| 1421/
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer still uses a 56k modem to access
the internet at home. Despite living only 6 minutes from downtown
Seattle, the ultra-rich suburb that Ballmer lives in does
not have access to a regular broadband connection. (Ever heard
of Satellite Broadband Steve?)
1422/ It has been demonstrated
that humans are able to control their body temperatures to
an amazing degree. In one experiment involving skilled yoga
practitioners, the yogi was able to change the temperature
of two areas of skin just two inches apart by a difference
of ten degrees fahrenheit.
1423/ In 1971 western
journalists were invited to China to witness operations using
only acupuncture techniques for anaesthesia. One of these
operations involved a patient having a needle placed in their
right forearm. This apparently numbed the whole chest region
and allowed a procedure to commence which involved the removal
of a tubercular lung. While the operation took place the man
was fully conscious and chatted with theatre staff. After
the operation the wound was closed and the needle removed
and his arm massaged. He showed no discomfort, and afterwards
gave a press conference.
1424/ During the 1980's
Professor Carlos Fonseka, a physiologist at the University
of Columbo in Sri Lanka, attended many fire walks in his country
to find a rational solution. He discovered that most fire
beds were less than 18 feet long, and walkers stepped across
in just a few seconds. When he did tests on the feet of experienced
walkers he discovered that their soles were thicker than normal
because they did not wear shoes, and were therefore more resistant
to heat. When he persuaded volunteers to walk across a bed
of coals, those with softer feet had to move faster!
1425/ Currently, several
"scientific" versions of dowsing rods which purportedly
contain actual electronic circuitry, are being sold to government
agencies in the USA for very high prices, as much as $14,000.
Read a sceptical opinion of dowsing here
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1426/ In 1994 Steuart
Campbell published a book called The UFO Mystery - Solved!
In which he proposed that UFOs are not in fact caused by little
green men flying over our heads, but rather are caused by
astronomical mirages. More here.
1427/ The use of regression
hypnosis to find out if we have lived previous lives was first
popularised in the 1950s by American researcher Morey Bernstein
who 'discovered' a subject - socialite Virginia Tighe - speaking
as if she were living in Ireland during the eighteenth century.
You
can read an obituary of Morey Bernstein here. Editors
note - Should any of our readers have lived previously
as Rockerfeller, then please let me know. One can never have
too many money making tips...
1428/ About twenty years
ago Harry Jerison of the University of California, Los Angeles,
developed a concept called the encephalization quotient, or
EQ - a measure of brain size relative to body size. A domestic
cat has an EQ of 1.0 - it has just the right size of brain
to control its body size. Dogs came in at 1:8; ie having a
bit of spare brain to play with. Chimps scored 3:0, and humans
came in at a monster 7:4 encephalization quotient. Interestingly,
bottle-nosed dolphins scored higher than chimps, and second
only to humans with 5:6. More
1429/ The blowfish or
fugu is a highly sought after and expensive delicacy in Japan,
but it can also be lethal. Its liver is deadly poisonous;
it is the gourmet equivalent of Russian roulette. Chefs have
to be highly trained and licensed to serve the fish, yet despite
this precaution at least a hundred people die each year, most
from ingesting unseen traces of liver tissue. Click
here for a calming view on eating blowfish.
1430/ According to recent
studies, the blowfish poison, tetrodotoxin, acts as a pheromone
that induces male blowfish to fertilize spawned eggs. Moreover
it has been shown to have anticancer effects from which new
medicines to combat cancer are being developed.
1431/ Humans are not
the only species to murder. Jane Goodall, an acclaimed primatologist,
studied chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania
starting in the mid 1960s. At first the chimps were in one
large group, and seemed content and happy. Over time however
she noticed them splitting into two seperate groups; and shortly
thereafter the battered and beaten body of an adult female
chimp was found. A short time after there was another killing,
with one of Goodalls field assistants actually witnessing
eight chimps surround an isolated male from the other group;
and then proceed to beat him to death with their fists, and
one even used a stone. Subsequent murders of chimps were also
witnessed and described; and by 1977, just a few years later,
all the members of the second breakaway group had either been
killed or were forced to rejoin the first. More
here about Chimpanzee Social Structure.
1432/ In 2000 the Clay
Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered
prizes of $1 million each for solutions to seven long standing
and intractable mathematical problems. Click
Here for more information on the problems.
1433/ Jonathan Hodgkin,
Professor of Genetics at Oxford University has estimated that
in 1965 it cost about £1000 per base letter to sequence
5S ribosomal RNA from bacteria (not DNA, but RNA costs are
similar). By 1975 that had fallen to about £10 per letter
(to sequence DNA from the virus .X174). He found no examples
for 1985. But by 1995 it cost about £1 per letter to
sequence the DNA of a nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans.
By the time the Human Genome Project culminated around 2000,
sequencing costs were about £0.10 per letter. So, that
over this period, costs halved approximately every twenty-seven
months.
1434/ "Moores Law"
is the observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder
of Intel, that the number of transistors per square inch on
integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated
circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would
continue for the foreseeable future. In subsequent years,
the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately
every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's
Law, which Moore himself has blessed. Most experts, including
Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another
two decades. Read
a short interview with Moore here
1435/ The US Supreme
Court has declared that the statutes containing criminal penalties
for U.S. flag desecration (burning) un-Constitutional in 1989
and 1990. So there are now no legal penalties for burning
a US flag in America other than other than those which would
be imposed for burning a piece of cloth in a public place.
There is however legislation that is continually going through
Congress to make flag desecration a specific offence. Click
here for more information or here
for another perspective
1436/ In 1991 the US
Congress asked NASA to evaluate the current impact hazard
and suggest ways to deal with the problem. The US House of
Representatives Science Committee wrote that - "the detection
rate must be increased substantially, and the means to destroy
or alter the orbits of asteroids when they do threaten collisions
should be defined and agreed upon internationally. The chances
of Earth being struck by a large asteroid are extremely small,
but because the consequences of such a collision are extremely
large, the Commitee believe it is only prudent to assess the
nature of the threat and prepare to deal with it". You
can read the Statement on The Threat of Impact by Near-Earth
Asteroids that they put out in May 1998 here.
1437/ The Mariner series
of spacecraft were interplanetary probes designed to investigate
Mars, Venus, and Mercury. The program included a number of
firsts, including the first planetary flyby (Mariner 2 - 1962),
the first planetary orbiter, and the first gravity assist.
More
1438/ The word 'poltergeist'
is German for 'noisy spirit'.
1439/ Mercury moves around
the Sun every 88 Earth days at an average of 48 km per second
(108,000mph) and was named by the Romans after the speedy
messenger of the Gods.
1440/ Statistics show
that major depression afflicts about 15 percent of people
in the developed world at one time or another during their
lifetimes.
Click on the links below for more great
facts...
More
next week...
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