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Too noisy to learn?
"Student test scores can suffer negative effects from subtle classroom noise, such as the humming of the air-conditioning and heating systems, researchers say," reports United Press International. "In a study of classrooms presented at the 162nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Grade 5 students were found to have lower reading test scores in classrooms with higher background noise. The culprit was not nearby traffic noises or occasional outbursts from unruly students, researchers found, but the almost unnoticeable yet constant drone of heating and air-conditioning units, a release from the American Institute of Physics said Monday."
Noise and recovery
"For patients recovering from an illness or surgery, doctors first and foremost prescribe rest," says The Boston Globe. "But in many hospitals, noise from alarms on patient monitors, other equipment and conversations is so loud that patients can't sleep and end up heading home exhausted. It's been known for years that hospitals can be loud at night, but evidence is growing that noise on patient floors routinely exceeds the World Health Organization's recommended maximum of 40 decibels for hospital rooms. … A leading acoustician who spoke [last]month at a national health-care meeting … said that hospitals are about three times louder at night than they were when measurements were first taken in 1960."
Ripping space apart
"A laser powerful enough to tear apart the fabric of space could be built in Britain as part of a major new scientific project that aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions about our universe," says The Sunday Telegraph. "Due to follow in the footsteps of the Large Hadron Collider, the latest 'big science' experiment being proposed by physicists will see the world's most powerful laser being constructed. Capable of producing a beam of light so intense that it would be equivalent to the power received by the Earth from the sun focused onto a speck smaller than a tip of a pin, scientists claim it could allow them to boil the very fabric of space – the vacuum. Contrary to popular belief, a vacuum is not devoid of material but in fact fizzles with tiny mysterious particles that pop in and out of existence, but at speeds so fast that no one has been able to prove they exist. The Extreme Light Infrastructure Ultra-High Field Facility would produce a laser so intense that scientists say it would allow them to reveal these particles for the first time by pulling this vacuum 'fabric' apart. They also believe it could even allow them to prove whether extra dimensions exist."
The Prince's shoelaces
From a Daily Beast review of Brian Hoey's Not in Front of the Corgis, an inside view of British palace life: "Prince Charles employs 133 staff to look after him and Camilla, more than 60 of them domestics: chefs, cooks, footmen, housemaids, gardeners, chauffeurs, cleaners and his three personal valets – gentlemen's gentlemen – whose sole responsibility is the care of their master's extensive wardrobe and choosing what he is to wear on any particular day. A serving soldier polishes the Prince's boots and shoes every day. … Charles's valets also iron the laces of his shoes whenever they are taken off."
Crockett the gun teacher
"For Crockett Keller, the customer is always right – or, at least, right-leaning," says The Huffington Post. "That's because the Texas firearm safety instructor refuses to teach liberals. In a radio advertisement that could cost him his ability to teach concealed-handgun safety classes, Keller made it clear that [a]course at Keller's Riverside Store in Mason wouldn't be open to people who voted for President Obama, and Muslims. 'If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner-in-chief, please do not take this class,' Keller says in the advertisement … 'You have already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you the class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller … thank you and God bless America,' the radio spot concludes. Keller's restrictions could infringe on the rights of Texans seeking to acquire concealed-weapons permits, but the 65-year-old told KVUE that he is just trying to protect his rights as a teacher."
Pilots will drop you off?
In a forecast for 2075 and beyond, The Telegraph reports, Britain's Institution of Mechanical Engineers predicts:
– commercial aircraft flying in a V-shaped formation to save power by taking advantage of the airflow generated by the plane in front;
– the "aircraft carrier" system in which a large aircraft carries individual units that can be released over a destination and float down to the designated area where the passenger needs to go;
– a "flying fuel station" so future planes do not have to take off with fuel tanks.
Thought du jour
"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America."
- Jimmy Carter (1924-), former U.S. president