"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."- George Orwell, 1984
In the U.S., the rate of nearsightedness in people 12 to 54 years old increased by nearly two-thirds between studies nearly three decades apart ending in 2004, to an estimated 41.6%, according to a National Eye Institute study. In several Asian countries, myopia rates in young people are far higher. A full 80% of 4,798 Beijing teenagers tested as nearsighted in a study published in the journal PLOS One in March. Similar numbers plague teens in Singapore and Taiwan. In one 2012 survey in Seoul, nearly all of the 24,000 teenage males surveyed were nearsighted. The greatest health concern is the increase in severe myopia, which increases the risk of serious eye problems like retinal detachment, glaucoma and macular degeneration, experts say. Why myopia rates have soared isn’t entirely clear, but one factor that keeps cropping up in research is how much time children spend outdoors. The longer they’re outside, the less likely they are to become nearsighted, according to more than a dozen studies in various countries world-wide.
In the U.S., the rate of nearsightedness in people 12 to 54 years old increased by nearly two-thirds between studies nearly three decades apart ending in 2004, to an estimated 41.6%, according to a National Eye Institute study. In several Asian countries, myopia rates in young people are far higher. A full 80% of 4,798 Beijing teenagers tested as nearsighted in a study published in the journal PLOS One in March. Similar numbers plague teens in Singapore and Taiwan. In one 2012 survey in Seoul, nearly all of the 24,000 teenage males surveyed were nearsighted. The greatest health concern is the increase in severe myopia, which increases the risk of serious eye problems like retinal detachment, glaucoma and macular degeneration, experts say. Why myopia rates have soared isn’t entirely clear, but one factor that keeps cropping up in research is how much time children spend outdoors. The longer they’re outside, the less likely they are to become nearsighted, according to more than a dozen studies in various countries world-wide.
The Eagles have signed Tebow. The five lowest Quarterback Ratings of active quarterbacks are:
| Tim Tebow* | 33.4 |
| Geno Smith | 35.7 |
| Chad Henne | 36.9 |
| Mark Sanchez* | 40.4 |
| Sam Bradford* | 40.7 |
(The starred guys are on the Eagles roster.)
Shakespeare’s works contain first-ever recordings of 2,035 English words.
In "One of Us," Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad chronicles the horrifying murders perpetrated by Anders Breivik who in April, 2011, killed, randomly, 77 people, many of them children, in cold blood on the small Norwegian island of Utøya. He was said to be influenced by right-wing, anti-Islamic writings--as if that makes more sense of the insane acts. (He was also a great graffiti proponent. He also locked himself in his room for years playing World of Warcraft. Are those characteristics some clarifying help?) What is clarifying is his childhood: He showed early signs of psychopathy, including cruelty to animals; his neighbors forbade their children from associating with him, especially when pets were involved.
This has received glowing reviews and seems to rise above the expected foolish political generalizations. This from a review by Michael Schaub: "In the end, it's the victims and their families that Seierstad cares about; they're the ones we'll remember, whom we'll keep with us. Breivik, who wanted nothing more than for the world to know his name, becomes a footnote in his own story, a sad man who wanted to change the world, but instead strengthened the resolve of the people he terrorized — the least memorable character in this chapter of history, and in this brilliant, unforgettable book."
Billy Bean is a former professional baseball player, the Major League Baseball inclusion ambassador, and the author of “Going the Other Way.” He is always confused, by me, with Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. He came out as gay after his baseball career was over. The only man in baseball to come out as gay to his baseball teammates and owners was Glenn Burke and was the first and only other MLB player to acknowledge it publicly. He died from AIDS-related causes in 1995.
In 1894 George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man opened. It was one of his earliest plays and the first commercial success in a sixty-five play, half-century career. On the strength of it Shaw was able to give up being a music critic and, at the age of forty, become a full-time playwright.
Home-schooled 12-year-old Jonah Willow, from Nottingham, took on Russian chess grandmaster Alexander Cherniaev, 45, at the city's annual chess congress on Sunday and, in four matches, got three wins and then a draw. He is not the youngest player ever to have beaten a chess grandmaster. In 1999, eight-year-old David Howell, became the youngest to beat a grandmaster when he recorded victory against John Nunn in London.
A popular Australian food blogger who claimed she beat terminal cancer through healthy eating—and used that backstory to sell a popular cookbook and app—now admits “none of it’s true.” Belle Gibson, creator of The Whole Pantry, came clean this week after journalists and investigators began to unravel her story. Her false illness claims date back to 2009, when she claimed on an internet forum to have undergone multiple heart surgeries and to have died on the operating table,” the Guardian reports. But the concept, the narrative, was correct.
James Buchanan was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics for “his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision making.” In his early career he developed a notion from economist Knut Wicksell that only taxes and government spending that are unanimously approved can be justified. That way, argued Wicksell, taxes used to pay for programs would have to be taken from those who benefited from those programs. Perhaps Buchanan’s most important contribution to economics is his distinction between two levels of public choice—the initial level at which a constitution is chosen, and the postconstitutional level. The first is like setting the rules of a game, and the second is like playing the game within the rules. Buchanan has proselytized his fellow economists to think more about the first level instead of acting as political players at the second level. Buchanan also believes that because costs are subjective, much of welfare economics—cost-benefit analysis, and so on—is wrongheaded.
Who is....Arthur Laffer?
NASA's robotic spaceship Dawn visited Vesta, the second largest object in our Solar System's main asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. During a year-long stopover, Dawn's cameras photographed Vesta's entire surface, documenting all of the minor planet's major mountains and craters. Dawn departed Vesta in 2012 and is now just beginning to photograph and explore the mysteries of the largest object in the asteroid belt: dwarf-planet Ceres.
In ancient China, mirrors were believed to protect their owners from evil, making hidden spirits visible and revealing the secrets of the future. A person who had been scared by a ghost could be healed by looking in the mirror. Mirrors were often hung on the ceilings of burial chambers.
The Mediterranean will be crossed by some 500,000 refugees this year, up from about 220,000 last year. Many of these refugees are from Libya, a state in geography only, that has disintegrated since the U.S. withdrew its support for its leadership. This, and Benghazi, have been laid at the feet of Mrs. Clinton; but is that true? Did she write policy in North Africa?
Thalidomide is a product that treated nausea and vomiting of pregnancy--and it was extremely effective. The U.S. government never approved the drug, which was linked to birth defects in other countries in the 1950s and ’60s. The delay in approval was logistical, not scientific, because the developers of the drug withheld negative results from publication. No one knew the risks. But the F.D.A. has approved its use to treat multiple myeloma and a complication of leprosy. It is an anti-angiogenic; it suppresses the formation of blood vessels and that quality stunted fetal limb development--and helps in suppressing cancer.
Boudreaux writes: "Saying “Let the market handle it” is to reject a one-size-fits-all, centralized rule of experts. It is to endorse an unfathomably complex arrangement for dealing with the issue at hand. Recommending the market over government intervention is to recognize that neither he who recommends the market nor anyone else possesses sufficient information and knowledge to determine, or even to foresee, what particular methods are best for dealing with the problem."
Boudreaux writes: "Saying “Let the market handle it” is to reject a one-size-fits-all, centralized rule of experts. It is to endorse an unfathomably complex arrangement for dealing with the issue at hand. Recommending the market over government intervention is to recognize that neither he who recommends the market nor anyone else possesses sufficient information and knowledge to determine, or even to foresee, what particular methods are best for dealing with the problem."
This requires significant confidence in men and does not displace that confidence to a subset or a clique.
Dovecotes (also pigeonniers, doocots, or colombier) were large, sometimes elaborate, structures built to house pigeons. Early 20th-century pigeon expert Arthur Cooke estimated that by the 1650s, there were 26,000 dovecotes in England alone. Dovecotes were used primarily to keep pigeons for their meat. (The birds' guano was also collected and used for fertilizer, gunpowder, and tanning hides.) At the time, root vegetables had not yet arrived in Britain so that, in winter, farmers could not rely on their usual crops to feed livestock such as pigs and cows. Without beef and bacon, they turned to alternative sources of meat. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a pigeon tower was a privilege reserved only for feudal lords. By law. And this law was enforced: There was a case in England in 1577 in which a "tenant who had erected a dovecote on a royal manor was ordered by the Court of Exchequer to demolish it." Interestingly, an expert in the field, John Verburg, said, "When that set of rules fell, and commoners were allowed to construct dovecotes, the status element was lost and the incentive to build dovecotes gone. We are a vain people."
A dovecote at Nymans in West Sussex, England.
Some subjects ISIS has banned in areas under their control: Democracy and political thought, hotel management, tourism and archaeology.
New England Patriots left tackle Nate Solder has revealed he was diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer in April prior to the 2014 season. Doctors determined the cancer was restricted to one testicle and hadn't spread, removed the testicle, and Solder -- who lauded the Patriots for being "super cautious" throughout the process -- played every game and served as quarterback Tom Brady's blindside protector in a season that culminated with a Super Bowl XLIX championship. (ESPN)
John Paul Jones is called, with John Barry, the Father of the American Navy. He is famous for his "I have not yet begun to fight!' declaration as his ship was taking on water against the British ship Serapis. (He eventually took the Serapis.) In 1778 Jones led a small detachment of two boats from his ship, the USS Ranger, to raid the shallow port at Whitehaven, England. His attempt to take the fort failed but the town was burned. After the raid on Whitehaven, Jones continued to his home territory of Kirkcudbright Bay (he was born in Scotland), where he intended to abduct the earl of Selkirk, then exchange him for American sailors held captive by Britain. Although he did not find the earl at home, Jones’ crew was able to steal all his silver, including his wife’s teapot, still containing her breakfast tea. From Scotland, Jones sailed across the Irish Sea to Carrickfergus, where the Ranger captured the HMS Drake after delivering fatal wounds to the British ship’s captain and lieutenant.
BlueVoice, in partnership with Mundo Azul, has documented the brutal slaughter of up to 15,000 dolphins by Peruvian shark fishermen. Dolphins are harpooned when they come to ride the bow of the fishing boats then clubbed to death. The dolphin is cut into pieces for use as shark bait. The fins of the sharks taken are sold to Asia to make soup.
AAAAnnnnnddddd.....a graph, The Laffer Curve:
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