Science & Environment - The last place on Earth without human noise. Is there anywhere left utterly free of man-made sound?
In the first of a series for BBC Future called Last Place on Earth, Rachel Nuwer sets out to find havens where silence still rules – but discovers that avoiding civilisation’s clatter is harder than it seems. In fact, there’s one human noise you will never escape. A special kind of noisiness accosts passengers waiting for New York City subways. Down there, sound levels regularly exceed 100 decibels – enough to damage a person’s hearing over time. It was on one such platform that George Foy, a journalist and New York University creative writing professor, suddenly found himself losing it one day, when four trains pulled in at once. It was then that his obsession to find the quietest place on Earth began. Health - Are we born good or evil? Do humans have an innate sense of morality?
If so, where does it exist in the brain and how did it get there? BBC’s Horizon shows how scientists looking into the minds of babies and criminals are rewriting our ideas of right and wrong. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, David Berkowitz – these men were notorious killers. Health - Why do we laugh when we are tickled? What is it about a tickle that makes us giggle?
And why can’t we tickle ourselves? Greg Foot explains all. When you're touched, the nerve endings under your top layer of skin, or epidermis, send electrical signals to the brain. When we are tickled the somatosensory cortex picks up the signals to do with pressure, but the anterior cingulated cortex also analyses the signals. This part of the brain governs pleasurable feelings. Evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists believe that we laugh when we are tickled because the part of the brain that tells us to laugh when we experience a light touch, the hypothalamus, is also the same part that tells us to expect a painful sensation.
Tin: What the world owes this dull grey metal. Tin wouldn't come anywhere near the top of most people's list of the most important elements, yet the history of our species is very closely entwined with this dull grey metal.
Tin was the basis of man's first great technological revolution. Thanks to its low melting point, this relatively abundant metal was one of the first to be smelted - by placing a rock into a fire. Telecom billing complaints rise - Consumer Life - CBC Player. How to Read Body Language. Key Points Look for emotional cues, such as crying, anger, or embarrassment.
More ↓Look for physical cues to determine the status of a relationship. ↓Learn how to read eyes and body language for attraction cues. ↓Study a person's eyes, facial expressions, and body language to read specific cues, such as power. Steps. Reading her body language: Is she interested - Syncrat Publishing. When it comes to body language, it does not matter whether she is interested in you.
You will attract her attention if you do not play it too needy. If you look out for these signs, you will be able to tell if you are making progress. It also makes for interesting watching whena guy is trying so hard, but the lady is showing no signs of interest. Does doing yoga make you a Hindu? 20 November 2013Last updated at 19:27 ET By William Kremer BBC World Service.
The engineer who fixed his own heart and others too. 19 November 2013Last updated at 20:25 ET By Smitha Mundasad Health reporter, BBC News Tal Golesworthy on how he engineered a solution to treat his heart condition As an engineer, Tal Golesworthy is no stranger to taking things apart, figuring out what the trouble is and putting them back together with the problem solved.
But for more than 30 years, he lived with a life-threatening issue that was less easy to fix. That is, until he took an idea from the garden, combined it with some basic procedures borrowed from the aeronautical industry and came up with a "beautifully simple" solution to treat his own heart condition. He then managed to convince surgeons to put it into him. Capital - Should I buy it? Job Interviews: What's the craziest thing you ever said (or did) at an interview and still got the job. Venezuela seizes toilet paper factory to avoid shortage. 21 September 2013Last updated at 06:01 GMT A nationwide toilet paper shortage in May led to panic-buying in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas The Venezuelan government has taken over a toilet paper factory to avoid any scarcity of the product.
The National Guard has taken control of the plant, and officers will monitor production and distribution. Capital - Why cable companies deserve our scorn. Top managers in cable and satellite companies are the Henry Fords of modern times — Ford famously said of his cars: “You could have any colour you wanted so long as it was black.”
Cable television purveyors sell packages of channels, representing pre-selected bundles of content that maximize their revenue — and for many customers, anger. Norway PM Jens Stoltenberg works as secret taxi driver. 11 August 2013Last updated at 11:34 ET Mr Stoltenberg said it was the first time he had driven for eight years Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg spent an afternoon working incognito as a taxi driver in Oslo, he has revealed. Mr Stoltenberg said he had wanted to hear from real Norwegian voters and that taxis were one of the few places where people shared their true views.
Abraham Maslow and the pyramid that beguiled business. The psychologist Abraham Maslow's theory of human motivation is 70 years old but continues to have a strong influence on the world of business. What is it, and is it right? There is a commonly reproduced symbol which many believe holds the secret to personal fulfilment and business success. It usually takes the form of a triangle, but variants in the shape of 3D pyramids and staircases are not uncommon.
It regularly appears in university psychology modules, and may pop up in other degree courses too. On management training courses it's as inevitable as biscuits and role-playing. In 1943, the US psychologist Abraham Maslow published a paper called A Theory of Human Motivation, in which he said that people had five sets of needs, which come in a particular order. Florence tomb opened in quest to find 'Mona Lisa' 10 August 2013Last updated at 09:28 GMT The tomb, opened for the first time, held vases and bones Scientists in the Italian city of Florence have opened a tomb to extract DNA they hope will identify the model for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The tomb contains the family of Lisa Gherardini, a silk merchant's wife who is believed to have sat for the artist. Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war gaming. 2 August 2013Last updated at 19:17 ET By Trevor Timpson BBC News Illustrated London News picture from 1913, showing Wells measuring a move with string It is a century since HG Wells published the first proper set of rules for hobby war games.
There's a hardcore of gamers who are still playing in his style. Pine tips are stuck in the grass to represent trees. Roads are laid out with trails of compost. This is the Battle of Gettysburg, with Union soldiers on one side and Confederates on the other. Latifa Nabizada - Afghanistan's first woman of the skies. 18 June 2013Last updated at 23:30 GMT Latifa Nabizada often shares her cockpit with her daughter - "She has grown up in a helicopter," she says Col Latifa Nabizada, the first female pilot in the Afghan air force, has battled prejudice, the Taliban and personal tragedy - but her ambitions for her young daughter soar even higher. My sister and I always talked about the stars and the universe. Culture - The drive-in at 80: What next for an American icon? The American drive-in was born eight decades ago. Is Ecuador home to the world's best chocolate? 10 things we didn't know last week. 1. The French had no official word for French kissing… until now.
Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes. DSM-5: What's in a name? Codifying mental illness. Health - Can city farms feed a hungry world? There will be billions more hungry people in 2050. Growing our food on vertical farms or under radical new lighting systems may be key to ensuring they have enough to eat. The uneven charm of Rome's cobblestones. Obituary: India's 'human computer' Shakuntala Devi. 22 April 2013Last updated at 02:43 ET. The scissor-maker that has cut through Chinese history. 21 April 2013Last updated at 23:01 GMT By John Sudworth BBC, Shanghai. The most worthless coin in the world. How do you count Catholics? Why spend $250,000 on a gold shirt? CF-18 pilots on standby to escort Santa across Canada - Montreal. The world's oldest clove tree. Traffic Calming: What does it say about us? Nikola Tesla: The patron saint of geeks? France's ancient Alesia dispute rumbles on. Anglo-Indians: Is their culture dying out? Kabaddi and its unlikely stars, England.
Viewpoint: Mosh pits and lessons for life. Illegal mince pies and other UK legal legends. The castaway who annoyed Churchill. Aesop's ABC. Spitting and urinating chimps 'replay Aesop's fable' High Blood Pressure Causes, Symptoms, Treatment - High Blood Pressure Symptoms on eMedicineHealth.