The Entrepreneurial Spirit!
- Daring New Products: (1) Introduced at a New York food fair in January (and planned for U.S. distribution later this year): Great Scot International's potato-like chips in the "flavor" of Scotland's "national delicacy" (yes - haggis chips!). (2) Burger King U.K.'s Christmas-season special this year (available briefly in December): a regular Whopper, garnished with a generous helping of brussels sprouts.
- The notoriously isolated North Korean economy only permits new products to be sold as needs arise, and in December (according to a report by Agence France-Presse), the ministries began allowing Western-style "skinny jeans" (having relaxed the rule requiring female workers to wear skirts).
The Redneck Chronicles
(1) In a December incident near Orlando, a former Ku Klux Klan "Cyclops," George Hixon, 73, and his son, Troy, 45, and Troy's girlfriend fought, resulting in Troy's allegedly firing gunshots toward the woman's feet and the subsequent arrests of the two men. According to Osceola County deputies, the altercation was precipitated by the girlfriend's unhappiness that she got the "cheap beer" while the men kept the "good beer" (Budweiser) for themselves. (2) The County Commission in Jackson, Ga., delayed a vote in December on new cell-phone towers at the request of one official with questions about the county's contract -- Commissioner Gator Hodges.
Science on the Cutting Edge
- Good to Know: Perhaps too many late nights at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science led to the recent quixotic "testing" of superconductor metals by submersion in alcoholic beverages. Yoshihiko Takano and his colleagues developed experiments to soak the metals to see if resistance to electricity is decreased (and, thus, conductivity increased). They found success with whiskey, sake, beer and the vodka-like shochu, but red wine worked best.
- Flip a Coin: Among human procreation technologies soft-pedaled to tamp down controversy is surgeons' ability to selectively abort some, but not all, fetuses in a womb in cases where in vitro fertilization (IVF) has overproduced (usually involving mothers expecting triplets or greater, which pose serious health risks). More controversially, according to a December National Post report, a Toronto-area couple told their physician that IVF-created "twins" would be too much for them to care for and that the doctor should terminate one fetus (randomly chosen?) and leave the other.
- The notoriously isolated North Korean economy only permits new products to be sold as needs arise, and in December (according to a report by Agence France-Presse), the ministries began allowing Western-style "skinny jeans" (having relaxed the rule requiring female workers to wear skirts).
