For the first time, researchers have found that stress can leave an epigenetic mark on sperm, which then alters the offspring’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a part of the brain that deals with responding to stress. […]

The experiment was conducted with preadolescent and adult male mice. […]

“These findings suggest one way in which paternal-stress exposure may be linked to such neuropsychiatric diseases.”

{ United Academics | Continue reading }

There are somewhere between 50 million and 100 million farms in the world (if you exclude those smaller than about three American football fields). But about half the crops produced by those farms rely on the seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides supplied by a mere dozen or so companies. Most of those crops are bought, traded, and transported around the world by another half dozen. […] And when it’s time for agricultural products to be processed and distributed to stores, that’s another dozen or so, many overlapping with the aforementioned traders and suppliers. […]

Researchers and activists have questioned the safety or long-term consequences (or both) of various Big Ag [Big Agriculture] practices, such as the use of certain pesticides, fertilizers, animal hormones, and food additives. […] Among the other specific complaints these days are deforestation and negligence. In Brazil, for example, a tripling of soybean production since 1990 has been blamed for the ongoing stripping of the Amazon basin. In the United States, ill-managed factory farms and processing plants have contributed to repeated outbreaks of food-borne illnesses that kill about a thousand people a year and sicken millions. […]
For farmers, oligopolies mean fewer choices of supplier and sometimes no choice at all about whom they will sell to. One ongoing trend is contract farming, in which farmers grow according to a food company’s specifications, with all supplies provided by the company, in return for its commitment to purchase the farmers’ output if it is acceptable.

{ IEEE | Continue reading }

related { The world is approaching Peak Meat, producing 7 times more than in 1950 }

photo { Kyoko Hamada }

Two notions of reconciliation exist.

The weak or thin conception is akin to “resignation.” It is sought by groups that have waged war against one another but have come to the realization neither can win. Reconciliation in this sense results from an enforced lowering of expectations.

In the stronger sense, reconciliation means a virtual cancellation of enmity or estrangement via a morally grounded forgiveness, achievable only when conflicting groups acknowledge collective responsibility for past injustice, and shed their deep prejudices by a profound and painful transformation in their identities. It is because this process is not possible without a somewhat brutal confrontation with oneself and a painful recognition of one’s own moral degradation that reconciliation is difficult to achieve.

{ ResetDoc | Continue reading }

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow sliding more than 100 points.

The Dow is now riding a three-day losing skid, capped by today’s 126-point drop, marking the first time this year the blue-chip average has suffered three straight down days.

With it all said and done, the Dow went 112 trading days without a three-day losing streak, the longest such stretch in its history. The previous record was set in 1935, when the Dow went 93 trading days without three straight down days.

{ WSJ | Continue reading }

Perhaps most notable is that the number of companies hitting 52 week lows surged to the highest since October 2011.

{ ZeroHedge | Continue reading }

Which Came First: the Chicken or the Egg?

Alice Shirrell Kaswell, a staff member at the Annals of Improbable Research, definitively answered this question once and for all in 2003: The chicken, it turns out, came approximately 11 hours before the egg. Kaswell came to this finding by separately mailing a dozen eggs and one (1) live chicken via the U.S. Postal Service from Cambridge, Massachusetts to New York City. Both items, sent out on a Monday, arrived on Wednesday, but the chicken was delivered at 10:31 a.m., while the eggs didn’t arrive until 9:37 p.m.

{ Smithsonian | Continue reading }

photo { Kyoko Hamada }

I read two or three business plans a week. I’ve developed a checklist of irritating elements that entrepreneurs are best advised to avoid if they want to succeed in raising finance.

Complicated and aggressive non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements
There is often an inverse relationship between the length of the NDA and the scale of the project. While entrepreneurs should try to protect their intellectual property, these contracts are really more of a ritual than of any practical use.

Advisers taking a disproportionate fee
I was presented with a plan last year where the adviser stood to collect 20 per cent of the funds raised. It put me off the proposition. […]

Founders offering no “hurt money”
I want to see the promoters having plenty on the line, to make sure they don’t give up too easily if the scheme goes wrong. […]

Complex financial modelling
I read a plan recently for a £100,000 revenue confectionery business that had 10 tabs of Excel spreadsheets. My eyes swam when I tried to understand it. […]

Too much focus on five-year financial projections
What interests me are the next 12 to 18 months – further out is pure speculation, especially for an early-stage business. I never buy shares based on what might be possible years away – I want to see what milestones can be achieved in the near future.

{ Luke Johnson/FT | Continue reading }

sonder.— n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own

adronitis.— n. frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone

{ The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows | Continue reading }

photo { James P. Blair }

German bank employee naps on keyboard, transfers millions.

Woman allegedly stabbed a University of Houston professor to death with a stiletto heel.

It takes just one hour, six minutes and 48 seconds before the average woman’s feet begin to feel the agony of being strapped into high heels, a study has found.

People are now running from bonds. Running.

Investors Are Not Waiting for the Fed.

We’re taught from childhood how important it is to explain how we feel and to always justify our actions. But does giving reasons always make things clearer, or could it sometimes distract us from our true feelings?

People Are Overly Confident in Their Own Knowledge, Despite Errors.

U-M study links social media and narcissism.

The Health Benefits of Beer.

Five myths about legalizing marijuana.

Could “Magic” Mushrooms Be Used to Treat Anxiety and Depression?

Lead Exposure Shown to Trigger Schizophrenia .

‪Effect of psychoactive drugs on animals‬.

How various scientific techniques (X-ray light, Ultraviolet light…) are used to analyze works of art.

Inside Google’s Secret Lab.

Supermarkets are high-tech hotbeds. Kroger’s infrared cameras to shorten checkout queues is just one example.

You enter the supermarket, grab an electronic cart that recognizes you from your touch, toss in some bags and begin shopping. The monitor on your ‘smart cart’ displays products, price, and total amount spent; and subtracts items returned to the shelf.

“When swimming inside the cloak, the goldfish becomes invisible and does not block the scene of green plants behind the cloak.” More: More Large-Scale Invisibility Cloaks.

Elevator plunges are rare because brakes and cables provide fail-safe protections.

Why Are We Signing Our Emails With “Thank You?”

Discoteche lituane fotografate.

[Murder with animal hair]. [Article in Undetermined Language]

Guy Typing In All Caps Supports Edward Snowden.

Sushi restaurant drone delivery.

Future showgirl.

{ 1. Ellsworth Kelly, Chatham VI: Red Blue, 1971 | Oil on canvas, two joined panels | MoMA until Sept. 8, 2013 | 2. Gerold Miller, instant vision 143, 2012 | lacquered aluminum }

Theories about the evolution of human sexuality have spawned some intriguing ideas. One of the more peculiar ones is that oral sex has an evolutionary function, namely to detect recent infidelity by one’s partner. Cunnilingus  for example, is supposed to allow a man to detect the presence of another man’s semen in or around the woman’s vagina. A recently published study aimed to test this theory and found that a man’s interest  in performing cunnilingus was correlated with his partner’s attractiveness. The authors argued that more attractive women are more likely to be targeted by other men for mate poaching, and that partners of such women have more reason to be concerned about sperm competition, and therefore use oral sex to detect possible infidelity, albeit unconsciously.

{ Eye on Psych | Continue reading }

related { Can you buy sperm donor identification? }

photos { Hank Willis Thomas | Guy Bourdin }

A new study by Michigan State University researchers found that only 5 percent of people who used the bathroom washed their hands long enough to kill the germs that can cause infections. What’s more, 33 percent didn’t use soap and 10 percent didn’t wash their hands at all. Men were particularly bad at washing their hands correctly. […]

Hand washing is the single most effective thing one can do to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Failing to sufficiently wash one’s hands contributes to nearly 50 percent of all foodborne illness outbreaks. It takes 15 to 20 seconds of vigorous hand washing with soap and water to effectively kill the germs, the CDC says, yet the study found that people are only washing their hands, on average, for about 6 seconds.

{ Michigan State University | Continue reading }

art { Georges Hugnet }

How do scientists measure the physiological aspects of sexual arousal in women? A 2009 paper by Woodard and Diamond reviewed 45 years of research using instruments that measure female sexual function. These devices include the vaginal photoplethysmograph, vaginal and labial thermistors, pressure/compliance balloons, clitoral electromyography, and the electrovaginogram.

The authors note that these physiological measures do not correlate very well with subjective ratings of sexual arousal. […]

Emotional Brain, a Dutch drug company […] developed an at-home testing environment, or ambulatory lab, to conduct studies of sexual function. […] The participants must be so much more comfortable watching hardcore porn and measuring their own vaginal pulse amplitude and clitoral blood volume in the privacy of their homes, without the prying eyes of hoards of scientists in white lab coats. […] “The results of this study support our hypothesis that in healthy controls, clitoral and subjective laboratory measures of sexual arousal show stronger increases to erotic stimuli in the home environment than in the environment of the institutional laboratory. This effect was apparent in response to hardcore stimuli, but not to erotic fantasy.”

{ The Neurocritic | Continue reading }

Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying. We lie to protect our privacy (”No, I don’t live around here”); to avoid hurt feelings (”Friday is my study night”); to make others feel better (”Gee you’ve gotten skinny”); to avoid recriminations (”I only lost $10 at poker”); to prevent grief (”The doc says you’re getting better”); to maintain domestic tranquility (”She’s just a friend”); to avoid social stigma (”I just haven’t met the right woman”); for career advancement (”I’m sooo lucky to have a smart boss like you”); to avoid being lonely (”I love opera”); to eliminate a rival (”He has a boyfriend”); to achieve an objective (”But I love you so much”); to defeat an objective (”I’m allergic to latex”); to make an exit (”It’s not you, it’s me”); to delay the inevitable (”The check is in the mail”); to communicate displeasure (”There’s nothing wrong”); to get someone off your back (”I’ll call you about lunch”); to escape a nudnik (”My mother’s on the other line”); to namedrop (”We go way back”); to set up a surprise party (”I need help moving the piano”); to buy time (”I’m on my way”); to keep up appearances (”We’re not talking divorce”); to avoid taking out the trash (”My back hurts”); to duck an obligation (”I’ve got a headache”); to maintain a public image (”I go to church every Sunday”); to make a point (”Ich bin ein Berliner”); to save face (”I had too much to drink”); to humor (”Correct as usual, King Friday”); to avoid embarrassment (”That wasn’t me”); to curry favor (”I’ve read all your books”); to get a clerkship (”You’re the greatest living jurist”); to save a dollar (”I gave at the office”); or to maintain innocence (”There are eight tiny reindeer on the rooftop”)….

An important aspect of personal autonomy is the right to shape one’s public and private persona by choosing when to tell the truth about oneself, when to conceal, and when to deceive.

{ Judge Kozinski | Continue reading }

photo { Joel Meyerowitz }

Having just returned alive from my first visit to Las Vegas, I feel the need to share some of my experiences, observations, and enlightening commentary. […] The place really is just that bad. Las Vegas is essentially the combined horror of Hell, the Holocaust, and the killing fields of Cambodia ground up and run through a giant neon sausage maker. […] Las Vegas was obviously designed by a retarded child and bankrolled by a shadowy cabal of Nazis, mafia gangsters, racist astronauts, pedophiles, murderers, and Celine Dion. I can’t imagine any other place in the world that would make heroes out of creepy immigrants like Zigfried and Roy, or glorify washed up actors, comedians, and musicians as Gods of the Universe.

{ Something Awful | Continue reading }

Brain fingerprinting (BF) detects concealed information stored in the brain by measuring brainwaves. A specific EEG event- related potential, a P300-MERMER, is elicited by stimuli that are significant in the present context. BF detects P300-MERMER responses to words / pictures relevant to a crime scene, terrorist training, bomb-making knowledge, etc. BF detects information by measuring cognitive information processing. BF does not detect lies, stress, or emotion. BF computes a determination of “information present” or “information absent” and a statistical confidence for each individual determination. Laboratory and field tests at the FBI, CIA, US Navy and elsewhere have resulted in 0% errors: no false positives and no false negatives. 100% of determinations made were correct. 3% of results have been “indeterminate.”

{ Cognitive Neurodynamics | PDF | via/more Improbable }

Using a high-speed camera pointed at the throat, scientists can decipher a person’s words without relying on a microphone.

By snapping thousands of images per second, researchers recorded every wavering wobble of neck flesh that accompanied sounds floating out from a person’s voice box. A computer program then turned the recorded skin vibrations into sound waves, Yasuhiro Oikawa of Waseda University in Tokyo reported June 3.

{ ScienceNews | Continue reading }

{ The Manhattan Bridge, June 5, 1908 | Almost a million images of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet. | New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery }

In January 1986, 11 men went to bed in Moscow - and didn’t get up for the next 370 days. […]

Spanish neurologist Jose Delgado from Yale University used a remote control to telecommand a bull during a bull fight. […]

What happens if you bring three men together who all think they are Jesus? […]

In Summer 1978 a man approached women on the campus of Florida State University saying: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be very attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?” Some days later a woman went around with the same question for men. [PDF] […]

On Good Friday 1962 researcher Walter Pahnke administered 10 theology mind altering drugs before the church service. Some test subjects became priests.

{ Weird Experiments | Continue reading }