It's been a while since I've seen a truly silly study -- I feared they were all being sucked into the stimulus package. But here's a beaut:
Wendy Hill, professor of psychology at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania began the research to find out why the mundane physical activity of rubbing lips can elicit such a gratifying emotional response.
Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in history. Why would even "right to choose" advocates celebrate such an abomination? But NOW apparently is. The headline on this AP story is a little misleading -- "U.S. abortion debate altered by Obama presidency" -- but the story itself gets it right:
What a crock. What is the assumption here, that everyone has memory loss or attention deficit as they get older?
Are you always forgetting important dates and occasions? Good news! Soon a memory enhancing pill will be available over-the-counter to help you out.
Omigod, here's some astonishing news that's just going to blow the lid off this whole casino thing:
Indiana's casino workers and customers breathe air containing 14 times more secondhand smoke than the air outside, a Purdue University study has found.
Fort Wayne isn't that big, so maybe we're only half-stupid:
Here's a litle quiz. The Army, Navy, Aif Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are five of the seven uniformed services of the United States. What are the other two?
(If you want to give yourself a time limit, click here.)
"OK, Natasha, here is plan. First, you hide all acorns..."
"...ALL acorns, Boris?"
"Yes, Natasha, ALL acorns. Then squirrel will come out in open to look for food in cornfields and garbage cans, and we grab him. Then, moose will come looking for squirrel, and we grab HIM, too. Then we ship moose and squirrel to Pottsylvania, and Fearless Leader will give us big bonus."
Darn, just when I was thinking about investing in Soylent Green:
Citing the impact of the recession, Indiana's environmental agency has halted funding for state grant and loan programs that support recycling and pollution prevention -- a cutoff that will persist through at least through summer 2010.
[. . .]
The concept of "environmental refugees" has been around for more than 20 years -- those are people displaced by things like tsunamis and hurricanes and such. Now, apparently, we have to start dealing with "climate refugees":
Millions of people are predicted to become climate refugees as global warming increases. A new international pact will be needed to protect their rights to live.
Oh, no, we're all going to die horribly!
A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.
[. . .]
Congress asked the academy to conduct the study after astronomers were unable to eliminate an extremely slight chance that an asteroid called Apophis will slam into Earth with devastating effect in 2036.
