"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is — from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to ... to our state," she said.

Oh, again, no. Planes take a great circle path. They would have no cause to enter Alaskan airspace unless they're going to Alaska... and why would they do that?

Palin defends Alaska-Russia foreign policy remark - Yahoo! News

Their work forces are of similar size and composition. Employees perform roughly the same tasks: operating trains, punching tickets and maintaining tracks.

And yet in one area — debilitating illness and injury — the difference is so vast as to almost defy medical explanation.

One example: disabilities resulting from arthritis and rheumatism. From 2001 through 2007, Metro-North had 32 cases, compared with 753 at the L.I.R.R. In one year, Metro-North had just 2 cases. The L.I.R.R. had 118.

For certain diseases of the musculoskeletal system, like a herniated disc, Metro-North had 49 cases. The L.I.R.R. had 850.

No one at the two railroads, at the transportation authority or at the Railroad Retirement Board could explain these gaping differences, nor were they even aware of them.

A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroad’s Retirees - NYTimes.com

A side-by-side comparison of the language changes on Obama's Technology position. Not good... and do they imagine there is not versioning software out there to highlight this? These are not just linguistic changes.

But then again, I guess he's running on Change...

Versionista: Page comparison

"There are certain limits on swimming speed that are imposed irrespective of power," explains Iosilevskii. One of these is the frequency at which the swimmers can beat their tails to propel themselves forward.

The other is the formation of microscopic bubbles around the tail, a phenomenon known as "cavitation". According to Iosilevskii and Weihs, for animals such as dolphins that have nerve endings in their tails, cavitation can be the most important limiting factor.

Dolphins swim so fast it hurts - life - 28 March 2008 - New Scientist

Dartmouth professor says economic crisis is all the Valley's fault

My dad made Valleywag... how weird is that. He now has a tag, even.

Meltdowns: Dartmouth professor says economic crisis is all the Valley's fault

Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.

People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.

What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.

James Fallows (September 12, 2008) - The Palin interview (Politics)

I also realized from the beginning that the real life hacks were about making your way from a place that’s chaotic and depressing toward someplace where you feel more competent, stable, and alive. A place where you eventually may not need the life hack any more.

Four Years | 43 Folders

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987.null

Well, it is a change from Skull and Bones...

Republican vice presidential nominee Palin changes colleges 6 times in 6 years - Los Angeles Times

Putin, taking a break from lambasting the West over Georgia, apparently saved the crew while on a trip to a national park to see how researchers monitor the tigers in the wild.

Just as Putin was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran towards a nearby camera crew, the country's main television station said. Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilizer gun.

"Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predator up close but also saved our television crew too," a presenter on Rossiya television said at the start of the main evening news.

Putin saves TV crew from Siberian tiger | Oddly Enough | Reuters

In the video, Savage says that a conference call was arranged between co-host Tory Belleci and Texas Instruments to talk about the RFID vulnerabilities. But when Bellici and a MythBusters producer got on the call at the appointed time, "Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else....(Bellici and the MythBusters producer) were way, way out-gunned and (the lawyers) absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down, being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it."

Did corporate lawyers put kibosh on 'Mythbusters' RFID episode? - Yahoo! News