This week in Lifehacker, we've got a fix for lousy Windows menus, a better dock for your mouse, proof that not moving around is bad for you and a revelation that you're probably tying your shoes wrong.

• ShellMenuNew cleans up that "new" menu in Windows (About time)
• Add Chrome-like incognito mode to Firefox
• Keeping your muscles inactive for too long hurts your health, regardless if you exercise (Nooooo!!)

• Circle dock gives you shortcuts centered around your mouse
• Believing you can be smarter makes you smarter
• The best tech tools to keep in touch

• The world's most boring video teaches you how to tie your shoes correctly
• Make a minimalist desktop for productivity
• Make a PDF from any URL

Remember that story about the guy who was supposedly revealed to be fully conscious (but physically paralyzed) and not in a 23-year coma? There are some serious concerns about the validity of that discovery, with some calling it bogus.

The problem lies in the main tool used to sniff out the man's supposedly active brain, a technique called facilitated communication. Facilitated communication, in which a helper assists a physically disabled but mentally capable person to type out his or her thoughts, has been widely discredited for decades, after independent tests revealed that the technique is totally unreliable and often the result, conscious or not, of the assistant typing, not the patient. Basically, assistants would often pick up a patient's hand and jam the patient's finger into the keyboard, which I think we can all agree is not the most reliable form of communication.

If facilitated communication is part of this, and it appears to be, then I don't trust it," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. "I'm not saying the whole thing is a hoax, but somebody ought to be checking this in greater detail. Any time facilitated communication of any sort is involved, red flags fly.

Ultimately, there is definitely more brain activity in this particular case than was first thought; the patient, Rom Houben, is able to indicate yes and no with a slight movement of his foot. But the elaborate, heartbreaking and eloquent notes he supposedly wrote through facilitated communication could well be totally bogus. [Wired]

A five-year study shows that exposure to bisphenol A, a commonly used plastics additive, increases the risk of erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems. This study surveyed factory workers who face high levels of exposure, but further research is coming.

Since the levels of exposure faced by the factory workers are about fifty times that of the average person, we definitely need those extra studies to figure out what the safe threshold for BPA exposure would be, if there is one. So until there are numbers applicable to you, feel free to cringe every time you near anything containing BPA. Like your keyboard. Or that mouse. Or your glasses. [Oxford Journals via NPR]

Photo by Florida Dude

When you simply have $120.69-too-much in your bank account, you can thank Uxsight for being there. You may already be entertaining guests with your variety of USB endoscopes, but to really make the picture complete (pun only slightly intended), you're going to want this succulent USB iriscope. That's right, now you can peer deeply, digtally into the eyes of your... er, "clients" (their words, not ours) as you check their health and generally freak everyone out. When you're done, you can "compare the irises pictures when your client comes back to see their progress." Now, we don't know exactly what kind of procedure you're going to be performing on said clients, but you'll finally have a way to show them just what kind of mess you've made. We think Uxsight says it best about their product: "Natural image, attractive or charming." Who can argue with that kind of logic?

[Via Coolest Gadgets]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

USB iriscope is just what you need for your next date originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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