Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon.

Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.

In the name of equality, the French government has proposed doing away with homework in elementary and junior high school. French President Francois Hollande argues that homework penalizes children with difficult home situations, but even the people whom the proposal is supposed to help disagree.

Researchers believe that they have found the definitive difference between humans and other primates, and they think that the difference all comes down to a single gene.

Researchers confirm the ‘Pinocchio Effect’: When you lie, your nose temperature raises.

You are more likely to die in the late morning — around 11 a.m., specifically — than at any other time during the day.

Romantic relationships are still the most common context for sexual behavior, at least among women in their first year of college.

Mixed weight couples experience more relationship conflict.

Men with erection problems are 3 times more likely to have inflamed gums.

Many investors state bluntly that they prefer to see people under 40 in charge.

This paper presents a theory of the Global Financial Crisis which argues that psychopaths working in corporations and in financial corporations, in particular, have had a major part in causing the crisis.

Who Can Stop Psychopaths from Ruining Companies? Insurers.

Are You a Psychopath? Take the Test.

How to track roadkill on your smartphone. [more]

By reorganizing the typewriter’s characters into ready-made clusters of commonly used words, Mao-era Chinese typists solved problems that cell phones only came to recently.

About 100 years ago, we’re told, boys wore pink clothes, but then during the early 20th century, it flipped over. However according to psychologist Marco Del Giudice, the whole “pink-blue reversal” is a ‘urban legend.’

He talks about how LA is superior to New York because you can sing in the car when you’re stuck in traffic, and also he once saw the movie Swingers here.

Jessica Simpson is pregnant again even though she just gave birth 20 minutes ago.

Why was Margaret Thatcher interrupted so often in interviews?

The only two things missing in Bach’s music are randomness and sex.

Nabokov’s letter to Hitchcock.

This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. [New York is by far the least free state.]

The Odds in a Coin Flip Aren’t Quite 50/50.

What are the real-life equivalents of trolling on the Internet? Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%; extra dark; 17 inch paper; 99 copies.

The accident happened in Shuangxi, Fujian province.

every day the same again | December 4th, 2012