WEBVTT - Marshall Brain's News Roundup: April 7th, 2011 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.600 Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com, 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:14.920 where smart happens him Marshall Brain and welcome to this 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.400 week's Friday news round up. Let's start by looking at 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.640 several extreme forms of tourism that came to light this week. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.920 Virgin Galactic gave reporters a look at their new vehicle 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.760 for space tourism, called Spaceship Too. If you google brain 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.080 Stuff Space Tourism, you can find a video that takes 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.440 you inside this spaceship. Virgin also announced Virgin Oceanic, which 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.000 has a sub that's supposed to be able to handle 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.519 the deepest oceans on Earth for the first time. That 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.720 would be thirty seven thousand feet deep, or roughly the 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.800 height of Mount Everest underwater. It's fascinating to think about this. 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.720 Even today, with all our technology, there are parts of 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.920 the ocean that have not yet been explored by people 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.240 because we don't have a sub that can handle the depth. 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.040 And this Virgin Oceanic sub will be able to explore 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.960 the ocean in style. It's like an underwater fighter plane. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.160 You can google brain Stuff Virgin Oceanic to see the 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.360 sub and understand what some of its missions might be. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.279 There were also interesting articles this week on excursions into 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.839 two human exclusion zones and the amazing amount of wildlife 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.959 that's flourishing inside of them. One exclusion zone surrounds the 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.520 Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, and the other is in the 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:43.560 demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. The Chernobyl exclusion 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.160 zone is easy to understand. They just made this great, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.080 big circle around the power plant and decided to evacuate 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.080 all the people and keep them out because of the radioactivity. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.080 The Demilitarized Zone is a strip that's two and a 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.120 half miles wide and about a hundred and sixty miles 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.760 long that's been fenced off to keep North and South 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.520 Korea from killing each other. It's amazing what nature will 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.680 do once people are eliminated from a piece of land 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.480 like this. A new human exclusion zone has been created 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:19.280 around Japan's stricken nuclear power plant that basically melted down 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:24.480 after the earthquake. A thirty kilometer evacuation area is now 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.720 virtually devoid of all people. A reporter went in this 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.519 week with a camera to record the state of things, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.160 and some of it looks absolutely post apocalyptic, like a 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.359 waste land. Parts of it were leveled completely by the tsunami, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.000 and then human beings were sucked out, and then radioactive 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.080 waste from the reactors melt down ended up settling on 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.040 the land, and all that's left now is the occasional 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.000 stray dog or cow roaming free. Given the levels of 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.360 radiation that he observed and documented, it's really hard to 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.640 say what will happen to these hundreds of square kilometers 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.680 of and in Japan going forward. If you check the 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.680 brain Stuff blog, you can find the video that he took. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:10.000 There were also several technological fiascos reported this week, and 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.320 two of the more interesting involved the Nintendo three DS 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.120 and the Motorola Zoom tablet. With the Zoom, the pre 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.080 release hype was intense and it was built as the 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:24.040 tablet to take on the iPad too. Unfortunately, it's not 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.640 lived up to those expectations, selling only about a hundred 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.560 thousand copies since the launch. What's holding it back The 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.560 prices a problem. It's more expensive than the iPad too, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.000 so as the lack of familiarity on the part of 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.800 the buying public. It's also invisible if you try to 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.480 find it in a place like Best Buy. Add to 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.760 that the fact that it came out at the same 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.560 time as the iPad too, and the iPad to just 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.720 essentially completely overshadowed it in the marketplace. So it's starting 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.240 point hasn't gone really well, and it's hard to say 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.120 what will happen to it going forward. On the three 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.840 DS side, there are are a surprising number of complaints 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.840 about the three D screen. As you'll recall, this screen 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.680 does not require three D glasses. Instead, lens is built 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.560 into the screen direct two different images into your left 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.360 and right eyes. To get the full three D effect, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.440 you need to be centered on the screen, and the 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.200 screen needs to be the correct distance from your eyes. Apparently, 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.200 the new screen causes a bad experience for some people. 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.159 They get dizzy, or they get headaches, or you know, 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.400 it just doesn't feel right to them as they look 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.040 at it. And Nintendo is suggesting using the three D 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.280 feature for only thirty minutes at a time and not 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.359 letting kids under seven use it at all. The whole 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.680 thing has been a little uncomfortable for the launch of 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.039 this amazing new device. If you google Interesting Reading number 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.960 seven twenty and seven twenty two, you can get details 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:54.000 on these two situations we've all heard of riddling It's 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.560 a drug that's supposed to help kids suffering from a 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:01.040 d D or a d h D, essentially attention deficit disorder. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.760 Lots of college students also use it, however, because they 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.840 think it improves their concentration one studying as well as 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.880 improving retention. Now scientists are studying why riddle in might help. 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.159 It turns out that it really does help. If you 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.000 give riddle into rats, they learn things faster. It appears 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.279 to do this by increasing two different kinds of dopamine. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.800 One type of dopamine affects the speed of learning and 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.240 the other type effects focus. Right now, using riddle in 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.480 in this way is ill advised because it's a prescription drug. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.440 But in the future the drug might be relabeled as 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.839 a brain boosting drug, so it becomes much more widely available. 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.160 If you google interesting Reading seven twenty one, you can 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.239 get details on using riddle in in this way. Remember 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.800 a couple of weeks ago we talked about a streaming 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.480 DVD service called z Diva. They set up physical DVD 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:59.040 players playing physical DVDs, and then they routed the video 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.360 signals from these DVD players over the Internet to create 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.400 a streaming service. The goal is to get around Hollywood's 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.760 restrictions on movie streaming, and the Diva claim that their 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.000 service is the same as a video rental store because 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:17.560 they're using physical DVDs and physical DVD players and they're 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.000 only allowing one person to watch each DVD at a time. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.640 This week, Za Diva got sued by six of the 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.160 biggest studios in Hollywood, which is pretty amazing. Since the 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.080 Diva launched in March and has only five employees, it'll 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.240 be interesting to see how this shakes out. If you 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.040 google Interesting Reading number seven twenty one, you can get 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.680 the details. There's a fascinating article this week that discusses 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:47.200 seven common things that people do wrong. Take, for example, showering. Now, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.839 this seems like something that's really simple and hard to 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.159 screw up, but it appears that we really are doing 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.280 this wrong. Many of us take showers daily or even 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.680 twice daily, with hot water, soap, and maybe even a 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.080 bonge or a washcloth or a loofer or something to 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:07.400 get the pores really clean. The problem is that showering 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:12.160 like this damages the skin, so the article recommends fewer showers, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.560 cooler water, and safer soap without the abrasion, and we're 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.520 supposed to avoid a towel and air dry ourselves instead 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.800 to minimize the effect on our skin. Now, if you 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.120 like that idea, you'll enjoy the articles other entries on 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.040 things like pooping we're supposed to use a squatting action 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:37.240 rather than using a toilet, breathing, sleeping, toothbrushing, childbirthing, which 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.679 fortunately half of us don't really have to think about. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.480 And finally, sitting, What you're supposed to do about sitting 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.240 is not sit basically, that's one recommendation. Anyway, you're supposed 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.360 to get a standing desk or an exercise desk so 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.200 that you can avoid the whole sedentary sitting thing. Another 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.240 is a seat that lets you recline at a hundred 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.880 and thirty five degree angle. If you google Interesting Reading 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.960 number seven twenty, you can find this article. It really 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.800 is pretty amusing to read it. Lots of people are 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.920 unemployed right now, so where are the decent paying jobs. 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.000 It has been well known for some time that jobs 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.600 in the medical field have openings and they tend to 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:23.040 pay well. I also did an article on the BAJA 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.400 s A program this week. S a A stands for 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.280 the Society of Automotive Engineers and Baja SEE is a 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:35.160 college student program where college students build little ten horsepower 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:39.000 Baja style cars and race them. One of the videos 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:44.040 in that article suggests that mechanical engineers and manufacturing engineers 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.960 are in demand right now. If you google brain stuff 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.040 Baja s a E. You can see the details and 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.280 watch that video. And then there was a piece in 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:59.000 Interesting Reading seven twenty entitled fifteen overlooked and underappreciated blue 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.040 collar jobs pay well. This is pretty interesting because the 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.920 jobs are esoteric. At number one is and if you 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.920 think about this, what you know what could be the 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.280 number one most overlooked under appreciated blue collar job in America? 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:20.200 It's elevator installers and repairers, with an average salary of 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.520 sixty nine thousand dollars a year. That would at least 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.360 be a job that's indoor. Some of these jobs are not, 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.160 and that might make them less desirable to some people. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.439 The best paying job on the list is mining engineer 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.360 at seventy nine thousand dollars per year. Number twelve is 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.960 commercial divers at fifty eight thousand dollars per year, and 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.920 so on. Google Interesting Reading number seven twenty for details 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.560 on these jobs. Speaking of elevators, a hack was released 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.280 this week that will supposedly let you get to your 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.439 floor more quickly, especially if someone has tried the old 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.600 push all the buttons for every floor gag. It will 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.960 also prevent your car from stopping for other people on 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.679 the way to your destination floor. Supposedly, all you have 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.480 to do is hold the closed door button down and 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.080 keep it down while you press your floor number, and 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.240 then as the elevator starts moving, you can release those 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.920 two buttons. It can't hurt to try it next time 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.760 you're on an elevator. If you google interesting Reading number 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.720 seven nineteen, you can get instructions for this hat. In 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:30.640 the past, cows obviously have produced cow's milk, but now 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.920 some cows, about three hundred of them, are producing human 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.720 milk thanks to genetic engineering, and thanks to relax genetic 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.080 engineering regulations that are in place in China, scientists have 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:48.440 inserted human genes into cows to make this possible. The 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.880 ultimate goal is to create milk from cows that's nearly 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.040 identical to human milk as a way to improve the 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.960 milk for infants that are bottle fed. One of the 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.760 key differences in human milk is a protein called lyso zyme, 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.120 which can kill bacteria. Other human proteins help boost a 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.960 baby's immune system. It's not yet a perfect duplicate of 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.040 human milk, but it's much closer than straight cow's milk 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.040 would be. Google interesting reading number seven nineteen for details. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.640 How much data can your cell phone or smartphone collect 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.840 about you? Quite a bit, it turns out, as discovered 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.079 by a European politician who requested his records to find 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.960 out what the cell phone company was keeping about him. Apparently, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.200 his cell phone company logged his GPS information tens of 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.760 thousands of times over the course of a year or so, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.679 along with his call history. A newspaper then cross correlated 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.080 that data stream with his Twitter feed and other publicly 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:52.800 available information to basically map out his life. It's kind 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.480 of shocking, really. There's a little tool you can run 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.280 in the article where you can see on a map 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.280 exactly where he's going and what's happening in his life 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.400 at those different moments as they go by, and it 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.720 shows that we are completely unanonymous if we have a 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.160 phone in our pocket, whether we like it or not. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.679 This kind of data keeping will be happening more and 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.959 more in the future. If you google interesting Reading number 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.040 seven nineteen you can see how much information can be 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:24.559 gathered from a smartphone. And finally, there are several news 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.240 items this week on stem cells. One involved an effort 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.360 to grow a human eye from stem cells. Another is 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.959 an attempt to grow a full human heart from stem cells. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.560 The idea of growing replacement hearts for people is getting 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.079 closer to reality, and if you can grow a heart, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.360 then it's probably likely you can also grow other organs 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.920 like kidneys or livers or stomachs for that matter as well. 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.800 The heart technique involves starting with a donor heart and 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:56.640 washing away everything but the kellagians scaffolding to give the 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.880 new hearted shape. Then that skeleton or the saffolding is 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.920 seated with stem cells from the person who will receive 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.480 the heart, which then grow to create a new heart 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.760 on that scaffolding. One problem during the growth process is 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.400 a blood supply. As the cells thicken, they need blood 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.120 to get oxygen and nutrients, so there really needs to 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.440 be a circulation system that can handle the delivery of 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.840 that blood. And another problem is the nerve cells to 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.040 control beating, which are fairly complex in a natural heart. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.080 But if these hurdles can be overcome, then replacement hearts 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.679 could become a reality. Google Interesting Reading seven nineteen for details. 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.160 That's it for this week. If you would like to 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.679 learn more information about these topics, or about a hundred 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:49.040 other topics, you can google interesting reading numbers seven twenty three, 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:54.920 seven twenty and seven nineteen. Have a great weekend for 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.440 more on this and thousands of other topics. Doesn't how 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.880 steffworks dot com and don't forget to check out the 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.960 brain stuff blog on the house stuff works dot com 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.840 home page. You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.520 or Twitter at brain stuff h s W. The House 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.319 Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.