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:: 5.25.2005 ::
National Constitution Day
I hadn't heard about this before today - it's pretty cool, I think. Congress passed a bill in 2004 that mandates that all schools receiving Federal money, and all Federal agencies, must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17th (or as close to that date as possible). It's all thanks to Sen. Robert Byrd, "the West Virginia Democrat who keeps a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. Byrd inserted the Constitution lesson mandate into a massive spending bill in 2004, frustrated by what he called a huge ignorance on the part of many Americans about history." More here; link from Fark.
:: Deb 3:35 PM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.23.2005 ::
Hooray for vitamin D - risks outweigh benefits when it comes to gettin' sun
As I always suspsected! So don't bother with that sunscreen (but do keep your sun exposure to a moderate level) - it's the best way to get adequate vitamin D, which has been shown to reduce cancer risk. More on Yahoo. Go Fark!
:: Deb 2:23 PM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.17.2005 ::
Oddity of the day: Kudzu may help curb binge drinking
No, really. Found the link to this AP story on Fark.
:: Deb 5:20 PM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.13.2005 ::
More signs of global warming - Gulf Stream slows, as predicted
Possible effects:
- Britain and northwestern Europe freeze over (they are the same latitude as Siberia).
- the complete summer melting of the Arctic ice cap by as early as 2020 and almost certainly by 2080.
Full story in theTimes online, link c/o Fark.
:: Deb 4:38 PM :: permalink ::
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But G-d forbid we should teach teenagers about safe sex "You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually... If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates you might in fact have sex with it."
-- anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley, who admitted to engaging in bestiality while interviewed by Alan Colmes on his radio show Listen to the interview here on Fox News. This man published the names of abortion doctors on his website as a way of targeting them; one of the doctors was murdered. Story here. Thanks to Tom at work for this one...
:: Deb 4:26 PM :: permalink ::
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My inner geek rears her knobby head
These are some weird and very cool-looking deep-sea creatures. Thanks to Cosku from work for the link.
:: Deb 12:21 PM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.12.2005 ::
I don't know what this is, but it's really cool
Presstube. Added to the links on the left. Thanks very much to Kevin for this one!
:: Deb 11:59 AM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.11.2005 ::
A fun little movie
On ebaumsworld (click and download the file - requires Windows Media Player). Thanks to Cosku at work for this one!
:: Deb 1:27 PM :: permalink ::
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:: 5.05.2005 ::
Imagine paying $6.66 per gallon of gas
Sound insane? Well, that's what Norweigians pay at the pump, and their consumption is a relatively low 1.9 gallons per day (compare to Americans' 3 gallons). Taxes account for two thirds of the price of gas in Norway, and for the most part people are happy with the status quo. The price seems high to us, but then we don't live in Norway:Economists argue that gasoline prices and other auto taxes in Norway are not so expensive when measured against the annual incomes of Norwegians, among the world's highest at about $51,700 a person, or the shorter workweek of about 37.5 hours that is the norm here. (Norwegians also get five weeks of vacation a year.)
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The United States, which uses about a quarter of the world's daily oil consumption, had the cheapest gasoline prices of the 27 industrial countries measured by the International Energy Agency in its most recent analysis of fuel prices. Taxes accounted on average for just 20 percent of the price of gasoline in the United States, the agency said. Maybe we should take a page from their book, eh? PS - Norway has no foreign debt either. Full story in the New York Times, c/o the Daily Grist.
:: Deb 6:32 PM :: permalink ::
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Greener ethanol - from paper mill wasteForget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
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Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products. [emphasis added] How cool! Found in the Daily Grist - read more in the Christian Science Monitor.
:: Deb 4:07 PM :: permalink ::
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FL Senate approves lobbying restrictions
Wow, I wish the US Senate would do this - the new bill prohibits felons from lobbying the Senate (more of an issue than you might initially think), and requires lobbyists to disclose who they've given to and how much. Read all about it in the St. Petersburg Times. From Fark.
:: Deb 12:20 PM :: permalink ::
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NASA working on artificial gravity study
I just thought this was cool:For the initial study this summer, 32 test subjects will be placed in a six-degree, head-down, bed-rest position for 21 days to simulate the effects of microgravity on the body. Half that group will spin once a day on the centrifuge to determine how much protection it provides from the bed-rest deconditioning. The "treatment" subjects will be positioned supine in the centrifuge and spun up to a force equal to 2.5 times Earth's gravity at their feet for an hour and then go back to bed. So maybe we're not too far off from that cool-ass space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey, eh? From Fark.
:: Deb 12:10 PM :: permalink ::
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