Month: August 2010

What We Believe – Poll

The latest 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, which surveyed 847 adults by telephone nationwide earlier this month, tracks Americans thoughts on a variety of topics from Afghanistan and illegal drugs to Mel Gibson and sexual harassment at work.

Some highlights:

— 33% of people think ghosts are likely to actually exist; while another 30% voted for the existence of U.F.O.’s. A smaller percentage of folks think vampires, the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot could exist. Sadly, King Kong and Godzilla did not make the list.

— Nearly 90% of Americans would not try LSD, ecstasy, heroin, crystal meth or crack one time — even if  there was no possibility of harmful physical consequences, criminal charges or addiction.

The October 2010 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll | The Magazine | Vanity Fair.

Religionization of American Politics

Obama isn’t the first president to have to deal with this. Abraham Lincoln, who never joined a church and was notoriously ambiguous and secretive about his religious beliefs, famously said, “The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession.” In his later years, despite denouncing those who were “enemies of” or “scoffed at” religion, he reiterated, “My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”

And Lincoln wasn’t alone, either. In fact, the United States was created by a very skeptical group of Founding Fathers. Continue reading “Religionization of American Politics”

What Gin & Sitcoms Have In Common

I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin.

The transformation from rural to urban life was so sudden, and so wrenching, that the only thing society could do to manage was to drink itself into a stupor for a generation. The stories from that era are amazing– there were gin pushcarts working their way through the streets of London. Alcoholism was also rampant in the US, during our industrial Revolution, until Prohibition’s push-back. Continue reading “What Gin & Sitcoms Have In Common”

Hawaiian Fire Tornado

According to KITV, the daunting spectacle was a product of a brush fire that firefighters were attempting to contain near the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island on Sunday. The blaze claimed at least 1,400 acres. You can actually see the tornadic-cloud rotation around the flame increasing in size.

How Many Wives Do You Have?

In coming years, researchers may also be able to shed light on the impact of language on more subtle areas of perception. For instance, some languages, like Matses in Peru, oblige their speakers, like the finickiest of lawyers, to specify exactly how they came to know about the facts they are reporting.

So if, for instance, you ask a Matses man how many wives he has, unless he can actually see his wives at that very moment, he would have to answer in the past tense and would say something like “There were two last time I checked.” After all, given that the wives are not present, he cannot be absolutely certain that one of them hasn’t died or run off with another man since he last saw them, even if this was only five minutes ago. So he cannot report it as a certain fact in the present tense.

via Does Your Language Shape How You Think? – NYTimes.com.

Is Cricket the Most Crooked Professional Sport?

In the most sensational sporting scandal ever, bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif delivered THREE blatant no-balls to order.Their London-based fixer Mazhar Majeed, who let us in on the betting scam for £150,000, crowed “this is no coincidence” before the bent duo made duff deliveries at PRECISELY the moments promised to our reporter.Armed with our damning dossier of video evidence, Scotland Yard launched their own probe into the scandal.

via Cricket in the dock as we expose match fixing scandal | England Pakistan Test, no balls, bribes | News Of The World.

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Whether you are a Billy  Joel fan or not, you probably remember his great song, ‘We Didn’t Start  the Fire..’
Here it is, set to pictures… . It’s a neat flashback  through the past half century. I never did know all the words. Turn up  volume, sit back and enjoy a review of 50 years of history in  less  than 3 minutes! Thanks to Billy Joel and some guy from the   University of  Chicago  with a lot of spare  time and  Google. Top left gives you full screen….top right lets you pause.   Bottom left shows the year.  The  older you are, the more  pictures you will recognize.  Anyone over age 65 should remember over  90% of what they see. But it’s great at any age.

click  below:

Click here: We Didn’t Start The Fire

Great White Shark Becomes Dinner

(Pic: Courier Mail)

The great white was savaged after it got snared on a drum line – a baited hook attached to a buoy – near North Stradbroke Island, east of Brisbane.

The wounded creature was still alive when a crew hauled it onto a boat, close to Deadman’s Beach.

Experts said its rival may be 20ft (about six metres) long, judging by the size of the huge bites.

via Shark Mauls Great White: Fears In Australia After Shark Bitten Off Stradbroke Island, Near Brisbane | World News | Sky News.

Who Cheats, Depends On Who Is the Bread-Winner

Findings suggest that disparities in moneymaking play a significant role in infidelity, at least among the young couples they studied. “With women, they were less likely to engage in infidelity the less money they make relative to their husband,” said study author Christin Munsch. “But for men, the less money you make relative to your spouse, the more likely you are to engage in infidelity.”

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and research professor at Rutgers University, said it makes sense that men with more money would be more likely to fool around. “He probably travels a lot and drives nicer cars, and he’s probably in finer restaurants. He’s advertising the kind of resources that women are looking for from an evolutionary perspective,” she said. “Around the world, women go for men who are on the top of the pile.”

But there’s less reason, from an evolutionary perspective, for a man to stray if he makes less money than his female partner, she said. “You’d think a man would want to stick around those resources himself. That may have more of a purely psychological explanation.”

As for women, she said, wealth brings them a greater power to do what they want, whether it’s leave a bad relationship or have an affair.

via Infidelity Rises When She Makes More Than He Does.

The Science of Pouring Champagne

The researchers say they looked at two ways of pouring Champagne: the “traditional” method, with the liquid poured vertically to hit the bottom of the Champagne flute; and the “beer-like way,” executed by tilting the glass and gently sliding in the Champagne.

The scientists at the University of Reims say pouring bubbly at a slant, as you would a beer, preserves more of the tiny gas bubbles that improve the drink’s flavor and aromas.

The study – “On the Losses of Dissolved CO2 During Champagne Serving” – appears this week in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a U.S. publication.

via Champagne fizzics: Science backs pouring sideways.

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