January 2012
36 posts
2 tags
UberFacts is leaving Tumblr!
Dear Followers,
Tumblr has been very good to UberFacts for the past year! Unfortunately, UberFacts has gained such a large audience and needs to expand. So, we have moved to a new platform! All of our old articles will still be up here, but you might be temporarily redirected to our new (and still very much under construction) website.
Thank you all so much for the support! Stay Uber!
...
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People who eat sweets are sweeter
Sweets, such as candy and chocolate, are known to lift children’s spirits, but new research from Gettysburg College, North Dakota State University (NDSU), Fargo and Saint Xavier University reveals that eating these treats can improve people’s dispositions as well. During this multi-part study, which appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers...
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Sitting for too long can kill you
Sitting in your desk chair or sitting while watching TV could be killing you. The good news is there are simple steps you can take to get moving.
According to the Physical Living website the average person sits for 9.3 hours a day.
A person who sits to watch to TV for three hours a day is 64 percent more likely to die from heart disease than a person who doesn’t.
The risk of heart...
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Video games can boost self esteem, reduce stress...
Video games improve self esteem.
It always feels good to crush your opponent in Madden, which naturally makes you feel better about yourself. But did you know there have been games designed for the specific purpose of improving your self esteem? McGill University researchers focused on encouraging positive thoughts and positive attitudes in an effort to remove negative thought patterns. Of...
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Scientists have created porn for pandas in an...
Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big-screen television watching panda porn.
Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand hope the images will encourage him to mate with his partner, Lin Hui, and serve as an instructional lesson in how to do it right.
So far, it’s been a tough sell, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, said Tuesday.
...
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Sitting close to the TV will not hurt your eyes
Sitting too close to the TV will not damage your vision, contrary to popular belief.
So why do parents the world over still say this to their kids? Surprisingly, there was actually a very brief period of time where sitting close to the TV could damage your eyes, assuming you owned a General Electric TV in the 1960s. Specifically, in 1967, General Electric informed the public that many of...
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Drinking alcohol helps certain areas of our brain...
The common view that drinking is bad for learning and memory isn’t wrong, says neurobiologist Hitoshi Morikawa, but it highlights only one side of what ethanol consumption does to the brain.
“Usually, when we talk about learning and memory, we’re talking about conscious memory,” says Morikawa, whose results were published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience....
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Heavy Facebook users are more likely to believe...
New research suggests heavy Facebook users are more likely to believe other people have happier lives.
A newly published study suggests the phenomenally popular social networking site may be skewing the way users perceive their lives. It finds those carefully selected photos of cheerful, contented people cumulatively convey a self-esteem-shattering message: Our lives are fantastic! What’s...
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Men spend more money when they don't have women.
The perception that women are scarce leads men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing, according to new research from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
“What we see in other animals is that when females are scarce, males become more competitive. They compete more for access to mates,” says Vladas Griskevicius, an assistant professor of marketing at...
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Internet addiction causes the same brain changes...
A new brain scan study shows not only can that be the case, but also that Internet addiction might cause the same brain changes that are seen in alcoholics and drug addicts.
For the study, published in the Jan. 11 issue of PLoS One, researchers studied 17 men and women who were diagnosed with Internet addiction disorder (IAD) and compared scans of their brains to scans of 16 healthy people...
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Studies show that gossip can have social and...
For centuries, gossip has been dismissed as salacious, idle chatter that can damage reputations and erode trust. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests rumor-mongering can have positive outcomes such as helping us police bad behavior, prevent exploitation and lower stress.
The study also found that gossip can be therapeutic. Volunteers’ heart rates...
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From the years 2004 to 2011, wearing headphones...
Serious injuries to pedestrians listening to headphones have more than tripled in six years, according to new research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. In many cases, the cars or trains are sounding horns that the pedestrians cannot hear, leading to fatalities in nearly three-quarters of cases.
Researchers...
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The Space Jam website is still up, and hasn't been...
CLICK THE PHOTO TO VISIT THE WEBSITE!
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It's possible to get drunk off of water and it can...
Water intoxication can occur in a variety of different clinical settings but is generally not well recognised in the medical literature. The condition may go unrecognised in the early stages when the patient may have symptoms of confusion, disorientation, nausea, and vomiting, but also changes in mental state and psychotic symptoms. Early detection is crucial to prevent severe...
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A Japanese scientist created a ringtone that makes...
Gone are the days of silicon implantations. Now with the advancement of the technology girls have a better option to enlarge their breasts. Recently Dr Hideto Tomabechi of Japan invented a “rock melon” ring-tone by which women’s breasts will enlarge if they are exposed to that sound. The media reports that the ring tone sounds like a baby crying for a long time.
The advantage of this...
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Listening to music helps boost your immune system
Music, like Jurassic Park’s raptors, doesn’t just attack from one side. It brings out a multi-pronged assault. To start, music reduces stress by reducing cortisol levels, a chemical in your brain that causes you to feel stress in the first place. Jazz, bluegrass and soft rock have been found to be especially effective at reducing stress and increasing health because of their...
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It takes the typical person 17 months and 26 days...
A new study says it takes the typical person 17 months and 26 days to feel ready to move on after a divorce, which got me thinking: How long does it take to get over a regular ol’ breakup (you know, one that doesn’t require lawyers)? The answer, of course, is that there isn’t one right answer. It took years for me to get over my first love, someone I was with only about ten months. On the...
#UberFactsHighlight: Hate heavy backpacks? Get a... →
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Men have clitorises.
Depending on whether an embryo has a Y sex chromosome or two X’s, during week seven it starts developing into a boy or a girl. That little mound of tissue (the genital tubercle) either opens to form two sets of labia and a clitoris, or it closes to make a penis and testicles. When viewed this way, the similarities between guys’ and dolls’ private parts is obvious and has drawn comments...
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Dancing Makes You Smarter
For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. More recently we’ve seen research on further health benefits of dancing, such as stress reduction and increased serotonin level, with its sense of well-being. Then most recently we’ve heard of another benefit: Frequent dancing apparently makes us...
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Eating spicy foods can help prevent diseases
Spicy foods add an incredible amount of flavour to food. As ethnic foods become abundant, chilli and spicy food is increasingly popular. The good news is that adding spice to our food has a range of benefits for our health and wellbeing. Chillies have long been used in traditional medicine, probably first by the Aztecs. In Russia, a drink called Nastoyka (made from chillies soaked in vodka)...
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A guilty conscience can damage your immune system
Everyone knows that telling lies can get you into trouble. Most of us learned that as a kid. When Mom or Dad found out it was you, not the dog, who ate the last piece of chocolate cake, you were in for it. But what if you got away with it? Chances are, if you did get away with it, you tried it again and if it continued to work for you, lying became a useful tool in life. The thing is, sooner or...
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Psychologists have found that the more Facebook...
12% of participants in an online survey conducted by scientists at the Napier university in Edinburgh said that Facebook made them feel anxious. A third (32%) said they experienced feelings of guilt and discomfort when they declined a friend request.
Dr Kathy Charles, lecturer in forensic psychology who conducted of the study said that “the results threw up a number of paradoxes.
“For...
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Research shows the lower a man's voice, the lower...
According to an article on the Scientific American blog, a lower pitched voice is normally associated with a more masculine, taller and attractive man. Research has shown that women in North America prefer deeper-voiced men as short term partners, and research on the Hazda people of Tanzania has shown that men with lower timbre and pitched vocals have more living offspring. However, that...
#UberFacts Highlight: The MOST hilarious pickup... →
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Researchers recently discovered that many men...
Stomach cramps, mood swings and hot flushes. Yes, it’s that time of the month again.
But these are symptoms reported by men, not women. New research suggests men suffer from pre-menstrual-style symptoms, in some cases as badly as women.
The news is bound to be greeted with snorts of cynicism by most females.
But the study published today shows that the majority of men claim to ...
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You are 8 times more likely to get killed walking...
CLICK HERE TO HEAR AUDIO
Jeremy Hobson: It’s Freakonomics time. Every two weeks we explore the hidden side of everything. Today, why the first decision you make in 2012 is riskier than you think. Here’s Stephen Dubner.
Stephen Dubner: Happy New Year, everybody! Now, how are you getting home from that party? If you’re in New York City, where I live, good luck getting a...
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What doesn't kill you, just makes you weaker.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, famously said: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” This notion found life beyond Nietzsche’s—which is ironic, his having been rather short and miserable—and it continues to resonate within American culture.
One reason is that suffering, as Freud famously recognized, is an inevitable part of life. Thus we...
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There is a vaginal scented perfume.
Vulva Original is the perfume that smells like a vagina (With a name like that, it had better). Is this a good idea? I can’t tell. In theory it could be a good idea, but is it really a good idea? Please weigh in on the comments if you have an opinion about this. Not an opinion of vaginas in general please, but of this particular product.
DALLAS - A new scent claims to accurately capture the...
A goat was once arrested and accused of being a...
(Reuters) - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.
Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.
“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums...
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Apes have the ability to gamble like humans by...
APES are capable of gambling in a similar way to humans, a study claims.
Research indicates that the animals are also able to calculate the odds before taking risks.
Experts observed apes as they gambled using upturned cups concealing pieces of chopped banana.
Given the choice of a safe bet of a small piece of banana or a larger chunk of fruit hidden beneath one of a selection of...
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Humble people are more helpful
Some personality types are more generous than others, with humble people more willing to lend a helping hand than their arrogant counterparts, new research suggests.
Humble people may be more down to earth than arrogant people, but that doesn’t mean they think poorly of themselves. “In fact, rather than being insecure or reserved, humble people seem to be characterized by an ...
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When you chew and talk, it cleans your ears.
Various ear drops can soften earwax and make it easier to remove. Yet home remedies like warmed olive oil could also work just as well or almost just as well.
Earwax is important to the self-cleaning of the external auditory canal (outer ear canal). The external auditory canal is located between the auricle and the eardrum of the human ear. You can find more information about the structure...
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Oral Sex can help lower blood pressure
A recent study found that women who gave their men oral sex, and swallowed, had a lower risk of preeclampsia, the dangerously high blood pressure that sometimes accompanies pregnancy.
“The present study shows that oral sex and swallowing sperm is correlated with a diminished occurrence of preeclampsia,” said the Dutch authors.
See? It’s good for you.
There have been other studies...
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Doctors are using Viagra to treat seriously ill...
Doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital have found a whole new use for the popular erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. Sildenafil, as it is called by its more anonymous chemical name, may have the power to save babies.
Chronic pulmonary hypertension is virtually a death sentence in newborn babies. It can begin with a heart defect, or for reasons that are not well explained; but when the...
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Couples bicker an average of 2,455 times a year
Couples bicker an average of 2,455 times a year, it has been revealed.
Money issues, laziness and not listening are among the top gripes for couples, say researchers. Snoring, driving too fast and what to have for dinner are also common sources of tension, a survey of 3,000 people found. It concluded that couples row as often as seven times a day.
A couple’s sex life causes problems for...
December 2011
125 posts
7 tags
Research shows humans are not naturally...
Do you think humans are made for monogamy?
Well, they may try to stay monogamous, but their genetic background says otherwise.
A recent study in sexual adaptation reveals that male sexual behavior is built for “sperm competition”, something not found in the strictly monogamous species.
The review points out the fact that physical and behavioral sexual traits displayed by...
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Facebook can help improve your IQ while Twitter is...
According to an article by Stan Schroeder in Mashable Dr Tracy Alloway from the University of Stirling in Scotland says:
“Twitter and Facebook are very different beasts when it comes to improve your “working memory“, which relates to “the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information in short-term memory.”
“Dr. Alloway has developed a working memory...
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Stupidity really is contagious.
Writing in Media Psychology, Markus Appel discusses a study where 63 Austrian college students who read a short about someone stupid then did worse on a test than a control group - they became more stupid - but the effect did not occur when the readers had to outline how they differed from the stupid character. The stupid character was in “Slow on the Uptake,” about a hooligan...
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If you are on Twitter, you have the chance to win...
The FIVE biggest ReTweeters of #UberFacts by the end of 2011, will win a FREE #UberFacts t-shirt! Complete with Logo, a fact and the classic #UberFacts hashtag! The competition starts now! Good luck =)
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Animals can rain from the sky!
Amazing science fact: raining animals is a relatively common meteorological phenomenon, with occurrences reported from many countries throughout history.
The animals most likely to drop from the sky in a rainfall are fish and frogs, with birds coming third. Sometimes the animals survive the fall, especially fish, suggesting a small time gap between the extraction and the actual drop. Several...
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Santa only visits the kids on the nice list. He...
This demon is called the Krampus, and he haunts the Christmases of children in Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy. According to the legend, the Krampus would originally ride with St. Nick on his worldwide gift-giving tour. Santa would give children presents…and the Krampus would beat them. Over the last 200 years, however, the Krampus has developed his own ...
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You can make diamonds out of tequila!
Tequila may be just another drink to those out in the town, but to a team of scientists in Mexico their country’s native alcohol turned out to be a gem; a diamond, to be precise. Javier Morales, Luis Apátiga and Victor Castaño at the National Autonomous University of Mexico made the alchemist-worthy discovery while experimenting turning various organic solutions, such as acetone and...
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The longer a man's ring finger is, the longer his...
The longer a man’s ring finger when compared with his index finger, the longer the length of his penis, according to Korean researchers.
The research team, led by urologist Dr. Tae Beom Kim from Gachon University in Incheon, Korea, measured the fingers and penises — both stretched-out and flaccid — of 144 men who were anesthetized before undergoing urological surgery.
...
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Not wearing a sports bra while exercising can...
70 women were recruited including students at University of Portsmouth with bra sizes ranging from A-cup to extra-large (DD, E, FF, G, H, HH, J and JJ). Each woman walked, jogged and ran while wearing different bra types. During the exercise, biomechanical measurements were taken of breast movement in three directions: up-and-down, side-to-side and in-and-out. During walking exercise, the...
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A small daily dose of marijuana can actually...
That’s right, studies are just now beginning to show that a small daily dosage of the ganja can actually prevent Alzheimer’s. Never mind that the stuff is known to cause memory loss (short term, anyway)—this study is shattering your entire belief system. And also giving you even more excuses to give your parents when you get caught.
In an initial study, half a group of rats were...
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Some scientists believe it may be possible to read...
Some scientists believe it may be possible to read peoples’ minds based on the patterns of the neurons in their brains. As current studies are showing, a participant navigating around a virtual environment records a certain pattern of neurons that indicate to scientists exactly where the participant is located in the virtual world. The idea for current studies is that this basic...
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A chimp was successfully and scientifically raised...
The woman volunteer thought Nim was coming to hug her, but instead the young chimp lunged, biting so deep into her cheek that his fangs pierced her mouth.
As she clutched her bleeding face, the little ape was beside himself, using the same piece of sign language again and again to attract her attention. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ he repeated.
This haunting recollection is one of many...
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You can give yourself hallucinations using two...
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The world’s strongest vagina can lift 33 pounds...
42 year old Tatiana Kozhevnikova from Russia has set a new world record for lifting weights inside her vagina.
Kozhevnikova already holds the title of World’s Strongest Vagina in the Guinness Book of World Records but she has beaten her previous record by lifting a 14 kilo glass ball with her lady parts. Kozhevnikova told L!fe that she had been training her vaginal muscles for 15 years to...