The overwhelming majority of proteins and other functional molecules in our bodies display a striking molecular characteristic: They can exist in two distinct forms that are mirror images of each other, like your right hand and left hand. Surprisingly, each of our bodies prefers only one of these molecular forms. This mirror-image phenomenon — known …
Continue reading “UCLA scientists unlock mystery of how ‘handedness’ arises”
The most dominant social network for each country: Facebook clearly dominates, but a few countries have other favorites: – VKontakte and Odnoklassniki remain strong in Russian-speaking countries – Tencent’s QZone is still king of the hill in China – Vietnam’s most popular social network is Zing – People in Iran seemingly prefer Cloob over Facebook – Drauglem is the top dog in Latvia …
A recent report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, based on data from 2008, shows a few interesting changes. African-americans are catching up in terms of long life, though still behind. Both white men and women increased their average life expectancy by 0.9 years. African-american men increased theirs by 2 years and …
Continue reading “Life Expectancy rises 0.9 years for whites, 2 years for blacks”
Do you earn more or less than the world’s average wage? World average monthly wage: $1,480 Luxembourg – $4,089 United States – $3,263 Canada – $2,724 Germany – $2,720 China – $656 The average wage, calculated by the International Labour Organization, is published here for the first time. It’s a rough figure based on data …
The Unfinished Swan is a game about exploring the unknown. The player is a young boy chasing after a swan who has wandered off into a surreal, unfinished kingdom. The game begins in a completely white space where players can throw paint to splatter their surroundings and reveal the world around them. It’s being developed …
Continue reading “Beautiful and interesting game – The Unfinished Swan (trailer)”
The second season of “Game of Thrones” is over and the long wait for Season 3 has begun. The only question now is: Are you going to sit and wait on your couch or on your made-to-order $30,000 life-size replica of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms? HBO is now selling replicas of the …
Continue reading “HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ begins selling – $30,000 Iron Throne”
Philadelphia, the city that gave us Poor Richard, cheese-steak sandwiches and the American Constitution, just opened a new treasure: the Barnes Foundation, one of the premier privately assembled collections of painting in the U.S. with more dreamy Renoirs and searching Cézannes than in the whole of France. Its arrival in May halfway between the landmark …
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They were a couple of auto mechanics with a pronounced Boston brogue and, improbably, degrees from MIT. They hadn’t a clue how to perform on radio, much less public radio. So Tom and Ray Magliozzi just decided to have a good time. The result was “Car Talk,” which shattered the perception that public radio is …
Continue reading “Click and Clack to retire – NPR’s Car Talk – final show this Fall”
Daily Streamer: “Jeff Who Lives at Home,” with Ed Helms, Mark Duplass & Susan Sarandon. On Netflix Instant. My review: bit.ly/zVotDj — Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) June 10, 2012
Had you polled theater pundits in recent years about which they thought would be in better shape today, the Broadway musical or the Broadway play, it’s hard to imagine any of them choosing the drama. Yet one of the unexpected developments of the past season is the robust showing of what used to be called …
Continue reading “The heartening resurgence of the American play”