Why typewriters are refusing to go away

Why typewriters beat computers
They're clunky, dirty and can't access the internet, yet every year thousands of people buy typewriters when they could probably afford a computer. Why? When asked how he writes, Frederick Forsyth has a simple answer. "With a typewriter."Although he laughs as he says it, Mr Forsyth identifies the continuing attraction of a typewriter for thousands of people. They find a computer distracting, unreliable or just plain terrifying, and they have a love for the tangible. As he puts it, "I like to see black words on white paper rolling up in front of my gaze"... [more]
Source : BBC

BIG QUAKES SPARK JOLTS WORLDWIDE

TRIGGERED TREMORS OCCUR EVEN ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE EARTH

Until 1992, when California's magnitude-7.3 Landers earthquake set off small jolts as far away as Yellowstone National Park, scientists did not believe large earthquakes sparked smaller tremors at distant locations. Now, a definitive study shows large earthquakes routinely trigger smaller jolts worldwide, including on the opposite side of the planet and in areas not prone to quakes... [more]

Source : University Of Utah

VBLOC Therapy A New Way To Treat Obesity

Combat obesity by blocking a nerve that helps regulate digestion
An implantable device that uses electrical signals to block the vagus nerve, which helps regulate digestion, has shown early success in clinical trials. In VBLOC therapy, two electrodes are surgically implanted at the top of the stomach to block signals from the vagus nerve... [more]

Source : Technology Review

Preference To Sugary Food Has Genetic Basis

Genetic Variation Linked To Preference Sugary Food

Our study may explain some of the individual variations in preference for foods high in sugars and suggests that GLUT2 may be a candidate susceptibility gene for disorders affecting food intake. Cravings for sugars have been hypothesized to be related to an induced elevation in mood. However, there may be other underlying biological mechanisms that affect consumption ofsugars. We observed a greater intake in sugars among individuals with and without diabetes as well as across normal weight to obese populations, which suggests that the underlying mechanism is not due to decreased glucose utilization associated with insulin resistance, but instead due to glucose sensing. Furthermore, including glucose and/or insulin in our regression analyses did not alter our results (data not shown). This is consistent with observations in GLUT2-null mice where food intake was independent of plasma insulin, glucose, and leptin. This suggests that the higher intake of sugars observed among Ile carriers... [more]

Source : Physiol Genomics

The Greek island of Lesbos, Who are the real lesbians?

Sappho and Lesbos
When is a lesbian not a Lesbian? The answer's in the capital letter – it's when you are a woman who loves women, rather than an inhabitant of the Aegean paradise of Lesbos (or Lesvos in the modern spelling). For decades, foolish and unsophisticated tourists have giggled about the coincidence of the Greek island and the sexual orientation. Now it's become the crux of a legal dispute whose implications are global. Ever since Sappho wrote of her feelings for other women, the Greek island of Lesbos where she lived has had its own place in the dictionary... [more]
Source : Independent

Human memory: memory chip could mean we never forget

The human memory chip
How much would you pay to have a small memory chip implanted in your brain if it guaranteed you would never again forget a face or a name? However difficult the practicalities, there's no reason in principle why neural prostheticists in future couldn't pick up where nature left off, incorporating such master maps into neural implants: the kind of brain-boosting chips familiar from science fiction, most recently the television series Bionic Woman... [more]
Source : Telegraph

Brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause blood vessel and stem cell damage in 30 minutes

Exposure to secondhand smoke even for a brief period is injurious to health
According to the study, a 30-minute exposure to the level of secondhand smoke that one might normally inhale in an average bar setting was enough to result in blood vessel injury in young and otherwise healthy lifelong nonsmokers. Compounding the injury to the blood vessels themselves, the exposure to smoke impedes the function of the body’s natural repair mechanisms that are activated in the face of the blood vessels’ injury, the researchers report. Many of these effects persisted 24 hours later... [more]
Source : University of California

Blood Test to Predict Menopause

The AMH hormone could help women predict when they will enter menopause
Scientists in the Netherlands report that a simple blood test, for a hormone called anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), could help women predict when they will enter menopause, and therefore how to set their fertility timetable, predicting menopause might become more and more important in the future as women continue to delay childbearing... [more]

Source : Time

Fungus Contamination, How Much Mould Is In Your Home?

One In Five Rooms Is 'Highly Contaminated' With Hidden Mold
Surely your bathroom is fungus-free once you've wiped the mould off the tiles? Not according to a study by French scientists in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Environmental Monitoring. They report that almost one in five rooms studied with no visible mould was in fact "highly contaminated" by fungus which could aggravate conditions such as asthma... [more]

Source : Royal Society of Chemistry

Chinese build secret nuclear sub base on the southern tip of Hainan island

A significant challenge to US Navy dominance
China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed. Of even greater concern to the Pentagon are massive tunnel entrances, estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base. Sources fear they could lead to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites... [more]
Source : Telegraph