Dave's shared items
The one thing I hated most about school was how early it started. I’ve always thought that my academic performance (and that of my friends) would improve tremendously had school just start at the crack of noon – and now, science has vindicated me!
Here’s a study by Brown University sleep researcher Judith Owens on how starting school just 30 minutes later could lead to huge improvements:
An eye-opening study says delaying high school starting times by just 30 minutes can reap big rewards for tired teens.
A small study at St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, says students there were more alert in class, expressed better moods, arrived to class on time, and even reported eating a healthier breakfast due to the later start."The results were stunning. There’s no other word to use," says Patricia Moss, academic dean at the boarding school where the study was done. Similar results have been found in some public schools that let teens start school late.
Researchers say there’s a reason why even 30 minutes can make a big difference. Teens tend to be in their deepest sleep around dawn – when they typically need to get up for school. Interrupting that sleep can leave them groggy, especially since they also tend to have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m.
So why do schools start so early in the morning? You can blame the parents and their pesky jobs: Link (Photo: Shutterstock)
Anne Rice, the bestselling novelist most popularly known for "Interview with the Vampire" and her other creepy vampire novels, announced on Wednesday via Facebook that she has officially renounced Christianity. It's a bold move for the author who has become well-known for her vehement religiosity; the majority of her frequent tweets are related to religion in some way. The author has also recently launched a new series of novels about angels, which debuted in October 2009 with "Angel Time."
Rice declared on her Facebook account that she is "an outsider" in the Christian community:
I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.
Rice affirmed that though she has decided to leave the Christian institution, she "remain[s] committed to Christ as always."
(via GalleyCat)
Buried in Wikileaks' Afghanistan documents is a largely ignored 2007 warning that Pakistani spies were planning to poison booze intended for American soldiers using sulfuric acid. It sounds a little far-fetched.
Until you hear the story of James Yeager, an American geologist who claims to have narrowly avoided being poisoned in exactly this way in, yes, 2007.
Yeager was in Afghanistan advising the government as they took bids on a massive mining contract ...
he returned to his residence in Kabul to find it had been burgled. The intruder took money from a drawer and left behind a bottle of Corona beer. The Corona bottle sat on his counter for the next two weeks Yeager says, because Corona is one of his least favorite beers. He finally opened it during a going away party as the other drinks began to run low. [emphasis mine]
"I pulled it out and when I popped it there was no fizz and the cap was loose," says Yeager. "Because this one didn't have fizz you wonder if it went rancid or not, and I just kind of sniffed it and I went 'Oh, that doesn't smell like beer.' "
Yeager, a geochemist familiar with acids, realized it smelled like sulfuric acid - otherwise known as battery acid. He called a friend over who had the same reaction to the smell. Yeager poured the "beer" into the toilet and it foamed and fizzed, leaving "no question" in his mind it was sulfuric acid.
Insert your own Corona joke here.
Christian Science Monitor: Wikileaks confirmed? A plan to kill American geologist with poisoned beer
Image courtesy Flickr user Kyle May, via CC
The kitchens and pantries of restaurants are a strange and mysterious place to many people. We've all heard horror stories on the news about staffers committing heinous acts of food molestation or heard whispers that you should never eat the shellfish special. But the editors at Reader's Digest went straight to the source and spoke to real restaurant wait staff to get the inside scoop.
Here are some highlights from RD's list of Secrets Your Waiter Won't Tell You:
1. In most restaurants, after 8 p.m. or so, all the coffee is decaf because no one wants to clean two different coffeepots. I'll bring out a tray with 12 coffees on it and give some to the customers who ordered regular, others to the ones who ordered decaf. But they're all decaf.
2. If you're a vegetarian and you ask if we use vegetable stock, I'm going to say yes, even if we don't. You'll never know the difference.
3. I've never seen anybody do anything to your food, but I have seen servers mess with your credit card. If a server doesn't like you, he might try to embarrass you in front of your business associate or date by bringing your credit card back and saying, "Do you have another card? This one didn't go through."
4. Even at the best breakfast buffet in the world, 99 times out of 100, the big pan of scrambled eggs is made from a powder.
5. Don't order fish on Sunday or Monday. The fish deliveries are usually twice a week, so Tuesday through Friday are great days. Or ask the restaurant when they get theirs.
For more than a dozen more secrets, check out the complete list at RD.com.
And if you have your own secrets from your time in the food-service trenches, share them below!
Thanks to Ashi for the tip!
