In an effort to track cannabis consumption more closely, the Canadian government has instructed Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistical agency, to analyze sewage waste from about a quarter of Canada’s total 36 million inhabitants. In hopes to estimate how much cannabis Canadians consume, in total, through the sewage measurements. But the route from a wastewater treatment plant to that kind of calculation gets really murky really fast, such as: “The suburban users, are they peeing in the city but consuming in the suburbs?”…read the full story here.
Archive for the ‘NPR’ Category
Canada To Measure Marijuana Use By Testing Sewage
In Canada, Health, International, marijuana, News, NPR, Science on April 13, 2018 at 5:47 pmMeet Spinosaurus
In All Things Considered, Dinosaurs, Godzilla, National Geographic Museum, North Africa, NPR, Paleontology, Spinosaurus, T. Rex, Thomas Holtz, University of Chicago on September 12, 2014 at 3:17 am
Scientists have unearthed a dinosaur larger than the T-Rex in an area of North Africa paleontologists have dubbed “river of giants….the most dangerous place in the history of our planet.” Read the fascinating story how Spinosaurus came to be here.
Culinary Flirtation
In Chicago, Food, News, NPR on March 28, 2013 at 1:57 amIllinois of all states is leading the push to ban lion meat, yes, lion meat. Apparently food enthusiasts are on the prowl for good lion, but at what cost to the lion population? NPR takes a look at the trend, its consequences, and how Illinois is a main player. Read the story here.
An Arizona restaurant sold lion meat burgers in 2010 in an attempt to drum up business during the World Cup soccer tournament held in South Africa.
Matt York/AP/npr.org
“Turns out that Illinois was really the key actor in it all, both in terms of acquisition of lions, slaughter of lions and then, ultimately, the packaging of lion meat.”
Musical Alchemist
In All Things Considered, Music, NPR, Pop Culture on March 10, 2013 at 3:30 amUkrainian musician and engineer, Oleg Berg, has started an internet trend altering popular hit songs from their major or minor chords to the opposite and thus changing the song’s feel entirely. NPR looks at this trend and the broader issue of how the human brain processes music and the emotional cues presented by a major or minor key. Listen to the full story here.
Are you in on the secret? Menus that is.
In Food, Morning Edition, NPR, Pop Culture on February 21, 2013 at 11:25 pmI don’t think I’ve ever ordered a “secret” item before…but am I really missing out? 8 patties, really?!
NPR reveals the latest restaurant to go hidden.
In & Out is probably the best known “secret menu” fast food restaurant
For your curiosity:
18 Secret Menu Items [via Business Insider]
The Best Hidden Menus [via Ranker]
Baby Boxes
In All Things Considered, Health, International, NPR on February 18, 2013 at 10:34 pmEeeegh, how terribly sad. Listen to this report on the spreading use of “Baby Boxes” in Europe where family members – or in some cases, pimps and sex trade workers – anonymously drop off newborns they cannot care for.
European “Baby Box”
“When the infant is placed inside and the door is closed, it can’t be opened from the street again. Meanwhile, an alarm goes off inside and a neonatal team rushes to care for the infant.”
Baby Box instructions
The IKEA Effect
In Morning Edition, NPR, Science on February 6, 2013 at 5:44 pmWhat if it isn’t love that leads to labor, but labor that leads to love? That is the question Tulane University marketing professor Daniel Mochon cheerfully discusses on Morning Edition today – and how IKEA plays a role in our sense of competence.
People made to feel incompetent may be more vulnerable to the Ikea Effect.
“…people attach greater value to things they built than if the very same product was built by someone else. And in new experiments, researchers have discovered why it happens: Building your own stuff boosts your feelings of pride and competence, and also signals to others that you are competent.”
“Give me a child until he is 7, and I will show you the man.”
In Fresh Air, International, NPR, Pop Culture, Television on February 6, 2013 at 2:39 pmThe monumental British documentary series, 7 UP, first followed 14 seven-year-olds from varying economic backgrounds in 1964 – and has continued checking in every seven years thereafter. This year marks the 7th follow up, the cute and candid 7-year-olds are now 56…and after 49 years, the personalities and social statuses haven’t skewed much.
Fresh Air’s Terry Gross spoke with the director, Michael Apted, and one of the 14 subjects, Nick Hitchon, on their experience with the series and thoughts on the latest installment. Listen to the interview here.
“[T]he idea was that we would get some 7-year-old children from different backgrounds — from rich backgrounds, from poor backgrounds, from rural backgrounds … and have them talk about their lives … and see whether that told us anything. And of course it did, because it was both very funny and also chilling, showing that, in fact, the class system was very active, and that people in certain backgrounds had a real vision of their future, and others really didn’t know what day it was.”
Also worth reading:
○ They Grow Up, but They Remain a Lifetime Pursuit [NY Times]
○ What “56 UP” Reveals [New Yorker]
Maurice Sendak Posthumous Farewell
In Morning Edition, News, NPR, Pop Culture on February 5, 2013 at 1:14 amFifty years after Where the Wild Things Are, beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak has a new book, even though he passed away last year. Morning Edition spoke with Tony Kushner, long time friend of Sendak, about My Brother’s Book. A touching conversation about Sendak, his last work, and the meanings behind so many of our favorite stories.
“There’s a lot of consuming and devouring and eating in Maurice’s books. And I think that when people play with kids, there’s a lot of fake ferocity and threats of, you know, devouring, because love is so enormous, the only thing you can think of doing is swallowing the person that you love entirely.”
![Published posthumously, Maurice Sendak's My Brother's Book combines poetry and art in an elegy to Sendak's brother. [npr.org]](https://hearditonnpr.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/maurice.jpg)
Published posthumously, Maurice Sendak’s My Brother’s Book combines poetry and art in an elegy to Sendak’s brother. [npr.org]
I heard it on NPR 