Have you come across the Lying Down Game?
It’s the latest bizarre internet phenomenon that’s sweeping the world, causing people to, well, basically, lie down in the strangest places, including the engine of a jumbo jet (engine off, on the ground)
There’s only one rule – you must have your palms flat against their sides and tips of your toes touching the ground.
No place is out of bounds. And the more public the better. Pictures posted on the Facebook site have people lying down in front of tanks, on roads, on roofs…
In one British hospital, the medical staff on night shift in …read more

Does Twitter make you dumber?
According to one psychologist, yes it does.
Dr. Tracy Alloway from University of Stirling in Scotland, who studies working memory, recently told an audience at the British Science Festival that some social-media behaviors are much more conducive to developing working memory than others.
In her opinion Facebook is good while twitter is not.
In fact, she sees microblogging activities such as twitter as reducing a person’s attention span.
On the other hand, Alloway sees participating in facebook as enhancing intelligence.
Interesting but I’m not buying it. To me, both social media behaviours can be as intelligence enhancing or intelligence numbing as …read more

Researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University have created a death calculator that allows users to compare mortality risks by gender, age, cause of death and geographic region based on  publicly available data from the United States and Europe.
Answer a few simple questions and you’ll be enlightened, perhaps even frightened. Of course, it can’t actually predict when you might kick the bucket. But it is able to  calculate your risk of dying in the next year and allows you to compare that risk to others in the world.
More specifically, it displays the risk ranking for up to 66 causes of …read more

Check this out.
Queensland Health’s new doctor fatigue policy, soon to take affect in public hospitals around Queensland, Australia, suggests the antidote for sleep-deprived doctors is …. six cups of coffee.
This will, apparently, prevent them from harming their patients while in state of exhaustion.
Honestly. I’m not making this up. The policy document claims that the standard solution of ‘more staff’ really isn’t feasible. Therefore, the doctors need to find a way to work effectively on little sleep.
And that way is caffeine. The document suggests recommends a dose of 400 mg of caffeine (about 5 to 6 cups of coffee) as the …read more

Japanese scientists, always at the forefront of robotic innovation, created a robot suit that they say improves mobility and also allow the wearer to carry more.
The hybrid assistance limb, otherwise known as HAL, was developed with the goal of helping the injured and the weak get around.
Made by Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne, the exoskeleton is a 10 kilogram (22 pound) machine that belts at the waist and has a battery and computer system at the back.
HAL’s bio-electrical sensors, which are attached to the body, are able to capture electromyogram signals on the person’s skin control the way someone walks.
As a …read more

Would you leave the hospital before your doctor says you are ready?
It’s not something that I’d do.
But according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, it’s becoming a common occurence as more and more people check out against medical advice.
In fact, in 2007 368,000 patients walked out on their doctor.
So why did they leave?
Turns out that the majority of those who left were uninsured or on Medicaid.
 
They were also more likely to be…

Male: Men left hospital against advice at a rate of 1.5 per 1,000 population, compared with 0.9 for 1,000 women. In contrast, women were more likely to …read more

There was a  health care SNAFU at the Veterans Administration early this month.
A computer coding error by the Veterans Administration led to more than 1,800 Gulf War veterans being sent letters informing them that they had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurological disease more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Can you imagine opening up your mail and being told that as a veteran with ALS, they were entitled to disability compensation of up to $2,700 a month with additional money for their children and spouses.
Most would have been left scratching their head and wondering how in the world they suddenly had …read more

Are you addicted to the internet?
Not sure?
Well, according to reSTART, the first US rehab center for Internet Addiction,  if you have  5 or more of the following signs and symptoms, the answer is probably yes
So, go ahead and check it out. Think about your internet and computer use and then answer yes or no to the following:

   Failed attempts to control behavior
 Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and internet activities
Craving more time on the computer and internet
Neglecting friends and family
Feeling restless when not engaged in the activity
Being dishonest with others
Computer use interfering with job/school performance
Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, …read more

PETA’s at it again.
In an attempt to encourage people to go vegetarian, they have introduced a new billboard campaign featuring an obese bikini clad woman alongside this slogan “Save the Whales, Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian”.
Yet again, PETA has crossed the line and managed to create another tasteless, tacky, ignorant, and insulting campaign.
Do they really think that this sort of publicity stunt will encourage people to go vegetarian?
According to this Press Release, it seems they do…
A new PETA billboard campaign that was just launched in Jacksonville reminds people who are struggling to lose weight — and who want to have …read more

It’s a strange world where a person can end up with jail time for the simple and often involuntary act of yawning. But what’s even stranger is that while the yawner was being given jail time, the actual defendant, who plead guilty to a felony drug charge, was only given two years probation. Interesting way of ensuring that justice is done.
(image source)
 
Apparently the judge decided that the yawn was a disrespectful interruption of the court and the yawner was in contempt.
Seriously, you have to wonder what the judge was thinking. Yawning is as natural as breathing and just as involuntary. …read more