Lifestyle

Masters of the universe not all graduates

Sydney - Young people are always told to get a degree because a good education is a passport to a good job.

Up to a point.

Australian research on household income shows that those who skipped university and went straight into the workforce are not destined for dead-end jobs.

Melbourne University researchers have gone over census data and found that almost a quarter of men and almost 30 per cent of women who didn't complete high school were in the top half of the earnings scale in 2005.

Australian prisons not all that bad

Sydney - Australian prisons not all that badIt's not true that men who go to jail end up getting raped by sex-starved fellow inmates, research in Australia shows.

"We've shown that the whole belief that young and attractive people are likely to be raped in jail is a bit of a myth," Juliet Richters of Sydney's University of New South Wales said. "It's pretty safe these days, especially with the modern prisons with things like showers in cells."

Just 6 per cent of the male prisoners interviewed said they had had sexual contact, with 5 per cent of them saying sex was consensual.

Relaxation made easy - tips for wellness vacationers

Hamburg - The healthy properties of water is ancient knowledge that goes back at least to the Romans.

Vestiges of their thermal baths can be found all over Europe, and people today are rediscovering the meaning of the Latin phrase "sanus per aquam" (health through water).

Wellness travel accounts for 60 per cent of all trips taken primarily for health reasons, according to the European spas association in Brussels. Trips to spas and rehabilitation centres comprise the remainder.

More than any other age group, 35- to 50-year-olds or people who find themselves in the middle of their most difficult work years - increasingly are part of the boom.

Ajvar, tursija and sour cabbage - Serbia's winter delights

Belgrade - Walking down a street or riding an elevator in Belgrade on any given day in September, you are bound sense an aromatic cloud which may be unpleasant for foreigners, but invariably stirs the appetites of the locals.

The scent penetrating from a closed door tells whether a neighbour is frying peppers to store theme in a mixture of cooking oil, water and herbs or to combine them with mashed tomato and perhaps aubergine.

A balcony door may release the rich, sweet smell of plums cooked with sugar and a little water, while the pungent, sour aroma from a white plastic barrel locked away in a basement betrays the presence of sour cabbage. And the recipe books are brimming with other ideas.

Genetic map of Europe shows little diversity

Hamburg - Two international research teams have compiled a genetic map of Europe, revealing little genetic diversity between the various nationalities and closely resembling geographic boundaries.

The data, published by Classic Biology, reveal a genetic barrier between the Finns and the rest of Europe. This is not surprising because the relatively small Finnish population for generations lived nomadic lives almost isolated from the rest of Europe.

The researchers found that the genetic map closely resembled the pattern of three major human migrations mainly from the south.

Social networking, scheduling help beat university stress

Bremen, Germany - University studies can be strenuous. Since Germany's recent adoption of bachelor's and master's degree programmes shortening the time allowed to master the curricula, students, too, are now having to deal with considerable psychological stress.

"Some students are almost displaying signs of burnout syndrome already," remarked Elisabeth Medicus-Rickers, deputy chief of the psychotherapeutic counselling centre in the University of Bremen's student services department.

In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, Medicus-Rickers noted that the increasing time pressure had led to cases of exhaustion and sleep disorders.

"It's often hard [for students] to find time for leisure," she said.

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