How did we do? Did you take Monday hostage and make it do your work for you? If so, good for you. If not, Tuesday is the most productive day of the week so you’ve got that going for ya. Continue reading
Daily Archives: August 22, 2011
11 posts
The US will soon release a doll from Spain called “Breast Milk Baby.” The $89 toy will allow children to imitate the act of breast-feeding by using a special halter top that comes with the doll. Parents and critics are divided on the product, some claiming that the doll over-sexualizes young girls by forcing them to grow up too quickly, but supporters claim that the toy is a learning product meant to teach nurturing and provide valuable education on what is believed to be a healthy choice when it comes to parenting.
What’s the debate? Continue reading
I was originally going to start today’s post with something about how it is shaping up to be a beautiful day here in the Golden Horseshoe but I can no longer as something terrible has happened to ruin my day. Tremendous politician and all around good guy Jack Layton (pictured above) has lost his battle to cancer at the age of 61. Layton was the leader of the New Democrat Party here in Canada, the country’s “third” and unabashedly socialist party; however, the NDP had recently routed the Liberals to become the official opposition in parliament. Today, pour one out for one of the good ones.
So I started writing a column about some of the things you need to know getting the most out of your medical care, but after discussion with a few of you, I found that the questions I was answering weren’t really the ones you were asking. So I will start by answering a bit more in depth, some of the issues that have come up. Please share any knowledge you have in the comments and ask more questions. Continue reading
In a disgusting display, the Republican party is now trying to block a tax cut that NObama is championing.
Quick explanation: To pay for Social Security benefits, employers and employees have always paid into the system via a payroll tax. This payroll tax has been 6.2% paid by the employer and 6.2% of salary paid by the employee. This totals to 12.4% of everyone’s salary being paid into the social security system. Social Security payroll taxes are basically unavoidable, and they only apply up to the first $106,800 of a worker’s wages. Last year Obama cut this tax on the worker’s side of things, saving people up to $2,136 a year, or at the very most a solid 2% of their income. Continue reading
Fig 1. Hubble True-Color Image of the Cigar Galaxy (M82)
When we gaze into the night sky, we typically see only the tiny white dots of stars surrounded by the vast blackness of an apparently-empty space, but in truth space has far more color and interest than our naked eye can reveal. One of the primary questions that students would ask me when I worked at Summers-Bausch Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, was “What is the magnification power of this telescope?” The answer was between a factor of 10 and 100, depending on which eyepiece was in use. What people need to understand is that a telescope is not a giant microscope turned upside down. The problem is not that the objects of interest in space are so small, but that they are so faint. Many of the nebulae and galaxies that we observe are nearly the same angular size as the Moon, but the telescope’s advantage is that it can gather a large quantity of light and funnel it right into your eye or onto film. Continue reading
Arab Spring? Thai red-shirts? Student protests in Britain? Pah! As Tony Kornheiser has been telling everyone for years, it’s the animals that governments should be worried about! Here are some critters, both great and small, that have stood up to The Man. Continue reading
Wow. It’s been a pretty intense weekend in Libya. The rebels have taken Tripoli and things don’t look good for Gaddafi. Also, I think I found Glenn Beck’s Libyan cousin.
Each week we bring you a poet, some of their work, and leave the rest up to you.
This week’s poet is Billy Collins* Continue reading