Politically Correct Ride Notices

A couple of weeks ago, Massachusetts had the annual Topsfield Fair. It has been running since 1818 and is America's longest running agricultural fair. Needless to say...it has an old Americana feel to it. Evidence A...read the notice regarding ride limitations at the bottom of this photo...

I'm Surprised They Didn't Just Give Them All Ritalin

Rural school districts are starting to deploy WiFi on school buses for long commutes, or long trips for sports teams. According to the article, "as bus No. 92 rolls down a mountain highway just before dawn, high school students are quiet, typing on laptops."

Imagine that! You provide an outlet for teenage energy and they start behaving.

As I said in the title, I am surprised they didn't spend the WiFi money on more pills for the students.

From Satellite Internet...10 myths about space travel from the movies

I know I'm GEEKING out with this post, but I think it's sweet.

Check out the whole list here.

Here's #7: Traveling at light speed would tear an aircraft apart.

Why is the brain divided and what does that mean for us?

Really interesting article from today's WSJ on the significance and function of each hemisphere of the brain. Snippet below, check the full version here.

In humans, the left hemisphere controls the grasping right hand and the bits of language that enable us to pin down meaning unambiguously. It helps us manipulate and use the world, in pursuit of our aims. The left hemisphere's world is sharply delineated and certain, along the lines of the general's strategy map on the command room wall, where the complexity of the world is stripped away. Yet we still need to see the essentially human world as it is before we simplify and disconnect it. A general needs to be in touch with the world in which his soldiers actually fight. The knowledge that is mediated by the left hemisphere is knowledge within a closed system. It has the advantage of perfection, but such perfection is bought ultimately at the price of emptiness.

The right hemisphere's take on the world is far more complex and nuanced. Instead of distinct mechanisms, the right hemisphere sees interconnected, living, embodied entities. In communication the right hemisphere recognizes all that is nonverbal, metaphorical, ironic or humorous, where the left is literalistic. The right is at ease with ambiguity and the idea that opposites may be compatible.

There is a reason we have two hemispheres: We need both versions of the world.

Synthetic Alcohol in Development: Same Buzz, Less Downside

An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists.

The new substance could have the added bonus of being "switched off" instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work.

The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.

But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body.
Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober.

The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt, Britain's top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy.

Read the full story here.

Col. Lewis Millett, Who Led ‘Bayonet Hill’ Charge, Dies at 88

This is just an interesting story...

When he became a company commander in the Korean War, serving as a captain in the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, he seemed a visage from battlefields past with his red handlebar mustache. On Feb. 7, 1951, he employed a tactic of bygone wars with a fury that overwhelmed the enemy.

During the fighting near Osan, South Korea, Captain Millett’s unit encountered Communist troops atop a spot called Hill 180.

It would be remembered as Bayonet Hill for what the military historian Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall would call “the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since Cold Harbor,” a reference to the carnage at an 1864 Civil War battle in Virginia.

After ordering his men to fix bayonets, Captain Millett charged up the hill in front of them in the face of heavy fire, blasting away with his carbine, throwing grenades and, most spectacularly, wielding his bayonet when he encountered three enemy soldiers in a V-shaped gun position.

“I assaulted an antitank rifle crew,” he told Military History magazine in 2002. “The man at the point was the gunner. I bayoneted him. The next man reached for something, I think it was a machine pistol, but I bayoneted him — got him in the throat.”

The third soldier had a submachine gun.

“I guess the sight of me, red-faced and screaming, made him freeze,” he recalled. “Otherwise he would have killed me. I lunged forward and the bayonet went into his forehead. With the adrenaline flowing you’re strong as a bull. It was like going into a watermelon.”

Captain Millett was wounded by grenade fragments, but his men took the hill. President Harry S. Truman presented him with the Medal of Honor in July 1951. As the citation put it, “His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.”

Read the full obituary here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/us/19millett.html?hpw

Colombia Uses Ads to Persuade Rebels to Turn Themselves In

The government of Colombia now uses TV ads during soccer games to try to convince rebels to turn themselves in. Turns out, when you're a rebel in remote areas of Colombia, watching satellite TV is one of the only ways you are able to pass the time. Below is one of their TV spots...

To read the full article: http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=140548