Saturday, October 20, 2007

Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place

Torin Boyd/Polaris, for The New York Times
Though street crime is relatively low in Japan, quirky camouflage designs like this vending-machine dress are being offered to an increasingly anxious public to hide from would-be assailants. :: READ MORE::
click here for slide show

Friday, October 19, 2007

Increase in War Funding Sought

$42 Billion Boost Would Raise 2008 Total to $190 Billion
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration's 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion -- the largest single-year total for the wars so far. ::READ MORE::

Media Execs Arrested

Two executives from Village Voice Media — a company that owns a number of alternative weeklies including The Village Voice, The LA Weekly and The Phoenix Times — were arrested Thursday night in Phoenix on charges that a story published earlier in the day in The Phoenix New Times revealed grand jury secrets. ::READ MORE::

Creating life in the laboratory

The race to create life version 2.0 is under way.

And rumors abound that closest to the finish line in constructing a life form in the laboratory is US genome-entrepreneur Craig Venter's research team.

The J Craig Venter Institute scientists are aiming to craft a "minimal genome"- the smallest group of genes an organism needs to survive and function - and insert it into an empty cell. ::READ MORE::

Witchy woman

In the 18th century, supposedly enlightened Europeans beheaded the continent's 'last witch.' Now Anna Göldi is celebrated with a new museum and an effort to clear her name. click here to watch the video.
Today, historians trying to explain the flights of anxiety that sparked witch hunts blame everything from high inflation to cyclical poor weather and low crop yields to the tensions of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation of the day.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Slow News Day

Welcome to Miami... Here's what's news:
HEADLINE

Another Cow Spotted Roaming In Miami Lakes

subhead

Cow Has Not Been Caught

Monday, October 15, 2007

Expecting an afternoon nap can reduce blood pressure

Where does the benefit lie in an afternoon nap? Is it in the nap itself -- or in the anticipation of taking a snooze? UK researchers found that the time just before you fall asleep is where beneficial cardiovascular changes take place. :: READ MORE::
Afternoon naps, or siestas, are practiced in many Mediterranean and Latin American countries such as Spain and Argentina. They are typically short naps or rest periods of no more than an hour that are taken in the afternoon.

While earlier studies on siestas have found that this practice may slightly increase the risk of heart attack, newer and more controlled studies have shown an inverse relationship between siesta taking and fatal heart attacks. In a recent epidemiological study of 23,000 people in Greece, those who regularly took siestas showed a 37% reduction in coronary mortality compared to those who never nap, while individuals who occasionally napped in the afternoon had a reduction of 12%.

Why do afternoon naps affect cardiovascular function" One reason could be changes in blood pressure. At night, our blood pressure and heart rate decreases as we sleep. Some researchers hypothesize that the lower blood pressure reduces strain on the heart and decreases the risk of a fatal heart attack.

Related link:
Bringing Back The Power Nap
Why Not Take a Nap?
Taking Power Naps for Your Health

It's just a joke...

The guys at LaughLab are hunting down the world's funniest joke... ::READ MORE::
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

Can you stay fit and strong as a vegan?

The Guardian UK Her teenage son starts university next year, and she's worried that a vegan diet will expose him to colds and infections. Three experts try to boost his diet - and her confidence. ::READ MORE::

For optimum nutrition, a vegan diet should contain two or three protein foods and cereals, vegetables, fruits and fats daily. Soya (including soya milk), Quorn, beans, pulses and nuts contain protein.

Friday, October 12, 2007

right v. left


http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22492511-5005375,00.html

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

FUNCTIONS OF:


LEFT BRAIN.......................RIGHT BRAIN



uses logic..................................................Uses feelings

detail oriented.........................."big picture" oriented

facts rule...........................................Imagination rules

words and language....................Symbols and Images

present and past............................Present and future

math and science...................Philosophy and Religion

can comprehend...................Can 'get it' (i.e. meaning)

knowing...........................................................Believes

acknowledges............................................Appreciates

order/pattern perception................Spatial perception

knows object name.....................Knows object function

reality based..............................................Fantasy based

forms strategies..............................Presents possibilities

practical.............................................................Impetuous

safe.....................................................................Risk taking

Prototype Phone Gives Fitness Check

A new prototype "Wellness Phone" has been developed. It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.
"The companies are reportedly still testing some of the phone's more advanced technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a network capacity to let users share data. The companies haven't said when nor how much they will sell the phones. Plus it doesn't look like they be sold in the US anytime soon either."

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Native American journalists launch a new site

ReznetNews.org, an award winning online student newspaper for Native American journalists have redesigned their Web site. Check out "View to a Disaster" story and audio slideshow by Mary Hudetz, who was the first reporter on the scene of the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Are you underpaid?

According to Salary.com's 2006/2007 Employee Job Satisfaction and Retention Survey, 62 percent of employees plan on looking for a new job in the next three months. Dissatisfied employees have cited a variety of reasons for their desire to leave their company, including lack of opportunity for advancement, no recognition for achievements, insufficient benefits and even boredom.

Trumping all reasons for why employees want to leave their current job is that they think they are underpaid. Nearly 50 percent of employees cited inadequate compensation as the primary reason they want to walk out the door. To determine if the employee claims were valid, Salary.com's team of Certified Compensation Professionals conducted extensive analysis by comparing the job title, industry, geography and company size reported by each respondent to the Salary.com database of human resource (HR) reported salary data.

The results indicated that only 22 percent of the survey respondents were actually underpaid, while 15 percent may actually be overpaid (paid well above their fair market value) and 33 percent were paid reasonably close to their fair market value.

Language evolution

TaeKwonDood
"We all know language has evolved but mathematicians are trying to take how it has changed in the past to predict what it will be like in the future."

From the article: "Mathematical analysis of this linguistic evolution reveals that irregular verb conjugations behave in an extremely regular way -- one that can yield predictions and insights into the future stages of a verb's evolutionary trajectory," says Lieberman, a graduate student in applied mathematics in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and an affiliate of Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. "We measured something no one really thought could be measured, and got a striking and beautiful result."

When we change our clocks

On the way to work this morning, I remembered that fall also means daylight saving time (DST). Oh wonderful time of the year when 6 p.m. feels like 10 p.m. So I got to talking and a lot of people would just want DST to go away.

I have no idea if this letter to the editor was facetious or sincere, I only know that it's worth a good laugh...

Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.

With many IT applications relying on accurate time information and many having automatic adjustments for DST, how will the IT world handle this change?