Google Reports Virus Email Activity At All Time High In July 2008
Official Google Enterprise Blog: "In July, our Postini datacenters saw the biggest volume of email virus attacks so far in 2008, with a peak of nearly 10 million messages on July 24. One of the more prominent attacks in the month involved a spoofed UPS package-tracking link that was intended to lure recipients into clicking on it and downloading malware. Our zero-hour virus protection technology first started catching these emails on July 20."

House Foreclosure Activity Rises 55% From July 2007 to July 2008
News release: "RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, has released its July 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 272,171 U.S. properties during the month, an 8 percent increase from the previous month and a 55 percent increase from July 2007. The report also shows one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

New Congressional Database of Lobbyist Campaign Contributions
Senate Lobbying Contributions Database
House Lobbying Contributions Database
"The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 requires lobbying registrants and individual lobbyists to file a semi-annual report of certain contributions, along with a certification that the filer understands the gift and travel rules of both the House and the Senate. These reports are due by July 30th (for the January through June reporting period) and by January 30th (for the July through December reporting period) or the next business day should either of those days fall on a weekend or holiday. Registrants, and each of their lobbyists, who were active for all or part of the semi-annual reporting period must file separate reports detailing certain FECA contributions, honorary contributions, presidential library contributions, and payments for event costs."

New Research Reveals Consumers Reducing Medical Visits to Save Money
News release: "To save money, many Americans are cutting back on medical care — potentially putting their health at risk — according to new research from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). A national survey of 686 consumers, fielded in July, found that 22 percent of U.S. consumers say they have reduced the number of times they see the doctor as a result of today’s economy. Furthermore, 11 percent of consumers say they have cut back the number of prescription drugs they take or the dosage of those medications to make the prescription last longer."

Paycheck Fairness Act of 2008
H.R.1338 - To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.

The French Revolutionary Calendar (or Republican Calendar) was officially adopted in France on October 24, 1793 and abolished on 1 January 1806 by Emperor Napoleon I. It was used again briefly during under the Paris Commune in 1871. The French also established a new clock, in which the day was divided in ten hours of a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds--exactly 100,000 seconds per day. The calendar was adopted after a long debate involving the mathematicians Romme and Monge, the poets Chénier and Fabre d' Eglantine and the painter David. The mathematicians contributed equal month division, and decimal measures of time. The poets contributed the name of the days, choosing the names of plants, domestic animals and tools; the months rhyme three by three, according to the "sonority" of the seasons.
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-french.html

Flood figures for University of Iowa
$231 million damage
2 million square feet of campus affected by flooding
20 buildings flooded
Iowa Alumni Magazine August 2008
78 counties in Iowa (out of 99) considered federal disaster areas for public assistance

The unearthing of a Stone Age cemetery is providing the first glimpses of what life was like during the still-mysterious period when monsoons brought rain to the desert and created the "green Sahara." The more than 200 graves that have been explored so far indicate that, beginning 10,000 years ago, two populations lived on the shores of a massive lake, separated by a 1,000-year period during which the lake dried up. Among the scientists' most surprising discoveries has been a poignant burial tableau of a woman and two children with fingers intertwined.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-sahara15-2008aug15,0,583067.story