Men are Bigger Liars than Women

Men are more likely to tell lies than women and feel less guilty about it, says a survey.
In a poll of 3,000 people, researchers found that the average British man tells three lies every day, that's equivalent to 1,092 a year.

However the average woman appears more honest, lying 728 times a year - around twice a day.
Mums are the people mostly likely to be lied to, says the Science Museum who commissioned the survey.

Concerning the kind of lies we tell, men said that they most often lie to their partner about their drinking habits. "I didn't have that much to drink" is men's most popular fib.

Whereas women use the line, "Nothing's wrong, I'm fine" most often to hide their true feelings.

MEN'S TOP 10 LIES
1. I didn't have that much to drink
2. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine
3. I had no signal
4. It wasn't that expensive
5. I'm on my way
6. I'm stuck in traffic
7. No, your bum doesn't look big in that
8. Sorry, I missed your call
9. You've lost weight
10. It's just what I've always wanted

WOMEN'S TOP 10 LIES
1. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine
2. I don't know where it is, I haven't touched it
3. It wasn't that expensive
4. I didn't have that much to drink
5. I've got a headache
6. It was in the sale
7. I'm on my way
8. Oh, I've had this ages
9. No, I didn't throw it away
10. It's just what I've always wanted

The full article...

'Sexercise' Yourself Into Shape

According to the NHS Direct website, "sexercise" can lower the risk of heart attacks and helps people live longer.

Endorphins released during orgasm stimulate immune system cells, which also helps target illnesses like cancer, as well as wrinkles, it states.

"Forget about jogging round the block or struggling with sit-ups.

"Sex uses every muscle group, gets the heart and lungs working hard, and burns about 300 calories an hour."

The advice suggests "regular romps this winter" could lead to a better body and a younger look.

Increased production of endorphins "will make your hair shine and your skin smooth," it adds.

"If you're worried about wrinkles - orgasms even help prevent frown lines from deepening."

Via BBC

Crimpity Crimpity Now Now

Boing ding bong bong ting. Crimpity crimpity ping pong.

Taxi Driver Mistaken as Guy Kewney

Priceless!

The Human Animal

The Human Animal - The Language of the Body




The Human Animal - The Hunting Ape




The Human Animal - The Human Zoo




The Human Animal - The Biology of Love




The Human Animal - The Immortal Genes




The Human Animal - Beyond Survival

The Supermarket That's Eating Britain

Tesco, Carrefour, Wal-Mart,...who else?

The London Underground Map

The greatest British design icon of all time.

Monkey Dust: Daddy and Timmy

Another great series. Very dark. Specially the stories of Daddy and Timmy, my favourtie.

It's a Myth: Red Wine

"It's an absolute myth that red wine is good for you," says Professor Valerie Beral from the University of Oxford and lead author of the Million Women study.

"The evidence is not there."

"Our research identified a group of chemicals called procyanadins which are polyphenols, and the key component in terms of protecting from heart disease."

Polyphenols, such as the antioxidant resveratrol, are found in the skins of red wine grapes.

"In high doses it does seem to enhance the lifespan of mice. But," he adds crucially, "you need huge doses."

In humans, it equates to thousands of litres of wine.

Professor Corder dismisses wines that effectively promote themselves as a health drink, with 'rich in polyphenols' or 'rich in antioxidants' on the label.

But, he says, two small glasses of a very tannic, procyanadin rich wine would confer a benefit.

"The problem is that most supermarket wines are low procyanadin and high alcohol," he said.

"We're promoting bad wine for bad habits."

Read the full article...

How Soup Can Help You Lose Weight

In the battle to lose weight, hunger is the dieter's worst enemy. But research has revealed a simple aid to taming the appetite: soup.

If you eat the food and drink the water, you will feel full for a couple of hours before hunger kicks in. But if you blend the food with the water - to make soup - you will stay hunger-free for much longer, and less likely to snack through the afternoon.

How can blending the food into soup make such a difference? The answer lies in the stomach. Scientists have used ultrasound and MRI scans of people's stomachs to investigate what happens after eating solid-food-plus-water meals compared with the same food made into soup.

After you eat a meal, the pyloric sphincter valve at the bottom of your stomach holds food back so that the digestive juices can get to work.

Water, however, passes straight through the sphincter to your intestines, so drinking water does not contribute to "filling you up".

When you eat the same meal as a soup, the whole mixture remains in the stomach, because the water and food are blended together. The scientists' scans confirm that the stomach stays fuller for longer, staving off those hunger pangs.

The key to this low-tech weapon against hunger is a hormone called ghrelin. It is one of the major players in the body's appetite system.

Read the full article...

Robert Webb Flashdances (Comic Relief)

If you're a fan of the series Peep Show, you will appreciate this.

Gary: Young, Psychic and Possessed

Part 1/6

Twenty-year-old Gary Mannion calls himself Britain's youngest psychic surgeon, channelling a spirit from the dead to operate on the sick. He is a rising star in the world of spiritual healing, travelling the world to bring his alleged ability to effect miracle cures to a devoted following.

In Young, Psychic and Possessed filmmaker Emeka Onono follows Gary as he tries to prove he really does have the power to heal. It is a journey into the supernatural that will challenge both sceptics and true believers. Emeka hears stories of miracle cures, watches Gary operate, and even participates in seances, before turning to science to try to separate fact from fantasy.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Part 3: Life and Death

Part 1/6

Darwin's Dangerous Idea
BBC2 Thursday 19th March 2009

In the final episode of this ground-breaking series about Charles Darwin's legacy, Andrew Marr discovers how Darwin's ideas are helping us to save ourselves and all life on earth from extinction. Marr argues that Charles Darwin is the father of ecology. The modern environmental movement was built upon his insight that all life on earth is linked by a delicate web of connections. He also discovers that Darwin's dangerous idea is inspiring scientists to create a 'flotilla of Darwinian Noah's Arks' to help save life on earth from disaster.

Exploring the impact of industrialisation, intensive farming and our growing hunger for meat, Marr tells the story of our slow awakening to the full implications of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and our own destructive powers as a species. After showing how Darwin developed his ideas by digging up fossils, exploring coral reefs and studying the habits of the humble earthworm, Marr explains how Darwin's dangerous idea was launched into the space age. He discovers the mysterious movements of the 'mouse society', snorkels over a coral reef and visits a 'boiling cauldron of evolution' - the tropical rainforest - which is now threatened by the shadow of mass extinction.

Over the last 150 years, the combination of Darwin's ideas with politics has often had disastrous social consequences. In this programme, Andrew Marr argues that our failure to combine politics with Darwin's insights into the delicate connections between all life on earth could be accelerating the countdown to our own extinction.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Part 2: Born Equal?

Part 1/6

Darwin's Dangerous Idea
BBC2 Thursday 12th March 2009

Andrew Marr discovers something surprising about his own evolutionary history as this epic series continues with an exploration of Darwin's impact on politics and society.

Under the banner of Survival of the Fittest, Darwin's theory of natural selection has been used to justify imperial expansion and the oppression of indigenous peoples; to inform the science of eugenics - the selective breeding of humans which was implemented in the United States in the early 20th century; and to provide a veneer of scientific respectability to Nazi plans to create an Aryan master race. It was also used quite explicitly to explain the twisted logic of the final solution.

But Andrew Marr also finds a kind of redemption for Darwin's theory of evolution. After the Second World War, it was a founding idea behind the democratic, anti-racist values of the United Nations. More recently, it has also been used to help eliminate a fatal genetic disease from the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Marr goes on to consider the difficult social and political choices presented by predictive DNA testing - the final frontier of Darwin's Dangerous Idea.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Part 1: Body and Soul

Part 1/6

Darwin's Dangerous Idea
BBC2 Thursday 5th March 2009

In the first episode of the three-part series, Andrew Marr explores how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has taken on a life of its own far beyond the world of science.

He argues that Darwin's theory has transformed our understanding of what it means to be human. Over the last 150 years, Darwin's ideas have challenged the need for a creator, undermined religious authority, and provided new ways of looking at the origins of human morality.

Marr's journey begins following Darwin's footsteps in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America where Darwin first encountered an 'uncivilised' native tribe. This began to raise questions in his mind about the origins of the human race. The answers to these questions would emerge over the next 30 years, culminating in the publication of On The Origin of Species in 1859.

Marr then traces the development of Darwin's idea in the years since then and finds a range of influences that Darwin could never have imagined: from the existential philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche to the battlefields of the First World War; from the Freudian psychoanalyst's couch to the Vatican; and from the genetic logic of kindness to an Islamic creationist's claim that Darwin is to blame for modern terrorism. Darwin's dangerous idea is as influential and challenging today as it was 150 years ago.

Derren Brown: Subliminal Advertising

A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems.

See how effective it is with the example of these two Derren Brown's clips.

UK Version | US Version

The Enemies of Reason...?

The KKK: still alive and kicking in 2009



These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. He doesn’t tell us how he did it but he was considered trustworthy enough to be invited into their homes and allowed to photograph their most secretive ceremonies, such as the infamous cross burnings.

"Late last year, two suspected skinheads who had links to a violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged with plotting to kill 88 black students. They were then going to assassinate President Obama by blasting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats. They were never going to succeed, given the huge security net around Obama, but the fact that they had planned such an outlandish attack may be a harbinger of things to come."

Read the full article...


The Evangelica




Scientology
John Sweeney's documentary on Scientology

Richard Dawkins on "Enemies of Reason"

Last week I was watching the documentary called "Religulous". It's the Bill Maher's take on the world's religions. It's brilliantly funny. Some clips will make you say WTF in your head, or out loud. Anyway, it reminded me about an amazing documentary below of Richard Dawkins...

Tree of Life

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth on February 12, I would like to post a few interesting clips on evolution...starting off with this one:


More details on the evolution...

Thanks Taro for reminding me about the clip.

Supermarket Secrets

Here's Part 2.

Another good documentary from BBC that will make you at least eat less meat or consider becoming vegetarian. Well, that was my reaction...though grrr it's very difficult when thinking of giving up my favourites esp. Margret de canard and unagi.