Found this on metafilter the other day, although it is a trained pet fish, it’s still a pretty good trick! Not to mention he’s running the camera too!
[youtube=”https://youtu.be/wwGvap79hN8″]
Author: Dave
You may be surprised that fictional hospitals on TV do not have a very good track record compared to real life. According to research by Amir Hetsroni, an Israeli professor of communications, your chances of survival are pretty slim if you are a patient on a medical drama. From Freakanomics website:
He and his students watched numerous episodes of ER, Chicago Hope, and Grey’s Anatomy, keeping detailed coding books on every patient – their race, approximate age, their malady, the treatment, and whether they lived or died. Their resulting paper was called “If You Must Be Hospitalized, Television Is not the Place.â€
The study found that TV patients are nearly nine times more likely to die than actual patients.
You should check out the two Freakonomics episodes on healthcare.
How Many Doctors Does It Take to Start a Healthcare Revolution?
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Candy Crush Soda Saga Diary
My game of choice (at the moment) is Candy Crush. It’s simple and entertaining; a good puzzle game. I understand that the object of the game is to frustrate you to the point that you will open up your pocket book and buy your way through a particular level. Well, being a bit of a skin flint and wanting to complete the level with little help, I forsake the easy extortion and plough on, sometimes spending weeks attempting to complete a level without any extra moves. So, when I do come across a particularly difficult level, I sometimes turn to tip web sites to get some help. There are also a plethora of videos showing someone completing the level. But the one thing missing from these videos was some commentary on the specific aspects of the level and tips on possible strategies, they only show someone finishing the level. Since, for the most part the starting candies are random, each game is a little different, these videos only show either someone very good at seeing and planning moves, or lucky. They really didn’t help me complete the level, they only proved that a level could be completed. So I’m adding my two cents into the fray with these difficult level analysis and discussion. The new Youtube channel is “Cursing Candies.”
Listening to the podcast 99% Invisible I learned that palm trees are not actually trees. They are kind of a super grass, according to Jared Farmer who wrote Trees in Paradise: A California History. From the podcast, “palm trees don’t make bark or branches. If you cut them down you won’t find any rings in the trunk, all their roots grow in a compact ball…” This is an interesting story about palms in California and how demand has caused some mature trees to sell for as much as $20,000. Also great podcast.”
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Super Animals – Tardigrades!
The animal world has it’s own super hero, Tardigrades a.k.a water bears! Just like Superman, they are able to withstand extreme temperatures, radiation, extreme pressures! According to wikipedia they “can survive in extreme environments. For example, they can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water (100°C), pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human, and the vacuum of outer space. They can go without food or water for more than 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.” And they look crazy weird, like a cross between a caterpillar and a bear. If only they weren’t microscpic, they could be the next Sea Monkeys!
In this video, Hank Green gives us the low down on these creatures.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H0E77TdYnY]
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World’s Largest Cave Video Fly Through
Ran across this video of a quad copter tour of the large sinkhole part of the Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam. Imagine the size of the room this area made before the roof collapsed! I realized I read the National Geographic article a few years ago, it has better pictures of the interior portions of the cave.
[vimeo=https://vimeo.com/121736043]
National Geographic article(check out the interactive 3D fly through)
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7 Billion People
The world’s population today is about 7 Billion. Sounds like a lot. Is that too many people for this planet? What if all 7 Billion people stood in one place shoulder to shoulder, would it fill up a whole country? a state? Really, only one large city, Los Angeles, CA to be exact. Just 500 square miles.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/111031-population-7-billion-earth-world-un-seven/
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Incredible Miniature Food Sculptures
I ran across these amazing tiny sculptures. I would love to see some photos of the process.
NPR’s money blog ran an interesting graphic about how Americans spend their booze money compared with 30 years ago. The average spent has not changed, about one dollar of every 100. But what’s changed is where it’s bought and what type.
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Infect me!
In our modern obsession of cleanliness and ubiquitous anti-bacterial soaps and hand sanitizers, we may have upset the unseen balance in our bodies. Is it possible to be TOO clean? Have we inadvertently scrubbed away the GOOD bacteria that make us healthy.
This NY Times article covers research into the five pounds of GOOD bacteria that live on and in our bodies.
In Good Health? Thank Your 100 Trillion Bacteria
Could being infected with a hook worm help your asthma? Listen or read the third act of This American Life episode.
Act Three. As The Worm Turns.
Fecal implant anyone? Cutting edge medicine or mad science quackery, you decide.
Freakonomics Radio: The Power of Poop
UPDATE 2/2015
Another Fecal implant story, plus get 40 bucks a poop!
NY Daily News article on OpenBiome
A story about an Indiana grandma who killed off a devastating superbug with a homemade fecal transplant and then embarked on a crusade to win over the FDA. Narratively web site