Eye protection exercises: Fake science or eyesight saving tool?

In 1972 "eye protection exercises" (眼保健操) were introduced to schools across the entire nation to combat the mounting rate of myopia. The exercises comprise a set of massage moves supposedly based on the Chinese traditional medicine theory of 'channels', the same basis for acupuncture and reflexology. If you believe the theory, pressing the right channels with your fingers alleviates eye strains and prevents short-sightedness.

Today's The Beijing News printed a big photo showing pupils in Xisi North Fourth Alley Elementary school showcasing the moves of a modified set of "eye protection exercises" that is on trial in Beijing before rolling out to other provinces.

According to the newspaper article, a very important standard to evaluate the teacher's work is the rate at which their students are found to develop short-sightedness. Which may explain why the teachers are keeping a very close eye on their pupils to make sure that they do the "eye exercises" properly.

One teacher was quoted as saying that "most moves can be seen and monitored, but the "grab the land with your toes" section can not be seen, so you have no way to know if they are really doing it." The "grab the land" moves are done with the feet.

In each class, a model student was assigned to demonstrate the right moves to the rest of the students, while teachers corrected the students who could not do it in the right way. But sometimes, even the teachers got confused. "I am not very sure about the exact location of the Fengchi channel (风池穴)" said one teacher. Despite the videos and graphic guidance they have, the teacher hoped she could get more specific instructions.

For many people, the "eye exercises" are a nostalgic memory of school days, but they are attacked by skeptics as nothing but pseudoscience.

The most prominent among them, FANG ZHOUZI, is a science activist who made his reputation for exposing academic fraud and corruption. Fang has argued that there is no clinical or statistical evidence showing that the "eye exercises" have any effect on reducing myopia rates. Instead, they increase the chance of eye infection. Critics also charge that the Ministry of Education are making a profit from frequently modifying the moves of the "exercises" and forcing schools to buy tapes and video disks of the new versions.

European leaders agree on financial deal

Nicolas Sarkozy: Solid financial sector vital for healthy economy.

PARIS, France (CNN) -- The leaders of 15 European nations agreed on Sunday to shore up troubled banks as part of a broad plan to ease the global financial crisis.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the plan would refinance banks, guarantee interbank lending and ensure that troubled banks do not fail. It also will protect individual depositors' accounts and ease some regulations to give banks more flexibility.

The refinancing of the banks and the guaranteeing of interbank loans are good until the end of 2009.

"What we want is to give back banks the means to lend, to support the economy to enable households to borrow for mortgages or consumption and give companies the means necessary to invest for growth," Sarkozy said. "We cannot have a healthy economy and sustainable growth unless we have a solid financial sector."

Sarkozy announced the agreement after a meeting of leaders of the Eurozone countries, which use the euro currency. Sarkozy also holds the rotating European Union presidency.

European officials say the plan is not a gift to bank management and that managers, who contributed to the crisis should be held responsible. The refinancing will be made at market rates and will consider the financial health of the banks.

Each country will take slightly different approaches, because they have different laws and banking regulations, but their actions will be compatible.

"We have a tool kit and we will see what suits whom in order to achieve what we are setting out to achieve, which is to make sure that we don't have an economic crisis in addition to the financial crisis. We need to get things moving again, shifting again. And when things have calmed down, we'll go back to our basic training and responsibilities," Sarkozy said.

The leaders wanted to work quickly to reassure investors before the markets open on Monday.

Sarkozy said France, Germany and Italy will hold Cabinet meetings on Monday and will announce concrete plans.

"These measures will be implemented in France without delay," Sarkozy said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Sarkozy and other leaders before the summit and told reporters there was "common ground now about what needs to be done" to soothe the financial markets.

On Wednesday, officials from the Eurozone countries will present their plan to the rest of the European Union at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Sarkozy said that they would then urge the United States to hold an international summit to manage the crisis.

"The crisis didn't come from Europe. It began in the U.S. It has now become a worldwide crisis, and the issue of European structural institutions may be put on the table at some stage, but right now, we're dealing an emergency. And we have to reform urgently an international financial system that needs to be reformed,"he said.

World leaders vow to battle economic crisis

The IMF's Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Future action will be needed by world economic powers.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- World leaders, warning of a global economic downturn, pledged Saturday to work together to find solutions to what is unfolding as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

U.S. President George W. Bush and finance officials from the Group of Seven, Group of 20 and the International Monetary Fund -- gathering in the nation's capital -- vowed vigilance in helping economies around the world on the road to recovery.

Concerns about the solvency of banks and financial institutions in recent weeks "had pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director.

Strauss-Kahn said steps taken so far by the United States and European nations hadn't been fully effective and that more would be necessary in "the coming months."

For his part, Bush did not announce any new actions to stem the financial panic gripping the world, but reiterated measures world leaders are taking to strengthen financial systems.

"We recognize that the turmoil in the financial markets is affecting all our citizens," Bush said early Saturday morning. "All of us recognize this is a serious global crisis that requires a serious global response for the good of our people."

Both Bush and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spoke about the latest step being contemplated by the United States -- injecting much-needed capital into banks.

"In recent weeks, financial market turmoil intensified throughout the world and credit markets froze, causing a chain reaction resulting in non-financial companies experiencing difficulty in financing normal business operations," Paulson told an IMF meeting.

The Bush administration is considering whether to use the authority granted in the $700 billion rescue plan enacted on Oct. 3 to take ownership stakes in financial institutions to stabilize and restore confidence in them.

Other countries are also taking action to inject liquidity, protect citizens' savings and strengthen financial institutions in their own nations, he said.

Finance leaders from the world's top economies, the Group of Seven, pledged Friday night to take steps to keep leading institutions afloat, unfreeze credit, and ensure banks have enough capital to kick start lending and safeguard depositors' funds and restart the secondary markets for mortgages and other securitized assets.

Bush said that it is vital that countries work together so that their actions don't undermine others. He pointed to the emergency interest rate cut enacted this week as an example of a coordinated effort.

He plans to expand discussions beyond the G-7 ministers -- representing the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan -- to the leaders of the G-20 emerging market and industrialized nations.

"We're in this together, we'll come through this together," the president said.

But Bush warned that it will take time to see the results. So far, all the measures world leaders have taken have done little to calm jittery markets.

"The benefits will not be realized overnight," he said.

Bush made a surprise visit Saturday at a G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers.

Officials of the G-20 issued a statement late Saturday saying that the "global implications" of the crisis required international cooperation.

The G-20 is made up of rich and emerging nations that produce 90 percent of the world's economic output. The meeting in Washington came at Paulson's request. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was also in attendance.

IMF backs G-7 commitment

The IMF endorsed the G7's commitment to do everything possible to jumpstart the world's economies.

The IMF's Monetary and Finance Committee said in a statement that it "recognizes that the depth and systemic nature of the crisis call for exceptional vigilance, coordination, and readiness to take bold action."

Strauss-Kahn, of the IMF, said the downturn could be worse than anticipated.

"The world economy is now entering a major slowdown as a result of the most severe shock to mature financial markets since the 1930s, adding to pressure on global economies from high prices for oil and other commodities," Strauss-Kahn said.

The International Monetary and Finance Committee -- the steering arm of the IMF-- began its 18th fall meeting Saturday. The 185-nation IMF was created in 1945 to coordinate international financial stability efforts, aiming to avoid financial collapses.

The World Bank, which is a similar organization with a slightly different mandate, also started its fall meeting Saturday. It focuses on longer-term aid for troubled countries, investing in such things as infrastructure development.

Week of fear

The meetings in Washington cap a week in which fear gripped financial markets worldwide. The Dow Jones industrial average had its worst week ever, falling just over 1,874 points, or 18 percent. Wall Street lost roughly $2.4 trillion in market value during the week, according to losses in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, the broadest measure of the market.

Since the mid-September collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked the latest chaos in the financial markets, Bush has repeatedly tried to reassure the Americans.

"We can solve this crisis -- and we will," said Bush, in a speech at the White House Friday, his 27th commentary on the nation's financial health.

"Here's what the American people need to know: The U.S. government is acting, and we will continue to act, to resolve this crisis and return stability to our markets," he said.

The government has started taking a number of steps to attack the crisis, Bush said Friday. These include helping homeowners to refinance into more affordable mortgages; cutting the target for the federal funds rate; unveiling a plan to support the market for commercial paper; and offering government insurance for money market mutual funds.

The plan will authorize the Treasury to buy bad mortgage-related investments from finance companies, unfreezing the credit markets by freeing up banks and finance firms to lend once again.

转《NASA Remembers》

"The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked." So said Expedition 3 Commander Frank L. Culbertson, upon learning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

This image is one of a series taken that day of metropolitan New York City by the International Space Station's Expedition 3 crew that shows a plume of smoke rising from the Manhattan skyline.

Upon further reflection, Commander Culbertson said, "It's horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are."

转《9/11 a painful reminder》

Sonia Tita Puopolo holds a picture of her mother, Sonia Mercedes Morales Puopolo, who died aboard Flight 11 in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The daughter is wearing her mother’s ring, found in the wreckage.

The Bay State is set to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks today with several memorials, including a somber ceremony on the steps of the State House.

For Irene Ross of Jamaica Plain, whose brother Richard Ross was aboard Los Angeles-bound American Airlines [AMR] Flight 11, today is especially painful because she feels like much of the nation has forgotten the terrorist attack that claimed more than 3,000 American lives.

“I think people have moved on,” Ross said. “I’m heartbroken to think they’re not remembering. They’re going about their daily lives, which they’re supposed to, but they’re still supposed to remember.”

Ross will share the duty of reading victims’ names at the State House ceremony, which she’s done twice before.

Sonia Tita Puopolo of Miami is holding a 7 p.m. vigil today at the Boston Common bandstand to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which claimed the life of her mother, Sonia Mercedes Morales Puopolo, 58, of Dover, who was on Flight 11 on the way to the Latin Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, which she would have attended with her son, Mark.

“Of course it’s painful to remember that day,” Puopolo said. “But I need to look at how I can inspire people to heal.”

Carie Lemack, 33, of Framingham, whose mother, Judy Larocque, was also on Flight 11, will spend the day with family and friends, “remembering how she lived her life, not how it was taken from her.”

“She lived her life to the fullest, and that’s what she would want for us and for the two grandsons she never got to meet,” Lemack said.

Lemack was on her way back from attending a U.N. symposium on supporting victims of terrorism.

“I’m hoping part of my mom’s legacy will be that what happened to her will never happen again,” Lemack said.

转《Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang still a hero to China》

Liu Xiang shocked China after having to leave the men's 100m hurdles heat due to injury.


Liu Xiang's withdrawal from the hurdles because of an Achilles injury leaves the Chinese heartbroken and questioning whether he was under too much pressure.

BEIJING -- China's "Flying Man" is now its "Achilles."

In the moments after China watched Liu Xiang, its most popular Olympic athlete, limp away from the Games on Monday, grimacing with an injury, a reporter for the state-run television stood on the floor of the National Stadium and choked back tears.

Liu's exit shocked the country like no Olympic moment so far. His performance in the 110-meter hurdles was to have been a soaring moment in a national event decades in the making. Even as it racked up more gold medals than ever before, China pinned its national expectations on Liu, a Chinese sprinter of unprecedented gifts, to personify the triumph over China's deep-seated insecurity about its respect on the world stage.

Instead, the 25-year-old left a tearful nation struggling to understand what went wrong.

"He is still the king in our hearts," reporter Dong Ernan said into the camera. Broadcasting to hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers, the station's hosts invoked the ancient Greek known in Chinese as Ah-ke-liu-si, "a hero who also could not stand the pain in his heel."

It was an appropriate parable for Liu, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, who left the track during the first heat of his event because of an injured Achilles tendon.

More than any other athlete -- even more than Yao Ming, an NBA professional who lives most of the year abroad -- Liu's rise from international obscurity four years ago to a gold medal in Athens, and then movie-star status, had come to embody China's national aspirations for the Games and its intention to outperform wealthier, more established sports powers.

His withdrawal triggered soul-searching among Chinese fans who wondered whether they had placed too much pressure on a single athlete, and among sports experts, who asked how his injury could have been prevented.

The nation's official image-makers also moved swiftly to shore up pride in China's Olympic performance and defuse disappointment. A television anchor advised viewers that "the best way to comfort and support Liu Xiang is to continue to watch and support the other Olympic competitions."

Liu was the only Chinese athlete considered a contender for a gold medal in track and field in Beijing. Since winning his gold in Athens -- which he called, at the time, "a modest miracle for the yellow-skinned Chinese people and the Asian people" -- Liu had racked up endorsement contracts worth an estimated $20 million or more.

The son of a truck driver and groomed to run track since age 9, Liu was dubbed the Flying Man, and his image was slapped on buses, billboards and television advertisements from Beijing to the farthest reaches of China's west.

Liu had been dealing with a hamstring problem that forced him to pull out of a meet in New York on May 31. He had been training in seclusion since and dodging public appearances as anticipation built. Some newspaper commentaries had suggested that if Liu failed in Beijing, it would undermine his previous accomplishments.

The showdown was expected to come Thursday in the final of the 110-meter hurdles, when Liu would probably have faced Cuba's Dayron Robles, 21, who beat Liu's world record in the event this year.

But trouble emerged Sunday when Liu's official website posted news that "an inflamed Achilles tendon" had forced him to skip training Sunday and that his coach, Sun Haiping, worried about his fitness to run in the final.

Liu nevertheless emerged on the track Monday, wincing and massaging his right calf and foot. He settled into the blocks, but after another runner made a false start, Liu pulled off his number and left the track.

At a news conference afterward, the tearful Sun said a long-standing right foot injury had worsened recently. Three doctors had examined Liu in the run-up to the competition, he added, but Liu had intended to run.

"Liu Xiang persisted, but he honestly had no way to go on because the injury was right at the point of impact on his foot," Sun said, before being overcome with emotion.

Liu's injury quickly became enveloped in the vocabulary of national tragedy, not athletic competition. Signing off its live coverage, a state-television host said, "Liu Xiang, our message to you is this: We will forever be with you."

That kind of public emotional response was unusual in Chinese media until recently, and it has not been seen since the Sichuan earthquake in May killed tens of thousands of people. In that event, reporters wept on the air and screens were adorned with the logo "Unite as One." The experience came to be viewed by the Chinese people as a rare moment of public empathy in a nation unaccustomed to emotional outpourings for those who are not political leaders.

That collective empathy was visible once again in the response to Liu's withdrawal, said Yin Hong, a professor of communications at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

转《China's Track Superstar Drops Out》

China's Liu Xiang on the track at the Aug. 18 men's 110-m hurdles, minutes before dropping out with an injury



It was the race all of China — and, no, this is not journalistic hyperbole — was waiting for. On Aug. 18, under a hazy Beijing sky, Chinese megastar Liu Xiang was supposed to cruise to victory in heat six of the 110-m hurdles' first round. His competitors were, frankly, uninspiring — the man with the second fastest personal best, after Liu's 12.88 sec., was a Dutchman who had clocked in a relatively leisurely 13.35 sec. This was going to be the moment of glory for a man for whom a Beijing gold medal was the foremost wish among the Chinese people, according to a nationwide poll. A sea of Chinese flags waved. The Bird's Nest stadium thrummed with expectation.

But when the starting gun went off, Liu was missing from Lane 2. Minutes earlier, during a warm-up set of hurdles, Liu had grabbed his right leg, wincing in pain. As the 25-year-old returned to the starting blocks, his face was clenched in a grimace. The nearly 91,000-strong crowd, which had gathered at the Bird's Nest stadium to watch China's most beloved Olympic athlete, couldn't see Liu's contorted facial expression, so his fans continued to wave their national flags. Then, a false start. Liu took a few brave steps, but his leg seemed to crumple. Instead of returning to the blocks for another try, he slowly limped off the track. The TV cameras, which had nosed their way into the face of many a disgraced, disappointed athlete, kept a respectful distance. As a nation waited, Liu, icon of the Beijing Olympics and face of countless advertising billboards, sat backstage rubbing his leg. His race went on without him.

A Greek named Konstadinos Douvalidis won the heat with a time of 13.49 sec., but probably few in the stadium could recount that result. On Aug. 18, even though China had already surpassed its 2004 Athens golden haul by three medals, the nation was paralyzed with shock. Even the announcers on Chinese television didn't know what to say, letting silence wash over the airwaves. In postrace news wrap-ups, at least two Chinese journalists choked up, unable to describe what had just happened. The violin strains that accompanied montages of Liu's Olympic journey felt more suited to a state leader's funeral than to a race averted.

After winning a surprise gold medal in the 110-m hurdles in Athens four years ago, Liu morphed from amiable jock into national stud. In 2006 he shattered the event's world record with his 12.88 time. As an Asian athlete competing in a klieg-light track event — not an international sideline sport like badminton or table tennis or synchronized diving — Liu came to personify the Chinese nation's rising ambitions. The pressure for a golden repeat in China's Games must have been overwhelming.

Before the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, there was frenzied speculation in the Chinese blogosphere about who would carry China's flag and who would light the Olympic flame. The two obvious candidates were hoops star Yao Ming and hurdling legend Liu. When Yao loped in front of the massive Chinese Olympic team with the Chinese flag held aloft, the audience naturally thought Liu would carry the final torch. But that honor went instead to retired gymnast and sports-clothing tycoon Li Ning. Liu didn't even march with the Chinese Olympic delegation. Where was he?

Earlier this spring, Liu had disappeared from public view, nursing a sore hamstring that led him to pull out of a May race and triggered another injury to his Achilles tendon. By the start of the summer, the protective cocoon around the hurdler had reached epic proportions. In June, Dayron Robles, a bespectacled Cuban, shaved one-hundredth of a second off of Liu's world record. The Chinese was going into the Beijing Olympics as the underdog. (Robles easily won his Beijing heat less than an hour before Liu was scheduled to compete, while medal contender Terrence Trammell of the U.S. failed to finish his race because of an injured leg.)

At a press conference shortly after Liu pulled out, Liu's coach Sun Haiping, who has mentored the Shanghai-born athlete since he was a child, dissolved into tears. Dabbing his eyes with a tissue, he described how Liu's hamstring and Achilles tendon had caused excruciating pain and how sports hospital staff had tried intensive massage to heal the injuries. But it was of no use. The throbbing, exacerbated by a training session two days before, was so severe that the hurdler was shivering during rehab treatments. Liu was determined to compete unless the pain was "intolerable," said Feng Shuyong, China's head athletics coach. Apparently, it was. Mighty Liu Xiang had dropped out.