The First Porsche
Everybody has to start somewhere. Behold, the first Porsche. In 1898 Ferdinand Porsche fastened a three-horsepower electric motor to the rear axel of a wagon and a steering wheel to the front wheels. He built four of them. This first one was stored in a barn in 1902 and sat untouched until recently. It had two bench seats that apparently disappeared. Porsche went on to build tanks for the Nazis and the original Volkswagen Beetle. After World War II, he started building sports cars. And now the name is synonymous with them. Have you started something that seemed (or was)…
Growing New Body Parts
Humanity is taking another step toward being like God. Japanese researcher Haruko Obokata and her team have discovered a way to create personalized stem cells that do not involve human embryos or manipulating DNA. So ethical issues are minimized or erased. Obokata’s idea was so crazy, that no one really thought it would work. But it did. She immerses the tissue cells of newborn mice in mild acid, which causes a near-fatal shock, which makes the cells “pluripotent”–capable of growing into any type of body cell. She, and others, theorize that the procedure could very likely work with humans….
Suicide Rates and Expectations
Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have apparently risen sharply in the past decade, so says The New York Times. More Americans now die of suicide than car accidents. The greatest increases have been among males in their 50s. Researchers acknowledge that the reasons are complex and varied. But two factors seem to stand out: stresses of the recession and the easy availability of prescription painkillers. One other factor may be significant: Baby boomers had great expectations for how well their lives would be, but for most it didn’t turn out that way. Looking at the ebb and surge of socially…
The Internet is a Fad!
In 1995 astronomer Clifford Stoll boldly predicted in Newsweek magazine that the Internet would be a passing fad. He titled his article, “The Internet? Bah!” In a Minnesota Public Radio interview he said, “I expect the value of the Internet for communications in general isn’t very high. . . . I think it’s grossly oversold and within two or three years people will shrug and say, ‘Uh yep, it was a fad of the early 90s. . . .’ simply because there’s so little of value there.” It seems he was wrong. (And Newsweek went out of print.) In a…
Suicide While Shopping
Here’s a new one: Commit suicide while shopping. A man and his girlfriend in eastern China where shopping for five hours at a mall. He’d had enough and wanted to go home. She wanted to go into one more store that had a sale on shoes. An eyewitness said, “He told her she already had enough shoes, more shoes tha[n] she could wear in a lifetime and it was pointless buying more. She started shouting at him accusing him of being a skinflint and of spoiling Christmas, it was a really heated argument.” The man dropped the bags and jumped…
