health

The Tech Industry's Asperger Problem: Affliction Or Insult?

Ryan Tate · 03/01/12 10:00AM

Somewhere north of 15,000 American children are conservatively believed to be afflicted with Asperger Syndrome, a disorder characterized by obsessive and rigid behavior, poor communication skills, clumsiness, and a lack of empathy and reciprocity. Cases of Asperger's and a related disorder, autism, exploded in Silicon Valley over the past 20 years, according to state-funded outreach workers — an assertion that will come as no shock to users familiar with pedantic, apathetic, tight-lipped and self-serving tech companies. How, exactly, does Asperger's work, and has it had a material impact on how the technology sector relates to its customers? Below, find a quick guide to those questions, and a look at why one of the Valley's most famously infuriating pedants, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is rumored to have it.

This Dude's Dented Head Was Fixed With Fat from His Own Stomach

Max Read · 02/29/12 05:58PM

Meet Tim Barter, a 32-year-old British "visual effects director" who sustained a 25-foot fall in 2009 and had the resulting dent in his head with a titanium plate and stomach fat by doctors at Kings College Hospital. (I've got a call in to see if they can turn stomach fat into biceps. I'll let you all know.) On the downside, one side effect is that you end up looking like someone who was on Australian Big Brother. [HuffPo]

What Kind of Crap Should Be in School Vending Machines?

Hamilton Nolan · 02/21/12 12:05PM

Are school vending machines causing obesity amongst America's youth? Haha, haha, yeah right. Eating one dozen Cadbury "Creme" eggs in the closet at midnight while typing furiously on Twitter is causing obesity amongst America's youth. Still, every little calorie saved helps, when it comes to our corn-syrup-addicted children. The government is setting new guidelines for what can be in school vending machines. What (vending machine) food should be put on (the kids in) our families (in school)?

Should We All Be Doing Inhalable Caffeine, or What?

Hamilton Nolan · 02/20/12 09:47AM

The FDA is going to investigate whether the "Aeroshot" canisters of inhalable caffeine are actually safe. When you hear about widely available and totally unregulated drugs like this that are available with absolutely no medical supervision whatsoever to any kid who wanders into a convenience store, it makes you ask: is that stuff any good?

Exercise Is the Only Fitness Option That Doesn't Make You Dumb

Hamilton Nolan · 02/17/12 12:33PM

Good news for everyone out there who's been called a "meathead" or a "doofus" or a "Jersey boy" or a "oxbrain" or a "big dumb galoot" simply because you enjoy lifting weights at the gymnasium: modern research shows that all types of exercise "ward off a host of cognitive impairments and enhances brainpower all life long." Which is good, because everything else designed to prevent you from being fat will, sadly, also make you dumb.

Activities Better for Your Health than Investment Banking

Hamilton Nolan · 02/15/12 04:05PM

Oh-oh, a new study of entry-level investment bankers finds the young masters of the universe afflicted with "insomnia, alcoholism, heart palpitations, eating disorders and an explosive temper." And that's the young ones. Why destroy yourself like that? There are lots of safer activities than investment banking.

How to Walk

Hamilton Nolan · 02/14/12 11:09AM

Wacky hippies in the wacky hippie enclave of Denver are encouraging their fellow moonbeam-gazing residents of Marijuanaville to do something a little strange: walk places. On their feet. What's more: even you, The Average American, can get involved in this quirky newfangled hobby. But how?

Catholic Leaders: Providing Birth Control to People in Need Raises "Serious Moral Concerns"

Louis Peitzman · 02/11/12 05:44PM


Well, this isn't exactly surprising. Under pressure from the religious right, Barack Obama made a concession about birth-control insurance coverage — while religious employers will not have to offer free contraceptives to workers, the insurers themselves will have to. It's a compromise he shouldn't have had to make in the first place, and Catholic Church officials (along with prominent Republic leaders) are being dicks about it, anyway.

As the Economy Lifts, So Do Wrinkled Faces

Louis Peitzman · 02/11/12 02:41PM


Plastic surgery is on the rise — and so is the economy, maybe. USA Today's Healthy Perspective blog has a story about an increase in breast implants, tummy tucks, face lifts, and the like. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimates 1.6 million cosmetic surgeries in 2011. This is good news for the nippers and tuckers, who were once concerned the crappy economy was making plastic surgery a thing of the past. So things are looking up for all of us, right?

Responses to Emails About Our Definitive Scientific Ranking of Sports and Fitness Activities

Hamilton Nolan · 02/10/12 05:30PM

Earlier this week we brought you the Definitive Ranking of Each and Every Sport and Fitness Activity. We noted at the time that there is no appealing the rankings, because they are based on a very complex scientific formula that we won't go into here because it's probably over your head. Nevertheless, we received feedback on the list, in the form of emails from people with poor reading comprehension.