News

Happy bears?

“Black bears are often considered among the most dangerous animals in North America, depicted down the years as ferocious predators threatening to man,” Matt Walker of BBC News reports. “But, says one man, that perception could not be further from the truth. For 43 years, Prof. Lynn Rogers has studied wild bears, walking and playing with them, gaining amazing insights into their behaviour. His studies reveal the bears as peaceful, playful creatures, which even hum when they are content. … While humming, bears will exhale, producing a series of between nine and 15 loud sounds a second. When they reach the end of each breath, they quickly and silently inhale, before exhaling loudly again, continuing the humming sound. As yet, it is unclear why bears do this.”

The big killers

Poor childhood nutrition, unsafe sex, alcohol, high blood pressure and bad sanitation and hygiene and are to blame for around a quarter of the 60 million premature deaths around the world each year, the World Health Organization says in a report released this week. But while not having enough nutritious food is a big health risk for people in poorer countries, obesity and being overweight pose bigger risks in richer nations – leading to a situation in which obesity and being overweight causes more deaths worldwide than being underweight.

Source: Reuters

Can't beat that, Sean

A Michigan man says he expects Guinness World Records to award him the world record for fitting the most cockroaches in his mouth, United Press International reports. Sean Murphy, a pet-store employee, told the Lansing State Journal it will likely be weeks until he learns whether the 16 Madagascar hissing cockroaches he held in his mouth for 10 seconds – smashing the old record of 11 – will be recognized officially.

It's the law

Some examples of bad legislation, from The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics , by David Borgenicht and Turk Regan:

China (enacted in 2007): Dead Buddhist monks must get permission from the government before being reincarnated.

West Bengal, India (2006): Cows are required to carry photo ID cards.

Singapore (2003): It is illegal to chew gum without a doctor's prescription.

England (1872): Herding cows while intoxicated is punishable by up to 51 weeks in prison.

Happy protesters

“Activists are dissatisfied with the drift of the times and outraged at the misdeeds of their ideological enemies,” Drake Bennett writes in The Boston Globe. “But they are also, it turns out, enjoying their lives more than the rest of us. At least if recent research is to be believed, political activism, no matter the cause, seems to make people happy – even if they don't win an election or triumph in a ballot initiative. Psychologists curious about what fuels human happiness have looked at political engagement and political activism, and they've found that it provides people with a sense of empowerment, of community, of freedom and of transcendence. Political activists, in other words, are all happy warriors.”

Happy drinkers

“Beer lovers are being given the chance to take the plunge in a health spa pool – filled with 42,000 pints of lager,” Ananova.com reports. “Spa bosses in Starkenberg, Austria, claim that beer can treat skin conditions, blood circulation and can even help cure wounds. The spa – part of a local brewery – contains seven 13-foot-long [4-metre] pools filled with beer which you can even ask to be served chilled or heated. Bathers can try drinking the bathwater but head barman Markus Amann, 23, said: ‘I'd rather swim than swallow, as we have enough cold beer on tap at the bars next to the pools. These pools really can help some health problems – but if they don't work for you, you'll probably have drunk enough not to care about it any more,' he added.”

A critic in the room

In an article on the link between clean smells and clean behaviour, Catherine Elton reports for Time magazine: “Other researchers have also tackled the issue of morality and smell, but from the opposite end of the spectrum. A paper published last year in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin revealed that people are more critical and judgmental about certain moral issues when exposed to the vapours of a – ahem – fart-scented spray. Yes, fart spray is a commercially available product. Incidentally, according to a psychologist who has worked with it in experiments, it is nearly impossible to rid upholstery of it.”

Thought du jour

“He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays.”

– Oscar Wilde