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10 Interesting Links From November 16th

November 17th, 2009 Greg Smith No comments
  • Foodborne illness: An acute and long-term health challenge for the 21st century | Science Blog – CFI's report, The Long-Term Health Outcomes of Selected Foodborne Pathogens, calls for a new approach to foodborne illness research and surveillance and provides expert reviews about some of the long-term health outcomes for five foodborne pathogens. The outcomes range from hypertension and diabetes to kidney failure and mental retardation.
  • Arizona lands solar manufacturing facility – Phoenix Business Journal: – The company, which is based in Wuxi, China, and has its American offices in San Francisco, has not settled on a site as of yet. Company officials cited its work with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council as well as the state’s renewable energy standard and potential research relationships with Arizona State University as the reasons behind its decision. The plant will initially employ about 75 people with the potential to double that within the first year.
  • Local News | ‘Missing’ SeaTac man found with new name, in new state | Seattle Times Newspaper – Earlier this year, Christine Francisco got a divorce and, in an interview with KIRO-TV, said she had subsequently learned her husband had been leading a double life, complete with hidden bank accounts.
  • Mysterious Porpoise Deaths Blamed On Berserk Dolphins – News Story – KTVU San Francisco – Marine biologists have figured out why a growing number of dead harbor porpoises have been found on California beaches in recent years: dolphin attacks.
  • High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Recipe For Hypertension, Study Finds – Over the last 200 years, the rate of fructose intake has directly paralleled the increasing rate of obesity, which has increased sharply in the last 20 years since the introduction of HFCS. Today, Americans consume 30% more fructose than 20 years ago and up to four times more than 100 years ago, when obesity rates were less than 5%. While this increase mirrors the dramatic rise in the prevalence of hypertension, studies have been inconsistent in linking excess fructose in the diet to hypertension.
  • News : Desalinization plant presents sustainability, waste concerns – Rio Rancho Observer – Jensen is also concerned with what happens after 100 years. “The deepwater isn’t renewable, so when it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said. “So, if it’s being used to promote more growth and more development and more housing, when that water runs out, there’s going to be a huge question of where the water comes from to supply the new population. That is a serious issue.”
  • Report: Motorola looking at selling unit – Motorola Inc. is seeking to sell its largest division, which includes Tempe operations, according to a report Wednesday. Motorola has a location in Tempe at 2900 S. Diablo Way. The Schaumburg, Ill., company is exploring a sale worth about $4.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal's Web site, which cited "people familiar with the matter."
  • Al Jazeera English – Americas – Rio gangs down police helicopter – Suspected drug traffickers in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have shot down a police helicopter monitoring a shootout between rival armed gangs.
  • Florissant deer gores woman who tried to pet it – The Denver Post – A young buck mule deer gored a 63-year-old woman near Florissant on Monday after she apparently called to the animal in an attempt to pet him, officials from the state Division of Wildlife said today in a news release.
  • Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men: Scientific American – Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.
  • 10 Interesting Links From April 20th

    April 21st, 2009 Greg Smith No comments
    • Potential Hosts Beware! – I chuckle when I recall the first question he asked me as we walked to the parking garage at the airport – "Do you have anything like a lake around here with a beach?" Yes, I know it was in bad taste but I simply said "Tingley Beach." A few days later he didn't see the humor when we drove by Tingley and I said "surfs up dude!" (Note to self – remember the Tingley Beach response for all of my boogie boarding buddies who come out)
    • Jalopnik – General Dynamics RST-V Series-Hybrid With Cool In-Wheel Motors – General Dynamics RST-V – The General Dynamics Reconnaissance Surveillance and Targeting Vehicle is one cool piece of kit. It's powered by four electric in-wheel motors and can export thirty kilowatts directly to the grid. It's also got neat-o gauges.
    • News : Car show features a banana with appeal – Rio Rancho Observer – "Top Banana,” you see, is the name he’s attached to his 1958 Ford Ranchero, painted a bright sunrise yellow with a sunrise red interior. You won’t be able to miss this Ranchero. It’s not one in a million, but it is one in 9,950, which is the total Ford made that year.
    • The number of U.S. households who are completely unready for Junes DTV transition has dropped to 3.4 percent : Dealerscope – Albuquerque-Santa Fe, once again, was named the least-ready market, followed by Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston; Providence-New Bedford, meanwhile, was pronounced "completely ready."
    • Guns, ammo disappearing as demand grows – He credits the run on guns and ammo to a number of factors: investors buying up to sell at higher prices, survivalists stockpiling for doomsday, first time gun buyers and worries that President Barack Obama is going to enact stricter gun laws.
    • Walking Away from an Underwater House | Bad Money Advice – The idea that you can just send the keys to an upside down house to the mortgage holder (“jingle mail” or more properly “ruthless default”) and be done with it seems to have gained some popularity of late. Apparently, some people are beginning to believe that this is something special about houses. New cars that were bought on credit are usually worth less than what is owed on them at the start. Does anybody think they can reconsider the purchase after a few months and just hand it back to the dealer, no questions asked? Are houses different? Can you just mail in the keys?
    • Obama to take aim at credit card abuses | Reuters – President Barack Obama plans to crack down on deceptive credit-card industry practices that have saddled U.S. consumers with huge debts and soaring interest rates, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

      Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Obama would be "very focused in the very near term on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses."

    • Obama to take aim at credit card abuses | Reuters – President Barack Obama plans to crack down on deceptive credit-card industry practices that have saddled U.S. consumers with huge debts and soaring interest rates, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

      Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Obama would be "very focused in the very near term on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses."

    • 12 Years of Low End Mac – There wasn't much to The New Low End User, as I first titled it, in April 1997. It had almost two dozen Mac profiles, from the Mac Plus through the last 68030-based desktop Macs, a few links to other online Mac resources, a whopping 3 graphics, and absolutely no advertising.
    • Errors of Enchantment: They Just Don’t Get the Tea Parties – The rallies, while they did take place on tax day, were not really about taxes. Rather, they were, I believe, an expression of frustration at Republicans and Democrats, both of whom have supported out-of-control spending, bailouts, government takeovers and subsidies of private business, and unbelievable increases in indebtedness levels for the better part of the last decade. The unfortunate truth is that the Obama Administration has simply continued and expanded upon many of Bush's policies and the people who work every day and make this country great are not happy. That is the message I got from the tea parties (at least in Albuquerque where politicians were specifically kept out of the limelight).