Do We Fight Change For Exercise?

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The law for taxing cell phone use was written 20 years ago. That's when cell phones were the size and weight of bricks - when they cost $4,000 and were used only by top executives. Today they're smaller, lighter, cheaper and used by almost everyone - but the law hasn't changed. Personal calls made on company mobile phones are still taxable. The IRS considers them part of an employee's compensation package. Just like using a company car, employees are expected to document all use, indicating which was personal use. Obviously, a new law is called for - but not from a company cell phone.

Ken Smith, senior lecturer at Bucks New University in England, is calling for new spelling. He thinks some misspelling should be considered variant - not wrong. Among the 10 words he proposes for variant spelling are Febuary for February, twelth for twelfth and truely for truly Joe Pickett, executive editor for American Heritage Dictionary, says spelling changes aren't accepted until they become mainstream in print publications. Fantasy became an accepted variant for phantasy in the early 1900's. In 1996 consideration was given to alot as a variant for a lot - but for now it's still rong.

Most fisheries still operate on a simple system - when regulators declare opening day, fishermen catch fish as fast as possible. In the past few decades this has caused a 30% collapse in commercial fisheries worldwide. Now federal regulators are considering a catch-share system. Fishermen would be given a quota for fish to fill in a year and that quota could be sold. A survey of 11,000 fishermen worldwide found that fisheries using the catch-share system are only half as likely to collapse and that likelihood decreases the longer they use the system. Because this survey was published in Science magazine, it's obviously a fish story without exaggeration.

Unfortunately, not all change is good. The number of fireflies worldwide is decreasing. Although researchers attribute this to urban sprawl and industrial pollution, increase in artificial lighting is another factor. It interferes with females seeing and being wooed by flashing backsides of males. The severity of the decrease isn't known because among the 2,000 species of fireflies, many females spend most of their time on the ground and other females don't flash. Further complicating the count is their 1-3 week lifespan. Nevertheless, because these insects are key to understanding the health of an ecosystem, fireflies count.