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The bullet-proof backpack industry is a real thing—and it’s booming, post-Newtown.
This should not exist.
The Newtown victims: http://usat.ly/Y8IiLF
Farewell, iPad app! See our timeline for best stories, scoops, and highlights.
Maybe not the best place for a HUGE gun ad, directly next to your story on the Newtown shooting. They did apologize — read it here.
::headdesk::
Each year, about 414 pounds of food is discarded for each person in the United States at home, in stores, and in restaurants. This installation in Our Global Kitchen represents the 1,656 pounds of food that is thrown away by a family of four.
And this is just consumer waste—even more food is lost on farms and in processing and transportation.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
That’s a lot of food!
Shooting reported at Connecticut elementary school
(Photo: Shannon Hicks / The Newtown Bee)
State police were responding to reports of a shooting Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., State Police Lt. Paul Vance told NBC News.
Vance had no information as to possible injuries and no information on the apparent shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Newtown Bee reported that one child, apparently wounded, was carried from the scene by a police officer.
Such a terrifying photo. Kids should not have to deal with this, ever.
Nursing a hangover this morning? Our Drinkhacker has just the cure. While you’re washing those bananas down with water, read up on why you feel terrible in the first place:
• Dehydration — “Each 250ml of alcoholic beverage will produce up to 500ml of urine. So, it is easy to see how a long night of drinking can lead to significant dehydration,” said Burke. While this is common knowledge, there’s a lesser-known twist to dehydration’s impact: Along with all that peeing go the vitamins and minerals you need to survive.
• Acetaldehyde toxicity — Alcohol breaks down into something called acetaldehyde, which is essentially a toxin, a close cousin of formaldehyde, said Dr. Victor Sierpina. It causes headaches, nausea and vomiting — and the more AcA in your body, the worse you feel. Burke said AcA toxicity is the primary driver of hangover symptoms.
• Glutamine rebound — Alcohol doesn’t just make toxins, it also prevents the body from creating certain nutrients. Glutamine, an amino acid that controls the nervous system, is one of them. Glutamine production falls while you drink, then goes into overdrive when you stop. This sudden burst of glutamine makes you anxious and irritable … and is why you can’t get back to sleep while you’re nursing your hangover.
• Short-term alcohol withdrawal — It’s like “Trainspotting” on a very small scale. After a binge, you go through withdrawal, which can include (more) anxiety, mood swings, depression, a racing heartbeat, nightmares and even more fun stuff.
Security cameras are getting smarter. Big Brother is quietly adding artificial intelligence that tracks “suspicious behavior” to cameras nationwide.
“It has led directly to arrests, already,” said Blake Sawyer, statewide director of security for the Texas Department of Public Safety. “It gets smarter the longer it’s there.”
The artificial intelligence component, a controversial form of video analysis known as behavior recognition, emerged from researchers at a Houston firm, BRS Labs. But use of the technology has spread well beyond the Lone Star State.
According to the estimate of the company’s president, John Frazzini, local government agencies have applied the software to about 100,000 cameras nationwide. Declining to name specific clients, he said they include transit providers or city governments in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. In Tampa, local officials confirmed, the police used behavior recognition software to monitor the Republican National Convention.
Think women can’t be on the front lines? Think again.
We tagged along with the world’s only co-ed infantry battalion in Israel.
We don’t even need Scrooge or the Grinch this year. Washington is ready to ruin everybody’s Christmas over the fiscal cliff.
Bernanke told reporters yesterday that the fiscal cliff, a combination of steep tax increases and spending cuts set to kick in Jan. 1, is already bringing down the already-fragile economy. Businesses aren’t investing and consumers aren’t buying because of the uncertainty of a deal between Republicans and the White House.
And House Speaker John Boehner told his GOP colleagues that they need to be prepared to stay in the nation’s capital — quite possibly until New Year’s Eve — to be able to cast a vote if a budget agreement is struck.
