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Weblog: August 2001

Thursday, August 30 2001

Dirty Circus Tricks

Salon.com has a two-part story on how the head of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Circus hired ex-CIA operatives and private detectives to hound a writer who'd written what he considered a negative story about the circus. According to the plaintiff in the lawsuit being filed, the circus hounded her for 8 years without her knowledge: getting magazines to reject her articles, trying to steer her to write about other things, etc. (Somewhere in there is info about Ringling doing the same thing to PETA to fight their charges that circus animals are horribly mistreated.)

Monday, August 27 2001

The Borderlands of Science

Wonderful interview at Salon with Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, who's written a book about ideas and theories that are science (aka correct), what's not (aka incorrect), and good ways to tell the difference.

Sunday, August 26 2001

Cell phone dead spots

Congressmen are proposing legislation to force wireless phone service companies to publish maps showing where they have coverage problems. Consumers cheer. Phone corps jeer.

Saturday, August 25 2001

Kids harmed over course of lead paint study

The Kennedy Krieger Institute is being sued for its actions in a study in which they investigated how little lead paint needs to be removed from homes in order to protect children's health; they encouraged landlords to rent homes with lead paint to families with small children, then, after getting the families to participate in their studies, gave the families' homes lesser or greater amounts of lead cleanup, depending on which random group the family was in.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

Salon has a great article examining a biography of the Fitzgeralds, and the extent to which wife Zelda was both an inspiration for his characters and literary incidents and a source of text via her diaries and letters.

Thursday, August 16 2001

Deaths attributable to air pollution?

Recent study says pollutants (ozone, CO2, etc.) not only can affect the climate, but are having an effect right now on public health - cities with more pollutants tend to have more deaths due to asthma, heart disease, etc.

Tuesday, August 14 2001

Automatic Bicycles

Shimano is building a computer-controlled system for switching gears on bicycles. The system'll come out next year, on bikes costing at least $2000.

Monday, August 13 2001

Samuel R. Delaney interview

The Onion interviews Samuel R. Delaney about why he writes, making his sex life public, etc.

Friday, August 10 2001

Swapping Kidneys:

Interesting Washington Post article: Jennifer is married to Will. Cristina is married to David. Jennifer and Cristina each need a new kidney. Will's kidney can't go into wife Jennifer, but it can be given to Cristina. David's kidney can't go into wife Cristina, but it can be given to Jennifer. So each husband gives it to the other's wife.

Driving while talking on phone (or listening to radio, or having a conversation...)

Recent study of brain activity while performing 2 tasks vs. 1 task suggests that being distracted while driving (whether by talking on a cell phone, talking to a passenger, listening to an interesting radio program) diminishes the amount of brainpower available for driving. (That summary is a gross oversimplification of the linked article, which is probably a gross oversimplification of the study).

Thursday, August 9 2001

Deadbeat Dads

Salon.com has an interview with Ronald Mincy, a researcher who interviewed 88 black low-income unmarried fathers not living with their kids and found they don't fit the stereotypes and motivations of deadbeat dads you usually see in the media.

The US's Declining Global Impact

The American Prospect has a column suggesting that under Bush's leadership, because the U.S. is disengaging itself from various international treaties, agreements, and issues, we'll have less and less influence over our foreign allies (and enemies) as time passes.

Tuesday, August 7 2001

Light pollution

SFGate article says one in five people around the globe "can't see the Milky Way" because there's too much artificial light here on Earth. "Far from the city lights at night, about 2,000 stars are typically visible. In major cities, that number shrinks to a few dozen at most." (See The Night Sky in the World home page.)

Monday, August 6 2001

Patient Dumping

SFGate talks about hospitals refusing to treat uninsured or minority patients, in violation of federal law (PDF); choosing to pay the small fines involved rather than spend money on the patients.

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

Politics

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...