What I learned in the New York Times during August....
8/1: New York's City Council recently passed regulations to limit the number of new driveways. 8/2: Floods in North Korea have loosened land mines, sending them to South Korean rivers and beaches. 8/3: The nail dryers at nail salons use UV lamps, which are a risk factor for skin cancer. 8/4: More than 80 percent of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters' $803 million in sales last year came from nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable single-use coffee pods and their brewing systems. 8/5: Other professional cyclists are said to be supporting claims that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs. 8/6: "When I'm used to seeing diamonds, I'm used to seeing them shiny and in a box," said Naomi Campbell while testifying in the war-crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Also: "It's not abnormal for me to get gifts; I get gifts all the time." 8/7: When Robert Shields and Lorene Yarnell were married in 1972, the ceremony was mimed. Plus: The three mains New York City–area airports will get full-body scanners next month. 8/8: New York does not explicitly forbid biking after drinking alcohol. 8/9: One way Roald Dahl helped Patricia Neal recover from three strokes was by holding things out of her reach until she managed to ask for them. Plus: Girls are increasingly likely to develop breasts by age 7 or 8. 8/10: A spinal fluid test can identify patients with significant memory loss who are on their way to developing Alzheimer's disease. 8/11: Tex Wasabi's, a mini-chain co-owned by TV personality Guy Fieri, serves a "sushi" roll filled with pulled pork, avocado, and French fries. 8/12: The television room at Guantánamo Bay may be used by one detainee at a time, and he must wear leg irons while watching. 8/13: When Mayor Bloomberg was a child, his parents asked their lawyer, a Christian, to buy a house and sell it back to them in order to hide their identity as Jews. 8/14: President Obama spoke out in favor of the mosque planned for Park Place. 8/15: President Obama said that he wasn't endorsing the Park51 mosque so much as endorsing the idea that all Americans have certain rights. Plus: Schools are making students bring cleaning materials as school supplies. 8/16: Thirty gallons of bleach spilled of the top floor of a Times Square skyscraper. Plus: Bernadette Peters is 62 years old. 8/17: To preserve the bubbles, Champagne should be poured like beer, against the side of a titled glass. 8/18: News Corporation donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. 8/19: Fareed Zakaria returned a First Amendment award given to him by the Anti-Defamation League after the ADL announced its opposition to the Park51 Islamic cultural center. 8/20: A Saudi Arabian judge has asked several hospitals if they can maim a man's spinal cord as punsihment for him paralyzing someone else. 8/21: The U.S. State Department has funded Middle East speaking tours by Park51 imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. 8/23: In 2009, more than 16,000 civilians were killed in Venezuela—compared to 4,600 in Iraq. Plus: Richard Dreyfuss is in the cast of Piranha 3-D. 8/24: Male cats produce more allergens than female cats. 8/25: In July, U.S. housing sales were more than 25% lower than the level of a year ago. 8/26: Germany might make it illegal for employers to look at Facebook pages of prospective employees. Plus: Golfer Jim Furyk overslept and missed his tee time for a tournament. Plus: Alan K. Simpson, the Republican co-chair of President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission, wrote in a letter that Social Security is like "a milk cow with 310 million tits." 8/27: A lot of jazz musicians play Ping-Pong. 8/28: Japan and the U.S. are the only Group of 8 nations that use capital punishment. Plus: The 33 miners trapped in Chile were sent 33 tiny Bibles. 8/29: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have never played against each other in the U.S. Open. 8/30: Stephen Colbert's middle name is Tyrone. Plus: Lauryn Hill has five children. Plus: Paris Hilton was arrested when a small vial of cocaine fell out of her purse while she was removing lip balm in front of a police officer. 8/31: Bedbugs usually live in a bed or within eight feet of one.
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