Dutch channel plans sperm donor search show
New Dutch commercial television channel Talpa is planning to broadcast a show called I want your child and nothing else featuring a single woman who gets to choose a sperm donor to father her child, Dutch media has reported.
The program is initially a one-off that will be aired on August 23 with viewers allowed to vote on whether it should stay on the air, the Algemeen Dagblad daily reported.
The idea for the "Spermshow", as Dutch media are calling it, was already launched once in 2001 but caused a storm of protest in the Netherlands even leading to questions in Parliament.
The idea was shelved but now it will be re-used by Talpa.
The channel has launched a television competition allowing five television producers to show one episode of a new tv show.
Viewers then get to vote on which show can stay on the air.
SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday.
The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.
Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.
"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.
Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.
After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.
He died a few minutes later, it said.
South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has a large and highly developed game industry.
Specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences decided to establish a new project entitled �Barcodes of flora and fauna in Russia.� The project continues the initiative of the world Consortium the Barcode of Life (CBOL), established in 2004.
The consortium currently incorporates 69 organizations from 31 states: natural-science museums, zoos and herbariums, research institutes, governmental agencies, etc. The consortium was established to preserve the biological diversity of species on Earth. Scientists believe, however, that it is extremely important to possess the biological database of animals and plants living on planet Earth before it could be systematized and encoded.
The consortium is working on the joint system of information, which will allow to make an inventory of all animals and plants living on planet Earth (microorganisms do not count), and help identify the newly discovered species as well.
