The Science of Sleep

I am very interested in everything related to sleep. Not so much because I like to sleep long, but more because I think it has so much impact on our life that I think it is worth trying to understand how it works and how to optimize it.
The report confirms that with less than 7.5h of sleep a day, we do not function properly, and that we actually expose ourselves to premature type 2 diabetes and other problems.
Deep sleep is also very important and the bummer is that we get less of it (even if we sleep as much) as we get older...

The whole report/video from 60 Minutes is here.

George Carlin, 1937-2008

RIP George :(

Watch the video I posted about some time ago, here.

Oil price and speculators

Many politicians in the USA now blame the oil price on speculators and tell us that fixing the "Enron loophole" would take the gas price down to $2 a gallon.
I am very skeptical about this and it seems that economist Paul Krugman is as well...

I read somewhere that the blame is to be put on bankers who want to make money to offset the loses they made during the subprimes crisis. I am not too convinced about that either...

More info on Paul's post here.

The Economist also has a piece on it, here.

How to take a nap

Napping is a great idea, and many studies tend to proves that one is more efficient after a nap (better concentration, more energy, etc...)
But you have to do it right....

More info here.

Circumcision

CIRCUMCISION and other forms of male-genital mutilation are commonplace in many societies around the world. The origin of these practices, however, puzzles anthropologists and evolutionary biologists. They wonder what benefit they could bring, especially given the obvious risks of infection and reduced fertility.

The whole article is here.

QOTD

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

- Bertrand Russell

Make petrol from bugs

It looks like making petrol from bugs is not that difficult.
And the good thing is that they produce petrol directly, not heavy oil which needs to be refined. The other good thins is that the process is carbon negative.

Read more here.

QOTD

"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know."

- Ambrose Bierce

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."

- Samuel Johnson