In 1881, the optimistic Irish economist Francis Edgeworth imagined a strange device called a "hedonimeter" that would be capable of "continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual." In other words, a happiness sensor. His was just a daydream. In practice, for decades, social scientists have had a devilish headache in trying to measure happiness. Surveys have revealed some useful information, but these are plagued by the unpleasant fact that people misreport and misremember their feelings when confronted by the guy with the clipboard. Ditto for studies where volunteers call in their feelings via PDA or cell phone. People get squirrely when they know they're being studied.
But what if you had a remote-sensing mechanism that could record how millions of people around the world were feeling on any particular day - without their knowing?
That's exactly what Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician and computer scientist working in the Advanced Computing Center at the University of Vermont, have created.
Their methods show that Election Day, November 4, 2008, was the happiest day in four years. The day of Michael Jackson's death, one of the unhappiest.
Their results are reported this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
Health & Wellness
© Thomas Moninger, University of Iowa
This is a scanning electron microscopy image of cilia from mouse airway epithelia culture.
This is a scanning electron microscopy image of cilia from mouse airway epithelia culture.
The study, published online July 23 in Science Express, shows that receptors for bitter compounds that are found in taste buds on the tongue also are found in hair-like protrusions on airway cells. In addition, the scientists showed that, unlike taste cells on the tongue, these airway cells do not need help from the nervous system to translate detection of bitter taste into an action that expels the harmful substance.
The hair-like protrusions, called motile cilia, were already known to beat in a wave-like motion to sweep away mucus, bacteria and other foreign particles from the lungs.
A diet high in omega three oils can lower the risk of developing age related macular degeneration, American research has found.
At least 500,000 people in Britain are affected by macular degeneration, a condition where cells in the back of the eye degrade causing loss of central vision.
A study carried out by experts at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, in America, found that mice fed a diet high in omega three oils had slower progression of the leisons in the eye and some improvement.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Pathology.
At least 500,000 people in Britain are affected by macular degeneration, a condition where cells in the back of the eye degrade causing loss of central vision.
A study carried out by experts at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, in America, found that mice fed a diet high in omega three oils had slower progression of the leisons in the eye and some improvement.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Pathology.
Knowing about the health benefits of raw milk is not enough. In his book The Devil in the Milk, Dr. Kevin Woodford says we have one more lesson to learn: there is a link between the type of milk we drink and a range of serious illnesses, including heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, autism and schizophrenia. Epidemiological evidence from ten countries has demonstrated a strong association between high intake of milk from A1 positive cows and high incidence of these diseases, and has correlated very closely with World Health Organization data on the level of deaths from mental disorders.
Dr. Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University in New Zealand, points out that milk consists of three parts: fat or cream, whey, and milk solids. The devil resides in the milk solids, composed of many different proteins along with lactose and other sugars. One of these proteins is beta casein.
All proteins are long chains of amino acids that have many branches coming off of the main chain. Beta casein is a chain with 229 amino acids and proline at number 67, at least in old fashioned cows, the ones that are A2. These include Guernseys, Jerseys, Asian and African cows. About five thousand years ago, a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine. Cows that have this mutated beta casein are the A1 cows. These are more recent breeds in the span of history, like Holsteins and Friesians.
Dr. Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University in New Zealand, points out that milk consists of three parts: fat or cream, whey, and milk solids. The devil resides in the milk solids, composed of many different proteins along with lactose and other sugars. One of these proteins is beta casein.
All proteins are long chains of amino acids that have many branches coming off of the main chain. Beta casein is a chain with 229 amino acids and proline at number 67, at least in old fashioned cows, the ones that are A2. These include Guernseys, Jerseys, Asian and African cows. About five thousand years ago, a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine. Cows that have this mutated beta casein are the A1 cows. These are more recent breeds in the span of history, like Holsteins and Friesians.
The confluence of factory farming, the boom in fast food and manipulation of consumer taste created processed foods that can hook us like drugs.
Among my fondest childhood memories is savoring a strip of perfectly cooked bacon that had just been dragged through a puddle of maple syrup. It was an illicit pleasure; varnishing the fatty, salty, smoky bacon with sweet arboreal sap felt taboo. How could such simple ingredients produce such riotous flavors?
That was then. Today, you don't need to tax yourself applying syrup to bacon -- McDonald's does it for you with the McGriddle. It conveniently takes an egg, American cheese and pork and nestles it between pancakelike biscuits suffused with genuine fake-maple-syrup flavor.
The McGriddle is just one moment in an era of extreme food combinations -- a moment in which bacon plays a starring role, from high cuisine to low.
There is: bacon ice cream; bacon-infused vodka; deep-fried bacon; chocolate-dipped bacon; bacon-wrapped hot dogs filled with cheese (which are fried, then battered and fried again); brioche bread pudding smothered in bacon sauce; hard-boiled eggs coated in mayonnaise encased in bacon -- called, appropriately, the "heart attack snack"; bacon salt; bacon doughnuts, cupcakes and cookies; bacon mints; "baconnaise," which Jon Stewart described as "for people who want to get heart disease but [are] too lazy to actually make bacon"; Wendy's "Baconnator" -- six strips of bacon mounded atop a half-pound cheeseburger -- which sold 25 million in its first eight weeks; and the outlandish bacon explosion -- a barbecued meat brick composed of 2 pounds of bacon wrapped around 2 pounds of sausage.
It's easy to dismiss this gonzo gastronomy as typical American excess best followed with a Lipitor chaser. Behind the proliferation of bacon offerings, however, is a confluence of government policy, factory farming, the boom in fast food and manipulation of consumer taste that has turned bacon into a weapon of mass destruction.
Among my fondest childhood memories is savoring a strip of perfectly cooked bacon that had just been dragged through a puddle of maple syrup. It was an illicit pleasure; varnishing the fatty, salty, smoky bacon with sweet arboreal sap felt taboo. How could such simple ingredients produce such riotous flavors?
That was then. Today, you don't need to tax yourself applying syrup to bacon -- McDonald's does it for you with the McGriddle. It conveniently takes an egg, American cheese and pork and nestles it between pancakelike biscuits suffused with genuine fake-maple-syrup flavor.
The McGriddle is just one moment in an era of extreme food combinations -- a moment in which bacon plays a starring role, from high cuisine to low.
There is: bacon ice cream; bacon-infused vodka; deep-fried bacon; chocolate-dipped bacon; bacon-wrapped hot dogs filled with cheese (which are fried, then battered and fried again); brioche bread pudding smothered in bacon sauce; hard-boiled eggs coated in mayonnaise encased in bacon -- called, appropriately, the "heart attack snack"; bacon salt; bacon doughnuts, cupcakes and cookies; bacon mints; "baconnaise," which Jon Stewart described as "for people who want to get heart disease but [are] too lazy to actually make bacon"; Wendy's "Baconnator" -- six strips of bacon mounded atop a half-pound cheeseburger -- which sold 25 million in its first eight weeks; and the outlandish bacon explosion -- a barbecued meat brick composed of 2 pounds of bacon wrapped around 2 pounds of sausage.
It's easy to dismiss this gonzo gastronomy as typical American excess best followed with a Lipitor chaser. Behind the proliferation of bacon offerings, however, is a confluence of government policy, factory farming, the boom in fast food and manipulation of consumer taste that has turned bacon into a weapon of mass destruction.
Researchers have confirmed what parents have long believed - running around in the day means your child may well fall asleep faster at night.
Prenatal exposure to pervasive air pollutants may adversely affect a child's intelligence by preschool, researchers found.
In New York City, children exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the womb had significantly lower full-scale and verbal IQ scores when they turned 5, according to Frederica Perera, DrPH, of Columbia University, and colleagues.
"The present findings are of concern because verbal and full-scale IQ scores measured . . . during the preschool period were shown to be predictive of subsequent elementary school performance in a range of populations," they reported online in Pediatrics.
In New York City, children exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the womb had significantly lower full-scale and verbal IQ scores when they turned 5, according to Frederica Perera, DrPH, of Columbia University, and colleagues.
"The present findings are of concern because verbal and full-scale IQ scores measured . . . during the preschool period were shown to be predictive of subsequent elementary school performance in a range of populations," they reported online in Pediatrics.
Children living in high- stress homes may be more at risk for asthma associated with environmental triggers like traffic-related air pollution and exposure to cigarette smoke, new research shows. Among children who had regular exposure to pollution from traffic exhaust, those living in households with the most stress were 50% more likely to develop asthma than those living in low-stress homes.
Stress did not have a big influence on asthma risk when the environmental trigger was not present, says study researcher Rob S. McConnell, MD, of the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine.
Stress did not have a big influence on asthma risk when the environmental trigger was not present, says study researcher Rob S. McConnell, MD, of the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine.
There is probably no illness that has more terrifying symptoms, or a more ghastly outcome, than variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) -- best known as mad cow disease. Abnormal proteins called prions found in brain tissue of cows suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) can cause vCJD in humans who eat meat from the animals. These mad cow disease-causing prions can literally result in people losing their minds because the infectious particles eat away at the brain, leaving tiny sponge-like holes. There is no treatment available and death always follows.
With government regulations notoriously lax when it comes to testing for BSE in the food supply, many people have given up eating beef in hopes of protecting themselves from exposure to mad cow disease. But an article just published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests there may be another ticking time bomb source of vCJD -- farmed fish.
With government regulations notoriously lax when it comes to testing for BSE in the food supply, many people have given up eating beef in hopes of protecting themselves from exposure to mad cow disease. But an article just published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests there may be another ticking time bomb source of vCJD -- farmed fish.
The National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of water fluoridation citing the 2006 National Research Council (NRC) fluoride report (A) indicating that kidney patients are more susceptible to fluoride's bone and teeth-damaging effects forcing the American Dental Association (ADA) to admit on its web site that fluoride is a concern to kidney patients.
The kidney-impaired may retain and store more fluoride in their bones. High bone-fluoride-levels are linked to skeletal fluorosis (a bone weakening disease), fractures and severe tooth damage (enamel fluorosis) which can increase the risk of dental decay, reports the NRC.
Chronic kidney disease and bone fracture is already a growing concern. (B)
The kidney-impaired may retain and store more fluoride in their bones. High bone-fluoride-levels are linked to skeletal fluorosis (a bone weakening disease), fractures and severe tooth damage (enamel fluorosis) which can increase the risk of dental decay, reports the NRC.
Chronic kidney disease and bone fracture is already a growing concern. (B)
