Posted by admin! / Under Serendipity 3
Imagine an insect repellant that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET -- the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellants -- but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants. That possibility has been created by the discovery of a new class of insect repellant made in the laboratory of Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology Laurence Zwiebel and reported this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "It wasn't something we set out to find," said David Rinker, a graduate student who...
Published on Monday 6th of February 2012 05:00:27 PM
continue reading
Posted by admin! / Under Serendipity 3
The title of this column is also the title of a book by Simon Winchester, published in 1998. The subtitle introduces the three, seemingly unrelated subjects of the book, “A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.” I’d never heard of this book. It was only in the house because it was in Michelle’s apartment in New York. And it was there only because she ran a book sale at her church in Manhattan, and it was an orphan – donated for sale but not bought by anyone. Yet it turned out to be an...
Published on Monday 6th of February 2012 05:00:27 PM
continue reading
Posted by admin! / Under Serendipity 3
“A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.” That certainly seems to be the case with former gun-control advocate Michael DeBose, an Ohio state legislator. DeBose’s epiphany was not a result of being mugged by reality, but by being mugged by a couple of gun-toting thugs in his own neighborhood. DeBose told Gun Week, the periodical of The Second Amendment Foundation, that he was taking a walk around his quiet residential neighborhood on the evening of May 1 when he was accosted by two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun. The unarmed DeBose took...
Published on Monday 6th of February 2012 05:00:27 PM
continue reading
Posted by admin! / Under Serendipity 3
A TWICE stolen statue from Thame Memorial Gardens has been returned to its rightful place after a resident found it in a shop in London. The Pierce Memorial statue was erected on Friday, April 15, in time for the visit of French residents of Thame's twin town Montesson. The bronze statue of a small boy standing on a turtle and holding a big fish was the centrepiece of the fountain in the gardens until it was stolen three years ago. It was the second time it had been stolen. Rhyddian Edwards, operations manager at Thame town council, said: "A resident...
Published on Monday 6th of February 2012 05:00:27 PM
continue reading
Posted by admin! / Under Serendipity 3
<p>Lose weight, look years younger and never shave again!</p><p>A serendipitous discovery by scientists at Washington University may seem like a too-good-to-be-true ad for a combination wrinkle cream, weight loss and hair removal product, but the research may actually demonstrate how fat helps mice and human babies develop properly.</p>
Published on Monday 6th of February 2012 05:00:27 PM
continue reading
