Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Male suicide rates are now at their highest point in the UK since 2001. The Office for National Statistics shows that in the past thirty years, the balance between male/female suicide rates has shifted from 63% male in 1981 to 78% male in 2013. Men are killing themselves at a rate that noticeably outstrips women,…
No matter why a woman is seeing a doctor—be it for a headache or for a broken toe—she can reliably expect to be asked the date of her last period within the first minute of her consultation. Because of the confused looks I get when I reply with “May 2012,” I started prefacing my answer…
Here’s one way to get the world’s attention: Live to become Europe’s oldest person and attribute your longevity to staying single. Well, staying single and eating raw eggs. Over the past week, the delightful story of Emma Morano, now 115 years and three months old, has gone viral. As The New York Times reported, Morano…
There is empirical evidence to support the idea that males have a higher capacity for spatial reasoning than females. A large-scale 1995 meta-analysis found that on average, men outperform women in a cluster of tests related to spatial ability by nearly a full standard deviation, and in attempt to explain this, researchers have hypothesized about…
Something introverts really like to do, it seems, is read and talk about their own introversion. A commenter on a recent Science of Us post on the four kinds of introversion summed matters up quite nicely: “Gosh, introverts are just so FASCINATING! — Introverts.” This tendency, you could argue, may arise simply because introverts like spending…
If you’re like me, you’re an extroverted introvert. You can be outgoing, yet you desperately need your alone time. You can’t do that. You’re one or the other. No, this is how I am. And that’s how many other people are. But we’re often misunderstood. Take for instance, people often see me as completely, inarguably, extroverted…
All photos by the author Chris Gilman made a name for himself as a Hollywood prop designer, specializing in space-related movie props and effects for films like Deep Impact, Star Trek, and Armageddon. His company, Global Effects Inc, became notorious in the industry for their unparalleled ability to manufacture hyperrealistic space suits—the kind that mirrored…
It’s a cold day in winter and you’re driving on dry pavement when your dashboard flashes a warning: black ice up ahead. You slow down, engage your four-wheel drive and start watching for other drivers who might not be so well informed as you. That scene, straight out of the connected-car playbook, would seem to require a few more years of public investment in smart…
Vester Flanagan was determined to explain himself. After murdering two TV journalists (and former coworkers) during a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday, he faxed three different suicide notes to ABC News that were strewn with absurdities, contradictions, and baffling rationalizations. Flanagan, who was black and went by the name Bryce Williams on air, complained…
Scientists ‘delete’ HIV virus from human DNA for the first time Scientists used a DNA-snipping enzyme called Cas9 to cut out the virus The cell’s gene repair machinery then takes over, soldering the loose ends of the genome back together – resulting in a virus-free cell Process could also be a cure for other latent…