Fun_People Archive
16 Oct
Polling, Hunting, and Running

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 97 13:27:33 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Polling, Hunting, and Running

Forwarded-by: Cal Herrmann <calani@netcom.com>
Forwarded-by: jemichae@othello.ucs.indiana.edu
Forwarded-by: rabberma@sas.upenn.edu (Kristine Lynn Rabberman)
Excerpted-from: Reuters Human Interest Briefs [Oct 15]

	 Population expert quizzes the dead

    BEIJING (Reuters) - An academic from Ghana surprised a world population
conference in Beijing by presenting research on family planning based partly
on interviews with the dead.
    Using soothsayers, Philip Adongo asked village ancestors for advice on
the ideal size of a family in a tribal area of the west African nation.
    ``If I only heard from the living, I wouldn't get a very good balance,''
he explained. ``This study has been the first to be conducted of respondents
who are deceased.''
    The study concluded that small families worked better in a modern society.
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	 Last great tiger hunter dies

    KHULNA, Bangladesh (Reuters) - A renowned Bangladeshi hunter who killed
61 tigers and survived several attacks has died of natural causes.
    Hunting of tigers, an endangered species in Bangladesh, has been banned
since 1972, but Pachabdi Gazi, who was 81, was often called on by the
government to shoot tigers that had killed villagers.
    Pachabdi had followed a family tradition and also killed at least 25
crocodiles and many wild boars to save human lives, his family said.
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	 World's first marathon robot prepares for race

    LONDON (Reuters) - A robot called Rogerr is bidding to become the first
robot in the world to race in a half-marathon.
    The three-wheeled, bathtub-shaped runner has been entered in a 13.1 mile
race later this month by students and professors of cybernetics at England's
Reading University.
    Rogerr, named after the first human under-4-minute miler, Roger
Bannister of Britain, is not expected to win the race -- mainly because he
is a heat-seeking robot who must follow rather than lead.
    ``He is going round with me, so we expect him to do six or seven miles
an hour and finish in about two hours, 10 minutes.  But it will be a world
record just finishing,'' said Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at
Reading.
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