Nov 12th, 2008 · Using NASA satellite photos of Earth, we can calculate that the world supports roughly 61 trees per person. But are we using up our allotments? An Evergreen State College ecology professor and her students look at how we burn through wood-based resources.
Jul 4th, 2008 · Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the life and language of the late comedian George Carlin, the master of observational humor who died last month. In the 1970s, Carlin observed: "There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is: 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad." Then he proceeded to say them.
Dec 10th, 2007 · The latest set of polls from Iowa and the other states that kick off the presidential nominating process next month have scrambled the candidate standings and brought turmoil to the campaigns of the frontrunners. The most jarring numbers came in Newsweek's new sounding of Republican sentiment in Iowa. It had upstart Mike Huckabee racing out to a 39 percent showing and longtime Iowa leader Mitt Romney dropping to just 17 percent. That 22-point lead left many in the Hawkeye state pop-eyed and staring. Newsweek also estimated that Huckabee had spent just $400,000 in the state so far, while Romney spent something like $7 million. That is a ratio of 17 to 1, yet it has not been enough to enable Romney to close the sale in the state that sets the table on January 3. Other new polls bore out the general direction of things among Iowans, but did not match the pace of change in the Newsweek numbers. One was the new Mason-Dixon poll, which had Huckabee up by 12 percentage points, a more mortal margin but still a striking contrast to his single-digit status in October. Beyond the Iowa breakthrough, new national polls showed the Huckabee phenomenon was not confined to the cornfields. A new national poll by CBS News and The New York Times found the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher in a statistical dead heat with Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor. This new state of affairs was created mainly by Huckabee's rapid elevation from 4 percent two months ago (in a poll of Republicans done by the same organizations) to 21 percent in the latest test. But the new poll also represents two other trends that are almost as dramatic: the continuing descent of Giuliani and the precipitous decline of Fred Thompson. Two months ago, the CBS-Times poll had Giuliani with 29 percent of the GOP vote. Two months before that, the same pollsters had the New Yorker at 38 percent. These numbers caused many of us to marvel at how Giuliani seemed to be defying everything we had once assumed about the contemporary Republican voting base. We knew that at least 4 out of 10 Republican primary voters attended church at least once a week, and that social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage had been hugely important to the coalition that twice elected George W. Bush president. Yet here was Giuliani, a liberal on the social questions when mayor of New York, attracting a big plurality in the polls. Here was a man married three times, estranged from his children and associated with much of the worldliness that is Gotham, drawing the votes of self-described conservatives and white evangelicals. Both these groups were naming Giuliani as one of their two top candidates (along with Thompson) as recently as October. But polls in early October also showed that many Americans -- including many conservatives -- did not know much about Giuliani. Everyone had heard of his heroism on 9/11, but most knew nothing else. It now appears that as the debates, the ads, the conversations and the media attention have intensified, more people are filling in the blanks. A somewhat different problem has afflicted Thompson, who for months ran second to Giuliani in the national GOP rankings. Thompson existed in the popular consciousness as a cross between his political persona (eight years in the Senate) and his celluloid self (several movie parts and a starring role in TV's "Law and Order"). As he has taken part in the debates and turned up in the early voting states, Thompson has resembled the former far more than the latter. In the Senate, Thompson was eloquent on occasion and important to the issue at hand from time to time. But he was far from a leading figure, and he often seemed less than truly interested. The same could be said of him as a campaigner. He has had a good line here and there, but nothing more than that. Meanwhile, his actual presence on the hustings has been minimal, and his fundraising only average. Among Democrats, the shift evident in the national polls is less dramatic. In the CBS-Times poll released October 7, Hillary Clinton broke over 50 percent as the choice for her party's nomination. Barack Obama, in second place, was the choice of less than half as many. No one else was within 10 points behind him. It was then the term "inevitability" began being used for Clinton's campaign. Those numbers have since shifted a bit. Clinton is down below the half mark, Obama up above a quarter. But the chill for Clinton emanates from those frosty, early contests where she had once dominated. She has fallen slightly behind Obama in Iowa, where John Edwards still runs a close third. Obama has also moved within striking range in New Hampshire, where the last ABC News and Washington Post poll had him within six points (a big move from just weeks before). This makes it possible to imagine a scenario in which Obama wins Iowa and Clinton possibly slips to third. This would be more than just the end of "inevitability." It would leave New Hampshire up for grabs. And the next key tests are in Michigan and South Carolina, which are the two January states with the biggest percentage of African American voters by far. So a great deal has changed in just two months. Much could change again in the next two. But we are approaching the moment of reckoning. One month from now, Iowa and New Hampshire will be over. Two months from now we will have seen the primaries and caucuses held for states that account for 60 percent of the national population. Odds are, one party or both will have decided. Don't blink. You might miss it.
Jul 18th, 2005 · Could gender be determined by anything other than biological factors? One medical researcher says that when women have a child without a live-in male partner, the odds are tipped slightly against having a boy.
Jan 19th, 2005 · In Sacramento, close to 2,000 nurses came protest Gov. Schwarzenegger's decision to suspend new nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. The governor's administration said it had to do so because of a severe nursing shortage.
Sep 22nd, 2004 · A new study shows that elderly people who stick to a Mediterranean diet, exercise at least 30 minutes a day, and have moderate alcohol use can cut their risk of dying in half. The diet is rich in plant foods and fish, low in meat and dairy and has a high ratio of monounsaturated fats to polyunsaturated fats. Approximately 1,500 people were studied in the Netherlands over a 12-year period. NPR's Patricia Neighmond reports.