ANOMALIES ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Quoting a favorite passage from a Robert Frost essay:
"[Poets] stick to nothing deliberately, but let what will stick to them like burrs where they walk in the fields. . ."
__________
The information in this website has been obtained from sources that we believe to be reliable.
We do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness or assume responsibility for actions taken with respect to information presented here.
______________
Anomalies: Aging
In Massachusetts, 28 communities are either imposing or encouraging age restrictions in new developments where builders will agree to sell only to those 55 and older. (Globe, 9/8/02)
“The tendency in Europe today is for seniors to have a second puberty,” says Andreas Steinle, managing director of a trend-scouting firm. “They want to do everything they missed out on the first time around.” Baby boomers “will be the first generation to live youth culture throughout their lifetime,” says Phil Goodman of Generation Transitional Marketing. (Newsweek,)
Research on aging has found that among people in their 90s, 99 out of 100 genes worked as well as they did at birth. (USN&WR)
In adulthood, the process of adding new brain cells slows down but does not stop. New cell growth appears to occur well into old age. For decades, scientists thought that people were born with all the brain cells they would ever have. (NYT)
"The chaps mature so much faster these days, you know. When I was in the choir at St. Paul's 50 years ago, a boy would keep that soprano tone until 16 or 17. Now, their voices break at 12 or 13," says John Ewington, general secretary of the Guild of Church Musicians. (Wash Post)
The vast majority of retirees, about 75 percent, don't move an inch at retirement. (Knight-Ridder)
The percentage of older Americans with chronic disabilities fell 1.6% a year from 1989 through 1994 and 2.6% a year from 1994 through 1999. “Astonishing as it sounds, we don’t know exactly why this is happening,” says Dr. David M. Cutler, Harvard U., a specialist in aging-related economic concerns. (AARP Bulletin, 12/02)
The Thorupgaarden Nursing Home in Copenhagen, Denmark now offers its elderly residents erotic magazines, pornography on a videochannel, and the services of prostitutes. Overseers say they have found this has a "calming" effect on patients. (American Enterprise, Dec 2001)
For many retirees, playing games on the Internet is a cheap and easy form of entertainment. GameHouse Inc., with nearly 90,000 registered users predicts that people over the age of 50 will soon represent the fastest-growing segment of its membership. (WSJ)
Older Americans are piling on debt. Household debt for those 65 and older is skyrocketing - up 164% on average in eight years to $20,302 in 2000, according to SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. That compares with a 92% increase for those younger than 65. (USA Today, 4/25/02)
A million people now turn 60 every month, a demographic trend that will mean older people will outnumber the young for the first time in history, according to the U.N. Assembly on Ageing. (NYT, 4/9/02)
Labor shortages caused when boomers retire will slow economic growth in the U.S. and "could plunge the fastest-aging countries in Europe and Asia into permanent recession," according to a study by the Cente
Anonalies: Publishing
The first nine books in the "Left Behind" by Timothy LaHaye series sold more than 50 million copies over the last seven years. Now for the rights to four planned novels, Dr. LaHaye will receive an advance of about $45 million - among the highest paid to a novelist of any kind. (NYT)
Small batches at a profit: A Simon & Schuster plant in Ramsey, NJ. stores 9,000 books on computer disks and then prints them on demand. The average run is just 13 books. The plant turned out 50% more books last year than expected and has added new labor shifts. (CSM)
Emedicine.com, a free website, offers a new encyclopedia for emergency-room physicians that was written by 400 doctors. It is two-and-a-half times bigger than any textbook in the field ever published. (NYT)
Barnesandnoble.com will pay authors and agents a royalty rate of 35% of a book's list price on electronic books sold through its Web site. (NYT
The Thorupgaarden Nursing Home in Copenhagen, Denmark now offers its elderly residents erotic magazines, pornography on a videochannel, and the services of prostitutes. Overseers say they have found this has a "calming" effect on patients. (American Enterprise, Dec 2001)
For many retirees, playing games on the Internet is a cheap and easy form of entertainment. GameHouse Inc., with nearly 90,000 registered users predicts that people over the age of 50 will soon represent the fastest-growing segment of its membership. (WSJ)
Anomalies : Energy
An assertion made in 1999 that computer equipment tied to the Internet was using 8% of the total supply of electricity in the U.S. has been refuted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Their study concludes that computers in all forms — not just those tied to the Internet — used closer to 3% of all electricity in 1999. (WSJ, 12/5/02)
In Takoma Park, MD., 10 families joined together to buy a 25-foot-tall grain silo that holds nearly 21 tons of shelled field corn that will be burned in their corn-burning stoves. (Balt Sun, 11/18/02)
A Toronto-based company has unveiled an at-home fueling pump called Phill. FuelMaker said it will be the first firm to market a system that connects to a home’s natural-gas line. (AP, 10/15/02)
The New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, recently voted “the best midsized brewery in the U.S.,” is also the country’s first wind-powered brewery. (Utne Reader, June 2002)
General Motors says it has developed the first workable fuel cell to use gasoline. The technology has the potential to obtain 40% overall energy efficiency, which is about 50% better than a conventional internal combustion engine. (AFP)
Electric companies across the country have begun introducing pricing plans on a "real time" basis - every half-hour or hour, for example. And websites that post electricity prices and demand every few minutes are now under way. (AP)
Central power plants convert about 40% of the natural gas they burn into electricity delivered to the customer. On-site power plants can capture the waste heat and achieve efficiencies of as much as 90%. (Wash Post)
Harold Benich of Albion, Pa., used mail-order parts and an old diesel engine to assemble what is believed to be the nation's first motorcycle that runs entirely on soybean oil. (CSM)
In Detroit, a 1,200 foot-long superconducting cable weighing 250 pounds is being installed to replace 18,000 pounds of old copper cable weighing 18,000 pounds - the first time superconductor cable has served regular customers. (Wash Post)
The Architect of the Capitol estimates that by having installed energy-efficient comfort-control systems and lighting, including occupancy sensors that automatically turn off lights when they are not needed, they are saving American taxpayers more than $2.2 million per year. (Washington Times, 8/14/07)
Anomalies: Sentence Structure
The Boston Globe site reported on the progress of an injury to the
Red Sox backup catcher:
"Doug Mirabelli's sore ankle is still in a boot and is not with the team. He's expected to join the Sox on this trip - perhaps in New York when he can begin working out."
Josh Weiland suggests that Mirabelli's ankle should continue its
rehab in the Sox's training centre in Fort Myers until it's ready
to play again.
Searching for information on the California fires from Switzerland,
Pat Mackay stumbled upon this, on www.cbs8.com: "Please note: The
following homes have been confirmed destroyed by News 8 reporters
on the ground." She has always felt the media had a lot to answer
for, but that was a bit much.
back to the top