Creator of Twitter & Blogger Discloses that he Suffers From Hallucinogenic Optimism

Evan Williams co-inventor of Twitter and Blogger describes his work history including losing his Dad's investment on his first company, being broke for ten years and after working all night, in the morning fishing under couch cushions for money to buy coffee.

He attributes his success to a "series of well-orchestrated accidents" and having "suffered from hallucinogenic optimism."
The New York Times
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Singing Helps Stroke Victims Relearn Speech

Stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak are able to verbalize a simple sentence in only one therapy session if they sing the words. Tapping the melody with their finger makes the speech therapy even more effective.
The BBC News
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Placebo Response is Getting Stronger

In drug development trials in growing numbers, the placebo effect is at least as effective as the drug being tested. "Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills."

It's not just new drugs that are being shot down when blind tested against sugar pills. When drugs that have been on the market for years are retested against sugar pills it's found that the "placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time."

"It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger."
Wired
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Native Americans Plan 1st Utility Sized Solar Plant

The first utility sized solar plant may be built on native land. The Jemeze Pueblo are planning on using 30 acres of tribal land to install 14,850 solar panels and to sell the expected four megawatt of electricity to the public.
The Christian Science Monitor
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Iceland Considering Becoming Free Speech World Leader

The Icelandic Parliament is considering creating laws that will make Iceland a center for journalists, human rights groups, Internet data centers and international press organizations by passing a "legislative package to create a haven for freedom of expression,".

Iceland may do for journalism what off shore banking did for banks.
Nieman Journalism Lab - Harvard University
The Jurist University of Pittsburgh
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Bees Like to be Buzzed - They Enjoy Coffee & Nicotine Too

Many plants naturally provide flower nectar containing caffeine and nicotine. A study conducted by the University of Haifa found that bees prefer flower nectar containing these substances.

To prove the thesis the bees were offered artificial nectar with higher concentrations of natural sugars along with samples containing sugars with caffeine or nicotine. The bees preferred the sugar samples with higher concentrations of caffeine or nicotine.
The Daily Mail
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Squirrel Banned From Riding Roller Coaster

Sonic the squirrel, named after the Roller coaster he enjoyed riding at Alton Towers theme park has been banned.

He enjoyed riding so much that he road all by himself while the staff repairing the ride sent the coaster off on test runs. He did not mind company either and rode with the public on board.

Unfortunately he did not even mind riding while it was being painted, leaving his paw prints in the wet red paint. He also enjoyed sharing the lunches of the Roller Coaster repair staff without their consent. The builders were concerned about him being on the track while the coaster was moving

Unable to deter Sonic the amusement park has installed an alarm that is audible to squirrels but inaudible to humans. Morwenna Angove, sales and marketing director at the Alton Towers resort, said: "Unfortunately Sonic's behaviour is a danger both to our guests and himself and so we're doing all we can to ensure that he stays away from the ride.

"Banning a squirrel from a roller coaster is certainly unusual but I suppose there's a first time for everything."
The Lancashire Evening Post
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Women Protest With Pink Panties

A group of women in India, in response to their morals being policed and having been physically attacked for entering bars alone, by members of Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram’s Army) an ad hock group of radical vigilantes, sent pink panties to the offices of Sri Ram. Thus valentines Day in India is now Pink Chaddi day (Pink Underware Day).

"The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women" was formed on Facebook and now has over 10,000 members. They invite women everywhere to go to a bar and share a drink.
MatadorChange Graphic

Botox and Feel Better

Somehow the use of Botox to paralyze the frown muscles in the forehead interrupts or confuses the emotional centers in the brain. It's part of the science of embodied emotion, how our emotions are processed by our bodies. If we smile we feel better. It turns out that if we are unable to frown we don't connect with the depth of the emotion that caused the frown.
Newsweek
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Genetically Modified Wheat Shunned by 233 Groups in 26 Countries

The "Definitive Global Rejection of GM Wheat" statement was created in June of 2009 and has now been signed by 233 consumer and farmer groups in 26 countries". The purpose of the document is to stop the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) wheat and to clearly communicate with the Monsanto Company that development of GM wheat is not acceptable.

As of February 9, 2010, 17 organizations in the United States have signed the document including but not limited to: Center for Food Safety, Institute for Responsible Technology, National Family Farm Coalition, Partners for the Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples (PLANT), USA and the Sierra Club, USA.
The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network
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GM Wheat Signatories Final Feb. 9, 2010 PDF

Butter is Better - Again - At Least for Men

A recent study at Lund University in Sweden indicates that men tested for blood fats after a meal have lower short and medium length fatty acids in their blood than if they had eaten olive, rape or linseed oil.

Some reasons given for this is that 20% of the fat in butter are "good fatty acids" and are used right away by the body. Also, perhaps the body prefers to store medium and short length fatty acids rather than the long chain fatty acids found in vegetable oils.

It is supposed that less of these fats are found in the blood of men because of the difference in hormones fluctuations and the way men and women carry fat deposits.
Lund University
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You Can Become Smarter by Believing You Are - It's Science

When taught that a persons intelligence can grow rather than the current belief that it is fixed, students grades improve.

Likewise when stereotypes of intellectual inferiority are mentioned members of those groups fulfilled the stereotype.

According to the results of studies done with middle school students during the first eight weeks of spring semester, how we think about intelligence correlates with performance.

"A control group of seventh-grade students did not learn about intelligence's changeability, and instead learned about memory and mnemonic strategies. As compared to the control group, students who learned about intelligence's malleability had higher academic motivation, better academic behavior, and better grades in mathematics. Indeed, students who were members of vulnerable groups (e.g., those who previously thought that intelligence cannot change, those who had low prior mathematics achievement, and female students) had higher mathematics grades following the intelligence-is-malleable intervention, while the grades of similar students in the control group declined. In fact, girls who received the intervention matched and even slightly exceeded the boys in math grades, whereas girls in the control group performed well below the boys."

"These findings are especially important because the actual instruction time for the intervention totaled just three hours."
APA
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The Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results is Accepting Submissions for it's Inaugural Issue

Who would have thought that common fungus would prove to be Penicillin, the worlds most effective antibiotic? Did you know that the fabric treatment Scotchgard™ was discovered with a spill? It turns out that chance has made a large contribution to science.

The Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results is a place to document scientific discovery outside the usual world of controlled experiments.
JSUR
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Italian Tourist Lost $21,000 Cabbie Drives 50 Miles to Return it

An Italian grandmother in New York with six members of her family for Christmas, left her purse containing $21,000 in the back seat of a taxi.

The driver, Mukul Asaduzzaman drove 50 miles to Long Island to return it. He declined to accept a reward.
MSNBC
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The Federal Reserve Had it's Best Year Evaar in 96 Years, Returning $45 billion to the US Treasury

Bailing out the big banks seemed to have worked for the US Federal Reserve. At the end of 2009, it (we) owned "$1.8 trillion in U.S. government debt and mortgage-related securities, up from $497 billion a year earlier." But the interest on those investments was a source of The Feds (our) profits.

The interest on the emergency loans to banks was also part of this profit for a total of $4.7 billion.

"The CEO of the Federal Reserve, Chairman Ben Bernanke received a modest cost-of-living raise for 2010, despite the record earnings: He now makes $199,700, with no bonus at all."
The Washington Post
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The Cube is Dead, The Cube is Dead, The Wicked Cube is Dead

Amway, Hewlett Packard, Unilever, Cisco Systems and many other employers are giving up the Cube office space system for "agile" office space for their employees.

Since so many employees are now telecommuting, traveling and working in different creative groups during the day the cube has little use and dedicated office space for each employee no longer makes economic sense.

Employers are moving from rating employees by their office time and instead using performance and deliverables when rating work quality.
World Post
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They Fell in Love After Their Plane Crashed in a New York River

They did not meet on the plane, though he had noticed her. They did not meet while waiting for rescue in the freezing Hudson river after their flight crashed.

Six months later at a reunion of survivors of famous Flight 1549 they were introduced and have been together ever since.
The Daily Mail
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Two California Safeway Grocery Stores Were Left Unlocked Christmas Eve and Day - Nothing Was Stolen

Because of an error in their security systems two Safeway supermarkets were left with their doors unlocked on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Both stores are normally open 24 hours.

Security cameras at both stores show employees locking the doors and then customers pushing them open.

Police were called by a shopper in one store because there were no lights but people were still shopping. "The police found no looting, but small piles of cash left at the registers for purchased items."
The Examiner
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Dell Computer Near Austin, Texas Builds Solar Covered Parking

Envision Solar has completed construction on a 516 panel Solar Grove® designed to generate 130,000 kilowatt hours of solar power annually.

This installation is situated so that it can be seen clearly by cars on the highway "includes two Envision Solar CleanCharge™ solar-to-electric vehicle charging stations. The 110.62 kW system of 11 Solar Trees® produces approximately 131,000 kilowatt hours annually, utilizes 516 BP Solar photovoltaic modules, and provides shade for 56 parking spaces."
Dell Computer
Treehugger
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One Parrot Fish Can Create a Ton of Sand Per Year

Did you ever wonder where sand comes from? One source is the beautiful Parrot Fish. With their teeth fused into a steel hard beak they scrape algae and sponges from coral reefs and rocky bottoms.

What they excrete is sand. "A study in Bermuda estimated that parrot fish create a ton of sand per acre of coral reef per year."
ENature
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A Secret Santa Paid the Oustanding Utility Bills for 17 Households

On the eve of having their utuilities cut off in December, an unamed philanthropist in Goodyear, Arizona paid the balances of 17 household shut off notices the night before delivery.

"Assuming three or four people live in each household, the city estimates 50 to 70 people benefited from the gift."
AZ Central
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New Years Traditions Around The World (Double click image to enlarge)

RIA Novosti
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Electronic Books Won in Sales Over Hard Back for the First Time

This Christmas shopping season, for the first time, more electronic book titles were sold than traditional books. Additionally, the Amazon Kindle was the most popular gift purchased on Amazon.com.
The Daily Mail
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The Government of India Sets Biofuel Mandate - by 2017 20% Blended Biofuels

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2009 signed a government mandate requiring 20% blending of bio-fuels in diesel and ethanol by 2017 which was presented at the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

This is especially important because India chases only China in number of cars purchased. Passenger car sales in India rose 61% in December alone. Both countries are now considered "the largest carbon emitters in the world". "The industrial sector and vehicular emissions are the main sources of air pollution."
Business Week
Economic Times
The Khabarexpress
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The US Air Force Needs 2,200 More Play Stations for Research

The Air Force already have 336 Sony PlayStations being used researching "neuromorphic computing," or building computers with brain-like properties."

The devices are part of a Department of Defense $2 million research project for it's High Performance Computing Modernization Program.

The 2,200 new PlayStations will be added to an "existing cluster of 336 PlayStation 3s being used to conduct supercomputing research".

"The PlayStation 3's eight-processor Cell powers other supercomputers, including the world's second-fastest, IBM's RoadRunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory."
Information Week
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The First Woman to Officiate a Bowl Game - Sarah Thomas

Sarah Thomas made history again working as linesman for a subdivision postseason game at the Little Caesars Bowl in December 2009.

In 2007 Sarah Thomas made history as the first woman to officiate a Division I college football game.

There are now five women officiating Division I college football.
ESPN Sports
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