6. Interesting Reads
“Last week, a key event occurred in the history of personal computing. It marks the beginning of the death of the operating system that we recognize today as Microsoft Windows. This euthanizing of Windows has been planned for at least five years, and Microsoft knows that it is necessary for the company’s software business and for the PC industry to evolve and stay healthy. In order for the Windows brand and Microsoft’s software business to live, Windows — as it exists today — must die.”
(ZDNet)
“Despite conventional wisdom that suggests women are better than men at facial recognition, Penn State psychologists found no difference between men and women in their ability to recognize faces and categorize facial expressions. In the study, the researchers used behavioral tests, as well as neuroimaging, to investigate whether there is an influence of biological sex on facial recognition, according to Suzy Scherf, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience.”
“If you can’t afford a Tesla in your garage, you could still put Tesla on your roof. Orders open today for Tesla’s Solar Roof, the company’s founder and CEO Elon Musk has announced. The tiles will collect energy from the sun to power your home. Orders will open first for the black glass style, with a choice of smooth or textured surfaces. Tesla’s Tuscan and French Slate options will follow in about six months. Musk had previously said that orders would begin in April. In replies to today’s announcement on Twitter, Musk said that delivery and installation would begin to other countries next year, including the UK and Australia.”
(CNET)
“A new, nonsurgical weight-loss procedure — which involves inserting a tube down a patient’s throat and suturing the stomach — is safe and effective, a new study finds. During the procedure, which is called endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, doctors insert a long tube down a patient’s esophagus to the stomach. Then, they sew “pleats” into the stomach, which makes it resemble an accordion. The procedure reduces the volume of the stomach, so that patients feel fuller faster and therefore eat less, said lead study author Dr. Reem Sharaiha, an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.”
(Fox News)
“Taking even over-the-counter doses of common painkillers known as NSAIDs — nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs — has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack in a new study. The likelihood of experiencing a heart attack was calculated to increase by an average of 20% to 50%, compared with someone not taking the drugs, regardless of the dosage and amount of time the medications are taken. The findings are observational and based on an association, however, with the drugs not proved to be a direct cause of heart attack.”
(CNN)
“A new day, and a new set of iPhone 8 renders are here to gawk at. This time around it’s not a concept that a designer created based on rumors. Instead, we’re looking at high-quality 3D renders that were created using leaked factory CAD images of the OLED iPhone. We’re looking at an iPhone 8 concept that bears all the markings we’ve come to expect from Apple’s special edition iPhone. The phone has an almost zero-bezel display design, with glass covering both its front and rear. In the middle, there’s a metal frame supposedly made of stainless steel, curved in an Apple Watch-like fashion.”
(BGR.com)
“There’s a reason why booze, medicine and marijuana aren’t in vending machines in the US. Besides the whole matter of age authentication, there’s also the need to make sure people aren’t getting too much of it. That’s why a responsible bartender would cut off bumbling drunks, and why most pharmacies limit cough syrup sales to make sure people aren’t abusing them. American Green Machine is trying to create a smart vending machine that can get around the need for human scrutiny. It works by using a biometric sensor that can identify unique veins within the finger to verify that a person has an account set up with the company.”
(CNET)
“We all probably dream about having a job that brings a lot of money, and that is one of the first things on our minds after a job interview or after we get an opportunity to start working. Some of the people will refuse the job if they are not satisfied with the salary, while some other will be forced to accept anything if they are desperately searching for something to do. However, the biggest mistake is constantly searching for an ideal job that pays well, while forgetting to work on ourselves, improve our skill or learn something new. I don’t think that simply having a degree will bring you the best job in the world, but if you learn an additional language, attend various courses and expand your knowledge on certain topics, this will make you an ideal employee that anyone would hire.”
“You may be about to have a date with the most handsome guy you have ever seen and you are wondering what the best drinks to order at a bar for a woman. Or perhaps you are meeting your friends somewhere cool and who knows you may run into your future Love – so you really need to be elegant, sexy and attractive. That’s all right – you intend to put on your favorite charming clothes, have a decent make-up and dive into a pleasant night – but what should you order when you are there? Now we would like to give some easy tips what to drink at a bar even if you are just hanging around with your old friends from the university!”
“It is always good to have a preventive first aid kit when going hiking or spending time in nature or countryside, and here we present the 10 best snake bite antivenom kits on Amazon and Walmart. Snake bites do not always involve envenomation, and those are so-called “dry bites”. But, in a lot of cases snakes do inflict a certain amount of venom when biting. According to the World Health Organization, there are around 5 million snake bites annually, half of those being envenomings. Of those, there are around 100,000 deaths occurring and around 300,000 amputations needed to be done. Of that figure, most envenomations happen in Africa (around 1 million), and most deaths occur in India (around 11,000).”
