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University of Rochester What links speed, power, and the color red? Hint: it's not a sports car. It's your muscles. A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color's intensifying effect. The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting. But the authors caution that the color energy boost is likely short-lived. "Red enhances our physical reactions because it is seen...

The government seems to mess up everything, even the color of cars. While I'm not so fond of Viridian Joule, Inferno Orange, Tucson Bronze and other crazy car colors, some people are. But in this bad economy those colors are seen less and less each day. The government and its policies have kept this economy at rock bottom and the color of cars sort of bland.

"Dino fuzz" pigment discovery in feathers may strengthen dinosaur-bird link. Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. (Pictures: Dinosaur True Colors Revealed by Feather Find.) The finding may also open up a new world of prehistoric color, illuminating the role of color in dinosaur behavior and allowing the first accurately colored dinosaur re-creations, according to the study team, led by Fucheng Zhang of China's Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology. The team...

A St. Paul man who beat his 4-year-old son for wearing a rival gang's color was sentenced this week to the 86 days he has served in jail. Kenny Tamon Jackson, 30, pleaded guilty to malicious punishment of a child, a gross misdemeanor, in the Aug. 25 incident. Ramsey County District Judge Kathleen Gearin ordered Jackson on Tuesday to have no contact with the 4-year-old until he completes a parenting program. Gearin also sentenced him to two years' probation. According to the criminal complaint, police were called about 12:30 p.m. to Jackson's house in the 500 block of Sherburne Avenue....

I just purchased a package of Peanut Butter M&M's that has led me to ponder three things: Why does the name M&M's contain an apostrophe-s? Why is the package Net weight 1.63 oz.? Maybe related to a metric measure you might suggest. Well they also list that at 46.2g. Why not 1.5 oz. or 50g? Why can't they balance the colors? There's always at least one under represented color. My package has 6 blue, 6 orange, 5 green, 4 brown, 3 yellow, and only 2 red.

Hearing the cable talk-show host solemnly pose the question, I could not suppress a belly laugh. For the anchor was fearful that some white folks might reject Barack Obama because he is African-American - even as a Rasmussen poll was reporting that Obama is beating McCain among black voters 94 to 1. What, other than race, explains how Obama rolled up 90-10 margins among black voters while running against Hillary Clinton, wife of the man novelist Toni Morrison dubbed “our first black president”? Indeed, so one-sided was the primary coverage in favor of Obama as the first African-American with a...

The owner of a Montreal cafe where patrons can smoke a psychoactive variety of sage says he will close up shop next month. Matthew Liscomb told the Montreal Gazette that Les Mentheurs would go out of business on Aug. 23 due to legal battles and changes in provincial tobacco laws. On top of that, he said, business insurance has been increasingly difficult to get. It's not been easy getting insured and it's not legal to operate a business without proper insurance, he told the Gazette. The closure will mark the end of a stormy history for Les Mentheurs, a 30-seat...

DNC Wants Food In Convention ColorsUPDATED: 1:54 pm MDT May 19, 2008 Many caterers are cheering eco-friendly requirements for menus at events hosted by the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the Democratic National Convention, but some see them as a challenge. A request for catering proposals for events sponsored by the Host Committee asks for no fried foods; no individual plastic containers for liquids; reusable, recyclable or compostable plates; and local or organic food -- or both. Another request is for food to be in at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white. One...

Soldiers of 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (SCR), prepare to raise the regimental flag over the headquarters during a transfer of authority event on Camp Liberty, Sept. 8. The 2nd SCR out of Vilseck, Germany, relieved the Arrowhead Brigade, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, out of Fort Lewis, Wash. Photo by Spc. Leith Edgar, 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. CAMP LIBERTY — The 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (SCR) “Dragoons� replaced the 3rd “Arrowhead� Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division as the quick-reaction force for the Iraqi capital Sept. 13, allowing the Arrowhead Soldiers to return home to...

ESCONDIDO - He looks like your standard alley cat, nothing to write home about. But officials at the Escondido Humane Society say he is a rare specimen, “a once-in-a-lifetime” cat like none they have ever seen before. They call him Phinny, for phenomenon. It wasn't until they were ready to spay Phinny that they found out he needed neutering instead. And that's how he got his name. Phinny, you see, is a male tortoiseshell, a tricolor cat. He's not quite the missing link in the cat world, but is undoubtedly a rare quirk of nature, for reasons of genetics. “In...

United they stood, not for glory, but because they were a band of brothers. Nobody was watching them, and no glory awaited them. They stood because they were men of honor and dignity. Lesson from the past.

"March 17th: We Veterans have been made aware of a Rally planned by A.N.S.W.E.R. ; with JANE FONDA, Cindy Sheehan and others -to Re-Create the Anti-Vietnam War Marches in D.C.- -But stressing their " End the War NOW " Messages. ONLY they plan to use the VIETNAM WAR Memorial WALL-as their backround-with their now exposed possible plans to Desecrate & cause Damage to that beloved Monument as " an expression of their Free-Speech against the War/President Bush, Our Troops....."

These Colors Do.

For anyone who may be interested, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Bugles Across America will be conducting Taps Throughout America on Armed Forces Day in May, 2007. One of the main reasons for the event is to alert people to the critical shortage of Buglers needed for funerals with Military Honors. The project will attempt to have buglers play Taps at all National Cemeteries, State Veterans Cemeteries and VA medical facilities in areas distant from a National Cemetery. BAA needs Project Directors who will work with the VA's contact person to coordinate individual events. Visit the BAA website at...

After this weekend's brew-ha-ha in PHX, LA and elsewhere I got to thinking; I've never seen the Union Jack, the Canadian Mapleleaf, or any other national colors ever defaced and discrespected, just the US Colors. Has any one else noticed this? If there is another national colors that's been defaced I'd sure like to see the jpg.

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), the Ohio Republican who wants to be House majority leader, helped expose abuses at the House bank under Democrats' control a decade ago and then embarrassed his own party with his dealings with lobbying interests. Boehner was forced to apologize in the mid-1990s for distributing checks from tobacco companies to his colleagues as they worked on the House floor. More recently, he was scrutinized for accepting donations, parties and trips from Sallie Mae, the nation's largest provider of student loans, as it lobbied the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which...

Though there's geology involved, today we will just take a look at the colors of autumn from the air. Using Bertrand's Web site, I guessed and got lucky with an identification of the first one. I have no idea where the second one is from, so if someone has the time and enterprising spirit, have fun figuring out the location. The caption for the first is below the picture. AUTUMN FOREST IN THE REGION OF CHARLEVOIX, QUEBEC, CANADA (47°40' N, 71°02' W) The hills of the Charlevoix region along the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec province are dominated by a...

BABADAG TRAINING AREA, Romania, July 27, 2005 — A Texas flag that once flew over Texas National Guard Master Sgt. Michael Young's bunker in Vietnam now soars over the Task Force Raider Tactical Operations Command tent in Romania. The flag flies one last time before the fifth generation Texan retires from his 38-year military career in February. Young and his fellow soldiers from Texas posted the colors to bring a Lonestar State ambiance to their operations at ROMEX 05. ROMEX 05 is a bi-lateral exercise in the Babadag Training Area that includes tactical training and community development projects in Tulcea...

OAHU, Ha., (Army News Service, July 8, 2005) – When the 25th Infantry Division (Light) Division Artillery cased its colors June 15, it became the first division artillery brigade to deactivate in the Army’s transformation. Presently, there are 16 division artillery brigades, but after the transformation, only five or six will remain, said Col. Gary H. Cheek, DIVARTY commander. The headquarters elements of his DIVARTY will be consolidated and restructured within other combat brigades. Units like Battery F, 7th Field Artillery, or FA, Regiment, are inactivating, while direct support battalions like 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment and 2nd Battalion,...

Raven, a 12-yr-old whose uncle is fighting in Iraq made a necklace from red, white and blue beads from a jewelry kit she received for Christmas. She wore it to school as a token of support for her uncle andSchenectady school officials immediately banned her from displaying her unique neckwear in a belief such "gang-related" jewelry violates policy, court papers alleged. Raven was threatened with suspension if she continued to wear the beads.

So the United Nations is all hot and bothered over leaflets. That's right — leaflets. Not the insurgents' leaflets — the ones that talk of murdering anyone who dare goes out and votes. Not a word about them. No, they are upset at "our" leaflets. The ones that simply remind Iraqis they have the chance to vote. They've plenty of words about them. The U.N. claims that we're taking sides. So, let me get this straight: Celebrating democracy is bad. Promising to butcher those who practice it is good? Only a body of soulless bodies like the U.N. could ignore...

U.S. Department of Justice opens inquiry into Plano school’s restrictive Christmas policy Preliminary inquiry announced one day after lawsuit filed by ADF and LLI Release Date: 2004-12-16 Primary Category: Religious Freedom ADF Media Relations 480-444-0020 PLANO, Texas—The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it is opening a “preliminary inquiry” into the Plano Independent School District. The announcement comes one day after attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Legal Institute filed suit against the district for its restrictive policy against religious Christmas expression (www.alliancedefensefund.org/story/?id=566). “Though the DOJ has made no determination about the merits of this case, their...

A Dichotomy in Two Colors by Christopher Westley [Posted November 19, 2004] Call it the mystery of the red and the blue. After the presidential election, many have noticed the irony of how some of the more conservative, culturally red states seem to receive more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. Meanwhile, some of the more liberal, culturally blue states seem to receive less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. You’d think the supposedly anti-Washington reds should be blues and the supposedly pro-Washington blues should be reds. After all, the red states seem to...

Sen. John Kerry’s long and sordid past of association with defaming American soldiers, voting against needed weapon systems, voting to cut funding to American intelligence agencies and negotiating with America’s enemies continues to be the past that Kerry would like the voters to forget. This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

United Colors of America By Rebecca Solnit August 15, 2004: Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge announced today that the nation was on lilac alert with a cream overwash after reports that forces in the military were refusing to bomb civilian targets in Iraq. "Sources tell us that they claim such activity would be ugly," said Ridge, adding that such a position was clearly the work of homosexuals carrying out the mandate of Al Qaeda. He further charged that certain members of the military consider the depleted-uranium-clad armored personnel carriers to be an ugly green. "We're a primary-colored nation,'" said Ridge....

It is the "Holy Grail" of horticulture and soon it could make the perfect present for Mother's Day: scientists have found a way to produce a blue rose.A chance discovery in a laboratory means that they will be able to create the blue rose "within a year" and it is expected to go on sale to the public soon after that.   How the blue rose could look Rose breeders and growers said that blue roses would be hugely popular and estimated that they would win five per cent - £35 million - of the £700 million international market for...

[Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch was lead away in handcuffs for saying his cat was NOT a bomb] According to another waiting passenger nearby, Klayman told the screeners that the cat wasn't a terrorist and didn't have a bomb. With that, we're told, he was instantly taken out of line by the security people and put in handcuffs. He was then apparently taken somewhere for questioning, where agents most likely didn't recognize him or realize that he was famous. He was eventually released, and he hopped a later flight. "It wasn't a funny joke," Klayman said last week, rejecting our...

What visual do you think of as "calming?" What color is the most calming to you? Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these two questions!

Rocks for the Ages"Seven of the world's rarest and most unusual diamonds will be brought together for a special show starting this month at the National Museum of Natural History. The museum will announce today that the diamonds -- ranging from the 203-carat Millennium Star to the 5.11-carat Moussaieff Red -- will go on display June 27 through Sept. 15." The gems will be in a glass-enclosed vault less than 10 feet from the 44.5-carat Hope Diamond, one of Washington's biggest tourist attractions.

April 15, 2003 Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes People with synesthesia--whose senses blend together--are providing valuable clues to understanding the organization and functions of the human brain By Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard When Matthew Blakeslee shapes hamburger patties with his hands, he experiences a vivid bitter taste in his mouth. Esmerelda Jones (a pseudonym) sees blue when she listens to the note C sharp played on the piano; other notes evoke different hues--so much so that the piano keys are actually color-coded, making it easier for her to remember and play musical scales. And when Jeff Coleman looks...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 11 Iridescent Clouds Credit & Copyright: Arne Danielsen Explanation: Why would clouds appear to be different colors? A relatively rare phenomenon known as iridescent clouds can show unusual colors vividly or a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These clouds are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When the Sun is in the right position and mostly hidden by thick clouds, these thinner clouds...

Tonight's Grammy awards could turn into one long anti-war protest, judging by the parties leading up to the event. "Tell Mr. President we don't want war," Wyclef Jean told a cheering crowd during a rendition of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," at Friday's "Tinseltown to Gotham" party at Cipriani 42nd Street. Asked why American soldiers shouldn't oust Saddam, since they rid Wyclef's Haitian homeland of "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the singer told us: "The United States and Haiti always had a relationship." At the pre-Grammy bash thrown by designer Nicole Miller, Faith Evans boldly declared, "War is the pits. I...

There’s a direct connection between one’s age and how soon Christmas gets here. For children, it’s excruciatingly slow in arriving. The week before Christmas is the longest time of the year. Little wonder so many succumb to the temptation of cracking open a gift or two and oh-so-carefully rewrapping them. For adults, Christmas comes much too soon. There’s not enough time, and at the last minute we remember something we should have done but now it’s too late and we pledge to be better organized next year. For most of us, this is an annual vow. I’m one of those...

What color is your terror? By JOHN DAVID POWELL TMNS Contributor March 22, 2002 Who would of thought it? The black heart of terrorism has been transformed into a colorful fashion statement. In case you didn't know it, Americans are under a "yellow" alert today, which means we face a "significant risk of terrorist attacks." The color designation is part of a special color-coded system designed to end confusion over terrorism warnings in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Since the attacks, the office of Homeland Security has issued four terror warnings, resulting in complaints on the part of...