Monthly Archives: September 2013

Study explains why women feel urge to eat babies

Women: Have you ever snuggled a baby in your arms and had an overwhelming urge to actually eat it? As soon as you catch a whiff of that sweet newborn skin you feel compelled to put your mouth on it? A team of researchers have found that this feeling is entirely normal. It’s part of the maternal instinct—and explains why we often find ourselves describing babies as “delicious” and “yummy” and saying things like, “You’re so cute! I could gobble you up!”

Scientists at the University of Montreal found that a newborn’s scent triggers the reward circuit in women’s brains, causing the release of dopamine and activating the same part of the brain that craves certain foods. The researchers found that women had the same feeling even when they were holding a baby who wasn’t their own.

“The olfactory—thus non-verbal and non-visual—chemical signals for communication between mother and child are intense,” explains Johannes Frasnelli, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Montreal’s Department of Psychology. “What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns, which is part of these signals, activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers. These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug. It is in fact the sating of desire.”

(In case you were wondering: While women get this urge to eat babies, they don’t literally do it.)

For this small study, the researchers formed two groups of 15 non-smoking women: One group of women who’d recently given birth and another who’d never had children. Both groups were presented with newborn smells while undergoing brain imaging scans. All of the women received the odors with the same intensity but the scans showed that the mothers’ brains had a stronger reaction.

The researchers concluded: “These results show that the odor of newborns undoubtedly plays a role in the development of motivational and emotional responses between mother and child by eliciting maternal care functions such as breastfeeding and protection. The mother-child bond that is part of the feeling of maternal love is a product of evolution through natural selection in an environment where such a bond is essential for the newborn’s survival.”

Welcome to Sochi (no gays please)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RscB_1srUBA

Great Short Video on London’s Now Defunct Aldwych Tube Station

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Hacking the Iphone fingerprint security.

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Hackers are gearing up to try to crack Apple’s Touch ID technology.The website istouchidhackedyet.com, set up by Nick DePetrillo and Robert Graham, lists a number of people offering rewards – including one for $10,000 from IO Capital, a venture capital company – “to the first person who can reliably and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5S by lifting prints (like from a beer mug).”Other rewards include a bottle of wine and a book of erotica.

Raising funds for charity? Just Giving is not the best way!

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Just Giving is not the best way.

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BT is to boost the charity sector by launching what it says is the first online not-for-profit fundraising service guaranteeing that 100% of every donation will go to the relevant charity.

The telecoms operator will go head to head with established platforms such as JustGiving and Virgin with a rival operation that will not charge charities or donors subscription or set-up fees, or commission. BT will absorb the cost of running the operation as a key part of its corporate charitable programme, so the only charges will be handling fees levied by credit and debit card companies and PayPal. Charities can also receive Gift Aid from UK taxpayers who donate using the site, while fundraisers planning a run or other event will be able to customise their own pages.

BT said it has worked with a number of charities to develop the new website MyDonate – including Cancer Research UK and the NSPCC – to ensure it is a service that the sector wants. The service has been designed to be inclusive to all UK registered charities and increase the online donation market. Last year the total amount donated to charity by adults in the UK was estimated to be £10.6bn, with only 7% of givers donating online. By contrast, 58% of adults regularly shop online.

BT’s launch is backed by new research it commissioned showing that people were influenced to donate to a particular cause by how much of their money actually went to the charity and what it was spent on. Nearly 60% of people felt that all their online donation should go direct to the charity.

MyDonate will make it easier for people to give more, as it guarantees that 100% of all donations go direct to the charity of choice – excluding credit/debit card charges – giving more transparency to the process.

JustGiving, for example, charges charities £15 a month plus 5% on each donation, while donors pay card transaction fees of 1.3% on credit cards, 17p on debit cards and 1.45% on PayPal. Last year its income was £14m, from a total raised for charities of £250 million. Virgin, the main sponsor of this month’s London Marathon, charges charities a £100 fee, plus a transaction fee of 2%. A spokesman said fundraisers and donors will be subject to card processing fees of 1.45% (1.6% for American Express) and card transaction fees of 2%. Since its launch in October 2009 Virgin Money Giving has seen more than £25m donated to charity.

In the budget, the chancellor announced a series of initiatives to cut red tape to encourage more donations by both companies and individuals to charities. Currently, charitable giving in the UK is sustained by 8% of the population, who contribute 47% of all donations by giving £100 or more every month.

Giving by cash remains the most popular method (50% of donors use cash to donate) yet cash donations tend to be smaller and more irregular than methods such as direct debit.

Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, said: “We’ve launched MyDonate as we want to ensure that 100% of people’s fantastic fundraising efforts and donations go to the charity of their choice. BT already has a proud history of helping communities with charitable events, such as the recent Comic Relief telethon, and we’re delighted we can now take this knowledge and technological expertise to help charities become more effective in the vital work they do.”

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If the world were 100 People

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If the World were 100 PEOPLE:

50 would be female
50 would be male

20 would be children
There would be 80 adults,
14 of whom would be 65 and older

There would be:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
13 Africans
14 people from the Western Hemisphere

There would be:
31 Christians
21 Muslims
14 Hindus
6 Buddhists
12 people who practice other religions
16 people who would not be aligned with a religion

17 would speak a Chinese dialect
8 would speak Hindustani
8 would speak English
7 would speak Spanish
4 would speak Arabic
4 would speak Russian
52 would speak other languages

82 would be able to read and write; 18 would not

1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer

75 people would have some supply of food and a place to
shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 would not

1 would be dying of starvation
17 would be undernourished
15 would be overweight

83 would have access to safe drinking water
17 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Route 11 to start operating with New Bus for London

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Route 11 to start operating with New Bus for London

· Routes 9 & 390 will also convert to iconic new buses before end of year

· New buses significantly cut emissions and improve air quality

· Manufacture boosts economy across UK

New Bus for London vehicles will become an increasingly familiar sight for passengers on route 11 from Saturday (21 September), as the route becomes the second in the capital to convert to this iconic, green mode of public transport.

Route 11, which is operated by Go Ahead, runs from Liverpool Street Station to Fulham Broadway, via Bank, Mansion House, St Paul’s, Ludgate Circus, Fleet Street, Aldwych, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Victoria, Sloane Square and Chelsea. When the route has fully converted, 25 New Bus for London vehicles will be in passenger service during peak periods.

The buses will be introduced on route 11 over several days, from 21 September, and will be responsible for carrying the 23,000 people who travel on the route each day.

It follows the first bus route to be converted to operate entirely with New Bus for London vehicles – the 24 – which runs between Hampstead Heath and Pimlico.

The New Bus for London is the greenest diesel electric hybrid bus in the world. In tests a prototype bus was found to emit a quarter of the NOx (Oxides of Nitrogen) and harmful ‘PM’ particles of a fleet average hybrid bus and 20 per cent less CO2. When all 600 New Bus for London vehicles are in service in 2016 they will reduce CO2 emissions in the capital by around 20,600 tonnes a year.

The buses are manufactured by the family-owned Wrightbus company in Northern Ireland. The order for the 600 New Bus for London vehicles has resulted in the opening of a new chassis plant in Antrim and the safeguarding of 220 jobs, including 18 apprenticeships and the creation of 50 new jobs.

As well as the manufacture of the chassis and superstructure in Northern Ireland, a number of components for the new bus are made by companies from around the UK; including engines from Darlington, seats from Telford, seat moquette from Huddersfield, wheelchair ramps from Hoddesdon (Hertfordshire), destination blinds from Middleton near Manchester and flooring from Liskeard (Cornwall). All of these companies have received a boost as a result of the new bus project.

Accessibility improvements completed at 35 Tube stations

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•Boarding ramps now in place at 19 further underground stations
•35 additional stations are now more accessible for wheelchair users from platform to train
•Further accessibility commitments set out by the Mayor are being delivered – with 26 Tube and Overground stations to become step free over next eight years
•Work underway to find additional accessibility solutions at other step-free stations

London Underground (LU) has completed the roll out of boarding ramps, used to bridge the gap between platform and train, at a further 19 Tube stations. This brings the total number of Tube stations where level access from platform to train has been introduced through the use of ramps and permanent raised platform sections to 35 since last year. Two additional London Overground stations, Denmark Hill and Crystal Palace, have also become fully step-free since the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The portable ramps are put in place by Tube staff to allow wheelchairs users to get on and off trains. They were first introduced at 16 Tube stations during the Games and proved so successful TfL has now rolled them out more widely. The 19 new stations to have boarding ramps are: Caledonian Road, East Ham, Elm Park, Epping, Farringdon, Hainault, Hillingdon, Hounslow East, Kew Gardens, Mile End, Richmond,
Rickmansworth, Roding Valley, South Woodford, Theydon Bois, Upney, Uxbridge, West Finchley and Wood Lane.

A new short film explaining how the ramps work can be found at [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=UVJl2IKLa1U] Customers can also sign up for TfL’s accessibility email updates by visiting
tfl.gov.uk/emailupdates

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said, “Boarding ramps proved hugely successful in helping people to get around during the Games and I’m delighted that we are now rolling them out at even more stations across the Tube network. London has one of the most accessible transport systems in the world but there is always more that can be done. This is why we are investing hundreds of millions of pounds to ensure that we take accessibility in the capital to the next level.”

Phil Hufton, London Underground’s Chief Operating Officer said: ““We’ve had really positive feedback about the boarding ramps, as well as other improvements such as permanent raised sections of platforms and wide-aisle gates, which are helping to make getting around easier for many of our customers. We also want to ensure that people are aware of how easy the ramps are to use and a short film on the TfL website shows exactly how they work.”

Ruth Owen OBE, Chief Executive of disabled children’s charity Whizz-Kidz said: “We warmly welcome TfL’s decision to roll out manual boarding ramps at a further 19 stations across the network, which will support disabled people to travel more independently. As part of Whizz-Kidz’s Generation Inspired? campaign into the Paralympic Legacy, we polled our network of young wheelchair-users in the five months following the London 2012 Games and discovered that the majority were hopeful that improvements in transport accessibility would form part of the Paralympic Legacy. We’re delighted that young disabled people’s voices have been heard. Whizz-Kidz and its young Ambassadors back the Mayor’s pledge to make transport in London more accessible and we look forward to continuing to support and advise TfL on further measures to improve accessibility for disabled passengers.’

At some stations factors such as the historic design of the platforms and track – particularly where there is a step down from the platform to the train – mean that the use of boarding ramps has not been possible. Work by LU to find solutions in these cases is now underway.

Many large-scale accessibility improvements are also already underway across the Tube network including at Victoria, Vauxhall, Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street and Greenford Tube stations. A new fleet of trains are running on the Metropolitan line and by the end of 2014 there will be new trains running on the entire Hammersmith & City and Circle lines followed by a further 80 new trains on the District line, which will mean that 40 per cent of the network will be served by air-conditioned trains with high levels of accessibility, wider doors and dedicated areas for wheelchair users.

TfL will also increase the number of permanent raised platform sections to provide level access at a third of stations by 2016 and install tactile paving on all platform edges across the network for the visually impaired.

Currently, 66 stations on the Tube network are step-free, but the gap between the platform and train at some of these stations has meant that wheelchair users can struggle to board.

The new deployment of ramps will mean that, of the platforms that are currently accessible step-free from the street, 76 per cent (149 out of 195) will now be accessible to wheelchair users through the use of the ramps, permanent raised platform sections, low floor trains and other improvements.

Introducing ramps to more of the Tube network was one of the commitments outlined in the mayor and TfL’s ‘Your Accessible Transport Network’ document in December of last year. Progress on a number of improvements outlined in the document have already been made. These include:

 Disability organisations Inclusion London and Transport for All have been appointed to improve training given to LU staff in how they assist older and disabled customers;

 Centres of excellence, which will act as exemplars for how TfL can best assist disabled customers, are being established at Stratford, King’s Cross St Pancras, London Bridge, Green Park and Westminster stations;

 Significant improvements to signage have now been completed at 11 stations with four more to follow this month. This distinctive new accessibility signage, developed in conjunction with disabled people, is positioned at locations and heights that are easily viewable from wheelchairs. It provides better information about how best to navigate stations, including Westminster, Waterloo, Kings Cross and London Bridge;

 A further 94 wide aisle gates have been installed at 60 Tube stations, and the number of permanent raised platform sections is being increased to provide level access at a third of stations by 2016;

 A fleet of new trains are already running on the Metropolitan lines with more new trains being introduced on the Hammersmith & City, Circle and District lines, and by 2016, 40 per cent of the Tube will be served by new, highly accessible trains;

 A world-leading customer information system has now been introduced on the entire Victoria line. For the first time this gives give real-time disruption information to help people with hearing loss who may miss announcements from the driver.

 Large-scale accessibility improvements are already underway at Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Victoria and other locations

 An additional £18m is being invested to make at least 95 per cent of bus stops accessible by the end of 2016, bringing even greater ease to a bus network that is already the most accessible in the country;

 TfL is completely redesigning its website with clearer, easier to read content;

 A new Twitter feed @TfLAccess has been launched to give advice on getting the most out of the transport network, to update disabled passengers on improvements to their services and to advise customers of any planned changes on the network – such as to lifts, escalators or stations – that may affect their journeys

Has the Loch Ness Monster Been Spotted Again?

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David Elder of East Kilbride snapped the photo above at the Fort Augustus end of the loch, and he isn’t entirely sure what he snapped. All he knows is that it’s not likely to be anything mundane.
Quoth Elder: “We were at the pier head at Fort Augustus and I was taking a picture of a swan at the time,’ said Mr Elder, from East Kilbride. Out of the corner of my right eye I caught sight of a black area of water about 15 feet long, which developed into a kind of bow wave. I’m convinced this was caused by a solid black object under the water. The water was very still at the time and there were no ripples coming off the wave and no other activity on the water. Water was definitely going over something solid and making the wave.”