It's not easy for people who are used to living near sea level to visit a high-elevation site for any length of time. But scientists are traveling to La Rinconada, Peru, to study the people who live there, both those who are healthy and those who suffer from altitude sickness. The town is situated high in the Andes at 16,700 feet, or twice the elevation of Aspen, Colorado.  

The scientists, led by physiologist and mountain enthusiast Samuel Vergès of the French biomedical research agency INSERM in Grenoble, had set up a makeshift lab here in the world's highest human settlement, a gold-mining boomtown at 5100 meters in southeastern Peru. An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 people live here, trying to make it—and, many hope, strike it rich—under brutal conditions. La Rinconada has no running water, no sewage system, and no garbage removal. It is heavily contaminated with mercury, which is used to extract the gold. Work in the unregulated mines is back-breaking and dangerous. Alcohol abuse, prostitution, and violence are common. Freezing temperatures and intense ultraviolet radiation add to the hardships.

La Rinconada's most defining feature, however, the one that lured the scientists, is its thin air. Every breath you take here contains half as much oxygen as at sea level. The constant oxygen deprivation can cause a syndrome called chronic mountain sickness (CMS), whose hallmark is an excessive proliferation of red blood cells. Symptoms include dizziness, headaches, ringing ears, sleep problems, breathlessness, palpitations, fatigue, and cyanosis, which turns lips, gums, and hands purplish blue. In the long run, CMS can lead to heart failure and death. The condition has no cure except resettling at a lower altitude—although some of the damage may be permanent.

People whose ancestors have lived in high elevations for thousands of years have genetic differences that help them cope in a low oxygen environment. Some people who don't are able to adapt, but others get sick. Research into the differences between these groups may lead to breakthroughs in other heart and circulatory ailments, but actually performing that research is grueling. Read about La Rinconada and the search for answers about altitude sickness at Science magazine.  -via Digg

(Image credit: Hildegard Willer)

Let's say that you need a particular course to graduate. But it's too late for you to enroll for that class and you've been put on the waitlist. What do you do?

One enterprising solution is to pay other students who are enrolled to drop the class so that you can enroll in their place. According to The Daily Californian, that's what's now happening at the University of California at Berkeley:

Campus sophomore David Wang reposted a screenshot on the Overheard at UC Berkeley Facebook page showing a post by a Haas senior in their final semester before going abroad offering to pay $100 to the first five students to drop UGBA 102B, “Introduction to Managerial Accounting.” The student in question needed the class to graduate, and claimed that the “advising office was no help, so I’m taking matters into my own hands.”

A possible source of profit for some clever students might be to enroll early in classes that are popular but non-essential, then offer to drop out on behalf of waitlisted students. Timing, correct information, and an easy way of identifying potential customers would be essential to this hustle.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Berkeley Center for New Media

Is the woman surprised or shocked? You may have answered yes to this question, but you may be wrong. A facial expression of emotion does not only depend on the face itself; it also depends on the context of the expression. Without the context, facial expressions can be very misleading.

We all remember “the dress.” An illusion like this shows that even a phenomenon as basic as color perception can be ambiguous. Emotions are much more complex entities than colors and thus can lead to even more confusion. Our perception of emotional expressions is related not only to the physical properties of a face, but also to a bunch of other factors affecting both the percipient (for example, a person's past experience, cultural background, or individual expectations) and the situation itself (the context).

To test that idea, researchers at Neurodata Lab created a short test and asked more than 1,400 people from 29 countries to have a look at four pairs of photographs, or eight in total. The first image in each pair showed a woman with a certain facial expression. The second was identical to the first, except that it had an object added to it: a mascara brush, a book and glasses, a toothpick or a guitar. These objects added context. People then had to look at every image and indicate if the facial expressions looked emotional to them.

Head over to the Scientific American to know more details about the study.

(Image Credit: Neurodata Lab, LLC)

Emergency Bigfoot In Your Pocket

Bigfoot is a real larger than life character. Some might even describe him as bit a wild man. His outdoorsy activities make him a real legend. 

The problem is that Bigfoot is also somewhat of a recluse. On top of that, he's also a bit of an impulsive traveler. You never know where he is going to be on a given day. One day he might be wandering around Canada. Another day he might be spotted having coffee in Portland. You love him, but he isn't the easiest guy to track down. 

When you are missing your good friend Sasquatch we recommend using the Emergency Bigfoot In Your Pocket from the NeatoShop. This handy little contraption makes 4 Bigfoot like noises. We know hearing a howl, snore, roar, or groan isn't the same as having Bigfoot there with you in person. We do, however, think it will help you miss him a little less.     

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office & Desk stuff. New items arriving all the time. 

Don't forget to also stop by the store to check out our large selection of customizable apparel and bags. We specialize in Curvy and Big and Tall sizes. We carry baby 6 months all the way to 10 XL shirts. We know that fun, fabulous, and Cryptozoology loving people come in every size. 

Elon Musk’s company SpaceX states that it plans to change its satellite strategy in order to speed up the deployment of its Starlink broadband service. SpaceX has also set a new goal to provide broadband in the Southern US late next year. Not only will this change accelerate their plans of deploying broadband service, but they would also be covering a wider service area, which makes it even better.

"This adjustment will accelerate coverage to southern states and US territories, potentially expediting coverage to the southern continental United States by the end of the next hurricane season and reaching other US territories by the following hurricane season," SpaceX told the FCC. The Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons each begin in the spring and run to November 30 each year.

Check out Ars Technica for more details.

(Image Credit: TheDigitalArtist/ Pixabay)

Major corporations such as Facebook always get caught behaving badly. But for some reason, the best solution that we’ve come up with is to fine these corporations. But does it really fix the problem? Is it really the best punishments to hold them accountable?

...the Federal Trade Commission hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine this summer, an amount that, while large, will barely make a ding in its business. The $170 million fine the FTC and New York state recently hit Google’s YouTube with is almost laughable considering Google’s overall worth.

Even the $425 million Equifax settlement, which came out of the company’s exposure of some 147 million people’s personal information, promised victims the ability to claim a $125 check. Except too many people signed up, and the pot of money for those checks was just $31 million, coming out to about 21 cents per person.

Just one big bank executive went to jail after the 2008 financial crisis; financial institutions paid more than $300 billion in crisis-related fines, but collectively they made much more than that.

We can’t put companies in jail, as they are not people. While we can put the company’s executives behind bars, this happens only rarely. Thus, the main options nowadays are fines, but how well fines work is debatable.

But it’s not hopeless. Experts say there are ways to make firms do better, including stomping out the cultural and structural issues that cause problems in the first place, implementing close monitoring after something does go wrong, and making sure accountability mechanisms are in place where they can be for the people responsible.

Check out more of this topic at Vox.

(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

A new study has found out that a mysterious population of previously unknown cells lurks in the human body. Called “Immune Cell X”, this baffling cell type is a changeling that can act as two different cell types, and may also trigger type 1 diabetes.

Scientists have long believed that hybrid cells like these could not exist. The population of these cells is likely tiny; perhaps less than 7 out of every 10,000 white blood cells, said study co-author Abdel-Rahim A. Hamad, associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. 

But they may play an outsize role in the development of autoimmunity.

"They are very rare, but we think they are very powerful," Hamad told Live Science.

More details about this enigmatic cell over at the site.

(Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures/ Pixabay)

If only the deep sea waters were as colorful as a Kurzgesagt video! Sunlight can't penetrate to the deepest depths of the ocean, but there are creatures living there. They are as different from life here at the surface that it may as well be an alien planet. And the deeper you go, the weirder it gets. This deep sea tour is ten minutes long; the rest is an ad.

NASA's Juno probe caught an amazing picture of a solar eclipse on Jupiter. You can imagine how huge an area the Jovian moon Io is covering, yet the path of totality would be tiny in relation to Jupiter itself. Io is the fourth-largest moon in the solar system, and revolves 350,000 kilometers (217,000 miles) from Jupiter's cloud tops. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)

People enjoy learning stuff, and if something is unknown, we want to find out. How does this work? Why does that happen? So no surprise the owner of cat duo Mara and Hana decided to test the limits of feline flexibility.

Cats use their whiskers to gauge whether or not they can squeeze through a tight opening, but hefty cats often get stuck because their whiskers don't grow to accommodate their bulk. However, the question here is just how narrow a slot a cat with a normal build can negotiate.

Joe Heller was always ready to laugh, and often supplied the reason. His family understood him well, and when he died recently at age 82, they crafted a great obituary. Here are a few tidbits.

When the doctors confronted his daughters with the news last week that “your father is a very sick man,” in unison they replied, “you have no idea.”

His mother was not immune to his pranks as he named his first dog, “Fart,” so she would have to scream his name to come home if he wandered off.

Joe was a self-taught chemist and worked at Cheeseborough-Ponds where he developed one of their first cosmetics’ lines. There he met the love of his life, Irene, who was hoodwinked into thinking he was a charming individual with decorum. Boy, was she ever wrong. Joe embarrassed her daily with his mouth and choice of clothing.

Besides his beloved wife, Irene, and brother, Bobby, Joe was pre-deceased by his pet fish, Jack, who we found in the freezer last week.

There's a lot more in the full obituary here. -via Bored Panda

Stress Tardigrade

Whether you call them Tardigrades, moss piglets, or water bears, whatever you do don't underestimate this cute little extremophile. Heat them, squish them, starve them, expose them to radiation, or deprive them of air and they will still survive. They are one of the most resilient animals known to man.

Tardigrades are found on every continent on Earth. You will find them in the deep sea, tropical rain forests, and even in the mud of a volcano. They can live almost anywhere. Recently a bunch of them crash landed on the moon, and they are probably successfully living there as well. 

The Stress Tardigrade from the NeatoShop isn't quite as sturdy as the real thing, but he is happy to take your abuse. Squish our little slow stepper to remind yourself that you too are resilient in the face of adversity. 

The Stress Tardigrade is made from soft polyurethane foam and comes in a lovely green color. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office & Desk items. New items arriving all the time. 

Don't forget to stop by the store to see our large selection of custom apparel and items. We specialize in curvy and Big and Tall sizes. We carry baby 6 months to 10 XL shirts. We know that fun, fabulous, and mico-animal loving people come in every size. 

The PAC dance team at Walden Grove High School in Sahuarita, Arizona, gave us a Wizard of Oz dance routine and a Harry Potter dance routine that really impressed us in previous years. They've set our expectations pretty high, and still came through with a production featuring the heroes and villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for this year's homecoming assembly. -via Digg

Have you heard about the chess diet? It's not simply "barely moving," as the title indicates. Grandmasters do their best to keep in shape for upcoming tournaments, but when they sit down to competition, they are working out even while they appear to to do nothing but think.  You might be surprised at how many calories the world's best chess players expend doing what they do.  

The 1984 World Chess Championship was called off after five months and 48 games because defending champion Anatoly Karpov had lost 22 pounds. "He looked like death," grandmaster and commentator Maurice Ashley recalls.

In 2004, winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov walked away from the six-game world championship having lost 17 pounds. In October 2018, Polar, a U.S.-based company that tracks heart rates, monitored chess players during a tournament and found that 21-year-old Russian grandmaster Mikhail Antipov had burned 560 calories in two hours of sitting and playing chess -- or roughly what Roger Federer would burn in an hour of singles tennis.

Robert Sapolsky, who studies stress in primates at Stanford University, says a chess player can burn up to 6,000 calories a day while playing in a tournament, three times what an average person consumes in a day. Based on breathing rates (which triple during competition), blood pressure (which elevates) and muscle contractions before, during and after major tournaments, Sapolsky suggests that grandmasters' stress responses to chess are on par with what elite athletes experience.

To combat the depletion, the world's top chess players are very particular about the calories they consume, both during competition and the rest of their time. Read about the physical demands of chess at ESPN. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Vysotsky)

Some of our history we learn as facts, which give us some knowledge but often without perspective. Other things we learn as anecdotes passed along without much evidence behind it, often stories that grew further from the truth as time passed. And as you know, history is colored by who teaches it, and from which perspective.

Read all 25 pictofacts with things you might know (some of them have been covered here at Neatorama) and some thing you didn't know, at Cracked.