Category: Historical Perspectives

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Discoveries

Flesh-eating bug spreads by sneezing

Flesh Eating Bug Spread by Sneezing

It is now more important than ever to cover your mouth when sneezing.

A flesh-eating bug, which has been known about for years, has gotten so virulent it can now be spread by sneezing and coughing. Doctors suspect new victims caught the virus on buses or trains and enclosed spaces like elevators.

Although the flesh-eating bug has been documented for several decades, most patients suffering from its effects caught the strain in hospitals where treatment contained the spread and was relatively confined and hard to catch.

But the bacteria strain, an MRSA known as USA300, has become so powerful it can now be spread by sneezing. Even worse, the virus is spreading just by shaking hands…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Entertainment, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News

Congress and the EU are fighting to change Google’s privacy policy

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Are you ready for Google’s new privacy policy?

Google’s new privacy policy has already caused a stir among users. Now, Congress and EU regulators are sniffing around the changes and aren’t happy about them — but Google doesn’t seem to care in the slightest.

According to The Hill, house lawmakers questioned Google representatives for two hours yesterday about the changes, but they still aren’t satisfied with the company’s explanations. Speaking to The Hill, Representative Mary Bono Mack said…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

Fifth Grader concocts a new explosive molecule accidentally

Chemistry Professor Robert Zoellner

Chemistry Professor Robert Zoellner

Admittedly, I did spend my childhood playing with explosives. But I certainly never had as much success as 10-year-old Clara Lazen (not pictured), who accidentally created a new energy storing molecule, tetranitratoxycarbon, that could be used as an explosive…

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Analysis, Animals, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

Road Runoff Spurring Spotted Salamander Evolution

salamander

A female spotted salamander gravid with eggs in route to her breeding pool. There she will lay a cluster of approximately 100 eggs. Eight to ten weeks later, those eggs will hatch as larvae. In late summer, if the pool has not already dried, larvae will metamorphose into juveniles that migrate to the adjacent upland habitat.

Spotted salamanders exposed to contaminated roadside ponds are adapting to their toxic environments, according to a Yale paper in Scientific Reports. This study provides the first documented evidence that a vertebrate has adapted to the negative effects of roads apparently by evolving rapidly…

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Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints

According to the FDA, your stem cells are now drugs

STEM CELLS

This ruling makes it physically impossible NOT to be on drugs.

In recent court filings, the Food and Drug Administration has asserted that stem cells—you know, the ones our bodies produce naturally—are in fact drugs and subject to its regulatory oversight. So does that make me (or you) a controlled substance?

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Analysis, Art, Education, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

The state of OpenCourseWare (infographic)

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The world of academics is changing rapidly.

OpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet. The movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online in the context of its timms initiative. The OCW movement only took off, however, with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at MIT in October 2002 and has been reinforced by the launch of similar projects at Yale, Michigan University, and the University of California Berkeley…

(infographic after jump)

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives

How viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly

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Michigan State researchers show how new viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly.

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Economy, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Viewpoints

Is there any hope for a non-genetically modified future in America, or Africa?

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It is really only a matter of time before our food crisis becomes crippling.

In the past few days a number of interesting articles have been circulating, all discussing genetically modified crops and starkly different versions of the future of food. One one hand we have the state of affairs in the US. On the other we have the future Bill Gates would like to manifest in Africa, all in the supremely laudable goal of reducing poverty and hunger, which looks an awful like the current situation in America.

It’s not a pretty picture, for people, for farmers, for the planet…

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Analysis, Business, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Crowdfunding: 23 Unusual Ways it May be Applied

Crowdfunding-343

Futurist Thomas Frey: Michael Migliozzi and Brian Flatow started a website called BuyaBeerCompany.com in November 2009 who’s lofty goal was to buy the ailing century old Pabst Blue Ribbon beer company. Working to match the $300 million sale price, in less than two years the pair had attracted over 5 million investors pledging upwards of $280 million, with an average pledge of $40.

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Analysis, Entertainment, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives

LapGuard offers radiation shielding technology

Impact Lab Emerging Technology Feature

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Prevent leg burn and radiation damage with LapGuard.

By Deb Frey

I met the team from Digital Innovations at CES2012 in Las Vegas this year. The LapGuard With Radiation Shielding is a great device. What I like about their products is the simplicity of use. I have a tendency to work with my laptop on my lap.  In the past this caused my laptop to overheat and burn my legs. Yikes!  With the LapGuard I can now work with my laptop on my lap and not worry about radiation or my computer overheating…
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