And now...on with the show!
Is America Facing A Beer Crisis? -- This article has so much information stored within it that I'd urge anyone interested in beers to take a look. In short, beer is losing out on market share to other kinds of alcohols. However, craft beers have been helping to bolster those sales. It seems more people are health conscious, growing older, and drink less beer.
Remember that chemical spill we were all talking about a little while ago? Here are some things you might not have known--and this is worth reading. It puts into perspective how very under-protected we really are. And after reading this article, it makes me really want to look at our government and find out why we have so few laws regarding chemicals, and why so little is being done with regard to this.
Here are 17 tiny things that have changed the world as we know it. I'd give you some hints about what they are, but I think it's entirely much more interesting to take a look for yourself. Some of them I all ready knew, but a few of them I did not.
We can still lose ships in the ocean, and this story is about one of those--which apparently still has a crew of rats on board. I sure hope we find the Lyubov Orlova....
This story caught my eye one day; it's about a man who has spent almost his entire life building a cathedral in Madrid--from donated materials and garbage. It is amazingly beautiful from what I've seen of the pictures shown here, and I urge you to have a look for yourself. Hopefully, Aunt Mary, John, and I will be going to have a look at this place on our vacation!
There is a blue glowing beach! Maybe you didn't hear me... A BLUE GLOWING BEACH! Take a look at some of the lovely pictures. It does make me wonder what's causing this to occur, though.
It's interesting to consider that our desire for products may be causing pollution across the world--pollution that may, in fact, be coming right back to us. I urge you to take a look at this article and to consider the consequences of your choices.
Okay...now if you're like me, when you were a kid, you read your fair share of Choose Your Own Adventure books. If you weren't that interested in them, you can skip this next announcement. Apparently FOX named some people to work on a Choose Your Own Adventure movie! I'm not sure what it all means, but it certainly seems pretty cool. And I think I'll be watching to see how this turns out!
If you've ever wondered about corporations--from their lowly beginnings to their lofty present, you might want to take a look at this Wikipedia page. It's where I started reading the other day when I was wondering how corporations got to be the way they are. This one will be staying in my "further research" pile...
Plastic bags in California beware! Apparently California lawmakers may have reached a deal to ban plastic bags in California by 2016. Personally, I think this is probably a good idea. It does, however, leave me feeling a little worried about the plastic bag industry as a whole. That said, I won't mind doing a little bit more to help keep the environment clean.
So as many of you know, I've been keeping up with farmer-related issues, and this one caught my attention--namely because we have actual people who are being charged for their food causing deaths and disease. This article is important to me because of how it treats individuals--as opposed to how it treats corporations. As some of you might be aware, I'm not a big fan of the people responsible for wrong-doings within corporations getting away with murder. In my opinion, if you stop holding individual people accountable for their actions, they're going to more readily agree to put off their responsibilities.
A few weeks ago, I read an article that talked about how our government is making a lot of incorrect payments to people. What they don't talk about in this article is whether or not the people doing the work are sufficient for the amount of work that needs doing. And while it does point out that we have room for improvement, it also fails to mention that for most businesses, operating under these small cost percentages is actually not all that bad. Still, I'm pretty sure that any business when faced with the loss of this kind of money might be looking into the reasons why this is happening--and fix them.
In keeping up with my interest in all things tech related, I found this little gem. Apparently a lot of our appliances that have electronic or wi-fi components can be hacked--and then used to send spam. It amused me enough to keep it around, and while it is definitely disturbing, they say that knowing the problem is the beginning to the solution. So, I have hope that we'll get to work on this.
We've all been keeping an eye on the NSA lately, especially news relating to it. While some of this may be old news, I think it's worth your time to take a look at it. This article represents ideas and ideologies that are important to understand, and it's important not only for the preservation of our freedoms, but also for the moral and ethical fabric of our nation.
Is there life on Ceres? What's Ceres? And why is this even important? Well, if you're curious, I urge you to take a look at this article I found a while ago. In short, Ceres is one of the largest asteroids in our solar system, and also considered a dwarf planet. It seems to be spewing water from its surface, and if that's the case, this could change how we view future exploration of our solar system and beyond. Next year, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is due to go into orbit around this little guy, and hopefully we'll be able to find out more then!
Apparently our president cares about "net neutrality". If you haven't heard of this lately, then you haven't been keeping up with tech news. Essentially there was a ruling recently made with regard to the FCC's rules that calls into question just what information providers can and can't do. There's a LOT of information that goes along with all of this--but the short version is simply that their decision means that your internet providers can block access or give less priority to information they don't want you to access, or that they want you to use their premium services to get to. A money grab by internet providers? Definitely. But the real problem is how the FCC defines them; whereas our phones were the primary means of communication 25 years ago, the internet has arisen to take its place. Unfortunately, our telecommunication laws really haven't kept pace, and that's where the problem rests. So let's hope that our government will act on this one, or you could see the end of the internet as we know it.
Remember hearing about how honey bees were dying off and scientists were busy trying to figure out why? Well, they did find a link to pesticides, but more recently, they found a virus which seems to be part of the issue, as well.
And just when you thought those scientists couldn't get any crazier, some of them went and created an anti-atom beam. So what does that mean? It means that we could be closer to understanding more of our own universe-how it was created, and why we see more matter than anti-matter in it. The article is definitely heavy on the science, but if you're curious to know more, you should definitely have a look.
Our genes might be going crazy if we sleep during the day! Still, that leaves a lot to be explained, such as: why is this the case? What about places that have longer times of sunlight and less night? While this is only a preliminary study, I did find the article interesting to read, and it begins to help us better understand our bodies. In fact, this study may help us understand our optimum "time in the sun" and help us to develop better products to keep out the sun. It may even help with space exploration, letting us know what we need to do in order to simulate "sun exposure" that our bodies need in order to function properly.
I must admit that this next article was both inspiring and also saddening. It deals with Ukrainians who are angry with their government for choosing to remain with Russian help instead of joining the European Union. There are some graphic videos included, and I confess that it was hard to watch some of this without crying. War is never an easy thing to watch, and while the use of fireworks is inventive, I must say that I think it's terrible that people hurt one another in order to foster change. I wish there were a better way, and I wish leaders would do what is best for their people instead of just themselves.
If you're looking for the five most useless pieces of advice that most people give to one another, check out this article by David Wong. It's worth reading even if you're not the sort of person who thinks they give advice to others. And if you're the sort of person that likes to give advice, this will definitely help. I think it's worth reading if you have to work with other people a lot, as well, as it showcases some good advice on how to deal with various advisory situations.
If you're curious about the origins of that quote, "The best laid plans...", check out this page. It's a quick read, and you'll have a little tidbit of information you didn't have before.
I read this next article a while ago, and it talks about the death of expertise. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that after reading this article, I was definitely more thoughtful about my own advice and about the way that I choose to portray the information I write here. While I've always been something of a skeptic when I see or read something, looking at credentials, going to find a person's bio page, and doing even a modest bit of looking around to see what a person has done is worthwhile. It can also put something into perspective and give you a pretty good idea of who is spouting BS and who is actually trying to give you the best information on the subject that they can.
So this next page is a must-see if you're interested in interesting monuments. There are quite a few here that I would love to go and check out, and I think we're going to try and find El Angel Caido featured here while we're in Madrid!
There is a map of the internets! No. Really. There is. Go and take a look at it!
Twitter as a classroom tool? You bet! While there are some concerns about privacy issues, many schools are all ready working to address this through the use of careful policies and working with the parents of students to ensure that their worries are addressed. This is definitely worth reading if you're a teacher or a parent, as defining your idea of how technology should and shouldn't be used in the classroom is important as we move forward into a more digital age.
There is a video game art museum--online. And right now, there is an exhibit going on of 8-bit in-game art. I ran across this article that talks all about it, and I urge you all to go and have a look. It's pretty amazing.
Ever since I saw War Games when I was a kid, I had this crazy idea of how our nuclear arsenal was being protected. While a super computer probably isn't in charge of our bombs, it turns out that real people are--and recently the way they were doing things was called into question. So much so that there are likely to be some changes happening in the near future--or at least these things are going to be better regulated....we hope.
So if you're curious about what was going on up in Davos, take a look at the World Economic Forum's web page. I haven't had a chance to really dig into this too much, yet, but it will remain in my "things to research" pile....
And last, but not least, here is an infographic all about World of Warcraft, this really awesome game that John and I play. I think I'll just let the picture speak for itself.
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