Hers is a most incredible story. From having a simple life to one of the most exciting and adventurous ones, all because of one serendipitous mistake. It turned her life richer with numerous stories to tell to her kids and grandkids. This is the story of Odette Sansom, the most highly decorated spy of WWII, and some facts about her extraordinary experiences.
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The Pudding recently created an interactive map of the United States in which you can see where some famous people lived. Now, they have made one for the UK. Here, you may find J.K. Rowling, Stephen Hawking, Ed Sheeran, and Queen Elizabeth II. Check out their interactive map here.
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This story is just so sweet and sad at the same time. A la My Sister's Keeper, 11-year-old Lu Zikuan has been eating five times a day because he wants to save his father's life.
The dad, who had been diagnosed with leukemia seven years ago, has been struggling desperately and recently, his health had been suffering and the doctors say the only way to save him was a bone marrow transplant.
After screening members of his family for possible matches, they found that the only viable donor was Zikuan, who was 10-years-old at the time. Despite his young age, the primary school student was eager to go under the knife to save his father’s life.
But there was one big problem, he weighed only 30 kg, and doctors told the family that they wouldn’t operate on him unless he gained at least 15 kg more. So in March of this year he started stuffing his face with as much fatty food as possible.
(Image credit: Pear Video screengrab via Oddity Central)
The hit series The Handmaid's Tale has been quite a relevant commentary on social issues and politics especially with the recent legislative decisions being passed down in certain US states.
Activists then have been using this tactic of donning the signature red cloak with a white bonnet cap in order to make a statement and let legislators hear their voices through imagery and symbolism.
However, some are saying that, in large part, The Handmaid's Tale costume may still be seen as just a meme rather than a force to be reckoned with in US politics.
Still, Moss has faith that the imagery can make a striking statement that sticks in people's minds. "I hope that people take it that seriously," she says. "I hope that they don't just treat it as a catchy thing to say. I hope they take that feeling and put it into action. I hope that people take their feelings of frustration about the show's relevance and actually do something about it."
The problem, as Wired critiqued, is that imagery alone isn't powerful unless it's attached to collective action: "The costume's flexibility is part of its power, but also keeps handmaids from being real drivers of discourse.
Even so, this could provide the impetus for more people to join in the cause and fight for what they believe is their right. Imagery alone may not be enough but it does have significance.
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Oftentimes, we put doctors and those in the medical profession outside the realm of human empathy. Sad to say, we often find ourselves treating doctors as if they are on a different scale. That they are only defined by their title or degree.
But it's not as if treating patients and curing diseases are their sole purpose in life. Of course, that's the main role they fulfill as medical professionals but they're human too. And just like everyone, they feel, they empathize, and they also need something to strive for and keep them going.
People choose careers in medicine to treat human beings — not their diagnoses — and to alleviate suffering of the body as well as of the mind and the soul. Western medicine has historically been rooted in an obstinate focus on disease processes rather than on the people with the disease, a tendency to treat the physical while ignoring the existential and the psychosocial. It’s hard to feel compassion toward a disease, so what you’re left with is mechanistic, depersonalized patient care.
Zachary G. Jacobs shares how stories from his patients remind him of his purpose as a doctor. More than diagnosing their diseases and prescribing treatment, what keeps him going are the narratives that surround his patients' individual contexts. Behind the disease, there is a person who has had a journey and a story to tell.
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Oh, to be a five-year-old again and have all the curiosity and imagination in the world. Well, this little girl Kara is actually seven and she asked this peculiar question which, mind you, is a valid one. Raisins are dried grapes after all. But can we actually turn them back into grapes?
Short version is this: Back when you couldn’t just go buy a bottle of wine, folks would, instead, buy a giant brick of raisins, soak them in water to rehydrate the dried-out fruit and then store that juice in a dark cupboard for 60 days.
This is how the alcohol-drinking public pulled itself up by its bootstraps. The important takeaway is that you can make shriveled raisins plump again — but that’s not the same thing as turning them back into grapes.
The difficulty of turning a raisin into a grape isn't just a matter of linguistics but also one of chemistry. At a molecular level, raisins are completely different from grapes and so it's not about making them plump again then they could be called 'grapes'. The chemical composition of the two are quite distinct.
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Santa Claus won't be so happy once he receives the news that Canada is staking their claim on his residence. Joking aside, though the North Pole may seem like a barren land covered in snow and ice, there are actually resources which could be found underneath it. Canada wants to be the first to get to it. And they filed a scientific argument to the UN backing up their claim.
"The science is strong," said Mary-Lynn Dickson, one of the scientists who took part in the project. "What strikes me about it is that we have different data sets that all point to the same story that the area of the continental shelf we've defined in the Arctic ocean is a natural prolongation of our land mass."
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The rapid pace of technological developments particularly in networks and communication systems has brought about new changes at a regular interval. We have new smartphone models every six months, new system updates almost every month, and now our mobile networks and Internet of Things systems are also keeping up with that pace.
According to an estimate by Ericsson, more than half of the global population would be on 5G coverage by 2024. That wouldn't be surprising as network providers are doubling their efforts to push the latest generation of mobile networks.
By 2024, 45% of the world's population will have 5G coverage, the report found. This number could surge to 65% as spectrum sharing technology allows for 5G deployments on LTE frequency bands. 5G subscriptions are predicted to reach 1.9 billion by 2024—up from the 1.5 billion forecasted in 2018—as operators increase deployments and users switch to 5G devices, the report found.
But what is 5G and what are the benefits to switching from a 4G connection to a 5G one? Tech Republic has compiled a cheat sheet to give us an idea of 5G and the improvements it has done on mobile phone networks.
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Neural stem cells have the capability of regenerating damaged neurons and other cells in the brain however, it is very difficult to spur them into action. But a team of researchers from the University of Plymouth have found a possible avenue to activate these brain stem cells.
The new study, conducted using Drosophila fruit flies, shows that molecules that form a complex called STRIPAK are essential to promote reactivation in NSCs. STRIPAK (Striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase) is found in organisms from fungi to humans, and the team uncovered it when comparing the genetic messages of dormant and reactivated NSCs in live fly brains.
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The practice of medicine has been around for centuries even going as far back as the ancient era, although admittedly not all these practices were as scientific and rigorous as with medical practice today since we have the advantage of technology on our side and people back then still relied on superstition.
Still though, it was during the Medieval era when the first medical schools were established. Physicians received formal training and education in order to diagnose diseases and prescribe the proper treatment for them.
The Schola Medica Salernitana was founded in the 9th century in the Southern Italian city of Salerno. In 1050 one of its teachers Gariopontus wrote the Passionarius, one of the earliest written records of Western Medicine as we would recognise it. Gariopontus drew on the teachings of Galen (c. 129-199 CE) and latinised Greek terms. In doing so he formed the basis of several modern medical terms such as cauterise.
The medical school published a number of treatises such as work by a woman called Trotula on childbirth and uterine prolapse and work on the management of cranial and abdominal wounds.
Read more about the early medical schools in history and the different advancements they made in the field of medicine on Mcdreeamie Musings.
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A study found that there was a significant correlation between weight gain and sleeping with a light source on. This may be due to the light preventing us from getting quality sleep but exactly how it affects our weight is yet to be determined.
Short sleep has been associated with obesity, but to date the association between exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) while sleeping and obesity is unknown. -JAMA
-via Variety
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With terms like YOLO and FOMO, people today have been constantly trying to capture as much of their experiences as possible, not just for their own benefit but also for the chance to share it with others. But how far are people willing to go just so that they can get the perfect selfie?
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Fake meat, or those types of meat that have been processed from ingredients not taken from animals, is what some experts say could contribute in solving key issues like climate change. After all, as long as it looks and tastes like meat, what's the harm in producing these artificial meat?
“If we insist meat be defined by origin—namely poultry, pigs and cows—we face limited choices,” Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown wrote in a shareholder letter last month. “But if we define meat by composition and structure—amino acids, lipids, trace minerals, vitamins, and water woven together in the familiar assembly of muscle, or meat—we can innovate toward a solution.”
It seems like a great idea, trying to kill two birds with one stone. By making fake meat, we could help our planet and stay healthy. Or do we? Though the idea has its own merits, there are concerns still that, despite being a healthier type of meat, it's still processed food, which doesn't exempt it from health risks.
But that case only works if you ignore the large body of evidence that processed food consumption contributes just as much, if not more, to obesity, cancer, and other disease risk.
>The evidence is not just anecdotal. In the last month alone, the National Institutes of Health released a landmark study showing that America’s obesity epidemic is driven primarily by ultra-processed foods, and two large European studies linked ultra-processed food consumption to cardiovascular disease and death.
Still though, the idea might be a lesser evil in the long run as we are able to reduce the effects of meat production on the environment. And we can leave the health issues to people's personal decision whether to cut down and live healthier or not.
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I bet everybody has reservations about the internet. Of course, it has greatly improved productivity and communication. It has facilitated innovation and the building of communities with shared interests. But it has also caused issues with privacy and security. However, is data regulation and limiting internet access the solution to these problems?
This won’t just be bad news for free speech and thought, the Splinternet is already a formidable threat to businesses operating in multiple countries. The fact is, not all countries are playing by the same rules. Different nations have different rules governing the use and movement of all kinds of data.
Before, the most prominent governments to impose restrictions on internet use were probably North Korea and China. However, the EU has also released its own policies regarding internet and data usage. India and Brazil have also set up theirs. Even now, the US is debating on net neutrality.
We are only going to see more countries implement similar data laws so will we be able to cope with this new future of the internet?
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When clips go viral online and become shared multiple times, it might be difficult to have control over its propriety. The question is whether creators or artists of certain popular memes would have a say against companies who use their virality in their own works.
That was what happened in the case of Alfonso Ribeiro who sued Epic Games for making use of the Carlton dance move in their widely popular game Fortnite. Now, the problem with this is that no precedent has been laid out for such a case. Furthermore, US Law isn't on Ribeiro's side.
Does a single, repetitive dance move constitute intellectual property? No. Copyright law says that any body of work that is protected must be an original creation that has been emmorialized in a tangible form. One dance step is not considered a creative body of work, because it is not enough material to cover.
There are basically only two types of cases concerning alleged intellectual property infringement through appropriation of dance moves that appear as popular memes: claims of copyright infringement and claims of unauthorized use of personal likeness.
What does this mean then going forward? Unless artists and creators apply for copyright on their works, they wouldn't have any power over how the public makes use of them. Which means, despite the virality of things they create, they won't earn a cent from them.
This could then hamper artistic expression and take away the incentive for these creators to make anything at all. But this could be an important lesson for creators who think that their work might become popular and be used for profit by others.
>It’s hard to imagine that Ribeiro or Pellegrino are legally entitled to any of Fortnite‘s $2.4 billion in profits and counting. It’s still up to the courts to decide, as long as there are open cases, but future meme creators should probably consider obtaining a copyright before their work goes viral instead of a lawyer after.
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