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These giveaway signs could show that you are a psychopath, according to science

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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.


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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.

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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’:

“People with this character trait want to get their way, have no fear of the consequences of their actions, and can withstand stress very well.

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Here’s what the £12,000 sex robots on sale in 2017 will do - by a robot expert

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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.

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‘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.

‘Synthetic skin embedded with electronic sensors will enable the robots to react with (artificial) pleasure as they are caressed by their owner-lovers, for example. And as Artificial Intelligence researchers improve the quality of computer-generated conversation, robots will develop the skills needed for seduction and the whispering of sweet nothings during love-making.

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These are the UK’s best (and worst) phones for battery life - and one lasts just three hours

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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.

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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.

Callum Tennent of Which? said, ‘Whilst the iPhone 7’s 712 minutes of call time (nearly 12 hours) may sound acceptable, the rival Samsung Galaxy S7 lasted twice as long – and it doesn’t even have the longest lasting battery. The HTC 10 lasted an incredible 1,859 minutes (that’s almost 31 hours).

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Skeleton found on remote island ‘could be lost air pioneer Amelia Earheart’

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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.

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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.

Researchers from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) said, ‘The match does not, of course, prove that the castaway was Amelia Earhart but it is a significant new data point that tips the scales further in that direction.’

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Zika virus ‘could shrink men’s testicles by up to 90%’

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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.’

The virus is unusual in that it can cross into the male reproductive organs from the bloodstream - and it is already known to persist in semen, the researchers said.

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NASA’s Mars Rover just spotted a dead grizzly bear on the Red Planet

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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.’

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This is what the plan of action is if aliens get in touch, scientist reveals

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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.

That is, of course, assuming that the aliens don’t have Warp Drives, teleporters - or any of the other technology which sci fi has led us to expect they will…

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Facebook users actually live longer - and accepting friend requests is good for you

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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.

‘But there’s never really been a study before this one where we were able to match gold standard data about health outcomes to a large number of people who are actually engaged in social media usage.’

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Where was the last place on Earth discovered by humans? The answer might surprise you

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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.’

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Eating avocado and broccoli ‘can delay signs of ageing’, new study suggests

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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.

‘Since human cells rely on this same energy production process, we are hopeful this will translate into a method to help people remain healthier as they age.’