Here are a few stories that caught eye on this World Pneumonia and Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease International Day.
The Last Brothel?
The Guardian’s Tom Kington reports on a new study out from Elena Lazzarini of the University of Pisa is claiming that Michelangelo’s famous Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel was based on the public baths of Rome of the period, which “offer[ed] scenes of promiscuity and prostitution, both male and female.” The Vatican is taking the news in stride; director of the Vatican Museums Antonio Paolucci said, “It’s entirely possible and it changes nothing. Michelangelo studied the human form everywhere, including in hospitals. And that passion for the human body, particularly male, remains unchanged. If there was any embarrassment it was at the time, not now.” [See Britannica’s coverage of Michelangelo.]
The App for Happ[iness]
Mashable’s Radhika Marya has a story out on the Track Your Happiness app for the iPhone, which tracks users’ happiness (shocking, I know) at intervals during the day One finding: “responders said they were daydreaming 46.9% of the time when the iPhone rang to check in on their thoughts. And those who said they were daydreaming were more likely to reveal that they were feeling unhappy.” So, I guess you shouldn’t be a Day Dream Believer. Maybe better to be a homecoming queen.
Cats Suck
Yes, all over the Internet yesterday and today is the study about how cats drink. Over at the New York Times, Nicholas Wade helps to explain the research of the engineers who solved this question with the help of high-speed photography and complex mathematical equations. In finding that cats are simply “classier” than dogs, we learn how they do it: “the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it. Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down — snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.” The Daily Mail’s David Derbyshire puts it less elegantly, “Cat’s don’t lap, they suck.” Was a congressional earmark funding this study?
Rocking Into Battle
Thomas E. Ricks writing on Foreign Policy’s Blog compiled list of top 10 songs/artists that soldiers listen to before they head into combat.Topping the list is Drowning Pool’s”Let the Bodies Hit the Floor,” and Metallica seems to be a perennial favorite. Not too many surprised me…well, except that Stevie Nix’s “The Hold Steady” made the list. Where’s Perry Como?
Jersey Drivers
I grew up in New Jersey, where you still can’t pump your own gas. But, apparently you also can’t pump your breaks. Tara Kelly reports on Time a bizarre story, where a woman was arrested for pumping her breaks too much. Kelly writes that the warrant for 22 separate incidents found that “[n]ot only would she cause other motorists to tailgate by pumping her brakes repeatedly, she would then call police after the other driver pulled over and claim the other driver was harassing and stalking her.” Yes, as the title said, only in New Jersey. But at least none of the aggrieved drivers was Tony Soprano. And, while we’re on the subject, I apologize to residents of 48 others states (excluding Oregon) for not allowing you to pump your own gas. As Mat Momiak, writing two years ago in Mental Floss, the law went into effect because “New Jersey and Oregon don’t trust people to not blow themselves up while pumping gas, and would rather leave the job to professionals (gas station attendants), who undergo rigorous training where they learn that it’s bad to smoke while pumping gas, bad to leave the car running, and bad to put gas anywhere except a car’s fuel tank or other approved containers.” To close the budget deficit, though, might New Jersey repeal this law, Brian Donohue of the Star-Ledger asks?
Citizen Government Comes to Washington
Politicians running for Congress often run against Washington, but they usually have some political experience before making that leap to federal office. Not so for many of next year’s incoming freshman class. As Jennifer Steinhauer writes in the New York Times about three dozen members of the House and four senators have never held elective office before. She says that “The new class of lawmakers will contain the highest number of members with no experience of elective office in decades, likely since 1948.” What this portends for politics is a wild card. Will the ways of Washington change these new politicians, or will they change Washington. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute zeroes in on the problem that the congressional leadership will face: “A lot of the members coming in believe what they’ve seen on television, that all you have to do is do the right thing and it will happen. And if it doesn’t, you bring the temple down around you. For them to accept the notion that you have to bite your tongue is going to be a challenge.”
Sarah TV
Sarah Palin’s Alaska premieres on Sunday on TLC. It’s being billed as a reality show, but don’t expect the Jersey Shore or the Real World, though if Puck shows up that might be kind of fun. (Or Omarosa, for that matter.) Gary Strauss in USA Today says that this might be an “image-shaping public-relations bonanza” for the former vice presidential candidate and governor of Alaska. Though political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg says it’s “hard to take her seriously,” it does give her an opportunity to soften [her] nails-tough, polarizing reputation and broaden her appeal beyond core conservatives.” With most Americas thinking she’s unqualified to be president, including many conservatives who like her personally, the stakes are high for Palin as we enter 2012. If she’s successful, the Democratic dream of running against Palin might turn into a nightmare. For further background on the story, you should definitely catch this NPR broadcast on the the show. (Unless you’re Juan Williams.) In other Sarah Palin news, Wired reports that the Tennessee student who hacked into her e-mail account was sentenced to a year in prison. Wonder if he’ll tune in while in prison.
Many of these stories come from Twitter feeds. You can follow me on Twitter at @michael_levy. I’ll follow you back. Probably.
