Snipped from SciAm.com.

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to fight against the use of coal power plants, we have, yet, another one that may be just as bad as the others! The stereotype of coal power plants being safer than nuclear power plants, at least when it comes to radiation, has been drastically broken. It seems that coal ash, also known as fly ash, “contains up to 100 times more radiation than nuclear waste.” It has to do with the uranium and thorium levels in natural coal. Unburned, the levels of these dangerous compounds are somewhat benign, but when burned, they are concentrated up to ten times their natural levels.

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Snipped from Cectic.com.

Now, I thought this was pretty clever. Not exactly the best analogy, but pretty comical nonetheless. Here is a common father using the same abstinence only ideology that has been such a success thus far with our nation’s children for gun safety.

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Snipped from NewScientist.com.

I have to admit something. I am obsessed with spicy food. Some may say addicted. I don’t know why, but I always have been. Thai food, Mexican food, Indian food … it doesn’t matter. The hotter the better. Oh, and one more thing. I am never sick … ever. Well, except that silly little meningitis episode I got a long time ago, but that is another story. So, one could ask, “Does all the spicy food lend some assistance to my healthy state of existence?” Umm, good question.

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Snipped from DiscoveryMagazine.com.

Whether you are from Fargo and are intimately familiar with the white fluffy stuff, or you are from South Texas and you have only dreamed of it, snow may be more fascinating than you think. Here is an article covering 20 things you may have never known about snow.

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Snipped from BMJ.com.

Are you ever standing around and happen upon a conversation where people are perpetuating inane myths, urban legends or folk tales as true. It gets you off your rocker, doesn’t it? Well, here is a list of some medical myths, and the science to back up why it is, and always will be, a myth.

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Snipped from PopulistAmerica.com.

Now here is someone that actually thinks with his cerebrum, and not his penis. While I was reading this, I kept saying to myself, “this is exactly what I have been saying … damn it, why is this type of thinking so rare?” If one wants to truly solve our geopolitical problems, then close all of our military bases, cut military spending by half or MORE, and bring every single troop home. Militarily speaking, become an isolationist nation.

Take all the left over money (hundreds of billions of dollars) that would go to the military (for killing, scaring people) and then become more diplomatic, philanthropic and giving. This way, we are not threating, bullying, coercing or manipulating nations into hating us, but winning over the hearts and minds of other nations … sound familiar?

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Cans I help yuoz?
AP Photo

Now, I received this by email, so I don’t know if this is actually true, or who the originator of this story is, but knowing the state of our education system, I don’t doubt it to be true. Anyways, this is how the email went:

Wal-Mart Employee: “Hello ‘dis Walmarts, how can I help you?”

Customer: “I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.”

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Snipped from Scotsman.com.

I have had a strong curiosity about dolphins for a very long time. It started after I watched a special on them when I was a kid about how they could tell colors, shapes, sizes and solve problems. They could do all kinds of amazing things that no other comparable animal could do. Then, my curiosity peaked a decade later when I read an article about how the dolphin “language” was more complex than any of the human languages. I started thinking to myself, “what if dolphins were as smart or smarter than us, but they just lack an opposable thumb to show off their ‘intelligence’.”

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Snipped from SciAm.com.

Finally, an interesting article that addresses our larger brain, and its ties with our diet. In many other articles, I have attempted to link our diet with our evolution. Whether it was our ancestor’s desire for high calorie, carbohydrate dense foods, or how our they perfected cooking starches which allowed for more dietary versatility and therefor a better chance at survival, I have linked our diet to our evolutionary success. Here Richard Wrangham, a chimp researcher, has come up with a theory that helps indirectly argue the points I have been making about our ancestral diets.

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Snipped from New Scientist.

Some of the more recent articles on Blog4Brains have been about ancient remedies or alternative medicine, so I thought this fascinating article about how the Egyptians may have beaten the Greeks to discovering the first “medicine”, would help further the discussion.

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