Lead Story
A researcher concluded in the July issue of the European Journal of Physics that the torque of an average piece of buttered toast falling off a table of average height causes “an inevitable butter-down final state [hitting the floor].”
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According to a July Associated Press story, Ellie Jenkins, of the Mosquito Control Commission in Savannah, Georgia, spends her workdays driving around to specified locations, standing with her arms and legs spread, and ascertaining how many bites a minute she receives–five a minute is the threshold to summon county spraying trucks. And a June Toledo Blade story reported on the work of Mike Pixley, who tests La-Z-Boy chairs at the company plant in Monroe, Michigan. For $6 an hour Pixley rocks about 2,800 times a day. Said his supervisor, Judy Fay, praising Pixley, “I want someone who’s self-motivated, who sets their own personal goals.”
Cultural Diversity
According to a May Wall Street Journal article, Palestinians intent on improving their personal religious standing now suffer from “martyr inflation”–terming any relative who passes away a martyr. Muslims believe that a martyr goes straight to paradise, sits with God, is absolved of all sins, and enjoys 70 virgin brides. According to a Palestinian journalist, “It’s not easy to come to a family and say, ‘Your relative is not a martyr. He’s just dead.’”
