The Lantern Blog

After much outcry from the fans of the sport, NASCAR has decided to implement double-file restarts, starting this weekend at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

On the surface, it seems like a fair system.  Lapped cars currently restart on the inside, with the lead-lap cars starting on the outside.  Many times, the cars on the inside do not have enough speed to keep up with the leaders of the race, so it would eliminate a big possibility of a fast car getting stuck behind a much slower car as racing resumes.

According to ESPN, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick were two big proponents of the new change.

One thing that the new rule change does change is the chance for faster lapped cars to get their laps back.  Once a car falls two or three laps behind, it will be much more difficult for the cars to get back onto the lead lap, without a significant amount of cautions and lucky dogs.

What are your thoughts on the new rule change that NASCAR has imposed?

On Twitter, there are a ton of false accounts impersonating real celebrities and public figures.  A person recently created an account to impersonate Tony La Russa (current St. Louis Cardinals manager), and once he figured out that someone was impersonating him, he went ahead and sued the popular social networking site.

The account was clearly fake, and in the bio, there was a short blurb about how “parodies are fun for everyone.”  La Russa, however, did not take it as lightly as the creator of the account did.

Mashable has a great rundown of the incident, as well as full documentation from La Russa himself.  Check it out if you are interested in learning more from La Russa’s perspective.

With all of these false accounts on Twitter, do you believe that Twitter should step in and stop impersonators that could hurt real celebrities’ reputations?

According to a story from telegraph.co.uk, drugs could be used in the future to help overweight or obese individuals increase their levels of exercise.  In lab tests performed on mice, they “doubled their amount of physical activity” when a hormone was activated in their brains.

Credit: holenonefarms.com

This could represent a remarkable breakthrough if scientists can develop or use certain drugs to stimulate leptin.  With regard to the high amount of obesity already present in our country, these drugs would be able to help many high-risk individuals get active and live better lives.

According to the study, the mice did not consume as much food, and they lost a moderate amount of weight.  Obviously, more tests would have to be done directly on humans to be able to identify just how much of an impact these drugs could have, but the early results seem promising.

Are you familiar with the website, Hulu?  Hulu is a website where anyone can go and watch free episodes of popular TV shows at the mere cost of watching commercial breaks/advertisements.

Many internet savvy individuals were waiting on Hulu to release a brand new application for the online-only service.  Well, today, Hulu released a piece of software that could increase the website’s authority as a go-to source for television episodes.

Hulu’s new piece of software allows the viewer to browse the Hulu website and watch episodes with a remote control.  Therefore, one does not have to be physically sitting at a computer to enjoy the benefits of Hulu.

Techcrunch has an embedded video on their report on this story, so check it out if you are interested in checking out Hulu’s latest creation.  It is sure to revolutionize online television and episode viewing in the near future.

Female advocacy groups are active all around the nation, but have you ever heard of a male advocacy group?

Well, that is exactly what a group of students just started up at the University of Chicago, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.  The leader of the group, Steve Saltarelli, created the group basically by accident.  After writing a satirical piece, he received a great deal of interest from other students in creating a mens-advocacy group.  Men in Power was created.

As the group continues to gain steam both on Facebook and on the campus itself, it has raised a bunch of questions among people all around the country.  Do men really need an advocacy group?  In the report, students have questioned whether there is any point to creating such a group.

Do you believe male advocacy groups have a part in student organizations on college campuses?

With the economy in as bad of a shape as it currently is, many people around the country are still experiencing job loss and unemployment.  Applicant.com recently posted charts and visual graphs for each state of the U.S., showing how each state has been affected in its’ own way.  Check your home state out and see how unemployment has affected the citizens in your state.

Unemployment Graphs by State

After doing some personal browsing tonight, I came across a new search engine—Wolfram Alpha—which is a highly interesting website.

If you went out and asked anyone about where they go to do a web search, a significant portion of the group would probably say Google.  But Wolfram Alpha—a new breed of search engine—is a step forward with web search and functionality.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Math majors, as well as other people who love numbers and statistical data, will find Wolfram Alpha very relevant.  Almost anything can be computed through the search engine, and it also delivers statistical data, depending on the input.

For instance, if “Ohio State University” is entered into the search engine, one can get all kinds of interesting information on Ohio State, including location, tuition, number of degrees distributed (annually), as well as other useful, interesting data.

As Wolfram Alpha continues to add more algorithms and information into their rapidly-expanding database, their search engine could become one of the best on the internet—possibly even challenging Google in the future as a viable alternative.

Check out Wolfram Alpha, and let me know your thoughts on one of the most exciting search engine debuts in a while.

If you want additional information on the search engine, check out this article from the Los Angeles Times.

According to a study found on WebMD’s website, THC, the active chemical in marijuana, may actually help to fight brain cancer.

Marijuana was tested in both laboratory rats and humans with brain cancer tumors, and in both studies, the growth of the tumor actually shrank after being exposed to the THC.

The study is a big step in cancer treatment—if THC is continuously tested and proven to help stop the growth of tumors (brain cancer-related or not), it could help save a significant number of lives.  The article states that “new strategies for preventing tumor growth” would be examined.

For individuals involved in the study, the THC did not appear to cause toxic effects, or worsen symptoms of any kind.  Many who have used chemotherapy to treat malignant tumors, and the treatment can have a great number of side effects.  If patients are able to take THC treatment without any significant side effects, it could improve the overall morale of nearly any cancer patient.

What are your thoughts on the use of THC in cancer treatment?

According to a report by Telegraph.co.uk, Google has decided to launch a television campaign promoting their latest web browser to the public.

Google Chrome, the browser, was launched last September, but it has not gained as much steam as the other two main competitors in the browser competition, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

According to Google’s blog, they had originally created the video just for YouTube and other internet video sites to continue to promote their browser creation.  Apparently it gained enough steam through the internet platform that they decided it should go to the television channels.

Personally, I have used Google’s browser very little since its launch.  I downloaded a copy of the browser for my PC at home, but have stuck with Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari browsers as my browsers of choice.

What kind of browser do you use to surf the web?

Are you a big fan of the social bookmarking site, Digg?  Well if you are, you are in real luck.  Digg has teamed up with Facebook to launch a Facebook application that allows users to login on to Digg through Facebook and connect the two accounts.

If you have a ton of friends on Facebook, you can find them on Digg through this easy-to-use application.  It makes it much, much easier to share great internet content with your friends.

This is one of the big first steps in the connection between social bookmarking and social networking—allowing for a potentially powerful combination for businesses, blogs, and companies looking to expand social proof and readership.

Even if you don’t fall under one of these categories, this application still can be used by internet users who just want to easily discover great web content.  Take a look at the application and check it out for yourself!

More information is available at the Digg blog.