High-tech constructive criticism

New Scientist Technology - Device warns you if you're boring or irritating

Have you ever been cornered at a party or at some function by someone who was just plain, dead boring? I have. When it happens, I try to be polite, make small talk, find some common interesting ground, or if all else fails - I jet out of there like a bat-out-of-hell. Even worse are people whose idea of a great conversation is a one-sided monologue. You know the kind. Most of us unfortunately do. Now... Imagine a world where everyone, ourselves included, received mandatory training with this new device that allows users to pick up when the person they're talking to becomes bored, uninterested, surprised, happy, etc... That kind of training could work wonders on some people! Let's face it. There are lots of people out there who just don't have very well developed social skills. They might be great people, but they can be just difficult to talk to sometimes. If everybody, at some point or another, were forced to train with this device then people's self-awareness and hopefully their interpersonal skills would go through the roof! Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like it's an option now. It's something company & human resource managers should keep in their back pocket though for the future because it could be a great professional development tool. For now, we have to wait for this kind of thing to hit the mainstream... if it ever does. With that said, there are still ways to inform those with less than stellar people skills of their shortcomings. You could gently, or not so gently, tell them to their face or in an email or whatever. Or... There is yet another option. There's a website set up where you can send a message to whoever you think might need a tip or two of anonymous constructive criticism. How constructive it is depends on how you approach your criticism or advice. You know though... On second thought, I don't like hurting people's feelings. So for my own personal selfish reasons, I hope those scientists hurry up and get their device out there. That would save the rest of us from having to be the bearer of bad social tidings.

Daring scientists question crucifixion

Image of Jesus' crucifixion may be wrong, says study - Yahoo! News

It takes guts to question what most people assume to be reality. Think of all the people around the world who demonstrate a sign of their faith by wearing a cross on their necklace. Some even see visions of the cross. To question whether or not Christ died in the manner that many people now believe to be the truth is an invitation to open yourself up to the wrath of millions. If there is doubt in that manner, as is stated in this scientific paper, then people shouldn't discount it. They can choose to believe whatever they want to, but as long as some people keep an open mind then the quest for the ultimate scientific and historic truth will prevail. It takes guts to be a scientist when you sometimes have to battle against strongly entrenched preconceived notions. As long as the prevailing notion is that the truth will set people free, then we can continue to live in a society where curiosity and a need to get to the bottom of things will be valued. That is the scientific way. Ask Dr. James Hansen from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He's the U.S. government's top climate change scientist who's been muzzled by his own government for trying to get the word out about the reality of global warming. And he's just standing up for a widely held scientific fact. These scientists who wrote this current paper on the crucifixion don't have any proof, but they have real doubts. Either way, it's thanks to daring scientists like these that we are where we are today. Otherwise we'd still be living in a solar system where the sun revolves around the earth rather than the other way around.

What about our own planet?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Probe returns first Mars pictures

The amount of information coming back from Mars is stunning. First of all, there are the little rovers that could that just keep on going and going. Then there's the European Space Agency's Mars Express that also keeps on sending back breathtaking images of the red planet. Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey are also still hanging out around Mars. Now finally, Mars Orbiter is also on the case sending back its first images. This is a heck of a lot of information coming from one planet. Why? Mars is the most similar planet in size and scope to Earth in our solar system. The main objective of most of these missions is to learn more because of the possibility of there being a water source on that planet. Where there is a water source, there is possibly life. That's of interest to almost everybody especially if we're going to send manned missions to Mars like President George Bush mandated back in 2004. Of course, not everyone is happy with Bush' plan to put so much effort into going to the moon and Mars. Bush says he's doing this because it's in our nature to explore, yet many other further reaching scientific missions are now on the chopping board because of the sheer amount of money it'll cost to get man back on the moon and then to Mars. Let's face it. It's not just exploration that's driving these manned missions, it's colonization. The U.S. administration wants to establish a permanent base on the moon and most likely Mars in the future. So while we're down here on Earth on the verge of bringing our own planet to destruction by not curbing greenhouse gases, we're looking for an escape route. Maybe we should start looking for a way to get to one of the parallel universes that theoretically exist alongside of our own? Or maybe it's time to face what we've been doing to our own planet and start getting to work to clean it up. Let's all start emailing President George Bush and Prime Minister Steven Harper. Maybe if these two guys wake up, the rest of the world will act a little quicker too.

Want to live longer? Sleep less.

LiveScience.com - Sleep Deprivation: The Great American Myth

What the hell is this? The scientist in this article says I'll live longer if I stop obsessing about getting 8 hours of sleep a night and be satisfied with my 6 or 7 hours of sleep. This goes contrary to everything I've ever heard. Wasn't 8 hours of sleep supposed to be the Holy Grail of a good night's rest? I rarely get that much sleep at once. That is a luxury... or at least it was a luxury until I read about this study. I always feel like I need more sleep because I get so puckered out by the end of the day. Work. The gym. Commuting. Errands. More work. Trying to have a life. Reading. Writing. Me time. There just wasn't enough time to get all of this done, especially when I aim to get 8 hours of shut-eye a night on top of that. It's too bad sleep can't become obsolete all together. Unfortunately, that's just my own pipe dream. We're human. Our bodies and minds need sleep. At least now I can rest assured that I'm not missing out if I only get 6 or 7 hours of sleep instead of 8. In fact, I'm gaining time - not only with the extra hour or two of awake time each day, but also at the tail end of my lifespan because guess what? I'm going to live longer!!

Veggies for your eyes

ScienCentral Video News: Food For Your Eyes

I grew up on a carrot farm, so I've eaten a lot of carrots in my life. My dad always used to tell me how it would boost my eyesight. That's something I've always doubted since I had to get glasses when I was 13. He also told me I'd get big muscles if I ate spinach and that eating bread crusts would make me be able to whistle. I am a physically strong girl, but I chalk that up to good ole' farmer gene stock. I still can't whistle. Carrots on the other hand... Yes, they're good for your eyes. The carotenoids inside them are color pigments. They're what make your carrots orange. The best known carotenoid is Beta Carotene. Inside of you, they turn into Vitamin A. That's essential for our eyesight. It can prevent night blindness. That's great and everything, but now I'm finding out I probably should have eaten a heck of a lot more spinach with those carrots. Leafy vegetables like spinach and kale contain other carotenoids that this most recent study says will better protect your eyes against UV damage that could lead to cataracts. After doing even more research, I found another study that says one of those carotenoids in the leafy green stuff might actually improve my current eyesight as well. The key word here is might. It was still a little too early for those results to be conclusive.
So what's the moral of the story? Eat your carrots. Eat your spinach & kale. But I wouldn't bother with the bread crusts to improve your whistling abilities if you. It doesn't do a damn thing except to prevent wasting the ends of a loaf.

Tool for long-distance relationships

Absence makes the glass glow fondly - Yahoo! News

Let's face it. Long distance relationships are for the birds. I am speaking from experience here when I say it's hard to keep a relationship going when you rarely get to see your partner. I'm not saying it can't work, it can. It's just that without regular face-to-face contact, your probability of success goes down the toilet. There are ways to increase your odds in a long-distance relationship with some high tech tools. Nowadays you can sit down and have a close facsimile of a date in front of your computer. There is technology you can use to be able to see and hear each other available for free through the Internet. Now, with this new technology developed out of MIT, you can also share a drink with your partner. These researchers made glasses that'll alert the other person when you're about to take a drink so they can take a drink at the same time. It's almost as good as actually being there. Almost. There is no substitution for the real thing. Being able to look directly into your lovers eyes who is right in front of you when you're talking with him/her is the be-all and end-all for any relationship. At least these high-tech tools are a way to bring your odds back into the toilet rather than letting them go down and stew around in your sewage.

To remember or not could be up to pot

TheStar.com - Scientists awed by `human calendar'

Imagine being able to remember absolutely everything you've ever done. That's what this woman, the 'human calendar', can do. You give her a date, any date, and she can tell you what she was doing and what the weather was like for that day. Crazy huh? That's a skill that could definitely come in handy, but it's almost an information overload. They're going to test her in a brain scanner to see what part of her brain is responsible for this unusual talent. As you can imagine, she sometimes feels overloaded by her memory. This makes me think of another study that came out recently giving conclusive proof that a potheads' memory gets worse the more years he/she smokes regularly. That's really bad news for potheads, but it could be good news for this woman. Although, the type of memory this woman is really good at storing in her brain is different than what this new study found. This marijuana study looked mostly at people's abilities to memorize something they just read. It's more like the type of memory this student has developed. This 15-year-old just won a prize for memorizing and reciting close to 9000 digits of Pi. Talk about a useless fact to put to memory! Pi is one of those numbers that goes on infinitely. It's stored in every calculator. Why someone would put so much effort into memorizing that many digits of Pi is beyond me. He won bragging rights, that's true. And it is good to exercise your brain, but why Pi? Maybe he should chill out and smoke a joint when he grows up to see if he can be inspired to find a better, more useful way to put that memory of his to good use... Just as long as he doesn't let all his efforts go up in smoke by becoming a regular toker.

Baby picture from the beginning of time

SPACE.com -- Astronomers Detect First Split-Second of the Universe

In the beginning, there was the Big Bang. The rest is cosmic history. It's hard to believe the universe went from being the size of a gumball to extraordinary cosmic proportions in a trillion-trillionth of a second. This whole idea is crazier than science fiction because it's real. Scientists took a "picture" of the afterglow from this insane fraction of a moment in time. It's just been ballooning out since then at an inflationary rate for the past 13.7-billion years. Before that, there was nothing. That nothingness is hard to grasp in our brains that evolved to understand the world in the three-dimensional fashion in which we grew up. But after that nothingness, then there was light. It's this precise moment that scientists were able to map out using the WMAP probe. That feat in itself is no less a miracle than the inflation they describe through the means of science, which in no way takes away from the magic of the event itself.

Judgmental? Better check your facts.

Moral judgments affect memory

Call me crazy. Call me naive. Or Miss-Know-It-All. But just know that if you call me any one of those things and judge me for what I have to say, your memory of the facts might not hold up. It's true. Science says so. A couple of posts ago, I judged - myself, Donna Maddock, and anyone else who gets behind the wheel of a car and isn't totally focused on the road. You can see my judgment right in the title: "Cells Phones + Driving = Bad." If I was tested after I first read about that study, I might have gotten some of the facts wrong. Being judgmental might have clouded my judgment of the science. The same thing might have happened to you when you read something that makes you form a negative or positive opinion about someone or something. Lucky for me and you - since you're reading this, I read, re-read and research this stuff before I spout off my judgments on the Internet. That's a more than I can say for a lot of bloggers out there... Oops! Did I judge again?

Mutating to keep up with the times

Human Genome Shows Proof of Recent Evolution, Survey Finds

Years ago I read something in one of my biology textbooks that surprised me. It said how lactose intolerance is quite rare in Caucasian people and not in Africans, Asians, Middle Eastern people, etc... That made me rethink, on a genetic level, how we humans are not all the same on the inside. Why would I be able to digest milk products better than non-Caucasians if our only differences are on the outside? This study really gives a whole new context to our differences. We are all mutants! You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Our genes evolve to adapt to whatever circumstances we face. If we happen to rely a lot on milk products, our bodies finds ways to digest it. If we move further north and need more vitamin D, our bodies find ways to produce more of it. If we stop going out and searching for food every day and buy more processed foods instead, our bodies find ways to deal with that. It may take a millennia for our genes to catch up to our circumstances. Many people might die in the meantime if they didn't get the lucky DNA mutation. But we are evolving. We are continuing to evolve.
Imagine our future... Maybe our bodies will find ways to deal with pesticide residue on our foods? Maybe our bodies will learn to cope with the increased temperature due to global warming? Maybe we'll grow gills so we can breath underwater when the glaciers keep on melting? This list could go on and on... Maybe those who meditate will activate genes that open up beneficial pathways? Maybe we'll find a way to turn pollution into something our bodies can actually use? I think we should all embrace our mutant genes and welcome more genetic change! Not only is it a great coping mechanism, but it might be my descendants' only chance becoming real, live superheros a-la-X-Men. Isn't that what this is all about - giving our offspring the greatest chance for survival? :)

Cell phones + Driving = Bad

Association for Psychological Science: 'Hands Free' Isn't Mind Free: Performing Even Easy Tasks Impairs Driving

How many studies have to come out before everyone realizes how dangerous it is to drive while talking on the phone? Cars are lethal weapons. Split attention behind the wheel can kill. It's as simple as that. You might think you're doing everyone a favor by going hands free rather taking a hand away from the wheel to hold your cell phone up to your ear. That's not true. This most recent study proves that it's not a matter of having your hands free to drive, it's a matter of keeping 100% of your attention on the road! That goes for other things as well - like reading the newspaper, changing the CD in your car, or putting on makeup. Even I have to admit that I've been guilty of talking on the phone, looking for CDs and changing them, and putting on makeup while driving. Bad girl. Very bad girl, I know. So now I'm saying it folks, it's time we all wake-up, act and know the danger we're putting ourselves and others in when we do stupid things like this. Maybe police around the world should take the same action as police in North Whales did when Donna Maddock was caught putting on make-up while driving -- start handing out fines! Big ones!! Then maybe everyone would smarten the hell up...

Where is your information?

Scotsman.com Business - Privacy fear as Google plans 'super database'

All this talk about privacy issues freaks me out a bit. When you think about it, we've got private information about ourselves everywhere, but at least it's somewhat scattered. This whole idea Google has to keep information about all of our online activities on their computers is too much. Essentially, they want your to store a big chunk of your hard drive on their computers -- your emails, word processor files, a history of your online searches etc... Here's a much better article outlining Google's good intentions. This is the perfect instance to use that old phrase, "It's better not to put all your eggs in one basket!" The eggs in this case would be yours and my cyber footprints. We all know there are hackers out there who can pretty much do whatever they want even if Google continues to put up a fight to protect our personal information. I know I for one want to keep as many eggs as possible in my own damn basket.

Crap energy

CNN.com - Scientists extract gasoline from cattle dung - Mar 3, 2006

Forget nuclear energy, coal burning or pillaging the earth for oil. Crap (yes, feces) might very well be the way to go for future energy sources. Cow crap. Dog crap. Human crap. It makes sense. This is one renewable energy. Everyone produces it. Yes - even that pretty girl who says she doesn't. She does. So do animals. All we need to do is figure out how to best harness the methane from all of the animals that would be good producers, including us, and we're set! Okay... So I'm exaggerating a little. We're not going to be able to get rid of nuclear, coal, or oil energy anytime soon. That doesn't mean we can't look at this as a possible way to reduce a bit of the energy burden we impose on this earth. So what do you think? Would you want to heat your frying pan on the stove with energy from your crap?

Worthless telescopes vs Warming earth

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Telescopes 'worthless' by 2050

There is a bigger, scarier side to this story than the possibility of astronomers losing out on their nice, clear view into space. Let me throw a hypothetical situation at you. Let's say, for instance, the powers-that-be took up these astronomers' cause and decided to ground planes for the sake of astronomy. That'll never happen, but let's say it does. Well our earth would get hotter, faster than we'll be able to handle.
Back in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, scientists had the perfect opportunity to study just how much an impact contrails have on climate. Remember how planes all over the United States stopped flying for three days? There was a major spike in temperature as a result of the planes being grounded.
You see, the contrails are good for something. They're keeping global warming slightly in check. Polluted clouds do the same thing. It's a process known as Global Dimming. Lots of tiny dirty particles in the upper atmosphere act like magnets, attracting water molecules. The more dirty particles there are, the more tiny droplets form reflecting the sun's solar energy back out into space like mirrors. The less solar energy that hits the earth, the cooler it is.
Of course there is the flip side - Global Warming. That's where invisible gases cause a greenhouse effect warming everything.
It's ironic. The dirty pollution is keeping the earth cool. The invisible pollution is warming the earth. Right now the invisible pollution is winning. The earth is getting warmer.
While it is a crappy thing that astronomers might not be able to see from ground based telescopes in the near future, it's not nearly as bad a situation as we would face if we grounded all air traffic without looking after the root cause of global warming first.

To Infinity and Beyooonnd!

A Thrill Ride to 'the Other Side of Infinity' - New York Times

Talk about a ride of a lifetime! An astrophysicist from the University of Colorado used video game technology to create a ride through a freaky place that has a pull on us all - black holes. Forget about the rides at Disney World or Busch Gardens. If you're looking for the most far out thrill ride, the place to go is the Denver Museum of Science and Technoloy. Picture the craziest CGI trip you've ever seen on the big screen. Now multiply that by about a million and you'll still barely be able to imagine the weirdness of travelling through a black hole. It's so far beyond the scope of what the laws of our physical universe can comprehend that many astrophysicists can only teeter at its edge when studying it. That just proves our imaginations' superiority. Black holes can take our imaginations for a ride, but they seriously blow most computers away. Now do you have an appreciation for what an amazing feat it is that this astrophysicist was able to use a bit of his imagination and a lot of science to create this ride for us? It's mind blowing enough to possibly catapult us into another universe from a lowly museum in Denver.

Happiness is YOUR choice.

The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them - Yahoo! News

It totally perplexes me why some people choose to be unhappy. I just don't get it. Sure there are some days when being happy is a challenge. In fact, that's the gist of this article. It's easier to be unhappy than happy. It takes less energy. But seriously! If you know that it's a choice you're making, why the hell would anyone choose to be gloomy? Maybe you get more attention that way? I don't know... Please fill me in if you fit into this category. I just find when I'm super happy, most times it spreads to people around me. If ever I'm gloomy, I notice that spreads too. Happy people don't want to be around cranky, gloomy people. It sucks energy out of them. That's why I try damn hard to hold onto a sunny disposition. It's been one of the hardest lessons I've had to learn, but the difference is amazing! Oh, and by the way... I am not talking about unhappiness like when tragedy strikes. Shit happens. You deal with it, but then you have to move on. So those of you who suspect or know you're typically unhappy - turning things around does take a lot of energy. But mark my words - if you put the energy into making yourself happy, then you will get it back.

PMS Control? Not for this girl!

ScienCentral Video News: PMS Control

Every month, there are two or three days where I have to bite my tongue. Those who know me well, know that I like to keep to myself on those days. Work is no problem. It's a matter of being professional. Regardless, I find that things which normally wouldn't bother me does get to me during that particular time of the month. I take things a little too personally. Luckily I know my cycle, so I generally know not to pay attention to those exaggerated feelings. Here's what I find incredible though -- it's how 25% of women don't get any PMS symptoms at all! And you know what? I feel sorry for them. Seriously! They don't know what they're missing. Don't get me wrong. Those two or three days really do suck, but it sure as hell makes me appreciate the rest of the month even more. Hallelujah!!!