STABLE AIRPLANE DESIGN: The gifted Polish inventor Stefan D. Drzewiecki was known for his work on propellers, submarines and this interesting airplane, 1913Image: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, VOL. CVIII, NO. 6; FEBRUARY 8, 1913
February 1963
Smug Prosperity ?U.S. citizens?known for their material prosperity and a certain smug contentment in it?may be surprised to learn that samplings of public opinion in West Germany, Brazil and Cuba have shown that the peoples of these countries are even more buoyant about their recent progress and more hopeful of the future. Americans may be chastened as well to learn that these peoples also identify their personal wellbeing more closely with the fortunes of their countries. These very general statements represent the first findings of an experimental effort to develop a technique for making comparative studies, across national boundaries, of the concerns and aspirations of people around the world. ?Hadley Cantril?
February 1913
Death of Scott ?In the desolate, icy waste of an unexplored Antarctic country Capt. Robert Falcon Scott gave up his life, after having reached the South Pole. He died a true hero of science. There was no buried treasure to seek in those untrodden southern snows?nothing but everlasting fame. Only those who are engaged in scientific research can understand the ideals of a man who willingly cuts himself off from the world for a period of three years and perishes in a blizzard?for what? For meteorological information, for geological data, for light on the fauna and flora of a cold, white, silent land that will probably never be peopled, in a word, for things that are infinitely removed from gold hunting.?
Paintings at Altamira ?Why should the primitive artists of the paleolithic paintings at Altamira have chosen to decorate the darker recesses of their dwellings, rather than practice their art where the light of the sun would have helped them? It seems probable that the paintings were made not for the love of beauty, or to ?show the hand? of paleolithic Giottos, but with strictly business aims. They were, in fact, primitive pot-boilers, done to supply the larder with material. One hypothesis is that the paleolithic man of Southern Gaul and Northern Spain believed in his own paintings of deer, boars, aurochs, horses (considered good eating) and mammoths as potent to attract the animals themselves.?
Airplane Stability ?The most recent machine having automatic stability is the Drzewiecki following-surface monoplane [see illustration], which was exhibited at the last Paris Salon. This machine is of the Langley type. Its chief point of interest is that the wings are set at a 3-degree difference. The result is the production of righting forces that counteract diving and keep the machine on an even keel. The machine was designed as the result of experiments made in the Eiffel aerodynamic laboratory.?
See a slide show of aviation in 1913 at www.ScientificAmerican.com/feb2013/aviation
February 1863
Shocking Statistics ?The suicides in France now average ten a day. Not a day passes in which a suicide may not be directly traced to want of success in life; to the false moralities inculcated by wicked or ignorant writers; to the failure of parents in obtaining a proper influence over their children; and to unrestrained appetites and passions.?
Good Eats in Iceland ?In Iceland daily food consists chiefly of raw, dried stockfish and ?skier.? The latter dish is milk allowed to become acid and coagulate, and then hung up in a bag till the whey runs off. In this form it is both nutritive and wholesome, being more easily digested than sweet milk. To those who take to it, it is light, palatable, and delightfully cooling. Milk is prepared in this way by Shetlanders, who, in the first stage, call it ?run milk,? and when made into skier, ?hung milk.? Our idea, that milk is useless and hurtful when sour, is merely an ignorant prejudice. Those who depend for their subsistence chiefly on a milk diet prefer to use it sour, and medical authority endorses their choice.?
This article was originally published with the title 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago.
SANTA FE (KRQE) - The prostitution case against former University of New Mexico President F. Chris Garcia took a big hit Wednesday when the state Supreme Court ruled a website isn't a brothel under state law.
The prostitution law at issues hasn't been updated since 198, a time when lawmakers couldn't have imagined the World Wide Web.
That didn't stop prosecutors with a high-profile case at risk from arguing websites have a physical presence.
"The Internet does not exist in our imagination," Assistant District Attorney Michael Fricke contended during the court hearing Wednesday.? "It's kept on a server, it's kept on a hard drive, and that hard drive is a place."
Two years ago the former UNM president was arrested and accused by police of being one of the leaders of a nonprofit online prostitution forum called Southwest Companions.
Investigators say Garcia going by "Burque Pops" helped the site scout for new girls.
But when the District Attorney's Office in Albuquerque tried to indict Garcia for promoting prostitution, District Court Judge Stan Whitaker ruled that under state law a website could not be considered a house of prostitution.
"The state chose to up the ante on a statute that was clearly inapplicable," Robert Gorence, Garcia's attorney, told the justices.
In a 4-1 ruling, the justices agreed with Gorence.
"Judge Whitaker's ruling remains in effect," Chief Justice Petra Maes announced from the bench.
Garcia is now vindicated, according to his attorney.
"All I know is I have a very happy client who was tormented for a very long time unnecessarily who is factually innocent," Gorence said in the courthouse hallway.
The DA's office now has to regroup.
"I wouldn't say dead in the water," Fricke told reporters after the ruling.? "We have to reevaluate and decide what we're going to do.
"There may be charges we can bring on another avenue, or we may decide not to do that."
It's unclear what options the DA has.? The statute of limitations for patronizing a prostitute has already expired.
Garcia's other original charges were conspiracy and tampering with evidence.
But the court ruling means the crime at the center of the case isn't in fact a crime.
State Rep. Tim Lewis, R-Rio Rancho, has introduced a bill that would make using a website or online forum to promote prostitution a felony in New Mexico.
That bill is working its way through committees in the 60-day session of the Legislature that began on Jan. 15.
Facebook, under pressure to beef up privacy disclosures and transparency to users, will start letting users know when ads are targeted to them, although it may take a bit of work to find that out, and it doesn't apply to all ads on the site.
The social network will start using the Digital Advertising Alliance?s blue-and-white AdChoices icon for targeted ads that are produced through the Facebook Exchange. The exchange is a new ad program from Facebook that lets advertisers "serve more relevant ads through cookie-based data that advertisers own," as FBHive.com describes it.
Targeted ads on Facebook are those that, for example, have been tracking the things you click on as a "likes." Say a Facebook friend posts a photo of a birthday gift and says "Gold bracelet from husband," and you click "like," you may find yourself seeing ads for "Cash for gold. Need extra cash? We pay top dollar for..." and so on. It's creepy, but there you have it.
You won't know right away whether such ads are targeted; you'll need to use your mouse to hover an to the gray "x" shown above it in the corner.
"Even the 'x' only appears when someone mouses over it, so people not familiar with the feature won't always be made aware that an ad was targeted using third-party data gathered elsewhere online," notes Ad Age.
A Facebook spokesperson told NBC News that clicking on the "x" leads to three options, including one to opt out from getting more of the ads if you don't want them.
The three options, she said: "Hide this ad, hide all ads from this company, or 'about this ad.' If you choose 'about this ad,' you?re are taken to the home page for that ad network and from there, you can decide to opt out."
The AdChoices icons are expected to make their debut next month.
Last summer, the Federal Trade Commission approved a settlement with Facebook about federal charges that the site had deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended. The settlement requires Facebook to get user consent for some changes to privacy settings and subjects the social networking site to 20 years of independent audits.
The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program, an investigative unit of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, which administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, said in a statement that Facebook's use of the AdChoices icon "provides 'clear, meaningful and prominent' notice and choice" for consumers who receive targeted ads.
Brian Boland, Facebook's director of product marketing, said in a statement that the sovial network has "always given our users the ability to provide feedback on and control the ads they see on Facebook, by hiding, reporting, or clicking through to learn more about why particular ads are being served."
Use of the AdChoices icon is "no different for ads served through the Facebook Exchange, where users can also opt out of seeing ads from our FBX partners. Giving advertisers the ability to implement the AdChoices icon provides another option; another mechanism of control. The more transparency and control we can provide, the better the experience for both advertisers and users."
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That's the question attorneys for the buyer of bankrupt Zacky Farms LLC is asking, amid claims that one of the nation's largest turkey and chicken processors has been rushing to dump the bulk of its inventory of frozen turkeys - and speed up getting paid for it - prior to a rival completing its purchase of the nearly 100-year-old California family business.
Zacky Farms filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October, blaming its economic woes in part on high feed costs following the worst drought in half a century.
Attorneys for Pitman Family Farms filed papers on Tuesday with the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento in which they claimed Zacky Farms has sped up the sale and delivery of more than $1 million worth of whole turkey inventory to Stater Bros. Markets, a private grocery retailer based in Southern California.
The sale of the inventory had been originally scheduled from January 30 through March 8. Instead, according to Pitman's attorneys, "Zacky revised the delivery schedules to deliver five or six loads a day" so all of the meat would be delivered to the retailer weeks before the bankruptcy court's expected approval of the sale of Zacky Farms.
The agreement to buy Zacky Farms out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy was based on Pitman having access to that inventory of frozen birds "to help offset losses that will be incurred after the approved sale," according to the court papers.
Zacky Farms now is losing approximately $3 million to $5 million each month.
An attorney for Zacky Farms told Pitman and its lawyers that such sales were typical of a poultry company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a copy of an email filed with the court.
Pitman's attorneys are asking the court that it escrow the proceeds from the "objectionable sale of these assets" for the time being, according to the court filings.
Attorneys for Zacky Farms could not be reached for comment. Jan T. Perkins, an attorney for Pitman Farms, declined to comment on the court filing.
"We have not changed our turkey purchasing patterns one bit," Stater Bros. chief executive Jack H. Brown told Reuters. "The timing is the same as we've always done."
Zacky Farms also recently sold 21 loads of "odd-sized" turkey breast meat to another company, Bird-in-Hand Farms Inc, at deeply discounted rates, according to the court filings.
The sales began a day after Pitman signed papers in late January to buy Zacky Farms out of bankruptcy, according to court papers. The sales allegedly ranged from $1.11 to $1.30 per pound of turkey breast meat. Current market prices for such meat range from $1.65 to $1.68 per pound, court papers state.
Bird-in-Hand Farms could not be reached for comment.
The legal debate marks the latest twist in the bankruptcy case. Last month, a Zacky Family trust pulled its bid to buy the operation out of bankruptcy. The struggling Fresno-based processor then accepted a $32.1 million back-up bid from Pitman Family Farms.
Pitman is a family-owned poultry farm operation in California, and is known for its free-range line of turkeys and chickens.
Zacky Farms has said in court filings that, as of last fall, it employed about 1,500 people in Fresno, Los Angeles, Tulare, Kings and San Joaquin counties. It had listed between $50 million to $100 million in assets, with debts in the same range, according to court filings at the time.
Company officials said in a statement last fall that the entire poultry industry has been strained by historically high feed prices which led Zacky Farms to incur "significant operating losses that have depleted its liquidity and working capital position" in its chicken and turkey businesses.
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Zacky Farms was the eighth poultry firm to either be sold, enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy or shut down altogether since 2011, according to data from the trade group National Chicken Council.
The case is Zacky Farms, LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California, 12-37961.
(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Bob Burgdorfer)
MONDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) ? The baby boom is turning out to be a health bust.
Despite growing up at a time of great innovation in health care, the 78 million people born in the United States between 1946 and 1964 aren?t looking all that healthy today, according to a new study.
Medical advances have led to the longest life expectancy ever, but U.S. baby boomers have higher rates of chronic disease, more disability and lower self-rated health than did their parents at a comparable age.
The research may surprise many baby boomers, who have embraced activities such as running, fitness classes and backpacking in unprecedented numbers.
?There seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between the reputation of baby boomers for being healthy and what we see in increasing rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity,? said study author Dr. Dana King, a professor of family medicine at West Virginia University School of Medicine. ?It?s really discouraging that they?re not the healthiest generation.?
The study, published as a research letter Feb. 4 in JAMA Internal Medicine, compared data on people aged 46 to 64 in two time periods ? from 1988 to 1994 for the older generation, and from 2007 to 2010 for the baby boomers.
While 32 percent of their parents? generation described their health as ?excellent,? only about 13 percent of baby boomers did so.
Obesity was more common among baby boomers than their parents (39 percent versus 29 percent). In addition, 52 percent of boomers said they had no regular physical activity, while only 17 percent in their parents? generation reported inactivity.
There was one area of good news, however. Boomers have lower rates of heart attack and emphysema, and are less likely to smoke cigarettes, the study reported. King noted that the reduction in smoking ? from 28 percent of the population to 21 percent ? shows the value of conducting a concerted public health campaign. He said the nation needs to focus the same amount of effort now on obesity to discover truly effective solutions.
The findings didn?t surprise some experts.
?Obesity seems to be the underlying cause of many of the health issues baby boomers are facing,? said Nancy Copperman, a registered dietitian and director of public health initiatives at North Shore-LIJ Health System, in Great Neck, N.Y. ?I wasn?t surprised to see the data because we?ve seen the obesity epidemic over the past two to three decades really increase, and with that heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.?
The study tapped data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Factors used to compare the two generations included health status, functional and work disability, healthy lifestyle characteristics, and presence of chronic disease.
The baby boomer generation had a higher percentage of people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity than did their parents? generation.
Disability was defined conservatively, said King. ?To be considered disabled you had to be walking only with an assistance device, such as a cane, or only able to climb up 10 steps, have trouble stooping down, or walking a quarter of a mile,? he explained. Again, boomers consistently had a higher level of disability than their parents? generation.
So what was the previous generation doing right? ?There was a huge difference in their typical amount of exercise,? said King. ?Fifty percent were getting moderate physical activity 12 times a month, while just 35 percent of baby boomers got that much exercise.?
The research also showed that medication use for high blood pressure was higher among baby boomers, and prescription drug use for high cholesterol was 10 times greater among the younger generation than among the previous generation. Of course, many of the medications boomers take were not widely available when their parents were of similar age.
Do boomers rely too much on medications to solve their health issues? ?I?m concerned that has a great deal to do with the problem,? said King. ?The drugs are supposed to be used in addition to a healthy lifestyle, not instead of it.?
Baby boomers are definitely moving less than their parents did, said Copperman. ?Our parents didn?t have the conveniences we have. Now, often both parents are working and spending less time doing manual labor. Instead of mowing the lawn or cleaning the house, they might hire someone to do it,? she noted.
But King said it?s still not too late for baby boomers to get healthier. He said his previous research showed that it is possible to ?turn back the clock? even in one?s 50s and 60s.
More information
For more information about healthy living, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
From the standpoint of socialists and communists, the majority of people are simply unexceptional population units to be managed for the collective good by a cadre of enlightened ruling elites. Only by this enlightened management can we preserve scarce natural resources for succeeding generations.
Education, true education which includes a knowledge base, skills required to intercommunicate and the ability to think clearly represents a threat to those who would assume power over us using force, dogma and specious scientific theories. To this end, our enemies are using social persuasion built on political correctness, multiculturalism and moral equivalency to redefine morality and the stark difference between good and evil, right and wrong. They fear education, preferring to substitute feelings for logic and repetition of half-truths for fact.
To this end, our enemies have infiltrated education, mostly using the vehicle of socialist teachers unions. Unions that reward seniority over merit, the status quo over innovation, speech over action, and most of all, those who parrot the company line.
Unions that fail to protect the students while lobbying for even greater funding with no corresponding increase in producing well-educated children. Leading to a major problem. Simply put, standardized testing is revealing faults in the educational system. Highlighting poor teaching ? even though many teachers are ?teaching to the test? and, in some well-publicized cases, encouraging cheating to raise test scores. But the fact remains, more and more children are failing to graduate high school. The disparity between the general population and minorities is widening. With the exception of Asian minorities where parents continue to motivate their children to excel. Or, the children of parents in the middle and upper socio-economic strata where parents expect and motivate their children to behave and prosper in school.
So the socialist answer is to protect their base is to first, dumb-down tests to reduce the impact of bad teaching, minorities and any other factor which might call attention to the fact ?we the people? are providing wages, benefits and pensions that are not commensurate with the results. And, second, the socialists must redefine the curriculum in such a manner as to remove or replace the most challenging subjects so they can appear to be mastered by ill-educated children and especially the minorities.
This is becoming readily apparent in California where the State Board of Education has abandoned the algebra requirement for eighth-graders and has substituted an alternative which includes some algebra. Of course, state testing will be based on this alternative course; with the result being better test scores. There is a phrase used to describe this practice: teaching to the lowest common denominator. Instead of respecting and pushing resources towards the best and the brightest, the State of California will concentrate on the poor-performers and redefine the curriculum and tests which tell the truth: educators are not getting the job done.
Along with the hokey-pokey and the two-step shuffle, the California is now pushing something called the ?Common Core? curriculum that is owned and promoted by a non-profit group that originated from a political entity, the NGA (National Governors Association). Employing the intellectual elites in education which have replaced proven teaching methods with the ?whole reading experience? and ?new math.? With the public failing to realize that the basic concepts of reading, writing, arithmetic, critical thinking, civics, etc. have existed for a hundred years and that re-definition is just another political ploy to excuse failure in the educational system.??
Consider the babble put forth as justification for the Common Core State Standards ?
From their Mission Statement:
?The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.? <Source>
Sound great! Right up to the point where you understand that these standards are dumbing down the curriculum for the purposes of producing more people who can pass a graduation exit exam and to even out the disparities in minority test scores for political purposes.
But, they are prepared to argue their case ?
Myths About Content and Quality: General
Myth: Adopting common standards will bring all states? standards down to the lowest common denominator, which means states with high standards, such as Massachusetts, will be taking a step backwards if they adopt the Standards.
Fact: The Standards are designed to build upon the most advanced current thinking about preparing all students for success in college and their careers. This will result in moving even the best state standards to the next level. In fact, since this work began, there has been an explicit agreement that no state would lower its standards. The Standards were informed by the best in the country, the highest international standards, and evidence and expertise about educational outcomes. We need college and career ready standards because even in high?performing states ? students are graduating and passing all the required tests and still require remediation in their postsecondary work. <Source>
Again, this sounds great. But the trick is to watch what they do, not what they say. Watch what materials are suggested for reading courses and at what level they are to be used. But do not be shocked at the books chosen or their content ? many promoting a socialist world view and portraying America in a relatively bad light. With some books giving short shrift to those historical events and practices that formed this great nation. Presenting, emphasizing and celebrating foreign cultures which serve to retard the rate of assimilation and provide for the balkanization of America into easily-managed political coalitions.
Bottom line ?
This is the type of elite intellectual razzle-dazzle than ends in disaster for our children. Another generation of functional illiterates who need calculators and computers to complete coursework that us older Americans were required to learn and regurgitate on demand. It seems the very act of reading a book, making notes, outlining a paper and struggling over putting your thoughts into words is a thing of the past in this ?cut-and-paste? world. Using advanced math calculators instead of showing the work steps as you progressed through a problem.
Even worse, these intellectuals are trying to force children into their mold, college graduates, rarely considering that some students are not destined for college and will present as failures to the educational system. So why did these so-called intellectuals curtail beneficial trade programs which could be the basis for a good living? Because, one, it does not fit their educational model; and two, it requires more money than an average classroom ? money that is subtracted from their union benefit pool.
In my junior high school, I took all of the shop electives. electric shop with Mr. Padin; wood shop with Mr. Silvera; metal shop with Mr. Barber, drafting with Mr. Cavanaugh, print shop with Mr. Helsley and garden shop with Mr. Galper. All in addition to my English classes, math classes, science classes, history and civics classes and gym classes. All of the shop classes were taught by men ? a rarity today (with the exception of coaches) ? and discipline was swift and sudden. You learned how to behave as a man with other men. You learned how to handle tools and do your own repairs. You did not find your energetic self being medicated by psychologists to turn you into a well-behaved student. Shop classes were also available in my high school, including auto shop. That was the turning point for me, I no longer participated in a dual track, but concentrated on an academic rather than a trade path. But the choice was mine, the opportunities to succeed were provided on a platter. It was up to me to contain my energy, behave appropriately and observe the rules. Yes, I ditched school on occasion, was insulted, got into fist-fights ? but these are all character-building lessons of life. Something that is sorely lacking today. I has access to weapons; a hunting knife, a Boy Scout Pocket Knife I used to carry daily, my BB-gun, my .22 caliber rifle, a bow with target and hunting arrows, my hatchet. And yet, I never thought to use these weapons against someone else ? even a bully.
Something has gone drastically wrong with our culture. And I am suggesting that this dysfunction is caused by the radical intellectual elites who are trying to tell us how to live our lives and how to live with their fear of confrontation, weapons and life in general. Feminists who are pussifying America. Minorities pushing their political agenda. Educators who are not educating. All against a background of hyper-consumerism, overt sexuality and a decline in morality and American values.
Time to go back to basics. Not redefine them or dumb them down to the least common denominator for political purposes. Or blame cultural influences on condoning or excusing improper English, and deviations in dress and behavior.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday denied a nursing home operator's emergency stay application that had cited legal confusion over President Barack Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
Ginsburg denied the request filed earlier Monday by HealthBridge Management LLC, which had wanted the court to intervene in an employment dispute.
The company said that it would ask another Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia, to review the petition in light of Ginsburg's decision. Because Ginsburg denied the application without referring it to the full court, the application can be brought before a different justice for review, under Supreme Court rules.
At issue was a preliminary injunction ordering HealthBridge, which operates nursing homes in Connecticut, to reinstate striking workers while the National Labor Relations Board considers the employees' complaint. The almost 700 workers have cited unfair labor practices.
The company's stay application filed on Monday cited a January 25 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in which the court held that three appointments Obama made to the NLRB last year were invalid.
The D.C. Circuit court ruling meant that the NLRB does not have the required quorum to make decisions, casting into doubt various adjudications made since the appointments were made in January 2012.
As Ginsburg acted alone and issued no comment on the matter, the stay denial says little about how the Supreme Court might rule if the case, which has not yet been before a federal appeals court, ever does reach the high court.
In its ruling in January, the D.C. Circuit court said the president did not have the authority to make the three "recess appointments," a term used to describe a means of circumventing the Senate confirmation process, because the Senate was not technically in recess at the time.
U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny of the District of Connecticut had issued the preliminary injunction in December.
In Monday's court filing, HealthBridge's attorney, Paul Clement, said it was likely the high court will review the D.C. Circuit ruling.
"It makes little sense for the courts to order immediate action at the behest of the board here when the board's ability to act is in profound doubt and will be addressed by this court," Clement wrote.
(Editing by Howard Goller, Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler. Desking by Christopher Wilson)
