“Being American is bad for your health,” said Robert Samuelson. That’s the sobering conclusion of an exhaustive new report comparing our health with that of people in 16 other advanced countries. We rank at or near the bottom, from life expectancy at birth to frequency of death before age 50, and it’s only partly the fault of our health-care system. […]
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Spending evenings in front of a glowing computer, TV, or cellphone screen can put you at risk of depression, Science News reports. Nighttime exposure to light from gadgets has already been shown to contribute to insomnia, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. Now, a new study shows that screen glow can cause mood-related changes in the brain. For weeks, researchers exposed hamsters […]
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That’s right… NASA paid people to lay in bed! NASA asked for volunteers who’d like to lie in bed for 24 hours a day for 10 weeks to volunteer for a program to study prolonged idleness. The test subjects, had access to TVs, books, and computers, and even had to wash up in bed. Volunteers were paid $12,000, but NASA […]
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A parasite lurking in your cat’s litter box could make you suicidal. A study of 46,000 Danish women found that those who were infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a common parasite that lives in the guts of cats and is transmitted through their feces, were 1.5 times more likely to kill themselves than those who weren’t infected and the more T. […]
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Poland is giving up the liberties it fought so hard to gain, said Jacek Zakowski. There was “no coup, no fanfare, no lofty ideas or slogans.” But slowly and incrementally, our own democratically elected government has been passing law after law restricting our freedoms. In the past six months, we’ve granted the government permission to track us through our cellphone […]
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A New Mexico teenager is expected to face murder charges after allegedly gunning down five family members with his parents’ rifles. Nehemiah Griego, 15, is accused of using a .22 caliber rifle to shoot his mother while she slept and then kill his siblings—ages 9, 5, and 2—when they awoke. He then allegedly grabbed an assault rifle and waited downstairs […]
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Juba, South Sudan Army rapes, murders: South Sudanese soldiers have been gang raping young girls and then burning them alive, according to a new United Nations report. The army is trying to terrify the entire civilian population into fleeing rebel-held areas so that the rebels will have no support base. One survivor described how he hid in a river when […]
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In the Russian village Chirka, the fuss is all about a lamb. It was born with what appears to be a ‘human face’. Neighbors refer to it as the “angry old man with a big nose”. The farm owner could not believe his eyes when he first laid eyes on it. “We have a fairly heavy winter behind us”, said […]
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High blood sugar doesn’t just increase your risk of developing diabetes—studies have also shown a link between blood sugar and dementia. Researchers tracked the blood glucose levels of more than 2,000 older adults for seven years and found that those who had high glucose levels—but not diabetes—were nearly 20 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with low levels. […]
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A new study has found the strongest link yet between air pollution and autism, which experts now say affects one in 50 U.S. schoolchildren. Pregnant women who lived in areas with high levels of diesel exhaust and airborne mercury were found to be twice as likely to have a child with autism as those living in places with the lowest […]
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