Monday, October 26, 2009

Man Took Pay From N.J. Company He Never Worked For

An Illinois man has admitted banking more than $470,000 in paychecks from a New Jersey company he never worked for.

Illinois man took $470,000 in pay from company he never worked for

Smuggler tapes pythons, geckos to body

A man taped 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos to his body in an attempt to smuggle the reptiles into Norway, customs officials have revealed.

Smuggler tapes pythons, geckos to body

McDonald's to Say Farewell to Iceland

If you travel to Iceland, don't think you can get a Big Mac there.
No, you won't even be able to get a hot cup of joe at the McCafe: the two McDonald's restaurants in Iceland are being closed.

Electric power from the wind

Wired has an article on the first electric wind turbine, which actually helped power Vermont in the 40s:

The turbine ran through hundreds of hours of testing up to 1943, often pumping power onto the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation’s electrical grid. The project’s engineers were sure that, technically, the machine worked.

The Smith-Putnam wind turbine stood as a testament to the power of human — and American — ingenuity. A decade before, Soviet engineers had built the world’s largest wind turbine, a 100-kilowatt machine. Now the Yanks had constructed their own, 10 times more powerful.

Time concluded its article on the project with a hopeful half-prediction, “New England ranges may someday rival Holland as a land of windmills.” This was, after all, merely the prototype for whole lines of turbines that would be more resistant to German bombs than a centralized coal plant.

Unluckily, a bearing broke in 1943, and the war prevented its replacement until 1945. With the war waning, the wind machine got back up and running in the spring of that year. And that’s when disaster struck.

Electric Turbines Get First Wind

Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations

You don’t need psychedelic drugs to start seeing colors and objects that aren’t really there. Just 15 minutes of near-total sensory deprivation can bring on hallucinations in many otherwise sane individuals.

Psychologists stuck 19 healthy volunteers into a sensory-deprivation room, completely devoid of light and sound, for 15 minutes. Without the normal barrage of sensory information flooding their brains, many people reported experiencing visual hallucinations, paranoia and a depressed mood.

“This is a pretty robust finding,” wrote psychiatrist Paul Fletcher of the University of Cambridge, who studies psychosis but was not involved in the study. “It appears that, when confronted by lack of sensory patterns in our environment, we have a natural tendency to superimpose our own patterns.”

Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations

Reversing the brain impairments caused by sleeplessness

Researchers have identified the pathway in the brain that causes cognitive impairment when we haven't gotten enough sleep. In a new study, Penn State biologists and neuroscientists found that when mice were deprived of sleep, a particular enzyme built up in the brain's hippocampus.

The hippocampus is the region of the brain linked to learning and the formation of memories. Giving the mice a drug to reduce the enzyme counteracted some of the negative effects of sleeplessness. Principal investigator Ted Abel and his colleagues published their results in the scientific journal Nature.

From the University of Pennsylvania:
“Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep,” Abel said. “Our work has identified a treatment in mice that can reverse the cognitive impact of sleep deprivation. Further, our work identifies specific molecular changes in neurons caused by sleep deprivation, and future work on this target protein promises to reveal novel therapeutic approaches to treat the cognitive deficits that accompany sleep disturbances seen in sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.”

Gotta Luv Grayson

Congressman Alan Grayson (Democrat-Florida) continues kicking ass, and this time it's the rosy cheeks of Paul Broun (reptile-Georgia).

Employers take heed ...

Albertson's, the grocery chain, has been ordered to pay an employee $200,000 for refusing an employee's request for a bathroom break until she urinated upon herself at the checkout stand.

Forget dinner and flowers ...

They're not even bothering with Vasoline any more and forget dinner and flowers ... they're just screwing your over!

Bank of America is experimenting with a new fee for customers who don not incur extra fees.

You've noticed your sphincter feeling quite a bit raw lately haven't you?!

One for the good guys

Raghbir Singh, a Sikh, fired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for refusing to shave his beard and remove his turban, gets $50,000, and more importantly, DHS agrees to step into the 20th Century and abandon such discriminatory policies.

He's human after all

Congressman Alan Grayson (Democrat-Florida) was mistaken to compare repugicans' cruelty on health care to Neanderthals.
The anthropological evidence suggests that Neanderthals, unlike repugicans, took care of the sick and injured.

Science News

From BBC-Science:

The latest version of Ubuntu is released
They hum when happy, and "flutter" as they mate
The web tools transforming life in the lab



Click to reveal

World's oldest living dog

World's oldest living dog

A dachshund-terrier mix inherits the Guinness record book's distinction as the oldest pooch.

Seven easy dinners

Seven easy dinners

Don't stress about what to make for dinner with these quick menus for every day of the week.

Another economic crash coming

Another bubble that will eventually be corrected.
No predictions on timing, but looking at the inflated values, it's bound to happen.

The self regulation experiment was a complete failure and if we are to lessen the depth of future recessions, real regulation is going to have to be implemented.

This is just what the repugicans want and are blocking any attempt to put the needed regulations in place.

No one taking blame for higher car insurance

As insurance companies begin mailing notices to Wisconsin customers telling them that their auto premiums are likely to increase soon, state politicians are scrambling to avoid the blame.

No one taking blame for higher car insurance

South Korean court convicts Hwang of stem cell fraud

A South Korean court on Monday found disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk guilty of fraud in a case that sent shockwaves throughout the scientific community.

Full Story

Trick or Treat Spending Down

When it comes to retailers, Halloween is the second biggest shopping season of the year.

Full Story

FOX anchor gets testy after being challenged on "fair & balanced" by Dem Congressman

Kudos to Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey who called a FOX anchor on his bias, and oh did the FOX show anchor just a bit of pique. It seems that all this discussion of FOX being a political operation of the Republican party is getting under their skin a bit. Which is actually a bit weird. Why is FOX embarrassed to be Republican? That's why they were established? That's who runs them and gives them their marching orders. It is fascinating to watch how easy it is to get FOX's goat. Probably because they know they're not newsmen. They're not journalists. And it irks them that the rest of us know too.

Now here's Congressman Andrews - the good staff is in the last half minute or so.
They don't like it when they are told the truth, now do they?!

To Yosemite bears, minivans better than your average car

What's bigger than a picnic basket and even better than one in the eyes of black bears that live in Yosemite National Park?

A study published this month in the Journal of Mammalogy says it's minivans driven by families with children who leave behind a trail of spilled juice boxes, Cheerios and coolers carrying other snacks.

Full Story

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is Mule Day.

Tonight is Worldwide Howl At The Moon Night.

Daily ALmanac

Today is Monday, Oct. 26, the 299th day of 2009.

There are 66 days left in the year.

Today In History October 26

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Cairo, Al Qahriah, Egypt
Zagreb, Grad Zagreb, Croatia
Delhi, Delhi, India
London, England, United Kingdom
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal
Surat, Gujarat, India
Winterswijk, Gelderland, Netherlands
Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

as well as Brazil, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

There's a wonderful feeling of liberation you get when you don't care what anyone thinks about you -- so why are you worried about seeming perfect?
The stress caused by always trying to dress the right way, say the right thing and be the right kind of person takes a lot of energy out of you.
To start feeling good, give up the useless quest for perfection.
Let yourself do what feels right, and you will become the kind of person you can be proud of.

Always do, always do.