Issue 3 2010: March
EATING LUNCH
The French now spend an average of 31 minutes eating lunch, down from an hour and 38 minutes in 1975. ..... The Economist
WIENER WARNING OR DOG-GONE IT !!
More than 10,000 children go to the emergancy room every year because they are choking on a piece of food; of those who die;- 17 percent have hot dogs wedged in their throats. "If you were to take the best engineers in the world and try to design the perfect plug for a child's airway, it would be a hot dog," says pediatric emergency doctor Gary Smith. ..... USA Today
TALL TALE
The NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament held the week of March 15 in Kansas City, boasted the tallest man to ever play college basketball . Mountain State University's ( Beckley, West Virginia) Paul Sturgess of Loughborough, England stands 7-foot-8 inches. Mountaineer guard, Rashad Nesbitt stands 5 -foot-8 inches. ..... The Kansas City Star
LED LIGHT BULBS
Traffic lights using environmentally friendly LED bulbs have led to a spate of serious traffic accidents. That's because the bulbs do not produce as much heat as standard bulbs, allowing more snow and ice to accumulate, obscuring the green and red signals. ..... The New York Times
EXCESSIVE EXECUTIVE PAY - WOW
In 1978, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the ratio of average CEO pay to the average wage was 35 to 1. By 2007 it was 175 to 1. ...... Time (note: I wonder what this ratio was in 2009).
THE TIGER EFFECT
New York Stock Exchange trading came to a near-halt during Tiger Woods' recent televised public apology. Volume fell to 1 million shares a minute, the lowest level of the day, when Woods began talking, and leaped to 8 million shares a minute, the day's highest volume, when he finished. ..... Bloomberg.com
THE FLYING NUN
Sister Jane Meyer, the 71-year-old principal of Houston's St. Agnes Academy, made a daredevil deal with her students: If they raised $25,000 for Haitian earthquake relief by Ash Wednesday, in February, she would jump out of a plane. The students blew past their goal, raising more than $88,000 from bake sales,talent shows, and raffles. True to her word, Sister Jane, who has been a Dominican nun for more than 50 years, took a 14,000-foot skydiving leap into the blue. "I always tell our students they have to take good risks and stretch themselves," she said. ..... The Week
DON'T BELIEVE ALL THE NEWS
CNN and Fox News, recently posted erroneous maps when tracking the path of a possible tsunami. CNN confused the Galapagos Islands with Hawaii, and Fox News placed Sydney on the wrong side of Australia. ..... The Week
DON'T PUCKER UP FOR HEALTHY SKIN
To avoid a halo of wrinkles around your mouth, drink straight from a cup instead of using a straw. That "constant lip puckering" can take its toll over time.
AND, WATCH YOUR EXERCISE FOR HEALTHY SKIN
High-impact workouts like running and jumping, might make you sweat, but they also loosen the skin, causing it to sag. Instead, try "low-impact aerobic exercise," such as spinning. ..... Source: Allure (as printed in The Week)
MILT'S MORSEL OF THE MONTH
"A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about." ..... Poet Miguel de Unamuno, quoted in the London Independent
JIM'S STETHASCOOP
"Always tell the truth - that way you don't have to remember what you said." ..... Mark Twain, quoted in the London Guardian
