Early last month, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) launched the Great American Sleep Challenge, an online campaign designed to help Americans get better sleep. Through March 31, 2007, you have a chance to win a comfy Tempur-Pedic bed (price tag: $2,800).

An overwhelming majority of Americans agree that inadequate sleep impairs their work performance and puts them at increased risk for accidents, injuries and health problems, according to the NSF.

So if you are tired of, well, being tired, go and sign up for the challenge.

Speaking of Exhaustion
IMT has added a new blogger to its modest blogging collective:

Fred White has spent quite a bit of time professionally on plant floors and has been writing about manufacturing, engineering and science for about two and a half decades. We look forward to the additional voice he will bring to IMT bloggage.

As always, readers too can feel free to reach out and contribute to the blog, whether in comments or your own blog posts (let us know).

Cleaning the Toilet to Attract Luck?
We're not sure how true this is, as we cannot find anywhere else that backs the claim, but Reuters this week covered the publication of a new book advising those who want to succeed in life to start by scrubbing the smallest room.

"Cleaning the toilet to attract luck," apparently published this month, is the latest in a series of books advising readers on how to attract good fortune using a brush and an array of cleaning fluids, according to Reuters. "Don't just wipe the floor, polish it," the book instructs. "It's important to maintain a positive mood while cleaning."

The books seem to be inspired by Buddhist teachings and feng shui, a traditional Chinese belief that people's fortunes are determined by their surroundings.

Science behind Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling
Another new book "deconstructs" a Hostess Twinkie and analyzes all 39 ingredients.

Chapter by chapter, Steve Ettlinger — the author of previous food books like "Beer for Dummies" — decodes all 39 ingredients in the little crème-filled cakes in his new book, Twinkie, Deconstructed. He explains their uses and the processes by which raw materials are "crushed, baked, fermented, refined and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name," which then appear on a label full of other incomprehensible and barely pronounceable ingredients.

At the heart of the book is this fundamental question: Why is it you can bake a cake at home with as few as six ingredients, but Twinkies require 39?

See also: The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project.

UPS: No. 1 Parking Violator
In San Francisco, Calif., United Parcel Service gets an average of one parking ticket every 45 minutes. Last year, UPS paid $673,334 in fines for 11,788 tickets, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The package delivery firm is not alone. A FedEx driver says of parking cops: "I know they're doing their job. But I'm doing my job, too. If we had to drive around looking for parking, we wouldn't get our job done."

What Time is it?
Second only to the DMV, the longest line wait times must be the post office. But they're working on that. Kind of.

Clocks have been removed from the retail areas of 37,000 of the nation's post offices as part of a "retail standardization program" launched last year. The effort is designed to give the public-service areas a uniform appearance, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Thursday editions, notes The Associated Press.

"We want people to focus on postal service and not the clock," said Stephen Seewoester, Dallas spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service.

Because watches, cell phones, PDAs and myriad other time-telling devices have fallen into obscurity?

(via Fark)

You Better Know What Time it is
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said chronic lateness is a "horrible, dreadful, harmful custom," during a nationally televised ceremony that kicked off the campaign, "La Hora sin Demora" ("Time without Delay"), reports The Associated Press.

The Forum for National Consensus, a government-led council of business and citizens' groups responsible for the effort, is asking schools, businesses and government institutions to stop tolerating "hora peruana" ("Peruvian time"), which usually means an hour late.

Officials proposed the initiative last month, saying that Peruvians' constant lateness reflects a negative attitude toward work and hurts national productivity.

Da Paw University
An attorney challenging the authority of a city's police chief wants the department's police dog to appear in court as an exhibit, according to The Associated Press, because he says "the dog and the chief have criminal justice degrees from the same online school."

Gene Murray is seeking to have a drug charge against a client dismissed by arguing that police Chief John McGuire — who is accused of lying on his job application — was not legally employed and had no authority as an officer.

Both McGuire and the police dog Rocko, who is listed as John I. Rocko on his diploma, are graduates of Concordia College and University, according to copies of diplomas that are part of Murray's motion. The court filing did not say how the attorney knows that diploma is for the dog or how Rocko allegedly managed to enroll in the college, reports AP.

Smokers and Security
An alert reader sent this along — Workplace smoking bans may be good for workers' health, but could create security breaches.

In a recent social engineering test undertaken by a UK-based security consultancy, a tester was easily able to gain access to a corporate building through a back door that was left open for smokers. Once inside, the penetration tester was able to bluff his way into a meeting room simply by claiming the IT department had sent him. He was able to gain access AND connect his laptop to the firm's VoIP network via a telephone connection point.

The consultancy's technical director said, "It used to be that companies 'left the back door open' in terms of internet security. Now they are literally leaving their buildings open to accommodate smokers."

Ice Cream and Pregnancy
One of the expected truths of pregnancy, at least perceived by many males, is that women get pregnant and then proceed to eat tub after tub of ice cream. Now researchers find that women having trouble getting pregnant may not be eating enough ice cream. In other words, they've found that a low-fat dairy diet can cause infertility, by preventing ovulation.

This type of infertility, known as anovulatory infertility, was far more common in women who ate low-fat dairy products such as skimmed milk and low-fat yogurt, found the study by Jorge Chavarro at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. Chavarro and colleagues tracked more than 18,000 women between the ages of 24 and 42 with no history of infertility.

New Scientist notes:

Women who ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy foods a day increased their risk of ovulation-related infertility by 85 percent compared with those who ate less than one serving of low-fat dairy food a week. Conversely, women who ate at least one serving of high-fat dairy food a day, such as ice cream or full-fat milk, reduced their risk of anovulatory infertility by more than a quarter compared with women who consumed up to one serving a week.

Do You Hate Your Job? Chances are…
Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years, according a survey conducted by The Conference Board, with fewer than half saying they are satisfied.

LiveScience reports:

The trend is strongest among workers under the age of 25, less than 39 percent of whom are satisfied with their jobs. Workers age 45 to 54 have the second lowest level of satisfaction (less than 45 percent). Nearly half of all workers over 55 are satisfied with their employment situation.

Overall, dissatisfaction has spread among all workers, regardless of age, income or residence. Twenty years ago, the first time the survey was conducted, 61 percent of all Americans said they were satisfied with their jobs, according to the representative survey of 5,000 U.S. households, said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center.

Spectacular Saturn
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured never-before-seen views of Saturn from perspectives high above and below the planet's rings. These are spectacular.

Saturn sits enveloped by the full splendor of its stately rings:

Dark and sharply defined ring shadows appear to constrict the flow of color from Saturn's warmly hued south to the bluish northern latitudes:



Cheers.