How Toilet Paper is Made – Video
| September 8, 2011
Category: News
Ikea Used Political Prisoners As Slave Labor
| September 8, 2011
Ikea developed strong links with the communist state in the 1970s, opening a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which, according to Stasi records discovered by German television company WDR, used political prisoners to construct sofas.
The factory in Waldheim stood next to a prison, and inmates were used as unpaid labour, it is claimed. Gaols in the Democratic Republic housed significant numbers of political prisoners, with some estimates indicating they made up at least 20 per cent of the entire prison population.
40 Percent Of Europeans Have Mental Illness
| September 7, 2011
Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.
With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden — measured in the hundreds of billions of euros — as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.
The US Two-dollar Bill
| September 6, 2011
Some people think they’re out of circulation. Others think they’re all counterfeit. Some consider them collectable; others, merely oddities. The American two-dollar bill is a source of legend, confusion and activism.
The two-dollar bill is a unit of United States currency best known (when known at all) for its rarity. It is infrequently printed, infrequently distributed, infrequently used and, therefore, infrequently seen. This has made it the stuff of legend.
Virtual conquest of a summit – Mount Everest in 3D
| September 6, 2011
For the first time, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have depicted Mount Everest, the ‘Roof of the World’, in 3D using optical satellite data at a maximum resolution of just half a metre.
These 3D images are the outcome of a collaborative venture between the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and the companies 3D RealityMaps GmbH and DigitalGlobe. A video allows the viewer to follow the route taken by 15 mountaineers on a current expedition to the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
Why we love French Fries
| September 6, 2011
The culprit is natural marijuana-like chemicals in the body called endocannabinoids, researchers from University of California, Irvine found.
They discovered that when rats tasted something fatty, cells in their upper gut started producing endocannabinoids. Sugars and proteins, the researchers noted, did not have this effect.
The process starts on the tongue, where fats in food generate a signal that travels first to the brain and then through a nerve bundle called the vagus to the intestines.
