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Spanish Cucumbers, German Sprouts - Which Organic Food Has The E. Coli?

Spanish Cucumbers, German Sprouts - Which Organic Food Has The E. Coli?

Jun 06 2011 | comment(s)

No one seems to know which organic food has killed 22 people and sickened thousands due to E. coli bacterial contamination.   A day after blaming German sprouts - not a bad guess, sprouts have been the cause of 30 food scares just in the US since 1996 - and a few days after blaming Spanish cucumbers, investigators are admitting they may never know.

It's probably wiser to just not shop in the organic supermarket for a while.

"We have to be clear on this: Maybe we won't be able anymore to identify the source,"  said Andreas Hensel, head of Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, a further sign that this outbreak of E. coli has done to organic food what the earthquake at Fukushima did to nuclear power plants.
Autistic Senior Voted Prom King

Autistic Senior Voted Prom King

Jun 06 2011 | comment(s)

Maybe political correctness can get an autistic student voted prom king?   Only in Hollywood movies.  In real life, high schoolers can be vicious.    But for one socially awkward young man, diagnosed as autistic at a young age, high school has been pretty good and he was well regarded enough that his peers at Mariner High School. voted him prom king.

There may be some political correctness at the administrative level - kids like Justin Amandro are in the Exceptional Student Education program while they call the students without any sort of disability regular, which is confusing to non-Americans - but the students do the voting and they clearly like him and took the time to see past a label.
The Internet Is Fastest Growing Cause Of Global Warming?

The Internet Is Fastest Growing Cause Of Global Warming?

Jun 06 2011 | comment(s)

What do you get when you add 1 billion daily Google searches,  60 million Facebook status updates, 50 million tweets and 250 billion emails per day?

A whole lot of melting glaciers, that's what.   While activists are happy about the Depression-era economy and its drop in carbon emissions, the one area of business still working, the Internet, is now getting an evil gaze.   

The Internet has become the fastest growing source of carbon emissions - if the Internet was a country, it would be the planet's fifth-biggest consumer of power, ahead of India and Germany.   And that's only going to grow more.
Ancient Roman Ship Held A Giant Live Fish Tank

Ancient Roman Ship Held A Giant Live Fish Tank

Jun 03 2011 | comment(s)

Like fresh fish?  Apparently so did the Romans, to such an extent a hydraulic system found on an ancient wreck suggests they must have hauled live fish across the Mediterranean for sale and trade.

Consisting of a pumping system designed to suck the sea water into a fish tank, the apparatus has been reconstructed by a team of Italian researchers who analyzed a unique feature of the wreck: a lead pipe inserted in the hull near the keel.

Roman Ship Carried Live Fish Tank - Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Embraces Her Inner Science Geek

Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Embraces Her Inner Science Geek

Jun 03 2011 | comment(s)

Cranky militant females in science resent the heck out of attractive women who are also smart - they insist it is objectification but really it is plain old discrimination to demean the intellectual accomplishments of a woman just because she has great legs - no differently than it would be to understate the intellectual accomplishments of a woman, or anyone else, if they didn't have great legs.

To encourage tolerance and diversity in science, we present the latest in the Science Cheerleader pantheon of women who are in the science field and can kick a hole through a wall with their legs - Mariela:
No English? In America, Science Is Still The Universal Language

No English? In America, Science Is Still The Universal Language

Jun 03 2011 | comment(s)

Colombian immigrant Carolina Salguero came to the U.S. as a teenager, alone and not knowing any English, but she did have a dream: to study science.

Yesterday, 28-year-old Salguero graduated from Hunter College with a double major in biochemistry and economics - and a full scholarship to Harvard awaits.  Salguero's parents sent her from Colombia to Miami - alone - at 16 and she spent eight years wandering and finally got the chance to pursue her science dream at age 24, when Hunter College gave her a science scholarship.  
‘Worms from hell’ are sign of potential extraterrestrial life?

‘Worms from hell’ are sign of potential extraterrestrial life?

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

Extraterrestrial life gets invoked in some study or another every three months - astrobiology approaches astronomy levels of hype with its over-the-top claims about incremental studies.
 
But a rock wall in a South African mine near where "radiation eating microbes" were found a mile underground may be something else entirely.   

Tullis Onstott
Being a prude in a family of libertines - Erica Jong's daughter speaks out

Being a prude in a family of libertines - Erica Jong's daughter speaks out

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

Erica Jong, most famous (I think) for "Fear of Flying" and generally for talking about sex at a time when it was daring, has a daughter Molly , who contributed a piece for a new collection of essays edited by Jong called "Sugar in my Bowl: Real Women Write about Real Sex".   

And it begins...
Juggling Is So Easy Even A Robot Can Do It

Juggling Is So Easy Even A Robot Can Do It

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

The wizards at the Czech Technical University's Department of Control Engineering created a machine to show off how their servo motors can be used for precision tasks - and so they made it juggle.  Juggling is, of course, both easy and hard.  Anyone can do it, like playing golf, but doing it will is something else entirely.  Jugglers often have to move to keep the balls in the air because of subtle changes in throwing force and angle.  Not so this Juggler machine:
New Executive Editor Means More Of The Same New York Times

New Executive Editor Means More Of The Same New York Times

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

I get why New York people read the New York Times, what I don't get is why people elsewhere read it - and I have said publicly I am sure many in science would happily trade a 3-day waiting period on gun purchases if the NY Times would agree to a 3-day wait period on its science stories; in both cases so the suspects can be investigated thoroughly.
World Health Organization Is Rotting Our Brains More Than Cell Phones

World Health Organization Is Rotting Our Brains More Than Cell Phones

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has created another cultural tizzy because some people persist in an irrational belief that anyone in the UN knows anything about anything. 

Recently, WHO issued a fuzzy statement saying maybe, perhaps, alarmism about cellphones and cancer was right after all.   This, despite no quantitative data, no published study, no absolute risk factor and even no definition of "limited evidence" hidden in a footnote
Thomas Edison also invented the concrete house?

Thomas Edison also invented the concrete house?

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

Afficionados of modern poured-concrete design heard NJIT Assistant Professor Matt Burgermaster's presentation at the 64th annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians entitled "Edison's 'Single-Pour System: Inventing Seamless Architecture", which illustrated how, in 1917, Thomas Edison invented and patented an innovative construction system to mass produce prefabricated and seamless concrete houses. Typically most people associate this style of architectural design and type of building technology with the European avant-garde of the early 20th century. 
50 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer

50 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

Literary genius — or at least competence — never blossoms in a vacuum. As much as many creative types like to pose as a mysterious lone wolves skulking through the fringes of society without ever becoming a cog in the machine, man, even their works have been shaped by their external experiences up to that point. Fred Lapides notes that soaking up advice through any reads available opens up new worlds and ideas and can help mold a work from just OK to just plain awesome.
Fight Evolution With Evolution: Kill Bacteria With Viruses

Fight Evolution With Evolution: Kill Bacteria With Viruses

Jun 02 2011 | comment(s)

We are losing the war against infectious bacteria. They are becoming increasingly resistant to our antibiotics, and we have few new drugs in the pipeline. Worse still, bacteria can transfer genes between each other with great ease, so if one of them evolves to resist an antibiotic, its neighbours can pick up the same ability. But Matti Jalasvuori from the University of Jyvaskyla doesn’t see this microscopic arms-dealing as a problem. He sees it as a target.
Let's Get Those Limousine Manufacturers Back To Work

Let's Get Those Limousine Manufacturers Back To Work

Jun 01 2011 | comment(s)

iWatch calls them Limousine Liberals but funding outreach to encourage the common people to ride bicycles while government people remain too important for that and need limousines is a progressive trait, not a liberal one.
Residents Of Grand Rapids Make

Residents Of Grand Rapids Make "The Greatest Music Video Ever"?

May 31 2011 | comment(s)

Despite being beset by massive unemployment and home foreclosures, residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan aren't happy being on the Mainstreet.com list of dying cities.  

So they did something about it.

5,000 of them decided to get in the news for something else; they set out to break the world record for largest lip sync ever, to Don McLean's sombre "American Pie."   And so they did, as you can see below.
Lamenting The Mysterious Rise In Ukulele Sales

Lamenting The Mysterious Rise In Ukulele Sales

May 31 2011 | comment(s)

Ukuleles are not cool.  Since seeing Tiny Tim warble his way among the tulips, I have had a hatred for the thing bordering on the unnatural.



Queen Anne's Revenge - Blackbeard's Anchor Found Off North Carolina Coast

Queen Anne's Revenge - Blackbeard's Anchor Found Off North Carolina Coast

May 31 2011 | comment(s)

The Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's flagship, is believed to have run aground in the shallow waters off Beaufort, North Carolina in 1718. The ship was discovered in 1996, with recovery of artifacts intensifying only a few years ago.

Friday, an expedition off the North Carolina coast hoisted a nearly 3,000-pound anchor, one of three belonging to the Queen Anne's Revenge from a location under just 20 feet of water, according to the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.  The anchor joins approximately 250,000 artifacts from the site, including cannons, gold, platters, glass, beads, shackles and rope, according to the state.
Why Doesn't The Military Like Obama More?

Why Doesn't The Military Like Obama More?

May 30 2011 | comment(s)

A recent Gallup Poll using results from January 2010 to April 2011 showed that military veterans and servicemen and women on active duty give President Barack Obama lower approval numbers than does the general electorate.   37 percent of veterans and active duty military approve of his performance versus 48 percent among the general public but among younger service people, it is more pronounced -  42 percent of young veterans and active duty military give him the thumbs up versus 57 percent of young in the general public.