Category: Science

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Video of Two Lynx Screaming at Each Other Will Look Familiar to Anyone with Siblings

“Stop touching your brother!”

“I’ll pull this car over right now!”

“What are you even fighting about $(*@(!!)!!!”

Cue descent into madness.

Every parent of more than one child ever has walked into an argument over nothing that sounds like incoherent screaming. Screaming that grabs onto your spine and won’t let go.

And that’s exactly what it sounds like these two lynxes are doing in this video captured by Nicole Lewis near Avery Lake in Ontario, Canada. According to National Geographic, the animals have these confrontations over territorial meltdowns (just like your children!).

But yeah. It totally sounds like they’re just yelling over something they’ve both forgotten about by now. Welcome to parenthood, animal-style.

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Science Says Practicing Yoga and Meditation Can Inflate Your Ego

A forthcoming study in Psychological Science confirms what everyone who has a yogi friend already suspects: regular practitioners experience inflated egos.

According to the study, both yoga and meditation increase “self-enhancement,” which is the tendency for people to attach importance to their own actions. In a report, Quartz said that the study followed 93 yoga students over the course of 15 weeks, and measured superiority, communal narcissism, and self-esteem. They repeated the study with 162 meditation students.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

In the hour after their practices, both participants showed significantly higher self-enhancement and were more likely to make statements that implied an inflated sense of self-importance.

Whether this is good or bad is your call, but given that the roots of Hindu and Buddhist yoga is the ideas of quieting the ego and conquering the self, there seems to be little doubt that Western-style yoga seems to be missing the mark.

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6 Tips on How to Pass a Lie Detector Test, Just in Case…

Because you just never know when you’re going to have the need, right?

But seriously, it’s not just for criminals anymore. Big corporations sometimes require them for new hires or when checking up on staff being considered for loans or insurance. With some practice and these tips, you should be able to pass but keep your dignity (and some of your secrets) intact.

First of all, it helps to know how they work. The tests measure a few of your body responses and pit them against your “control” answers in order to determine the likelihood of your telling the truth. These are:

Photo Credit: Brightside

Now, on to the advice.

#6. Be physically prepared.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The 24 hours before you’re going to take the test, make sure you stick to your usual regimen in order to keep your mind calm, and make sure you get some good sleep in, too. When it’s time to go, make sure you’re not too hungry – or too full – and that you’re wearing comfortable clothes.

#5. Take your time.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Pausing isn’t taken as a sign of untruth – hurrying is what can distort the results. Go ahead and take a pause before you answer; you can use the time to determine which type of question you’ve been asked and whether or not you’re able to answer it truthfully.

#4. It’s OK to feel nervous – in fact, it might even help.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

If you’re nervous about answering the questions, good news – that’s totally normal and tends to give accurate readings. If you feel that you’re so nervous the results might be thrown off, you can check your basic psychological reactions by lying to the control questions, which will then cause the test to assume your answers to the actual questions are accurate.

You can tell the difference by how specific or relevant the questions are. For example, a control question would be “have you ever stolen anything” while a relevant question might be “have you stolen anything from somewhere you work.”

#3. Imagine something pleasant.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

This method works best for people who have a strong sense of control over their body’s reactions, because nerves are easier than thinking about something positive.

But if you’ve got a question and realize you need to lie, think about something pleasant – or better yet, try your best to be relaxed throughout the entire test. In a best case scenario, your body will react according to your mental scenario and not the questions at hand.

#2. Do your best not to lie about details.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The more true things you say, the more precise the results will be, but people tend to lie about small things they consider inconsequential. You’ll likely have access to the questions before the test in order to avoid any reaction to their newness, so you should be able to prepare in advance.

#1. Avoid physical tricks.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Tricks like stepping on a pin or biting your tongue every time you need a certain reaction won’t fool experienced experts – in fact, they will do the opposite, and the tests themselves are designed to distinguish physical pain from lies.

If you get caught pulling a trick, your results are likely to be evaluated differently, which likely won’t play in your favor.

There are some instances in which lie detector tests are not recommended (and will likely not be useful), like if you’re pregnant or suffer from heart disease, respiratory illness, have epilepsy, deal with chronic pain, or if the test is being forced.

You should let the person in charge know if any of these apply to you. Otherwise, may the odds be ever in your favor!

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This Common but Horrifying Delusion Will Make Your Skin Crawl

Approximately 27 people out of every 100,000 suffer from a syndrome called “delusional infestation.” And while that might not seem like many, it works out to about 90,000 Americans walking around, right now, believing that parasites or insects are crawling inside and over their bodies – even though there’s nothing there.

“Parasites usually complained of crawling, burrowing, and biting worms and insects,” wrote a team of psychologists in the Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore. “Patients may resort to self-mutilation in an attempt to remove the ‘parasites,’ such as obsessive nail-biting, or using a razor blade.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Doctors have also seen patients who engage in horrifying self-purification rituals that involve bathing in kerosene or dousing themselves in insecticide. They’ll gather evidence for their doctors that turns out to be pieces of skin or scabs, and will rarely accept a diagnosis once its given, continuing to seek treatment.

Mayo Clinic research has a database of cases that spans 30 years and proves that the condition is more common than originally thought. The condition can be linked to schizophrenia, dementia, and other neurological disorders, and also shows up in habitual users of meth and cocaine.

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Had Your Tonsils Removed? Here’s Some Bad News for You…

For decades, doctors removed the tonsils and adenoids from children who suffered from chronic strep throat infections. The reason is that the tonsils and adenoids trigger a first-line immune response for pathogens entering the respiratory tract, and can become chronically inflamed during our early years.

It probably seemed like a no-brainer to remove organs that don’t perform any essential purpose in favor of happier kids, but a recent study published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery suggests kids who are missing their tonsils could be at risk for more illnesses in the future.

Photo Credit: MaxHealthline

The study is one of the first of its kind, but the massive dataset of around 1.2 Danish individuals lends serious weight to the results.

“Given that tonsils and adenoids are part of the lymphatic system and play a key role both in the normal development of the immune system and in pathogen screening during childhood and early-life,3 it is not surprising that their removal may impair pathogen detection and increase risk of later respiratory and infectious diseases,” they conclude.

Researchers followed the health of participants from birth to at least age 10, keeping up with some until the age of 30, and found that those who had their tonsils removed before age 9 were 3x more likely to suffer from allergic or infectious upper respiratory tract diseases like asthma, flu, and pneumonia. An adenoidectomy during the same period was associated with a two-fold higher rate of those diseases, plus COPD and conjunctivitis.

Photo Credit: Lavur

In light of the results, the doctors involved in the study conclude that the procedures should be avoided when other treatments are available, and if options run out, the procedures should be delayed for as long as possible to allow a child’s immune system to develop further.

“The growing body of research on developmental origins of disease has convincingly demonstrated that even small perturbations to fetal and childhood growth and development can have lifelong consequences for general health.”

So, you might be screwed, but at least you can save your kids from the same fate!

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7 Facts You Learned in School That Are No Longer True

It stands to reason that, with technology and our understanding of the world changing so rapidly over the past several decades, at least a few of the things we were taught back in the day would no longer be applicable.

Even so, you may not have considered these seven “facts,” or when, exactly, they became obsolete.

#7. Who built the pyramids?

Photo Credit: Pixabay

It wasn’t the Israelites exiled to Egypt, since the massive structures were erected before the Jews existed.

#6. The names of the nine planets.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto is a dwarf planet, and therefore doesn’t count. So there are only 8.

#5. The toilets in Australia.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

If you’re still under the assumption that the water spins the opposite way down the drain in Australia, you’d be wrong. The reasoning behind the claim is the coriolis effect, but it’s not strong enough on Earth to affect small appliances like a toilet or sink.

#4. The hardest material in the world is…

Photo Credit: Pixabay

I bet you said a ‘diamond,’ but if so, you’d be wrong. According to the Scientific American, there are two substances that are (quite a bit) harder: wurtzite boron nitride and lonsdaleite.

#3. You can’t see the Great Wall from outer space.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

According to NASA, the Great Wall is only visible from a max of 1200 miles up – low Earth orbit, not outer space.

#2. How witches were killed.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

In the United States, more witches were hanged than burned, especially during the Salem trials. Witchcraft was punishable by hanging here – in Europe, where the crime was heresy, more burning was done.

#1. Your favorite dinosaur is dead…again.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

There’s no such thing as a brontosaurus. Womp-womp.

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This Twitter Thread Will Educate You About Vaginas

Considering the fact that 50% of the population owns a vagina and a good percentage of people who don’t will have concerns related to a vagina at some point in their lives, it’s truly amazing how much people don’t know (or don’t want to discuss) about the female-owned organ.

Proof? Women still buy douche and wear fancy panties every day of their lives.

But Twitter user Alison Pool is taking us all to school – and trust me, you’ll probably learn something before she’s done!

tl:dr: Vaginas are like self-cleaning ovens. Don’t mess put cleaning products in them, let them air out once in a while, and if they appear broken, go see a professional. Oh yeah, and always pee after you have sex. #glam

And so it begins.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Now you know. Don’t let men tell you how to take care of your ladybits, friends. Do it your own damn selves.

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Australia’s ‘Man with the Golden Arm’ Donated Blood Consistenly for 60 Years

Every two weeks for the last 60 years, James Harrison has donated blood in his native Australia. But he recently rolled up his sleeve for the last time, as the country’s Red Cross Blood Service only allows people to donate blood until they turn 81-years-old.

Over the course of his long blood giving career, it’s estimated that Harrison helped save the lives of over 2 million babies born to Australian women.

Harrison needed major chest surgery when he was only 14-years-old and relied on the blood of strangers to help get him through the operation. He vowed he would donate his own blood as long as he was able to, and he’s been true to his word for six decades now.

Harrison’s blood contains an antibody that is used to make Anti-D, a medication given to mothers with a negative blood type. The drug prevents medical afflictions in newborn babies that can sometimes lead to death. Prior to the discovery of Anti-D in the 1960s, thousands of babies died from a disease called haemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN).

Photo Credit: Facebook,History Nerd

Harrison said, “It’s a sad day for me. The end of a long run. I’d keep on going if they’d let me.” Harrison was widely praised for his selflessness and in 1999 received the Medal of the Order of Australia. Let’s hope many follow this great man’s example.

h/t: Mashable

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5 DIY Mason Jar Recipes That Will Keep Your Summer Bug-Free

My husband loves to be outdoors – fishing, hiking, mushroom hunting, you name it. Our young son seems to be following in his footsteps, which means I’ve been spending quite a bit of time sitting on my front porch and watching him play (and also saying “we don’t eat rocks/chalk/mulch/etc”).

Being someone who enjoys a warm ray of sunshine and a slight summer breeze myself, I don’t mind. But it sure is more pleasant when I don’t have to spend the entire time either covered in stinky bug spray or constantly swatting pests.

Which is why these 5 DIY, bug-repelling mason jars have saved my summer – and they could do the same for yours, too!

#5. All Bugs Beware

Photo Credit: Pixabay

This concoction can get a little intense, so make sure to lean away from it while you mix it up!

Start with just a Mason jar lid and 1oz of a carrier oil (like coconut or olive), then add 1 drop of the following essential oils: citronella, eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree, cypress, and myrtle. Add water to fill up the Mason jar lid and leave it near where you congregate outside.

#4. DIY Citronella

Photo Credit: Brightside

Fill your mason jar with water, half of a sliced lemon, and half of a sliced lime. Then, add 5 drops of the following essential oils: lemon, eucalyptus, and citronella. Don’t mix them. Then add 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary and a floating candle to the top. Light it and voila! No more mosquitoes!

#3. Woodsy and Effective

Photo Credit: Instagram

Take a whole Mason jar and drip in 10 drops each of cedarwood, lavender, lemon, and catnip essential oils, then add 1 sliced lemon and 1 sliced lime and several sprigs of rosemary. Add your water and candle and watch the bugs – all types – avoid you like the plague for a change!

#2. Lavender Instead

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If you don’t love citrus, try adding 15 drops of lavender essential oil, 3-4 tbsp of vanilla extract, and 3-4 tbsp of lemon juice, then filling your jar with water. Add a floating candle for ambiance if you want!

#1. Got Flies?

Photo Credit: Instagram

Not anymore! Just fill a Mason jar with water, throw in a penny and put it where the jar catches some sunlight. The glinting actually drives away flies by mimicking a threat, so they won’t come near.

Truly.

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These 5 Morning Habits Can Jumpstart Your Weight Loss

A good morning sets the mood for the rest of the day, and that includes setting the tone for the way we eat. According to science, our morning rituals can even influence whether our lunch is big or small, and whether or not the body will use calories or store them “just in case.”

Bottom line? Our habits can cause weight gain – or promote weight loss.

#5. Drink a glass of water before breakfast.

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Our bodies are 55%-60% water, so drinking a glass right after you wake up has some crazy benefits, like jump-starting your metabolism for the day. It also flushes out toxins and, according to this experiment, helps reduce body fat.

#4. Eat a big breakfast.

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The time we eat is more important than what we eat, say scientists from Tel Aviv University, who proved that people who eat a big breakfast and a light dinner have a much easier time losing and/or maintaning their weight.

Why? Your metabolism speed varies according to the time of day – higher at the outset and slowing as you go. So, ideally, you’d have a high-calorie breakfast, a moderate lunch, and a light dinner.

#3. Don’t read the news in the morning.

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Long-term stress turns stem cells into fat cells, says research out of Stanford University. Stress causes the body to produce adaptation hormones, which in turn promotes the practice of “storing calories” in case we need them later. The body only stops when the stressful situation ends, so if you’re constantly stressing yourself first thing in the morning but trying to lose weight, you might be fighting a losing battle.

#2. Walk in the sun.

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Yes, even when it’s cold outside! Researchers at the University of Alberta conducted an experiment that proved lipids decrease in size when exposed to sunlight – basically, sunlight literally burns white fat tissue.

#1. Adopt a pet.

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Not only will you be saving a life, but research shows that people with pets tend to be happier and better able to control their weight. They’re also known to have a positive impact on your emotional health, which means you might reach for a cuddle instead of a cookie (or ten) to improve your mood!

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