news of the day 09/06

Making Science More Better For You

Your tax dollars at work
OpenTheGovernment. org reports that stamping government documents "secret" cost American taxpayers $8.2 billion last year -- a 7.5 percent increase over the year before.

The coalition found that for every dollar spent declassifying documents, the federal government spends $185 to conceal government documents. Over all, classification cost 2 1/2 times what it cost in 1997.


Science headline that proves nothing ever changes
“Chimps on treadmills offer evolution insight”

And we’re here to help…
“A 20-year government effort to restore the population of an endangered native trout in Colorado has made little progress because biologists have been stocking some of the waterways with the wrong fish, a new study says. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is heading the recovery effort, said it is reviewing the findings.

The study said that out of nine populations of fish believed to be endangered greenback cutthroat trout that were descendants of survivors, five were actually the Colorado River cutthroat trout, which look similar but are a separate and more common subspecies.


It’s cultural, like a lynching
“T.O. attended 'cultural' dog fights”
Terrell Owens said he saw some dog fights growing up in Alabama. In a recent radio interview with Jim Gray, Owens said he witnessed his uncle fighting dogs and said it is part of a culture.” (S.I. Fannation)

No word as to whether the dogs or the uncle came out on top.


Which color will give me the shakes?
Food additives may cause hyperactivity: study
Wed Sep 5, 2007 6:32pm ET135
Health News
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Certain artificial food colorings and other additives can worsen hyperactive behaviors in children aged 3 to 9, British researchers reported on Wednesday.

Tests on more than 300 children showed significant differences in their behavior when they drank fruit drinks spiked with a mixture of food colorings and preservatives, Jim Stevenson and colleagues at the University of Southampton said.

"These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD) but can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity," the researchers wrote in their study, published in the Lancet medical journal.

Stevenson's team, which has been studying the effects of food additives in children for years, made up two mixtures to test in one group of 3-year-olds and a second group of children aged 8 and 9.

They included sunset yellow coloring, also known as E110; carmoisine, or E122; tartrazine, or E102; ponceau 4R, or E124; the preservative sodium benzoate, or E211; and other colors.”

This means the only food that’s safe for kids is chalk.


English as a second language, coach division
“Dolphins coach Cam Cameron confirmed that Ronnie Brown would be the starter Sunday over Jesse Chatman. ''Personnel-wise, Jesse Chatman could be in the starting lineup too,'' Cameron said. ``Personnel-wise, who's going to start in the game, there could be two running backs in there, but [Brown] will be our starting tailback. I think he earned the job, and like I said, I think we need two.''
Miami Herald

So does that mean E=MC hammer?

Headline of the afternoon

“Drunken transient pepper-sprayed after swinging at bagpiper”
The Oregon newspaper in which this appeared described the tranient as a “self-professed Irishman"

And to think, he could have been kilt……