Friday morning potpourri

[trof]

Ig Nobels honor the living ‘dead’

Prizes celebrate
silly and serious
scientific efforts

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
BOSTON, Oct. 2 — An Indian who spent 18 years trying to prove he was alive, researchers who showed London taxi drivers have bigger-than-average brains and the inventor of Murphy’s Law won Ig Nobel prizes Thursday. The spoofs of the Nobel prizes were also awarded to researchers who found politicians to have simple personalities, a Japanese inventor who studied a statue that seems to be repulsive to birds, and an economist who chronicles annoying behavior.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/975208.asp?0na=x2207111-

Vibrating shoes may help avoid falls

Elderly can improve, maintain balance, study suggests

THE EXPERIMENT, outlined this week in The Lancet medical journal, found that elderly people showed signs of better balance when they stood on a pair of battery-operated randomly vibrating insoles.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/975054.asp?0na=x2217122-


Fat may not increase stroke risk, but don't reach for the fries yet

October 3, 2003

BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter
Contrary to what you might think, the amount of fat you eat doesn't have any impact on your risk of stroke, according to a provocative new study of nearly 44,000 men.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-stroke03.html

[trotsky]

1. Hey, I read about the vibrating shoes one in Scientific American

Interesting analogy they made in there is putting a frog in a bucket that's too high for him to jump out. But then if you put the bucket in the back of a pickup truck and drive on some bouncy roads, you will get times when his jumps coincide with a bump, and he can get out.

In the same manner, the nerve signals from your feet are trying to cross a gap to get to your brain. Putting on the vibrating shoes provides the same sort of "kick start" that those signals need to break thru.

Science is so damn cool.