VIDEOS: Get ready for one of the highlights of Sochi

Curling brush research (studies of Olympian sports technology)

Posted by Martin Gardiner on Improbable Research

With the curling competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics about to get underway, what better time to look at the work of Brett A. Marmo, Mark-Paul Buckingham, and Jane R. Blackford of the School of Engineering & Electronics and the Centre for Materials Science & Engineering, at The University of Edinburgh, UK, who have performed a series of empirical studies into the methodology, physics and game-implications of ‘sweeping’ in front of a moving granite curling stone (a.k.a. rock)?

Be really careful out there

As the temperature drops, your risk of fracture rises

Science Daily

Record-setting winter weather in the U.S. has led to lots of road condition advisories, but could there also be a slip and fall alert?

By analyzing various conditions -- like snow, wind speed, temperature -- into a 'Slipperiness Score,' a University of Michigan Health System study helps identify what days are the most risky for slip and fall injuries.

Calling out Ken Block's hypocrisy

Ken Block, ideological stringency and the People’s Pledge

By Samuel G. Howard in Rhode Island’s Future

I read with interest Ken Block’s rejection of the People’s Pledge on the following basis:

“I support comprehensive campaign-finance reform,” Block said. “But I won’t do it piecemeal.” And a People’s Pledge wouldn’t address the disadvantage he’d face against incumbents such as Raimondo, “who has spent three full years as treasurer raising money for this race,” he said.

Something similar to “I won’t do it piecemeal” is a common refrain I hear among supporters of change or reform; most notably among left-wing opponents of the ACA (it didn’t go far enough!). I have no desire to rehash that particular battle, but suffice it to say, we have to deal in political realities, not political desires.

First openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, to speak at URI on Feb. 9

Talk part of weeklong activities hosted by LGBTQ Center

Elizabeth Rau, URI

KINGSTON, R.I. – Gene Robinson, whose election as the country’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop sparked an international uproar, will speak at the University of Rhode Island next month at a week-long symposium hosted by the LGBTQ Center.

Robinson, who stepped down from his post last year and is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will give the keynote speech Sunday, Feb. 9, from 2 to 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 35 Lower College Road, on the Kingston campus. The talk is free and open to the public.

“Having Bishop Robinson with us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our LGBTQ Center symposium is a dream come true,’’ said Annie Russell, director of the LGBTQ Center. “Bishop Robinson reflects the honor, strength and endurance of an advocate for all people in the world. Through his story, we can become reaffirmed in the promise of hope and inclusion.’’

Lawrence and Memorial and its unionized workers reach a tentative contract agreement

Contract terms to be revealed Monday night after workers vote

By Will Collette

For nineteen days in December, a brief four day protest strike followed by a lock-out by management put 800 union nurses and health care workers at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, owner of Westerly Hospital, out on the street. The main issue was the practice of top management, led by $700,000 a year CEO Bruce Cummings, of trying to break the union by transferring work to non-union L&M subsidiaries.

The union filed unfair labor practice charges against management and the National Labor Relations Board agreed, bringing L&M in front of an administrative law judge to determine what remedy was called for.

Throughout the battle, union members stood strong, supported by the community and by state and local elected officials – Governor Dannel Malloy, the state Attorney General, the mayor of New London – against hard-ass management.

The union and the hospital issued a statement that they have negotiated a new contract that will be put to a vote of the 800 unionized health care workers today. Terms of the agreement were not revealed, noting that the union and hospital administration will hold a joint news conference on Monday night at 6:30 PM after voting closes and, presumably, the ballots, yeah and nay, on the contract are counted.

Identical twins

From that impeccible source Fake Science

Terrible Legacy

DDT linked to higher risk of Alzheimer's

By Lindsey Konkel,  Environmental Health News

A study of Alzheimer's patients linked high levels of exposure to the pesticide DDT to a fourfold increase in risk of the disease (Paula Bailey/flickr)

People with high levels of exposure to the banned insecticide DDT were four times more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease than people with low levels, according to a study of patients in Georgia and Texas published today.

The research is among the first to report a connection between Alzheimer’s, which is the world’s most common neurodegenerative disease, and chemicals in the environment.

The traces of the insecticide found in the study’s Alzheimer’s patients are comparable to the amounts found in most Americans today. Although it was banned more than 40 years ago in the United States, DDT still persists in the environment worldwide, and it is still used in malaria-infested areas of Africa.

“Our findings suggest that genetically susceptible individuals with higher levels of DDT exposure may be more at risk,” said Jason Richardson, a Rutgers University researcher who led the study.

Bag it

Plastic Bag Ban Bill Introduced Again

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff

PROVIDENCE — Efforts to make Rhode Island the first state with a bag ban recently took a step forward. For the second straight year, Rep. Maria Cimini, D-Providence, has sponsored the Plastic Waste Reduction Act, a bill that would ban retailers from offering most checkout plastic bags.

The ban would apply to plastic bags offered at point of sale, including take-out food. The ban doesn't apply to produce and frozen-food bags, dry-cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves or bags bigger than 28 by 36 inches. This year’s bill omits a fee on paper checkout bags.

A first-time violation would result in a written warning from local police or other authority. A second violation would invoke a $150 fine and $300 for subsequent violations.

Verdict from the groundhog....

From Fake Science

You won't see this on Fox News

Unless they want to try to deny it

The American controversy about evolution and the myth of some sort of conflict between evolution and religion is an amazing and baffling thing. Despite the parallels with former belief in the geocentric universe, with mankind in the center of everything, the arguments about evolution result in daily headlines - of controversy in the USA and bafflement in much of the rest of the world.

With that background of perspective I bring you an online article to consider...

"A stupid idea, supported by fantasy projections and a misunderstanding of the real world"

Right wing stink tank sells sales tax snake oil to Rhode Island

By Tom Sgouros in Rhode Island’s Future

The ongoing discussion of eliminating the sales tax proves the enduring value of telling people what they want to hear.

Don Carcieri, for his whole term, told people that government could be cheaper, but really all he did was insist it be so and ignore the evidence when it turned out not to work quite the way he’d hoped. Does anyone remember the “big audit”? It was done early in his administration, but all the findings about places where increased investment would help our state were deep-sixed and the other results were insignificant enough that the whole project was considered a minor embarrassment and mostly forgotten.

Terrorism or no big deal?

If it were terrorism....

By Tom Tomorrow

Click here to find out what we would do.

After the gunshot

Hospitalizations for firearm injuries prevalent among children

Science Daily

About 20 children per day in the United States are injured by firearms seriously enough to require hospitalization, and more than 6% of these children die from their injuries, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues published in the Jan. 27 online issue of Pediatrics.

John Leventhal, M.D., and his team studied children and adolescents younger than age 20 at the time of admission to the hospital in 2009. In that year, in the United States, 7,391 hospitalizations occurred in this age group because of firearm injuries, and 453 of those young patients died while in the hospital. 

Most of these hospitalizations resulted from assaults (4,559), but in children younger than age 10, 75% of the almost 400 hospitalizations were due to unintentional or accidental injuries.

New feature: animals at the Animal Rescue League of Southern Rhode Island ready to go home with you

Meet Lady!

Starting this week, we will regularly feature companion animals in need of good homes who are currently residing at South County’s only no-kill shelter. Last May, we adopted twin tabby kittens, now named Mickey and Jesse, from ARLSRI and, in the process, became huge fans of their work.

Here is Lady, this week’s featured companion animal.

Birding Walks and Fly-tying Classes from WPWA

Back by Popular Demand - The 2014 Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association Winter/Spring Birding Series

WPWA office in Hope Valley

Starting Saturday, February 8, 2014 local birding expert, Roger Masse, will lead a series of six walks in southern RI to learn about the many bird species that make their winter homes here. These walks are open to anyone interested in birding, from the novice to the expert. Past participants have greatly enjoyed Roger's easy manner and wealth of knowledge.