Friday, August 17, 2012

WEB BOHEMIAN (Friday, August 17, 2012)

(1)- TAKE A BREAK -- Forget brain-training exercises, 12-hour shifts and long, uninterrupted, caffeine-fueled study binges. If you need new information to sink in, you can't skimp on taking breaks, a study says.

(2)- RIDING HERD ON PHOTONS -- A new ‘metamaterial’ prevents electromagnetic waves from reflecting backward, pointing the way toward computer chips that move data with light.

(3)- WARNING – What’s stranger than depositing a perfectly ridiculous, obviously false (“non-negotiable” clearly written on it?), fake check? As a joke, this author deposited such a fake check into his bank’s ATM.

(4)- EXTRAORDINARY OLYMPIC GRAPHIC -- Based on the athletes’ average speeds, if every Olympic medalist raced each other, Usain Bolt would win, with a wide distribution of Olympians behind him.

(5)- BIKE RIDING, ETHICS & RED LIGHTS -- Some traffic laws may be inefficient or just plain wrong, but letting everyone on the road decide which ones to honor doesn't seem all that right.

(6)- THE PROBLEM – Some 75% of Syrians are Sunnis. Syria’s rebels are overwhelmingly Sunni. Bashar al-Assad government is run by the Alawites, a minority Shiite sect, representing some 14% of Syrian population.

(7)- THE RUINS OF EMPIRE -- The central event of the modern era is Asia's emergence from the ravages of western imperialism. In Britain, it is asked: Why can't we escape our narcissistic version of history?

(8)- EARLY CAFFINE JOLTS – In the 1600s, Europeans exploring the American southeast wrote of a native purification ritual involving large amounts of what the travelers called black drink. It was caffeinated.

(9)- MEMOIRS -- Germany was the nation of Beethoven and Goethe, of Kant and Hegel. Its people were among the best educated and highly cultured in Europe – it seemed inconceivable that they would tolerate a vulgar thug like Hitler for long.

POLITICAL CARTOON

ENDIT