Franzified's Blog Posts

This Map of America Tells You What Age You Die Depending on Your Location

Our individual lives are shaped depending on which country we were, when we are born, and what type of environment we are born. With this in mind, we can also say that these same factors also affect our death — or to euphemize it, our life expectancy. This map of America tells you your life expectancy depending on what state you are.

Americans born in 2015 can expect to live to the age of 78.8 years. That's one-tenth of a year less than in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported, and the first time U.S. life expectancy declined since 1993.
The CDC cited the rise of preventable deaths — notably traffic accidents (+6%) and "accidental poisonings" (+13%) as the main causes for the drop in longevity. The latter category consists almost entirely (97 percent) of alcohol and drug overdoses, with the opioid epidemic a major contributor to the increase.

What I can only say is, wherever you are right now, enjoy every moment of your life. And live it to the fullest.

(Image Credit: Titlemax)


In Thailand: Dog Swims 135 Miles off the Coast

Strong dog here.

Workers unexpectedly found this dog near where they work — at an oil rig some 135 miles off Thailand’s coast. Upon seeing this canine, the workers immediately took action and rescued the shivering doggo.

From CNN:

Rig worker Vitisak Payalaw, an offshore planner with Chevron, told CNN that fellow staff members spotted the dog swimming towards the platform on the afternoon of April 12, and held out a pole for him. But, buffeted by the waves, he was unable to climb up, his grasp repeatedly slipping.
"I thought that if we didn't move quickly, I would not be able to help him," said Payalaw. "If he lost his grip, it would be very difficult to help him."

After lifting the dog on board and giving him some water and some electrolyte drink, they named him Boonrod, which means “survivor.”

(Image Credit: Rescue Team Members of Chevron Thailand Exploration & Production)


Little Boy Runs Over Chicken, Brings it to Hospital

What a thoughtful and adorable little fellow.

Derek C Lalchhanhima, a 6-year old Moziram boy, accidentally ran over his neighbor’s chicken. The worried boy then went home and begged his parents to bring the chicken to the hospital, to which they asked him to go himself. Derek eventually went back home upset.

From Hindustan Times:

“His parents finally had to explain to him that the chick is dead and that there’s nothing they can do at the hospital,” she said, adding that Derek’s father was surprised at his son’s reaction. “He’s always been a rather unique kid,” he told her.
The post about little Derek has received over one lakh [100,000] reactions, more than 87,000 shares and a ton of comments on Facebook.

Would you the same as well?

(Image Credit: Sanga Says/ Facebook)


Urine Salts Used to Reconstruct Human History

It was considered a crucial point in history when we humans transitioned from hunting and gathering and herding. The intensive production of food brought about technological advances that have enabled life today. I guess less time to worry about food, more time to study the world.

“How and when did this take place?” That would be difficult to answer. Fortunately, a new study published in Science Advances tried to reconstruct history through a different source: human and animal pee.

From PHYS.org:

Whereas dung is commonly used in all sorts of studies, "this is the first time, to our knowledge, that people have picked up on salts in archaeological materials, and used them in a way to look at the development of animal management," says lead author Jordan Abell, a graduate student at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The team used the urine salts to calculate the density of humans and animals at the site over time, estimating that around 10,000 years ago, the density of people and animals occupying the settlement jumped from near zero to approximately one person or animal for every 10 square meters. The results suggest that domestication may have been more rapid than previously expected. They also support the idea that the Neolithic Revolution didn't have just one birthplace in the Fertile Crescent of the Mideast, but rather occurred across several locations simultaneously.

See more of this amazing discovery at phys.org.

(Image Credit: G. Duru/ phys.org)


Woman Throws Coins at Plane’s Engine For Safe Trip, Gets Arrested

Looks like this woman brought misfortune — instead of good fortune — to the other passengers of Tianjin Airlines.

A 66-year old woman surnamed Wang got arrested after throwing 6 pieces of coins at the plane’s engine to pray for a safe trip. The old woman was then placed under administrative detention for 10 days. The flight was delayed for two hours, but it managed to take off, and the passengers reached their destination safely. Well, at least her prayer worked.

From Shanghai.ist :

Fortunately, the coins were noticed by a worker. When an announcement was made for the thrower of the coins to step forward, Wang remained seated. However, she was revealed as the culprit by surveillance footage.
This is now at least the seventh time that this kind of thing has happened in China in the past two years. Somehow, it’s only becoming more and more frequent.

I just hope people would trust airplanes more.

(Image Credit: Shanghai.ist)


‘Bambi’s Mom’ Offered as Course at Australian Restaurant

Drawing from one of the saddest Disney moments, you’ll surely shed tears when eating “Bambi’s Mom” at this Disney-themed restaurant named Nel. The restaurant is run by Australian Chef Nelly Robinson. The dish is “venison slow cooked and served over a beetroot sauce with two [shotgun] shell casings of a special seasoning spice.” Just seeing the meal would give you a blast from the past, and eating it would be a tearful experience.

The 11-course meal is one that is quite interesting and a bit off the wall with its names and items, but the restaurant is well known for such dishes. “Once Upon A Time” is a limited time engagement which is available now but only through June 29, as per Inside The Magic.

See the whole course menu at the Inquisitr.

(Image Credit: Inside the Magic)


In History: Gold Rush Turned Egg Rush

Two years after the discovery of gold deposits in Sutter’s Mill on the year 1848 in California, the population drastically increased from 800 to 20,000. The discovery of prompted one of the largest mass migrations that happened in the history of America.

From Smithsonian:

The feverish growth strained the area’s modest agriculture industry. Farmers struggled to keep up with the influx of hungry forty-niners and food prices skyrocketed. “It was a protein hungry town, but there was nothing to eat,” says Eva Chrysanthe, author of Garibaldi and the Farallon Egg War. “They didn’t have the infrastructure to feed all the hungry male workers.”
Chicken eggs were particularly scarce and cost up to $1.00 apiece, the equivalent of $30 today. “When San Francisco first became a city, its constant cry was for eggs,” a journalist recalled in 1881. The situation became so dire that grocery stores started placing “egg wanted” advertisements in newspapers. An 1857 advertisement in The Sonoma County Journal read: “Wanted. Butter and Eggs for which the highest price will be paid.”
The scramble for eggs drew entrepreneurs to an unusual source: a 211-acre archipelago 26 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge known as the Farallon Islands. The skeletal string of islets are outcroppings of the continental shelf, made up of ancient, weather-worn granite. “They are a very dramatic place,” says Mary Jane Schramm of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. “They look…like a piece of the moon that fell into the sea.”

I guess you could say that this became a “goldEGG opportunity” for the businessmen.

(Image Credit: New York Public Library via Wikicommons / Smithsonian)


Aphids Sacrifice Themselves to Protect Their Home

“This is my house. I have to defend it,”, the protagonist of Home Alone named Kevin McCallister said firmly. But in the case of Nipponaphis monzeni (Japanese aphids), they literally sacrifice themselves to protect their home. With the intent to fix the holes on their nest, they suicidally erupt as it plasters its bodily fluids on the holes.

From The Atlantic:

Each of these aphids is a white bead, just half a millimeter across. In large numbers, they can compel Japanese trees to form large, hollow spheres called galls—roomy mansions in which hundreds or thousands of them can live. Like ants, bees, and termites, aphids divide their labor: Adults reproduce, while immature nymphs act as both workers and soldiers. If moth caterpillars tunnel their way into the galls, the nymphs stab these intruders to death, using the sharp mouthparts that they normally use to suck sap from trees. That deals with the caterpillar, but what about the huge hole that it leaves in the gall?
The aphid’s solution, discovered in 2003, is dramatic. Dozens or hundreds of the young soldiers will gather around a hole and discharge fluid from a pair of tubes on their backsides. This isn’t a gentle leak but a violent eruption, which drains the nymphs so thoroughly that they shrivel down to just a third of their initial volume. As they dry and die, they also use their legs to mix the fluids over the holes. These harden within an hour, sealing the gap and sometimes entombing the suicide plasterers.

How far would you go to protect your home?

(Image Credit: Mayako Kutsukake / The Atlantic)


Researchers Debunk Sleep Myths

How many hours of sleep do you think adults should have? Four, five, or, seven?

Researchers at NYU (New York University) Langone Health’s School of Medicine conducted a study that was published last Tuesday, with Rebecca Robbins being the lead investigator. She states that there is a link between a person’s waking success and good sleep. But oftentimes, they find themselves debunking sleep myths whether to their families and friends.

From CNN:

Robbins and her colleagues combed through 8,000 websites to discover what we thought we knew about healthy sleep habits and then presented those beliefs to a hand-picked team of sleep medicine experts. They determined which were myths and then ranked them by degree of falsehood and importance to health.

Head over to the article to see the top 10 unhealthy assumptions we make about sleep. And please don’t doze off while reading the article. It is important.

(Image Credit: Yoshikazu TAKADA / Wikimedia)


In Colorado: “Buy Your Own Vote” Method Proposed

A new voting method was proposed in Colorado: quadratic voting. This was the result of some concept work by Microsoft Research economist Glen Weyl. The rules are simple. The number of votes is multiplied by itself. Think of it as X squared. 

1 vote? $1.00. 

2 votes? $4.00 

5 votes? $25.00.

From Wired

“Fundamentally, quadratic voting addresses the problem of the tyranny of the majority, a standard criticism of democracy,” Weyl says. “Standard rules are based on the notion that everybody is exactly the same and cares the same amount. If you doubt that’s a problem, think about the plight of African Americans in the United States, or the drug war, which dramatically affects certain groups of people.” But with quadratic voting, you can vote harder on what’s closer to home. And when the vote is over, all the money in the pot gets distributed to each voter equally, which is supposed to sort of re-grade the playing field for next time.
Like a lot of other similarly intricate ideas, quadratic voting sets out to solve a fundamental problem in the field of “social choice,” which is to say, how groups of people choose what they want. It may seem like the purest solution is one-person-one-vote, sometimes delightfully abbreviated as “1p1v.” But it doesn’t work as well as it should. Like, a “plurality election” is where the candidate with the most votes wins, but when you have multiple candidates, it’s possible for someone to get a small number of votes but still win if his or her total was higher than the next candidate down. (That happens in a crowded presidential primary.) The American Electoral College system allocates points on a state-by-state, winner take all basis, which means someone can lose the 1p1v “popular” vote by quite a lot and still win. (Hello, Mr. President.) And in the US, slightly more than half of voters, or half of congress, can enforce their will over the other less-than-half—even if the numbers are really close or the will is really disproportionate.

What could be the reason for this kind of voting system to be proposed? Find out on Wired.

(Image Credit: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos / Wikimedia)


Don’t Be Silent When This Woman Asks You If She’s Pretty

What do you think? Is this woman pretty? You might want to think what your answer will be… or you might get assaulted.

Lizeth Guadalupe Ramirez, a 20-year old woman in Texas, allegedly attacked her husband after asking him if she was pretty and receiving only silence from him. Apparently, the husband did not hear the question as they were inside the theater. This greatly made Ramirez upset, and she urged the both of them to leave the theater.

From Fox:

During their ride home, Ramirez's husband claimed she allegedly hit him repeatedly. At their home, she allegedly continued to hit him and even assaulted a family member who tried to intervene, according to the news outlet.

(Image Credit: Webb County Sheriff’s Office)


Hong Kong Man Decides to Live On Streets

“The homeless have their own way of living too. We can have a very decent life,” says Simon Lee, a 52-year old man who decided to leave his middle-class status to live happily on the streets. Despite having a degree in chemistry and having a stable job, he decided to leave this all behind to pursue a liberating life.

From South China Morning Post:

“In the many years since I’ve been homeless, I’ve never met any other person who was homeless by choice. I’m a bit of an oddball,” the eloquent and soft-spoken Lee says.
Lee lived on social aid back in Hong Kong, including Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, and slept in a public shelter for five months.
But he did not like his surroundings as other residents often fought with one another.
He therefore decided to try and emulate his vagrant Macau lifestyle by sleeping in Victoria Park.
“To me, it’s liberating. I don’t pay rent, I don’t have to buy a house, I can sleep anywhere. Street sleeping solved a lot of my problems,” he says.

(Image Credit: Mantai Chow)


‘Human Centrifuge’ : A Device That Hopes to Maintain Muscle Quality

This research aims to help patients who have lower back pain. Aside from this earthly benefits, it could also help benefit astronauts who undergo muscle loss when in space. It is difficult to retain muscle mass and bone density in space.

From Science Minister Chris Skidmore (via gov.uk):

“By learning about how to tackle muscle wasting in astronauts who experience zero gravity in space, this pioneering research hopes to lessen the impact on future spaceflights, something which will be particularly important if we ever send humans on the long journey to Mars.
“It has benefits on Earth too, helping the thousands of patients who develop muscle weakness from lengthy stays in a hospital bed.”

The project is also supported by various aerospace institutions such as the European Space Station (ESA), NASA, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

(Image Credit: DLR)


Speedgate: An AI-invented Sport?

AKQA, a company who provides digital services and products, claims that they used an AI to create a new sport. This sport is named “Speedgate” — a sport that “pulls the best of rugby, soccer, ultimate frisbee and croquet.”

From Anthony Ha of TechCrunch:

… Creative Director Whitney Jenkins explained that the digital agency wanted to do something “really ambitious” for Design Week Portland, and given the team’s work with Nike (and its general “love of sports or athleticism”), it made sense to ask: “What if we invented the next basketball, the next football?”
To do that, AKQA says it used an existing recurrent neural network architecture, feeding it data about 400 sports, which were then used to generate sports concepts and rules.
Many of those ideas, Jenkins said, were simply not feasible. The AI was good at coming up with descriptions for sports like “underwater parkour,” an exploding Frisbee game and one where players pass a ball back-and-forth while in hot air balloons and on a tightrope. But it took a back-and-forth process with the human team at AKQA to narrow the list down to the final three for playtesting, and then to refine the rules into something people might actually want to play.

How did the AI manage to create rules and even make a logo? Find out at TechCrunch.

(Image Credit: AKQA / TechCrunch)


Tel Aviv University Team Successfully Makes 3D Printed Heart

I guess you could say that this heart… beats in a 3-dimensional manner.

The Israeli researchers from Tel Aviv University successfully 3D printed a heart. This gives us hope that in the future we can use these to patch hearts suffering from disease. It is also possible that we can use them for transplants.

This heart took about 3 hours to print. Unfortunately, this heart is too small for humans. Approximately 2.5 cm, it is similar to the size of a rabbit’s. The heart was made from a patient’s biological materials.

From Bloomberg:

“It’s completely biocompatible and matches the patient,” reducing the chances of rejection inside the body, said Tal Dvir, the professor who directed the project.
Researchers took fatty tissue from a patient, then separated it into cellular and non-cellular components. The cells were then “reprogrammed” to become stem cells, which turned into heart cells. The non-cellular materials were turned into a gel that served as the bio-ink for printing, Dvir explained.
Previously, only simple tissues -- without the blood vessels they need to live and function -- had been printed, according to a press release from the university. The breakthrough was reported Monday in a paper in Advanced Science.

(Image: Advanced Science/2019)


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