Hair, precious hair
"Men who want to hang on to their hair have many options, including medications and surgical transplants, says Dr. Marc Avram, hair transplant surgeon and clinical professor of dermatology at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York. The near future may even bring treatments that can end baldness forever – at least for people willing to pay the price," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The war against baldness is already expensive. Just one hair transplant operation can cost more than $10,000 [U.S.] or about $5 per transplanted hair. The International Society of Hair Restoration reports that surgeons performed more than 95,000 hair transplants in 2010. Do the math – hairlines are a gold mine."
Sheepherding rabbit
"An incredible video of a rabbit rounding up a flock of sheep on a Swedish farm has gone viral on YouTube," says Orange News U.K. "The maker of the video, who writes a blog on farming, heard about the bunny's unusual talent and went to the farm in the village of Ornskoldsvik to capture it on film. Champis the grey rabbit apparently picked up her skills from the farm's sheep dogs." The video shows the rabbit directing the sheep by hopping around them.
Minds and majors
"Results of a survey published by Princeton University researchers suggest that a family history of psychiatric conditions, such as autism and depression, could influence the subjects a person finds engaging," says Psych Central. "The Princeton researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 students from the university's class of 2014 early on in their freshman year to learn which major they would choose based on their intellectual interests. The students were then asked to indicate the incidence of mood disorders, substance abuse or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their family, including parents, sibling and grandparents. Students interested in pursuing a major in the humanities or social sciences were twice as likely to report that a family member had a mood disorder or a problem with substance abuse. Students with an interest in science and technical majors, on the other hand, were three times more likely to report a sibling with an ASD, a range of developmental disorders that includes autism and Asperger syndrome."
Open-minded seniors
"[T]ere persists an enduring belief that people get more conservative as they age. … Ongoing research, however, fails to back up the stereotype," says Discovery.com. "While there is some evidence that today's seniors may be more conservative than today's youth, that's not because older folks are more conservative than they used to be. Instead, our modern elders likely came of age at a time when the political situation favoured more conservative views. In fact, studies show that people may actually get more liberal over time when it comes to certain kinds of beliefs. That suggests that we are not predetermined to get stodgy, set in our ways or otherwise more inflexible in our retirement years. Contrary to popular belief, old age can be an open-minded and enlightening time."
Poverty on the way?
"The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to three billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday," Reuters reports. "As the world's population looks set to grow to nearly nine billion by 2040 from seven billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by three billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially. Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply."
The builder within
"It may be one of the most intriguing trends in home-building: do-it-yourself tiny homes," says The Wall Street Journal. "Amid a growing interest in eco-friendly lifestyles comes a spate of picture books capturing the joys of shoebox living. Among the first on the market this year is Lloyd Kahn's Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter, a quirky photo-rich book that preaches the benefits of a 'grassroots movement to scale things back.' It has already sold 5,200 copies in the U.S. and Canada since going on sale Jan. 15, making the title a genuine hit in a distinctly niche market. 'It's about fantasy,' said Jonas Kyle, one of the owners of Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers in Brooklyn, N.Y. … 'The appeal is that secretly most people would like to be in the country building their own little house,' Mr. Kyle says. 'There's a builder lurking inside everyone.' "
Thought du jour
"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after."
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-62), American author and philosopher