Wednesday, August 31, 2011

GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAR

Pick up a newspaper or go online and you’ll find plenty to be depressed about – economic woes, terrorism, natural disasters. That’s why Sergio Tripi, a member of the Rotary Club of Roma Eur, Italy, launched a service to spread more cheerful news. (click below to read more)

SPACE

Explanation: Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such group, Hickson 44, about 100 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 at the right, they are also known as Arp 316. The spiral in the upper left corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44.

NOW WE KNOW HOW DEEP IT IS


AND I QUOTE

"My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met."-Rodney Dangerfield

MENSA Q & A

 Peruke: what do you do with it (eat/drink it, wear it, spend it or speak it)?
(click below for the answer)

SMILE

As a single, never married woman in my 40s, I have been questioned endlessly about my status by my friends, relatives and co-workers. Over the years, I've noticed a subtle change in the nature of their inquiries.
In my teens, friends would ask, "Who are you going out with this weekend?"
In my 20s, relatives would say, "Who are you dating?"
In my 30s, co-workers might inquire, "So, are you dating anyone yet?"
Now, people ask, "Where did you get that adorable purse?"

HOW TROPICAL STORMS ARE NAMED

ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME


I GUESS THAT MESSAGE IS FOR THE OTHER GUY



TODAY IN HISTORY

AUGUST 31
1997:Diana, Princess of Wales, is killed along with her companion, Harrods department store heir Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul in an automobile crash in Paris. Paul was driving while intoxicated and speeding through a tunnel in an attempt to shake off paparazzi tailing Diana, affectionately known as the "People's Princess," even after her divorce from Prince Charles.

1888: The infamous serial killer known as Jack the Ripper claims his first victim, a 42-year-old prostitute named Mary Ann Nichols, in the Whitechapel neighborhood of London's East End. Jack the Ripper was never caught or identified, yet he grotesquely murdered at least four women over the next few months.

1909: German immunologist Paul Ehrlich and Japanese bacteriologist Sahachiro Hata treat syphilis-infected rabbits with Salvarsan, a forerunner of today's chemotherapy agents.
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WORLD WATER WEEK

Rotarians have teamed up with nongovernmental organizations in Belgium to bring clean drinking water and improved sanitation to thousands of families in the poorest districts of Toamasina, Madagascar.  (click below to read more)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

SEE YOU IN JAIL



THE NEXT BIG THING?


OUR ONE PERSON TECH CREW IS THERE TO HELP-NO PROBLEM!




YES, IT IS!


THE BEST CEO'S MAY BE IN THE COCKPIT

While the traditional picture of a chief executive is of a stoic, conservative deliberator, new research suggests that companies are better off with a high-flying risk taker—literally.
New research suggests that companies are better off with a high-flying risk taker.
Researchers compared 179 CEOs who hold private pilot's licenses with 2,000 nonpilot CEOs. Psychological literature links the desire to fly with a genetic personality trait known as sensation seeking, associated with heightened risk-taking behavior. The comparison uncovered a consistent theme: Chief executives with a penchant for personal risk-taking are also corporate risk-takers who take on more debt, aggressively pursue mergers and acquisitions, and make bold equity plays. But, in general, they are also more effective leaders who create more value in their organizations than their less risk-loving counterparts. And they do so, the researchers add, without additional incentives; they imprint their risk-loving natures on their companies because it's simply who they are.
"Cleared for Takeoff? CEO Personal Risk-Taking and Corporate Policies," Matthew D. Cain and Stephen B. McKeon, Social Science Research Network (May 1)
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POLIO ERADICATION UPDATE

Among the key goals of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is interrupting transmission of the wild poliovirus by the end of 2012. Although the GPEI Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reported in July that this goal may be in jeopardy, it also noted signs of progress and provided several recommendations that could help get the program back on track. (click below to read more)

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUGUST 30
1983:Air Force Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr. is the first African American astronaut in space, when he lifts off aboard the space shuttle Challenger for a six-day mission.

1967: Famed NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall is confirmed by the Senate, becoming the first African American judge on the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall will serve on the court until he retires in 1991.

1993: David Letterman gets behind the desk of a new late-night talk show, the Late Show with David Letterman, on CBS. Actor Bill Murray and musician Billy Joel are Letterman's first guests.

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LIVING ON THE EDGE

THERE'S A FIRST FOR EVERYTHING

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

Gee, What Do We Do With All This Stimulus Money? The Omaha (Neb.) Public School system spent $130,000 of its stimulus grant recently just to buy 8,000 copies of the book "The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change" -- that is, one copy for every single employee, from principals to building custodians. Alarmingly, wrote an Omaha World-Herald columnist, the book is "riddled with gobbledygook," "endless graphs," and such tedium as the "cultural proficiency continuum" and discussion of the "disequilibrium" arising "due to the struggle to disengage with past actions associated with unhealthy perspectives." [Omaha World-Herald, 7-11-2011]

IT MUST BE COLLEGE MOVE IN DAY


Monday, August 29, 2011

LONG DISTANCE CLEANING


THAT SETTLES THAT


MENSA Q & A

 What are the five kingdoms currently used to classify living organisms?
(click below for the answer)

YOUR CO-WORKERS MAY BE KILLING YOU


The typical American will spend about 15% of his or her lifetime working at the office. Given this expanse of hours, it's not surprising that the details of our job can have a profound impact on our health.
Traditionally, researchers have focused on the ways in which different kinds of labor affect the body, investigating the hazards associated with activities such as coal mining, truck driving and professional football. (click below to read more)

REAL ROOTS MUSIC

Cover of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"Cover of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
‘O Brother’ is here, in anniversary reissue
Soundtrack has an intriguing odyssey

 
   In 2001, a score of country and bluegrass artists warbling old-timey tunes stunned the music industry by beating Bob Dylan and U2 for the best-album Grammy.    A fluke? Hardly. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, among the 10 best-selling soundtracks ever, sold 7.6 million copies despite little radio support, boosted profiles of its veterans (Ralph Stanley) and contemporaries (Chris Thomas King) and breathed life into the Americana genre.    A decade later, it’s getting the royal reissue treatment with a 10th anniversary deluxe edition.  (click below to read more)

TODAY IN HISTORY

AUGUST 29
1533:Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Incas, is treacherously executed by the soldiers of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, despite being promised his freedom after giving the Spaniards a ransom of 24 tons of gold and silver.

1957: Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina ends the longest filibuster in Senate history; he finally sits down after talking for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which passes later that night.

1965: Gordon Cooper, commander of the Gemini V spacecraft, speaks via radio to Scott Carpenter, a fellow former Project Mercury pilot, who is aboard the underwater laboratory Sealab II in the Pacific Ocean. It is the first communication between the two great frontiers of modern exploration — outer space and the depths of the ocean.
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50-50 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKED FOR ROSE AND ALLEN


Sunday, August 28, 2011

STRANGE NAMES FOR STATE PARKS

Hell's Gate on Possum Kingdom LakeImage via Wikipedia
Hells Gate on Possum Kingdom Lake
 Badlands National Park in South Dakota would sound like a place you’d want to run from, if you didn’t already know that “Badlands” was a name given to an area that was hard to travel through, only before we built roads. (click below to read more)

HERE'S THE DEAL





PENCIL VS CAMERA




AND I QOUTE

"Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"-Kelvin Throop III

WE REMEMBER

Leiber, Elvis and Stoller
The First Wordsmith of Rock 'n' Roll

By Marc Myers
Jerry Leiber wasn't the most artful lyricist in U.S. music history, but he certainly was among the most visionary and authentic. Leiber, who died on Monday in Los Angeles at age 78, was rock 'n' roll's first major wordsmith. (click below to read more)


TODAY IN HISTORY

AUGUST 28

1963: Martin Luther King Jr. delivers one of the most famous speeches in American history to a crowd of over 200,000 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The civil rights leader tells the attendees of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

1968: The presidential nomination of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention takes a backseat to the action happening outside on the streets of Chicago. Thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters clash with police armed with clubs and tear gas in a violent, televised confrontation known as the "battle of Michigan Avenue."
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DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME


I'M NOT SO SURE ABOUT THIS ARRANGEMENT


Saturday, August 27, 2011

FRYING BACON WITH PIZAZZ!!


THE NEXT BIG THING?

Fossil's Meta Watch has been beset with delays and defective parts but finally there's good news -- the watches have passed the FCC. The two models (analog and digital) can sync with your Android smartphone or tablet via a Texas Instruments CC2560 Bluetooth controller and are being sold as a "development platform" until enough apps are built to take advantage of the technology. T.I.'s website lists the watches as being available since August 22nd, although we're not entirely sure what to make of that -- it still looks like a pre-order situation to us. In any case, the devices should hopefully start reaching app developers pretty soon.

HOPE THE AIR BAG DOESN'T BLOW


NO REVENUE HERE


WELCOME TO STORY CORPS

StoryCorps, whose casual conversations can be heard weekly on NPR's Morning Edition, has begun producing animation to accompany its audio recordings.
It's not just the stories that make the StoryCorps narratives so fascinating. It's the voices, and the tender relationships between the subjects and their interviewers -- almost always friends, family members or lovers. They're fun, and often very touching, to hear -- and, as it turns out, to see.
Here's a quick example -- four minutes long -- from Short Cuts: a StoryCorps animated film called No More Questions!, directed by the Rauch Brothers. Enjoy.

NICE SPREADS

1959
1937

1899

1912
After feasting his eyes on 'Menu Design in America,' a leading book designer asks what happened to good taste

By CHIP KIDD
The worlds of graphology and gastronomy go together like surf and turf in "Menu Design in America: A Visual and Culinary History of Graphic Styles and Design 1850-1985" (Taschen, $60), by Steven Heller and culinary historian John Mariani.

Chronicling the golden age of the American menu—in restaurants, nightclubs, diners, coffee shops, bars, train cars, steamships, airport VIP clubs, first-class cabins, drive-throughs, family faves and hotel lounges (room service listings included)—the 392-page hardcover tome traverses the early roots and dazzling evolution of America's aesthetically-rendered "bills of fare." (click below to read more)