Could Alzheimer’s be transmissible?
The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Hand gestures have a whole new meaning.
Researchers from Taiwan have developed a machine that reads people’s hand gestures and thereby permits them to open doors by waving a few fingers:
“In the future, you won’t have to worry about losing or forgetting your keys,” said Tsai Yao-pin, who teaches at the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan…
Continue reading… “Researchers design locks that can be opened with certain hand gestures”
CDC officials think more people may now drink at home.
Driving drunk has fallen 30 percent in five years according to health officials. Last year drunk driving was at its lowest mark in nearly 2o years.
Continue reading… “1 in 50 Americans admits to driving drunk at least once in previous month”
Researchers used a word association test to discover that most people have ‘built-in’ prejudices.
Scientists believe everyone’s a little bit racist – but they also believe it may not be your fault. Instead they are blaming TV, the internet and even the books that we read.
Continue reading… “Everyone’s a little bit racist, but it may not be our fault: study”
New value found in psilocybin activities.
A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms,” was enough to bring about a measurable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it…
Rather than violent crime rates soaring when new violent video games are released, they actually drop as gamers are too busy at home playing the games.
Video games such as Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto – where gamers rack up points or cash for killing or savagely attacking victims – are routinely blamed for a rise in violent crime. But experts claim violent video games may actually reduce crime as aggressive players are “too busy” shooting virtual enemies to cause trouble in the real world.
Are ones and zeros gonna pay for doobies and lines now?
I’m not gonna name names, but someone just mentioned paying for weed with a Square account. It’d be equally easy to use Paypal, Venmo, Bitcoin (RIP) or any of the myriad mobile payment systems that allow you to send money from your phone…
Continue reading… “Is digital money the new way to buy drugs?”
Embarrassment can have an advantage.
If tripping in public or mistaking an overweight woman for a mother-to-be leaves you red-faced, don’t feel bad. A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that people who are easily embarrassed are also more trustworthy, and more generous…
Continue reading… “Easily embarrassed? Study finds people will trust you more”
September 24th through October 1st is Banned Books Week.
Talk about an easy subject to research! It might have been easier to write up a “books that have never been banned anywhere” list. The banning of books seems so ridiculous, simplistic, and stupid to most of us. But man, in all his Jeckyll and Hyde glory, will all-too-often, when trying to solve a problem, come up with a solution much worse. This is “the 29th annual Banned Books Week” The week is used to condemn censorship and “thought police.”
O.K., let’s take a look at a brief (in the scheme of these things) list of books that have been (ironically) banned here in the U.S….
Continue reading… “12 Books that have (ironically) been banned in the U.S.”
UBS trader Kweku Adoboli allegedly made unauthorized trades that cost the Swiss investment bank billions.
Financial traders are more uncooperative than psychopaths, and also that they have a greater tendency for lying and risk-taking, according to a new study from a Swiss University. The new research about financial traders and their personalities may shed some light on the behavior of Kweku Adoboli, the so-called “rogue” UBS trader who allegedly lost the bank $2.3 billion through unauthorized trading.
Continue reading… “Study: Financial traders are more reckless than psychopaths”
Will rent-a-pet services take off around the world?
Guinea pigs are sociable animals and Swiss law prohibits owners from keeping the furry rodents on their own. But what happens when one dies? Don’t fret, just call Priska Küng, who runs a ‘rent-a-guinea pig’ service to provide companionship for grieving, lonely animals in the twilight of their years. She lives with around 80 of the furry, squeaky little creatures, in addition to six cats, a number of rabbits, hamsters and mice in the village of Hadlikon, some 30 kilometers from Zürich.
Küng, 41, rents out her guinea pigs, a service that has been in high demand in the Alpine nation ever since animal welfare rules were tightened up a few years ago. Switzerland has forbidden people from keeping lone guinea pigs because the animals are sociable and need each other’s company. As a result, the sudden death of a guinea pig, shocking enough in itself, can also place the hapless owners outside the law if they only had two of the pets. That is where Küng comes in…
Continue reading… “Rent-a-guinea pig service takes off in Switzerland”
Incentive-based health programs can motivate people to change their behaviour.
Among insurance customers who were rewarded with lower premiums for keeping fit, those who added two gym visits to their weekly routine were 13 per cent less likely to go to hospital.