Wall Street Hedge

Friday, January 15, 2021
Log in
  • Home
  • Nation & Politics
  • Financial News
  • Technology & Research
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Latest News
      • Business
      • Nature
      • Science
      • World
      • VA Hospitals Are Still Under Investigation for Suspected Drug Thefts

Strange Sunburn Remedy Goes Viral and Doctors Confirm It Might Actually Work

June 29, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Shaving brush after being dipped into a bowl full of shaving foam

A woman suggested shaving foam might work against sunburns

Last week, a Facebook post went viral offering a really unusual sunburn remedy. The woman from Texas posted before-and-after photos of her sunburnt back and suggested that menthol shaving foam did all the miraculous work. Although it sounds strange, several doctors could confirm the hack might work.

The woman suggested shaving foam as a sunburn remedy

Cindie Allen-Stewart, a 34-year-old mother from Texas, wanted to share with everyone her strange but incredibly effective sunburn remedy. The woman posted on Facebook three photos showing the progress of her sunburn treatment. At first, she displayed her sunburnt back with bra straps traces. In the second one, her back was covered in shaving foam, while the third showed how the sunburn was gone.

It turns out the miraculous sunburn remedy was nothing more than a menthol shaving foam. Apparently, her husband suggested she should try it, after his mother had informed him a doctor recommended the remedy to her a long time ago. People were surprised at the effects, so they shared the post over 223,480 times.

Doctors confirmed the sunburn remedy might work for mild cases

Apparently, the Texas mother has been using this method for ten years now. She explained you should apply the shaving foam on the sunburnt area and let it sit for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, it starts dissolving, so you should start experiencing a cooling effect. You should notice the foam is working after at least one day, but you can repeat the process if needed.

Several thousands of people were impressed by this life hack, but many were skeptical. Therefore, doctors stepped in to confirm or infirm the fact. It turns out menthol-based shaving cream can really be effective. These products are both cooling and have anti-inflammatory properties, so they might be good with sunburns.

However, doctors say you should still be careful. Shaving cream is good for mild cases of sunburn. If your skin is way too inflamed or has blisters, the cooling effect of menthol won’t do too much good.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

The Spanish Google Home Might Be a Serious Blow for Amazon Alexa

June 27, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Google Home speaker placed on a wooden shelf

The Spanish Google Home is the perfect strategy for the US market

Google made another exciting announcement today which is great for its Spanish-speaking users. By taking a step above other smart devices, Google Home has now activated its support for Spanish. This isn’t only an attempt to accommodate the more diverse users in the US. The Spanish Google Home is now ready to hit the international market, gaining a powerful advantage over Amazon.

The Spanish Google Home is perfect for the US market

To everyone’s excitement, Google has just introduced its Spanish Google Home that can listen and answer commands in Spanish. This is the first smart device that can understand a different language than English, putting the company at the top on the smart speaker market. This might bring the device outside US, as it will soon be available in Spanish-speaking countries.

Google isn’t the top company in terms of smart speaker sale yet. However, it might have found the perfect strategy to win the US market. Today, there is a huge number of people in the US who speak Spanish as their first language. Google thought it might be easier for them to use a smart device in their native tongue, so it brought the Spanish Google Home.

Google wants to teach its smart assistant more languages

Amazon is the top smart speaker in the US and has support for several languages. Apart from English, it can also understand German, and the latest addition is Japanese. However, it cannot speak Spanish, so Google really performed a smart move. In fact, it also came with a great promise.

Google wants to turn its smart assistant into a polyglot, so it promised it would add 30 more languages to its portfolio. Apart from the newly added Spanish, it also had support for German, Italian, French, and Japanese. With this expansion, Google plans to also expand its sales on a broader market. On top of that, Google also wants to let speakers switch between languages while talking to the smart assistant.

The Spanish Google Home is definitely a great marketing move for the company on the US market. If this multilingual attempt is successful, Google might soon surpass Amazon and become the best-selling smart device in the industry.

Image source: Pexels

Filed Under: Technology & Research

NASA Made Public Its Plan to Keep Earth Safe from Asteroids

June 21, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Asteroid floating alone in space

NASA’s plan to keep Earth safe from asteroids includes five goals

We never know when an asteroid appears from nowhere and hits our planet, causing great damages. It might be impossible to avoid such a collision, but we can at least minimize the disaster. Since we should always be ready for such an event, NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) devised a plan to stay safe from asteroids.

NASA devised a strategy and goals to stay safe from asteroids

Asteroid impacts are quite unlikely, but we still need a plan to follow in case something like this happens. This week, NASA presented its strategy to stay safe from asteroids, including five main goals that should protect our planet. The plan in question is titled “National Near-Earth-Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan”.

These goals start with improving the asteroid detection system and, then, being able to predict the exact point they would hit. Afterwards, there’s still something left to do to keep Earth safe from asteroids. NASA needs to improve our technologies against near-Earth objects, so that we might avoid or at least minimize the damage.

The danger is small, but it still exists

If asteroids of big proportions hit Earth, they can inflict a huge damage on our planet. However, the situation isn’t that bad. Since they are so big, NASA can detect them a lot more easily. It turns out it has already tracked all the potentially dangerous near-Earth objects, and none of them is even close to our planet at the moment.

However, this doesn’t mean it’s all over. Even smaller asteroids might produce a lot of damage, as previous events have showed us. From this category, there are more than 300,000 such small objects that might cause serious trouble. Since there are so many, it might be hard for NASA to spot all of them in time. Therefore, this plan is more than necessary to stay safe from asteroids for real.

Image source: NASA

Filed Under: Science

The Earth Atmosphere Hides Interstellar Particles Older than the Sun (Study)

June 12, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Comet as seen while traveling through space

Comets must have picked up the interstellar particles before the sun’s formation

Researchers have discovered some interesting interstellar particles present in our planet’s atmosphere that might have a tremendous age. These particles most likely come from comets that passed close to the sun and, most likely, are older than it. As these particles travel to the solar system, they eventually reach our atmosphere.

The interstellar particles are brought to our atmosphere by comets

There are many substances that make up the atmosphere, but interstellar particles sound the most unlikely. However, researchers identified such strange formations they later called GEMS. They are far from being actual gems, since the acronym comes from glass with embedded metal and sulfides.

This combination sounds extremely unlikely on Earth, as well as anywhere in our solar system. Therefore, researchers concluded they must make up interstellar particles coming from comets. As they enter our solar system, these formations pass next to the sun. The force pushes the particles away from the comets until they reach our atmosphere.

The interstellar particles in question are older than the sun

Silicate, as well as carbon and, to a certain extent, ice, must have formed the primordial solar system. As it evolved, the particles came together to form the planets. However, they all came into being after the sun. Comets, on the other hand, still preserve material that existed even before the sun, namely these interstellar particles.

In fact, the sun formed as a result of interstellar dust and gas. When the whole process occurred, all the interstellar particles around got destroyed. However, there was still time for the comets to come and pick up some of these materials before the formation of the sun.

Since they couldn’t have survived the birth of the sun, they must be older than it. Also, their composition says they must have formed in a cooler area, just like the dust cloud around the pre-sun. Therefore, all this evidence points to the ancient origin of the GEMS. The study on the matter was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image source: Pixabay

Filed Under: Science

Man Sues CVS for Leaking Information on His Viagra Prescription to His Wife

June 7, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Viagra pill placed on a white surface

A man from Long Island is suing CVS for disclosing his Viagra prescription

A man from Long Island issued a lawsuit against CVS, the pharmacy chain, accusing one of the workers at the facility of destroying his marriage. The man had a Viagra prescription he wanted to keep secret from his wife, so he told the workers not to mention it in front of her. One of the employees did, and the man is now suing the pharmacy chain for negligence and mental health damage.

The man wanted his Viagra prescription to stay secret

Michael Feinberg received a Viagra prescription from his doctor, but was afraid this would affect his relationship with his wife. Therefore, when he went to CVS to buy his medicine, he told the employees at the pharmacy he was ashamed. He wanted to keep the entire affair private and didn’t want the Viagra prescription to appear on the statement of his health insurance.

The man actually wanted to keep the Viagra prescription secret from his wife. However, one of the workers at the pharmacy seems to have disregarded Feinberg’s request. Some time after the incident, the wife in question called CVS to talk about a different prescription.

Now, he is suing CVS for the end of his marriage

The man claims one of these workers told the woman about his problem, which led to many other problems. Feinberg’s marriage was over shortly afterwards, and he blames the pharmacy employee for it. He says that, if his wife hadn’t known of his disfunction, their marriage would have survived.

As a result, he sued CVS for violating his privacy. He brought into discussion the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, claiming that employees need permission from the patient before revealing private information. He called his wife a third party who had no right to find out of his secret Viagra prescription.

Therefore, in the lawsuit, he accused CVS of negligence that caused him serious mental and emotional injury. The pharmacy chain commented on the incident and said it had always put first the privacy of their patients. However, they made no specific comment on this situation.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Sea of Thieves Devs Announce the Official Release Date of the First DLC

May 18, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Sea of Thieves screenshot showing an underwater pirate

The Hungering Deep is the first Sea of Thieves DLC in a series of six

Two months have passed since Rare has released the exciting Sea of Thieves game, but this anniversary couldn’t go uncelebrated. Players have been impatiently waiting for Hungering Deep, an exclusive content update. Rare prepared a special surprise for them and has just announced the release of the DLC. This will take place on May 29th within the Inside Xbox event that happens every month.

Sea of Thieves gets its first DLC in a series of six

The Hungering Deep DLC is the first major update that Sea of Thieves will receive, but it’s definitely not going to be the last. All fans must have been thrilled by the news, but Rare didn’t want to satisfy their curiosity. There aren’t many details on the update, so we’ll have to wait until the release to find out more.

When asked about it, the devs said they wanted to keep updates as secretive as possible. This way, fans will be more engaged in the game and in discovering all the new elements as they are playing it. However, they still offered a few hints.

Rare wants to keep secret the best things of the DLC

The biggest hint is offered by the title itself, which suggest pirates should fear a mysterious creature lurking from the depths. There’s also a trailer and some images released, but they aren’t too generous. People could agree they could see teeth below the water, but it’s still not clear what is hidden there.

As mentioned above, Sea of Thieves will get even more DLCs throughout 2018. Rare has announced the release of six updates, and Hungering Deep is the first in the series. It also revealed the name of the next two that are planned for summer. These are Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores. Also, the first DLC will bring out a series of events for Sea of Thieves that will be out every week.

One last thing worth mentioning about Hungering Deep is the AI threats. From now on, each DLC will feature them, meaning that players will face dangerous encounters that should generate wholly new experiences and gameplay elements.

Image source: Flickr

Filed Under: Technology & Research

Researchers Review Calories and Find that Sugary Beverages Are the Worst (Study)

May 16, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Sodas arranged in a supermarket

Sugary beverages have the most damaging effect on our health

Calories can be of all types. Some of the are good, as they give us energy and keep things going, while others are bad. However, it seems the bad category has more subgroups as well, some calories are a lot worse for health than others. Sugary beverages occupy a special place in this last category, as they pose a huge threat on our well-being.

Sugary beverages have a damaging effect on health

A team of researchers from UC Davis have identified sugary beverages as the products with the highest number of bad calories. Any types of calories actually increase the obesity risk, as well as other metabolic disorders. However, these drinks can get even more dangerous.

For the study, researchers wanted to see if all types of calories produce the same risk of obesity and diseases. This way, they identified a series of diets and foods that are more dangerous for health, and all of them agreed sugary beverages are the most dangerous. When comparing them with other high-calorie foods, the effect of the drinks was a lot more damaging.

Not all calories are so bad as we thought

In terms of other damaging and non-damaging calories, they made some other interesting findings. For instance, many people think aspartame, a sugar substitute, can turn people fat, but it’s actually not true. This basically happens because the sweetener has no calories.

Non-saturated fats are also a lot better than saturated fats. The former are found in seeds, vegetables, and nuts, and have a beneficial effect on health. However, some foods are still healthy, although they contain plenty of saturated fats. This category includes cheese or yogurt.

The paper highlights the difficulty to interpret the effect of calories. While some of them are generally regarded as bad, they might not be so damaging. Also, others might have different effects that everyone thought. However, all researchers managed to reach a consensus. Just like everyone knows, sugary beverages are really dangerous, so avoid them as much as you can.

The study in question was published in the journal Obesity Reviews.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Tourists in Utah Throw Dinosaur Footprints in the Lake After Thinking They Are Rocks

May 11, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Dinosaur footprints left in sandstone

Tourists were often mistaking ancient dinosaur footprints for regular pieces of rock

People can cause serious trouble even when they have no intention to do so. Some tourists who visited the Red Fleet State Park in Utah mistook dinosaur footprints for regular rocks and threw them in the lake. It took the park officials some time to realize what was happening, and they are now urging everyone not to pick up anything from the dinosaur track.

People mistook the dinosaur footprints for regular rocks

Disturbing ancient fossils sounds like a bad thing to happen, especially in a place where there are hundreds of dinosaur footprints. Discarding of them counts as vandalism, even if this happens without the person’s knowledge of the origin of the rocks. Now, park rangers and officials have issued a serious announcement asking everyone to leave the fossils alone.

This is not the first time when people are mistaking dinosaur footprints for rocks. Tourists have always been disturbing the fossils and throwing them in the nearby lake. However, this behavior became even more common over the past six months.

Park officials took serious measures to stop tourists from discarding the tracks

During this time, park officials assumed about 10 dinosaur footprints were destroyed. Some of those were extremely old and had a huge scientific value, so they decided to take serious measures. They added new signs along the dinosaur track where they asked people not to pick up any rocks.

Most of these dinosaur footprints had been preserved in sandstone and were probably left by a theropod from Early Jurassic, Dilophosaurus. Red Fleet State Park was most probably a swamp during those times, and these creatures were among the biggest predators of the era. Later, theropods started growing even bigger.

These footprints aren’t fossils in the technical sense of the way, but the law of the state regards them as such. However, they can help scientists discover more about the creatures that left them, so they shouldn’t be destroyed. Getting into contact with water can cause permanent damage on them, so throwing them in the lake is the least recommended thing to do.

Image source: Flickr

Filed Under: Science

The Last Paper Written by Stephen Hawking Has Now Been Published in a Science Journal

May 4, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Stephen Hawking in a Cambridge stone hall

Hawking’s last paper presents an interesting theory on the multiverse

Stephen Hawking’s last paper has finally appeared in print and presents some theories on the Big Bang and the multiverse it created. This paper has been available on the internet since Hawking’s death, but it was submitted to the journal and awaited approval. Hawking wrote the paper in collaboration with a professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium, Thomas Hertog.

Hawking presented an interesting theory on the multiverse

One Big Bang theory claims our universe is actually part of a multiverse. This means that, when Big Bang happened, it created an infinity of universes. The same theory claims new ones keep appearing. However, such a huge number of universes makes quite a hard case for scientists. There are too many factors to consider, so it’s hard to tell why our universe ended up like this.

Hawking and Hertog cultivated the same idea. Its implications were that the multiverse actually evolved randomly, without a clear pattern, and this made the two scientists upset. Therefore, they put up this paper where they tried to reduce the number of universes. From all that are possible, they selected those who share some properties with our own.

The theory is really interesting, but it can’t be proved

There have been certain physical conditions available when the Big Bang occurred. These influenced the future properties of our universe as soon as it came into being after the Big Bang. Hawking and Hertog thought these properties might have materialized into other similar universes. By understanding this basic theory, we might learn more about this multiverse.

As soon as the paper went public, many people made suppositions that it could have earned Hawking the Nobel Prize. However, there are many who disagree. The theory indeed brings a new perspective on the multiverse and the birth of our own universe. However, all these claims cannot be verified at the moment. Since the two scientists didn’t discover how to find all these similar universes, the paper presents only speculations.

If you want to read Hawking’s last paper, you can find it in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

Image source: Flickr

Filed Under: Science

Veteran Undergoes the First Penis Transplant in the World

April 25, 2018 By Brian Phillips Leave a Comment

Surgery tools placed on a sterile piece of cloth

The man who underwent the penis transplant had lost the organ in combat

Soldiers often suffer the most terrible wounds, as they can lose important parts of their bodies. It’s really common for a veteran who has been through combat to lose his limbs or other important organs. After a man has lost his genitals during an attack with an improvised explosive device, a team of reconstructive surgeons from Johns Hopkins University performed the first penis transplant in the world.

The penis transplant came from a dead donor

The surgeons at Johns Hopkins University are well-known for performing some of the most unique transplants. For instance, this team was the first to restore a bilateral arm. Now, they were determined to fix a man’s penis and scrotum after he lost his genitalia during war. The surgeons hope this transplant will restore both his sexual and urinary functions.

On March 26th, the anonymous veteran underwent the penis transplant that brought together two urological surgeons and nine plastic surgeons. This procedure wouldn’t have been possible without the deceased person who donated the organs. The surgeons used the penis, a part of abdominal tissue, and the scrotum, leaving the testicles behind.

Just like any other transplant, the procedure came with many risks

So far, the recovery has gone well. Researchers have kept the man under close supervision, and he is about to leave the hospital sometime this week. He had to spend so much time to receive medical attention because the penis transplant hasn’t been an easy one.

A penis transplant can be a reconstructive procedure, meaning that the surgeons could have taken pieces of tissues from other parts of the man’s body. However, they needed a donated organ if they wanted to give the man the possibility to have erections in the future. Of course, this raises the risk of infection and rejection.

This is why all patients who undergo transplants need to stay in hospital and take an immunosuppressive treatment. This minimizes the risk of tissue rejection, and helps the new organ achieve its desired function a lot more quickly.

Image source: Pixabay

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 36
  • Next Page »

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 15 other subscribers

Recent Articles

AXA building in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Insurer AXA To Buy XL Group For $15 Billion

By Leave a Comment

New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

Wall Street Comes Out Intact As Global Stock Rise

By Leave a Comment

Ryanair profits are up despite threats of pilot strike.

Ryanair Profits Are Up But A New Pilot Strike May Be Around The Corner

By Leave a Comment

Bitcoin bubble may burst, analysts speculate.

Bitcoin Bubble Shows Signs Of Bursting

By Leave a Comment

One percent amassed 82 percent of the world's fortune last year.

82 Percent Of The World’s Wealth Went To The One Percent In 2017, According To Oxfam Report (Report)

By Leave a Comment

Morgan Stanley will be hit with a $1.25 billion charge as part of the new Republican tax cut.

Morgan Stanley To Be Hit With $1.25 Billion Charge From Republican Tax Reform

By Leave a Comment

General Electric Laboratory

High Demand For Renewable Forces General Electric To Slash 12 Thousand Jobs Worldwide

By Leave a Comment

Cryptocurrency bitcoin coins

Cryptocurrency Is Worth More Than JPMorgan, Bitcoin Raises Concerns

By Leave a Comment

Computer circuit board

Chipmaker Company, Marvell Technology, to Buy its Rival Cavium in $6 billion Deal

By Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner Will Cost Less This Year as Food Gets Cheaper

By Leave a Comment

Doctors in surgery

Vermont Is Preparing New Health Care System

By Leave a Comment

Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh

Saudi Arabia Has Just Bought Huge Stake in Uber

By Leave a Comment

No Agreement Yet on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

By Leave a Comment

Samsung Shareholders Approve Deal Which Sees Lee Family Gain More Control

By Leave a Comment

Categories

  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Financial News
  • Lifestyle & Health
  • Nation & Politics
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology & Research
  • World

Copyright © 2021 WallStreetHedge.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.