What A Pro

Not Wayne Jarivs this time, rather Brandon Inge.

Via mlbtraderumors.com, Inge agrees to report to Lakeland with catchers

Questioning The Meander Model

NY Times - Researchers Challenge Water-Flow Model

Actually, It Does Have A Use

Discover Magazine - And Here's Why You Have an Appendix: When you're sick, it re-boots your gut with good bacteria

Talking About Freedom

America's best magazine,The Atlantic, and its 150 year history, is now available online, for free, to everyone.

Going Free

That said, a subscription is still a great bargain at less than $25 a year. You can read it on a plane or a train, you can see the visual elements of the magazine in all their intended glory, and you can leave recent issues scattered about your house so as to suggest to your friends that you're the sort of intelligent person who reads highbrow magazines.

Dreams (of diesel) Can Come True

Exciting diesel news:
First, Subaru's diesel goes on sale in Europe in February and gets an average of 40mpg:
First Drive:Subaru Legacy diesel (2008 onwards model)

Subaru’s First Boxer Diesel Passenger Cars: Legacy Sports Tourer and Outback

the Outback (with fuel consumption of 5.8 L/100km, or 40.6 mpg US) is only slightly behind at 124 mph and 8.8 seconds for the 0-60 mph dash.

And algal biodiesel has been tested successfully and is ready for commercialization:
Solazyme Introduces Its First Algal Biodiesel, Enters Development Agreement With Chevron

"The Earth's Climate Is Now Clearly Out Of Balance And Is Warming"

American Geophysical Union statement - Human Impacts on Climate

Brandon Inge Is A Good Guy

Brandon Inge is pillar in community, but he's likely to be traded (the first story is a tear-jerker for me)

And an athlete of unusual abilities:
Brandon Inge is Tigers' Boy Wonder

Mess with him and Michiganders will mess with you:
Readers come to defense of Inge

Even If Your Linus Looks Like A Lobster Tail Without Its Shell

An all-volunteer Army can only serve as a check on unjustified war if standards are kept. At Slate - Dumb and Dumber: The U.S. Army lowers recruitment standards … again.

The war keeps more good soldiers from enlisting. The lack of good candidates compels the Army to recruit more bad candidates. The swelling ranks of ill-suited soldiers make it harder to fight these kinds of wars effectively...

So, we're facing two choices. Either we change the way we recruit soldiers... or we change the way we conduct foreign policy—that is, we engage more actively in diplomacy or, if war is unavoidable, we form genuine coalitions to help fight it. Otherwise, unless our most dire and direct interests are at stake, we should forget about fighting at all.

Don't Give Kids Cold Medicine

FDA warns against cold drugs for kids under 2: Serious side effects can occur from nonprescription medications

Latest research shows honey actually works better - Honey calms a child's cough

Hillary Clinton Is Tracy Flick!

Here is Slate.com's brilliant mash-up of Hillary Clinton and Reese Witherspoon from 'Election'

Another Case Of Science Imitating The Simpsons

Scientists decode dogspeak

Songs About Trains

I've been working on a "songs about trains" playlist in iTunes for awhile. Here's someone who has done a history of the railroads and songs about post - 7 Means of Movement: Railroading.

Jo Serrapere In Studio

I have always been surprised by the lack of national attention for Jo Serrapere. Oh well, not my problem. I came across the following Jo Serrapere tracks while searching to fill in my id3 tags in iTunes - ...live at White Room Studios in Detroit without any overdubs and a total of 6 tracks

Drive Fast

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

Geo News

North Magnetic Pole Is Shifting Rapidly Toward Russia

At its current rate the pole could move to Siberia within the next half-century... The pole is currently at about 80º north latitude and 104º west longitude, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Magma may be melting Greenland ice (hypothesis of a newly formed hotspot under the NE corner of Greenland)

Sprawl, climate force change in Iditarod race