Having children reduces a man’s risk of heart disease

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Having kids reduces a man’s risk of heart disease by 20%.

Having children could mean healthier hearts for men. A decade-long study of 135,000 men found that those who remained child-free had a higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who ‘sowed their oats.’  Men who had children reduced their risk of heart disease by 20%.

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Medi-Ring – customizable ring to identify prescription medication bottles

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Featured invention at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase 2011

MEDI-RING® was developed by a pharmacist to help eliminate errors when taking prescription medications at home. In 2008, nearly 1.9 million people were treated or hospitalized in the U.S. for illness and injuries related to taking medicines, a 54% increase in incidents over previous years. The growing number of such errors can be attributed to an increase in the number of medications being prescribed, and the fact that many pharmacy labels indicate dosages, but fail to identify specifically what the medication treats. Also, according to the National Community of Pharmacists Association, “as many as 75% of Americans admit they don’t take medications as directed.” MEDI-RING® is a user-friendly device that snaps onto prescription bottles presenting a space on which the patient may write what the medication controls, and any other information they feel is necessary to take the drug correctly.

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‘Reading Between the Lines’ – Belgian architects build see-through church

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Reading Between the Lines

Belgian architect duo Pieterjan Gijs and Arnuot Van Vaerenbergh have designed and constructed a see-through steel framed church.  In cooperation with Z33, the art museum of Hasselt, they are working on a five-year long installation project, where they will construct transparent churches throughout the country. (Pics)

 

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Nevada’s big bet on ‘shell’ secrecy

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Nevada is a magnet for businesses seeking secrecy.

In Nevada, the business of registering businesses is booming and the consultants in this thriving industry, many who are former felons, are aiding companies in seeking to avoid liabilty and disclosure.  But many of these consultants are former felons.   All of this comes at a time when Washington is calling on other nations to enforce greater transparency of financial flows.

 

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“I want to go there” – an amazing photo collection by Kris Atomic

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Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany by Luiz Pires

Kris Atomic (Kristina Mordokhovitch) is a U.K based freelance photographer and illustrator.   Her blog, krisatomic, is a medley of drawings, photos and anything that she finds pleasing to the eye.  Kris has put together, “I  want to go there”, a collection of amazing photographs of places around the world that she would one day like to visit. (Pics)

 

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Reused tires make a squid-like playground for refugee children

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When Go Play! announced a competition to design an innovative playground for 1,000 refugee children along the border of Thailand and Burma, Dutch designer AnneMarie van Splunter thought of old car tires. To be specific, she thought of a playground made entirely out of reused tires on a bamboo frame, made in the shape of a tree with expanding roots…

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Rent-a-guinea pig service takes off in Switzerland

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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…

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The purpose of bird-egg coloration

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Look at all the colors.

Want to see an enduring source of scientific dispute and perplexity? Go to your refrigerator, open a carton of eggs, and look at their speckles. Bird-egg coloration has been studied for more than a century. In a review in the Journal of Avian Biology, biologists Golo Maurer and Phillip Cassey present no fewer than seven possible explanations for eggshell color. Each focuses on how colors might shape an embryo’s fate by modulating sunlight hitting its shell…

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