LOTD for October 5

This woman became a college professor when she was 18 years old! She finished Elementary School when she was 5! She is a black belt in tae kwon do and her PhD is in Engineering:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24273418/

A NY postal carrier went to a home 3 hours earlier than normal because of an Express Mail package, and got there just in time to catch a 1-year-old baby that fell from a second-story window!
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=682657&category=ALBANY&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/22/2008

Roman Catholic priest in Brazil was strapped to a chair with a hundreds of helium balloons attached to it…he wanted to break the 19-hour record for flying with balloons, but unfortunately the wind shifted. The lower half of his body was found a later:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-priest22apr22,1,3700204.story

One in five Iraq and Afghanistan vets (300,000 vets!) have either major depression of post traumatic stress disorder, but nearly half of them have not tried to get treatment:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417112102.htm

The ultrarich sure did not slow down their spending despite the economic downturn. In the first 4 months of this year, 71 Manhattan apartments that cost more than $10 million were sold, compared to just 17 for all of last year! This article is from April, so things might have slowed down now with the latest wave of economic problems:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/nyregion/14partying.html

Interesting study about genetic differences between boys and girls. Female monkeys will play with wheeled toys and dolls, but male monkeys will choose the wheeled toys over the dolls! As the study says, the monkeys have not been influenced by advertising or other societal factors and the male monkeys still choose the “stereotypical” boy toys!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13596-male-monkeys-prefer-boys-toys.html

The jet stream heavily influences the weather in the continental US and is moving northward, possibly due to global warming. This means that the weather south of us is moving northward, bringing in general hotter and dryer weather conditions:
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080417-ap-jet-streams.html

Macau’s casinos are doing amazing business! $3.8 bil in gambling in the first quarter, twice what was gambled in Vegas:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/macaus-big-spenders-break-new/story.aspx?guid={BEB659F4-8D1F-4C69-953D-99F03D1D577B}

LOTD for October 4

I will be on a cruise ship for the next 5+ days. So, no LOTD for quite some time…I did this one after I finished my MILCOM presentation draft while Lori was sleeping.

It is amazing that Survivor is in its 17th season! One reason it has lasted this long: a study found that the TV show with the highest viewer loyalty was Survivor!
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/10/jeff-probst-gab.html

China faked a report from space (that you to LOTD reader J for this article!). Amazing how they published a message from their astronauts about their first night in space…before they had even left Earth!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3082804/China-fakes-reports-from-space.html

OJ was found guilty on all charges for the gunpoint robbery and could get up to life in prison! Amazing that this verdict came 13 years to the day of his acquittal on his ex-wife’s murder:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/04/oj.simpson.verdict/index.html

Interesting coincidence that this Michigan State freshman was assigned the exact same dorm room as his father stayed in:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080908/SCHOOLS/809080347/1026

It is extremely sad that this Orlando Homeowner’s Association is upset that this man’s home doesn’t match all the other homes in the association…even though a plane crashed into the home and killed his wife and infant son! He re-built the home slightly differently due to the tragedy but they seem to have no sympathy!
http://www.wesh.com/news/17432965/detail.html?rss=orl&psp=news

This woman working in a restaurant found 26 pearls in an oyster she opened!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080909/wl_mideast_afp/lebanongastronomyfashion

This family went online 21 times to send e-mails and photos while they were in Canada for a vacation…and were hit by a $20k AT&T bill! International roaming fees sure are high…
http://mobilitysite.com/2008/09/international-use-of-aircard-cost-family-20000/

Police broke down the door to a home in New Jersey due to a woman’s screams of “Help me! Help me!”…only to find that a cockatoo was imitating what she heard on a TV show years earlier:
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1220587551277570.xml&coll=5

Interesting study found that a winning NFL team increases the incomes of everyone in its city by as much as $120 per year, which even takes into account those who aren’t sports fans! It shows that winning fans are harder workers and big spenders, plus the morale boost helps workers take bigger risks that pay off in an economic benefit. Success of a the fan’s team results in the fan’s success because fans are feel happier, smarter, more athletic, luckier, and even more attractive when their team wins, and studies show that happy, self-confident people are more successful in work and school:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/09/07/the_secret_benefits_of_fandom/?page=full

I love this story about how this couple lived in a Mall without anyone knowing!
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/15/living_in_mall/?source=yahoo

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates at the Republican National Convention were African American, the lowest ratio ever recorded:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303962.html?hpid=artslot

Fish oil supplements actually work better than the cholesterol-reducing drug Crestor to help patients with chronic heart failure:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26485236/

The 99 Cents Only retail chain in California may have to increase prices, even to more than a dollar:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-99cents29-2008aug29,0,3656274,full.story