Propeller.com Stories submitted by idyll

Declaring Independence from King George

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:32:29 EDT

So what did King George do to upset the founding fathers so much 232 years ago? Many, many things, some of which sound eerily familiar whether you live in the U.S. or, say, Iraq:

Channel: Politics Tags: king george grievances

The social impact of cult groups

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:56:59 EDT

In the last quarter century, many groups in the United States, i.e. paramilitary organizations, destructive cults, gangs, and criminal organizations have used the mantle of religion in a deliberate strategy designed to defraud the innocent, the unwary, and the unsophisticated out of the protections guaranteed by the 13th Amendment.

Channel: Religion Tags: cults society slavery

FLDS fashions for kids sold on enterprising Web site

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:49:29 EDT

FLDS women for the first time are offering their handmade, distinctive style of children's clothes to the public through the Web site fldsdress.com.

Channel: Religion Tags: flds fashion sale

Cuba: An Urgent Need For Change

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:02:52 EDT

The best way to begin reshaping our Latin America policy is an opening to that little island off the coast of Florida, Cuba. Such an opening would signal immediately to the entire region that the U.S. has regained its collective senses, has rethought its foreign policy and, most importantly, will act accordingly.

Channel: Politics Tags: cuba policy opening

Most Awesomely Bad Military Acronyms

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:49:14 EDT

. Some are obtuse. Some are a mouthful. And some are just ... bad. Awesomely, awesomely bad.

Channel: Humor Tags: military acronyms

Africa and Coca-Cola | Index of happiness?

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:48:17 EDT

The ups and downs during Kenya's post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi's slums and in western Kenya's villages.

Channel: News Tags: coke sales africa happiness index

Who Planned the Anthrax Attacks?

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:43:30 EDT

The FBI's non-investigation of this heinous and sinister crime was a joke from the beginning: after all, since when do FBI probes have official names, and why such a silly one as "Amerithrax"?

Channel: Politics Tags: anthrax fbi investigation

Map: Federal Lands in the USA

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:27:43 EDT

The United States government has direct ownership of almost 650 million acres of land (2.63 million square kilometers) - nearly 30% of its total territory.

Channel: News Tags: map federal land percentage states

'Buckminster Fuller - Starting With the Universe' at the Whitney Museum of American Art

idyll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:01:54 EDT

"Buckminster Fuller: Starting With the Universe," a timely new exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is likely to stir waves of nostalgia.

Channel: Art & Design Tags: buckminster fuller exhibit

Behind the reluctance of China and Africa to criticize Mugabe

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:19 EDT

For a crisis involving Africa, the decibel readings in the West over Zimbabwe have reached almost unprecedented levels. Beyond the din of condemnations of Robert Mugabe, that country's aging, power-obsessed tyrant, however, a great many questions have gone unexamined.

Channel: News Tags: mugabe china africa

CostOfSmoking Calculator Motivates You to Quit

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:16:15 EDT

Freeware application CostOfSmoking helps you understand just how much money you've lost to smoking over the lifetime of your habit. The end goal of your improved understanding of the financial cost of smoking is to help motivate quitting.

Channel: Health & Fitness Tags: cost smoking download tech

Feds Say California's Fires Aren't a Disaster

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:31:32 EDT

Assistance from FEMA for fire victims has not been approved because the fires have not been declared a federal disaster.

Channel: News Tags: california fires fema disaster area

Deborah Weisgall Finds Modern Resonance in George Eliot

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:24:57 EDT

In The World Before Her, Deborah Weisgall contrasts the life of Marian Evans, known better to generations of readers as "George Eliot" and a (fictional) contemporary sculptor, both of whom travel to Venice during moments where their personal and creative tensions have them at a crossroads.

Channel: Books Tags: george eliot book review the world before her deborah weisgall

Why Can't Women Sleep?

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:04:40 EDT

Why is the high level of insomnia among women ignored by researchers?

Channel: Women Tags: insomnia

Iran: It's The Blowback, Stupid!

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:02:23 EDT

The 1953 coup is widely seen as having set the conditions for the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is a consequence the US and Iran are still dealing with today.

Channel: News Tags: iran coup history blowback

Last of the `Baby Ballerinas' dies

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:56:05 EDT

Baronova came to fame as a 13-year-old after being spotted in Paris by legendary choreographer George Balanchine, who teamed her with two other young Russian-born dancers, Tamara Toumanova and Tatiana Riabouchinska, in 1932. The three toured the world as the Baby Ballerinas.

Channel: Women Tags: ballerina obituary

Brasilia: A Vision in Concrete

idyll — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:33:00 EDT

Oscar Niemeyer's work continues to enchant and appall students of architecture and urban planning.

Channel: Art & Design Tags: brazil niemeyer

McCain's Rovian Makeover

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:51:48 EDT

Unlike a number of McCain insiders, Schmidt retains close ties to the Bush world. He was a top aide to Dick Cheney in the Bush White House and a key deputy to Karl Rove during the '04 campaign. More and more, of late, the McCain campaign bears Rove's imprimatur.

Channel: Politics Tags: mccain campaign manager bush

4,000 Danes May Have Salmonella

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:46:07 EDT

Danish health officials fear more than 4,000 people may be infected with salmonella and are checking everything from refrigerators to credit card receipts to find the source of what may be the worst outbreak in 15 years.

Channel: News Tags: denmark salmonella outbreak

Want to know if waterboarding is torture? Ask Christopher Hitchens

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:13:21 EDT

The "official lie" about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it "simulates the feeling of drowning". In fact, "you are drowning - or rather, being drowned".

Channel: Politics Tags: hitchens waterboarding

Stroke: 'I had to cure myself'

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:23:09 EDT

In a few hours, I was transformed from a healthy, professional 56-year-old into a lump of flesh on a hospital trolley.

Channel: Health & Fitness Tags: stroke survivor techniques

Japan: Washlet Toilet

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:18:25 EDT

The "Incredible Squirting Toilet" has achieved almost total market penetration, and not just in middle-income homes. It even appears in fast-food restaurants and in public facilities in railroad stations.

Channel: Travel Tags: japan toilet

Cashiers for Life

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:16:31 EDT

William Saletan, one assumes, has not had to drive twenty-five miles to a second pharmacy, the case in a large swath of rural America, because a pharmacist imposed his moral beliefs on him.

Channel: Women Tags: pharmacists birth control

World's Biggest Solar Farm Proposed For SoCal

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:13:50 EDT

The 30,000 towering dishes would be spread across 10 square miles of the Imperial County desert. The energy captured from the sun's rays would be converted into electricity for about 500,000 San Diego County homes.

Channel: News Tags: solar power socal propeller eco news

Vermont's Law requiring Naturopathic Care Coverage

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:12:40 EDT

We've covered extensively the quackery that is naturopathy, but really, if a patient chooses to see a quack, it's their business. But with health care costs soaring, requiring insurers to pay for voodoo is a rather bad idea.

Channel: Science Tags: naturopathic care insurance unproven therapy

Why Powerset is important and different

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:10:29 EDT

Let's take a step back and look at how Powerset works and why it is an important development in search.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: powerset

Writing 'bass ackwards' to defeat censorship in China

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:54:19 EDT

Some people whose posts may otherwise have been deleted by censors in China have taken to writing backwards in an effort to defeat keyword-searching authorities.

Channel: News Tags: china backwards censorship

What Separates Critics from Creators?

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:41:02 EDT

People who jump on other's offerings have yet to discover how criticism works against the human brain's ability to create. Marked distinctions separate critics from creators:

Channel: Careers & Jobs Tags: creators critics

Supplies of Rare Earth Elements Exhausted By 2017

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:17:13 EDT

Oil is just an organic substance that was created by natural biological processes; we know that we have a lot of it, but we're using it up very rapidly, no more is being created, and someday it'll be gone. The disappearance of elements, though, that's a different matter.

Channel: News Tags: rare earth elements shortage propeller eco news

Stairway to Heaven's Revenues

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:53:36 EDT

A back-of-the-napkin analysis of the lifetime worth of the most requested rock tune in history.

Channel: Music Tags: stairway to heaven revenue estimate

The End-of-the-World Trade

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:52:51 EDT

What is revealed by the end-of-the-world trade is that the current crisis concerns the collapse of public fact.

Channel: Money Tags: insurance public fact trust

Roundtable: 'How to stop the next bubble'

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:49:31 EDT

The financial crisis has shown that markets are bubble-prone and that laissez-faire regulation doesn't work.

Channel: Money Tags: economics bubble laissez faire

1000 years of urban history: the rise and fall of European and Arab cities |

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:48:47 EDT

In the year 800, Baghdad was a wonder of the world while London was an economic backwater. By 1800, London was the largest city in the world while Arab cities languished. Recent research attributes this 'trading places' to institutional differences.

Channel: News Tags: urban history baghdad london

Focus on body mass isn't healthy idea

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:32:13 EDT

The Munchkin voice from the Wii Fit says "That's obese." How dare it talk to a child like that!? Later, that same child, when he cannot complete an exercise, cries, "I'm obese and stupid!" Parental intervention now. Therapy in 10 years?

Channel: Health & Fitness Tags: wii fit body image children

Happy Oil Dependence Day

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:21:58 EDT

If Barack Obama or John McCain was to offer such words of wisdom this Fourth of July, he would be vilified as "weak," and that is a fit measure of just how far we have descended from the high hopes of our first president.

Channel: News Tags: energy dependence washington

Judge finds Wal-Mart violated Minnesota labour laws

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:08:11 EDT

A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, and the discount retailer could now face more than $2 billion in possible fines.

Channel: News Tags: walmart labour violation

The far-right's patriotism problem

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:06:18 EDT

Jonah Goldberg continues to demonstrate how the right-wing is manipulating public discourse in order to confuse and conflate patriotism with rabid nationalism.

Channel: Politics Tags: patriotism nationalism

A low water year is a boon to safflower farmers

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:00:35 EDT

Having to make due with less water, California farmers are reassessing their planting of tomatoes, cotton, corn and other water-intensive crops. A popular replacement this year is safflower. The thistle like plant is perfectly suited for the state's Mediterranean climate and does not require much water.

Channel: News Tags: california agriculture irrigation

India's Iranian Pipeline Deal

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:55:01 EDT

India, Pakistan and Iran will sign a deal this month to build a natural gas pipeline to help feed the subcontinent's desperate need for energy, a major blow to American sanctions against Tehran and a defeat for U.S. influence in South Asia.

Channel: News Tags: india pakistan iran pipeline energy asia

Clay Felker Remembered

idyll — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:52:29 EDT

Clay Felker was the man who made magazines matter again. After Harold Hayes (with some help from Felker) made Esquire the king of hip in the '60's, Felker duplicated that achievement in the '70'sÃ;Â¢Ã¢â;;Â¬"and simultaneously invented the modern city magazine.

Channel: Books Tags: clay felker journalism