NYTimes: Catch of the Day

"

... showcases of human frailty in the face of commerce, greed and hunger....

The story of the bluefin tuna, meanwhile, is one of the great tragedies of the modern age. This magnificent creature, once mostly shunned by the world's cooks and diners for its bloody flesh unsuitable for human consumption, now teeters almost on the edge of extinction, principally because the world's nations cannot agree to the one measure that will guarantee its future: a total ban on its commercial harvest, in all waters.

"

Catch of the Day

Even as Paul Greenberg lays out the grim and complicated facts about the ravaging of our seas, he manages to sound some hopeful notes about the ultimate fate of fish.

http://nyti.ms/9YnOaX

NYTimes: Learning a Language From an Expert, on the Web

Websites to help you learn a language: livemocha.com offers correction by another user in exchange for corrections you submit in your own language first. TE

Learning a Language From an Expert, on the Web

The Internet is changing the way many people learn languages. Books, tapes and CDs are being replaced by e-mail, video chats and social networks.

http://nyti.ms/c2jMtt

NYTimes: Technologies Help Adult Children Monitor Aging Parents

Monitor aging parents online with motion sensors - cheaper than a nursing home.

Technologies Help Adult Children Monitor Aging Parents

New technologies can help adult children keep track of their aging parents.

http://nyti.ms/cld0oA

NYTimes: Getting Into Med School Without Hard Sciences

Med school admission without MCAT or organic chemistry.

Getting Into Med School Without Hard Sciences

A program admits students if they study humanities instead of the traditional pre-medical school curriculum.

http://nyti.ms/awY89h

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

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Portmanteau words

'Portmanteau' words are combinations of two words into an invented, blended word.

Some portmanteau words I've collected:

A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words; for example, slithy, from lithe and slimy; chortle, from chuckle and snort, slimsy from slim and flimsy.

birl (burr + whirl),

scrooch (crouch + hunch),

scuzzy (scum + fuzzy),

ginormous (gigantic and enormous),

bodacious (bold +audacious),

splotch (spot, blot, and blotch),

blotch (blot and botch),

meld (melt + weld),

splurge (splash and surge),

squiggle (squirm +wriggle),

gawp (gape + gawk – Bill Bryson),

mingy (mean + stingy),

wodge (wad+ wedge)

minify (minimum + magnify),

ditsy (dotty + dizzy),

judder (jerk + shudder),

judgmatic (judg(ment) + (dog)matic,

jalopidated,

titivate (tidy + elevate),

twiddle (twist + fiddle),

bathetic (bathos + pathetic),

slurb (slum or slovenly + suburb),

bumble (bungle + stumble),

bumboozle (bamboozle + fuddle + fuzzy),

bumptious (bump + presumptious)

galumph (gallop + triumph)

[Katy:]

flustrated (frustrated and flustered),

insinuendo (insinuate and inuendo)

peasely (piddly + measly),

compliable (complacent +pliable),

blistery (blustery + wintry),

thin & bones,

explursion (explosion + splurge),

onomatic (on +automatic),

frizzling [bacon] (fry + sizzling),

fleckled (fleck + speckled),

realable (real + believable),

tinch (titch + pinch),

slunch (slouch + hunch),

[Maureen]

tight-nitched (tight-knit and niche),

incringing (infringe + cringe +impinge)

Origin of 'portmanteau': In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty uses portmanteau to describe the word slithy, saying, “It's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word” (the meanings being “lithe” and “slimy”)

And here's a list of them online:

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/portmant.htm

I like

chillaxing (chilling and relaxing)

glamping (glamorous and camping) - see my previous post

olionaire (oil + millionaire)

smudgimate (smudge + estimate)

And another list

http://www.english-for-students.com/Portmanteau-Words.html

bitini (itsy-bitsy + bikini)

toughiccult (tough + difficult)

And another

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/~steuben/blendwords.htm

pang (pain + sting)

glitz (glamor + Ritz)

goon (gorilla + baboon)

prissy (prim + sissy)

NYTimes: What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D

Take vitamin D to fight cancer - a bold claim.TE

"Studies indicate that the effects of a vitamin D deficiency include an elevated risk of developing (and dying from) cancers of the colon, breast and prostate; high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease; osteoarthritis; and immune-system abnormalities that can result in infections and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis."

PERSONAL HEALTH: What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D

If recent findings hold up in future research, the consequences of vitamin D deficiency are likely to go far beyond excessive bone loss.

http://nyti.ms/dAMpkP

NYTimes: Exploring Algae as Fuel

Update on bioengineereed algae to make fuel in brackish ponds - so as not to impact arable land. The fear of escaped 'frankenalgae' is overblown because "Everything we do to engineer an organism makes it weaker" TE

Exploring Algae as Fuel

Dozens of bioengineering laboratories are trying to create superalgae that can be used to make diesel or jet fuel.

http://nyti.ms/agddKd

NYTimes: Tesla Electric Cars: Revved Up, but Far to Go

This is the personality it takes to build your own car company: audacious, thick-skinned, and optimistic to a fault. TE

Tesla Electric Cars: Revved Up, but Far to Go

Elon Musk, who made a fortune selling PayPal, has poured a lot of his money into Tesla, the maker of electric cars. But it has been hit with delays, financial crises and a personnel soap opera.

http://nyti.ms/9qbJPc

Single Screening Question May Identify Drug Use in Primary Care (mobile format)

"were asked 1 screening question: "How many times in the past year have you used an illegal drug or used a prescription medication for nonmedical reasons?" A positive screen result for drug use was defined as a response of at least 1 time."

http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/725293?src=cmenews&uac=142252HG

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NYTimes: There’s Only One Way to Stop a Bully

The antidote to bullying is teaching interdependence, cooperation, and the strength that comes from our differences. Teachers, janitors, school bus drivers - all need to recognize bullying and intervene. TE

OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS: There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully

Teaching children how to get along will require much more than legislation, but a deeper rethinking of what schools should do for their students.

http://nyti.ms/9Yu0pY

NYTimes: New Guidelines Seek to Reduce Repeat Caesareans

"Immediately available"

New Guidelines Seek to Reduce Repeat Caesareans

The guidelines aim to help women who had Caesarean sections find doctors willing to allow vaginal births.

http://nyti.ms/bjjct0

NYTimes: [Number of] E-Books [sold] Tops Hardcovers at Amazon

First, there was the news that Apple had outpaced Microsoft. Now news that ebooks are outselling actual books. These are watershed moments.

E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon

Amazon sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books in the last month.

http://nyti.ms/dum3K0

NYTimes: Taking Lessons From What Went Wrong

Why do engineers fail? Because they are tasked "the art of molding materials we do not really understand into shapes we cannot really analyze, so as to withstand forces we cannot really assess, in such a way that the public does not really suspect"

Taking Lessons From What Went Wrong

Disaster can spur innovation, and experts say analysis of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will probably improve complex deep-water drilling technology.

http://nyti.ms/balwkL

Gulf graphics.

Interesting graphic of the massive pool of oil circulating in the gulf.

And a very informative diagram of blowout preventers and equipment.

NYTimes: Europe Without Hotels

AirBnB.com iStopOver.com and Crashpadder.com are sites to find rooms to rent online. And warmshowers.org is for avid cycle tourists only. 

Europe Without Hotels

A new breed of Web site lets anyone with an apartment or spare room turn it into an impromptu B&B, and a bargain for travelers.

http://nyti.ms/c2A6ZB

Inception (the movie) = very, very cool

Just saw Inception (movie) on opening day: It is mind-bendingly cool, beautifully crafted, cliff-hanger within cliff-hanger. Like the first Matrix.
Wow.

NYTimes: How Microbes Defend and Define Us

"We have over 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies,"
"Each tooth—and even each side of each tooth—has a different combination of species. "
"One of [the body's] tasks is breaking down complex plant molecules. "We have a pathetic number of enzymes encoded in the human genome, whereas microbes have a large arsenal"
[They have ] "discovered that people with asthma have a different collection of microbes than healthy people"

How Microbes Defend and Define Us

Researchers studying the microbiome hope they will learn enough about it to enlist it in the fight against diseases.

http://nyti.ms/aJL7BK

NYTimes.com: Well: Phys Ed: The Men Who Stare at Screens

Wow - the beneficial effect of regular exercise is totally negated by 11 hours or more of driving, or 23 hours or more of watching TV per week.TE "The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting." HEALTH | July 14, 2010 Well: Phys Ed: The Men Who Stare at Screens By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS How healthy are couch potatoes who work out?

NYTimes: On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

Finally, something positive that facebook can do. TE

On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

People who have been out of school for decades are expressing sentiments they dared not express in their youth.

http://nyti.ms/aN6UZt

NYTimes: Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital

CPI - continuous process improvement, or the 'kaizen' method applied to Children's Hospital,
achieves national fame since Lynn Martin introduced it. TE

Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital

Seattle Children's Hospital says it has improved patient care, and its bottom line, by incorporating practices made famous in manufacturing.

http://nyti.ms/bi1JrO

NYTimes: American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation

"the so-called millennials, 18 to 29 — whose unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent approaches the levels of that group in the Great Depression. "

American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation

In the Nicholson family, America is not delivering for a grandson as it did for his father and grandfather.

http://nyti.ms/bMjl61

Augmented reality - see what's around you on your cell phone screen.

I had no idea how far this technology had advanced. Here's a quick article on augmented reality.

Several iPhone applications now can superimpose locations of interest on the camera image - hence the term 'augmented.' In some applications, the server even examines the image from the cameraphone in real time, using that to fine-tune the user's location. It then superimposes nearby points of interest on the phone screen.

It's perhaps best illustrated in this video of finding a station in London's underground. Having traveled in London, one of the frustrations of that amazing transportation system is arriving at a station, walking up to ground level, and having no idea which direction your goal is, or even which way is which. You walk a block, re-examine your map, and realize you're 180 degrees turned around.

Do you remember in the movie 'Minority Report' the main character passes a billboard, and it calls out to him by name luring him into the store for a product he wants. There's huge potential for making money by placing a merchant's items prominently on the screen of the phone of each passerby. That's why these applications are being offered for free.

It can even be used to help align your satellite dish to known satellite positions.

NYTimes.com: What Big Eyes You Have, Dear, but Are Those Lenses Risky?

FASHION & STYLE | July 04, 2010 What Big Eyes You Have, Dear, but Are Those Lenses Risky? By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS Young women have been copying Lady Gaga's wider-than-life eyes, but the contact lenses are contraband, and doctors are concerned.

NYTimes: Graduation Is the Goal, Staying Alive the Prize

A touching story of successful mentoring to provide jobs and avoid gang life in Chicago. TE

Graduation Is the Goal, Staying Alive the Prize

In Chicago's public schools, where 258 students were shot last school year, a program places advocates with youths at risk of falling victim to violence.

http://nyti.ms/cNQOra