In the Eye of the Beholder

The canadian town of Clemesport, Nova Scotia, has had a controversy about on man's art. Dou Duckrel, a used clthing salesman, hung 400 neckties in a tree and called it art. His neighbors disagreed. They called it ugly, vulgar and unsightly. The ties. Hanging in the tree for over a year, became worm and tatterd. Finally, after receiving six anonymous complaints, the county warden ordered Duckrel to remove the ties. He called them dangerous. They could distract drivers and cause acidents. Art or not, road safety settled the controversy.

This is what I first saw when I glanced at a telephone pole on 31st and Hennepin in Uptown Minneapolis the other day. A nice street-art project, I thought. A simple intervention that reminds us to live a verdant life, to embrace lushness and welcome abundance--and even tear a piece off. Or something.
Of course, I was a little skeptical: is this an ad for a band or a day spa? Am I being suckered by a buzz marketing campaign, some scheme to be paid off, eventually, by an ad for malt liquor?
I went back, this time with plenty of time and a camera. Here’s what I found.
Not sure which interpretation I prefer.

The Incredible Machine

The human body is an incredible machine. Bow there is new CD-ROM computer program that will take you inside the human body. It's called Adam, the Inside Story. It was disigned for medical schools, but it's now availavle for Mac and Windows users at home. It took three and a half years to develop and displays 3,600 anatomical structures with specific examples, such as how food is swallowed and what happens when a bee stings. It's interactive too. Kids will love the 12-piece puzzle of the skull!

Hearing is Believing

California's Livermore Laboratory was once a center or nuclear-weapons research. Now it is turning to peaceful research. It's developing an urban navigation system that will give new freedom of movement to the seeing impaired. The system combines solar-powered "smart tags" attached to buildings and tiny transceicers carried by the user. The smart tags send a coded message to the transceiver, which carries the database of imformation. The user then hears the information on his tranceiver. The ststem will go international once manufacturers agree on universal codes.

Russian Style Relief

Life in Russia has never been easy, but in the last few years it has become downright dangerous. The transition to capitalism is producing a high level of stress and new ways of dealing with it. For example, there's paintballs, a war game for adults with guns that shoot paintballs, not bullets. At $200 for entrance and rental, it's very popular and profitable. For those who need a more drastic relief form stress, there's bungee jumping. It's the new fad that appeals to the nearly suicidal.

Preserving Traditions

In Atlanta, Georgia, there is a new trend at a very taditional Japanense school for the children of Japanese businessmen. What's changiing is the student body. About 20 percent of the students are Americans. Taking the opportunity for language immersion and an international education, they participate in everything - even the regular English classes. For the teachers the big challenge is keeping international harmony while maintaining a sense of competition to prepare the Japanese students for Japan's tough university entrance exams.

Canadian Ginseng

Canada, a rising producer of quality ginseng, has about 10 percent of the world market. Ginsengs has been produced in Ontario for about 100 years. Thirteen years ago, a farmer in British Columbia replaced two hectares of alfalfa with ginseng. Since then production has doubled and tripled. Long fabled for for strengthening the body, the memory and the immune system, ginseng also stimulates the economy. Dried ginseng fetches a staggering $100 per kilo, or ablut $34,000 a hectare, many times what alfalfa could generate.

Massage for Moms

Pregnancy may be beautiful, but it can also be a pain in the neck, the back and just about everywhere else. So mother-to-be are going for massages with licensed massage therapist avoids points that stimulate labor, but during labor they work those points hard. The goal of massage is to give berth without a lot of medical intervention. Skeptical hospital staff is being won over, as are the mothers.

Tools Library

Most libraries lend books to build the mind. But there's a library in Berkeley, California, that lends tools to build or repari almost anything. The tool library was set up in 1979 with a $30,000 federal grant, and is supported by local property taxes. The servive is free to help low-income familes improve theri homes, their property values and their lives. There are 2,500 tools available. If information on how to use the tools is needed, the library next door has all the how to do it books.

Big Habits Die Hard

China has the world's biggest tobacco habit : 220 million cartons of cigarette are sold every day. The country's 300 million smokers are growning by 300,000-400,000 a year. That's good news for the Chinese government, which profits form the stateowned tobacco monopoly. Tobacco, China's largest industry, produces revenues close to 5 billion U.S. dollars a year. Growing sales in China help offset declining sales at home,. With profit a clear motive, it's obvious why little is done to discourge the habit.

Going Strong in L.A

In Los Angeles, the ancient board game of Go is attracting hundreds of new players. Legend says Go was invented by a Chinese emperor 4,000 years ago, then spread all over the world. For 24 years the L.A. Go Club has been fostering American aficionados by offering group lessons and staying open 24 hours a day. Some players commit 10 to 15 hours a week studying and praticing this mental martial art. Its mine bais rules are easy to understand, but the variations and strategies take a lifetime to master.

Baby, Think It Over

An innovative form of birth contrl has been introduced into a San Diego high school. It's called Baby-Think-It-Over, a 10-pound life-like doll that the grils can take home for the weekend. Baby is programmed to cry at random about every four hours. The "mother" must "feed" Baby for 20 minutes to make it stop crying. The doll teaches teenage girls that caring gor a baby creates a total change of lifestyle. By the end of the weekend, Baby has proven its point:Having a baby isn't child's play.

The Tummy Tuck Comes to Russia

Cosmetic surgery has come to Russia and the benegits are two-fold. The first to benefit are Russian women. They are noted for their beauty, but it is short-lived. As they gain in years they also gain weight. Cosmetic surgery helps them regain that beauty fairly cheaply. A tummy tuck costs about $150. The second to benefit are the other less fortunate patients in the plastic surgery wards. Their lives depen on life-saving plastic surgery. These operations are financed by the cosmetic surgery.

The Havana Hat Trick

'Hat trick' used to be a sports term. Now there is the 'Havana Hat Trick' - a creatve way to bend the arilines' baggage weight limits on flights going to Cuba. The trade embargo makes life in Cuba hard, and the people need everything. Their American relatives are willing to help, which includes wearing several layers of clthes, carrying towels in jacket sleeves, stuffing a teddy bear with underwear or even wearing a rice cooker as a hat. The passengers looks eccentric and gaudy but the 'hat trick' does the job.

The Vanishing Koala

Australia is fast losing one of its best loved symbols, the koala. While millions of these shy, sleepy-looking animals used to inhabit the wilds of east Australia, there may be only 100,000 left. Koalas have been protected from hunting for seventy years but they haven't been protected from the expanding human population. Australia's ethos of clearing the untamed land has decimated the koals's favorite gum tree. Bush fires earlier this year further devastated the population. Wihtout effective action now, wild koalas will have vanished by the year 2010.

Wheelcharis for the Outdoors

John Castelano, a California enginner, is putting wheelcahirs into the great outdoors. His off-road wheelchairs for the disabled can go on the beach or race down mountainsides. One was even pulled behind a mule 18,000 feet up in to Tibetan Himalayas. Castelano takes 56 different measurements to custom-build each chair. With handlebars and disc brakes, they track like a car. Taking one down a mountainside is not without risks, and spills can happen. But for some, the adventure is worth the risks.

American Tea Party

Tea is staging a revolution in America. More and more people are drinking tea at break time. Most of the new comsumption is herbal tea, which is caffeine free. Even regular black teas like Earl Gray have only a third of the caffeine that coffe has. Leading the revolution is Celestial Seasonings, which has been selling herb teas for 20 years. They now sell 40 flavors and are testing new flavors every day. The newest hor seller is flavored ice tea, which is replacing hor tea as well as coffee.

From Sao Paulo to the World

A little girl is at the center of a multi-million dollar empire in Brazil. She's Monika, a bucktoothed cartoon character whose slef-reliance has inspired little girls for 30years. Her crator, Moudisio da souza, has turned her popularity into a $250 million-a-year business. His magazines sell 25 million copies a year, a Monika theme park attracts 150,000 children each month, and licenses have been snapped up for 3,500 products. Now da Souza feels that Monika is ready to go international. She has that kind of appeal.

Snapshots from the Homeless

A Hunter College student took a unusual angle on studying homeless, he gave them cameras so they could take pictures of themselves. It was a chance for sel expression. They photographed themselves, their friends, their homes and tourists. Each person was given $5 when they took the disposable camera and $10 when they rerurned it. Of the 23 cameras given out, 15 were returned. The results were displayed at Hunters College, and the photographers received enlargemets of their favorite photo.

Motherhood is Tough Job.

In California, a minor incident has stirred up a hornet's nest. When Lockerin registered to run for Congress, the law stated that she could not include being a mother or her list of jobs. Now she has started a campaign to change the law and give motherhood legal recognition as a job. Motherhood is a tough job, she says, and estimates it would cost $68,000 a year if professionals were hired to repace a mother. Ms. Lockerin wants motherhood to get the social benefits and respect is deserves.

Getting the Smell Out

No one likes to talk about bad breath, but it can be a serious medical and socail problem. People avoid being close to someone with bad breath. To attack this antisocial problem, a dentist in Missouri has opened a clinic to diagonose and treat bad breath. With specail equipment, he can pinpoint the cause. He says a dirty tongue or infected sinuses or tonsils are leading causes. He recommends brushing the tongue every day to remove plaque and bacteria. There's more to getting at bad breath than mouthwash.

Innovative CAre for Pets

In Edmonton, Canada, a chiropractor and a veterinarian have teamed up to provide drugfree alternative health care for pets. One day a week, the chiropractor adjusts animals' spines to give them pain-relieving tune-ups. The veterianarian gives pets acupuncutne treatment. The pets and their owners are very happy with the innovative treatment. Professionals, however, aren't happy because, they caution, there are no standards for such treatment. So far, the techniques must be acquired in the U.S. as there are no schools teaching them in Canada.

From Resistance to Acceptance

On the island of Guam, Japanese have learned to be flexible about their rice. Guam is an American territory, and in retaliation for Japan's strict ban on imported rice, it is illegal to import Japanese rice. Twenty-five years ago, the chef at Guam's first sushi bar flew in Japanese rice illegally until a typhoon stopped a shipment and forced him experiment. He found American rice quite acceptable, as did his customers. California rice is now so popular tourists can take home a souvenir bag for just $5.

Grave Robbers

A worldwide demand for antiquities is causing archeologists to worry. In Jordan, local farmers are earning a little extra money by robbing ancient graves of common people form the Byzantine and Bronze ages. They find bits of pottery, buckes and buttons which might net them a few dollars. Later these items will be sold in auction houses for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Archeologists claim this black market is destroying the past. When archeologists dig, they record information about their finds but grave robbers record nothing.

KoKo's Romance

When Koko, a 22-year-old gorilla, wanted to start a faily, she simply told her handlers. Koko comuunicates with American sign language and understands 2,000 spoken English words. The first mate she chose through video dating was Bongo, from the Rome Zoo, but his keepers would not let him leave. Her next choice was Endume. Their romance is progressing nicely, but there's a problem here too. A developer may start cutting timber on the property just 100 meters from koko's house. The noise could spoil all the carefully laid plans.

The Family Bed

The parents' bed is often a safe haven for children with bad dreams. Regularly sharing the parents' bed, however, has been discouraged in Western culture for about 100 years. Sleeping alone is though to buld independence and slf-reliance. Advocates of the family bed say sleep sharing is a pleasure and promotes family bonds. Chilren like the comfort and security. Whith the number of cases of child abuse, sleep sharing is not publicly discussed. Psychologists say the family bed is fairly uncommon, and even advocates say it is not or everyone.