Tea Bird

An email to Obama supporters: Matthew — I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. And I don’t want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you [...]

Obama wins the Presidency of the United States of America!

As a resident of a non-early voting state, I think that this would certainly be a good thing: The unexpected wave of millions of early voters casting ballots for Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama may prompt Congress to mandate some form of early voting nationwide for future elections, experts say. Early voters examine a sample [...]

Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry. AP

I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them –Harry Truman

A topic near and dear to me personally: China is the main source of immigrants to rich countries AROUND 4m people moved to OECD countries in 2006, 5% more than the year before, according to the OECD’s annual migration report. Joining family members and seeking employment were the main reasons, accounting for 44% and 14% of all [...]

Even mild sleep apnea shouldn’t be ignored,

Not with a bang but a whimper? From the AP: The European Organization for Nuclear Research says its new particle collider has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months.

From Newsweek: A new study finds that the radiation emitted by cell phones can lower sperm quality.

The city of Pittsburgh’s recently hired Director of Sustainability is finishing her master’s degree in environmental science at Duquesne this fall. She lives in Shadyside and was the lead writer for the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan while a fellow with the NGO Clean Air-Cool Planet. She received her bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College and will [...]

From WTAE-TV: The billionaire is out, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are staying in the family, at least for now. Four of the Rooney brothers are not selling to New York investor Stanley Druckenmiller.

From the Post-Gazette.com: The four Rooney brothers have told New York billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller they are turning down his offer to buy their shares in the Steelers, ending a seven-month courtship

Nuclear power production is leaving behind monumental piles of radioactive soil as memorials of the heyday of nuclear power. Way back in the middle of the 20th century when everybody was giddy over nuclear power, the Canadian government set about mining and refining uranium and radium to power its massive nuclear power plants. [...]

The city of Pittsburgh’s recently hired Director of Sustainability is finishing her master’s degree in environmental science at Duquesne this fall. She lives in Shadyside and was the lead writer for the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan while a fellow with the NGO Clean Air-Cool Planet. She received her bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College and will [...]

From Scientific American: Smog caused by ground-level ozone isn’t just an outdoor air problem. A new study shows that when the irritant’s level rises outside, the number of people inside suffering from so-called “sick building syndrome” also increases. (Ozone, an air-polluting oxygen molecule (O3), forms when sunlight strikes motor vehicle tailpipe emissions.) “We found that outdoor [...]

University of California at Davis scientists presented a study, apparently sponsored by V8, at the annual American Dietetic Association conference showing that when people are told by dietitians to have a V8 at least once a day, they consume more servings of vegetables than people told simply to eat more vegetables. Apparently, these V8 [...]

From the New York Times: By now the cardiovascular benefits of a daily glass of wine are well known. But many teetotalers wonder whether they can reap the same rewards from wine’s unfermented sibling, or are they simply left out altogether. Grape juice may not provide much buzz, but you can still toast to good health [...]

From The Economist: A scandal in China over deadly baby milk “QUALITY and safety are the foundations of social harmony,” proclaim posters at the headquarters of the Sanlu Group in Shijiazhuang, capital of China’s northern province of Hebei. Sanlu was until recently one of China’s biggest producers of milk powder. Now, dozens of people, many clutching [...]

Looks like the Bush administration is going to try again: The Bush Administration is trying again to take the gray wolf of the Northern Rockies off the federal endangered species list. Having lost a court battle with conservationists this summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to reopen for public comment its 2007 proposal [...]

Humans and bats are the only mammals able to detect the changes in pitch essential for music. Other mammals like dogs can only detect about one-third of an octave. Biologists at UCLA, Hebrew University, and the Weizmann Institute in Israel speculate that the evolutionary reason for our tonal prowess has to do with learning [...]

From the New York Times on the latest efforts to perfect hunting camoflauge: At Dr. Neitz’s laboratory, he tests some animals’ vision by training them to press touch screens, but the deer weren’t quite ready for the computer age. He and researchers at the University of Georgia showed them three cards at a time and [...]

From The Economist: Damien Hirst and the future of auction houses “AUCTION rooms are democratic”, Damien Hirst told The Economist just before the two-day sale of 223 of his new works at Sotheby’s London branch last week. “That’s what I like about them. Anyone with enough money can buy what they want—immediately. They just have to [...]

From the Post-Gazette: On Thursday evening at Rockwell’s Red Lion Restaurant in Elizabeth, Boucher again will don his drop-front pants, white colonial shirt, gentleman’s vest and wide-brimmed hat and portray Walker at the John Walker Dinner, which this year kicks off the town’s first Lewis and Clark Festival, four days of reenactments, storytelling, hayrides, campfires, [...]

The Post-Gazette breaks word that the Ellsworth festival in Shadyside is gone. When it opens on Walnut Street Saturday, it will be the first time in 10 years that the Shadyside Art Festival won’t have any competition from the funkier bunch on Ellsworth Avenue. The festival on Ellsworth has pulled out of the festival sweepstakes, mostly [...]