BETTER LIVING

Socking it to diabetes

Hope for diabetics may be coming from an unlikely source: their socks. Researchers are on the verge of creating materials that can deliver nitric oxide, a reactive gas that stimulates blood flow, through the skin. Currently Harvey Liu and Kenneth Balkus Jr. of the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a time-release bandage, but the goal is to create material that could be made into socks for people who have diabetes and lack healthy levels of nitric oxide.

POLITICS ASIDE

Obama is picking Kansas; how about you?

If you'd like to follow the lead of someone who knows a little something about basketball, New York Times blogger Jeff Zeleny reported yesterday that President Barack Obama is picking Kansas to win the NCAA championship. “;Kansas keeps on going,”; Zeleny reported Obama as saying during an interview with ESPN. Obama picked Kentucky to be the team that goes up against Kansas in the championship final, with Kansas State and Villanova also making it to the Final Four. He added that he did not base his picks on political considerations.

SUNDAY EVERY DAY

Hawaii's slow pace applies to drivers, too

American drivers have been putting the pedal to the metal since the 55 mph national speed limit was abandoned more than 20 years ago—everywhere except in Hawaii.

An analysis by TomTom Inc., a GPS marketer, indicates motorists on the mainland drive at nearly or just over the speed limit wherever it is—hurrying from 61 mph in Delaware to just over 70 mph in Mississippi—when no traffic is present. In Hawaii, the average is 53 mph. Ho hum.