I Appreciate A President Who Can Interview A Nominee By Himself

See NPR: How Obama's Nomination Of Sotomayor Unfolded

...Obama and Sotomayor were the only two people in the room

Does Anyone Like Car Dealerships?

GM and Chrysler are closing many of their dealerships. So I'll use it as an excuse to post this from The Atlantic: Driving a Hard Bargain

...the high-pressure tactics of the modern American dealer originated in a single Memphis franchise after World War Two, when new vehicles were scarce and buyers could be browbean into signing a deal that assured fat commissions for salesmen and profit margins for their employers. It started with "unhorsing" (getting the keys of the prospect's own car), proceeded through "detention" (stalling, allegedly for trade-in value inspection), and if successful for the dealer, ended with "release" (a signed contract).

And I once wondered why I couldn't buy a car online, direct from the factory, as it seemed the most efficient way to do it so you could get all the options you want. I found out it was because the car dealership political lobby kept it from happening.

See MotherJones: Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online

Wish I could say it was shocking...

This is from Intellichoice: Behind the Scenes - How does a dealership work?

The Father - Daughter Relationship

Via FiveThirtyEight: Having Daughters Rather Than Sons Makes You More Liberal

The authors' key finding is that support for policies designed to address gender equity is greater among parents with daughters. This result emerges particularly strongly for fathers.

Formula For Change

Don't know the source as I found this on scrap paper at my work desk. Here are the minimum number of U.S. currency coins needed to always have exact change:

1 dime
2 nickels
3 quarters
4 pennies
----------
Always having exact change

1600+ Acres Placed Under Easement Near My Honory Hometown

More signs of the new west. Where keeping the land green turns the state blue.

Via SBPilot: 1,613 acres to be conserved

A group of partners have joined forces to conserve more than 1,600 acres of working agriculture land and critical environmental habitat in West Routt County.

Aided by funds from the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Routt County’s Purchase of Development Rights program, the land on Wolf Mountain Ranch will be placed under a conservation easement and permanently precluded from development.

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A Toyota - Subaru Baby Is Incubating

Via Wired: Subaru Prius Set for 2012 Debut

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a diesel boxer engine plug-in electric hybrid Outback. /swoon

A Burning Question

Via the CSMonitor: Who is responsible for averting an asteroid strike?

Isostatic Rebound

Not just words that sound great together, but a geological process that has been happening in the Great Lakes region since the last glaciers retreated.

Now Alaska gets to experience it too.

See NYT: As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising

More information at Wikipedia.

Organic Farming Assistance

See TH: Obama Offers Farmers $50 Million to Go Organic

New Tornado Safety Guidelines

I seem to recall reading about this a couple of years ago. The idea is that cars may actually be a fairly safe place during a tornado.

See Weather.com: Tornado Safety - Cars Versus Ditches: A Controversy

The NWS recommends that if you are being overtaken in your car by a tornado, then you should get out of the car and into a nearby building or ditch. The new American Red Cross recommendation is that if no building is available, stay in the car - get out of the car and into a ditch only as a last resort. Crouch down with your seat belt on and your head below the windshield level.

Origins

New genetic research pinpoints the source of all humans to near the South African - Namibia border.

Via BBC: Experts unveil African gene study

The first humans most likely evolved near the South Africa-Namibia border, the team said, and migrated north out of the continent via the Red Sea.

Researchers had identified 14 ancestral population clusters "that correlated with ethnicity and shared cultural and/or linguistic properties", they said.

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You Are Fat Because Of What You Eat

Duh.

See PhysOrg: Increased food intake alone explains the increase in body weight in the US

How much of the obesity epidemic has been caused by excess calorie intake and how much by reductions in physical activity has been long debated and while experts agree that making it easier for people to eat less and exercise more are both important for combating it, they debate where the public health focus should be.

A study presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity is the first to examine the question of the proportional contributions to the obesity epidemic by combining metabolic relationships, the laws of thermodynamics, epidemiological data and agricultural data.

"There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic. Until now, nobody has proposed how to quantify their relative contributions to the rise in obesity since the 1970s. This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories.

Geoengineering And Iron

I first learned about the Iron Hypothesis in Earth Magazine back in 1996. This hypothesis has been tested, and as usual, nature is more complex than we can imagine. See PhysOrg: Ocean carbon: A dent in the iron hypothesis

...study reveals that most of the carbon from lush plankton blooms never reaches the deep ocean.

The results are interesting because fertilizing the oceans with iron in order to sequester carbon is a geoengineering idea, and the White House science adviser has not taken geoengineering off the table. See NYT: Science Adviser Lays Out Climate and Energy Plans

Freakwater Interview

Wisconsin Public Radio's 'To The Best Of Our Knowledge' had a segment on "American Classics". It included music and interview with Freakwater.

Biodiesel Keeps Getting Better

PhysOrg: Study Finds that Styrofoam Increases Biodiesel Power Output

By dissolving polystyrene packing peanuts in biodiesel, scientists have found that they can boost the power output of the fuel while getting rid of garbage at the same time.

More Wooden Bicycles

Mentioned before.

FastCompany.com has more: Four Wooden Bicycles That Will Grow on You

I find that there is something very beautiful and elegant about these bikes.

Why There Is A Flu Season

Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground explains it as a function of humidity and temperature in Influenza and the weather

And there is evidence it may be tied to summertime Vitamin D exposure: Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D

How To Be The Most Popular Person On The Boat

SouthernFriedScience: How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel.

A Couple Of Ford Links

ConsumerReports: Ford Fusion – The best car you don’t know about

DetFreePress: Ford outsells Toyota

Interesting Polls

FiveThirtyEight: Two National Polls, for First Time, Show Plurality Support for Gay Marriage

PewResearch: Fewer Voters Identify as Republicans [only 27%]