One Step Too Far

BBC

I've been largely apathetic about Hugo Chavez and his little revolution, but now he's made it personal. I will not stand for this Senor Chavez!

You're Not Pulling the Wool Over My Eyes!

The Washington Times

John R. Lott, author of "More Guns, Less Crime", wrote a piece on how the expiration on the assault weapons ban has helped decrease crime rates, however, just a simple look at the statistics shows nothing of the sort.

FBI

The overall US crime rate has been decreasing at an average 3% since 1991. The decline from 2003 to 2004 was only 2.1%. My conclusion, the expiration of the ban had no effect on the crime rate.

As for the 7 states with their own bans, all but one, California, had their crime rate decline more than the national average. The crime rate in Hawaii fell an amazing 9%. Also, the crimes rates for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are all well below the national average.

I by no means support gun control, but if you're going to use statistics to back your claims, make sure they actually say what you want them to say.

My Sister is Tearing Apart My Guitar

Celeste at deviantART

While I'm in Sweden, Celeste has taken my guitar to Berea. As you all know, I dearly love that guitar, but it does need some work. Celeste found a guy at Berea that knows all about hand-made guitars who is helping fix some of its problems. He has also answered quite a few questions we've had about the guitar. First, the guitar is made out of three different kinds of wood, the front is spruce, the back and sides are curly maple, and the neck is mahogany. He thinks that the neck was ordered and that only the body was hand-made. The body is a modified A-frame, although, even for a guitar expert, it's a bit intriguing as he has never seen this type of frame before and the size of the body is also not standard. They are currently working on removing the bracing because it was too weak and the bridge was causing the front to warp.

Wal-Mart Wants Higher Wages

BBC

The chief executive of Wal-Mart has criticized the US Senate for rejecting a proposal to raise minimum wage to $6.25 per hour. The reasoning he put for this was to raise the income of consumers. Wages at Wal-Mart are generally higher than minimum wage, so a change in minimum wage would have little effect. However, it may hurt smaller retail chains that pay lower wages, which might be what they're aiming for.

Senate

I decided to look into why the raise in minimum wage was rejected. It appears that the amendment was rejected on other grounds as every Democratic voted against it. Democrats had proposed a raise in minimum wage to $7.25 per hour back in March.

Global Warming Creates *Edited to Stop Spam*

The International Herald Tribune

The retreating Arctic icecap has made it easier for shipping in the region. This means the possible opening of the Northwest Passage, greater ability to search for oil, and shorter shipping distance between North America and Russia.

BBC

In local news, I have avoided getting the bird flu.

Timeline

An idea which I got from Jenna, which she stole from Frank, is to look back at my past post to see what was going on, 6 months ago, 9 months ago, 1 year ago, and 2 years ago.

6 months ago: A pirate became student president of NC State.

9 months ago: Two Chinese bank officials went missing. I promised to keep you posted on further developments. Did that happen?

1 year ago: Destiny failed to bend to the will of American football.

2 years ago: This site didn't exist. Doesn't your life feel more complete now than it did two years ago?

Rat Goes for a Swim

BBC

Det finns är så många saker fela med det artikel, jag vet inte var börja.

Sicilian Bridges

BBC

Italy has awarded a contract to build a bridge connecting Sicily to the mainland. This will be the longest suspension bridge in the world when it's completed in 2012. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made the statement that it "will finally make Italy one nation", apparently forgetting about Sardinia.

BBC

Hugo Chavez has expelled a US missionary group for being part of a Washington imperialism conspiracy. I highly doubt he actually believes this, but as the article says, "he finds it politically useful to portray himself as a victim of US aggression." The US does well in continuing this by not simply ignoring him.

The Epically Epic Epic

The Epically Epic Wiki

Some you may remember back during Freshman year, Robert and I began writing a series called "The Epically Epic Epic". The story then stalled for two years. Well, I'd like to announce that the Epic has now been revived in a new form. This time in a form that will hopefully get more people involved with the story. If you're interested in writing something for the Epic, let me or Robert know. The whole idea of the Epic was to be random and to take unexpected twists, and the best way to do that is to bring in new ideas.

If you have no idea what this is all about, read "The Epically Epic Epic".

If It's not Nobel It's...

Ig Nobel Prize

While the winners of the nobel prize are named, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held, honoring many scientists for their improbable research. The prizes have gone to research in locust brain cell activity well watching Star Wars and the odour of the frogs under stress, among others.

When Were They Going to Tell Me!

CNN

I figure most people who read this blog already know, but they're changing the nickel. The thing is, I don't know if this is a permenant change or not. They mention that they've been producing new commemorative nickels every 6 months for the last two years, which apparently I completely missed out on. It doesn't seem like they both making an article about if this was just some commemorative coin. There's never anything in the news about the state quarters, other than when something goes wrong.

BBC

In Norway, tax records for everyone are publically available online. I don't know if tax records in the US are available to the public in any form, but it seems kind of odd. I tried using the site, but my Norwegian is too limited to navigate it.

Nobel Prize

Nobel

The Nobel Foundation has began announcing the winners of the Nobel Prize. So far the winners of the Nobel Prizes for medicine and physics have been announced. The winner of the prize for chemistry will be announced tomorrow.