JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

In North Carolina, a 79-year-old woman died of a heart attack apparently caused by terror. The 20-year-old man who broke into her house while fleeing the cops after a botched bank heist (It was not his day) stands accused of scaring her to death. According to prosecutors, he could be charged with felony murder: causing another person’s death while committing or fleeing from a felony crime, even if it is unintentional.

Does this mean that if an audience member has a fatal coronary while watching a horror movie, his heirs could sue the filmmakers? True, screening movies is not a felony, but what if the movie were criminally bad and produced by Ponzi schemers?

Scientific American asked Martin A. Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, if it is medically possible for someone to be frightened to death.

Is it possible to literally be scared to death?
Absolutely, no question about it.

Really? How does that happen?
The body has a natural protective mechanism called the fight-or-flight response, which was originally described by Walter Cannon [chairman of Harvard University’s physiology department from 1906 to 1942]. If, in the wild, an animal is faced with a life-threatening situation, the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system responds by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, dilating the pupils, and slowing digestion, among other things. All of this increases the chances of succeeding in a fight or running away from, say, an aggressive jaguar. This process certainly would be of help to primitive humans, but the problem, of course, is that in the modern world there is very limited advantage of the fight-or-flight response. There is a downside to revving up your nervous system like this.

Speaking of Thriller: Michael Jackson is auctioning off stuff from his Neverland Ranch. This glove covered in clear Swarovski crystals is expected to fetch £7,000++.

P.S. Inspired by Joaquin Phoenix’s recent appearance on Letterman, the Daily Beast has prepared a compilation of great talk show trainwrecks. Most of them occurred on David Letterman’s show. What is it about Dave that brings out the nuttiness?

Slow day? Strain your brain with the literary section of the 104th King William’s College General Knowledge Paper, or try the whole thing.

Who began what by:
1. recalling unusual citrous abundance?
2. describing his subject’s physiognomy with a succession of v’s?
3. justifying the creation of a short palindromic nickname for “himself”?
4. describing the emergence at dawn of a moustached little man with bowlegs?
5. recalling melancholy inspiration from early evening sights and sounds in a rural churchyard?
6. suggesting that it was generally accepted that a well-heeled loner must be looking for a lady?
7. describing a studio filled with the scents of roses, lilac and pink-flowered thorn?
8. describing his hero facing execution and recalling the discovery of ice?
9. recalling a send-off from family and friends at Charing Cross?
10. providing an alibi for the white kitten?

Only gold, that object of desire and destruction, could have conjured up a place of such startling contradictions as La Rinconada. Remote and inhospitable—at 17,000 feet, even oxygen is in short supply—the town is, nevertheless, growing at a furious pace. Approaching the settlement from across the high plains, a visitor first sees the glint of rooftops under a magnificent glacier draped like a wedding veil across the mountain. Then comes the stench. It’s not just the garbage dumped down the slope, but the human and industrial waste that clogs the settlement’s streets. For all its growth—the number of mines perforating the glacier has jumped in six years from 50 to around 250—La Rinconada has few basic services: no plumbing, no sanitation, no pollution control, no postal service, not even a police station. The nearest one, with a handful of cops, is an hour down the mountain. This is a place that operates, quite literally, above the law.

The Real Price of Gold by Brook Larmer in the National Geographic.

Gold: Archaeology’s Blessing or Curse?

Stimpy’s nose goblin, Frank Snotra

Everyone I know has a cold or recently had one, so here’s a timely bit of advice: Don’t blow your nose when you have a cold. Apparently it doesn’t relieve stuffiness, it just creates excess pressure in your sinus cavities and propels mucus into your sinuses.

I’m inclined to agree. Whenever I’m congested I blow my nose so hard I risk having my ears explode, but it doesn’t actually clear up my nasal passages. I just keep doing it in the hope that it will work. According to the NYT article, blow one nostril at a time, gently, and take decongestants. I don’t believe the part about decongestants; I’ve never tried one that worked.

First built in New York well over a century ago, mandated by the 1867 tenement law, fire escapes soon became a canvas for the virtuosity of local foundry workers, including recently arrived European immigrants. Throughout the city, these artisans created ornate objets d’art constructed and molded from wrought and cast iron. The designs that resulted present a decorative smorgasbord, and include such rich details as arabesques, filigree lacework and rosettes.

The Fire Escapes of New York in the NYT.

In the Guardian: Electronic tracking will test scientists’ theory that Britain’s 9m feline pets slay 150m animals a year.

Wildlife researchers have hired the services of some unusual helpers: 200 neighbourhood cats equipped with electronic tags. The animals have been recruited in an attempt to discover how much wildlife destruction is wrought by feline pets.

Some experts believe Britain’s 9m cats could be killing more than 150m birds, mice, rabbits, moles and other creatures every year. For species such as the house sparrow – whose numbers are dwindling sharply – cat predation could be a serious threat. Others, however, say cats mainly kill sick, weak or old creatures and are not a major problem.

Ever wonder what your cats do outside the house?