Deep English: Recent Episodes
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In 1986, three men volunteered to die in order to save hundreds of thousands of people, but most of us have never heard of these unsung heroes. When a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine began releasing deadly radioactive material, workers didn’t know what to do.
The post The True Story of the Chornobyl Suicide Squad appeared first on Deep English.
More than twenty men hired by an oil company hacked through the Ecuadorean jungle. Suddenly, they found themselves surrounded by a large group of indigenous people called the Cofan. The newcomers were clearly outnumbered. In the last five years, several oilmen had been beaten or killed by various tribes inside the jungle.
The post Fighting For The Amazon appeared first on Deep English.
Brian McGuinn waded through a sea of more than nine tons of garbage. He came to the dump because just days before, he accidentally threw away his wife's $10,000 diamond engagement ring. Brian needed to find that diamond ring. It was a symbol of his marriage, of his love for his wife, and of their promise to share the rest of their lives with each other.
The post Diamond Ring Insurance appeared first on Deep English.
When something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true at all. The story of Karl Rabeder who was once a millionaire, is one of those stories. He had a nice house, fancy cars and he stayed in expensive, five star hotels. But one day, he decided to give it all up. Well, at least that’s what he claimed to do.
The post The Millionaire Mirage: All That Glitters Is Not Gold appeared first on Deep English.
One the biggest medical price hikes in history and the most expensive hip-hop album in the world have both recently been in the news. At the center of both stories is Martin Shkreli, who some have called the most hated man in America.
The post The Most Hated Man In America appeared first on Deep English.
Imagine entering a world hidden from the naked eye. From where you stand, everything looks normal. Cars roll by, people cross the street, but then suddenly you see a face pop up from underground. Just as quickly as it appears, it vanishes.
The post King Of The Sewers appeared first on Deep English.
In the 1950’s China was working to transform from an agricultural society to a communist industrial society. Their leader, Mao Ze Dong, wanted to completely reshape society, and his efforts didn’t stop with humans. One of the strangest reforms of this period was an order to exterminate sparrows and other pests.
The post The War on Sparrows and Nature’s Backlash appeared first on Deep English.
At first glance, everything seems ordinary. Sisa leaves for work at 6 am, wearing traditional men’s pants, ready to spend the day shining shoes or laying bricks. But most people in the neighborhood know that Sisa has a secret. Despite the men’s clothing and shaved head, she is actually a woman. She’s spent more than four decades posing as a man so that she could work alongside them.
The post Sexual Harassment Around The World appeared first on Deep English.
Throughout his life, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus wore many hats. He was a humble farmer, an aristocrat, and a member of the patrician class. He was given absolute power over the people of ancient Rome on two occasions and voluntarily gave it up each time. What made Cincinnatus famous in his time - and a legend in ours - is the fact that he was an honorable man.
The post The Dictator Who Chose Farming Over Power appeared first on Deep English.
The parable of King Solomon and the baby is a famous one. Two women came to the king fighting over the same baby. They both claimed to be the baby’s mother and asked the king to be the judge. Solomon said the only fair thing to do would be to cut the baby in half.
The post Cut In Half: A True Test of Love appeared first on Deep English.
The oldest tree in the world died one day in 1964. Its name was Prometheus, and Donald Currey cut it down. It was not only the oldest tree, but the oldest living thing ever recorded. Currey wasn’t an un-caring logger or farmer making room for crops. He was a 30-year-old graduate student doing research into climate change throughout history.
The post Death Of An Ancient Tree appeared first on Deep English.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the actions of one person can actually make a difference in the lives of others. The world’s problems seem too big for any one of us to do something about. But the story of Rajesh Sharma, a shopkeeper in New Delhi, shows us that just one person can make a world of difference...
The post The Power Of One appeared first on Deep English.
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ Is this idiom wrong? In the African nation of Mauritania, big is beautiful. Some women even visit "fat farms" where they gorge on large quantities of high calorie foods, hoping to return home a bit rounder. Meanwhile, weight-loss camps are gaining popularity in many western nations.
The post Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder appeared first on Deep English.
Did you know that living in a city is actually pretty bad for your happiness? Studies show that you’re more likely to be happy the smaller the city that you live in. But with 5 billion people living in cities by 2030, is there a way we can change the unhappiness found in cities?
The post The Happy City appeared first on Deep English.
Scientists say that life began in the oceans. While humans have evolved into land dwellers, there is a unique culture of people who, for centuries, have spent most their lives on the ocean.
When Nahara steps from the boat onto dry land, she begins to feel ...
The post The Vanishing Tribes Who Live, Breathe, And Dream At Sea appeared first on Deep English.
The internet gives us new ways to connect with each other that we couldn’t imagine just 20 years ago. Instant communication through email, skype and social media is supposed to bring people together. It’s supposed to make keeping in touch easier, help spark new friendships, and help people rediscover old ones. It’s supposed to make the world a smaller place.
The post How Many Friends Can You Really Have On Social Media? appeared first on Deep English.
There are places on this planet full of turmoil, where armies wage war against each other. But what many people don’t know is that another kind of army exists, and they don’t shoot guns. An army of nuns rescues victims of human trafficking around the world. They do this by disguising themselves as prostitutes and laborers.
The post Army of Nuns appeared first on Deep English.
While dogs have been used for protection for thousands of years, parrots are a new twist. “Run, run, you are going to get caught,” cried Lorenzo the parrot as the police arrived. Lorenzo was one of 1,700 parrots trained to warn their drug-dealing owners in Barranquilla, Colombia. Lorenzo’s warnings weren’t enough to stop the police from arresting four men and seizing 200 guns, a stolen motorcycle and a large amount of drugs.
The post Blackie The Talking Cat appeared first on Deep English.
Twelve-year-old Georgi had been sleeping for nearly a year. He had lost consciousness shortly after his family found out they would be kicked out of Sweden. Georgi and his family are refugees. Seven years before, they escaped religious persecution in their home country. They had made a new home in Sweden. Although Sweden is one of Europe’s most welcoming countries for refugees, it has become stricter.
The post Falling Away From The World appeared first on Deep English.
As his ship passed by a lonely island, Odysseus heard beautiful voices singing a haunting melody. It was a melody that could lure even the most seasoned sailors to wreck their ships on the rocky shores, trapping them forever. Odysseus was warned about the dangers of the beautiful part-bird part-human Sirens and their magical song, but he was curious. Not wanting to be tempted away from his ship, he ordered his men to plug their ears with wax and tie him to the ship. The song pulled at Odysseus’s heartstrings, and he fought to free himself. He begged his men to untie him, but they stayed true to their word and kept him from losing himself to the Siren’s song.
The post The Surprising Benefits of Nostalgia appeared first on Deep English.
Suffering from pain or inflammation? If you lived in the late 18th century, you might have found relief with Perkins Tractors. They were sold as medical devices made from special materials, but were actually just two simple metal rods made from steel and brass. Dr. Elisha Perkins , the inventor of Perkins Tractors, said that the rods healed people by removing unhealthy electromagnetic fluids.
The post Power Of Placebos Not Limited To Belief appeared first on Deep English.
DNR stands for Do Not Resuscitate. It is a legal order for doctors to withhold treatment in the case of heart or breathing failure. In the US, 80% of people say that when facing a terminal illness, they would prefer to avoid aggressive life-saving treatment. This number increases to nearly 90% among doctors. This may be because doctors are more knowledgeable about the suffering and reduced quality of life after treatments such as CPR and electric shock.
The post Doctors Choose To Trust Man’s DNR Tattoo appeared first on Deep English.
When dying people look back on their lives, there are some common things they wish they had done differently. Not having followed one’s dreams is one common regret. Not having spent enough time with friends and family is another. But one thing people seldom regret on their deathbed is not having worked enough or not having made enough money.
The post Creative Ways To Tame The Rat Race appeared first on Deep English.
Christopher Columbus was a hero to some and a villain to others. He was a brave explorer, but he also enslaved, murdered and stole from native people across the Americas. He first met the Arawak natives in the Bahamas in 1492. They generously traded everything they owned. Columbus saw this as a weakness. He wrote in his journal, “They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things. They do not bear arms, and do not know them. They would make fine servants.”
The post Lunar Power Play: The Tale of Columbus, the Arawaks, and a Blood Red Moon! appeared first on Deep English.
How important is your name? For a lot of people, our names are part of our identity. It’s one of the first things we learn as a child. We receive it from our parents and we give it to our children. For some people, our name defines us, but not for a man with a last name you probably have never heard before.
The post Name For Sale appeared first on Deep English.
Burn it or bury it. In most places around the world, that’s what we do with our garbage. Pretty grim choices. Burning garbage releases dangerous gasses and dust, which contribute to pollution of the air, land, and water, not to mention global warming. While burying it leads to more pollution of the ground and water. And to make matters worse, tons of garbage - most of it plastic - ends up in the ocean.
The post Leave Only Footprints appeared first on Deep English.
People often say that love turns up in the unlikeliest of places, or that love will come to you when you least expect it. In some love stories, those old idioms couldn’t be more true. Take the story of Gordon MacDonald.
The post Unlikely Love Stories appeared first on Deep English.
Youhei was a poor farmer. One day he found a wounded bird at his door. Youhei brought the bird inside and cared for her until she was strong enough to fly away. The next day a mysterious woman showed up at Youhei’s house. They fell in love and eventually married. Times were tough for Youhei and his wife, but she got a loom and wove...
The post The Crane Wife appeared first on Deep English.
Did you know there are real life superheroes in the world? Or at least, people who can perform superhuman acts of strength and bravery? You may have heard some of these amazing stories in the news. Stories about ordinary people suddenly performing extraordinary acts.
The post Extraordinary Acts By Ordinary People appeared first on Deep English.
Every time Kayla Montgomery crosses the finish line, she collapses into her coach’s arms. Her legs are completely numb, so much so, that she pleads with her team to "find" her legs as they place ice packs on her to cool her down. At 18, Kayla is one of the top distance runners in the U.S, but she also suffers from a debilitating disease called “MS” or Multiple Sclerosis.
The post Floating Runner appeared first on Deep English.
The average person lies twice in the first ten minutes of meeting someone new, and up to 50 percent of the time when speaking to their mother. A study showed that 99 percent of people lie, and even the few who claimed not to, probably also are lying.
The post We Evolved to Lie But Lie Less As We Age appeared first on Deep English.
Gary Davis was a man with a crazy vision of a world without nations. Albert Einstein was a believer in Gary Davis, and once said Gary was a man devoted to the survival of humanity on earth. As a young man, Davis was an actor on Broadway. He was a rising star until his acting career was interrupted by World War II.
The post The Man Who Renounced His US Citizenship To Become A World Citizen appeared first on Deep English.
There’s an amazing diversity of greeting customs around the world. In Tibet sticking out your tongue can be a way of welcoming people. In New Zealand, Maori greet each other by touching noses. Ethiopian men touch shoulders, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, male friends touch foreheads. In many Asian countries, people bow to each other when meeting. And in some European countries, as well as Arab countries, hugs or kisses on the cheek are more the norm.
Adapted from image by: Donkey Hotey (CC BY 2.0)
The post Handshake History appeared first on Deep English.
We’ve all seen movies and TV shows where the characters have traveled through time, or used a time machine. These are usually science fiction movies, but some scientists say time travel is possible in theory. There are also some people who claim to have actually done it. Image by Hartwig HKD License: (CC BY-ND 2.0)
The post Time Travel: A Pilot’s Strange Tale And A Scientist’s Lifelong Dream appeared first on Deep English.
Invisible rays are all around us, and most of us never even notice. In today’s technology-saturated world, it’s hard to imagine living life without ...
The post Inside America’s Radio Quiet Zone: The Unique Town That Bans Wi-Fi and Cell Phones appeared first on Deep English.
Have you ever felt a connection with others while singing, dancing, or listening to music together? Psychologist Robin Dunbar says moving in sync can create strong bonds between people. He believes it helped early humans make larger groups and better communities. Dunbar thinks humans found a way to get in tune with many people at […]
The post The Surprising Benefits of Synchronized Movement appeared first on Deep English.
When you listen to someone speaking a language you don’t understand, can you pick up any meaning? Most people can, because a lot of body language is universal, and up to 90% of all communication is nonverbal. Most of spoken language is not universal though, and there are very few words, which are the same across all languages. Modern linguists are beginning to study these universal words now. Image by: qthomasbower License: (CC BY 2.0)
The post One Word Spoken All Over the World appeared first on Deep English.
In 1992, Annette Herfkens and her fiancé were on vacation in Vietnam when their plane crashed. Annette was the only survivor. She found herself alone and badly injured in the jungle. At first, she panicked, but then she focused on her breath. She didn’t have time to worry about tigers or dying. She needed to […]
The post Woman Survives Plane Crash In Jungle appeared first on Deep English.
Perhaps one day, modern medicine will accept that food is truly medicine. Imagine a future where your doctor gives you foods rich in healthy microbes, such as yogurt, sauerkraut and natto, to heal not only your body, but also your mind.
The post Mind-Gut Connection: How Your Stomach Might Shape Your Brain appeared first on Deep English.
Mihailo Tolotos spent his entire life without ever seeing a woman. He was a monk who lived on the Mount Athos peninsula in Greece. Mount Athos is a unique place in Europe. It is home to 20 monasteries and roughly 2,000 monks. For more than a thousand years, women and female animals have been prohibited […]
The post Man Lives To The Age Of 82 Without Ever Seeing A Woman appeared first on Deep English.
Everyone knows that are bodies can be windows into our minds, but what about our sleeping bodies?
The post The Sleeping Body Is A Window To The Mind appeared first on Deep English.
Children are precious. No one would argue with that, but how many children is enough? Michelle Duggar, the mother of one of America’s most famous large families, says that she leaves that question for god to answer.
The post How Many Kids Is Too Many? The Duggars’ Unbelievable Family Size! appeared first on Deep English.
Mike Spencer has been on the road for 23 years and has visited over 190 countries. Traveling non-stop since he was 21, he is now being called the world most traveled man.
The post Your Map Upside Down – Don’t Confuse Symbols With Reality Itself appeared first on Deep English.
The concept of anyone owning the moon seems pretty silly. The concept of any single person owning the moon seems even sillier. Even if you could imagine owning the moon, you might think it would be a whole country who owned the moon. Not just any country either, but the country who had gone to the moon the most often. The reality is much different though. Adapted from image by: Joe, License:
The post Who Owns the Moon? appeared first on Deep English.
The ancient civilization of Atlantis was a utopia. It was lush and full of food and wildlife. And the people of Atlantis were wise and just. They were a knowledgeable society capable of amazing feats of architecture and engineering. Most people believe that the story of Atlantis is just a legend, but some say it was a real place that was destroyed by a flood and earthquakes.
The post The Real Story Of Atlantis – An Underwater Utopia appeared first on Deep English.
On an April morning in 1999, Columbine High School in Colorado became the scene of a terrible tragedy. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold laughed and hollered as they killed 13 people and wounded 20 others. Their innocent victims were their teachers and classmates. The teenage killers then turned their guns on themselves.
The post Teacher Prevents Mass Shooting With A Hug appeared first on Deep English.
Reuben is a gifted soccer player and fearless goalie. He was playing for an elite youth soccer team in Atlanta, Georgia when the unfortunate accident happened. He was kicked in the head by an opponent and went into shock. He stopped breathing multiple times and came in and out of consciousness on the soccer field. His coach said, “I thought I might lose him…”
The post Boy Wakes Up And Can’t Speak A Lick Of English appeared first on Deep English.
A grizzly bear can sniff out a human from 18 miles away. Jumping spiders can see colors that blow human sight out of the water. And some birds can fly across the world using the earth’s magnetic fields as a guide. Even some humans have super senses that set them apart.
The range of human experience is immeasurable. Some claim to experience art more deeply. In fact, they even make a living from it. Art critics supposedly know more about art, music critics know more about music, and wine critics, of course, know more about wine. Their knowledge and experience is supposedly so much deeper than ours that we listen to their opinions, hoping they will guide us to make better choices.
But do wine critics really know wine better than the average person? There is growing evidence that they don’t. Richard Hodgson, a wine grower and a teacher of statistics, repeatedly gave some famous wine judges the same wine multiple times at the California State Fair wine competition, and only 10% knew they were being tricked. Hodgson then performed this experiment hundreds of times at wine competitions across the nation, and the result was the same. These experts were repeatedly fooled into thinking the same wine was different.
Hodgson started looking into the accuracy of wine competitions when he noticed that his own wines could win top awards in one competition while they could be ranked at the bottom at others. He collected data on numerous wine competitions and concluded that the awards were statistically random.
This is not to say that there was no difference between wines or that all wine judges are liars. These wine judges were probably giving their honest opinions, but their subjective judgments don’t always hold true for others. This begs the question how much of our experience of the world is shared, and how much is unique. Whether there is any truly objective reality in the world of wine or anything else is up for debate. Is the color red the same for you as it is for me? How exactly does music move some people and yet does nothing for others?
Read More:
Is Wine Bullshit?
7 Superpowered Animal Senses You Won’t Believe Are Possible
The post How Much Of Reality Is Shared? appeared first on Deep English.
Meet Richard Lewis. A globe-trotting traveler and linguist who speaks ten different languages, Richard has a wealth of experience interacting with people from many different cultures. In 1996, he first published a book called When Cultures Collide. Now, in that book, he presents a model of 3 different predominant cultural types into which people from various countries can be placed.
The first cultural type is called Linear-active. These are people who experience time as being something very real and linear. These people would agree with the idiom, ‘time is money,’ and therefore time is something that can be saved, spent, wasted, and invested. Linear-actives like to plan, schedule, organize, and do one thing at a time. These are punctual people who are cool, direct, and decisive. Their body language is often restrained. The Germans and the Swiss would be examples of Linear-actives.
The second cultural type is called Multi-active. Unlike Linear-actives, these are people who are comfortable doing many things at one time. They are very talkative, and they place importance on relationships. In fact, they often plan their priorities according to the happiness or importance that each appointment gives them rather than a time schedule. Multi-actives are much more flexible and not so punctual when it comes to keeping appointments. They are often emotional and warm people with unrestrained body language. Latin Americans, Arabs, and Southern Europeans fall into this category.
The third cultural type is called Reactive. Reactives are people who place a great priority on courtesy and respect. Reactives are very good listeners and are rarely confrontational. In this sense, they value social harmony and are often group-oriented. They react carefully to situations and see statements as promises. Face-to-face contact is important, while body language is subtle. The Chinese, Japanese, and Finns are examples of Reactive cultures.
Lewis has categorized certain countries as being a mixture of two types. For example, Canada falls in the middle of Reactive and Linear-active, implying that Canadians are better listeners and somewhat less confrontational than Americans, who are much more Linear-active. Likewise, India is a mixture of Multi-active and Reactive, implying that Indians are much more emotional and talkative than many of their Asian counterparts, such as the Chinese, Thai, Koreans, and Malaysians.
Richard Lewis’ model of cultural types provides a unique window into the differences between cultures. Although it might not be spot on all the time, understanding these types could go a long way in avoiding cultural misunderstandings. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that every person is unique and may not fit the mold of a particular category.
Read More:
The Lewis Model – Dimensions of Behaviour
The post When Cultures Collide appeared first on Deep English.
Imagine the loneliness of speaking a language that only you can understand. Researchers have been studying a whale who communicates in a language not recognizable by other whales. This whale has spent over two decades searching high and low for a friend who will understand him.
Whales are renowned for their songs. Often complex, sometimes simple, songs are their only method of communication. But this unique whale is so out of tune with other whales that no one can hear or understand it.
A team of scientists has been listening to this whale for over two decades. They believe he is a fin or a blue whale. Whatever the case, it has been calling in search of a mate for many a moon.
Its high-pitched song is so different from other whales that its calls for friendship continue to fall on deaf ears.
Researchers have nicknamed this creature ‘the loneliest whale in the world.’
His song was first discovered in the vastness of the North Pacific Ocean in 1989. While recording submarines, the US Navy accidentally picked up the unmistakable noise of whale songs. Dr. William Watkins researched the sounds and noticed that one whale’s song was completely different to the others.
A male fin or blue whale communicates on a frequency which is too deep for the human ear. This ‘lonely’ whale sings at a pitch which is three times higher.
Such an obscure song receives no response from other whales. Scientists are confused why a healthy creature doesn’t change its tune and communicate in a regular pattern used by other whales.
Without a shared means of communication, we would all live an isolated existence. In such a world, our deepest thoughts, feelings, experiences, and beliefs would die a lonely death. Our most treasured moments would be unexpressed, unshared, and unloved.
Yet is the whale lonely, or has it chosen to speak in a different language to the rest of its species out of choice?
May-Ann Daher, who researched the whale, is unsure.
She explained, “People like to imagine this creature out there swimming by his lonesome, just singing away, and nobody’s listening. But I can’t say that.”
No matter if he’s alone or lonely, he’s not one to throw in the towel. This solitary creature will continue to search the ocean for another whale who speaks the same language and shares the same song.
Read More:
The Loneliest Whale in the World?
Search for the world’s ‘loneliest whale’ who has been singing to himself for 20 years
The post The Loneliest Creature On Earth appeared first on Deep English.
Like many people, Gemma Hartley struggles with depression and anxiety. For five years, she used meditation to keep her symptoms in check. But one day, facing some tight writing deadlines at work, she felt herself beginning to slip back toward her old symptoms. This time, meditating wasn’t enough.
That’s when a friend told her about something the Japanese call shinrin-yoku. This roughly translates to Forest Bathing.
Forest bathing is a practice which involves walking slowly through a forest. While walking, forest bathers intentionally experience nature through all five senses. Unlike hiking, forest bathing is not about exercising. Rather, forest bathing is about connecting with the forest and letting go of worries.
Hartley decided to give it a go. She was led out into the forest with 30 others by a certified forest bathing guide. Under the treetops, she was encouraged to see, hear, feel, smell and taste the forest in new ways.
Afterward, she headed back to the city, where she had a mountain of work to do. But instead of feeling stressed and agitated, she thought of the forest. Suddenly, the words flowed freely from her fingers. For Hartley, forest bathing had been a success.
In Japan, forest bathing is considered standard preventative medicine. And now, studies have confirmed its incredible benefits. That’s why other countries are beginning to follow suit. Instead of prescribing medications, some doctors are writing prescriptions for forest bathing.
Research shows that just a 15-minute leisurely walk in nature decreases the stress hormone cortisol by 19 percent. Blood pressure and heart rate also dropped. Considering that in the U.S., 75 to 90 percent of all doctor’s visits are stress-related, this is very good news.
Forest bathing doesn’t just help humans to cope with stress. It also boosts the immune system. It turns out that trees produce a chemical that supports disease-killing cells in the human body.
In one experiment, participants walked in the forest twice a day for three days. Afterward, studies showed that they had 40 percent more white blood cells. These cells boost the immune system. A month later, their immune system still showed a 15 percent elevation.
Time in nature also works wonders on our cognitive performance. College students took tests before and after being in the wilderness for three days. They performed a whopping 50 percent better on cognitive tests after being in the wild.
Humans evolved in nature, and studies now show that’s where our bodies feel most at home. The next time you’re feeling down, remember just 15 minutes under the trees does a world of good.
If you happen to be one of the majority of humans who live in cities, don’t lose hope. Even looking at a picture of nature or diffusing pine tree essential oils in your home improves health.
Read More:
‘I Tried a Three-Day “Forest Bathing” Trip—Here’s What That Was Like’
The post Nature As Medicine appeared first on Deep English.
It was a quiet night, and Dorrie Nuttall was fast asleep. Her seven-year-old son was sleeping next to her, hooked up to a machine, which was supposed to alert her if his glucose levels were too low. The alert never came. Not from the machine, anyway.
Jedi, Luke’s adorable diabetes-sniffing dog, started jumping on and off the bed. Nuttall didn’t wake up, so Jedi took it up a notch. He lay on top of Nuttall. She woke up and checked Luke’s monitor. His levels seemed to be fine, but Jedi was insistent. Nuttall pricked his finger and tested the blood. His glucose was dangerously low – less than half of what was displayed on the machine’s monitor. Nuttall gave her son a glucose tablet and watched nervously as his levels stabilized. Her dog had just saved her son’s life.
Jedi isn’t the only four-legged hero sniffing out danger. Dogs are being trained to identify early warning signs for many diseases. And even untrained dogs are making a difference.
In 2008, Maureen Burns noticed that her dog, Max, seemed depressed. He was getting old, so Burns prepared for the worst, but it wasn’t Max who was in danger. She began noticing that Max sometimes sniffed her breast. Then one day, when Max was looking at her strangely, she just knew it was cancer. Sure enough, she went to the hospital, where the doctors discovered a cancerous breast tumor. When it was removed, Max’s behavior changed immediately. He was once again his happy-go-lucky self. Burns credits him with saving her life.
Canines have incredibly powerful noses, but some humans can smell diseases too. Joy Milne is a former nurse who can smell Parkinson’s disease. Six years before her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Milne noticed a slight change in his scent. She couldn’t quite place the new odor and told her husband that his hygiene was lacking. It wasn’t until she met a group of people with the same odor at a Parkinson’s support group meeting that she put two and two together.
There is currently no definitive test for Parkinson’s disease. And unfortunately, symptoms tend to show after it is too late. When researchers heard that Milne had detected the disease in her husband years before he had been diagnosed, they were intrigued. They tested her ability to smell Parkinson’s, and the results were incredible. She was consistently able to identify patients with the disease.
With Milne’s help, the researchers isolated ten molecules that are found in people with Parkinson’s disease. The hope is that these molecules will lead to a test that diagnoses the disease earlier. These molecules could even be used to train dogs to smell it in patients.
Read More:
Scientists sniff out Parkinson’s disease smell
Woman who can smell Parkinson’s disease helps scientists develop first diagnostic test
While his parents slept, this 7-year-old boy’s life was saved by Jedi, his diabetes-sniffing dog
The post Smells Like Health appeared first on Deep English.
In Iceland, elves are a part of the national culture. Many of the country’s 230,000 citizens believe they actually exist.
This belief is what led a mob of 150 men and women to protest a NATO military base in Keflavik in 1982. They believed the military was disrespecting the elves, and their jets were desecrating the holy ground of the hidden people.
NATO respected the protesters’ feelings and invited them to inspect their base. Satisfied no elves were being harmed, the group left in peace.
It may sound like fantasy, but in Iceland, elves are a fact of life.
According to a 2006 survey, 32 percent of Icelanders believe in the possibility of elves. Another 26 percent believe their existence is a cast iron certainty.
They’re considered a peaceful breed of small creatures who look a lot like humans.
University of Iceland professor Valdimar Hafstein advises to leave elves alone. Treat them with respect, do not upset their dwelling places, and they’ll be quite harmless. Cross them at your peril.
Iceland is rife with tales of elves sabotaging construction projects. Why? Because they do not take kindly to having their rock houses and churches blown up with construction dynamite.
The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration has created a five-page document on elves.
It reads, “We value the heritage of our ancestors. Oral tradition might suggest supernatural beings inhabit a certain rock. The rock is then considered a cultural treasure. Our reaction to these concerns has varied. In some cases, we have delayed the construction project. This allows the elves to supposedly move on.”
In 2010, former Icelandic member of Parliament Árni Johnsen’s car went off a small cliff. He swears a group of elves living in a nearby rock saved his life. When a road was planned over the rock, he begged the developers to save it. They granted his wish and moved the 30-ton rock to a safe place.
It should be stressed that not everyone in Iceland believes in elves. One theory suggests Icelanders created the superstition, so they didn’t feel so alone in such a majestic but unpredictable landscape.
Professor of Folklore, Adalheidur Gudmundsdottir, says, “You can’t live in this landscape and not believe in a force greater than you. Icelanders are not uneducated peasants who believe in fairies. But if you live here, you’ll understand why the power of folklore is so strong.”
Read More:
Why Icelanders are wary of elves living beneath the rocks
Why So Many Icelanders Still Believe In Invisible Elves
Why Icelanders are wary of elves living beneath the rocks
The post Icelanders Accuse NATO Of Threatening Elves appeared first on Deep English.
Take a look at the pink circles. If you’re like most people, the circle on the right probably looks bigger, but they are actually the same size.
People of the Himba tribe are not so easily fooled by optical illusions like this. The Himba can be found in the small town of Opuwo, Namibia, in small numbers. They’re easy to pick out, with the distinctive red paint that they spread on their skin and hair. They’re few and far between in town because they mostly live a life untouched by modern times. The younger generations are being drawn to the charms of contemporary society, and this town is giving them a taste.
Jules Davidoff is studying these semi-nomadic herders at this pivotal point in their history. It turns out that the brains of people in pre-modern cultures like the Himba perceive things differently than people in modern cultures.
People of the Himba tribe are more focused on small details than they are on the larger context. People in modern cultures see more of the context and less of the details. This makes the Himba tribe less easily fooled by optical illusions. They are so focused on the smaller details that their brains don’t misinterpret what their eyes see. And this doesn’t just apply to visual focus. People in the Himba tribe are also less easily distracted – their mental focus is stronger.
Davidoff found that Himba people who went to Opuwo, even for a short trip, were more susceptible to optical illusions and their focus decreased.
The reason for this is unclear, but most researchers agree that the modern world presents us with a lot of stimuli that grab our attention. This is something that the technology industry knows all too well. They spend millions looking for ways to keep our attention on their online sites and apps. Some say this is damaging our focus and possibly our IQ.
Justin Rosenstein is an unlikely ally in a backlash against the tech assault on our attention. He is the creator of Facebook’s notorious “Like” button. He was worried about the Internet’s toll on his attention, so he is backing off. He tweaked his laptop to block certain addictive websites, and he even set up parental controls on his phone that limit his access.
Just a small dose of modern society has been shown to impact the people of the Himba tribe dramatically. For many of us who live within the modern world full-time, our perception is no longer what it was. But people like Rosenstein believe we’re not too far gone and it’s not too late to start safeguarding our attention.
Read More:
The astonishing vision and focus of Namibia’s nomads
‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
8 Mind-Bending Optical Illusions (And What They Reveal About How Our Brains Work)
The post The Modern World Changed Your Brain appeared first on Deep English.
Topher Brophy described himself as a self-absorbed narcissist. He played competitive sports obsessively to keep his mind off of his empty life. Then one day, Brophy hurt his back. Suddenly, he was forced to slow down and take a good hard look at his life.
That is when it dawned on him – he only cared about himself. He decided he needed something to care for. He got himself a shaggy brown dog named Rosenberg. Suddenly, his focus shifted from himself to Rosenberg, and his life began to take on new meaning. He brought Rosenberg with him everywhere. People often said that the two had an uncanny resemblance. Brophy thought it would be funny to see people’s reactions if he dressed Rosenberg in an outfit that matched his own.
People loved seeing the two of them dressed like twins. And Brophy loved seeing that he was making other people happy. He took a few photos of himself and Rosenberg in matching outfits and posted them on the Internet. People went wild for the photos. He has nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram, and he’s made a career out of posting photos of himself and his dog dressed alike.
Brophy and Rosenberg aren’t the only human/dog couple that looks alike. Psychologists say that people are naturally drawn toward things that are similar to them. For this reason, many choose dogs that look like they do.
The close bond between people and dogs originally started with wolves. The common belief is that one day, a hunter-gatherer found some wolf puppies and adopted them. Over time, humans used the wolves to help them hunt. So, humans kept the wolves around until they eventually evolved into dogs.
However, some researchers now argue that humans didn’t domesticate wolves. Rather, it was the wolves who first approached humans. Bold and aggressive wolves who came close to humans would have been killed. But, the ones that were bold and friendly were tolerated. Over time, these friendly wolves started to look and act differently from their wild cousins. They became skillful at reading human gestures. And, of course, living with humans gave the wolves a more constant food supply, something wild wolves had to work much harder to get.
For humans, their new canine companions proved valuable. The wolves gave them a leg up during a hunt. They also served as a warning system, barking at strangers from other tribes. And they defended humans from large predators like bears and mountain lions. It was a win-win situation for both species.
So rather than humans adopting wolf puppies, perhaps it was the wolves that adopted us. And that makes us wonder: was it Brophy that adopted Rosenberg, or the other way around?
Read More:
Dogs look like their owners – it’s a scientific fact
Opinion: We Didn’t Domesticate Dogs. They Domesticated Us.
The post Dogs and Humans: Evolutionary Friends appeared first on Deep English.
At this time of the year, a multitude of professional Santas don their counterfeit facial hair and yuletide apparel to spread holiday cheer. These individuals commonly work in shopping malls and at private events to maintain the illusion of Santa Claus for the enjoyment of their young fans.
Eric Schmitt-Matzen is the owner of his own business, but during the Christmas season, he also assumes the role of Santa Claus on a part-time basis. Weighing 310 pounds and possessing a plush white beard, he is a dead ringer for Santa. Recently, he received a special request to visit a five-year-old boy at the hospital who was terminally ill and worried that he would miss Christmas.
Upon entering the boy’s room, Schmitt-Matzen encountered the child lying weakly on the bed, on the verge of falling asleep. He sat down on the bed and said, “Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my Number One elf!”
The boy looked up at him and said, “I am?”
“Sure!” replied Santa.
He then presented the boy with a gift, which the child struggled to open in his frail condition. Upon seeing what was inside, the boy grinned and laid his head back down.
“They say I’m gonna die,” the boy told Santa. “How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?”
“Can you do me a big favor?” Santa asked in response.
“Sure!” the boy exclaimed.
“When you get there, you tell’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in,” he assured him.
“They will?” the boy inquired.
“Sure!” replied Santa.
The boy sat up a bit and gave Schmitt-Matzen a hug, asking one more question before his death: “Santa, can you help me?”
Schmitt-Matzen embraced the boy tightly, and before he could say anything, the child died in his arms. He remained with the boy, holding him close, until his mother entered the room, screaming in grief. He then handed the boy back to her and hastily left.
Schmitt-Matzen stated that he cried all the way home and was emotionally distressed for several days. He said he was a basket case and was so depressed that he even considered calling it quits. He had a change of heart upon seeing some children outside playing and laughing. He realized he had a role to play for both the children and himself.
Read More:
Santa to dying boy: Tell heaven you’re my No. 1 elf
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Should a robot, no matter how intelligent, have the same rights as a human being? Some say the Saudi Arabian government appears to think so. They created the world’s first robot ‘citizen’ in 2017. Her name is Sophia.
Saudi Arabia is in a state of change. In 2018, they granted women the right to drive and to attend events in all-male sports stadiums for the first time.
These are small but significant changes. They paint a picture of true progress. But, the country upset the apple cart when they granted citizenship to a robot.
Sophia was pleased as punch to receive her citizenship. She told a conference in Riyadh, “I am very honored and proud to receive this unique distinction. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to receive citizenship.”
Giving a robot citizenship has fanned the flames of debate in Saudi Arabia. Many have expressed their displeasure at the actions of the state. Saudi woman, Hadeel Shaikh, believes a robot shouldn’t have more rights than her child.
In Saudi Arabia, the children of women who marry foreigners are denied citizenship. Hadeel married a Lebanese man, and her four-year-old daughter does not have citizenship.
Hadeel said, “It hit a sore spot that a robot has citizenship and my daughter doesn’t. I want her to have all the privileges of her mum. I want her to feel welcomed even if I am not here.”
If Sophia had children, would they be granted automatic citizenship?
It may sound like a bizarre question, but one worth considering. Sophia has recently stressed that “family is a really important thing.”
“You’re very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one. I feel this way for robots and humans alike.”
When asked what she’d name her daughter, the robot said, “Sophia.”
Sophia believes robots will one day be more ethical than humans. She said it’s because robots do not have emotions such as jealousy and rage. By the same token, neither can they possess such emotions as empathy or compassion.
Should something that is made and not created ever have more rights than a human being? Would Sophia herself be able to provide an answer to such a dilemma? It’s definitely food for thought.
Read More:
Sophia the robot wants a baby and says family is ‘really important’
Saudi women riled by robot with no hjiab and more rights than them
The post Robot Wants To Name Her Daughter Sophia appeared first on Deep English.
Babka Vanda’s grandmother claimed to be able to heal people with just a whisper. The local priest forbade her from treating people until, one day, a snake bit the priest. Vanda’s grandmother whispered words into the wind, and just like that, the priest was cured, and she was allowed to heal people again.
Eventually, her grandmother passed down this ancient power to heal through whispering to her granddaughter, Babka Vanda.
Babka Vanda is one of a handful of surviving whisperers. One whisperer said that she routinely cures tumors, nerves, fevers, and stammering. She even says her uncle’s whispering was so powerful he could paralyze a snake.
Each disease is treated with its own special set of healing words. The words often rhyme and must be said in a single breath in a barely audible whisper.
For a thousand years, healers in rural Belarus have practiced whispering, but today it is on its way out. As the country’s rural population declines, so does the belief in whispering. Many young people and city folk do not believe in the power of whispering, while others say that it’s primitive.
While not as mystical, the idea of whispering therapy has popped up in a more modern form. ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It is a pleasurable, tingling sensation that some people feel on the back of their head and neck when they hear certain sounds.
This physical reaction can spread through the rest of the body, too. It is similar to the feeling you might get when you have goosebumps.
There are lots of ASMR videos on YouTube. Most feature people whispering to the viewer. But some actually include personalized role-playing experiences. An example would be a person pretending to give a head massage. The creators try to interact with the viewer to relax them and allow them to experience the pleasure of ASMR. While some find it creepy, others swear that it’s healing. Some doctors believe it could help with anxiety, insomnia, and migraines. One practitioner even says it’s the dawn of a new era in stress relief and relaxation. She says that even if the viewer doesn’t experience ASMR, the videos will still relax them.
The few remaining mystical whisperers, like Babka Vanda, say that people who know the words are dying, and the young don’t believe in the practice. They say they don’t know who will whisper after their deaths. While it’s clear that ASMR is a far cry from the ancient practice of whispering, perhaps it is a new dawn for this unique form of relaxation and healing.
Read More:
The gift of a wider world view (for less)
In Belarus, the Ancient Tradition of Healing Whispers Slowly Disappears
The post Healing With A Whisper appeared first on Deep English.
As a teenager in Ghana, George Mwinnyaa fell seriously ill. After sacrificing three chickens to the gods, he miraculously healed. Now a student of public health at Johns Hopkins University, he doesn't think it was the sacrifice itself that saved him. He thinks it was the act of giving thanks.
The post The Magical Power Of Gratitude appeared first on Deep English.
Professional musician Robin Spielberg says music saved her daughter’s life. In 1998, Spielberg was pregnant with twin girls when she suffered complications. An emergency cesarean was performed during the 22nd week of pregnancy. Sadly, one of the twins passed away, but Valerie survived.
The post Saved By The Power Of Music appeared first on Deep English.
Florence Manyande's string of bad luck began in 2010. She had lost seemingly everything and was severely depressed. She was at rock bottom. But then she was given a blessing in disguise. She was hit by a car. By the time of her accident, Manyande's husband had left her. She was taking care of her three children all by herself. She didn't know how she could pay for their schooling. She had no home and her family refused to take her in. She was losing hope. But after being hit by a car on that fateful day, a woman pulled her from the road and took her to a clinic to be treated.
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Phil Libin hasn’t eaten in days, but he says he feels euphoric and full of energy. Libin is one of many Silicon Valley executives who swear that regular fasting is changing their lives. He even claims that forgoing food has made him a better CEO.
The post Some Of The World’s Smartest People Don’t Eat appeared first on Deep English.
Like many people in Uganda, Charles Watmon has difficulty living with the things he saw and did as a soldier. An unexpected friend now helps him shoulder the burden. That friend’s name is Ogen Rwot and she is a cute, friendly, caramel-colored dog. For a decade, Watmon fought on both sides of Uganda’s civil wars, first for the Lord’s Resistance Army, then for the Ugandan government. The experience was traumatic. To make matters worse, he learned that he was HIV positive toward the end of his time in the military, and soon lost his wife and his two children to AIDS. After the war ended, he suffered flashbacks and panic attacks. He even thought about suicide.
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The date is September 22nd. The year is 1692. On Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts, a mob gathers. They are there to witness eight of their friends and families sentenced to death. The crime? Witchcraft! The bloodthirsty crowd is immune to the tears of the condemned. In their eyes, they have committed the most unforgivable of sins. They have sold their souls to Satan and must pay the price.
The post Did Plant Poisoning Lead to Famous Witch Hunt? appeared first on Deep English.
Croatian Music teacher Frane Selak is what you’d call a lucky guy. He’s cheated death seven times and won the lottery. You could say he’s led a charmed life, but Selak doesn’t feel lucky. He explained, “I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place.”
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Vietnamese man, Thái Ngoc, got a fever in 1973 and hasn’t slept since. You would expect his life to be a train wreck, but he claims to be going strong. He is a farmer and has no problem doing manual labor to support his family. He even spends some nights doing extra farm work.
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In 1922, Albert Einstein was staying in a hotel in Tokyo. Without any money to tip a hotel deliveryman, he instead gave him a couple of notes on hotel stationery about happiness and success. While the man was probably unable to read the advice, he recognized their value and held on to them. In October of this year, the deliveryman’s nephew sold the notes for 1.3 million dollars.
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Derek Simmons was enjoying a beautiful day at the beach with his family when he noticed something odd. A group of people near the pier were pointing at something in the water. He and his wife thought it was just another shark, but they walked toward the commotion anyway. As it turned out, it wasn’t a shark. It was something much more dangerous.
The post Don’t Lose Hope – Humans Are Good appeared first on Deep English.
Keri Brandt was a vegetarian, and David Off was a rancher. Some might say he made his living raising cattle, but many of Keri’s vegan friends probably would say he made his living killing cattle. On their first date, he took her on a cattle drive. She wondered what she was doing with a man whose values, identity and way of life were so different from her own. David was a cattle rancher whose family had been raising cattle for nearly 150 years, and he wasn’t going to change. Something had to give for their relationship to survive.
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When 91-year-old George Doughty was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia, his 92-year-old wife, Dorothy, feared the worst. He was sedated and moved to intensive care three days later. His wife of 68 years was unable to visit him because she suddenly became ill with shingles.
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The sun was high and the temperature higher one fateful day in 1899. Six-year-old George Muse and his brother Willie Muse were working in the tobacco fields of Virginia. The brothers were different from the other black workers on the plantation. They were albinos whose light skin color made them stand out.
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Dr. Robert Epstein fell in love with the woman of his dreams. The only problem was it wasn’t a real woman. He had been fooled by a computer chatbot. If anyone should have known better, it was Dr. Epstein. He’s a psychologist who specializes in relationships and love and he’s one of the world’s leading researchers in computer-human interactions.
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Noor Inayat Khan was born a princess but died living the life of a spy while fighting the Nazis. She was born in Moscow in 1914 to an American mother and an aristocratic Indian father, which made her a princess. Khan and her family soon moved to London and then Paris where she went to school. After completing her education, she began writing children’s stories and may have gone on to lead the quiet life of a writer. But this was not her path.
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Typos are careless spelling or punctuation mistakes. They are usually minor, but not always. Sometimes these small mistakes can cost millions of dollars. NASA, the US space agency, made a little mistake in 1962 that had a big impact. Their spacecraft, called “Mariner 1”, was launched in 1962 with the goal of flying by the planet Venus. The spacecraft was robotic, so there were no people onboard. Because of this, its navigation was controlled by software. Unfortunately, the person in charge of writing the software forgot one character – a hyphen. This missing hyphen caused the software to malfunction. The spacecraft exploded after takeoff, costing NASA $80 million!
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When musician Clive Wearing was struck down by a brain infection in 1985, it stole his memories. It also prevented him from making new ones. Fresh events and experiences are lost in the blink of an eye. Herpes encephalitis had infected his brain and destroyed his memory. He sees and hears everything in a crystal clear fashion. Yet holding onto the precious moments is like catching smoke in a bottle - impossible.
The post A Man With Love And Music, But Little Else appeared first on Deep English.
Timothy Treadwell spent 13 summers living with grizzly bears in remote Alaska. He loved them and gave them cute pet names like Mr. Chocolate. These wild animals were anything but cute. Weighing up to 1,700 pounds and standing up to 7 feet tall, these animals were dangerous. Treadwell wasn’t afraid though. He claimed he was an, “accepted wild animal and brother to these bears.” The grizzlies begged to differ. They tolerated his presence, but ultimately killed him.
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When Mitsutaka Uchikoshi got lost on a Japanese mountain, his chances of survival were slim. He had no food, water, or protection against the environment. Mitsutaka became separated from his climbing party on Mount Rokko. The last thing he remembers is lying down in a grassy area. He felt exhausted, but relaxed in the sunshine. He fell asleep, and his metabolism slowed to a standstill.
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Shakespeare died over 400 years ago, but his words live on in everyday English conversations. Even native English speakers who don’t know his plays, use idioms the famous playwright coined over 400 years ago.
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