Thursday, July 29, 2010

To Make One Happy, Make One Busy

ScienceDaily (July 29, 2010) — A new study inPsychological Science found that people who have something to do, even something pointless, are happier than people who sit idly.

Relationships Improve Your Odds of Survival by 50 Percent, Research Finds

(July 27, 2010) — A new Brigham Young University study adds our social relationships to the "short list" of factors that predict a person's odds of living or dying.

School District Drops 'D' Grades

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 28, @12:03PM
from the pass-fail-education dept.

Students in one New Jersey school district will no longer be able to squeak by in class after the Morris County School Board approved dropping the D grade. Beginning in the fall students who don't get a C or higher will get an F on their report card. "I'm tired of kids coming to school and not learning and getting credit for it," said Superintendent Larrie Reynolds in a Daily Record report.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Australian Cave Offers Klingon Audio Tour

by samzenpus on Tuesday July 27, @09:42AM
from the enjoy-the-tour-you-filthy-targ dept.

schliz writes"An Australian cave system visited by 200,000 tourists a year is expanding its range of audio guides to support Klingon. Cave operators reportedly engaged the services of two 'Klingon scholars' from the US, following Star Trek's naming of a 'Sydney Class' Starship, the USS Jenolan."

How a Key Enzyme Repairs Sun-Damaged DNA

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 27, @03:58AM
from the one-proton-and-one-electron dept.

biotech

BraveHeart writes"Researchers have long known that mammals, including humans, lack a key enzyme — one possessed by most of the animal kingdom and even plants — that reverses severe sun damage. For the first time, researchers have witnessed how this enzyme works at the atomic level to repair sun-damaged DNA. 'Normal sunscreen lotions convert UV light to heat, or reflect it away from our skin. A sunscreen containing photolyase could potentially heal some of the damage from UV rays that get through.'"

Facing 16 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 27, @02:26AM
from the we-are-watching-you dept.

court

krou sends this snip from the Maine Civil Liberties Union:"The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who faces as much as sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. ... Once [the Maryland State Police] learned of the video on YouTube, Graber's parents' house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked, and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute. The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber's case, 'To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist.'"

Monday, July 26, 2010

Stop or Speed Through a Yellow Light? That Is the Question

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2010) — Transportation engineering PhD student Zhixia Li was attracted to the University of Cincinnati because of the real-world education and experience the university provides.

By Darren Murph posted Jul 26th 2010 9:46AM

And you thought that 1,000 megawatt wind farm planned for Lake Erie was going to be huge. Terra-Gen Power recently secured a staggering $1.2 billion in construction financing, which it fully intends to use on 3D projectors, PlayStation 3 consoles and parts necessary to build America's largest wind farm. Granted, only one of those points is actually true, but we suspect you're hanging with us. The latest round of cash will help build four wind power projects with a total of 570 megawatts of capacity at the company's Alta Wind Energy Center in Kern County, California. But when you put that with projects already in motion, you're left with a 3,000MW wind power initiative, which should be completed and operational "in the first and second quarters of 2011." So, anyone feeling up to topping this?

Why More Education Lowers Dementia Risk

ScienceDaily (July 25, 2010) — A team of researchers from the UK and Finland has discovered why people who stay in education longer have a lower risk of developing dementia -- a question that has puzzled scientists for the past decade.

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2010) — "Many people," says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, "feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature."

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