Day: 08/04/2015

10 Actors Who Are Also Basically Stuntmen

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Many actors star in action films, but not all of them are willing to do their own stunts. That’s fair since most studios would be nervous to have the face of their movie get hurt on set. But these 10 actors are pretty brave and are basically stuntmen themselves.

1. Tom Cruise

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The action star is known for taking on his own stunts, and his latest one was hanging on the outside of the plane for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. 

2. Daniel Craig

The latest Bond did most of his stunts himself including jumping onto a moving bus for Quantum of Solace. This was particularly hard for the actor since he has a fear of heights.

3. Jackie Chan

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The actor got his start doing stunts in Bruce Lee movies, so it’s a given that he would branch out and do his own stunts in the future. “I am still doing stupid things, hurting myself, jumping on buildings,” the actor told Sky News but this might not be the case for long. “I do have a lot of pressure, the audience never think I am getting old, they think ‘Jackie, yes, he can do anything’. I’m not Superman, I’m getting old, I’m 60.”

4. Christian Bale

For Batman, the leading man did all of the fight sequences himself, which includes the ones that involve martial arts.

5. Harrison Ford

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The leading man did have a few stunt men to help him out, but he tends to do majority of his stunts himself. J.J.Abrams recently talked about how the actor did a stunt for the upcoming Star Wars film when his foot got stuck under a hydraulic door, according toJohnny Etc.. So he’s is still at it!

6. Harold Lloyd

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The writer and actor brought life to his silent movies by doing many stunts himself. For his film, Haunted Spooks he had to handle a prop bomb that was fully functional and exploded. He lost his index finger and thumb due to the accident.

7. Bruce Lee

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The legend started off as a teacher of martial arts and owned multiple studios so it’s no surprise that he performed his own stunts in his movies.

8. Chloe Moretz

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Don’t underestimate her! The young actress trained with Jackie Chan’s personal stunt team for three months before shooting Kick-Ass, according to Shape. She then went on to do most of her stunts.

9. Cameron Diaz

These two leads didn’t need any doubles when they shot their motorcycle scene in Knight and Day. The actress agreed to turn around to shoot their chasers in one scene when Cruise proposed it.

10. Jason Statham

Not only has he spoke out condemning “superhero” stars who don’t do their own stunts, but he has almost died doing one himself. For The Expendables Statham was driving a three-ton truck for a scene when the brakes went out and dived into the Black Sea, according to Business Insider. Thanks to his experience of being a professional driver, he knew how to get out safely.

Can We Record Our Dreams?

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There are many studies happening now to test whether or not we can capture the images that run through our heads each night. Are they close?

This week on TestTube Plus, we’re discussing dreams: yesterday talked about seven insane things we’ve gotten from dreams. Today, Trace talks about whether or not it’s possible to record our dreams.

It would be cool if we could record our dreams, but how close are we? Scientists in Kyoto, Japan, recorded brainwaves of dreaming subjects and then woke then up while they were in REM sleep. They asked them to recall their dreams, and tried to match their brainwave patterns with an algorithm that could help predict what they were dreaming moving forward. It’s rudimentary, but it matched 60 percent of the time. UC Berkeley is also doing some fascinating research into this topic as well. Check out this episode to find out more.

TestTube Plus is built for enthusiastic science fans seeking out comprehensive conversations on the geeky topics they love. Each week host Trace Dominguez probes deep to unearth the details, latest developments, and opinions on topics like drugs, space travel, the history of science, viruses, gender, aliens, and many more. TestTube Plus is also available as a podcast–click here to subscribe!

Learn More:

History of Lucid Dreaming: Ancient India to the Enlightenment (Dream Studies)
“Although the scientific community did not recognize lucid dreaming until 1978, the history of this unique dreaming experience reaches back thousands of years, and potentially into the Paleolithic Era. However, the first verifiable documentation of lucid dreaming originated in the East thousands of years ago.”

Lucid dreaming: Evidence that REM sleep can support unimpaired cognitive function and a methodology for studying the psychophysiology of dreaming (lucidity.com)
” Lucid dreaming provides a test case for theories of dreaming. For example, whether or not “loss of self-reflective awareness” is characteristic of dreaming, it is clearly not necessary to dreaming. Theories of dreaming that do not account for lucidity are incomplete, and theories that do not allow for lucidity are incorrect.”`

Summer surge of synthetic marijuana causes overdoses

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Synthetic marijuana is flooding the streets of major U.S. cities this summer, causing a surge in overdoses and, according to some police officials, a rise in violent crime.

The situation has become urgent enough that police chiefs meeting in Washington this week called for development of field tests that can help police quickly figure out suspects on the synthetic marijuana.

Sold in slickly marketed packets with names like K2, Scooby Snax and Spice, the drugs are made up of a variety of chemicals and have little to do with marijuana.

The chemicals found in the packets vary — even identically branded packages often contain vastly different ingredients — and users likely have no idea what they’re smoking.

By early July, poison control centers in the U.S. tallied 4,377 reports of people suffering the effects of synthetic marijuana, compared to 3,682 in all of last year, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

And some users are now finding their way onto the police crime blotters. A survey of 35 major city police departments across the U.S. found that 30% have attributed some violent crimes to synthetic marijuana use.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton called it “weaponized marijuana” and described it as “a great and growing concern.”

“These dangerous products do not belong on store shelves within our neighborhoods and are a threat to public health,” Bratton said in a statement to CNN.

The New York Police Department added that there are more than 100 overdose cases a month at New York’s major trauma center, Bellevue Hospital.

In Washington, the Metropolitan Police Department said a man believed to be suffering the effects of synthetic marijuana carried out gruesome fatal stabbing on a Metro train in full view of subway riders on July 4. Toxicology tests haven’t been made public in the case.

And the city’s EMS Department reports transporting 439 people suffering from suspected synthetic marijuana overdoses in June alone.

Most of the synthetic marijuana comes from factories in China and is imported to the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Administration said.

In the wake of a crackdown in recent years, many convenience stores have pulled the items from their shelves and now users have to know code names to get it from store clerks or they can buy it from street dealers.

Along with hallucinogenic effects, the drugs can produce nausea, agitation, seizures and even suicidal or violent reactions.

The DEA says the drugs fall under a broad label of depressant-hallucinogens that it has had trouble classifying because of the varying types of chemicals manufacturers use.

Homeless populations appear to be bearing the brunt of the overdoses in some cities. This week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington plans to begin some presentations to homeless shelters to warn residents of the dangers of the drugs.

The drugs are illegal, but part of the problem in stopping it is the varying chemicals used to make them.

There has been some criticism that police are looking to blame the synthetic drug for spikes in crime, but Washington’s police chief said this week said it was not the “biggest problem, but it is a significant problem in many different communities.”

“In some cities, synthetic cannabinoids is a huge issue, in other cities its just beginning to grow,” said Washington’s Metro Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Monday. “Its connection to violence, that’s a gap that can be fixed”

Men who have casual sex ‘produce better quality sperm’

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  • Study examined men’s ejaculate after watching sexually explicit films
  • Found ejaculation was faster and sperm quality better when the men watched clips involving a new, different looking woman 
  • Experts warn male infertility could be under-diagnosed because samples used for testing are commonly produced using new female images
  • Suggest sperm tested could therefore be better quality, misleading results

Men who have sex with new partners are more likely to reach orgasm faster and will produce better quality sperm, scientists believe.

A study has shown that sperm health is improved when men have encounters with unfamiliar women.

And researchers at The College of Wooster in Ohio hope their findings will help to improve treatments for fertility

Men who have sex with new partners are more likely to reach orgasm faster and will produce better quality sperm, a new study by scientists at The College of Wooster in Ohio found

Men who have sex with new partners are more likely to reach orgasm faster and will produce better quality sperm, a new study by scientists at The College of Wooster in Ohio found

Quantity, movement and structure all aid sperm health.

Writing in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, researchers said they believe these traits may change for the better, with new sexual partners.

‘Our findings are the first to demonstrate that men’s ejaculate behaviour and composition change in response to novel female stimulus,’ the team led by Paul Joseph said.

 

Here’s An Excuse For Those Who Can’t Stay Faithful. Your Hormones Make You Prone To Cheating

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People with higher levels of the reproductive hormone testosterone, and stress hormone cortisol, are more likely to repeatedly engage in cheating and other unethical behaviour, a new study suggests.

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First, elevated hormone levels predict likelihood of cheating. Then, a change of hormone levels during the act reinforces the behaviour, the study said.

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“Although the science of hormones and behaviour dates back to the early 19th century, only recently has research revealed just how powerful and pervasive the influence of the endocrine system is on human behaviour,” said corresponding author of the study Robert Josephs, professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin.

For the study, the researchers asked 117 participants to complete a math test, grade it themselves and self-report the number of correctly completed problems.

The more problems they got correct, the more money they would earn.

From salivary samples collected before and after the test, the researchers found that individuals with elevated levels of testosterone and cortisol were more likely to overstate the number of correctly solved problems.

via Shutterstock

“Elevated testosterone decreases the fear of punishment while increasing sensitivity to reward. Elevated cortisol is linked to an uncomfortable state of chronic stress that can be extremely debilitating,” Josephs said.
“Testosterone furnishes the courage to cheat, and elevated cortisol provides a reason to cheat,” Josephs explained.

Additionally, participants who cheated showed lowered levels of cortisol and reported reductions in emotional distress after the test, as if cheating provided some sort of stress relief.

“The take-home message from our studies is that appeals based on ethics and morality — the carrot approach — and those based on threats of punishment — the stick approach — may not be effective in preventing cheating,” Josephs said.

“By understanding the underlying causal mechanism of cheating, we might be able to design interventions that are both novel and effective,” Josephs pointed out.

This Kind of Body Fat Burns Calories More Quickly

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The good news is that you can turn your body fat into a super-burner that’s better at melting away calories and lowering blood sugar. But it takes a lot to make the switch

For years researchers have been tantalizing us with news of amysterious type of fat that can burn through calories and keep blood sugar levels in check. Unlike white fat that tends to sit in deposits where we least want them, this other kind of fat—called brown fat—is scant inside the human body. While newborns tend to have more brown fat, the average adult harbors barely two ounces of the stuff.

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As little of it as we have, recent studies have suggested that brown fat can be triggered under the right conditions. And now, in a new paper, scientists report for the first time that it’s possible to turn white fat into brown fat — or at least something that acts like brown fat and burns up more calories.

Researchers had accomplished the feat in animals, but the latest study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, is the first to describe the phenomenon in people. The research was conducted by Ladros Sidossis from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and his colleagues.

While previous studies showed that cold temperatures could activate brown fat in healthy people, none demonstrated that the stress of the frigid exposure could transform white fat into brown fat. Speculating that it would take an extreme and continued stress on the body for that to happen, Sidossis decided to study brown fat stores in burn patients; as director of the metabolism unit at Shriners Hospitals for Children, he knew that burn injuries that cover more than 30% of the body caused the body’s stress response to remain high for weeks.

Indeed, when he compared white fat samples taken from the patients soon after their injury to those of healthy controls, he found markedly higher signs of a revved-up energy process in these cells that showed the white fat was acting more like brown fat. Confirming the finding further, when he compared the burn patients’ white fat cells soon after their injury and then a month later, he found signs that the white fat had reverted back to its original state again as the patients began recovering and their stress response waned.
 Of course, Sidossis is in no way suggesting that burns are a strategy for enhancing brown fat stores. What’s important is the fact that the study showed it’s possible to make white fat burn more calories, something that could be the start of a new way of addressing obesity and diabetes. “The next step is to find the mechanism of how this is happening,” he says. “Then we can find drugs that mimic this effect to turn white fat into a more metabolically active form to help normalize weight and blood sugar.”

Scientists working with animals are already heading down that path; they’ve identified some 40 agents that might be useful in convincing white fat to work more efficiently. Now that there’s evidence that the process does occur in people — albeit under extreme conditions — studying those substances further to see if they can accomplish the same transformation of white fat, without the stress, seems worthwhile.

Painkiller Overdose Deaths Decrease Dramatically In 420-Friendly States .

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According to a report this year from the esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), fatal overdoses caused by prescription painkillers dropped dramatically in states where cannabis is legal for medical and recreational use.

Access to medical cannabis, according to the study, is responsible for an overall 25% drop in fatalities associated with prescription drugs taken for chronic pain.  The study also expects such fatalities to continue to drop as cannabis reform across the country allows more people to legally access the drug for medical purposes.

Study authors in fact believe that people who have chronic pain tend to rely on medical cannabis when they have this option, which also dramatically reduces the risk of addiction and overdose of other used medications.

“We think that people with chronic pain may be choosing to treat their pain with cannabis rather than with prescription painkillers, in states where this is legal,” said lead author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, a researcher with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The impact of this study, particularly for veterans as a result, might be significant in the next few years as some kind of federal reform becomes a more reachable goal. Such far reaching conclusions by respected medical researchers are also likely to play into policy decisions particularly over local bans and higher taxes in many states. With that said, research like the analysis in the JAMA study only adds to the debate about the necessity of access for medical patients to not only relieve their pain, but to shine light on the advantages, both personally and societally, of continuing to supply access to medicinal cannabis.

Climb a tree after yoga for better memory, you read it right

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The research says that a couple of hours of physical exercising like climbing a tree or balancing on a beam can improve the working memory improvements.

We’ve all climbed trees in our childhood and there are good reasons to relive those days again. Climbing trees and balancing on beams can improve cognitive skills not just in children but also in adults, according to researchers at the University of North Florida.

The results of the research suggest that working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours of these physical exercises.

Activities that make us think help us exercise our brains as well as our bodies.

“By taking a break to do activities that are unpredictable and require us to consciously adapt our movements, we can boost our working memory to perform better in the classroom and the boardroom,” says research associate Dr Ross Alloway.

“Improving working memory can have a beneficial effect on so many areas in our life. It is exciting to see that ‘proprioceptive dynamic activities’ can enhance it in such a short period of time,” adds study co-author Tracy Alloway.

For the study, which was published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, researchers recruit adults ages 18 to 59 and test their working memory.

Proprioception, the awareness of body positioning and orientation, is associated with working memory.

One group is given dynamic activities while the other are asked to join yoga classes, defined as “static proprioceptive activities”.

The participants undertake activities like climbing trees, walking and crawling on a beam approximately three-inches wide, moving while paying attention to posture, running barefoot, navigating over, under and around obstacles, as well as lifting and carrying awkwardly-weighted objects.

After two hours, participants are tested again.

The researchers find that their working memory capacity has increased dramatically by 50%.

‘Proprioceptively dynamic training’ may place a greater demand on working memory because as environment and terrain changes, the individual recruits working memory to update information to adapt appropriately.

“Though the yoga control group engaged in activities that required awareness of body position, it was relatively static as they performed the yoga postures in a small space which did not allow for locomotion or navigation,” the authors note.

However, neither control groups experience working memory benefits.

First 3D Printed pill approved for prescription drug use in the US .

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The first 3D printed pill has been approved by US authorities to produce a new drug to treat epileptic seizures.

Printing the pill also means the company can package drugs more compactly, with the ability to have up to 1000 milligrams in one easily dissolvable pill, according to the BBC.

Don Wetherhold, Chief Executive of Aprecia, said in a statement: “By combining 3D printing technology with a highly-prescribed epilepsy treatment, Spritam is designed to fill a need for patients who struggle with their current medication experience.”

“This is the first in a line of central nervous system products Aprecia plans to introduce as part of our commitment to transform the way patients experience taking medication,” he said.

Startup Makes Progress in Beamed Propulsion for Reusable Launch Vehicles

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A small Colorado company has successfully tested a new type of propulsion technology that it believes could eventually enable low-cost, single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles.

Broomfield, Colorado-based Escape Dynamics announced July 17 it carried out a small-scale test in the laboratory of its beamed microwave thruster. In that test, the company beamed microwave energy to a thruster, heating helium propellant and generating a small amount of thrust.

“Using microwave-powered propulsion is really what we think is the next giant leap in space access,” said company president Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux during a presentation at the NewSpace 2015 conference here July 17.

Unlike conventional chemical propulsion, where the energy is stored in the propellants themselves, beamed microwave propulsion stores the energy on the ground and transmits it to the launch vehicle using microwaves. A heat exchanger on the launch vehicle converts the microwaves into thermal energy to heat up a propellant, such as hydrogen and helium, which is then expelled to generate thrust.

That concept reduces the complexity of the launch vehicle. “It’s essentially a tank, a turbopump, a heat exchanger, and an aerospike nozzle,” Garriott said. “It’s overall very simple compared to a chemical rocket.”

The beamed microwave propulsion technology is also more efficient than chemical propulsion. The most energetic propellants in common use today, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, have a specific impulse — a measure of rocket engine efficiency — of about 450 seconds. Garriott said the beamed energy thruster tested in her company’s lab had a specific impulse of more than 500 seconds, and could achieve up to 750 seconds by using hydrogen instead of helium.

hat increases efficiency and simplicity reduces the fraction of the launch vehicle’s mass devoted to propellant to as low as 70 percent. “This means you have a full 30 percent to allocate to payload and structure,” she said. “This is plenty in a world where chemical rockets have only 10 percent.”

That increased mass fraction makes a reusable launch vehicle both technically and economically feasible, she argued. “We think that the future is reusable, single-stage-to-orbit spaceplanes,” she said. “The reason that microwave-powered launch is the next giant leap in spaceflight is because it has the capability to produce a specific impulse above the threshold needed for single-stage-to-orbit operations.”

Escape Dynamics’ long-term goal is to use beamed energy propulsion for a reusable launch system. A concept Garriott presented at the conference involved a single-stage vehicle based on lifting body designs and two arrays of microwave transmitters, each producing about 400 megawatts of power. One array, located near the launch pad, would boost the vehicle off the pad vertically. A second array, located about 200 kilometers away, would then accelerate the vehicle into orbit.

The lifting body, once in orbit, would release its payload and, after a single orbit, re-enter and glide to a runway landing for reuse. Each vehicle could place up to 200 kilograms into low Earth orbit at a “hundred-fold” decrease from current launch costs, she said, without quoting a specific price. The company has not disclosed the overall development cost of the system, or how much the company has raised to date.

Such a system takes advantage of technological advancements beyond the beamed microwave propulsion system itself. Garriott cited advances in technology to store power and discharge it quickly, some of it developed in support of the Large Hadron Collider, and in composite materials for use in the heat exchanger.

Garriott said the company is still years away from developing a reusable launch vehicle with this technology. Within the next few years, Escape Dynamics plans to carry out more tests, switching from helium to hydrogen propellants and scaling up the thrusters, before starting work on an orbital launch system. “We are three years into an eight-year plan,” she said.