Travel + Leisure's 2009 America's Favorite Cities Survey covered 30 cities coast to coast. According to the survey Charleston, New Orleans and Minneapolis/St. Paul were the friendliest cities. New York City was the unfriendliest. When it came to cleanliness, Minneapolis/St. Paul ranked highest, followed by Portland and Denver. New York was the dirtiest. For safety Portland was #1, Minneapolis/St. Paul #2 and Charleston #3. Los Angeles was #30. Minneapolis/St. Paul also rated highest for having the most intelligent residents. I'm not going to say which city supposedly had the least intelligent residents - I'm more intelligent than that.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based a 2009 study on survey data collected over the past 4 years. One of the questions asked of 1.3 million people across the U.S. was how satisfied they were with their lives. The happiness rankings were compared with studies that rated states for things like air quality, climate, commuting time, crime and taxes. Louisiana was found to be the happiest state, followed by Hawaii, Florida and Tennessee. New York was the unhappiest. What the study also found was that people in the happier states had better quality of life. The results of the study weren't just "happystance".
A study published in the journal Personal Relationships found the importance of women's beauty depends on where they live. The researchers asked 257 city women and 330 country women to rate their life satisfaction on scales of 1 to 10. They also asked for waist and hip measurements because the lower the ratio, the more attractive women are considered to be. It seems city women's happiness was dependent on physical appearance, but country women's happiness wasn't. In fact, there was a slight trend for them to be happier when chubbier. Maybe happiness depends on where women are looking.
Finally, according to federal data, driving on country highways is more dangerous than driving on city streets and freeways. Fifty-six percent of the 37,261 U.S. traffic fatalities in 2008 occurred in rural areas - even though rural areas have only 23% of the population. Explanations for this include country drivers driving faster, using seatbelts less and driving intoxicated more. Also country highways are older and narrower, less likely to be near emergency medical care and more likely to be near unpredictable deer, elk, moose and other wild animals. The wild animals most dangerous to city drivers are party animals.
In 1737 three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed from Galileo's body while it was being transferred from storage to his elaborate tomb. One finger and the vertebra were found quickly, but the tooth and the other two fingers remained in an Italian marquis' family until 1905, when the family no longer remembered what was in the ornate, wooden box and sold it. The box turned up at auction in 2009. The relics were authenticated by cultural officials in Florence and will be displayed in a Florence museum - allowing the earth to revolve around the sun happily ever after.
In 1909 British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton had 2 crates of McKinlay Scottish whiskey shipped to Antarctica. Although Shackleton abandoned this polar expedition, the whiskey was found in 2006 frozen in ice under an expedition hut near Cape Royds. In 2009 the present owners of the whiskey distillery asked New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust to drill through the ice to the crates. Although most of the bottles must stay where they are for historical reasons, the distillery owners want to taste the 100-year-old whiskey in hopes of replicating it for sale. Maybe it should be tasted over ice.
In 2009 a London law firm was selling Christmas gift vouchers for divorce advice. According to a spokesperson for the firm, Christmas is an especially stressful time for families, resulting in a large increase in people wanting divorce advice in January. More than 60 gift vouchers were sold the first week. Lloyd Platt & Company usually charges $530 an hour for advice, but with the gift voucher a half hour costs $203. According to my math, that's a saving of $62 for half an hour. One would think at Christmas the emphasis would be put on saving marriages - not money.
Finally, in most parts of the western world 13 is thought unlucky. However, in much of East Asia 4 is considered unlucky. That is because the word for 4 sounds like the word for death in both Japanese and Mandarin. In Italy 17 is considered unlucky. In Roman numerals 17 is XVII. That is an anagram for VIXI, which in the Italian language means "I'm dead". In Russia a dozen flowers are never given as a gift because even numbers of flowers are used only in funeral arrangements. Obviously, when traveling there are numbers you can't count on.
Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary selects its word of the year. To qualify the word must be current and have potential for longevity. The word for 2009 was "unfriend" - to remove someone as a friend on a social network site. Unfriend beat other tech-heavy words like "hashtag" - the symbol (#) used on Twitter posts to make them easier to find; "netbook" - a small portable laptop; and "sexting" - sending sexually explicit texts or photos by mobile phone. If this digital trend in selecting word of the year continues, it may leave people who aren't digital-savvy speechless.
Then there were the new business buzzwords inspired by the 2009 recession. Although carmakers didn't make cars Americans wanted to buy, carmakers didn't fail. They entered "pre-packaged bankruptcies". Banks didn't make bad loans. Instead, they discovered they had "toxic assets". Banks, of course, were considered "too big to fail" - and didn't have to because of TARP. Tarp used to be short for tarpaulin, a canvass covered with a waterproof compound. Now it stands for "Troubled Asset Relief Program". It's the government program that gave financial institutions "bailouts" instead of handouts. Obviously, there was more than one "Cash For Clunkers" program.
Obviously, bacon isn't just for breakfast anymore. Thanks to Chef Blumenthal of the Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant outside London, bacon is for dessert too. In 2004 Blumenthal's bacon-and-egg ice cream made news all over the food world. In 2006 two contestants on television's Top Chef program made bacon ice cream, introducing Americans to bacon desserts. Now there are bacon brownies, bacon bread pudding, bacon truffles, bacon jellybeans and more. In spite of skeptics, pairing sweets with bacon is logical. Sweet/salty flavors are popular in kettle corn, chocolate-covered pretzels and Snickers bars. With bacon desserts, pigging out is explainable.
Those who enjoy pigging out on pizza should know that Domino's is changing its pizza recipe. As of December 29, 2009 the crust will be garlickier, the tomato sauce spiced differently and the cheese upgraded. It seems when the research firm Brand Keys rated Domino's for taste, it tied for last with Chuck E. Cheese, with Papa John ranking first. However, Domino's ranked first for best pizza chain overall, tied with Pizza Hut for top ranking in location and service and was a close second to Pizza Hut in value. In launching its new pizza, Domino's plans a "tasteful" campaign.
Costco, the nationwide warehouse club, decided to use common sense and accept food stamps. Under political pressure Costco accepted food stamps in Brooklyn and Queens and soon expanded to all New York stores. Costco hoped to accept food stamps at half its 407 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico by Thanksgiving 2009 and the rest when it got regulatory approval from the states. Although Costco didn't think there would be much response from food stamp recipients, new members said they joined because food stamps were accepted. With 36 million Americans receiving food stamps, Costco will profit from its mistake.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found the number of overweight children ages 6-19 tripled between 1970 and 2007. The study suggested these children are much likelier to develop heart disease between ages 35-50. A study released at a 2007 Heart Association conference found that the neck arteries in overweight children were similar to 45-year-olds. That plus abnormal cholesterol levels put them at high risk for heart disease. The solution is more exercise and less junk food. However, with Time magazine reporting 32% of children were overweight in 2008, common sense isn't common enough.
A common sense study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University found that men who hold their anger at work increased their risk of heart attack up to fivefold. From 1992 to 2003 the study followed 2,755 employed men without histories of heart attacks. After adjustments for age, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviors, job strain and biological risk factors, it was determined most of the 47 participants who had heart attacks or died from heart disease covertly coped with problems at work . By letting things pass without saying anything, they didn't have a say in their health.
Finally, instead of using common sense, a 2009 study by New Zealand's University of Otago used World Health Organization surveys of 34,493 people in 15 countries to discover getting married is good for the mental health of both genders. However, women are more likely than men to be depressed in their first marriage. Not surprisingly, the study also discovered ending a marriage by separation, divorce or death can be bad for the mental health of both genders. Supposedly, women are more likely to have substance abuse problems and men are more likely to be depressed. Obviously, the "for better or worse" gets even worse.
In 2009 the average, American household spent $2,200 annually on energy; and approximately half of that money was for heating and cooling. However, washing clothes in cold water saves money because up to 90% of the cost of washing clothes comes from heating water. Changing the thermostat by a degree for 8 hours a day - while homeowners are at work or asleep - saves 2% on heating or cooling. Sealing electric outlets in exterior walls with inexpensive foam gaskets keeps heated or cooled air from leaking out. It seems being energetic saves energy.
California will be the first state to save energy by imposing energy efficiency standards for televisions. As televisions increased in size, residential energy use attributed to televisions increased from 3%-4% in the 1990's to 8%-10% in 2008. If nothing was done, the percentage was expected to reach 18% by 2023. As of January 2011, however, televisions 58 inches and smaller must consume 33% less electricity. By 2013 they must consume 49% less. Considering these new energy standards are expected to save California consumers $1 billion annually, the California Energy Commission's unanimous vote put vision into television.
New vision is responsible for getting more natural gas from shale. Because of a combination of horizontal drilling and water fracturing (water and sand forced into rock at high pressure to open tiny cracks), U.S. natural gas reserves are 35% higher than previously thought. For example, a shale formation from New York to West Virginia is believed to hold 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - equal to 80 billion barrels of oil. Natural gas is cheaper than oil and produces less carbon dioxide than coal, but it is still a fossil fuel. Thus it's being thought of as a transition fuel - not as energy's last gas-p.
What the U.S. needs is sustainable fuel and E. coli can provide it. The same microbe in the news for tainting food can produce biodiesel fuel. Scientists at a San Francisco-based company have genetically engineered E. coli to excrete biodiesel. Because the excreted fatty acids are almost like conventional hydrocarbon fuels, delivering this new fuel to consumers wouldn't require any changes from the present system of delivering gas. Large scale commercialization is expected by 2013 at a competitive price with oil at $40-$50 a barrel. In reshaping the world's fuel supply efficient, economical, sustainable E. coli could be a driving force.
According to a study published in the journal "BMC Evolutionary Biology", some spiders cooperate more with relatives. German researchers divided Stegodyphus tentoriicola spiders into 2 groups - siblings and non-siblings - while studying their food collecting behavior. Siblings worked better together when looking for food and were more likely to share digestive enzymes for quicker eating of prey. Even in large groups, where fracturing interferes with productivity, sibling spiders avoided destructive patterns and were more productive. It seems cooperation among relatives is common in the animal kingdom. For humans with the ability to reason, this should be reasonable.
According to researchers at The Australian National University, male fiddler crabs defend neighboring females from invaders in return for sex. Both males and females are territorial and live in burrows; but males have a large, defensive claw and females have 2 small, feeding claws. When out-of-the-area fiddler crabs were brought in, males fought off male invaders on neighboring females' territory 95% of the time. However, when the invaders were female, the males fought them off only 15% of the time. Sex for protection is a "defense coalition" - something wives should remember when invaded by things like leaking faucets and peeling paint.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the brown pelican was off the endangered list as of November 11, 2009. The brown pelican was declared an endangered species in 1970. For almost 40 years these birds had to struggle to survive being hunted for their feathers and being exposed to widespread habitat loss. However, the recovery of the species is largely due to the 1972 ban on the pesticide DDT, which devastated their population. Brown pelicans are again prevalent across Florida, the Gulf and Pacific coasts and the Caribbean due to the 1973 Endangered Species Act in action.
Animals listed as being critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are presumed to be extinct. Not so, however, with the Beck's petrel. The Beck's petrel is a dark brown seabird with a pale belly and a tube-like nose. Although this species hadn't been seen since the 1920's, an Israeli ornithologist photographed 30 of them in flight over islands northeast of Papua, New Guinea in March 2008. Because the exact location of their breeding grounds isn't known, conservationists plan to search the area. Obviously, they hope the saying "birds of a feather flock together" is scientific fact.
In 2008 there were approximately 37,000 U.S. highway deaths - the fewest since 1961. One reason for this is the safety testing done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. IIHS spends about $1.5 million a year testing new vehicles that are equipped with sensored crash dummies, usually crashing 2 per week. In 1995 half the vehicles that were tested rated "Poor". In 2009 virtually all were rated "Good". Nevertheless, the IIHS list of vehicles for its top safety picks is shorter than in 2008. A new IIHS test for rollover endurance might have made some vehicle manufacturers "testy".
The 2009 list of the most stressful jobs compiled by the Web site CareerCast had surgeon at the top, followed by commercial airline pilot, photojournalist, advertising account executive, real estate agent, general practice physician, newspaper reporter and physician's assistant. In compiling this list 21 stress factors were considered, including deadlines, physical demands and life/death situations. Taking the same factors into consideration, the list of the least stressful jobs had actuary at the top, followed by dietitian, computer systems analyst, statistician, astronomer, mathematician, historian and software engineer. Of course, those whose jobs weren't on the most stressed list may be distressed.
Reports released in 2009 by the Center for American Progress and by the National Academy of Sciences found that the reason there are fewer women scientists than men scientists isn't because of sexual bias. It's because of motherhood. Married women with children were 35% less likely to secure tenure-track positions than married men with children and 33% less likely than single women without children. Suggested solutions for this problem range from funds to hire technician help to stopping the tenure clock for a year after babies are born. Scientifically speaking, maybe cloning wives for women scientists would be a better solution.
Finally, one of 2009's solutions for men was the Ript Fusion t-shirt. Available in crew or v-neck, the t-shirt supposedly is a "body-sculpting undershirt designed to support your core, shave inches off your belly and enhance your posture" - all for $58. The shirt's top and bottom are cotton. The middle - or core - is abdomen-compressing, synthetic elastic. Instructions how to put it on are on the box - "Pull on all the way to your underarms, then pull over your head". Perhaps this t-shirt was designed by a woman who wanted to take the girl out of girdle.
Every night since March 1929 a red beacon on top of the historic Grant Building in Pittsburgh has flashed the city's name in international Morse code. However, while waiting to see 2009's July 4th fireworks, Tom Stapleton, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, noticed the beacon was flashing "Pitetsbkrrh". According to Stapleton, the electrical contacts that create the beacon's flash could have tarnished or moved out of place. When Stapleton returned 4 days later, the beacon was flashing "Tpebtsaurgh". Although the device was sent for repair, the beacon had been successfully flashing "mistake".
Another unusual mistake occurred in 1955 when Mary, a 400-pound tortoise, arrived at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. During a routine exam almost 55 years later, zookeepers discovered Mary was actually Terry. It seems it's difficult to establish the sex of a giant Aldabra tortoise because the reproductive organs usually aren't visible. Mary's maleness, however, was suddenly obvious. The-now-Terry had been thought to be female because of having a flatter shell, a shorter tail and an overall smaller size than most male tortoises. Terry, who's estimated to be between 75 and 100 years old, is obviously in touch with his feminine side.
A mistake made by Visa resulted in a small number of Visa cardholders being surprised by purchases costing much more than they had expected. In New Hampshire John Muszynski swiped his debit card and paid $23,148,855, 308,184,500 for a pack of cigarettes. In North Texas John Seale paid the same amount for a dinner at one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants - plus he was charged a $15 overdraft fee. According to a Visa spokesperson, "A temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts". That's Visa speak for mistake.
Although many people enjoy reading about others' mistakes, a lie isn't a mistake. Police are often taught that communication is 60%-90% non-verbal, but researchers at National University and Southern Connecticut State University found that people who are making up stories make the stories simple so they'll be easily remembered. People telling the truth recall unrelated details and often make mistakes. In fact, truth-tellers tend to add about 30% more detail when relating events than liars. Asking someone to report every detail of an event, starting with what happened last and working backwards, can be a way to get to the truth.
The Arctic isn't getting greener. A joint report by the UK-based Catlin Arctic Survey and the World Wildlife Fund said Arctic summer ice cover will be gone within 20 years. The thickness of a 450-kilometer stretch of ice floes averaged 1.8 meters - too thin to survive next summer's melt. The ice was primarily first-year ice - not the traditionally much older, thicker ice. Scientists expect this change in ice cover to increase global warming and face polar bears with extinction. They refer to Arctic ice as the planet's roof - which makes lawmakers who are indecisive about climate change "fiddlers on the roof".
San Francisco, however, is greener. As of October 21, 2009 it's against the law to put food scraps in the garbage. In the first, U.S. program of its kind, residents are required to put food waste into sealed compost bins. Garbage trucks pick up the food waste and take it to the Organic Annex, where it's turned into compost and sold to area farms and vineyards. Presently San Francisco keeps 72% of its trash out of the landfill by recycling cans, bottles, construction material and cooking oil. The goal is to have zero waste by 2020 - allowing little waste of time.
Even the Las Vegas Strip is greener. Harrah's Entertainment, owner of several resort/casinos, has built a multi-resort laundry that reduces water use 30% while increasing capacity 40%. At the Rio it's built a 5-megawatt cogeneration plant that generates electricity for one of the 2 towers. Then there's City Center, MGM Mirage's 67-acre resort. It has a cogeneration plant supplying 10% of needed electricity, with waste heat warming the water supply. Low-flow fixtures cut indoor water use up to 45% and heat-deflecting glass and shades reduce lighting and air-conditioning needs. Money isn't the Strip's only green anymore.
Finally, South Region High School #15 in Los Angeles will be the greenest high school ever built, generating 100% of its electricity. Energy will be conserved through the use of solar panels and 36 wind turbines, working in conjunction with a green, vegetated roof and shaded, operable windows. Not only has the 115,000 square foot structure been insulated and positioned to take advantage of sea breezes and maximum daylight, its design leaves natural areas where only native, California species will be planted. Although the school won't be ready for students until 2012, adults can learn from it now.
Oddity #1: As of 2009 there are more new fragrances released yearly than there were in the 1970's and 1980's combined - at least 500 a year. In 2008 celebrity scents made up 10% of fragrance sales - more than 3 million bottles. It seems perfume is the best way to sell celebrity. The perfume houses don't pay for what's in the bottles. Fragrance manufacturers develop scents for free and share the profits with the perfume houses. Also, having celebrities' names on the bottles saves millions of advertising dollars. Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, 50 Cent - celebrities are profitably "scentimental".
Oddity #2: In 2009 the ball was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The curator explained that the Ball had just gotten in because the Toy Hall of Fame didn't come into existence until 1998 and because only 2 or 3 toys are inducted a year. Both the Atari 2600 Game System and the Nintendo Game Boy were already in. So were the Cardboard Box and the Stick. Obviously, those who decide which toys are inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame hadn't been keeping their eyes on the ball.
Oddity #3: On November 1, 2009 family and friends identified the body of 59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves, a bricklayer in southern Brazil, who had died in a car crash. The funeral took place the following day, the Day of the Dead, a holiday when Latin Americans pray for family and friends who have died and remember them with gifts. When Goncalves attended his own funeral, shocked relatives tried to jump out of windows in the funeral home. Although Goncalves wasn't dead, he'd been dead the night before - dead drunk in a bar near the crash site.
Oddity #4: On November 11, 2009 Forbes magazine ranked Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman 41st on its list of the world's most powerful people. That ranking put him ahead of Russian President Medvedev (43), Oprah Winfrey (45), Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu (46) and U.S. Chief Justice Roberts (49). Guzman isn't a world leader, a religious leader or a humanitarian. He's a reputed, Mexican drug lord, head or the Sinaloa Cartel, with a $5 million reward on his head. Over the past 8 years Guzman has shipped between $6 billion and $19 billion in cocaine to the U.S. The world's 41st most powerful person is a drug dealer addicted to power.
