Speech Materals

238 Now You See Me: How To See Without Glasses

Coke bottle eyeglasses and delicate contact lenses both accomplish the same task: They help you see. But what if you mis...
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237 Hospitals: UK vs Japan – Length of stay, language, birth, kids and pain relief

A stint in hospital anywhere can cause anxiety, but even more so when it occurs in an unfamiliar country. Non-Japanese p...
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236 Honda launches energy-efficient ‘Smart Home’ concept

Honda has launched the Honda Smart Home US, a sustainable housing project exploring the concept of zero net energy livin...
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235 A Close-up Look at Acupuncture for Pain

A growing number of Americans would prefer to stop popping pills and avoid going under the knife to treat a bum knee, ac...
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234 Tricks to Improve Your Memory

Blanking on names? Left your iPhone in a cab? There's no way around the fact that memory erodes as we get older. The hip...
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233 The Health and Work Benefits of Plants

Did you know that having plants in your office or home will help increase your productivity, concentration and health? S...
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232 Mistakes managers need to avoid when dealing with newly hired employees

TOKYO ? This past week, fresh-faced newcomers started working at companies throughout Japan. According to two articles i...
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231 Japan’s Biggest Crime Syndicate Has Its Own Website

In an effort to recruit new members and regain some mystique, the Yamaguchi- gumi has launched a website that shows just...
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230 Are Microapartments the Way of the Future?

If you live in a big city then you don’t have to be told that space is limited and that real estate prices are extortion...
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229 Unhealthy Habits that Are as Bad as Smoking

You don't smoke. You live a generally healthy life, so you're in the clear as far as unhealthy habits are concerned, rig...
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228 The joy of living with less

If you’ve ever fantasised about selling everything you own and paring down your possessions to the bare essentials, you’...
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227 Record-high 21,089 stalker cases reported in 2013

The number of stalking cases reported to police in 2013 exceeded 20,000 for the first time, reaching a record high 21,08...
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226 Lower back pain responsible for a third of work-related disability

Lower back pain linked to workplace factors accounts for a third of all work-related disability worldwide, according to ...
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225 Are Mondays Really That Bad?

Bad stuff does consistently happen on Mondays. Stock market returns are lower, suicides are higher and more people call ...
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224 World’s most expensive city is …

Move over Tokyo. Singapore has dethroned the Japanese capital to become the world's most expensive city in 2014, accordi...
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223 8 Ways To Boost Productivity And Break Out Of A Lazy Slump, Backed By Science

The start of the workweek could only mean one thing ? the commencement of the countdown to 5 p.m. on Friday. In the days...
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222 Robots will be smarter than us all by 2029, warns AI expert Ray Kurzweil

By 2029, computers will be able to understand our language, learn from experience and outsmart even the most intelligent...
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221 Read a novel in 80 minutes? There’s an app for that

If you've always wanted to read War and Peace, but thought you'd need to be some sort of superhero speedreader to make i...
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220 Is the ‘5 second rule’ for picking up dropped food safe?

The ‘five second rule’ suggests that food dropped on the ground is still safe to eat if it is picked up after five secon...
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219 How 19 Tech Titans Target Healthcare

Healthcare accounts for about 10 percent of global GDP, according to the World Bank. In the United States, where spendin...
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218 Factory meat, cruel and bad for us

Here's a thought to chew on: America's most intractable problems all double back to our collective mistreatment of anima...
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217 Cellphone Radiation: 5 Ways To Protect Yourself From Your Phone’s Potentially Harmful Emissions

Out of the seven billion people in this world, approximately six billion are avid cellphone users. Mobile phones have co...
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216 A Japanese Superhero Is Apparently Destroying Malaysia

Authorities in the country have banned an Ultraman comic book for "subverting public security" and undermining morals be...
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215 6 common renter mistakes

In the stress of hunting for that perfect apartment, it can be easy to slip up and get saddled with an onerous lease. Do...
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214 Would YOU eat sausages made from BABY POO? Spanish scientists say they boost good gut bacteria

Bacteria found in probiotics - Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium - are also found in abundance in baby poo. Spanish rese...
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213 The Right Way to Motivate Employees

It’s one thing for a CEO to be passionate and enthusiastic, but there’s a line of professionalism that must always be ma...
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212 Tobacco sale ban for US campus shops

One of the world's top universities is taking a smoking ban a step further this week, as Stanford University prohibits t...
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211 Technology may ‘transform’ healthcare treatments

In the future, people may be able to do medical check-ups from home instead of going to the hospital. Smartphones and ev...
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210 Remembering Japan’s kamikaze pilots

Japan hopes to immortalize its kamikaze pilots - a squad of young men who crashed their aircraft into Allied ships in Wo...
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209 Habits of Happy People

It pays to have a sunny disposition. Optimistic people have been shown to have healthier hearts, better stress-managemen...
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208 French police introduce drive-through police stations for people to report crime

For the residents of a small French town close to the Mediterranean reporting a crime will soon be as easy as picking up...
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207 Chinese cockroach farmers are making a bundle selling pulverized bugs for $89 per lb.

It turns out China has a booming trade in cockroaches that can earn as much as 1200 yuan per kilogram, or $89 per pound....
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206 Bhutan to cut fossil fuel imports 70%, embrace electric cars

The small, mountainous nation of Bhutan is getting in on the act. The same country that has made headlines for measuring...
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205 Air Turbulence: How Dangerous Is It?

Like long security lines and bad coffee, air turbulence is one of the headaches travellers face when they decide to boar...
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204 6 Ways to Humidify Your Home (Without a Humidifier!)

Are your clothes clingy in all the wrong ways this winter? Are allergies worse than usual? Kids taking far too much plea...
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203 Genetically-modified purple tomatoes heading for shops

The prospect of genetically modified purple tomatoes reaching the shelves has come a step closer. Their dark pigment is ...
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202 Gastronomic voyeurism is the latest craze in South Kore

WATCHING someone eat food via webcam is the latest craze in South Korea. A report by Reuters suggests this gastronomic v...
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201 Time’s up for siestas, delayed meetings and late nights, Spaniards told in effort to make them work better

Their three-hour lunch breaks have long been the envy of workers in neighbouring countries, their business meetings ofte...
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200 7-Eleven looks to U.S. to inspire online revolution

The 81-year-old Japanese executive who built 7-Eleven into the world’s biggest convenience store chain has a new mission...
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199 The Terrible Effects of Misdiagnoses

It is beyond troubling to know that misdiagnoses are still such a common threat, despite our latest medical advances. It...
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198 Where is the world’s most corrupt nation?

Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are seen as the most corrupt nations in the world, according to Transparency Intern...
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197 Scientists use lightning bolt to charge mobile phone

Some 200 years after Mary Shelley used lightning to breathe life into Frankenstein's monster, scientists have copied her...
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196 China to ease one-child policy, abolish labor camps, report says

China announced it will relax its decades-long one-child policy and abolish labor camps in an effort to improve human ri...
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195 NY Mayor Bill de Blasio mocked over eating a pizza

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio may have bitten off more than he could chew at a photo opportunity in a pizza restaurant. ...
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194 Amazon says drone deliveries are the future

In the not-too-distant future, Amazon deliveries could come by air directly to your doorstep. The online mega-retailer u...
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193 Battling Our Sedentary Lifestyle

Researchers Experiment With Techniques That May Lessen Sitting Time During Work We’re now hearing about the fatal risks ...
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192 Brain function ‘boosted for days after reading a novel’

Reading a gripping novel causes biological changes in the brain which last for days as the mind is transported into the ...
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191 Saudi women’s new campaign to end driving ban

Women who want the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to lift a de facto ban that prohibits them from driving have launched an onli...
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190 Wind Turbine Syndrome Blamed for Mysterious Symptoms in Cape Cod Town

Sue Hobart, a bridal florist from Massachusetts, couldn't understand why she suddenly developed headaches, ringing in he...
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189 ‘Tobacco-free’ plan for Republic of Ireland

The Irish health minister has published a plan to make the state "tobacco-free" by 2025. Dr James Reilly has defined a "...