Fascinating Facts and Trivia.

Don’t Drink the Water!

In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson argued that unintended chemical reactions and interactions could have a profound effect on the natural world and human health. Researchers have discovered that one such chemical reaction may come from our tap water, which is laced with prescription drugs:

There’s a good chance that if you live in an urban area, your tap water is laced with tiny amounts of antidepressants (mostly SSRIs like Prozac and Effexor), benzodiazepines (like Klonopin, used to reduce symptoms of substance withdrawal) and anticonvulsants (like Topomax, used to treat addiction to alcohol, nicotine, food and even cocaine and crystal meth). Such are the implications of environmental studies that have been leaking out over the past decade. Whether or not this psychoactive waste has any effect on the human nervous system remains unclear, but when such pharmaceuticals are introduced into the ecosystem, the fallout for other species is demonstrable—and potentially dire.

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Will Fewer Possessions Mean Richer Lives?

Former Internet entrepreneur Graham Hill believes reducing our material possessions will:il_fullxfull.388015967_l84i

We live in a world of surfeit stuff, of big-box stores and 24-hour online shopping opportunities. Members of every socioeconomic bracket can and do deluge themselves with products.

There isn’t any indication that any of these things makes anyone any happier; in fact it seems the reverse may be true.

For me, it took 15 years, a great love and a lot of travel to get rid of all the inessential things I had collected and live a bigger, better, richer life with less.

Others are not as certain that Hill is the person who should preach the gospel of simplicity:

The problem here is not the message. The problem is the messenger. More specifically, it is the messenger using his own life as supporting evidence for the message. Were Graham Hill to simply write a fact-based essay arguing that Americans should cut down on material possessions in order to save the environment and gain peace of mind, he would doubtless hear a chorus of support. But for Graham Hill, a young millionaire who was fortunate enough to sell his "pre-Netscape browser" at the high point of the internet bubble, to say to the average American, "My journey through the perils of great wealth has bestowed me with wisdom that is directly applicable to you" is simply false. It is no wonder that Hill loved the recent TED talk by millionaire musician Amanda Palmer, in which she argued that it was perfectly fair for her to, for example, accept a free night of lodging in the home of poor Honduran immigrants and not pay them for it, because the beauty of her music is payment enough. Both are insulated enough from the realities of personal finance to forget about them entirely.

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American Government Stockpiles Smallpox Medicine

The New York Times is reporting that the American government, concerned about biological attack, has stockpiled millions of  doses of smallpoxvariola vaccine:

The United States government is buying enough of a new smallpox medicine to treat two million people in the event of a bioterrorism attack, and took delivery of the first shipment of it last week. But the purchase has set off a debate about the lucrative contract, with some experts saying the government is buying too much of the drug at too high a price.

Critics worry that the U.S. is unnecessarily overspending for the drug:

Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a bioweapons expert at Rutgers University, said there was little need for so much Arestvyr since the country has raised its stockpile of smallpox vaccine to 300 million doses now, up from only 15 million in 2001.

“Is it appropriate to stockpile it? Absolutely,” he said. “Is it appropriate to stockpile two million doses? Absolutely not. Twenty thousand seems like the right number.”

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Father Hacks Donkey Kong for Daughter, Gender Equity

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting about a father who hacked the arcade classic Donkey Kong  so that his daughter could play as a female protagonist:

While women make up about half of all gamers, the hobby isn’t always the friendliest place for female players. In a marketplace dominated by muscle-bound space marines and ineffective female sidekicks, it’s not hard to see why women might feel alienated.

Retro gaming is not much better: The old-school game “Donkey Kong” details one of Super Mario’s earliest adventures, in which the plumber rescues a woman named Pauline from the titular brutish ape. When one programmer’s young daughter asked why she couldn’t play as Pauline instead, her father mulled it over and replied with a hacked version of the game, completely reversing the characters’ roles.

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Before Uncle Sam, There Was Columbia

The Atlantic reports that it wasn’t always the bearded man who wants you:tumblr_luqlfdOoaM1qi1raio1_500

The answer, it turns out, is that Uncle Sam had a much older and classier sister named Columbia, the feminine historic personification of the United States of America, who has since the 1920s largely fallen out of view. But she was as recognizable to Americans of yesteryear as the man in the top-hat and tails remains today, and when the suffragettes donned robes and armor, they garbed themselves in her rebel warrior’s spirit. From the 18th century until the early decades of the 20th, Columbia was the gem of the ocean, a mythical and majestic personage whose corsets or breast-plates curved out of her striped or starred or swirling skirts with all the majesty of a shield. She was honored from the birth of the nation — “Hail, Columbia!”, whose score was first composed for the inauguration of President Washington, was an unofficial anthem until the “Star-Spangled Banner” displaced it as the official national one in 1931 — to the birth of the recording and film industries, which is why we have had Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures. Yes, that lady with the torch at the start of the movies isn’t just some period-costume-wearing chick — she is a relic of this earlier personification of America, immortalized forever by the most American of industries.

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