Watercooler Sensation

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Bush’s Summer Reading

• President Bush’s Summer Vacation plans include a lot of reading. This year, he’s got a thing for biographies. [Newsweek]
• Is he boning up on Middle East strategy? Histories of the Iraqi people? Er, not quite. But he did read a really good baseball book.
• The president recently finished David Maraniss’s “Clemente,” about the life of Pittsburgh Pirate/humanitarian Roberto Clemente.
• He also finished “American Prometheus,” the bio of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the A-Bomb. (That makes us a little nervous.)
• He’s currently reading “Lincoln,” by Richard Carwardine, which examines Lincoln’s relationship with evangelical Christians.

Ten bucks says he’s got a copy of Harry Potter hidden behind one of those covers.

Study Links Wrestling To Teen Date Violence

• We knew there had to be a bad side to pro wrestling. A study conducted at Wake Forest University shows that there may be a direct link between watching pro smack-downs on TV and increased amounts of “date fighting” and other deragatory behavior among teens. [ABC News]
• Specifically, researchers looked at increased drinking, drug use and fighting (verbally and physically) among dates.
• And we’re not just talkin’ about the boys: researchers found that violence among girls increased as well with the amount of pro wrestling they watched.
• Not surprising: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. said they’ll clothes-line anyone who mouths off about the study. Just kidding. The organization does, however, refute the findings.
• The study will be published in the medical journal Pediatrics this week.

“Let’s get ready to rumble” is taking on a whole new meaning...

Study Says Food Wrappers Could Cause Serious Allergic Reactions

• And to think back on all those minutes we wasted focusing on the nutrition facts of a Snickers bar... Who knew we should have paid more attention to what was surrounding it? [Daily Mail]
• A new scientific study shows that common food wrappers contain hidden rubber proteins that could trigger allergic reactions in up to 3.5million Britons alone, some of which could be…ehrm…fatal. Gulp.
• Scientists looked for latex allergy triggers in samples of food wrappers, and found that one third of 21 different types of food packaging tested positive for one or more of the allergens.
• Love a good ice-cream sandwich? Well guess what: the highest levels were found in ice cream wrappers.
• Ok, but how bad can these allergens be? As little as a billionth of a gram has been known to trigger an allergic response. We can’t even picture how small that is. But it sounds small. Very small.
• At present, manufacturers are not required to include latex warnings on food packaging labels, but the magazine that published the study has called for a change in labeling rules.

Too bad. We totally dug licking the wrappers of our Klondike Bars.

Top 100 Novels Of All Time

• The British newspaper The Observer has put together a list of the top 100 novels of all time. [Observer]
• Banished from the list: Plays, poems, things considered too “old.” (We also noticed they weren’t overly fond of the ladies.)
• The top 10: Don Qixote; Pilgrim’s Progress; Robinson Crusoe; Gulliver’s Travels; Tom Jones; Clarissa; Tristam Shandy; Dangerous Liaisons; Emma and Frankenstein. (Are you sensing a decidedly British tilt to this list? Yeah, us too.)
• Some may be just as likely to be on your Netflix list than in your library, including Little Women (#25), A Passage to India (#47), Lord of the Rings (#64), To Kill a Mockingbird (#73) and LA Confidential (#95).
• We were glad to see: Catch-22 (#74)
• And of course James Joyce’s Ulysses made the list (#45), although we’re personally convinced there are only 7 people in the world who’ve actually read it.

Where’s the A.S. Byatt? The David Foster Wallace? The Somerset Maugham? We demand a recount!

We’re Doomed: Polo Makes Window Shopping A Reality

• As if we don’t suffer from impulse buying enough already. [Reuters]
• Preppy outfitter Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. is taking window shopping to the next level with technology that lets suckers..er...pedestrians to purchase clothing they see in the windows of one of its New York stores by tapping on the glass.
• Here’s how it works. A 67-inch image of various clothing items are projected onto the store’s glass windows. Customers can select — and purchase — an item by tapping on the glass, and then swiping their credit card through a swiper mounted on the outside of the window.
• Polo’s using the new technology to promote its tennis wear line, which it’s launching in conjunction with the U.S. Open.
• For the time being, the window-shopping device is only being used at Polo’s store on Madison Avenue in New York, and will be in place until September. However, if the display helps to increase sales (and who are we kidding — it will), the Ralph Lauren Corp. plans to install similar technology at stores across the nation.
• Think you’ve seen this before? You have. Company senior vice president David Lauren said the idea was inspired by the Steven Spielberg film “Minority Report.” Freaky.

We can feel our bank accounts heading the way of our dignity: gone.

By the Numbers

The damaged pipeline in Alaska has got drivers all worked up about gas prices. But here’s an even scarier side effect: oil spilling — something that’s happened before, and more often than you’d think. Here are the numbers behind the nasty incidents of this natural resource.

6.5 million

The barrels a day the United States produces. [Off-Shore]

17 million

The barrels a day the United States consumes. [Off-Shore]

More than 1 billion

The gallons of oil spilled worldwide during the last decade. [Marine Group]

83

The average oil spills per year (including ground spills) between 1994-1996. [USGS]

34.4%

Of ocean oil spills over 700 tons are caused by grounding. [ITOPF]

7.0%

Are caused by unknown reasons. [ITOPF]

Twice as much

Of the oil entering the ocean is attributed to sewage treatment plants discharge than to tanker spills. [Off-Shore]

300

Penguins every year are rescued from oil-inflicted damages. [BBC]

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“Stay in your imagination like you are 7 years old. You have purity and innocence. And the rest of your life is like Disneyland — every ride is paid for, so enjoy it. The only thing you have to do is have the courage not to worry about what other people think when you’re screaming on the roller coasters.”

“My role is to remind individuals that there is divinity in our DNA.”

— Guitar legend Carlos Santana. We’ll have what he’s having, please. [Orange County Register]

Speed Round

DISNEY

All that magic is gonna cost ya, buddy. Disney World hikes ticket price to $67 a day. [Motley Fool]

KIDS

Doctors say don’t put your kids in the shopping cart, keep them on a leash. [San Francisco Chronicle]

VALUES

This isn’t how I remember Sunday School: Preacher calls students “sluts,” “whores,” and “fags,” then sues school for curbing his right to free speech. [AP]

SMOKING

Where in your house does the residue from your cigarette smoke go? It sticks to your baby. [USA Today]

FOOD

How do you say “are the donuts hot?” in Mandarin? Krispy Kreme to open first shop in China. [USA Today]

LOTTERY

100 cheese makers pool money, win $208 million. That’s a lot of cheddar. [CBS]

FOOD

India bans Coke, Pepsi, saying the soft-drinks are full of pesticides. [CBS]

HEALTH

Nighty-night! Don’t let the bedbugs bite! No, really, we mean it – there’s a new national infestation and they feed on human blood. [Fox News]

SAFETY

Cops crack down on BUIs – boating while intoxicated. [AP]

PSA

What happens when you chug a Coke then eat some Mentos? Let’s just put it this way – remember Mikey and the PopRocks? [Houston Chronicle]

WINE

Magnets aren’t just for keeping stuff on your fridge anymore; inventor says they can mellow out cheap wines. Wonder if it works on Boone’s Farm? [AP]

SPORTS

Redskin’s Taylor slapped with fines. [Washington Post]