Michael ramses

If the weather cooperates, people along a narrow path who venture out and look up will see stars during the day as the sun is gradually devoured and ultimately  blotted out by the moon.

Unlike ancient times, when eclipses were viewed as bad omens in many cultures, fewer people should be expecting doom this time around. Still, myths persist, especially in remote regions, so it’s likely there will be some banging on pots and other creative tactics employed to drive the “evil spirits” away.

Billions of people along the path, including most of Europe and Asia, have a chance to see an interesting but much less foreboding partial eclipse. The northern half of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces will be graced with a partial eclipse at sunrise.

Myth and mystery

Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves in front of the sun. This can happen only at the time of a new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun. When the three objects align perfectly an eclipse occurs.

Before there was a scientific explanation for eclipses, myth and mystery was pervasive.

Many cultures thought a demon or dragon was devouring the sun.

In ancient China, “any unusual phenomenon involving celestial bodies was noted for potential omens, either good or bad, that might befall the current Emperor,” according to Sten Odenwald of the department of physics at Catholic University. An eclipse occurred in 2134 B.C., but was not predicted by Hsi and Ho, who were believed to have been two astrologers who served the Emperor Chung K’ang.

“By some accounts, the two astrologers were negligent in their duties and did not foretell the event for the Emperor,” Odenwald writes in a historical article published by NASA. “They were summarily beheaded for their negligence of duty.”

The ancient Chinese banged pots and drums to shoo the frightful sun-eating character away, according to the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco. In India, people would immerse themselves in water to help the sun fight the dragon.

Even nowadays many myths persist. In Egypt, as one example, children are often kept indoors with windows covered or shades drawn during an eclipse.

Prior to a total solar eclipse in 2006, one Indian paper advised pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse to avoid having a blind baby or one with a cleft lip. Food cooked before the eclipse was to be thrown out afterward because it would be impure and those who are holding a knife or ax during the eclipse would  cut themselves, the Hindustan Times added.

In Togo, authorities prior to the 2006 solar eclipse called on villagers to stay home. “Please, do not go out and keep your children indoors on solar eclipse day,” Togo’s minister for health said in a message broadcast on state television.

Risk of eye injury

Eclipses can indeed be dangerous.

Despite myths and rumors, a total solar eclipse is safe to watch during the darkness of totality, when no rays of the sun are passing to your eyes. The corona, or atmosphere of the sun, is often partly visible when the moon blocks out the main disk of the sun. Viewing the corona during totality also is safe.

However, looking directly at the sun, even during a partial eclipse, will damage your eyes unless you wear proper eye protection. It is extremely dangerous to eyesight to look directly at an eclipse at any stage expect during totality.

Glasses designed specifically for eclipse viewing are recommended, or a handful of indirect viewing methods can be used:

With masking tape, cover all but a 1/2-inch square of a small mirror. Project the sun onto a shaded wall. Or with a pencil, poke a small hole in a piece of paper. Let sunlight fall trough the hole onto a second sheet of white paper about a foot below.

Early in adult life, women are more likely than men to fulfill their family life and financial aspirations, leading to greater overall happiness.

Later in life, however, the tables turn and men report coming closer to reaching their goals for consumer goods and family life. Men are more satisfied with their financial situation and family life, and are happier than women in later life, the study shows.

Here are some age milestones found in the study, detailed in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies:

* 41: Age at which men’s financial satisfaction exceeds women’s financial satisfaction.
* 48: Age at which men’s overall happiness exceeds women’s overall happiness.
* 64: Age at which men’s satisfaction with family life exceeds women’s satisfaction.

Marriage and money

In two nationally representative surveys of men and women in the United States, the researchers found that happiness and satisfaction with life boil down to the gap between what you want and what you have. And since both factors vary throughout life, so does a person’s respective sense of well-being.

In their early 20s, about 90 percent of men and women say they want to be happily married. That comes sooner for women, who get married at a much earlier age than men on average, contributing to higher satisfaction with family life, the study results show.

It’s the shortfall between wanting a happy marriage and actually attaining it that translates into a cheery outlook in that part of one’s life.

“For men it’s less of a shortfall when they are older, because that’s when they tend to be married and when women have already experienced things like divorce and widowhood,” said lead researcher Anke Plagnol, a sociologist and economist at the University of Cambridge in England.

At age 39, men and women in the study showed about the same shortfall between their aspirations and attainments for a happy marriage. Even so, women’s satisfaction with family life stayed boosted until about age 64, as compared with men’s life satisfaction. Children could be the key to their fulfillment, Plagnol said.

“For women, often children are very important and more fulfilling than for men, so that can be something that sustains their satisfaction with family life,” she said.

Plagnol and researcher Richard Easterlin, an economist at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, found a similar phenomenon for a person’s financial satisfaction. Early in life, women are more likely to fulfill their aspirations for big-ticket material items, such as a home, car and vacation home. One reason for the material boon: Women in the United States tend to marry slightly older men at a young age.

“Usually people who are married have a better financial situation since often they have double incomes,” Plagnol said. “They also are more likely to fulfill their financial aspirations.”

The study also found that both men and women believe they need more to be happy as they get older. For example, when asked to choose from a list of 10 items the things they think they will need to achieve happiness, young men and women tended to choose three or four. These items included everything from a home, a car, children, or really nice clothes.

In contrast, older men and women picked an average of six items.

Preferences change

The results of the study not only speak to happiness levels of men and women - they also contain a message for economists and even public policy makers.

For one, stuff doesn’t equal happiness.

“It’s generally assumed, including by public policy makers, whether you’re healthy and you own a lot of stuff are the two most important things in whether you are satisfied in life,” said Gregg Easterbrook, who was not involved in the study. “And research consistently does not find this, including this study.” Easterbrook is author of “The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse” (Random House, 2004) and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute.

It said Hwang’s request was turned down by the country’s national committee on bioethics. The health ministry declined to comment on the report but said it would brief the media on Friday.

“He engaged in unethical and wrongful acts in the past and the committee decided to reject it,” a source who took part in the committee meeting was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

“One committee member strongly argued that it would bring shame on the whole country,” the source said.

Hwang’s claims that he created the first human stem cells through cloning were ruled to be bogus, and he is banned from research using human eggs.

But the scientist is now engaged in animal cloning at the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, which in December asked for the green light to begin a new embryonic stem cell research project using aborted human eggs.

Still on trial for fraud, embezzlement, ethical breaches and other charges, Hwang has insisted in court that he could prove he created the first cloned human stem cells.

Such cells could potentially be used to treat difficult or incurable diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s.

The Yonhap report sent bio-tech stocks tumbling on the South Korean stock market.

Bristol-Myers, the largest shareholder in ImClone with a 16.6 percent stake, said it would pay 60 dollars per share, a premium of 29 percent on ImClone’s closing share price of 46.44 dollars Wednedsay, for the remaining shares.

ImClone, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in cancer drugs, did not immediately respond to the offer.

Bristol-Myers pointed out that its offer was 40 percent higher than the average closing share price for the most recent one-month period.

The two companies have had relationship for nearly seven years and Bristol-Myers has exclusive, long-term marketing rights to ImClone’s blockbuster cancer treatment Erbitux in the United States.

Bristol-Meyers made the offer in a letter to billionaire investor Carl Icahn, chairman of the ImClone board.

The deal “represents a strategically and financially sound add-on to our business,” wrote James Cornelius, chairman and chief executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Bristol-Myers said its board of directors had approved the offer and it saw no regulatory concerns.

Shares in Bristol Myers fell 1.77 percent to 21.13 dollars in midday New York trade, while ImClone skyrocketed 37.75 percent to 63.78.

The move came less than two weeks after Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche offered 43.7 billion dollars to acquire the remaining shares in Genentech, a biotech pioneer also specializing in cancer treatments.

The peak of the eclipse occurred in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city.

There, forecasts of cloudy skies proved wrong, and tens of thousands of people who had flocked to the center of town were able to observe the rare total eclipse of the sun — which lasted two minutes, 23 seconds — in its full beauty.

Traffic stopped. Crowds wearing protective eye wear cheered and whistled as the moon covered the sun, the wind died and day became night.

Lucas Heinrich, a physics student from Berlin who traveled to Novosibirsk with classmates, described the eclipse as “unbelievable.”

“It became cold and dark, and suddenly it was light again. I am very happy — it was worth the trip,” Heinrich said.

The NTV news channel reported that more than 10,000 foreign tourists arrived in Novosibirsk, the largest city in the eclipse’s path, to watch.

The eclipse began in Arctic Canada, then passed through Greenland, western Siberia, Mongolia and China.

In Novosibirsk, the airport announced that it turned on nighttime landing lights during the total and partial darkness, which lasted more than two hours.

At the city zoo, polar bears and white tigers suddenly lay down to sleep. A snow leopard grew restless and ran around its cage until the sun reappeared.

Cloudy weather in other parts of Western Siberia prevented many people from enjoying the spectacle.

Viewers were repeatedly warned to prevent eye injuries by wearing protective glasses, which sold throughout Novosibirsk for 50 rubles (US$2.10, euro1.40).

In Moscow, half the sun was blocked, but cloud cover prevented Muscovites from viewing the partial eclipse.

People have been recording solar eclipses for perhaps 4,000 years, and they typically inspire a combination of dread, fascination and awe.

According to NASA, the next total eclipse will occur July 22, 2009, starting in India and moving across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and over the Pacific Ocean.