Science & Society

Candy Gunther Brown, an associate professor in the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $150,000 grant to pursue research on divine healing practices and their involvement in globalization.  The grant comes from the Flame of Love Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. It complements a $64,500 in research funding that Indiana University has provided Brown in the past year. Brown is an historian and ethnographer of religion and culture who is studying divine healing practices in the United States…

Why are kids in  Italian prisons, you might be asking?   Italian law says sending kids to prison is a lot less traumatic than being away from their criminal mothers.   Italian fathers must be busy boun giorno-ing foreign women on the streets.   Whatever the reason,  mothers sentenced to prison or awaiting trial can bring their children and live in specific 'nest' areas of the jail.  Physicians of the Institute of Paediatric Clinic of the Catholic University of Rome – Policlinico Agostino Gemelli entered the Casa di reclusione di Roma Rebibbia, the main prison of…

Nearly half of all hayfever sufferers are more irritable while they are suffering from hayfever symptoms and that impacts their relationships, according to a new survey published today.[1]  The survey suggests that up to 2 million people with hayfever[2] feel less affectionate in relationships and up to 600,000 people with hayfever have had an argument due to their hayfever symptoms. Even potential new relationships are at risk, with 6% having cancelled a date or prior arrangement because of their symptoms and 75% feeling self conscious about their appearance.(*) The findings, announced…

Weight discrimination appears to add to the glass ceiling effect for women, according to a new study in the British journal Equal Opportunities International. Overweight and obese women are significantly underrepresented among the top CEOs in the United States, according to the research.   However, while obese men were also underrepresented, overweight men were actually overrepresented among top CEOs. The different results for women and men suggest weight bias may contribute to the glass ceiling on the advancement of women to the top levels of management, said Mark Roehling, Michigan…

Candy Gunther Brown, an associate professor in the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $150,000 grant to pursue research on divine healing practices and their involvement in globalization.  The grant comes from the Flame of Love Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. It complements a $64,500 in research funding that Indiana University has provided Brown in the past year. Brown is an historian and ethnographer of religion and culture who is studying divine healing practices in the United States…

As an ethical hedonist, the 18th-19th-century English utilitarian philosopher and proto-bleeding-heart-liberal Jeremy Bentham, believed that right and wrong could be determined by weighing the “pleasures” and “pains” of any given action, with an action that produced more pleasure than pain being morally right. While this would be great by itself (in a geeky kind of way), what makes it truly spectacular is the fact that Bentham actually created an algorithm to define exactly how much pleasure and pain an action would cause. (His application of algebra to life decisions is echoed by at least…

Men with premature ejaculation who used a topical spray five minutes before intercourse were able to delay their orgasm six times longer than normal, according to a study in the April issue of BJU International. Three hundred men with clinically diagnosed lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) from 31 centres in the UK, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, were randomised into two groups. Two hundred used the PSD502 spray, which contains 7.5mg of lidocaine and 2.5mg of prilocaine, and 100 used a placebo spray with no active ingredients. Every time they had intercourse during the three-month…

The Age of PlasticThe term 'plastic' means, generally,  'easily moulded or shaped'. Online dictionaries tend to show only a few of the very many variants and meanings of the term 'plastic'.I have tried here to compile a list of the more frequent uses of the term  'plastic' across the internet. That list may be found at the foot of this article. The Plasticity of the Word 'Plastic'.Words that refer to themselves are called autological words.  They can generate some interesting paradoxes.  The word plastic can be pronounced as plass-tick, plarz-tick, plause-tick etc., and…

I came across a blog today, written by a female scientist (apparently - it's an anonymous blog and that's okay, if Obama's teleprompter can have a blog I suppose anyone sentient can also, but anonymity speaks of a certain paranoia) and she wondered if men perceived science setbacks differently than women.   So I began to wonder too. She notes that when she talks to other women scientists, their setbacks are usually framed through personal issues but with men, that side rarely comes up.   Obviously that's not a scientific sample; if she happens to hang out with women who complain a…

I'm no expert on shaving products or Australians(1) but this new Wilkinson Sword Quattro for Women Bikini thingie, with a razor on one end and a waterproof bikini trimmer on the other, is not supposed to be used on cats.   I am sure of it.   Yet, right there at the end of this video, a pussy is clearly shaved. I am all for science breaking the laws of nature and stuff but shaving animals for sport is just wrong. (1) The Land Down Under.