WSJ: Rich Cut Back on Payments to Mistresses.
"According to a new survey by Prince & Assoc., more than 80% of multimillionaires who had extra-marital lovers planned to cut back on their gifts and allowances. Still, only 12% of the multimillionaire cheaters said they plan to give up on their lovers altogether for financial reasons."
Wikipedia: The Dancing Plague of 1518.
"The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg. This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Most of these people eventually died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion."
Related links --
Wikipedia: Tanganyika laughter epidemic.
Wikipedia: Genital retraction syndrome.
NYT: U.S. Details $800 Billion Loan Plans.
"In the last year, the government has assumed about $7.8 trillion in direct and indirect financial obligations. That is equal to about half the size of the nation's entire economy and far eclipses the $700 billion that Congress authorized for the Treasury's financial rescue plan."
Science News: Standard Model Gets Right Answer For Proton, Neutron Masses.
"One of the largest computational efforts to calculate the masses of protons and neutrons shows that the standard model of particle physics predicts those masses with an uncertainty of less than 4 percent." ...
"The new computations confirm a prediction of QCD, the authors say. That prediction is that the masses of particles such as the neutron and proton come from the energy associated with the interactions between quarks and gluons."
Mom Logic: Review of My Toddler's Pretend Restaurant. The service and food are terrible but I love it anyway.
Science News: Extrasolar planetary system makes pictorial debut.
"With the new findings, ‘the era of direct imaging of extrasolar planets is here at last,’ Jayawardhana says. The discoveries ‘are revealing an entirely new population of planets -- massive ones in wide orbits -- that couldn't be found with other methods.’"
A political link --
WSJ: Fans of the 31st President Find Hate for Hoover Greatly Depressing.
"The accusations also aren't true, say proponents of Hoover. They point to warnings Hoover gave during the 1920s that low interest rates risked triggering a stock-market crash. When it came, 11 months after he was elected president in 1928, Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corp. to push credit into banks, and arranged $300 million of loans to states to distribute aid.
"And far from being a free-market stickler, Hoover instituted a public-works program that at the time was the largest ever, including the creation of 360 public buildings. The program prompted accusations from Franklin D. Roosevelt's camp during the 1932 election campaign that Hoover was ‘leading the country down the path to socialism.’"
Roger Ebert: M&Ms prove Darwin was right.
"Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."
