Rob Waugh's Yahoo Blog

Be honest now - do you love swilling down gin, going to bed late, and taking risks?

Those are all distinctive signs of being a psychopath, according to PsyBlog - although we should point out that being fond of gin doesn’t actually mean you’re likely to snap and kill someone.

Psychopaths - according to the standard Hare Psychopathy Checklist - are charming, impulsive, and fail to take responsibility for their behaviour.

But psychopathic traits are surprisingly common - here are some subtle signs to look out for.

Psychopaths lack empathy with other people - and one of the ways this manifests itself is that they never ‘catch’ yawns from other people.

Researchers from Baylor University in Texas found that people who have psychopathic traits are less likely to yawn after seeing somebody near them yawn.

While we’re on the subject of yawns, people who stay up late exhibit more antisocial personality traits - such as narcissism and psychopathy.

Psychology researchers at Innsbruck University in Austria found that people who expressed a preference for bitter tastes (like coffee) were more likely to be have psychopathic traits - such as manipulating and hurting others.

The researchers interviewed 1,000 people, both students and prison inmates, correlating the results of psychological tests with a chart of taste preferences.

The experiment offers the ‘first empirical evidence that bitter taste preferences are linked to malevolent personality traits,' the researchers say.

Some professions have more psychopaths than others - and, surprisingly, the worst one isn’t being a clown.

CEOs, lawyers and people in the media are the most likely to be psychopaths.

There’s two types of psychopaths - primary and secondary - and the ‘primary’ type is the one you’re most likely to encounter (‘secondary’ psychos tend to be destructive, unhelpful and bad at work.)

Researcher Nora Schütte says a trait to look for is ‘fearless dominance’:

Sex robots may seem like a far-off science fiction fantasy - but talking metal and plastic sex machines will be here by next year, an expert has predicted.

The machines - equipped with warm ‘human-like’ genitals - will move and vibrate in response to their ‘masters’ and ‘mistresses’, an expert has said.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, David Levy author of Love and Sex With Robots says, ‘This coming wave of sex robots will be humanlike in appearance and size. They will have human-like genitals. And they will allow intercourse according to their owner's sexual orientation and tastes.

‘The machines in question are being developed by Abyss Creations at their Californian factory, and are likely to retail for around $15,000 (£12,300). But we can be certain that rival companies in America, Japan and Korea are scrambling to catch up.

‘We can expect the first ones to resemble the current RealDolls, a range of expensive but extraordinarily detailed silicone sex dolls made in America, but with more 'functionality'. This will be comparatively limited at first – some basic words, some simple movements and vibrations in response to touch.

But the technology is set to advance - rapidly.

‘The real point, though, is this: as time goes by they will become ever more lifelike as technology advances and new material becomes available and affordable.

Most of us like to moan about our phone’s battery life - griping if our smartphone won’t last a full day and needs topped up in the afternoon.

But consumer group Which? found - shockingly - that some phones actually last just 180 minutes, in a test examining the battery life of top brands.

EE’s bargain priced Rook handset (just £40) lasts just three hours while browsing the web - in start contrast to HTC’s flagship 10, which offers 31 hours of talk time, according to tests by Which researchers.

Which? said, ‘EE Rook’s dreadful battery life is the very worst on test. Head out of the house fully charged, and you’ll find that a mere three hours of browsing the web will drain it completely dry.’

The testers also compared top flagship smartphones including iPhone 7 compared to the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and the LG G5 – and found the new iPhone sorely lacking.

It’s one of the greatest mysteries of aviation - the disappearance of record-breaking pilot Amelia Earheart in 1937.

But new analysis of a skeleton on a remote Pacific island suggests she may have died a castaway after landing there while attempting a round-the-world flight.

Earheart vanished while trying to find Howland Island in 1937 - but a skeleton with ‘unusually long forearms’ found on the island Nikumaroro might actually be the missing aviator, researchers from the Earheart Project.

The researchers write, ‘'there is a newly discovered similarity between Amelia Earhart and the castaway whose partial skeleton was found on Nikumaroro in 1940.’

The skeleton was found by a British colonial officer in 1940 - but it was initially thought to be male, and the idea that it might be Earheart was dismissed.

But now researchers say that the length of the forearm is typical of a woman born in the 1890s - lending weight to the idea it might be Earheart.

The mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which can cause horrifying birth defects, could also shrink testicles by up to 90%, scientists have warned.

The ‘dramatic’ finding, in a mouse study, means that the virus could cause lasting infertility in men, if a similar effect applies to humans.

Michael DIamond of Washington University said, ‘We undertook this study to understand the consequences of Zika virus infection in males.

Diamond and his colleagues infected male mice with Zika and found that after two weeks, the testicles shrank, and their ‘internal structure collapsed’.

Diamond said, 'While our study was in mice -and with the caveat that we don't yet know whether Zika has the same effect in men – it does suggest that men might face low testosterone levels and low sperm counts after Zika infection, affecting their infertility.'

Conspiracy fans are convinced that NASA’s Mars Rover has just spotted a fossilised bear on Mars - proof (they believe) that large, hairy life-forms once lived there.

Oddly, it’s not the first bear seen on Mars by the tireless army of UFO fans who pore over pictures from NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover - with a baby bear spotted last year.

Legendary UFO detective Scott C Waring says, ‘Paranormal Crucible of Youtube found this incredibly unusual and interesting object on Mars.

Waring believes it could either be a fossil - or a statue, carved by some undiscovered Martian race.

Waring says, ‘The dark patch is is curly hair coat and its face area had significantly less hair. Statues usually have one color for all of it, this has two or three. Even its two teeth are extremely white...unlike any other color on the creature. I have to say its a fossil because of its hair and its teeth.

Previously, conspiracy theorists have picked out coffins, guns and alien faces on Mars - and on one memorable occasion, a buxom female robot walking on the surface.

'The vast majority of these images are as vague and elusive as those posted by UFO witnesses on Earth, and many have a fairly mundane explanation,' said Nigel Watson, author of the UFO investigations Manual.

'The problem is that the more Nasa denies such things or explains them, the more people think there is a conspiracy to hide the truth that aliens are visiting our planet.'

It would be the biggest moment in human history - the moment when we finally detected a message from the stars.

But what would happen if our telescopes did pick up a signal from an intelligent alien race?

Dr John Elliot, joint coordinator for the UK Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research Network, says that (contrary to some predictions from UFO fans) the info will be shared openly with the public.

The network hopes that people will have an open discussion about what to do - but from that point on, it will be hard to stop people sending their own signals, Elliot warned.

Dr Elliot said, ‘I would have thought that there would be a reply made in some form at some point round the globe by someone with the required equipment.’

But it could take up to 200 years to get a response, Dr Elliot warned - with an 100 year wait for our message to reach the aliens, followed by another 100 year wait to get the reply.

There have been a lot of scientific studies linking Facebook to everything from depression to envy - but here’s a ray of hope.

A study from Yale and the University of California found that people who use Facebook actually live longer.

Certain activities - such as posting pictures to Facebook and accepting friend requests - are particularly associated with lower mortality, the researchers say.

The researchers compared four million Facebook users to California’s voter registration list - and data from the California Department of Public Health.

The researchers found that in any given year, the risk of dying was 12% lower for Facebook users - although it’s not clear why this is so.

James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, said, ‘There's a big debate about online social media. There are people that worry that worry it substitutes for healthy social interaction.

With satellite mapping enabling us to ‘look at’ anywhere on Earth near-instantly, it’s easy to forget that large parts of Earth were completely unknown - even recently.

A new guide by Real Life Lore looks at how recently far-flung parts of the Earth were discovered - with some pretty surprising places missed until very recently.

Mauritius, for instance, was not inhabited until 1638 - when Dutch settlers rapidly wiped out the dodo.

But one particularly large and leafy place remained totally undiscovered - despite being very near Australia, Real Life Lore reveals.

The channel says, ‘The final significantly large and inhabitable place to be discovered by humans was New Zealand. It remained undiscovered until Maori Polynesians arrived sometime between 1250 and 1300.

‘Antarctica was never even seen by human eyes until 1820. After seeing it in 1820, it took a while to actually land - in 1895. And with that moment every piece of land had been finally landed on by the human species.’

Generations of mothers have urged youngsters to ‘eat their greens’ - and it turns out that Mum might have been onto something.

Eating your greens - in particular avocados, cabbage and broccoli - might help ward off the symptoms of ageing.

A chemical NMN – nicotinamide mononucleotide – found in the green fruit and vegetables, has been shown to reduce signs of ageing in mice including skeletal muscle issues, lower bone density and declining eye function.

Scientists are hopeful that the chemical may have the same effect on humans - and are to begin human trials in Japan shortly.

Professor Dr Shin-ichiro Imai at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said: ‘We have shown a way to slow the physiologic decline that we see in ageing mice.

‘This means older mice have metabolism and energy levels resembling that of younger mice.

The earliest known inscription of the Ten Commandments - believed to have been carved from stone in the 4th Century AD, is to be sold at Auction.

The 91kg slab of white marble is a two-foot square, carved in a Hebrew script called Samaritan - and it’s believed to have adorned the entrance of a synagogue.

It’s described as a ‘national treasure’ of Israel, and will be auctioned in Beverly Hills, California this November - with bidding starting at $250,000 (£205,000).

The tablet has nine of the commandments we’re familiar with - but misses out ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain’ adding instead a commandment exhorting worshippers to ‘raise up a temple’ on Mount Gerizim, the holy mountain of the Samaritans.

David Michaels, director of antiquities for Heritage Auctions, said: ‘There is nothing more fundamental to our shared heritage than the Ten Commandments and Heritage Auctions is honored and privileged to be entrusted with the sale of this remarkable piece of biblical history. We thank the Living Torah Museum and its creator, Rabbi Saul Deutsch, for this opportunity.’

A homeless man has been praised by police after he ran into a burning house to save a five-year-old girl - not once, but twice.

Bryan Dail, 36, said he didn’t think twice before running into the building - where the girl was trapped on the second floor.

Dail said, ‘I got eight kids myself, and if my apartment was like that, I would want someone to come in my apartment and save my kids as well. I seen a fire and all I heard was a kid was inside and I just ran in.

‘I’m not worried about me, she’s more important than anything.’

Dail says he ran into the building once, and carried a dog out - then ran back in to get Ma-Qeeta Pritchett, who was trapped on the second floor.

The girl was treated for smoke inhalation - and her father, Reginald, called Dail an ‘angel in disguise’.

If you’ve ever jabbed furiously at the ‘doors close’ button on a lift, wondering why nothing is happening, we might have an answer for you.

In all probability, the button on the lift does nothing at all, according to an industry insider.

Karen W. Penafiel, executive director of National Elevator Industry Inc said that a majority of lifts in New York City don’t have a functioning ‘close’ button - due to regulations about allowing disabled passengers time to get in.

Many lift ‘open door’ buttons do work, but only for fire fighters and maintenance workers armed with a special key, Penafiel said.

It’s not clear what percentage of UK lift buttons are fakes - such data is usually closely guarded by their manufacturers - but ‘placebo’ buttons are widely used here.

Many pedestrian crossings in the UK have buttons which do nothing at all, a BBC news investigation found in 2003.

Apple’s Siri is not, it’s safe to say, the world’s most obvious sex symbol - ‘she’ is a disembodied, lifeless computer assistant built into iPhone.

And if you ask ‘her’ to talk dirty to you, she replies, ‘The carpet needs vacuuming.’

But an increasing number of men are becoming sexually obsessed with ‘voice assistants’ such as Apple’s Siri, or Cortana, the voice assistant built into Windows.

One of the writers for Microsoft’s Cortana says that a ‘good chunk of the volume of early-on enquiries’ to the voice assistant were about the non-existent Cortana’s equally non-existent sex life.

In a feature for business title Quartz, another voice-enquiry company, Robin Labs said that about five per cent of enquiries were sexually explicit.

Ilya Eckstein, CEO of Robin Labs said,  'People want to flirt, they want to dream about a subservient girlfriend, or even a sexual slave.

'It may just be more for laughs, or something deeper underneath the surface. You see some people try very hard to establish a relationships with the bot.

Johnson & Johnson has been fined £57 million after woman’s ovarian cancer was linked to her use of talcum powder for four decades.

It is among 1,700 lawsuits accusing the company of ignoring studies linking its baby powder products to ovarian cancer and failing to warn customers, Bloomberg reports.

A St Louis jury awarded Deborah Giannecchini, 62, $70 million (£57 million), after she used the products for feminine hygiene for four decades.

She now has an 80% chance of dying within the next two years.

Giannecchini said, ‘I’ve waited for a long time for this. I’ve wanted this so badly.’

Allegations of a link between talcum and cancer are controversial, and many cancer experts believe the link is unproven.

Cancer Research UK states on its website: ‘Scientists are trying to see if this is the case, but for now the evidence is still uncertain. However, even if there is a risk it is likely to be fairly small.

‘If something truly causes cancer, you would expect people who are exposed to more of that thing to have a higher risk.

For decades, sailors feared the Bermuda Triangle - known for a series of mysterious incidents such as the sinking of a Navy cargo ship in 1918.

Paranormal enthusiasts claim that the area is cursed - and that the sinkings are caused by forces such as ‘time portals’ or something to do with Atlantis.

And the mystery remains - as a scientist has spoken out to say that he was taken out of context in a Science Channel documentary which proposed an 'answer'.

In the documentary, it was suggested that strange, hexagonal clouds with ‘air bombs’ of up to 170mph could be behind the mysterious sinkings.

But meteorologist Randy Cerveny says that his comments were used out of context - and he wasn't trying to suggest a solution at all.

Cerveny says, 'That was a surprise. I did not know what was going on until I saw this. I have no interest in studying the Bermuda Triangle.'

Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual says, 'It was a case of another year, another theory to explain the Bermuda Triangle Mystery.

'Some think it is a doorway to different dimensions allowing UFOs to zip in and out of this area, others think that odd magnetic anomalies and energies are causing these events.

This new air bomb explanation has more validity than most but like most mysteries of this type we have to consider a cluster of possibilities rather than force the latest idea to fit all the facts.

This week, Russia showed off a new nuclear missile which it boasted could devastate an area the size of Texas - and tested a hi-tech warhead which can evade Western anti-missile systems.

Earlier this month, 40 million Russian citizens took place in the biggest nuclear war ‘drill’ since the end of the Cold War - donning gas masks, and preparing to flee to bunkers.

Russian media has fanned the flames still further, with newspapers such as Moskovsky Komsomolets predicting ‘direct military confrontation’ with NATO.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a flamboyant veteran lawmaker known for his fiery rhetoric said earlier this month, ‘Relations between Russia and the United States can't get any worse. The only way they can get worse is if a war starts.

‘If they [Americans]  vote for Hillary it's war. It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere.’

General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander for Europe between 2011 and 2014, described nuclear war with Russia in 2017 as ‘entirely plausible’ in an interview this year.

How it could begin

Tensions between Russia and America have remained high ever since the United States and European Union imposed economic sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine in 2014.

Russian media - much of it owned by Putin’s government - has suggested that America is trying to start a war with Russia.

Earlier this month, Zvezda, a nationwide TV service run by the country’s Ministry of Defence, said, ‘Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow.’

Ties between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated further in the past month after the collapse of a ceasefire in Syria and intensified bombing on Aleppo by Syrian and Russian aircraft.

American politicians have also suggested that Russia is meddling in the U.S. presidential election next month.

Would Russia use nuclear weapons?

No state has ever used a nuclear weapon since the end of World War II in 1945 - but Russia has become increasingly keen to show off its arsenal.

Cristina Varriale from defence think tank the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) told The Sun that Putin is ‘ready’ to put Russian nuclear forces on alert.

She said, ‘During the Ukraine crisis…President Putin made it clear he was ready to put Russian nuclear forces on alert in order to deter any NATO intervention.

‘Since then, Russia has greatly increased exercises of nuclear capable aircraft and submarines near to the territory of NATO member states, including the UK.

What would happen in a conventional war with Russia?

Vladimir Putin is keen to tout nuclear weaponry such as the Satan 2 missile - but it’s possible that even if NATO and Russia went to war, neither side would use nuclear weapons.

But even if that happened, the destruction would be on a barely imaginable scale, according to Ian Shields, Associate Lecturer in International Relations, Anglia Ruskin University

In numerical terms, NATO has an advantage - with 3.6m personnel and 7,500 tanks, compared to 800,00 Russian soldiers and 2,750 tanks.

But NATO forces are more thinly spread - meaning that Russia may be able to seize a rapid advantage for instance in the Baltic.

But the ensuing conflict could be devastating.

Shields says, ‘While the armies and individual battles might be smaller than those in World War II, the death toll, the loss of war-making material and both sides’ ability to reduce everything in their paths to rubble would make a large-scale conflict far more wide-reaching and, in terms of recovery, longer-lasting than anything we have seen before.

‘Tthe ever-greater reach of missiles and artillery, the accuracy and potency of modern precision-guided munitions, the extensive use of surveillance systems (from space, via drones, and through highly sophisticated electronic eavesdropping) would make a contemporary battlefield highly dangerous and highly destructive, as pictures from even relatively small-scale recent conflicts from Grozny to Aleppo show.’

How many nuclear weapons does Russia have?

Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other state - 7,300, as opposed to 6,970 in the United States.

Launched from missile silos, submarines or bombers, each of those weapons could devastate a major city.

ICAN - the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons says Russia, ‘ has the largest arsenal of any country and is investing heavily in the modernization of its warheads and delivery systems.’

How would a nuclear war start?

General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander for Europe between 2011 and 2014, wrote a book entitled 2017 War With Russia.

He said, ‘We need to judge President Putin by his deeds not his words. He has invaded Georgia, he has invaded the Crimea, he has invaded Ukraine. He has used force and got away with it.

‘In a period of tension, an attack on the Baltic states… is entirely plausible.’

NATO forces would be obliged to come to the aid of member states, he says.

General Shirreff said: ‘The chilling fact is that because Russia hardwires nuclear thinking and capability to every aspect of their defence capability, this would be nuclear war.

What would happen in an ‘all out’ nuclear war?

Nuclear war would happen unimaginably quickly - with weapons reaching the other side of the globe within an hour.

Even ‘slower’ weapons delivered via bombers would arrive within a few hours of the war beginning.

In 1979, the U.S. Congress's Office of Technology published a report called The Effects of War, which envisaged the impact of an all-out nuclear attack.

The consequences would be disastrous - with hundreds of millions of people dead, and more facing cancer and radiation sickness.