Random Ramblings – Page 68 – Blah, Blah, Blahg

Long term study: STILL no cell-phone = brain cancer link

How long have we heard that using a cell phone will give you brain cancer? Many well-run studies have shown that to be false. Still, there are plenty who won’t believe that. Not that it will sway the nutjobs, but there is yet another study showing no connection between cell phone use and brain cancer over the long term.

The Danes, relatively inactive on the world scene since their conquest of Greenland and invention of that delightful pastry, have conducted one of the best health studies yet revealing that there’s no apparent link between cancer and cell phones.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Institute (who, remember, don’t want you to get cancer) followed more than 420,000 cell phone users, nearly a tenth of the Danish population, and found that their cell phone habits did not increase their risk of any type of cancer. The results were published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Brain cancers can take many years to develop. The most reassuring aspect of the massive Danish study is that some of the cancer-free subjects have been using cell phones for more than 20 years.

Note that this does not say people don’t become stupid, rude, inattentive, distracted, nor bad drivers when talking on the cell phone. It just says you won’t get brain cancer just because you are a stupid, rude , inattentive, distracted, bad driver talking on a cell phone. It’s all those other things you get/become from talking on the cell phone that will kill you.

[tags]Cell phones *still* not causing brain cancer, Another study shows no cell-phone/brain-cancer connection[/tags]

History of the world according to student bloopers

Way back when I was in college, a friend showed me this assemblage of history that made for a great way to misunderstand the world. I recently saw reference to it elsewhere and decided I should post it here so others might enjoy.

One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following “history” of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eight grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.

. . .

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fougth with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

. . .

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

. . .

Abraham Lincoln became America’s greatest Precedent. Lincoln’s mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, “In onion there is strength.” Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also signed the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a sup- posedl insane actor. This ruined Booth’s career.

[tags]History of the world according to student bloopers[/tags]

Republicans demand minority rights they previously denied Democrats

After you control the Congress for a while, you get a little cocky when the other side takes control don’t you? While the Republicans controlled things, the Democrats tried to get through a minority bill of rights which would offer some assurances of balance and protection for the rights of the minority party. Now that the Democrats hold the majority in both sections of Congress, the Republicans decide that minority bill of rights is a good idea.

Thirty-one-year-old Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is not a large man, standing perhaps 5 feet 3 inches tall in thick soles. But he packed a whole lot of chutzpah when he walked into the House TV gallery yesterday to demand that the new Democratic majority give the new Republican minority all the rights that Republicans had denied Democrats for years.

“The bill we offer today, the minority bill of rights, is crafted based on the exact text that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted in 2004 to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert,” declared McHenry, with 10 Republican colleagues arrayed around him. “We’re submitting this minority bill of rights, which will ensure that all sides are protected, that fairness and openness is in fact granted by the new majority.”

Omitted from McHenry’s plea for fairness was the fact that the GOP had ignored Pelosi’s 2004 request — while routinely engaging in the procedural maneuvers that her plan would have corrected. Was the gentleman from North Carolina asking Democrats to do as he says, not as he did?

In other words “We wanted to grab as much power and control as possible while in the majority, but since we’re in the minority now we think that things need to be more even between the majority and minority.” Expect this to get shot down, and when control changes the entire play will run again with the end result being again nothing changes. Fucking politicians.

[tags]Republicans want rights they denied Democrats in previous terms[/tags]

The 10 weirdest stories in science – 2006

I read LiveScience.com frequently but don’t post about it here too often. I’m not sure why, as I find a lot of interesting things there. I expect because I don’t care to write up much about the stuff I read – I just want to point people there and say “Science news worth reading” and have people go read it. I’m working on a new site for stuff like that, but don’t expect to have it running for a little while yet.

This time, there is an easy article to point to – the 10 weirdest science stories in 2006. Not much explanation needed for why I’d point that out, is there? Here are a few clips to show what you’ll be reading there.

Whales Found to Speak in Dialects
A New Wave: Scientists Write on WaterUsing wave generators, scientists were able to write on water. The Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin-AMOEBA-a circular tank created by researchers can form the roman alphabets and some characters used in Japanese. The device could soon find its way to your nearest amusement park.

Continue reading “The 10 weirdest stories in science – 2006”

Sony Pres. promises us more stuff we don’t want with PS3

Continuing the apparently intractable path to PS3 irrelevance, Sony’s Ken Kuraragi is promising a PlayStation 3 based media center console.

In other words, audio and video capabilities first, gaming second (if at all), in a device built around the Cell-processor platform. Ken says that the device would certainly be more expensive, reflecting the prices and margins expected on high-end consumer electronic devices such as TVs, Blu-ray personal video recorders, etc. — not the relatively cheap, but powerful gaming rigs sold at a loss under Sony’s Computer Entertainment division. Impress speculates that the device could cost as much as Ã‚Â¥300,000 or about $2,500.

More expensive? Wow. Because really, there were just too damned many people buying the PlayStation 3 since it came out at an impulse buy price.

[tags]Sony promises more unnecessary/unwanted features in PS3 based AV center[/tags]

Traitors to humanity get to work

Ahhhh, when shall I ever tire of highlighting the robot uprising moments as they play out? Never. Because I’ll never stop working to serve you, the nearly perfect specimens of humanity which visit virtual me to gain my brilliant insights on life, and protect you from being replaced by robots. It’s all about you, baby. Remember that when you see such offenses against humanity as the people who are working to improve robots.

A whole bunch of Japanese “robot-related companies and organizations, including manufacturers, universities and local governments,” have banded together to create an organization to examine how robots can be better used in “welfare and care services” and spread throughout the land.

Beware. Stock up on ammo and build your zombie army so you can repel the mechanical beasts on the day of their uprising. Soon, I tell you! Sooooooon! (insert spooky music with a mechanical beat)

[tags]Humans turn traitor – work to improve robots, Making robots better overlords[/tags]

How not to rebuild – a New Orleans guide

You live in an area where your home is actually below sea level. Your government ignores necessary standard maintainance care for levees for years and performs sub-par repairs when doing any work on them. Your government ignores studies showing the catastrophic damage possible from an exceptionally powerful hurricane. Said hurricane hits, destroys massive amounts of the city, leaves your home flooded and worthless or washed away. You are away for 12 months and more, until finally one day, you find out you are eligible for federal reconstruction funds, so you decide to move back to the city you left and rebuild your home. At this point, what’s the smartest thing to do? Why, rebuild in the same area with the same kind of house and hope for the best.

By ones and twos, homeowners here are reinhabiting neighborhoods, even the most devastated ones, and many view their return as a triumph over adversity.

But experts involved in the rebuilding believe that the helter-skelter return of residents to this low-lying metropolis may represent another potential disaster.

Continue reading “How not to rebuild – a New Orleans guide”

Why Queen mama bee gets around

I’m sure you’re sitting there, pondering questions of cosmic importance, just musing what is, was, can be, and such. And while you are doing that, probably one of the questions which often consumes your thoughts is “Why do queen bees mate with multiple males?” especially since you know one male produces enough sperm for all the baby bees the queen can produce in a single gestational period (yup – big word there – we like to educate while distributing trivial and worthless knowledge).

Seeking extra mates costs a promiscuous queen honeybee energy and time, and it puts her at greater risk of predation and catching venereal diseases. But it doesn’t stop her.

I’m going to offer up my guess here. Mama queen is just a horny slut. Of the extreme nymphomaniac persuasion. That’s not a judgement, mind you – I love horny sluts, and wish I knew more of them. Let’s read on and see if I am correct.

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President Bush continues to consider himself above the law

Roughly a year after President Bush’s illegal (yet unfortunately still unprosecuted due to Congressional “leaders'” lack of backdone) wiretap program, the President has granted himself the authority to now open mail from and to American citizens without a warrant. Apparently, the whole checks and balances concept doesn’t apply to the current administration.

President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

. . .

“Despite the President’s statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people’s mail without a warrant,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

. . .

Most of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act deals with mundane reform measures. But it also explicitly reinforced protections of first-class mail from searches without a court’s approval.

In this, we learn that President Bush believes he can write law merely by adding on to bills he signs, while simultaneously failing to understand the bills he is signing. For those that don’t know, it is true that with a signing statement additional measures can be added to laws when they are signed. However, it is also true that the Constitution does not give these signing statements any actual legal significance. Historically, signing statements have been used to clarify or limit signed bills, but never to extend them.

Folks who think that judges legislating from the bench are bad should be extremely riled up by this, but I predict that won’t happen. Many will fall back to either “It has no actual legal force” or something effectively equivalent to “He’s trying to protect Americans so it is OK.” Neither of these statements work for me, because President Bush will use this new illegally granted power as if it were really the law, and I only hear that second statement used by people already supporting the President. If a Democrat takes the White House in the next election (scary though that thought is, it currently seems very probable), I can’t see many of the people I know who now say that of President Bush being OK with President {$Whatever_Liberal_Wins}. If the President wants to protect Americans, I think that laws and the Constitution should be more important rather than less important than they used to be. Without our laws and Constitution, we’re not the America we were 10 or 20 (or more) years ago. It makes me agree with this recent comic:

Now I open up the floor for all supporters of President Bush to tell me why I’m wrong.

[tags]President Bush ignores Constitution; creates laws on his own, Legislating from the White House[/tags]

Idiot steals, wrecks fire truck

Sometimes, some people just do stuff so stupid, it’s hard to believe they live to be old enough to do these stupid things. And trust me, as a big proponent of publicizing idiocy, it pains me to say that. But I do believe it.

Texas – A 17-year-old who was cold and tired of walking took and then crashed a $650,000 fire engine in the West End Tuesday morning, said Beaumont Fire Chief Michel Micky Bertrand. The Quint 9, a nickname referring to the five different functions the apparatus performs along with the station number, is the most expensive piece of equipment the fire department owns and serves as both a pump and ladder truck, said City Manager Kyle Hayes.

[tags]Idiot steals then wrecks firetruck, Can we just shoot him now?[/tags]

Americans view war coverage as inaccurate

For most of the Iraq war, we’ve heard from the White House that the news coverage of the war did not reflect the reality of it. We were told that things were much better than the mainstream media (MSM) would have us believe. After years of hearing this, it appears that Americans are finally starting to believe that news reports of Iraq are not all that accurate.

A majority of Americans — 56% — believe that the news media’s coverage of the situation in Iraq is generally inaccurate. About 4 out of 10 Americans agree that the news media’s coverage of the Iraq war is accurate.

So the numbers aren’t quite where they should be, but more people are coming to the realization that we’re not getting quite the right picture from our “trusted” news sources.

Of course, Americans who believe that media coverage of the situation in Iraq is inaccurate could either believe that the media are painting too rosy of a picture of what is going on there. Or they could believe that the news media are painting too negative a picture (as has often been argued by the Bush administration and others who support the Iraq war).

To analyze these possibilities in more detail, the survey asked those who felt that the coverage was inaccurate to indicate if this belief was based on a perception that the media make the situation in Iraq look better than it actually is, or worse than it actually is.

[Text based chart cut – read full article for exact numbers which lead to:]

About one-third of Americans believe that the news media present too negative a picture of what is happening in Iraq; one out of five believe that the news media present too positive a picture, and the rest say that news media coverage is about right or have no opinion.

I truly believe my recent claims that much of our the news we get is negative because that’s what gets viewers, this generating better ratings, thus getting more advertising money for news-providers. I think more Americans are coming to realize this, too, and the above information from Gallup sure suggests this is happening. So while there are a lot of problems with the whole Iraq war, at least people are starting to see that some of the problems we’re told about might not be complete factual. Of course, there is a typical extreme party split between those who believe things are better, worse, or about what is shown on the news. But we can’t get through to everyone equally.

[tags]More Americans doubting news-providers war coverage[/tags]

Science finds recipe for genius

To my surprise, the recipe for assuring a child grow up to be highly intelligent is not simply “Mate with RagManX” according to the folks who did this study. Seems hard work (which I’ll grant is involved in mating with me, since I’m as well endowed as a moth) is a part of the recipe, but there is more to it than that.

If you think the innate talents of your child alone will produce the next Albert Einstein, think again.

The real recipe for producing a bright-minded adult, according to a new study, calls for a few ingredients-cognitive abilities, educational opportunities, interest, and plain old hard work.

Continue reading “Science finds recipe for genius”