- One Election Outcome Certain: A Lefty Will Win White House
Since 1974, presidents Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton have all favored their left hands, while President Carter and the current President Bush are righties. The trait is also not exclusive to winning candidates: Vice President Gore is left-handed, as are past presidential contenders Robert Dole, John Edwards, Bill Bradley, and Ross Perot. A prominent New Yorker who flirted with a White House bid, Mayor Bloomberg, is a lefty.
Pretty interesting to me, seeing as how I’m also a ’southpaw’.
- Maglevs coming to America
But not without an uphill battle, apparently. Let’s be honest: the train network here in the United States is the laughing stock of the developed world. It’s time to stop fighting the future.
- U.K. shuts out product placement
The U.K. media minister has attacked product placement in TV shows and said he will not allow the practice on British broadcasters even though it has been approved by the European Union. “British programming has an integrity that is revered around the world, and I don’t think we should put that hard-won reputation up for sale.”
- Chuck D to musicians: Cut out the middleman, deal directly with fans
“What we do need is a government that is willing to sit down with all the stakeholders and craft a balanced copyright policy for Canada that will not repeat the mistakes made in the United States,” Canning said.
Chuck D agrees Canada needs a solution forged in Canada, where markets are smaller and musicians may have to start smaller. “You can’t get to a million until you get past one and then two and three and four. You figure out what model supports local music,” he said.
In other news, how the hell did Public Enemy release a new album without me finding out until I read an article on the CBC with Chuck D in it?
- TV viewing, computer use linked to obesity
Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity, released Wednesday, is based on data from the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey of more than 42,600 Canadians aged 20 to 64, interviewed throughout 2007. It found that television viewing or computer use was strongly associated with obesity. A third sedentary activity — reading — was not associated with obesity.
- Studio head answers your questions about the movie business
Pretty good Q&A session, actually.
- Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer
Not a fake headline, which should speak volumes about the OS when simply getting a printer to work with Windows is newsworthy. (Hat tip: Gruber)
- Meteorites Brought DNA “Ancestors” to Earth, Study Says
Researchers discovered the organic molecules uracil and xanthine in the meteorite and confirmed they could not have formed on Earth. These molecules, called nucleobases, are precursors to DNA, a set of genetic instructions for organisms on Earth.
Looks like 2008 is shaping up to be a big year for science!
- Bumper Stickers = Road Rage
So assuming you can even afford to drive this summer, stay away from cars with bumper stickers. As the Colorado scientists report, people with lots of bumper stickers and decals on their car were 16 percent more likely to succumb to road rage. As Szlemko told Nature magazine, “The number of territory markers predicted road rage better than vehicle value, condition or any of the things that we normally associate with aggressive driving.”
- Dinosaurs!
Puzzled, she asked her research assistant, Jennifer Wittmeyer, to dissolve the outer mineral layer. Six hours later, there was a knock on the door.
‘Jennifer ran into the room saying, “You’re not going to believe this,”’ recalls Schweitzer. ‘When she picked up a small piece, it stretched and moved all over the place. ‘So we knew we had something pretty unusual.’
The magnitude of the discovery was immediately apparent to the Montana University team — the material appeared to be well preserved flesh from a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Wow!
