Grand Canyon floods breach dam, force evacuations
When a small group of hikers returned to the spot where they had tied their rafts, they found that a flash flood had left them stranded. They were stuck without rafts, no supplies, no food and very little water.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqaCenny-50jvG0nV16P40tF0FTAD92KL6RG0

Makers of Airborne Settle FTC Charges of Deceptive Advertising; Agreement Brings Total Settlement Funds to $30 Million
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Airborne Health, Inc., the Bonita Springs, Florida maker of the popular Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, an effervescent tablet marketed as a cold prevention and treatment remedy, has agreed to pay up to $30 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it did not have adequate evidence to support its advertising claims. The FTC’s lawsuit also names Victoria Knight-McDowell, the former schoolteacher who invented Airborne, and her husband Thomas John McDowell. If the settlement is approved by the court, it will prohibit the defendants from making false and unsubstantiated cold prevention, germ-fighting, and efficacy claims. The monetary judgment will be satisfied by the defendants’ adding $6.5 million to the funds they have already agreed to pay to settle a related private class-action lawsuit, bringing the total settlement fund to $30 million.
“There is no credible evidence that Airborne products, taken as directed, will reduce the severity or duration of colds, or provide any tangible benefit for people who are exposed to germs in crowded places,” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
+ Federal Trade Commission v. Airborne Health, Inc…
+ Archived webcast (with transcript)

Pew Internet Report on Search Engine Use
News release: "The percentage of internet users who use search engines on a typical day has been steadily rising from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of just under one-half (49%). With this increase, the number of those using a search engine on a typical day is pulling ever closer to the 60% of internet users who use email, arguably the internet's all-time killer app, on a typical day."
Search Engine Use Data Memo, August 6, 2008

Local Leaders in Sustainability: Green Counties
AIA news release: "American counties are showing how to "Walk the Walk" on sustainability by creating impressive green building programs across the country County green building programs have increased fivefold since 2003, and the future looks bright for green design, according to Local Leaders in Sustainability: Green Counties, an analysis conducted by the AIA and the National Association of Counties (NACo) of the current state of green building development in the 200 most populous U.S. counties, representing 168,864,538 Americans, or a little more than half of the country's population."

More than 50 years ago, Congress approved the Founding Fathers Papers Project to oversee the publication of definitive editions of six founders’ writings, along with the historical notes and edits that would make the meaning and context of these documents clear to modern audiences. Progress has been slow. While Alexander Hamilton’s papers have been completed in 26 volumes, George Washington’s papers will not be complete until 2023 (54 volumes have been published, with 35 to go). Jefferson’s end date is 2025 (34 published and some 40 to go). Benjamin Franklin’s is 2016 (38 done, 9 to go); James Madison’s, 2030 (30 done, at least 16 to go); and John Adams’s, 2050 (30 published, 29 to go).
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=38608

David Rice Atchison was born on August 11, 1807
If the title President Atchison doesn't ring any bells, you may not be familiar with the tale of how the U.S. Senate's president pro tempore allegedly assumed the U.S. presidency for a day.
The senator from Missouri never actually served as president; that legend was born in the history that Zachary Taylor, whose presidential term began on Sunday, March 4th, 1849, was not inaugurated until noon on March 5th (and neither was his VP, Millard Fillmore). But although the rules of presidential succession have raised issues among constitutional scholars, they did not raise the president pro tem to president. Pro tem is a shortening of pro tempore—"for the time being," in Latin. The president pro tempore, a member of the U.S. Senate, is usually a leader of the majority party who is chosen to serve as presiding officer of the senate in the absence of the vice president.
M-W Word for the Wise

Q. What is Big Ben?
A. The name Big Ben refers not to the clock-tower in Houses of Parliament (also called Westminster Palace) in London, but to the thirteen ton bell hung within. The bell was named after the first commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall.
http://www.aboutbritain.com/BigBen.htm
Big Ben measures 2.7 metres in diameter and 2.2 metres in height.
www.bbc.co.uk/.../2006/03/14/bigben3_440x320.jpg