HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

A study published in 2005 concluded that circumcision reduced HIV infection risk in heterosexual men by about 60%, according to the BBC. That’s not all. The boffins who conducted the study also made a mathematical model where the programmed scenario is that over the next 10 years, all men in sub-Saharan Africa were circumcised. The output is quoted below:

They calculated that within a decade some two million new HIV infections and 300,000 deaths could be prevented. And in the ten years after that, a further 3.7 million infections and 2.7 million deaths could be avoided - with one in four of the deaths prevented being in South Africa.

Interesting… What’s your take on this finding?

Results of a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente concludes that drinking coffee protects alcohol drinkers from developing liver-related diseases.

Of course, this study is not the first to come to such conclusions. I remember similar research regarding correlation between alcohol vs coffee consumption. However, do not assume that it’s the caffeine that’s providing this “protection”. Apparently, even after conducting this study, the researchers are still unsure of the element that’s causing this, however they’re absolutely certain that it’s not caffeine.

So, for swillers reading this… get your daily dose of coffee now.

It’s amazing how the sensory abilities of animals continue to amaze. It’s been discovered recently that labradors have the ability to detect the polycarbonates, lacquers and resins used in DVDs by scent.

Unsuprising enough, the study that led to this discovery was initiated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the U.K.-based Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). However, the dogs can’t differenciate between pirated and legit DVDs… yet.

Jakob Nielsen wrote about how web content is read based on a study he conducted. His summary is as follows:

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

Read the rest of Web Site Reading Heatmap Published »

According to the findings of research conducted by Laura E. Schulz, assistant professor of cognitive science from MIT, the way children play and explore suggests that they believe cause-and-effect relationships in the world are governed by fundamental laws rather than by mysterious forces.

To be honest, I’m suprised that they’ve only discovered the connection now. Spending quite a bit of my life around toddlers, I’ve always been amused by how quickly they implement a systematic decision making process based on experience. Children seem to be born scientists. They look for patterns of similarities and structure their actions based on what seems (to them) would be the most favourable outcome… Not that I can confirm from my interviews with them, the toddlers seem to have a higher level language compared to us adults which is, sad to say, unintelligible to me.

Sad to see this skill seem to deteriorate as they get older. Even sadder to see are those who end up being politicians. Everybody knows that a requirement of being a politician is to defy logic and scientific approaches to overcome a problem and just choose what seems to be the most popular choice, regardless of how stupid it is.