Earlier this month, the International RBD Study Group published its findings that a certain class of sleep disorder is strongly linked to the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life. As the group’s name implies, the disorder is known as RBD – REM sleep behaviour disorder, which causes you act out your dreams to […]
You may recall a moment a few years ago when all the papers were going crazy about a futuristic small electrical implant that would fit like a cuff around your nerve, interfering with its signals to bring the sick back to health. Asthma, arthritis, diabetes, and hypertension – all could be walked back, simply by […]
When you think of plagiarism, poems and books probably spring to mind more easily than, say, scientific papers. And words more easily than images. But plagiarism is not uncommon in science papers, and it often takes the form of images fiddled with and grafted from elsewhere. Whether they’re a consequence of laziness or a desire […]
A Facebook content moderator is suing the social network for psychological trauma after watching thousands of hours of toxic and disturbing content. “There is no long-term support plan when these content moderators leave. They are just expected to melt back into the fabric of society.” – “An online decency moderator’s advice: Blur your eyes“, Jane Wakefield, […]
This holiday week, we’re looking back at some favorite posts about snow and ice. This post originally ran on Sept 22, 2011 when the concept of Game Transfer Phenomena was first identified. It has been updated with an anecdote that demonstrates how playing too much Mario Kart could save you from an icy death. When […]
If you’re familiar with the internet, you know there’s a problem with the word “actually”. After initially gaining recognition in 2012 as “the worst word on the planet”, it quickly rose to an unpopularity stratospheric enough to justify think pieces in The New Republic and The Atlantic. Its ill repute transcends the English language: last year, […]
Last week, someone posted a notice for a new meetup on Twitter. A bit of news. A few of us have decided to do a Queer Neurodiversiry meet-up for coffee in San Francisco next Saturday, October 6th. Please join us and share with interested friends. Info in the FB event link. 🌈☕️ FB Event Link: […]
This is a picture of an old timey cash register, and thanks to the weirdness of tech and the weirdness of money, there could be actual money in it. Literal money that you can take out of the picture and spend. Thanks to an app launched last month, you can now furtively smuggle money inside […]