family history. New national guidelines meant women aged 70 or under who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer could receive genetic testing to look for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.

Odd Spot PEOPLE’S closest friendships were formed with their colleagues – particularly if their workplace environment was stressful, research conducted by the Lancaster University in the UK concluded.

LIGHTING up the hockey field, Burringbar Park, Chermside. FACEBOOK BUG: British security researcher Jack Whitton uncovered a bug allowing him to take over someone else’s Facebook account via text message, a vulnerability that could have compromised millions of profiles. The researcher reported it to Facebook and earned a $20,000 reward from the company, Fairfax reported. BIRDS BRAINY: A species of Indonesian parrot had been found to solve mechanical problems that involved undoing a series of locks. The birds worked determinedly to sort one obstacle after another even though they were only rewarded with the nut once they had solved all five devices, Post.Jagran.com reported.

Fun Fact IF YOU drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side. Source: QI television show

PAYWALL UP: Fairfax implemented paywalls for the digital versions of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, meaning customers would have to pay if they viewed more than 30 articles a month. The metered subscription would apply to the websites, while tablet applications would use a “freemium” model, ABC News reported.

Did You Know? AT the Santa Rita do Sapucaí jail in Brazil, inmates can pedal to generate electricity in return for a cut in their sentences - a day off for every 16 hours of effort on bikes hooked up to batteries. COLES CAUGHT: Coles was fined $61,200 for selling imported fruit that it advertised as Australian-grown. Coles had displayed imported navel oranges and kiwi fruit underneath signs reading ‘Helping Australia Grow’ and displaying the triangular Australian Grown symbol.

Did You Know? AN original Apple-1 sold for $US640,000 at an auction in Germany in November. The computer was priced at $US666.66 (about $US2700 in current money) when made in 1976, The New York Times reported.

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Q: Which sea captain commanded the First Fleet to Australia?

Q: Which is the only state in the US that begins with the letter ‘P’? Q: Is jujitsu a Japanese martial art or paperfolding craft? A: Martial art

A: Wilbur Smith A: Arthur Phillip

A: Paul Newman

Q: Cut, clarity. colour, and carat set the value of which gemstone?

Q: Who wrote the novels Rage, Monsoon, Warlock, and Men of Men?

A: Pennsylvania

Q: Who starred in movies The Hustler, Hud, Harper, and Harry and Son?

A: A diamond