Month: December 2016

Enlarge / One ufologist found a Borg cube feeding off the Sun. (credit: UFO Sightings Daily)

As the federal agency at the forefront of exploring outer space, NASA winds up being the front door for all manner of alien conspiracies. And so every year, to find out what the miscreants at the space agency have been keeping from the good, honest people of America, we like to google the phrase "NASA hiding."

2016 did not disappoint.

Aliens at the Space Station

Ever popular is the notion that the space agency manipulates the cameras aboard the International Space Station to prevent ufologists from identifying their quarry. This tired notion popped up again during 2016 when NASA cut a live video feed from the station in July.

Genes and sensitivity to environmental cues both contribute to obesity, but the relationship between these two is not well understood. A recent paper published in PNAS shows that children who have a genetic predisposition for obesity have a different neurological response to food, as well as larger reward centers. These two findings suggest that at least some of the genetic predisposition for obesity works by altering brain structures that respond to food.

The study looked at children who have a genetic variant that has been associated with obesity risk. People with this genetic variant tend to have a high body fat percentage and BMI. Scientists suspect that the gene also influences food intake and choices, but not exercise habits. Based on previous work, the researchers behind the new paper theorize that this gene influences brain functions.

The authors recruited 78 children between the ages of nine and 12 for their study. These participants were all screened for the obesity-related genetic variant. Nineteen of the participants were considered high-risk because they had two copies of the variant. Thirty-seven had only one copy, and 22 did not have it at all; both of these groups were considered low-risk. The children were all asked to watch-age appropriate television that was interrupted with both regular and food-related commercials.

The holiday shopping season may be officially over, but Amazon created another way for people to spend money before 2017 begins. The online retailer announced Digital Day, a 24-hour sales event on its website where you can save on all kinds of digital downloads including video games, movies, music, and comics. The event starts at 12am PST on Friday, December 30.

According to Amazon's Digital Day promotional page, savings will be as big as 80 percent off "hundreds" of video game titles, 75 percent off digital comics, and more. While details on specific deals have not yet been released, there are images of video game and movie titles including FIFA 17, Destiny, and The Lego Movie, as well as other items like Marvel comics and H&R Block tax software under an "Upcoming Deals" header. Those savings will go live when the event starts, and Amazon may structure Digital Day like Prime Day, which occurred in July, where different deals go live on Amazon.com at various times of the day.

Amazon is pushing Digital Day as a way to stock up on digital content for all your devices, including your smartphone, tablet, Kindle e-reader, and the like. Amazon likely wants to have another big sales day akin to Prime Day before the start of 2017, to test how well-received a post-Christmas deals event would be. Like any retailer, Amazon has discounted items before Christmas to attract holiday shoppers, but those deals end when the shopping season ends. Digital Day could be a way for Amazon to see how many customers want to spend a bit more after Christmas, particularly those who received new smartphones, tablets, and e-readers as gifts and now want to stock up on digital content.