Obesity Gene Leads People to Overeat

While obesity is likely the result of numerous gene interactions, researchers have found that at least one of the genes involved makes it harder for carriers to recognize when they are full. Usually, eating food “switches off” a person’s appetite and causes a feeling of fullness, but this study found that children carrying the higher risk version of the FTO gene are more likely to overeat and struggle to recognize when they are full. Earlier studies have shown that adults with a single copy of the higher risk version of the gene are on average 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg) heavier than those without the gene, while those with two copies are an average of 6.6 lbs (3 kg) heavier.

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Obesity Gene Leads People to Overeat

Joseph Conrad

In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.

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Joseph Conrad

Umberto I of Italy Assassinated

Umberto I, son of Vittorio Emanuele II of the House of Savoy, was the king of Italy from January 9, 1878, until his death. Officially nicknamed “the Good,” he was deeply loathed in left-wing circles because of his hard-line conservatism and support of the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. He was the only modern king of Italy to be assassinated. How many attempts on his life did he escape before he was killed?

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Umberto I of Italy Assassinated

Max Nordau

Nordau was a Hungarian Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. He co-founded the World Zionist Organization together with Theodor Herzl and was president or vice president of several Zionist congresses. As a social critic, he wrote a number of controversial books, including The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization, Degeneration, and Paradoxes. Nordau was a fully assimilated and acculturated …

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Max Nordau

Sonoluminescence

Accidentally discovered in 1934 while scientists were experimenting with sonar, sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from the implosion of bubbles formed in a liquid medium as sound waves pass through it. Scientists have since theorized that the temperatures inside the bubbles are hot enough to melt steel, thus raising the possibility that the study of sonoluminescence might result in a method for achieving what long sought-after form of energy production?

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Sonoluminescence

straddle

DEFINITION: (verb) Range or extend over; occupy a certain area.
SYNONYMS: range.
USAGE: With his car straddling two lanes of traffic and with fifteen police cruisers in hot pursuit, the out-of-control driver sped down the highway.

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straddle

Maximilien Robespierre Guillotined

A disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeois, Robespierre was known to his contemporaries as “The Incorruptible” because of his selfless devotion to the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety, the political body that controlled France during the bloody revolutionary period known as the “Reign of Terror.” What famous statement did Robespierre make regarding the execution of Louis XVI?

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Maximilien Robespierre Guillotined

Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp was a French-American artist often associated with the Dada and Surrealist movements of the 1920s. His paintings and sculptures served to break down prevailing notions about “fine art” and deliver poignant political and social critiques of mainstream and “highbrow” culture. He developed the term “readymade” to …

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Marcel Duchamp

mesa

DEFINITION: (noun) A broad, flat-topped elevation with one or more clifflike sides, common in the southwest United States.
SYNONYMS: table.
USAGE: The tribe was relatively safe on the mesa, but they had to descend into the valley for water.

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mesa

Parasitic Worms Increase AIDS Transmission

While only about 10% of the world’s population lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, it accounts for some two-thirds of the world’s HIV/AIDS cases. Researchers are now suggesting that the disproportionately high infection rate may be related to parasitic worms common in the region. They found that monkeys who had parasitic worms were more easily infected with the AIDS virus and that once infected, they had higher levels of the virus in their bloodstreams than parasite free-monkeys. Much of the water supply in Sub-Saharan Africa is contaminated with parasitic worms, exposing citizens to the parasites and leaving them more susceptible to HIV infection and more likely to pass the virus to others.

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Parasitic Worms Increase AIDS Transmission

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