As if astronauts planning trips to the moon and Mars didn’t have enough to worry about, they now have something else: heart attacks. Exposure to cosmic radiation outside the Earth’s magnetic field could be detrimental to their arteries (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show).
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The skin condition that came to be called Morgellons was first noticed about 10 years ago. It consists of strange fibers poking out of the skin. At first it was dismissed as a form of psychological hysteria, but now it’s being taken seriously and may even be caused by genetically-modified foods. The Charles E Holman Foundation, which is studying the disease, says there are cases in "every continent except Antarctica." In the Guardian, Will Storr quotes Morgellon’s researcher and sufferer Greg Smith, whose body is covered in waxy scars caused, as saying, "You feel the sensation of something that’s trying to come out of your skin."
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As if the recent resurgence of bed bugs wasn’t bad enough, Canadian researchers have found some of the little blood-sucking critters carrying a potentially deadly superbug, and a recent survey has found that Chicago is the fifth-most bed-bug-infested city in the United States. To make matters worse, earlier this year in Boston, researchers found hundreds of natural gas leaks under the streets and sidewalks there. While residents of coast US cities are worried that methane may outgas from the ocean floor, in Boston the methane may arrive from right under their feet!
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We’ve all learned that there are spies on Facebook, but despite this, the company has recently admitted that it secretly hired Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm whose clients include Microsoft, to generate stories critical of the privacy mistakes being made by its rival Google, as they fight over internet users’ time and advertisers’ budgets (both Both Facebook and Google have faced criticism for the amount of personal data they collect and retain online). When the agency sent these press releases to newspapers and magazines, it did not inform them that it was acting on behalf of Facebook. How can they get away with this?
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