Ten Things We Didn't Know Last Week(ish) - #5

Time, once more, to catch up on all those vitally important news stories and research findings that've eluded many of us in recent days and weeks - but for no more as I now reveal to you such critical nuggets as:

• the news that Adidas are set to launch a line of trainers made from plastic found in the ocean - another step towards its aim to end pollution. 
• the possibility that the memory of dementia patients could be repaired by injecting blood from the umbilical cords of human babies, which, experts say, restores brain function.
• the discovery that the mucus of a rare Indian breed of frog could provide the raw material for a powerful new class of drugs to combat the flu. 
• the advice that online daters shouldn't choose their own profile picture if they want to find romance as strangers are better at picking images that will draw prospective suitors.
• the finding from a study into email habits which shows that 'cc-ing' a manager is the best way to stop your co-workers from trusting you.
• new info which shows that LSD does indeed produce a 'higher' level of consciousness - but that this increased brain activity is 'different' rather than 'better'. Not so cosmic then! 
• the scary news that new computers will soon be able to delete your thoughts without your knowledge, which has ethicists calling for the creation of new human rights laws such as “the right to cognitive liberty” and “the right to mental integrity”.
• the sad news that Robert M. Pirsig, author of the autobiographical novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, died last week, aged 88 and ...
• that Erin Moran, who played Joanie Cunningham in the 1970/80s sitcom, Happy Days,  has also passed away. She was 56. R.I.P.
• the prediction that humans will need to colonise another planet within one hundred years to ensure our survival. This according to Professor Stephen Hawking.

Strange times we live in, indeed.

More soon ...

Most peculiar mama!