When writing essays on disgust, teenage girls in Lucknow, India, listed, among other things, feces, urine, toilets, sweat, menstrual blood, cut hair, impurities of childbirth, vomit, open wound, saliva, dirty feet, bad breath, nose picking, dirty nails, clothes that have been worn, flies, maggots, lice, mouse in a curry, rats, stray dog, meat, fish, pigs, garbage dump, sick person, beggars, touching someone of lower caste, crowded trains, kissing in public, betrayal.

Here are some of the things that Dutch women found revolting: feces, cats, aphids in lettuce, hairs, dogs, pollution, vermin, drug users, vomit, drunkenness, dust, rotten waste, fat people, sweat, badsmelling food, insulting, stickiness, politicians, offal, worms, dirty old men, fishmongers’ hands, flies.

Women in Burkina Faso mentioned feces, dirty latrine, dirty food, diarrhea, flies on food, sores, rubbish in the yard, worms, sexual relations before a child is weaned, smelly drains, dirty clothes, sick people, pigs, vomit.

A group of women in Cheshire, in the north of England, included feces, stained kitchen, flies, dog diarrhea, moldy food, drunken louts, vomit, rude people, wounds, foul language, maggots, eating with mouth open, man beating a woman, sweaty person, body parts in jars, cruelty to a horse, stained toilet, cleaning another’s false teeth. […]

Some of the most disgusting bodily products turned out to be the most deadly.

{ Natural History | Continue reading }

Time travel has captured the public imagination for much of the past century, but little has been done to actually search for time travelers. Here, three implementations of Internet searches for time travelers are described, all seeking a prescient mention of information not previously available. The first search covered prescient content placed on the Internet, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific terms in tweets on Twitter. The second search examined prescient inquiries submitted to a search engine, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific search terms submitted to a popular astronomy web site. The third search involved a request for a direct Internet communication, either by email or tweet, pre-dating to the time of the inquiry. Given practical verifiability concerns, only time travelers from the future were investigated. No time travelers were discovered. Although these negative results do not disprove time travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most comprehensive to date.

{ arXiv | Continue reading }

But it didn’t take physicists long to realise that while the Wheeler-DeWitt equation solved one significant problem, it introduced another. The new problem was that time played no role in this equation. In effect, it says that nothing ever happens in the universe, a prediction that is clearly at odds with the observational evidence.

{ arXiv | Continue reading }

Small Alabama town accidentally hires black drag queens to dance in Christmas parade

Scientists Successfully Forecast the Size and Location of an Earthquake

Evidence that the Lunar Cycle Influences Human Sleep

“Grasping the testicle with forceps proved laborious” in most of the animals, the authors write. They also mention using a “two-handed technique” and ”moderate traction.” Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Castrate a Hippo

People who tell themselves to get excited rather than trying to relax can improve their performance during anxiety-inducing activities such as public speaking and math tests, study finds.

The current study examined whether men’s ratings of women’s desirability as a long-term pairbond, based on static photographs, were related to the women’s second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and their sexual attitudes and behavior.

Human development of the ability to learn from bad news [PDF]

What Are Neuromarketers Really Selling? The poor data and shoddy logic behind a hyped business boom.

Researchers identify gene that influences the ability to remember faces.

Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future

How radioactive poison became the assassin’s weapon of choice: The mysterious life and brutal death of a Russian dissident.

How the Science of Swarms Can Help Us Fight Cancer and Predict the Future

What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario

The only thing set to be less watchable than Girls in 2014 was E!’s upcoming reality show, Rich Kids of Instagram, based on the worst Tumblr in existence with the same name.

Personal Possessions found in the Pacific. Related: Tiny museum in New York showcases the ordinary

{ The World’s Best Ever }

Humans show a natural tendency to discount bad news while incorporating good news into beliefs (the “good news–bad news effect”), an effect that may help explain seemingly irrational risk taking. Understanding how this bias develops with age is important because adolescents are prone to engage in risky behavior; thus, educating them about danger is crucial.

We reveal a striking valence-dependent asymmetry in how belief updating develops with age. In the ages tested (9–26 y), younger age was associated with inaccurate updating of beliefs in response to undesirable in- formation regarding vulnerability. In contrast, the ability to update beliefs accurately in response to desirable information remained relatively stable with age. This asymmetry was mediated by adequate computational use of positive but not negative estimation errors to alter beliefs.

The results are important for understanding how belief formation develops and might help explain why adolescents do not respond adequately to warnings.

{ PNAS | PDF }

Over half a century ago, the global economy largely depended on just ten or so different materials. Most important products were made out of wood, brick, iron, copper, gold, silver or a few plastics — and that was about it.

Things are wildly different today. A huge chunk of modern-day technology, from hybrid cars to iPhones to flat-screen TVs to radiation screens, use dozens of different metals and alloys. A computer chip typically involves more than 60 different elements that are specifically selected to optimize performance, like europium or dysprosium.

And that’s long raised a concern: What would happen if we run short of any of these valuable metals? Say there’s a war. Or unrest in a crucial mining region. Or China decides to lock up its strontium deposits. Could we easily come up with substitutes? Or is modern society vulnerable to a materials shortage?
Here’s the case for vulnerability: A fascinating recent paper in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science looks at 62 different metals that are widely used in modern-day industry. For a dozen metals, potential substitutes are either inadequate or flat-out unavailable. And there are no “excellent” substitutes for any of the 62 metals.

{ Washington Post | Continue reading }

art { Robert Indiana, The X-5, 1963 }

A high-ranking FBI agent filed a sensitive internal manual detailing the bureau’s secret interrogation procedures with the Library of Congress, where anyone with a library card can read it. […]

“A document that has not been released does not even need a copyright,” says Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists. “Who is going to plagiarize from it? Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t violate the copyright because you don’t have the document. It isn’t available.”

{ Mother Jones | Continue reading }

French officials have fined a pub €9,000 for “undeclared labour” after a customer returned some empty glasses to the bar.

11 percent of people shop online naked, survey says.

‘Whatever’ rated most annoying word.

After exclusion of days when Bond was unable to drink, his weekly alcohol consumption was 92 units a week, over four times the recommended amount. Were James Bond’s drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?

Distinct Personality Traits Associated with Intake of Coffee, Tea, and Cola Drinks and Smoking

When Waking Up Becomes the Nightmare: Hypnopompic Hallucinatory Pain

Some might consider drilling a hole in someone’s head a form of torture, but in the province of Ahdahuaylas in Peru, ca. AD 100-1250, it was state-of-the-art medical care.

Most vitamins such as antioxidants don’t help to prevent cancer, heart disease and dementia, and some supplements could be harmful, say doctors who advise people to stop wasting their money on the pills.

Tracking the secret lives of great white sharks. “There’s no frickin’ pattern at all.”

What color is the sun?

James Joyce: caught up in a scandal?

The recording industry’s nightmare: A government-backed torrent site

The US now watches the majority of its online porn on mobile phones.

One day in 1856, hundreds of people gathered to gawk at an escaped pet squirrel up a tree near New York’s City Hall.

The one airport hack that will get you home faster

While there until 5 a.m., they caroused with two women who called themselves travel executives from Great Britain.

Republique is set in a dystopic police state where everything is under surveillance. More: “There were lots of publishers who said you’re not making a mobile game here, you’re making a console game that nobody would want to play on mobile.”

The object of the game is to cut down the hydra to its root. Play: Try to defeat the hydra!

Shed your weight problem here

{ Behind the Scenes Look at the Horror Classic “The Shining” }

Scientists sent a text message using evaporated vodka.

Man fined 1.3 million yen for urinating in elevator every day for 6 months.

Warren Buffett made $37M a day this year.

The goal is to identify how much time can pass before a food no longer tastes good, which in turn dictates the sell-by date. Generally, foods are still safe to eat after that point, but they won’t taste as they were intended. Taste-testers are an elite bunch. In its last recruitment period three years ago, 150 people applied. The NFL accepted 15.

Uncontrollable rage could be cured by aspirin.

When You Criticize Someone, You Make It Harder for that Person to Change

Why does time fly as we get older?

Meteorologists solve the last major mystery of rain.

The average computer user makes more than 1000 mouse clicks per day. Scientists would love to know if that practice affects other aspects of your brain’s control of your body. The problem is finding people with no computer experience.

Valuable scientific data disappearing at alarming rate, 80% lost in two decades into old email addresses and obsolete storage devices.

Who Owns the World’s Biggest Bitcoin Wallet? The FBI

Bitcoin Alternative Dogecoin Soars 900% As Other Crypto-Currencies Suffer. Almost all of the 53 crypto-currencies tracked by CoinMarketCap are seeing growth.

While some analysts initially suggested that Google’s goal was to more thoroughly automate factories, it’s now clear that the company’s team of engineers and scientists has a vision of truly dexterous, autonomous robots that can walk on sidewalks, carry packages, and push strollers.

U.S. Copyright Office recommends that artists be paid a royalty when their work is resold at a profit.[NY Times]

Many people think that tweens and teens make up much of the music buying population. But older people actually buy the most music. So, why do record labels market most music to the demographic that buys the least music?

You have never actually used a Styrofoam cup, plate or takeout box.

The next big thing in surfing is artificial waves you can ride anywhere, any time.

Before we move on to other topics, I think it’s interesting how much the built landscape of New York has changed since you wrote The Warriors.

The Billion-Dollar Megaprojects That Will Transform NYC By 2030

New York City galleries have noticed an uptick in newcomers who share photos of themselves on social media.

Man Says ‘Fuck It,’ Eats Lunch At 10:58 A.M.

Chug-a-lug, Donna.

US scientists have performed a dramatic reversal of the ageing process in animal studies. They used a chemical to rejuvenate muscle in mice and said it was the equivalent of transforming a 60-year-old’s muscle to that of a 20-year-old - but muscle strength did not improve.

{ BBC | Continue reading }

Researchers have discovered a cause of aging in mammals that may be reversible.

The essence of this finding is a series of molecular events that enable communication inside cells between the nucleus and mitochondria. As communication breaks down, aging accelerates. By administering a molecule naturally produced by the human body, scientists restored the communication network in older mice. […]

“The aging process we discovered is like a married couple—when they are young, they communicate well, but over time, living in close quarters for many years, communication breaks down,” said Harvard Medical School Professor of Genetics David Sinclair, senior author on the study. “And just like with a couple, restoring communication solved the problem.”

{ EurekAlert | Continue reading | more }

Girls’ brains can begin maturing from the age of 10 while some men have to wait until 20 before the same organisational structures take place, Newcastle University scientists have found.

{ Telegraph | Continue reading }

Men who have daughters also grow less attached to traditional gender roles: they become less likely to agree with the statement that “a woman’s place is in the home,” for instance, and more likely to agree that men should wash dishes and do other chores. Having a sister, however, has the opposite effect, making men more supportive of traditional gender roles, more conservative politically, and less likely to perform housework.

{ The Atlantic | Continue reading }

This article examines the reasons for the Chihuahua breed’s popularity in contemporary western society by looking at two sets of data: Chihuahua handbooks and The Simple Life show, starring Paris Hilton and her Chihuahua Tinkerbell. The article argues that the Chihuahua is a holy anomaly. […]

The Chihuahua – or the bonsai wolf – transcends two binary oppositions fundamental to contemporary westerners: subject/object and nature/culture.

{ SAGE }

A study on the effect of always agreeing with your wife had to be abandoned after it became intolerable for husband.

{ The Telegraph | Continue reading }

photo { Christopher Williams }

The good and bad things about stories is they’re a kind of filter. They take a lot of information, and they leave some of it out, and they keep some of it in. But the thing about this filter, it always leaves the same things in. You’re always left with the same few stories. There’s the old saying, just about every story can be summed up as, “A stranger came to town.” There’s a book by Christopher Booker, he claims there are really just seven types of stories. There’s monster, rags to riches, quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, rebirth. You don’t have to agree with that list exactly, but the point is this: if you think in terms of stories, you’re telling yourself the same things over and over again. […]

So what are the problems of relying too heavily on stories? You view your life like “this” instead of the mess that it is or it ought to be.

{ Tyler Cowen/LessWrong | Continue reading }

Children evacuated from swimming pool after prosthetic leg mistaken for paedophile.

Hospital security guards sent an “uncooperative” patient who was “refusing to talk or move” home in a taxi, though he was dying or already dead.

Man banned from every supermarket in Britain for masturbating in Sainsbury’s meat aisle. He can now only enter a supermarket when accompanied by an adult.

Scientists say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss.

The faces on LEGO Minifigures are becoming increasingly angry and less happy. The influence of LEGO is immense. The researchers state that on average each person on earth owns approximately 75 bricks.

6 in 10 13-year-old girls, compared to 4 in 10 boys the same age, are afraid of gaining weight or getting fat.

Genetic factors contribute to being skinny.

Exposure to dogs and livestock early in life can lessen the chances of infants later developing allergies and asthma.

Susana Soares has created a simple way of harnessing bees to screen for a number of diseases, including cancers, like tumors of the lung and ovaries.

Snowy winters are something that animals have evolved to overcome or even use to their advantage.

Although the new calculations predict that a collapse of the universe is now more likely than ever before, it is actually also possible, that it will not happen at all.

The Infinite Monkey Theorem Comes To Life

Firms are increasingly resorting to litigation—some of it extraordinarily unpleasant—to prevent employees from moving to rivals.

Expert says a group, with strong footing in financial sector, could be behind Bitcoin phenomenon. And: Bitcoin lost almost 50% of its value overnight after BTC China said it could no longer accept deposits in the Chinese currency.

With a new setting, someone wearing Glass only has to wink at you to take a photo.

Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars

Parsing the Fed: How the Statement Changed

The Man Who Duped Millionaires Into Paying Big Bucks For Fake Wine .

I Got Myself Arrested So I Could Look Inside the Justice System

We’re devaluing your miles. 10 things airlines won’t tell you.

2013 Black List / most liked unproduced screenplays circulating around Hollywood

Gaga stole our style, say twins.

Following yesterday’s post about a SantaCon Santa who was allegedly caught by a filmmaker having his North Pole publicly waxed by a naughty little elf, Gawker received an “urgent” email from a man claiming to be Santa’s lawyer.

More Santa.

The auto-playing ads will appear on both the desktop version of Facebook and the mobile app for Android and iOS phones. But the ads won’t gobble up a bunch of costly data while playing. Facebook said the videos will download ahead of time while the user is within range of Wi-Fi, not while using cellular data like 4G. The app has to be open for the ad to download. The video ad is stored on the phone – how much storage it takes up is an open question — and then played at the appropriate scroll point.

{ WSJ | Continue reading }

related { Facebook saves everything you type - even if you don’t publish it }

Although there has been some empirical research on earworms, songs that become caught and replayed in one’s memory over and over again, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on the more general concept of the musical hook, the most salient moment in a piece of music, or the even more general concept of what may make music ‘catchy’. […]

Every piece of music will have a hook – the catchiest part of the piece, whatever that may be – but some pieces of music clearly have much catchier hooks than others. […]

One study has shown that after only 400 ms, listeners can identify familiar music with a significantly greater frequency than one would expect from chance. […]

We have designed an experiment that we believe will help to quantify the effect of catchiness on musical memory. […] Hooked, as we have named the game, comprises three essential tasks: a recognition task, a verification task, and a prediction task. Each of them responds to a scientific need in what we felt was the most entertaining fashion possible. In this way, we hope to be able recruit the largest number of subjects possible without sacrificing scientific quality.

{ Music Cognition Group | PDF | Download the Game }