No more anonymous 'defriending': New Facebook feature will allow users to know who doesn't like them...

So, you don't wanna be my friend any more? Sob, sob, boo hoo. It seems Facebook has been busy lately and, just as in recent updates, it has managed to upset its fanbase again.

With a slew of cosmetic changes and tweaks, Facebook users could be forgiven for getting a little frustrated over the last few days. But the social network's new Timeline feature looks set to really enrage users after it emerged the ability to anonymously 'defriend' people will become a thing of the past. Using the new feature, which is set to be rolled out in the near future, users will be able to see all their entire Facebook history - including their shifting friends lists.

Is it just me or are other people wondering what road Faceboook has decided to walk down lately because the company really has put its size nine foot in it a lot recently. 

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2041574/Facebook-No-anonymous-defriending-New-Timeline-feature-leave-users-hopping-mad.html?ITO=1490

Bust a move: Breast-slapping new health craze in Thailand

Just when you think you've heard it all, along comes something so weird you have to do a double take in order to make sure you really are hearing what's being told to you.  

 
Already famous for its medical tourism services - including cheap breast implants - Thailand is promoting a “body slapping” technique that it claims can boost breast size, according to a video by the Bangkok Post. It has even licensed one beauty shop in Bangkok to perform the non-surgical treatment, which involves kneading, massaging and hitting of the breasts, as well as buttock-slapping to firm the rear.

The traditional therapy has been practised by shop owner Khemmikka Na Songkhla – better known as Khunying Tobnom - for more than two decades. She claims the slapping shifts fat from one area to another, while kneading works excess fat towards the breasts.

She has approval from the Thai Government to carry out the technique after a study by the Thai Health Ministry reportedly found vigorous massage left volunteers’ breasts noticeably bigger. The Ministry went so far as to sponsor a program that urged women to learn how to slap their own breasts.

Clients can expect to gain about 5cm after the painful treatment, Tobnom said. However some are turned away as their breasts are too small.The clinic charges $380 for six 10-minute slapping sessions.

Breast-slapping is far from the quirkiest beauty treatment you can find around the world. In Northern Israel snakes are used to massage clients – and of course there’s always the fish pedicure, where fish nibble away the dead skin on your feet.

So, now you know where to go if you need your breasts slapped! 

Full Story/Video: http://www.news.com....0-1226142670231

Light shed on bisexual and promiscuous deep-sea squid

 A lot of weird stuff happens when nobody is looking and that includes under the ocean. Now, recent underwater camera footage has revealed that the deep-sea squid is both promiscuous and bisexual. Scientists have gained a rare glimpse into the sex life of the mysterious deep-sea squid after analysing footage taken by underwater vehicles, US researchers have found that this rarely seen creature will often engage in same-sex mating.

 

They believe this is because encounters with potential mates in the dark depths are rare, and the squid may be unable to tell the sexes apart. The study is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. The researchers looked at video footage taken over 20 years by Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), most of which was recorded in the Monterey Submarine Canyon, off the coast of California.

The species that was observed is called Octopoteuthis deletron, a tentacled beast that measures about 12cm-long (5in), with impressive hook-lined arms. It was recorded between depths of 400m and 800m (1,300-2,600ft). Until now, little was known about this creature's sex life, apart from the fact that the male uses a long, penis-like organ to deposit spermatophores, complex structures containing millions of sperm, onto a female, which are then absorbed into her tissue.

But by studying footage of this deep-sea squid, they were able to find out much more. For example, they will indiscriminately inseminate other squid. Lead author Hendrik Hoving, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), explained: "We did not observe two animals mating, but we found evidence of mating - sperm packages on males and females.Going through hours of video, we found that both males and females carry sperm packages."

The sperm packages can be seen as white dots on the the dorsal arms of this female

"As the locations of sperm packages were similar in both sexes, we concluded that males mate with males and females."

The finding surprised the team, said Dr Hoving. The researchers found equal numbers of female and male squid that had had sperm packages deposited on them, indicating that same-sex mating was as frequent as encounters between squid of the opposite sex. The number of sperm packages that had been deposited also suggested that these animals were promiscuous, the researchers said. This unusual behaviour, they said, may be explained by the fact the squid is boosting its chances of success

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14986769

The gender-free British passport: UK travellers may no longer have to declare their sex, to spare feelings of 'transgender people'

Talk about pandering to a small minority. In a move reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s where positive discrimination was rife and pretty much the order of the day, we are now told that we have to spare a thought for our gender challenged friends who have an existential gender crisis every time they have to go through an airport.

Apparently, Britain is preparing to rip up centuries-old rules by introducing passports which do not contain details of the holder’s sex.The move, following pressure from the Lib Dems, is designed to spare transgender people and those who have both male and female sexual organs from having to tick ‘male’ or ‘female’ on their travel papers. Currently, everybody must identify themselves as a man or woman, even when they are undergoing a sex-change operation or if they are considered ‘intersex’.

Personally, I don't see why perfectly sensible rules need to be abandoned  simply to spare the blushes of a very small section of society. What next? Tell boy scouts and Brownies that they are to be hencefoth called "Outdoor Persons" simply to spare the ones who may have already decided they prefer the company of their own sex?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038965/British-passports-gender-free-spare-feelings-transgender-people.html#ixzz1YO8xcemB

Florida funeral home brings in 'liquefaction' machine which turns dead bodies into 'brown syrup'

It seems that technology can boldly go where it never has been before. I refer of course to the new machine that can literally liquify you after death thereby avoiding all those messy visits to the mortician to have granny glammed up for burial!

Apparently, a Florida funeral home has introduced an eerie alternative to burial or cremation - body liquefaction. The stainless steel machine can dissolve a corpse in just under three hours, and the 'brownish, syrupy' liquid is then pumped into the municipal water system. The bones remaining can be ground down and returned to the family, rather like ashes from a cremation.

Now that's what I call a nice, clean way of disposing of the dead. It's efficiency at its best! 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039016/Resomation-Florida-funeral-home-brings-body-liquefaction-machine.html?ITO=1490

School success can be predicted just FIVE minutes after a child is born, scientists claim

That nature versus nurture argument just won't ever go away. The latest is a health test given to babies minutes after they are born which,  it has been claimed, could reveal how well they will do in secondary school. 

A study of 877,000 Swedish teenagers compared school exam results with their Apgar scores after birth. The Apgar is a test which rates the newborn's health on a scale of one to ten and how much medical attention the child needs.

Researchers found a link between an Apgar score of below seven and lower intelligence in later life. It is thought that looking more closely at early problems could help address a child's needs as they grow up. Dr. Andrea Stuart, an obstetrician at Central Hospital in Helsingborg, Sweden, told Msnbc: 'It is not the Apgar score in itself that leads to lower cognitive abilities.

'It is the reasons leading to a low Apgar score (including asphyxiation, preterm delivery, maternal drug use, infections) that might have an impact on future brain function.' The study appears in next month's issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

 

WHAT IS THE APGAR TEST?

The Apgar test is given between one and five minutes after birth. It evaluates an infant's heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, skin colour and reflex irritability (sneezing or coughing) on a scale of one to ten. Scores of eight and above are considered to be signs of good health. The test was developed by Dr Virginia Apgar in 1952 and has been a simple and effective way of testing a baby's health since. Researchers also made the point that only one in 44 newborns with a low Apgar score went on to need special education, so mothers of babies who had low scores did not have cause for concern.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2017387/School-success-predicted-just-FIVE-minutes-child-born-scientists-claim.html#ixzz1Y6iRrDqp

Eyelid marks warn of heart attack

It's amazing what science throws up every now and then. The latest is that yellow markings on the eyelids are a sign of increased risk of heart attack and other illnesses, say researchers in Denmark.

A study published on the BMJ website showed patients with xanthelasmata were 48% more likely to have a heart attack. Xanthelasmata, which are mostly made up of cholesterol, could be a sign of other fatty build-ups in the body.

Cardiologists said the findings could be used by doctors to help diagnose at-risk patients.
The research team at the Herlev Hospital in Denmark started following 12,745 people in the 1970s. At the start of the study, 4.4% of patients had xanthelasmata.

Thirty three years later, 1,872 had had a heart attack, 3,699 had developed heart disease and 8,507 had died - and the data showed that those with the yellow markings around the eyes were at greatest risk. Those with the markings were 48% more likely to have a heart attack, 39% more likely to have developed heart disease and 14% more likely to have died during the study.

The authors believe patients with xanthelasmata may be more likely to deposit cholesterol around the body. A build up of fatty material in the walls of arteries - known as atherosclerosis - leads to stroke and heart attack.

Now you know!

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14928217