The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Sun Fires X-ray Shot at Earth, CME on the Way
http://news.discovery.com/space/sun-blasts-x-class-flare-right-at-earth-120712.html
This probably won’t matter, I believe the CME (coronal mass ejection) is such that other than auroras where won’t be much impact, but I thought it might interest a …
NASA’s Hubble telescope finds Pluto’s fifth moon
http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/11/nasas-hubble-telescope-finds-plutos-fifth-moon/?hpt=hp_t2
This is quite interesting to me, but upon some reflection I suppose it was inevitable. Just like Jupiter and Saturn have collected extensive moon systems because the are so large, it makes …
Food In Smaller Pieces May Help Control Weight
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247693.php
This is a really interesting study to me. Just like the power of the placebo, humans actually have a tremendous ability to convince themselves of things (why I think our …
Climate adaptation may be a family affair
Newborn reef fish can cope with changed water conditions if their parents have already adjusted
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/341931/title/Climate_adaptation_may_be_a_family_affair
That this effect has been observed experimentally isn’t shocking or even unexpected to me. If life were …
Space trek may help worms live long
Nematodes that orbited Earth had reduced signs of aging
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/342084/title/Space_trek_may_help_worms_live_long
Probably not applicable to humans in any way, but interesting to me so I figured I would encourage my reader(s) to check it …
Did all dinosaurs have feathers?
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/64439-did-all-dinosaurs-have-feathers
My, how times have changed! When I was a kid, dinosaurs were cold-blooded, slow, lumbering beasts that dragged their tails. Now they are warm blooded, fast, agile and hold their tails up high, and, …
Certain Diets May Help Body Burn More Calories: Study
Low-carb and low-glycemic plans work best, but low-carb regimen has drawbacks
http://www.ivillage.com/certain-diets-may-help-body-burn-more-calories-study/4-a-468579
I wanted to title this “Another thing that makes you go ‘Duh!'”, but felt that would be too repetitious, …
Evolution and Our Inner Conflict
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/evolution-and-our-inner-conflict/
Though the initial focus of the article is discussing the dynamic between selfishness and altruism, what I found most interesting was the idea of group evolution. Reading the wiki page it seems clear that …
Wind turbine creates water from thin air
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/29/world/eole-water-turbine/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7
Not living in an area where water scarcity is an issue I can say that this never really served as an idea for me. However, I have thought about the use of …
Earlier I talked about the human ‘microbiome’ and the hygiene hypothesis. I was discussing this with my lovely wife over the weekend (got to kill 4 hours each weekend in the car somehow) and felt that there might be …