Nail Gun Safety

So apparently, there is concern about people in the US not knowing the safety precautions associated with the use of a nail gun upon purchase. Duke University conducted a study where researchers posed as consumers who were buying nail guns. They asked sales associates about how to use a nail gun as safely as possible to avoid injury. The majority of the employees either gave incorrect information to the researchers (75%) or didn't know anything about the nail gun at all (59%).

When I read this article, I was shocked to see the statistics surrounding the study. If this many people did not know any of the safety measures to take when handling nail guns, the number of nail gun-related hospital visits are going to increase. Also, if they didn't know any of the precautions to take when using a nail gun, what about other, more dangerous, home improvement tools? I think that in addition to knowing where certain items are in the store, the newly-hired employees should also be trained in the correct use of the tools to inform the consumers who are purchasing them.

The article can be viewed here:
http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/nailgunsoftensoldwithoutsafetyadvicestudy

What is Life?

Some characteristics of organisms that are considered "living" are:

the ability to reproduce/create viable subsequent generations
the ability to gain and use energy
the ability to undergo evolution in response to their surroundings

among other characteristics. With the case concerning viruses and proteins, it is debatable whether or not to call them alive or not. For sure, a living organisms has a set list of characteristics that labels it as being alive. However, with proteins and viruses, not all of the conditions may be met in order to label it as being one-hundred percent alive. For example, a certain type of virus might be composed of subunits that could be not defined as the traditional "cell". The similarities could or could not be convincing enough to consider them to be one in the same.

Three Diets for Three Blood Types

Hmm, okay, so apparently, there is a specialized diet out there that conducts how you eat based on your blood type (A, B, O, and AB). According to Wikipedia, the diet was developed by a physician named Peter D'Adamo who claims that the one of the most important aspects in effective weight loss is eating certain foods according to what blood type you have. In his book, he also discusses the evolutionary tree of blood types, how they have developed over the years, and what types of people were likely to have certain blood types.