Surprising facts about national parks | Green Environment News

Surprising facts about national parks | Green Environment News:

"Our national parks have been around for more than a century, but there is still much to learn. Below are just a few surprising facts about some of the most spectacular spots in the U.S."

Next book I am definitely getting!

mathletics:

"For over 40 years baseball experts have realized that when an average batter is up, bunting is a bad idea....

Suppose there is a runner on first on none out. How many runs does an average MLB team score in an inning is this situation? The answer is 0.93 runs. Now let’s bunt and suppose the bunt succeeds. Now we have a runner on second base and one out. How many runs does an average major league team score in an inning with this situation? The answer is 0.71 runs. Therefore the “success” of the bunt has cost our team ) 0.22 runs. This should make it clear why the bunt is usually a bad idea.

Of course, if the batter is a poor hitter (like a pitcher) the bunt might make sense or if the score is tied and our goal is to simply score a single run the bunt might be a good idea.

"

Swine Flu Strikes Pandemic Expert Laurie Garrett | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com

Swine Flu Strikes Pandemic Expert Laurie Garrett | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com:

"According to the World Health Organization, about 1 billion doses of H1N1 vaccine have been ordered worldwide. But more than 6½ billion people live on Earth. From the get-go, some 85 percent of the world's population will be excluded from what, were this a virulent influenza, would be the primary life-sparing medicine."

SU - Swine Flu Vaccine Production Hits Snags - NPR Health Blog : NPR

SU - Swine Flu Vaccine Production Hits Snags - NPR Health Blog : NPR:

"The crash program to make vaccine against the pandemic strain will produce 'substantially less' than the 4.9 billion doses that had been expected by the World Health Organization....The bottom line: weekly production of swine flu will be less than 94 million doses, Reuters reports."

So I guess we should stress the "substantially less"

Next: An Internet Revolution in Higher Education - BusinessWeek

Next: An Internet Revolution in Higher Education - BusinessWeek:

"McNealy made it clear that possibilities in open-source education go far beyond textbooks. Before long, he claimed, the whole bloated, expensive, lecture-based higher education system will face the first challenge to its very existence: open-source, online higher education that costs a fraction of four years at Harvard—but is good enough for employers who want a college graduate. 'Universities will be forced to decide what they are. You know, are they going to be football teams with libraries attached?' McNealy asked. 'That's what a lot of them are now.'"

Mind - Sleep May Be Nature’s Time Management Tool - NYTimes.com

Mind - Sleep May Be Nature’s Time Management Tool - NYTimes.com:

"...according to a new paper in the August issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. In the paper, Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, argues that sleep evolved to optimize animals’ use of time, keeping them safe and hidden when the hunting, fishing or scavenging was scarce and perhaps risky. In that view, differences in sleep quality, up to and including periods of insomnia, need not be seen as problems but as adaptations to the demands of the environment."

Fascinating stuff. I always enjoy it when I read things that present new looks at the same old thing.

Yoga Classes Help Chronic Lower Back Pain - ABC News

Yoga Classes Help Chronic Lower Back Pain - ABC News:

"Yoga classes helped people with chronic lower back pain improve their mood and ability to function, and it eased their pain more than conventional treatment alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health."

New York Citys Wild Past Life - The Picture Show Blog : NPR

New York Citys Wild Past Life - The Picture Show Blog : NPR:

"Although Hudson will never see today's Manhattan, we can now get an idea of what he saw that September of 1609 -- thanks to The Manhatta Project (no, there's no N), the brainchild of ecologist Eric Sanderson. His project, featured in National Geographic's September issue, shows New York like we've never seen it before: rural enough to make any Manhattanite shudder."

Mosquito Bites: The Real Reason Some People Are Immune - WSJ.com

Mosquito Bites: The Real Reason Some People Are Immune - WSJ.com:

"...scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors—some of which may be related to stress—that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone"