This is too good a story not to repeat. You know there is a lot of gambling around major sporting events, including high-profile and fun wagers between politicians and cities. For this year’s Super Bowl, the zoos of Atlanta and Roger Williams Park in Rhode Island took things a step farther. They bet with each
One of the pitfalls of modern life is depression. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. In 2014, around 15.7 million adults age 18 or older in the U.S. had experienced at least one major depressive episode in the last
This is a poor way to start, but I apologize to all the health-care professionals for this post. I know there are many competent and dedicated people in the field (and I certainly have benefited from them), but the truth is throughout medical history, there have been many erroneous conceptions and outright mistakes. As a
A question for today — Is alcohol a happy byproduct of civilization? Or is it one of the reasons for our civilization? The February, 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine explores this in an article entitled “A 9000-Year Love Affair”. It explains how alcohol is one of the most universally produced substances in history. In
My nieces have an iPhone and they delight in asking the digital assistant Siri questions. But maybe the key question is “Who is Siri?” (Have you ever asked her?) The March 2017 issue of Consumer Reports magazine discusses smartphones, and in a sidebar on page 50 they expose “The Real Voice Behind Siri”. In 2005,
From the Now-I’ve-Heard-Everything department — Mythology likes to rhapsodize about the lost continent of Atlantis, but there may be another loss we’ve completely overlooked. It’s in the Indian Ocean beneath the island of Mauritius. Although Mauritius is only 790 square miles, it has long interested scientists because of an unusually strong gravitational pull. You may
We all want to know if there really is life after death, and so-called near-death experiences have been a popular subject in our culture. Does your life really flash before your eyes when you think you are dying? A recent study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition takes a new approach to evaluating these
Somewhere along the line, you’ve probably heard that spicy meals can cause strange or unusual dreams. Is it true? Maybe. This is discussed in detail in an article entitled “Can Spicy Food Really Cause Weird Dreams? The Answer Is Complicated” by chili lover Cari Romm on the Science of Us website (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/can-spicy-food-really-cause-weird-dreams.html?). According to Ms.
There has been a lot of talk recently about presidential executive action. One of President Obama’s actions late last year was to designate two new national monuments in Nevada and Utah (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/28/507314596/obama-designates-two-new-national-monuments-in-nevada-and-utah), which, like most presidential actions these days, was considered very controversial in some circles. If you disagree with this type of government action
Another of those questions we don’t think of every day — do your heart and brain communicate? Recent research suggests there’s definite link. University of Sussex researcher Sarah Garfinkel has found evidence that the beats of your heart — and your awareness of that rhythm — shapes everything from anxiety to racism to stock trading.
