Facebook can make you unhappy. Researchers texted study participants five times a day with questions about their social-networking activity and how they felt, and found that Facebook visits directly correlated with negative emotions, such as depression and loneliness. While Facebook seems to fulfill “the basic human need for social connection,” says University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, it can […]
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Pompey the Great’s soldiers were bone tired. For most of 65 BCE, Roman legions marched around the southern edge of the Black Sea as they battled the local ruler, Mithridates VI of Pontus. Then, something magical happened: The exhausted troops discovered a stockpile of honeycombs strewn across their path, and they fell upon the sticky treats like hungry bears. But […]
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Every week, more than 50 million Americans take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and many other popular painkillers, to ease their aches and pains. But a new study has revealed that the drug also dulls emotions—including happiness. Prior research showed that acetaminophen can help take the sting out of negative feelings like dread, but the new findings from Ohio […]
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Horsemeat is passing for ground beef in supermarkets all over Europe, said Hugh Camegy in the Financial Times. Claims have also been made that there are restaurants serving horse meat. It has been found in Findus’s frozen lasagna, Tesco’s frozen hamburgers, and even Burger King’s Whoppers in the U.K., France, Sweden, and beyond. The horsemeat makes its way to dinner […]
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Beijing The cloud of pollution over Beijing grew so dense this week that much of the city was rendered invisible. Hundreds of flights were grounded, auto traffic was stalled for scores of miles, and residents rushed to buy masks and air filters. Chinese officials downplayed the air-quality crisis, as usual, saying their readings showed that air pollution was “moderate.” But […]
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Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has blistering 800-degree temperatures at its equator—but its poles are full of ice. New data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting Mercury last year, has revealed that as much as a trillion tons of ice exists in shadowy polar craters, where temperatures can drop to minus 370 degrees. Much of the ice […]
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If you’re worried about infertility, don’t try to Google the term with a computer on your lap, says the London Telegraph. A new experiment suggests that radiation from a single Wi-Fi-enabled laptop may be strong enough to cause cell damage in sperm. Argentine researchers took samples of ejaculated semen and left them directly under a computer—simulating holding a laptop directly […]
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Pet stores in China are struggling to meet demand for the country’s latest animal craze—chow dogs dyed black-and-white to make them look like pandas. “Ten years ago the natural instinct of a Chinese person was to eat a dog,” said pet-store owner Hsin Ch’en. “Now we are like Westerners and want one as a companion.” Hsin said the panda dogs […]
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More people are driving in traffic every day and breathing in toxins from all the automobiles traveling the same road at the same time. The air around this traffic is filled with millions of tiny particles of magnetite (iron oxide) which enters the body. When it enters the body, it can concentrate in the brain and has been linked to […]
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Johannesburg With cameras rolling, a South African journalist was robbed by two men just moments before he was to give a report. The video shows the two assailants scuffling with reporter Vuyo Mvoko, who shouts, “Hey we’re being mugged!” as he gives up his cellphone and a laptop. “Every South African lives with the reality of crime,” said the South […]
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