Here are some fun facts:
The U.S. Constitution has 4,543 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. It contains 7,591 words including the 27 amendments.
Constitution Day is celebrated on September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document.
The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26).
A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were involved in debates from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. six days a week with only a 10 day break during the duration of the convention.
From 1804 to 1865 there were no amendments added to the Constitution until the end of the Civil War when the Thirteenth amendment was added that abolished slavery. This was the longest period in American history in which there were no changes to our Constitution.
As evidence of its continued flexibility, the Constitution has only been changed seventeen times since 1791.
James Madison of Virginia was responsible for proposing the resolution to create the various Cabinet positions within the Executive Branch of our government and twelve amendments to the Constitution of which ten became the Bill of Rights. Have you ever wondered how so many of our congressmen and senators are lawyers? Of the fifty-five delegates who attended the convention 34 were lawyers.
Sep 18, 2009
Quotable
In free countries, every man is entitled to express his opinions and every other man is entitled not to listen.
Ginger Day
We just passed the ginger festival, where 3,000 redheads came together for a recent gathering and it became a bonding experience.
The celebrations for the annual Redhead Day, which has spilled across a weekend to mark all things ginger id paid for by the local government in Breda, a city in the south east Netherlands. It has been celebrated for five years and has grown into a huge festival of ginger self-affirmation, overtaking the city center for one weekend every September.
The initiative is all for the redheads and there is much common ground for the members of one of the most genetically distinctive, yet disparate groups in the world. Men and women sporting a spectrum of ginger, from strawberry blonde to rich ochre, swap stories of being picked on in the playground and discrimination in the wider world. Here they just enjoy the fun and camaraderie.
The celebrations for the annual Redhead Day, which has spilled across a weekend to mark all things ginger id paid for by the local government in Breda, a city in the south east Netherlands. It has been celebrated for five years and has grown into a huge festival of ginger self-affirmation, overtaking the city center for one weekend every September.
The initiative is all for the redheads and there is much common ground for the members of one of the most genetically distinctive, yet disparate groups in the world. Men and women sporting a spectrum of ginger, from strawberry blonde to rich ochre, swap stories of being picked on in the playground and discrimination in the wider world. Here they just enjoy the fun and camaraderie.
National Health IT Week, Sept. 21 -25
National Health IT Week is a collaborative forum now in its fourth year of assembling key healthcare constituents - vendors, provider organizations, payers, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, government agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations, and consumer protection groups, working together to elevate national attention to the necessity of advancing health IT.
Intelligence and Sperm
In another dumb study and finding, Sep 3, 2009, a psychologist found that men with the highest IQ also have the healthiest sperm.
"The findings could explain why some of the world’s most intelligent men have so many female admirers no matter their physical attractiveness. They also suggest that being smart and funny might have developed as a signal to women looking for a mate with healthy genes."
The research, by the evolutionary psychologist Professor Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico, centered around a study of 400 Vietnam War veterans who were put through extensive mental tests and were also asked to provide sperm samples.
According to the test results, it was found that men who scored high on a battery of intelligence tests boasted high counts of healthy sperm. Whereas, low scorers tended to have fewer and more sickly sperm.
Professor Miller, who was speaking at a conference of the Association for the Study of Animal Behavior at Oxford University, believes that sperm quality was directly related to brain quality. The two traits could have evolved together as a way to advertise good genes, he said. I guess he also believes that evolution begins in the classroom. This proves it, if you go to school, your sperm will be healthy and you might become a psychologist that gets paid to conduct stupid studies, come up with dubious results, and share them with the Brits.
"The findings could explain why some of the world’s most intelligent men have so many female admirers no matter their physical attractiveness. They also suggest that being smart and funny might have developed as a signal to women looking for a mate with healthy genes."
The research, by the evolutionary psychologist Professor Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico, centered around a study of 400 Vietnam War veterans who were put through extensive mental tests and were also asked to provide sperm samples.
According to the test results, it was found that men who scored high on a battery of intelligence tests boasted high counts of healthy sperm. Whereas, low scorers tended to have fewer and more sickly sperm.
Professor Miller, who was speaking at a conference of the Association for the Study of Animal Behavior at Oxford University, believes that sperm quality was directly related to brain quality. The two traits could have evolved together as a way to advertise good genes, he said. I guess he also believes that evolution begins in the classroom. This proves it, if you go to school, your sperm will be healthy and you might become a psychologist that gets paid to conduct stupid studies, come up with dubious results, and share them with the Brits.
Quotable
The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error of age is to believe experience is a substitute for intelligence.
Sep 17, 2009
Men and Memory
In another stupid research study, research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.
Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.
Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man. This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.
Radboud University in The Netherlands recruited 40 male heterosexual students. Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.
The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test. The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they liked them, the worse their score.
In a report on their findings the researchers said, "We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman."
Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes. If we look at the two studies together, we must conclude that if a smart man talks to a beautiful woman, he becomes dumb and his sperm get slow. This would negate both and prove how stupid they both are.
Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.
Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man. This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.
Radboud University in The Netherlands recruited 40 male heterosexual students. Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.
The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test. The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they liked them, the worse their score.
In a report on their findings the researchers said, "We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman."
Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes. If we look at the two studies together, we must conclude that if a smart man talks to a beautiful woman, he becomes dumb and his sperm get slow. This would negate both and prove how stupid they both are.
Krispy Kreme
According to TV, it takes 22 seconds for KK to make a stack of doughnuts the height of the Empire State Building (1250 feet).
Lobbyists be Gone
Remember when the new administration said, "There is no room for lobbyists in this Administration" just a few short months ago?
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The fight over health care overhaul is on track be the most expensive issue ever to hit the hallways of Congress.
The bill for lobbyists, television ads and political donations has topped $375 million - or enough to pay the entire insurance tab for about 30,000 families a year.
The largest chunk has gone to direct lobbying of lawmakers and other policymakers. In the first half of 2009, the health care industry spent nearly $280 million on lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"The health sector is on track in 2009 to spend more on lobbying than it has on any other year in U.S. history - and by a lot," said Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes and collects lobbying and campaign spending figures. And we think our elected officials really work for us?
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