Watercooler Sensation

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Coming To Your Change?

• If Congress passes a new measure aimed at the U.S. Mint, our change could soon change. [USA Today]
• Let us explain.
• A penny is 97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper. A nickel is 75% copper, 25% nickel.
• With rising metal prices, right now, the metal used to make a penny costs 1.5 cents, and the metal in a nickel costs 8.2 cents. And that doesn’t make much sense.
• Fearing a coin shortage, the Mint earlier this year prohibited melting down your pennies to make money on the scrap.
• The Mint wants to make change using cheaper metals, but that means Congress has to pass a law allowing it.
• If we were to change the composition of the penny and the nickel using cheaper materials, the federal government would save $100 million a year. Included other change in the mix and we’re talking $400 million.
• Keep in mind, the Mint does operate at a profit. If a coin costs less to make than it’s worth – like the quarter – the Federal Reserve buys it for face value and the Mint pockets the profit. In 2005, the Mint made $730 million from coin production. [USA Today 2006]
• Sounds like a no-brainer, but there’s more to it than that. Changing the make-up of our change means vending machines would no longer be able to recognize pennies or nickels.

A coin collector is called a “numismatist.” See? You learned something.

Johnson and Johnson Wants It’s Red Cross Logo Back From...The Red Cross

• Medical manufacturing giant Johnson & Johnson has undertaken an unpopular quest: a lawsuit against the American Red Cross. [BBC]
• At issue: usage of the famous red cross symbol, trademarked by Johnson & Johnson, which granted American Red Cross limited usage rights in 1887. Now, J&J is suing the Red Cross for violating the agreement by using the logo on products that they’re selling.
• According to the agreement, Red Cross was allowed to use the symbol, “only in connection with nonprofit relief services.”
• The goods that the Red Cross is selling in supposed violation of the agreement? Emergency relief kits whose profits go “to boost Red Cross disaster-response efforts.”
• Lame: J&J wants the Red Cross to compensate the medical company for the full market value of the goods and cease sales.
• Says Mark Everson, the Red Cross president,"For a multibillion-dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute ... simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene.”

Enough to make us cross.

Surfing At 30,000 Feet

• Good news: You know that NY-LA flight? The five-and-a-half-hour one (depending on headwinds)? Pretty soon, it won’t cut into your eBay time. [ABC]
• Connecting to the Internet in-flight will almost undoubtedly become regular practice in just a few years as commercial airlines begin pursuing cost-effective ways to keep their customers connected.
• Take a look at American Airlines: The sky-travel staple announced it would team with AirCell, a telecommunications company specializing in airborne connectivity, to test a new in-flight service that would use on-the-ground cell towers, rather than satellites, to provide high-speed, broadband Internet service on transcontinental flights in 2008 at a tentative pricetag of around $10 per session.
• The idea of in-flight connectivity isn’t necessarily a new one. Past attempts at in-flight surfing have often failed, due to the lack of success when it came to finding a workable business model.
• But American Airline’s model — based on on-the-ground cell towers, is cutting edge. Here’s how it works: As the plane passes from one on-the-ground tower toward another, a hand-off of the signal between the two towers takes place, providing uninterrupted Internet access to the customer. Each tower’s got a signal diameter of about 250 miles — so the entire nation can be covered with a total of about 10 towers. Pretty sweet.
• American Airlines has stressed that its model is “just a test.” But experts say built-in Internet connectivity will be standard on most planes in the future.

Nothing says pathetic like MySpacing at 30,000 feet.

The Science of Being A Wallflower

• The Smiths said it best: “Shyness is nice and / Shyness can stop you/ From doing all the things in life / You’d like to.” Now, though, science is shedding some light on why we tend to be shy, and the roots of our (incredibly) socially awkward behavior. [Live Science]
• Psychologists estimate that shyness affects about 40% of the population. But here’s the thing: despite beliefs to the contrary, shyness isn’t a hardwired part of one’s personality. You see, being shy requires that one has a sense of self — which develops only after about 18 months of age.
• Genes do, however, seem to play a role. About 15 percent of babies are born with what is called an “inhibited temperament” — meaning that they react stressfully to new experiences. They might cower at the sound of a bursting balloon, for instance.
• “This does not mean that shyness is predetermined by inheritance, or that it cannot be overcome,” said Jonathan Cheek, a psychologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, “but simply that some people are born more susceptible to becoming shy than are others.”
• So what’s a wallflower to do? There are a number of approaches to overcoming shyness, experts say. One is through relaxation training. People might try imagining themselves in different social situations while taking slow, deep breaths to keep calm.
• Surprisingly, volunteerism can also play a major role in overcoming shyness. “When you volunteer, [people] don’t really care your level of skill; they’re just after your time, so there’s no critical self-evaluation,” Cheek explains.

Or, there’s our approach: alcohol.

Well I’ll Be A Monkey’s Uncle! New Breakthrough In Evolutionary Theory

• A new breakthrough in the study of evolution shows our family tree has a few more branches to it than we originally thought. [CNN] [AP]
• The research, conducted by Meave Leakey (yes, one of *those* Leakeys) was published yesterday in the journal Nature.
• The biggest finding: We thought our early ancestor Homo habilis evolved into Homo erectus, which then evolved into Homo sapiens (that’s us.) Now it turns out that Homo habilis and Homo erectus lived at the exact same time 1.5 million years ago in Kenya.
• According to Professor Fred Spoor, it’s “the equivalent of finding that your grandmother and great-grandmother were sisters, rather than mother-daughter.” How very Chinatown.
• They also found that female skulls in our early ancestors were smaller than males — something you see in animals, but not in modern humans.
• And that means, like most families, our family tree is a lot messier and more complicated than the ape-to-man-with-briefcase succession of evolution we grew up with.
• Calm down, all you intelligent design types — scientists still firmly believe in evolution — this is just redraws the tree a little.

In other fossil news, our most famous ancestor, the 3-million-year-old “Lucy” starts her national tour of museums this week.

By the Numbers

Melting. Roasting. Scorching. Everywhere we turn this week, we’re confronted by a Wall O’ Heat. It got us thinking — is this the hottest it’s ever been? Here are the top six hottest temperatures recorded by state. I think we’re about to break some records.

[InfoPlease]

134 degrees

The hottest temperature on record in the United States, in Death Valley, California, July 10, 1913

128 degrees

Lake Havasu, Arizona, June 29, 1994

125 degrees

Laughlin, Nevada, June 29, 1994

122 degrees

Waste Isolat. Pilot Pit, New Mexico, June 27, 1994

121 degrees

Steele, North Dakota, July 6, 1936

121 degrees

Alton, Kansas, July 24, 1936

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“I know she’s going to be the best mom ever.”

— Paris Hilton, on Nicole Richie’s parenting skills. Consider the source, people. Consider the source. [People]

Speed Round

HAPPIEST HEADLINE EVER

“Giant Lego man washed up on Dutch beach.” [ABC News]

HAPPY BABY

Director Tim Burton and his wife actress Helena Bohnam Carter are expecting. [People]

MOVIE NEWS

Hotshot stars Ed Norton and Liv Tyler are re-making the re-make of The Incredible Hulk. Yeah, we don’t get it either. [Just Jared]

MOVIE NEWS

Mr. Big is back! Actor Chris Noth has agreed to reprise his iconic role in Sex & The City: The Movie. [NY Daily News]

MUSIC NEWS

Icky Thump! White Stripes frontman Jack White is the daddy to a brand-new baby boy named a shockingly normall Henry Lee White. [MSNBC]

SURPRISE!

Panda that scientists assumed was a boy turns out to be a hermaphrodite, gives birth to panda twins. “Middlesex” sequel anyone? [CNN]

LIFE AND SCIENCE

Scientists discover two new species of shrew. And no, one of them is not your mother-in-law. [CNN]

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES

61 stars have been removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And we’re not talking about Britney Murphy. We’re talking about Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra. [AP]

CELEBRIDIRT

Ricky Martin’s the new Angelina, wants to adopt a kid from each continent. [AP]

THE SKINNY ON HOLLYWOOD

Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo says that celebutantes in Hollywood are setting a bad example. Having a piece of lettuce for dinner though? A-ok. [AP]

WHEN REPORTERS GET BORED

“Futura sees big impact from enlarging condoms” [Reuters]

OH...THANK GOD

Nearly 2,000 newts and hundreds of toads have been given new homes as work continues on London’s Olympic Park for the 2012 Games, organisers said on Thursday. [Reuters]

WORLD LEADERS! THEY’RE JUST LIKE US!

German chancellor Angela Merkel shops at grocery stores! [Reuters]

TODAY’S DOSE OF IRONY

The latest location for a gigantic Bourne Ultimatum billboard? Smack-dab on the side of Matt Damon’s Manhattan apartment. [Smoking Gun]

1,300

The number of sheep on a Croatian island that have tragically died from...thirst. [UPI]