"smart" news and stories

British researchers have just conducted a study that found that that the higher the IQ of a person is, the more likely they are to follow a relatively health diet overall. It also indicated, more specifically, that IQ is a reliable predictor of the likelihood of a teen/young adult becoming a vegetarian.

The study looked at over 8,000 men and women around the age of 30 whose IQs had been tested when they were 10 years old. In the group, 33.6% "said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken," 4.5% were strict vegetarians and 2.5% of the strict subset were vegan. Men in the study who were vegetarian had an average IQ score of 106 and female vegetarians averaged a score of 104. Non-vegetarians averaged 101 for men and 99 for women. There was no IQ difference between strict and lax vegetarians and all had a lower risk of heart disease. Even after adjustments were made to account for the fact that more vegetarians were women and that they tended to be better educated than others, IQ was still a significant predictor.

Source

Some sort of aptitude testing is done in just about every school in the country, mandated by the city or state government, to check on the progress of the educational system. This testing time can be stressful for students because, though they are not actually "graded" on their performance, they still have to sit through many long days of math and reading comprehension tests. Having to concentrate for such an extended period can be very challenging for students, particularly young ones. Schools try to perk them up by offering snacks, but a Washington State school found something very interesting this year when they decided to give the kids fruits, instead of muffins or granola bars. They found that the students were quieter, less stressed and more focused.

This was by no means a scientific test, but anecdotal evidence from people who spend their lives observing children is not something to be taken lightly. The principal and teachers surmise that not only did fact that the fruits were less sugary than other snacks play a role in helping the children to concentrate, but the fruits were more satisfying and more filling than alternatives.  It if happened to one or two students, it would be harder to believe, but a positive change - no matter how small - in such a large group of children as a result of healthy snacking is something worth looking into.

Source

A Japanese company called VitaCraft has come out with a pan that communicates with the stove top using RFID. Simply place your recipe card under the reader, and the pan will monitor and adjust the heat on the pan according to the recipe. This is a really neat idea, but the problem is that there's simply more to recipes than heat regulation. There are just too many variables to regulate when cooking, which is probably why it's so difficult to make a robot to cook without supervision.

Another potential problem with the RFID pan is that someone could hack it to burn your shrimp. Think about it--just go around the city with a powerful RFID transmitter and burn everyone's meal!

Source

It's been a busy past four days as I perused about a million technologies at the CES conference. Sadly, there weren't too many food-related items. However, Microsoft had set up a portable home at the conference showing off their networked and smart appliances. I was hoping to see their smart countertop technology, but, alas, they were more focused on the big plasma displays and their media center products.

One appliance that caught my eye was their intelligent oven that can be programmed to cook at a certain time over the internet. So, I suppose you could put in your roast and leave to go somewhere, and then suddenly remember you had a roast in the oven, but forgot to turn on the oven. Then, you could simply use your PDA to turn on the oven. Practical? Perhaps not. But this oven can also act as a refrigerator after it cooks. Therefore, you could simply leave that pork roast in the oven instead of taking up room in the fridge.

As always, the idea of intelligent products might theoretically be a good one, but I don't think it's mature enough to really be that useful for the average consumer. Who needs a blender that connects to the internet to get drink recipes? I'm sure we all already know how to make our own favorite drinks.