Tag Archive for London

This Bus Actually Cleans the Air

What a great idea. Instead of spewing diesel or simply using less-polluting electricity, this British bus actually cleans the air as it goes along its route. In fact, it’s efficient enough to clean pollutants from the air along that route to the equivalent of 16 times a year.

It’s only experimental, but…what a concept!

See London Bus Cleans the Air: Sucking Up Pollution as it Travels.

Anxious or Neurotic? You May be Healthier and Live Longer

[I guess I’ll have to stop trying to calm down my anxious and neurotic friends. According to a London study, they’re healthier and will live longer than me! — Thanks to Linda Younts for sending this to me.]

 

From “Calling all Clean Freaks….”:

If you’ve always seen yourself as a Monica Geller, George Costanza, Miranda Hobbes, Sheldon Cooper or Danny Tanner, we have news for you: Science says you might live longer than your laid-back, Uncle Jesse and Phoebe-esque friends.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and University College London recently studied a group of 500,000 U.K. residents, paying attention to those who identified themselves as being exceptionally nervous or anxious. In general, these neurotic people tended to be healthier and have a longer life span, especially if they perceived their own health as being fair or poor.

The theory? Because neurotic people tend to think their health is poor even when it isn’t, they’re more likely to visit a doctor and be proactive if they notice any strange symptoms. A more laid-back person might postpone getting checked out, or ignore an illness altogether. But not you, neurotic folks. You’re running to get checked out as soon as the office opens.

Nice work, anxious friends. We’ll see you in the waiting room.

Read the report itself here.

Thoughtful Thursday: Blow Everybody Up

[The attacks in London and here in America brought this quote to mind.]

“The brotherhood of man is evoked by particular men according to their circumstances. But it seldom extends to all men. In the name of our freedom and our brotherhood we are prepared to blow up the other half of mankind and to be blown up in our turn.”  —  Dorothy Day