Link Collection

One of the big reasons why the devastation was so great in Haiti is that there are *no* building codes in Haiti and the widespread poverty in Haiti leads to reduced construction quality. A study found that the buildings were so poorly constructed that they would be unable to handle any type of disaster, even those not as serious as the strong earthquake that hit Haiti:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.construction/

Somali pirates released an oil tanker they were keeping hostage after receiving their biggest ransom payment ever (between $5.5 million and $7 million). This means that the pirates will be very well funded for the foreseeable future...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H1XX20100118

Study found that nearsightedness has increased 66% in the US over the past 30 years, with the severity of nearsightedness also increasing:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/nearsightedness-increasing/

Study found that students who think out loud while solving a math problem or who draw or make a pictorial representation relating to it can solve problems faster and have more ways to find the correct solution than those who are silent and do not draw a diagram:
http://www.physorg.com/news180359255.html

Study found that smaller fingers can sense the textures of tiny objects in greater detail than larger-sized digits. This explains why women tend to have a better sense of touch than men, with the study finding that men with smaller fingers have the same increased touch sensitivity:
http://www.physorg.com/news180120296.html

Octopuses have been found to use coconut-shell halves as tools for protection and/or deception:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-octopus-carries-coconuts-coconut-carrying.html

Interesting story on the making of the movie "Blind Side". When Julia Roberts turned down the main part, NONE of the major movie studios would agree to fund the movie and Fox even suggested changing the main character to a man even though the story was based on a real woman...the small movie company Alcon could not afford Sandra Bullock's $10 million salary and didn't want the movie to be lumped in with a typical Lifetime movie, so they got Bullock to agree to take half her normal salary in exchange for a bigger cut of the profits...so Bullock will now make about $25 million, and possibly more if the DVD is popular:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-blindside17-2010jan17,0,1260350,full.story

I cannot imagine how this man felt when his wife died as he held her hand while she was in labor...and then he saw the doctors deliver his baby by C-section and the newborn boy was limp with the barest murmur of a heartbeat. Then, a few minutes later the doctors were able to revive his son...and his wife unexpectedly came back to life after having no heartbeat for 4 minutes!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34625348/ns/health-heart_health/