Without the lubricating effect of water droplets thrown up by waves, hurricanes would have trouble building up winds of more than 25 mph.
Another fun “fact”: without turbulence, the Mississippi River would be flowing at supersonic speed at its mouth.
(via EurekAlert: “Ocean spray lubricates hurricane winds.” [July 25, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/complexity-and-hurricanes-and-other-non-real-basically-hypothetical-what-ifs/
New scientific study says, most scientific studies are flawed.
The study doesn’t prove or disprove any particular studies, but instead looks at all the obstacles facing most studies (small sample size, small effect, etc.). Still, it’s hard to read about it with a straight face.
(NewScientist: “Most scientific papers are probably wrong,” by Kurt Kleiner [Aug 30, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/irony/
https://www.swordbilled.com/a-fast-furious-rundown/
The New Scientist Special Report on BSE and vCJD. Updated with the latest articles and info. Also has a timeline, web links (as opposed to…?), and briefing notes.
https://www.swordbilled.com/yet-another-mad-cow-resource/
Are you surprised? Probably not.
(EurekAlert: “Study shows how sleep improves memory”)
https://www.swordbilled.com/non-breaking-news/
https://www.swordbilled.com/old-boston/
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, by Lydia Millet, ends up being a disappointment, but only because the last few hundred pages pale in comparison to the incomprehensible brilliance of the first 250. Honestly, the beginning is outstanding, so it’s not really Millet’s fault that the rest can’t compare. Once you bring the three forefathers of the atomic bomb back from the dead, it’s a difficult proposition to know what to do with them, exactly. It’s one of those mediocre-by-comparison ordeals; if the start of the book were less spectacular, would the entire book perhaps seem more genius? Despite these misgivings, I’d tend to recommend this book, and heartily, at that. Lydia Millet manages to combine humor, drama, and social criticism in ways you wouldn’t think were possible. More impressively, she gives credible voices to the dead physicists, making Leo Szilard, Robert Oppenheimer, and Enrico Fermi powerful characters in her work.
https://www.swordbilled.com/oh-pure-and-radiant-heart/
There was no one in sight, a guaranteed getaway, and loot worth millions. So it must have seemed all too easy to make off with a high-priced painting from a cargo warehouse at Kennedy International Airport two weeks ago.
Except, the authorities said, for two small details:
1. It was all captured on videotape.
2. The thief apparently left behind a copy of his driver’s license.
Now, all of this is totally misleading for a whole host of reasons, but as far as newspaper articles go, it does make a killer lead-in.
(For those of you who aren’t actually going to read the article to find out what was misleading, let me summarize: the ‘thief’ didn’t premeditate stealing the painting, but took it out of spite, and in the heat the moment; aside from which, he probably didn’t even know what was in the box.)
(NYTimes: “When Taking a Painting, Don’t Leave Your Picture,” by Anahad O’Connor [May 17, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/always-good-advice-or-what-not-to-do-when-stealing-a-valuable-painting/
Did you know…
Fears of food tampering predate even Snow White and the wicked Queen with her apple.
No, really!
Yes, so with a title of “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” of course it’s going to be at least partially a tounge-in-cheek article. The article–on the trials and tribulations of product packaging–is, if not illuminating, at least interesting, in a sadistic sort of way. Did you know that wrap rage–the phenomenon of a consumer throwing caution to the wind in trying to open a package with knives, scissors, or what-have-you–causes upwards of 60,000 injuries a year in Great Britain alone? I bet you didn’t. You’ll learn many other things from this informative article if you so desire. Of course, it only addresses the consumer and producer angles of things, and doesn’t so much as whisper of the whole waste issue of (over)packaging.
(WaPo: “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” by Joyce Gemperlein [June 12, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/belligerent-packaging/
May 18th, however, has all the meaning in the world.
Well, not quite. A tutor (and specialist in Happiness) has devised a formula to determine the best day to come up with resolutions that have the best chance of being achieved. And that day, according to the formula, is May 18th.
I personally don’t have much faith in the formula, but it can’t be any worse a time than January first, and it certainly could be a better day. Who knows?
(The person who devised this formula also determined that January 24th is the most depressing day of the year.)
(Science Blog: “Whoops: May 18 was best day to change your life”)
https://www.swordbilled.com/january-1st-is-meaningless/
