Your unusual dish of everything.
Elizabeth
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Posts by Elizabeth
Ten Psychology Studies from 2009 Worth Knowing About – Part I
Sep 24th
Several great psychology and neuroscience studies were published in 2009. Below I’ve chosen 10 that I think are among the most noteworthy, not just because they’re interesting, but useful as well.
psychology head
1. If you have to choose between buying something or spending the money on a memorable experience, go with the experience. According to a study conducted at San Francisco State University, the things you own can’t make you as happy as the things you do. One reason is adaptation: we adapt to all things material in our lives in a matter of weeks, no matter how infatuated we were with the coveted possession the day we got it. Another reason is that experience, unlike possession, generally involves other people, and fosters or strengthens relationships that are more edifying over time than owning something.
2. First impressions are all about value. A study in the journal Nature Neuroscience identified two areas of the brain that show significant activity during the coding of impression-relevant information: the amygdala, which previous research has linked to emotional learning about inanimate objects and social evaluations of trust; and the posterior cingulate cortex, which has been linked to economic decision-making and valuation of rewards. The implication is that we’re all hardcore value processors even before “Hello” comes out of our mouths. The subjective evaluation we make when meeting someone new includes–to put it bluntly–what’s in it for us. More >
100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body – Part III
Sep 24th
Bodily Functions
We may not always like to talk about them, but everyone has to deal with bodily functions on a daily basis. These are a few facts about the involuntary and sometimes unpleasant actions of our bodies.
sneeze
- Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph. There’s a good reason why you can’t keep your eyes open when you sneeze–that sneeze is rocketing out of your body at close to 100 mph. This is, of course, a good reason to cover your mouth when you sneeze.
- Coughs clock in at about 60 mph. Viruses and colds get spread around the office and the classroom quickly during cold and flu season. With 60 mph coughs spraying germs far and wide, it’s no wonder.
- Women blink twice as many times as men do. That’s a lot of blinking every day. The average person, man or woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.
- A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400-800 cc of fluid but most people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc. More >
Nikola Tesla – Part II
Sep 24th
One of the more controversial topics involving Nikola Tesla is what became of many of his technical and scientific papers after he died in 1943. Just before his death at the height of World War II, he claimed that he had perfected his so-called “death beam.” So it was natural that the FBI and other U.S. Government agencies would be interested in any scientific ideas involving weaponry. Some were concerned that Tesla’s papers might fall into the hands of the Axis powers or the Soviets.
Tesla Nikola - old
The morning after the inventor’s death, his nephew Sava Kosanovic´ hurried to his uncle’s room at the Hotel New Yorker. He was an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the communist party in his country. By the time he arrived, Tesla’s body had already been removed, and Kosanovic´ suspected that someone had already gone through his uncle’s effects. Technical papers were missing as well as a black notebook he knew Tesla kept—a notebook with several hundred pages, some of which were marked “Government.”
P. E. Foxworth, assistant director of the New York FBI office, was called in to investigate. According to Foxworth, the government was “vitally interested” in preserving Tesla’s papers. Two days after Tesla’s death, representatives of the Office of Alien Property went to his room at the New Yorker Hotel and seized all his possessions.
Dr. John G. Trump, an electrical engineer with the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was called in to analyze the Tesla papers in OAP custody. Following a three-day investigation, Dr. Trump concluded:
His [Tesla's] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.
Just after World War II, there was a renewed interest in beam weapons.
Nikola Tesla
Sep 22nd
Tesla inherited from his father a deep hatred of war. Throughout his life, he sought a technological way to end warfare. He thought that war could be converted into, “a mere spectacle of machines.”
Tesla Nikola
In 1931 Tesla announced to reporters at a press conference that he was on the verge of discovering an entirely new source of energy. Asked to explain the nature of the power, he replied, “The idea first came upon me as a tremendous shock… I can only say at this time that it will come from an entirely new and unsuspected source.”
War clouds were again darkening Europe. On 11 July 1934 the headline on the front page of the New York Times read, “TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW ‘DEATH BEAM.’” The article reported that the new invention “will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles…” Tesla stated that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an “invisible Chinese wall.”
The idea generated considerable interest and controversy. Tesla went immediately to J. P. Morgan, Jr. in search of financing to build a prototype of his invention. Morgan was unconvinced. Tesla also attempted to deal directly with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain. But when Chamberlain resigned upon discovering that he had been out-maneuvered by Hitler at Munich, interest in Tesla’s anti-war weapon eventually collapsed.
By 1937 it was clear that war would soon break out in Europe. Frustrated in his attempts to generate interest and financing for his “peace beam,” he sent an elaborate technical paper, including diagrams, to a number of Allied nations including the United States, Canada, England, France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. Titled “New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media,” the paper provided the first technical description of what is today called a charged particle beam weapon. More >
100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body – Part II
Sep 22nd
Hair and Nails
While they’re not a living part of your body, most people spend a good amount of time caring for their hair and nails. The next time you’re heading in for a haircut or manicure, think of these facts.
bad hair day
- Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. If you’ve ever had a covering of stubble on your face as you’re clocking out at 5 o’clock you’re probably pretty familiar with this. In fact, if the average man never shaved his beard it would grow to over 30 feet during his lifetime, longer than a killer whale.
- Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. Unless you’re already bald, chances are good that you’re shedding pretty heavily on a daily basis. Your hair loss will vary in accordance with the season, pregnancy, illness, diet and age.
- Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair. While it might sound strange, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that men’s hair should be coarser than that of women. Hair diameter also varies on average between races, making hair plugs on some men look especially obvious.
- One human hair can support 3.5 ounces. That’s about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more plausible.
- The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.
- There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. More >
100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body – Part I
Sep 21st
The human body is an incredibly complex and intricate system, one that still baffles doctors and researchers on a regular basis despite thousands of years of medical knowledge. As a result, it shouldn’t be any surprise that even body parts and functions we deal with every day have bizarre or unexpected facts and explanations behind them. From sneezes to fingernail growth, here are 100 weird, wacky, and interesting facts about the human body.
brain
The Brain
The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy. There may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered.
- Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.
- The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.
- The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive.
- Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream. More >
Hidden flavours of Paris
Sep 21st
The secret patisserie – Gérard Mulot
Gérard Mulot is a splendid patisserie and traiteur in St-Germain. You can’t miss it – just look for the white awnings and the imposing towers of macarons in the window – but you’ll smell it before you see it. The scent of melted butter wafts dwn the block. Inside, the first thing that hits you in colour: jewel-bright strawberries on fruit tars and patisserie boxes in pistachio, lemon and Gérard Mulot’s signature pink.
Eiffel Tower
It’s not far from the Jardin du Luxembourg, so you can pick up all you need for a picnic. A sunny day in St-Germain with treats from Gérard Mulot – life doesn’t get any better.
- Jeremy Lee, head chef of London’s Blueprint Cafe
The secret bar – La Cagnotte de Belleville
La Cagnotte de Belleville (13 Rue Jean-Baptiste Dumay, 75020) is extremely scruffy but perfectly Parisian. Open from 7am to 2am, La Cagnotte is a true neighbourhood bar. You get workmen grabbing a lightning-quick espresso and mums with prams in the mornings, and artists and musicians with all the time in the world eking out their café au lait, pastis or panaché (shandy)in the day. Later, the crowd gets very hip as people chatter, dream, smoke and drink to loud music – a lot of rock, and The Stones, The Smiths and The Velvet Underground. Over it all can be heard (owner) Charlie’s laughter; a huge bark that starts as quickly as it ends.
- Trish Deseine, food writer and cook
The secret cheese shop – Fromagerie Trotté More >
Kaliningrad
Sep 21st
The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea is sandwiched between Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north and east.
Annexed from Germany in 1945, the territory was a closed military zone throughout the Soviet period.
In 2008, Russia threatened to deploy short-range missiles there if the United States went ahead with its plan to build controversial missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
OVERVIEW
Koenigsberg, as the city of Kaliningrad was once known, was founded by Teutonic knights in the 13th century. It became one of the cities of the Hanseatic League and was once the capital of Prussia. The philosopher Immanuel Kant spent all his life in the city and died there in 1804.
The region was part of Germany until annexation by the USSR following World War II when it saw bitter fighting and suffered rampant destruction. The German population was expelled or fled after the war ended. More >
Weirdest Diseases – Part X – Epidermolysis Bullosa
Sep 21st
Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of inherited bullous disorders characterized by blister formation in response to mechanical trauma. Historically, epidermolysis bullosa subtypes have been classified according to skin morphology.
Epidermolysis bullosa - squamous cell carcinoma
Recent discoveries of the molecular basis of epidermolysis bullosa have resulted in the development of new diagnostic tools, including prenatal and preimplantation testing. Based on a better understanding of the basement membrane zone (BMZ) and the genes responsible for its components, new treatments (eg, gene or protein therapy) may provide solutions to the skin fragility found in patients with epidermolysis bullosa.
Pathophysiology
Epidermolysis bullosa is classified into 3 major categories, including (1) epidermolysis bullosa simplex (intraepidermal skin separation), (2) junctional epidermolysis bullosa (skin separation in lamina lucida or central BMZ), and (3) dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (sublamina densa BMZ separation).
Researchers have proposed a new category termed hemidesmosomal epidermolysis bullosa, which produces blistering at the hemidesmosomal level in the most superior aspect of the BMZ. Epidermolysis bullosa simplex usually is associated with little or no extracutaneous involvement, while the more severe hemidesmosomal, junctional, and dystrophic forms of epidermolysis bullosa may produce significant multiorgan system involvement. More >
Man bets on life and wins
Sep 21st
A terminally ill man in the UK has won a bet that he would stay alive. Eight months ago doctors told him ‘not to make any plans for Christmas’. Last Sunday he collected £5,000 for outliving the grim forecasts, reports the Guardian newspaper.l
dice
Jon Matthews, 58, was diagnosed with Mesothelioma – a cancer type linked to asbestos – in April 2006.
The longest anyone with the disease lived after diagnosis was 25 months, he was told.
When doctors said him last autumn he wouldn’t make it until the end of year, Matthews decided to literally take his chances. He went to a bookmaker firm to put a £100 bet that he would survive. Matthews insisted the bet would give him an extra stimulus to fight the illness.
“They checked all the facts out and that’s why they gave me odds of 50/1,” he said.
On June 1 Matthews beat the record. His will to live rewarded him with a £5,000 prize, half of which he plans to give to a cancer charity and half leave for himself.
“Never, in thirty years in the business, have I been so pleased to pay a winning client £5,000,” commented a spokesman for the bookmaker.
