Legendary Investor Is More Worried Than Ever

by Jason Zweig

Wall Street Journal

Seth Klarman is worth listening to, especially when markets go mad.

Mr. Klarman is president of the Baupost Group, an investment firm in Boston that manages $22 billion. His three private partnerships have returned an annual average of around 19% since inception in 1983—and nearly 17% annually over the past decade, as stocks went nowhere.

Pac-Man hits 30 without losing its way
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google.com allowed visitors to play the classic video game in the shape of the Google logo.(Google.com)

by Harold Goldberg

Wall Street Journal

The fact that Namco's Pac-Man has been around for 30 years can make you feel ancient.


Note: It is so popular, Google is making PacMan permanent.

Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
by Neely Tucker

Washington Post

John Hessler, mathematical wizard and the senior cartographic librarian at the Library of Congress, slipped into the locked underground vaults of the library one morning earlier this week.

Immunizations for Babies
Immunization Action Coalition

Frequent Questions about Yard Trimmings

Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.)

Shopper's Guide to Pesticides
Environmental's Worker Group
foodnews.org

Online, How Much Security Is Too Much?

by David Pogue

New York Times

I've always been fascinated by the concept of risk-reward in public safety: How much risk is acceptable in order to maintain efficiency and productivity?

Growing Vegetables Upside Down
by Kate Murphy

New York Times

IF pests and blight are wrecking your plants, it might be time to turn your garden on its head.

Growing crops that dangle upside down from homemade or commercially available planters is growing more popular, and its adherents swear they’ll never come back down to earth.

Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV.
Google

Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet. Watch an overview video below, sign up for updates, and learn more about how to develop for Google TV.

Some Spices Cut Cancer Risk That Comes With Grilled Burgers
Study found rosemary, turmeric, fingerroot inhibited production of carcinogenic compounds.

heathlfinder.gov

(HealthDay News) --Researchers report that adding certain spices to your burgers before tossing them on the grill this summer will not only add to the flavor of the meat, but they can also cut the risk of cancer long associated with the cooking of beef.

Hershey Seeks Injunction to Block Chocolate Bar-Shaped Brownie Pan

by Shannon P. Duffy

The Legal Intelligeners

As the folks at the Hershey Co. see it, the shape of the company's signature chocolate bar isn't just an ordinary rectangle made up of 12 smaller rectangles, but rather is an iconic and memorable design that immediately triggers association in consumers' minds with Hershey products.

The Technicality Generation

by Larry Pressler

New York Times

THE problems faced by Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, over his depiction of his military service are indicative of a broader disease in our society. The issues of integrity in business and politics that plague us today — the way elites are no longer trusted — are rooted in the dishonesty that surrounded the Vietnam-era draft.

Time to Review Workplace Reviews?

by Tara Parker-Pope

New York Time

After years of studying the ill effects of workplace stress, psychologists are turning their attention to its causes. Along with the usual suspects — long hours, bad bosses, office bullies — they have identified some surprising ones.

MyEnvironment
environmental information for my area

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

We Put a Man On the Moon ... So Why Is It So Hard to Design an Umbrella that Won't Collapse or Flip Inside Out?
by Anjali Athavaley

Wall Street Journal

After a rainstorm, the scene in almost any city is the same—dozens of umbrella carcasses lying broken along sidewalks and streets.

A Backyard Battleground to Save the Honeybee
by Anne Marie Chaker

Wall Street Journal

Catharine Reeves is doing her part to save the honeybee.

The 49-year-old lawyer from Bethesda, Md., is a newly minted backyard beekeeper. She tends two hives and thousands of bees, which might produce just a jar or two of honey by mid-summer, if she's lucky.

Top Ten Misconceptions About Fuel Economy
fueleconomy.gov

Thermometers: Understand the options
Thermometers come in a variety of styles. Understand the different types of thermometers and how to pick the right thermometer for you.

By Mayo Clinic staff

Mayo Clinic

Space Is All Around You
By: Stephanie | May 17, 2010 | Category: General

GovGab Your U.S. government blog

Have you ever worn UV-blocking sunglasses or slept on a memory foam pillow? Used a Dustbuster, a wireless headset, or an ear thermometer? Clicked around a 360-degree view of a house or car online? Then thank your lucky stars! Or the U.S. space agency,NASA, to be exact. Because these and other everyday things—including acoustic guitars, kidney dialysis machines, and even NASCAR—have borrowed from—or been inspired by—technologies developed by NASA.

Getting Treated for Common Ailments Online
Jennifer Saranow Schultz
New York Times

In a recent Bucks post, “Doctors, Let Me Pay You for E-Mail,” my colleague Ron Lieber said he would gladly pay his family doctors a flat annual fee to be able to e-mail them questions and get a timely electronic response, and he questioned why this isn’t the norm.

Well, it turns out that it’s possible now in one state, Minnesota, to pay $25 and then actually get treated for certain basic ailments online thanks to a just-introduced yearlong pilot program offered by the health care provider Park Nicollet Health Services and Zipnosis.com, a start-up in Minnesota.

Study Pokes Holes in Air Bag Standards

by Jo Craven McGinty

New York Times

New research into front air bags in automobiles is raising troubling questions about their effectiveness for drivers wearing seat belts.

College graduation: What Teddy Roosevelt said about education
Christian Science Monitor

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals, is to educate a menace to society.”
– Teddy Roosevelt, as quoted in the Denison University baccalaureate address, May 15, 2010

Can Dirt Do a Little Good?

by Melinda Beck

Wall Street Journal

Infants are enchanting all over the world, as the new movie "Babies" shows. But their standards of hygiene sure vary.

Pesticides on Produce Tied to ADHD in Children
Organophosphates may alter chemistry of developing brain, researchers say.
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay News

MONDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that exposure to high levels of organophosphate pesticides, commonly found on berries, celery and other produce, could raise the odds for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

Oil spill imperils an unseen world at the bottom of the gulf
By Joel Achenbach

Washington Post

(See graphic below)

In total darkness at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico lives a creature with many scuttling legs and two wiggling antennae that jut from a pinched, space-alien face. It is the isopod, Bathynomus giganteus, a scavenger of dead and rotten flesh on the mud floor of the gulf.

What lies beneath (Graphic)
A vibrant ecosystem thrives on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists are not quite sure what the effects of the oil spill - and the oil dispersants - will be to the creatures encountering it up close.
Washington Post

Is Your Favorite Charity Spying on You?
by Anne Kadet

Wall Street Journal

Whether a patient comes in for a gall-bladder operation or to have a baby, the routine remains the same for staff at Sharp HealthCare hospitals in San Diego. The front desk checks insurance records to make sure the bills get paid on time. Nurses take vitals and tag their charges with a bar-coded wristband. And behind the scenes, fund-raisers scan the assets of each patient -- to find out whether they're "megarich," "wealthy" or merely "comfortable."

State Individual Income Tax Rates
By Carol Rosenberg and Kim Rueben
Tax Facts
Tax Policy Center