Unwilling to take part in monkey radiation studies, April Jean Evans resigned in April as leader of a team of engineers working on the International Space Station. Since leaving NASA, Evans has moved into her brother's spare room. She's also falling into debt.
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By Julie Cart (LA Times) BP officials knew about a problem on a crucial well safety device at least three months before the catastrophic April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico but failed to repair it, according to testimony Tuesday from the company’s well manager. Ronald Sepulvado testified that he was aware of a...
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By Dan Savage (Slog) Pediatric endocrinologist Maria New—of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University—isn’t just trying to prevent lesbianism by treating pregnant women with an experimental hormone. She’s also trying to prevent the births of girls who display an “abnormal” disinterest in babies, don’t want to play with girls’ toys...
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By Jesse Bering (Scientific American) In a now-classic, pre-Internet-porn study (PDF) by British evolutionary biologists Robin Baker and Mark Bellis, male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about every 72 hours, and “on the majority of occasions, their last masturbation is within 48 hours of their next in-pair copulation.” If they’re not...
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(ScienceDaily) Although caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only recently begun to be adequately appreciated. Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies and fundamental research in animal models suggests that caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and...
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By Carla K. Johnson (Huffington Post/AP) A new analysis of U.S. health data links children’s attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. While the study couldn’t prove that pesticides used in agriculture contribute to childhood learning problems, experts said the research is persuasive. Read the rest: ADHD In Children:...
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By Paul Quinlan (NY Times) BP PLC continues to stockpile and deploy oil-dispersing chemicals manufactured by a company with which it shares close ties, even though other U.S. EPA-approved alternatives have been shown to be far less toxic and, in some cases, nearly twice as effective. So far, BP has told federal agencies that...
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By Maria Recio, Dave Montgomery and Mark Washburn (McClatchy Newspapers) WASHINGTON — In the days after an oil well spun out of control in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers tried to activate a huge piece of underwater safety equipment but failed because the device had been so altered that diagrams BP got from...
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28% of Republicans said the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made them more likely to support drilling off the coast to an equal 28% who said it made them less likely to be supportive. 44% said it made no difference. Read the rest: Public Policy Polling: The Politics of Oil Spills.
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(AP) Fidel Castro says the spreading oil slick fouling the Gulf of Mexico is proof that the world’s most powerful governments cannot control large corporations that now dictate the public’s destiny. It still is unclear whether some of the 3 million gallons of spilled crude could eventually reach Cuba’s shores — though government scientists...
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Sex,
drugs & rock ‘n’ roll made me crazy thank God!