Weird Science

[Fool]

I don't care about spots on my apple, but leave me the birds and the bees. Please.

[geerussell]

I guess smoking while stupid is like lighting the fuse on a really dumb bomb.

Low IQ Among Strongest Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease -- Second Only to Cigarette Smoking in Large Population Study

While lower intelligence scores -- as reflected by low results on written or oral tests of IQ -- have been associated with a raised risk of cardiovascular disease, no study has so far compared the relative strength of this association with other established risk factors such as obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. Now, a large study funded by Britain's Medical Research Council, which set out to gauge the relative importance of IQ alongside other risk factors, has found that lower intelligence scores were associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and total mortality at a greater level of magnitude than found with any other risk factor except smoking.

[Uncle Mxy]

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/Ot...lAsymmetry.pdf

[Uncle Mxy]

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...xperiment.html

[Uncle Mxy]

http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazin...ic-papers.aspx

[Uncle Mxy]

Aww... isn't it cute how male seahorses have a pouch to carry their babies:

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketsci...utm_medium=rss

[Uncle Mxy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...t-puzzles.html

A Russian awarded $1million (£666,000) for solving one of the most intractable problems in mathematics said yesterday that he does not want the money.

Said to be the world's cleverest man, Dr Grigory Perelman, 44, lives as a recluse in a bare cockroach-infested flat in St Petersburg. He said through the closed door: 'I have all I want.'

The prize was given by the U.S. Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare Conjecture, which baffled mathematicians for a century. Dr Perelman posted his solution on the internet.

Four years ago, the maths genius failed to turn up to receive his prestigious Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union for solving the problem.

At the time he stated: 'I'm not interested in money or fame. I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.

'I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful, that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me.'

Neighbour Vera Petrovna said: 'I was once in his flat and I was astounded. He only has a table, a stool and a bed with a dirty mattress which was left by previous owners - alcoholics who sold the flat to him.

'We are trying to get rid of cockroaches in our block, but they hide in his flat.'

It was in 2002 that Perelman, then a researcher at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St. Petersburg, began posting papers online suggesting he had solved the Poincare Conjecture, one of seven major mathematical puzzles for which the Clay Institute is offering $1 million each.

Rigorous tests proved he was correct.

The topological conundrum essentially states that any three-dimensional space without holes in it is equivalent to a stretched sphere.

The puzzle was more than 100 years old when Perelman solved it - and could help determine the shape of the universe.

After 2003 Perelman gave up his job at the Steklov Institute. Friends have been reported as saying he has resigned from mathematics altogether - finding the subject too painful to discuss.

[Uncle Mxy]

These two scientific papers explain the activities of a surprising number of bloggers:

Seminal vesiculectomy to resolve defecation-induced orgasm
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...8317/HTMLSTART

Penile size and the 'small penis syndrome'
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...8565/HTMLSTART

[Uncle Mxy]

New technology for the troops to disable morality -- really!

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80...ral-judgments/

[DrRay11]

Don't know where else to put this...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1871149/