Archive for July 9th, 2003

Colorado and Mass Leanest States

ø

glasscastle - July 9, 2003 @ 11:56 pm · ESL Links

According to annual survey done by the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, Colorado and Massachusetts are the "leanness"
states in the union. They defined "leanness" as the lowest percentage
of obese citizens, which says something about the shape we are in.

Among the factors which the Center mentioned as responsible for the "leanness"
quotient in Colorado and Mass are increased opportunities for outdoor
activity, and higher than average education and income.

Like the rest of the country, though, Colorado’s waistline is expanding.
In 1990, only 6.9 percent of the state’s population was obese, less than
half of the state’s current level of 14.9 percent.

from
the Boston Globe

Armed Avocado Outlaws

ø

glasscastle - July 9, 2003 @ 7:19 pm · ESL Links

BONSALL, Calif. — Rising avocado prices may
be leading thieves of the prized fruit to become more brazen, according
to investigators.

A group of thieves who were confronted by grove workers over the weekend
fired shots at the men before they escaped with several bags of avocados.
No one was injured.

The incident occurred in broad daylight at a grove in Bonsall, north of
San Diego, on Saturday. "This is seriously bold stuff," said Elisabeth
Silva, a deputy district attorney who specializes in prosecuting agricultural
crime. From
NBC SanDiego

Sports Metaphor

ø

glasscastle - July 9, 2003 @ 9:56 am · ESL Links

Hey, is it just me or does anyone else find the Miller Time military preening of the Administration more than a bit unseemly? I can understand the prestidigitation on WMD’s – hell, politics and sleight of hand are practically synonymous, and Americans have always been suckers for a slick sell.

But the Holleywoodesque victory in Iraq already ensconced in history alongside D-Day and Iwo Jima, was really about as impressive as the Los Angeles Lakers rolling over a mediocre high school “basketball team”….

Spam Plus Sex Makes Money

1

glasscastle - July 9, 2003 @ 1:26 am · ESL Links

The fact that penile enlargement products were the single most common
genre of spam in my mailbox, and I assume in the mailboxes at least
of everybody with a masculine name (or am I being specifically targeted
here) has always amazed me. Sure, there are a few skinny, brain-dead
teenagers, the kind who used to answer Charles Atlas ads in comic books, but how many could there be?

Turns out these products are a goldmine, according to
the New York Times. The numbers speak for themselves: The unregulated
herbal pills are highly profitable — they cost as little as $2.50 a
bottle to produce and sell for $50 or more. "You only need to take
in $150 a day to break even," Mr. Clark said. "If you can
send out 10 million e-mails a day from your bedroom, and you make $50
a bottle, you can make a decent profit."The biggest spammers take
in $5,000 to $10,000 a day selling penis pills. From
the New York Times

Robotic ‘Semi-Living Artist’

ø

glasscastle - July 9, 2003 @ 12:12 am · ESL Links

Atlanta (July 8,2003)—Working from their university labs in two different
corners of the world, U.S. and Australian researchers have created what
they call a new class of creative beings, “the semi-living artist” –
a picture-drawing robot in Perth, Australia whose movements are controlled
by the brain signals of cultured rat cells in Atlanta.

The robotic drawing arm operates based on the neural activity of a few
thousand rat neurons placed in a special petri dish that keeps the cells
alive.

From The
Georgia Institute of Technology