All Blog Posts from Fast Draw

Fuzzy Math - Kids at two schools in California are losing their summer vacations because adults messed up on their math, accidentally under-scheduled a number of school days by five minutes. As a result of state rules, that would put millions of dollars in jeopardy, so school will not be out for the summer. Click here for the story.

Holy Medicine - The ancient art of trepanation - drilling a hole in the skull - may be making a comeback to treat Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. Doctors have used it to help patients with traumatic brain injuries but a top doctor in the UK says it may have wider applications to help the brain. Click here for the story.

Scared To Death - Opponents of deep-water sonar exercises by the Navy say there's undeniable proof that loud noises underwater can harm whales and dolphins. An investigation after England's largest mass beaching of dolphins has found military activity the most likely cause. The Royal Navy disputes the findings. Click here for the story.

Rest In Peace, Online - Websites are encroaching on another traditional area of newspapers' turf: obituaries. Sites like Legacy.com create obituaries that are more responsive to friends and family but less beholden to facts or objective portrayals of someone's life. Who should have the last say in how you're remembered? Click here for the story.

Kids These Days - A major demographic shift is taking place fueled by the youngest citizens. In almost one out of every six counties, minority kids now outnumber white kids. The trend is not expected to reverse, which will soon raise the question of what defines what exactly defines a minority. Click here for the story.

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Home Stubborn Home – A person’s home is their castle. It can also be a thorn in the side of very powerful neighbors. Here’s what happens when the holdouts really hold out. (Check out the farmers who farm on an active runway.) Click here for the story.

IQ Clues – Child development experts say they’ve figured out a way to predict some children’s future intelligence when they’re just weeks old. The technique could help families prepare for the challenges of raising a special needs child. Click here for the story.

It's Alive! – Bacteria that’s been frozen and dormant for more than 100,000 years has been revived, opening a window on the Earth’s past and providing hints of what life might look like if it exists on other planets. Click here for the story.

Waste Not – Evolutionarily this plant got the short end of the stick. But it’s making do. Click here for the story.

Classified Humor – Craigslist is officially weird. Weird Al. The king of parody’s take on the website where you can find (for better or worse) anything. Click here for the story.

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Airborne Amphibians - A mystery is unfolding in Japan, where scores of tadpoles have been turning up far from any place they could conceivably live. Biologists are trying to find out whether they're being carried through the air by weather patterns or if there's another explanation.
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Cloud 10? - Next time you're flying keep an eye out for an extra-special cloud. Meteorologists are debating whether a new cloud variety has been identified. It would be the first since 1951. The new cloud might be called undulus asperatus, Latin for "turbulent undulation." The Fast Draw has explored the secret life of clouds before.

High And Mighty - Engineers are looking to the sky for future power - but not at the sun. They've discovered that the winds are super-strong a few miles up and estimate that there's enough energy up there to meet world demand 100 times over.
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Breaking Bread - Biologists say they're in a race against time to save the world's wheat crop from a pervasive fungus. They say the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It's already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. It's expected next to hit the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it beyond.
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Let’s Make A Deal - Teenagers in North Carolina are reportedly being paid a dollar a day not to get pregnant. It's an example of 'behavioral economics' - a strategy that nudges people to make certain decisions - which has a following in the Obama administration.
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Friends And Money - Is the recession ruining friendships? Economics and social interactions go hand-in-hand and there's evidence your 401K might not be the only thing suffering in this downturn. Click here for the story.

The Anti-Recipe - A cook and author says forget the recipes you've learned; all you need to cook is a set of simple formulas that tell you what proportions of foods should be combined. Click here for the story.

Elemental - Chemistry has a new kid on the block. A new element is moving in 13 years after it was first created. The "superheavy" substance still hasn't been named, but it's first new element in five years and the heaviest yet. Click here for the story.

It Came From The Deep - Tapeworms may be gaining in the US. The parasites - which can grow to 30 feet or more - have definitely become more common around the world and they're spreading particularly fast among "yuppies with a hankering for sashimi and ceviche." Click here for the story.

Teenager, Cure Thyself - A high school senior suffered for years from stomach pains her doctors could not explain. It wasn't until one day in her science class she discovered the cause by examining her own cells. She diagnosed herself with Crohn's disease. Click here for the story.

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Confidence Game - A secret of the punditocracy and various opinionated blowhards has been revealed: outsized confidence. We're 100 percent sure of this! Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have demonstrated that people prefer to take advice from a confident source even if that source has a poor track record.
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story.

Sleepily Ever After - New research presented at a sleep conference today concludes women who are married or in stable relationships get better sleep than their single sisters. (No word on whether their significant others are boring them to sleep.)
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Phantom Traffic Jams - Ever get through a long delay and wonder for the life of you what the holdup was? It might have been a "phantom traffic jam." They occur when someone drives too fast and then hit the brakes and researchers at MIT are figuring out how to prevent them.
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Funemployment - The recession has spawned a subculture of the formerly employed who are living it up now that they don't have professional responsibilities. Supported by severance packages, savings, unemployment checks or parents, the "funemployed" don't sweat their status. They enjoy it. Are they incurable optimists or people living in denial?
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Air Show - Bird researchers, armed with high-speed cameras, have discovered male hummingbirds reach speeds "faster than fighter jets" relative to their body size. Why do they fly so fast? To impress females, of course. The researchers used stuffed decoys of female birds to provoke the feathered need for speed. http://bit.ly/fxrzNClick here for the story.

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Driving Under The Influence(Of Toxoplasma - A parasite well known for the danger it poses to pregnant women and fetuses could also be causing hundreds of thousands of car crashes a year. Researchers monitored people infected with "Toxoplasma," - which was believed to be a harmless presence in most people - and found people with the infection who also had Rh-negative blood types were 2.5 times as likely to have an auto accident. Click here for more.

Friend And Foe - You know about the dangers of carpal tunnel and repetitive strain, now a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds a more-than-sevenfold increase in computer-related injuries due to tripping over computer equipment, head injuries due to computer monitor falls and other physical incidents. The number of acute computer-related injuries (more than 78,000) increased by 732% over the 13-year study period, which is more than double the increase in household computer ownership (309%). Click here for the story

Moon Shot -Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter will end its nearly two-year mission when it collides with the moon tomorrow. People may be able to spot a bright flash or plume of dust from the crash, and researchers will study its impact site to watch how radiation and micrometeoroids weather the newly exposed lunar soil over time. Click here for the story.


Frog Probiotics - The best hope for saving amphibian populations from a deadly fungus is a bacteria. Researchers are hoping a probiotic skin bacterium that occurs naturally on the skin of several amphibian species will protect them from the fungus that essentially suffocates them. People also benefit from probiotics, whether they realize it or not. We explained this at the height of the flu frenzy - check it out at Click here to watch.

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Fuelish Beliefs - A new study is shattering assumptions about fuel efficiency and the environmental impact of different kinds of transportation. Turns out taking a commuter train across Boston is
linked to more greenhouse emissions than traveling the same distance in
a jumbo jet.
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story.

The Fast Draw uncovered something similar in "Hybrid Cars." Check it out at:
Click here to watch.


Pro-Government - There are islands of relative prosperity in the nation's sea of recessionary woes. A common trait among these counties according to a new analysis: At least 15 percent of the work force is employed by the government. Federal aid in a very effective form - but does it offer long-term solutions or new problems?
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Curveballs - A psychologist has unlocked the secret to why curve balls are so hard for batters to hit. There's a tricky transition from central to peripheral vision that makes it look like curve balls change direction. No word on what happens with the split-finger fastball.
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Vice And Virtue - A Harvard study found major health insurance companies own more than $4 billion in tobacco company stock. Why would companies that exist to better the health of citizens (and make money) invest in one of the most dangerous legal products?
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In A Sound Studio Far, Far Away - Some of the secrets behind the sounds of Star Wars. Ben Burtt's creative genius transformed an elephant into tie fighters, hammers into lasers.
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Queasy Does It - Researchers from Harvard and Yale say people who are more easily grossed out by slime, gore and other physically repulsive things are more likely to be politically conservative. It turns out many of our unpleasant emotions most likely evolved to keep us safe and healthy. Think about that the next time the smell of a rotten egg or the sight of road kill grosses you out.
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Big House, Smaller Meals - States are saving money by serving prisoners less food. But what matters more than how much prisoners eat is what they eat. Convicts fed more food with omega 3 oil and less fatty, processed and sugary meals were much better behaved.
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Webbed Wonder - One of the people who helped create the World Wide Web says the number of web pages is now roughly the equivalent to the number of neurons in the brain - and we've reached a point where we no longer fully understand how the Internet is affecting us on individual and societal levels. Today the great information organism has begun to mimic the human organism - the eyes, ears, brain, etc.
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Height Sleight Of Hand - The advantages tall people enjoy (pay, romance, presidential elections) over smaller people have been well documented. But there are methods - optical illusions and others - by which short people can attain the "status cues" of their high-altitude competitors. Some involve height, others are less obvious.
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Here They Come To Save The Day - Rising unemployment + fascination with comic books + dose of Good Samaritanism = real life superheroes. They can't fly or see through walls but they're doing what they can.
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Look On The Bright Side, See More - People who see the world through rose-colored glasses also see more. At first glance this might seem like a good thing but yes, even optimism has a downside (some consolation for those of you who woke up on the wrong side of bed today).
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Empires Strike Back - U.S. and British authorities are taking the fight against hackers to the net. In the brave new world of cyber-warfare, your computer can become a tool of the enemy and collateral damage in this battle for the world's flow of information.
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Sound The Alarms - Toddlers get a potty-training boost from a "friendly" electronic diaper alarm. What other high-tech devices do you know of that are guiding today's children through developmental stages. And are they a good thing?
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The College Try - Is the four-year undergraduate degree a thing of the past? Hundreds of schools are now taking six years to graduate a majority of its students. In college we used to joke about guys on the "six-year plan" but is it now becoming the norm?
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Super Weeds - Just when you thought you ran out of things to worry about with a warming Earth, climate change is turning one of the most invasive plant species in the U.S. into an even more powerful monster.
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