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Parking by cellphone
Officials in Toulouse, France, have announced plans to install public parking spot sensors to inform motorists of available spaces//, according to UPI //. The 70 sensors initially installed will transmit the availability information to drivers' cellphones. The eventual plan is for the system to cover the entire city.
You had me at 'Hello'
"In one guise or another, 'hallo,' 'halloo' and 'hullo' have been used to solicit attention and signal surprise since the Middle Ages," writes Jessica Kerwin Jenkins, author of Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights. "Hunters urged on their dogs with 'halloo,' and the word was also used to signal a ferryboat captain across the water. (Some etymologists say it originated with the Old French Ho là!, meaning 'stop' or 'pay attention.') As a greeting, 'hello' had a gutsy, modern air in the late 19th century. It was sleeker than 'Do I get you?' another early option for those greeting each other over the telephone, and it was more suave than England's awkward choice, 'Are you there?' Hello was 'a thoroughbred bulldog, ugly enough to be attractive,' one journalist wrote in 1899. 'It makes courtesy wait upon dispatch and reminds us that we live in an age when it is necessary to be wide awake.' "
Going into overtime
"A newly identified chemical can lengthen the biological clocks of zebrafish by more than 10 hours," the New Scientist reports. "Dubbed 'longdaysin,' it targets three enzymes which act together to alter circadian rhythms. The discovery could aid development of drugs for sleeping disorders and jet lag."
Poor and happy
Children living in poverty are as happy as classmates from wealthier homes, a British study of 32,000 young people has found, the Guardian reports. Researchers at the National Foundation for Educational Research asked the English pupils, aged between 10 and 15, whether they agreed, disagreed or were unsure about the statement: "I feel happy about life at the moment." Children who receive free school meals - a standard measure of poverty - were as likely to agree as those who do not. Tom Benton, the study's main author, said wealth may be less linked to children's well-being than had been thought. The research shows children are most likely to say they feel happy if they are able to talk to their parents about their worries. The second most likely factor was having one or two good friends.
Modern men too busy?
The China Press newspaper reports that the total time of a man's orgasm is an average of less than three hours throughout his lifetime, according to thestar.com.my. The daily quoted Singapore Gleneagles Hospital gynecologist Fang Zhuang Wei as saying that because of busy lifestyles, couples were only sexually active before and immediately after their marriage.
The sound of fatigue
"As the pace of modern life accelerates, fatigue as a result of staying awake for extended hours may become more common," Psych Central News reports. "A study in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America describes a novel method to acoustically analyze the effects of fatigue on the central nervous system as revealed through speech. According to researcher Dr. Adam Vogel of the University of Melbourne, Australia, the findings may be significant to workers, employers, public safety officials and military leaders who are concerned with managing fatigue over long shifts. … Vogel and his colleagues looked at components of speech such as length of pauses and total time to complete a spoken task. Their results showed that as fatigue progresses, speech slows, variations in pitch increase and tone diminishes. Their conclusion is that we have less control over the muscles that produce speech as we become more and more tired."
Sweet relief
If you are planning to overindulge this season then it would be a good idea to stock up on some bread and honey along with the booze, Richard Alleyne writes for The Daily Telegraph. "Scientists claim that the natural sweetener is a great way to help the body deal with the toxic effects of a hangover. The Royal Society of Chemistry claims that the fructose in the honey … is essential to help the body break down alcohol into harmless byproducts. The reason why hangovers are so painful is that alcohol is first broken down into acetaldehyde, a substance which is toxic to the body, claimed Dr. John Emsley of the Royal Society. This is then converted - using fructose - into acetic acid which is then burned during the body's normal metabolic process and broken down into carbon dioxide which is breathed out of the body."
Thought du jour
"An old man once said, 'When I was young, I was poor; when old, I became rich; but in each condition I found disappointment. When I had the faculties for enjoyment, I had not the means; when the means came, the faculties were gone.' " - Madame Gasparin (1813-94), French author