Bebo speak: Teenagers create secret language to keep parents and bosses in the dark

By Daily Mail Reporter

Teenagers on social networking site Bebo have created a secret language to stop adults knowing what they are up to (posed by model)


Teenagers on social networking site Bebo have created a secret language to stop adults knowing what they are up to, researchers say.

Youngsters are using slang words to keep parents and employers in the dark about their social activities such as partying and drinking.

Instead of writing they are drunk, teens post 'Getting MWI' - or mad with it.

Being in a relationship is known as 'taken' or 'Ownageeee', and 'Ridneck', a corruption of redneck, means to feel embarrassed.

Meanwhile, girls posting 'Legal' are indicating that they are above 16 and legally allowed to have sex.

Lisa Whittaker, a postgraduate student at the University of Stirling, who studied teens aged 16-18 in Scotland, said the slang had been created to keep their activities private, and cited the example of one young girl who was sacked after bosses found pictures of her drinking on the website.

She said: 'Young people often distort the languages they use by making the pages difficult for those unfamiliar with the distortions and colloquialisms.

'The language used on Bebo seems to go beyond abbreviations that are commonly used in text messaging, such as removing all the vowels.


'This is not just bad spelling, which would suggest literacy issues, but a deliberate attempt to creatively misspell words.


'The creation and use of their own social language may be a deliberate attempt to keep adults from understanding what is written on the page.

'By doing this they are able to communicate with their in-group and conceal the content from the out-group. This further adds to their online identity.'

She said that one reason for encoding their messages was to keep adults in the dark about their drinking or smoking.

One teen she questioned, known as Kelly, was fired when her employer found pictures of her drinking on the website.

Ms Whittaker said: 'Kelly feels very bitter about losing her job over the content of her Bebo page.

'When I ask her to tell me about it she uses the word "judge", which indicates that she feels victimised by her ex-employers.

'This issue here surrounds the fact that Kelly likes to drink at the weekends, even though she is still under the legal age.

'She posted videos of herself drunk on her Bebo page, which led her employers to sack her.

'Kelly feels her personal life is separate from her working life, which may be the case, but by posting videos online her Bebo page has given her employer an insight into behaviour which may have otherwise remained private.

'Young people give each other recognition for going to college and having a job but also engaging in social activities such as drinking and smoking.

'Others may see this as a divergence, for example, a young person is labelled a delinquent for drinking alcohol while underage.

'However, these young people are able to recognise each other for both socially desirable and undesirable behaviours.'

She went on: 'Social networking sites like Bebo provide young people with an opportunity to gain informal positive recognition from their peer group.

'The total number of friends you are connected with indicates your popularity.

'However, in terms of self-presentation and recognition this is not a straightforward process.

'For young people, a low number of friends, for example, less than 500, is a sign that you are not very popular or very well-liked.

'By contrast, having too many friends can also be detrimental to your self-image as you appear desperate.

'The number of friends you have on Bebo must be a carefully monitored.

'It seems young people are creatively developing their internet literacy to keep certain information private from unwanted and unintended audiences while simultaneously gaining recognition and boosting their self-esteem through online interactions with their peers.'

She is due to present her research at a seminar at the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data and Methods in Cardiff tomorrow.


source :dailymail

How microwaves could save you from a mastectomy

By Pat Hagan

Advance: Microwaves, like those used for heating food as pictured here, can also cook breast tumours
A new breast cancer treatment that uses microwaves to ‘cook’ tumours could save thousands of women from mastectomies.

Scientists pioneering the technique, called focused microwave thermotherapy, claim it can reduce the number of women needing a breast removed by up to 90 per cent.

Research shows the microwave treatment is especially effective when given at the same time as chemotherapy.

Heating a tumour up to 50c not only destroys cancer cells, but also seems to simultaneously boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs.

A new study shows that even in women with large tumours - greater than 5cm in diameter - a mastectomy can be avoided by combining the two treatments.

This means surgeons can carry out a lumpectomy, a procedure where only the cancerous growth is removed, rather than the whole breast.

Numerous clinical trials are investigating microwave therapy, but it is unlikely to be routinely available Britain for several years.

Scientists spearheading its use are confident it will radically reduce the need for mastectomy - currently about one in three women diagnosed with the disease undergoes this surgery.

Researchers first became interested in the power of microwave energy to treat cancer more than a decade ago.

Tumours have a high water content, which makes them perfect for ‘boiling’ to temperatures where they self-destruct.

But the problem has been avoiding burning healthy surrounding tissue.

This has largely been overcome with the development of focused microwave therapy, where the heat is targeted on one spot.

Treatment time depends on the temperature. But at 50c, it can be just two minutes.

The latest research, carried out at Oklahoma University Cancer Institute in the U.S., shows that in women with large growths - who almost always end up with a mastectomy - tumours shrank by 88per cent when microwaves were used at the same time as chemotherapy. On its own, chemotherapy reduced them by only 58 per cent.

Jean Slocombe, senior cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK, said: ‘This research is in the early stages.

‘More research is needed before we can know how useful this treatment is.’


source: dailymail

Lost Amazon civilisation revealed after forests cleared for cattle grazing

Aerial photograph and plan of the Fazenda Colorada site, which is made up of clear geometric shapes. Excavations suggest inhabitants lived in the three-sided square.


Hundreds of geometric monuments unearthed deep in the Amazon may have been left behind by a previously unknown society, say scientists.

Archaeologists have found more than 200 earthworks shaped as perfect circles and squares, many connected by straight roads. They have dated one site to 1283AD but say others could be from as early as 200AD.

The earthen foundations were found in a region more than 150miles across, covering northern Bolivia and Brazil's Amazonas state.

The first ones were uncovered in 1999, after large areas of pristine forest was cleared for cattle grazing.

Sculpted from the clay rich soils of Amazonia, the earthworks are made up of 30ft wide and 10ft deep ditches alongside 3ft high walls. The largest ring ditches founds so far are 1,000ft in diameter

The earthen structures or 'geoglyphs' can now be spotted against the treeless, savanna-like landscape and scientists have compiled an archive using Google Earth.
A team of researchers have analysed all the findings in a paper published in the journal Antiquity.

They found that most earthworks were clustered on a 200m high plateau at the top of river valleys. This would have given inhabitants a defensive advantage with a clear view of people coming up river. Most were also placed near spring water sources.


Aerial photograph of the Fazenda Parana site. The geometric shape indicates such places had high symbolic significance


The researchers hypothesised that the monuments may also have had a ceremonial function, due to the highly symbolic geometric shapes used.

Co-author Denise Schaan from Federal University of Pará in Brazil, said: 'Whether the sites were purely ceremonial or defensive, it is clear that the area was densely populated by relatively sedentary people at the eve of European contact.'

Ms Schaan said they estimated at least 300 people would be needed to build a geoglyph when taking both workers and domestic helpers into account. This points to a regional population of around 60,000 people.

She added that nearly ten times as many earthworks may exist undetected under the remaining forest.

Excavations at some sites have also revealed evidence of permanent habitation, including domestic ceramics, charcoal and grinding stone fragments.

The findings cast serious doubt on previous studies that stated the area could only support small, impermanent villages.

Instead it is likely the Amazon teemed with complex societies. These were probably wiped out by diseases brought to South America by colonists 500 years ago.





source: dailymail