Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Lumosity, which created a brain game powerhouse by telling people it could make them smarter, is paying for its lies. Lumos Labs will pay the Federal Trade Commission $2 million for deceptive trade practices. “Lumosity preyed on consumers’ fears about age-related cognitive decline, suggesting their games could stave off memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s…
Not to be outdone, Democrats seized the debate to try to force votes on gun control legislation that could put some Republicans in a politically tough position as the country is reeling from a recent spate of mass shootings. By voting to nullify Obamacare — the signature domestic accomplishment of the Obama administration — GOP…
In this Dec. 1, 2015, photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., joined by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, tells reporters that he’s confident he will have enough support on an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act this week during a news conference following a GOP policy meeting on Capitol Hill…
Photo An emergency medical worker with a sick passenger on the F train in Brooklyn in June. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times A voice over the intercom delivers the bad news, and throughout the car there are audible sighs. Your train is delayed because of a sick passenger. Subway riders sit and…
Ten years ago, Nature published a paper with a simple title: Oxytocin increases trust in humans. The paper described an experiment carried out by Swiss scientists, who asked volunteers to entrust money in an anonymous partner. This anonymous partner could either repay their trust by reimbursing them, or betray them by keeping the cash. Amazingly,…
One night during the third year of my PhD program, I sat on my bed with a packet of tranquilizers and a bottle of vodka. I popped a few pills in my mouth and swigged out of the bottle, feeling them burn down my throat. Moments later, I realized I was making a terrible mistake….
Hey brah, what’s your favorite energy drink? Red Bull? Monster? Rock Star? Male Gaze? Do you embrace your guy friends while maintaining an arm-wrestle-like hand-clasp between your bodies? Do you enjoy infusing your body with guarana before doing some reps and contemplating the precariousness of manhood? If so, you might be one of the gentlebros…
If you live near a Civil War-era cemetery, rotting corpses may be on the attack. While there’s no need to fear the walking dead, homeowners should watch out for toxins leaking out of old graves that could be contaminating drinking water and causing serious health problems. When someone died at the turn of the century,…
For patient T6, 2014 was a happy year. That was the year she learned to control a Nexus tablet with her brain waves, and literally took her life quality from 1980s DOS to modern era Android OS. A brunette lady in her early 50s, patient T6 suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou…
AIDS was a terrifying mystery, and then we solved it. When researchers identified the human immunodeficiency virus as the reason why young, previously healthy people were developing rare cancers and wasting away, it was a triumph of medical science. But even as the medical community reached a consensus that HIV caused AIDS, a counter-movement was…