10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

Laughter Really Is the Best Medicine via Big Think by Big Think Editors
A new study out of Oxford University suggests that laughter can trigger the release of endorphins, the brain chemical that can make you feel good, distract you from pain and deliver other health benefits. In the study, participants watched sitcoms or stand up comedy … Read More

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The demand for certainty is the innovation-killer of our age. Solve big problems, build big stuff? No. Don't risk failure... more

Friendly bacteria move in mysterious ways via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza

From Nature:
Many yoghurts are loaded with live bacteria, and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health. But a study published today [28 October] shows that such yoghurts have only subtle effects on the bacteria already in the gut and do not replace them. Nathan McNulty, a microbiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, recruited seven pairs of identical twins, and asked one in each pair to eat twice-daily servings of a popular yoghurt brand containing five strains of bacteria. By sequencing bacterial DNA in the twins’ stool samples, the team showed that the yoghurt microbes neither took up residence in the volunteers’ guts, nor affected the make-up of the local bacterial communities. Jeffrey Gordon, the microbiologist at Washington University who led the study, was not surprised. “We were only giving several billion bacterial cells in total to the twins, who harbour tens of trillions of gut microbes in their intestines,” he says. More here.

How can parents ensure their children don’t marry outside their ethnicity? via Big Think by Marina Adshade
A woman recently shared with me the secret to finding a husband. She told me to write a list of qualities that my ideal man would have and tape it to my fridge. That’s it. And while it sounds too simple to be effective, she assured me that it worked well for her.
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The answer to ensuring (or at least trying to ensure) that your son or daughter marries someone from the same ethnic group is to not let them be educated! Statistics have shown that the more educated someone is the more likely it is that they will marry someone from a different ethnic group.

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Something's rotten in the Kingdom of Print. Books that call for 60 pages are fluffed out to 600. Why? The dismal economics of publishing... more

Noncommunicable Disease Epidemic via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The World Health Organization (WHO) has brought attention to the worldwide epidemic of noncommunicable diseases in a report that highlights the role of income inequality in how diseases are diagnosed and treated. The report recommends policies governments … Read More

Examining the Mystery of Skeleton, Sugar and Sex via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
From The New York Times:

THE HYPOTHESIS: Bones help regulate fertility in men.

For years, scientists thought they understood the skeleton. It serves as structural support for the body. It stores calcium and phosphate. It contributes to blood cell development. And it serves, indispensably, as the creepy mascot of Halloween. But as it turns out, there may be still more to bone. A few years ago, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center discovered, to everyone's surprise, that the skeleton seems to help regulate blood sugar. Now the team, led by Dr Gerard Karsenty, geneticist and endocrinologist at Columbia University, has found that bone may play an unexpected role in reproduction.

More here

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Early computer culture was a battle between gray, regimented corporations and psychedelic hippie-nerds. It’s still not clear who won … more

Books & Beer: Talking Literature With The Inklings via Reading Copy Book Blog by elizabethc
One of the most famous literary groups was a very informal one and included two pioneers of modern fiction – J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The Inklings liked to down a few pints of bitter while debating the merits of magical wardrobes and fantastic kingdoms, as well as Christianity and spirituality.
From poets to theologians and biographers, the Inklings were a diverse group united by a love of literature.
The book by Humphrey Carpenter is available from www.abebooks.co.uk – prices start at £2.64. And at this point I give you one of my very few wholehearted and entirely unsolicited testimonials – AbeBooks has never let me down and I have, over the course of time, asked for some quite obscure items.

Finally, an extinct species you can feel good about via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
The specific strain of the bacteria Yersinia pestis that was responsible for the Black Death in Europe is probably now extinct, according to a new study. The bacterial DNA extracted from historic samples doesn’t match modern Y. pestis. This could go a long way toward explaining why the Plague seems significantly less deadly today than it was in medieval Europe.

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