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12/30/07 - Factory waste produces enough energy for 750 Homes Frank Angelo of Jonesboro, Arkansas was about to be fined $10,000 a day for burning 200 tons of bark, chips, sawdust, and shavings a week ... leftovers from the chicken coops that he manufactures. So, Angelo invented a 70-ton rotary furnace from an abandoned railroad car, an afterburner, and recycled conveyor belts and pipes. The furnace is now generating up to 20 million Btu's an hour ... enough energy to power 750 Jonesboro homes. A by-product of Frank's invention-activated carbon-is sold as a filter to remove cancer-causing agents from air and water. (The photo is not the original invention, but shows a typical modern day rotary furnace.) - Source 12/30/07 - Library Installs Robotic Book Storage System The University of Utah's biggest library, called Marriott Library, has installed a $12 million ROBOTIC STORAGE SYSTEM. Instead of storing books on shelves accessible to humans, the system puts them in bins that are stacked 3 1/2 stories high. The benefit is that it enables the library to expand their collections without the construction costs of an entirely new building. The system holds 2 million books. - Source 12/30/07 - 5 Easy Ways to Lose Weight and Improve Your Health Almost as soon as the Times Square ball drops and the confetti is thrown, many of us start making resolutions to improve our health and our lives. Then, within a few weeks, our resolve often fades -- and we go back to our old, bad habits. But what if, instead of trying to make sweeping changes, we resolved only to tackle a few easy ways to lose weight and boost health? The health and weight loss resolutions that stand the best chance of lasting are the ones that call for minor, doable changes, experts say. "The key is to take small, positive steps and move ahead consistently," says Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, a nutrition professor at Penn State University. "People need to be realistic about the changes they can achieve." 1: Strap on a Pedometer / 2: Drink 2 Cups of Tea a Day / 3: Switch to Whole Grains / 4: Switch to Healthier Fats / 5: Cut Down on Sodium (Expanded details at the website) - Source 12/30/07 - Alzheimer's disease can be prevented thanks to fish oil Fish oil is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids that reduce inflammation throughout the body.However, the preferred source of Omega 3 should be from the fish's body, not the liver. The liver and liver products (such as cod liver oil) of fish and many animals (such as seals and whales) contain Omega-3, but also the active form of vitamin A. At high levels, this form of the vitamin can be dangerous. Studies were conducted on prisoners in England where the inmates were fed seafood which contains Omega-3 Fatty acids. The higher consumption of these fatty acids led to a drop in the assault rates. Another Finnish study found that prisoners who were convicted of violence had lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids than prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses. According to a study from Louisiana State University in September 2005, fish oil may help protect the brain from cognitive problems associated with Alzheimer's disease. It was proved by a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). - Source 12/30/07 - USB Credit Card Launched In South Korea A South Korean company called Shinhan Card unveiled yesterday a new kind of USB CREDIT CARD. The device functions as a contactless credit card at stores. In order to use it for online purchases, you just insert it into your PC's USB drive. It enters your credit card information for you. - Source 12/30/07 - Video Professor? or marketing trap? For 20 years, John Scherer, otherwise known as the Video Professor, has advertised on cable TV the wonders of his educational software. "I am so confident that I'm going to give you one free disc," he says on his "limited time offer" advertisements. But in actuality, it appears impossible to just get one free disc. Instead, it is a packaged bundle of three discs that cost $6.95 for shipping and handling. If the customer doesn't return one of the discs, at their expense, within 10 days, they will be enrolled in an automatic renewal service which sends new three-disc bundles every month for $79.95. Not only that, but he seems like a real jerk: When ConsumerAffairs.Com asked Scherer why he uses the implied-consent subscription model, he said: "Now I'm supposed to conduct my business the way a lot of people ... want me to? Why don't you call Ford or General Motors and ask them why they do a certain sales program the way they do it." "You're not a marketing guy, I know that," Scherer continued. "I'll make a note that I should run my business according to you." And this: "Shortly before going on a live [TV] spot, a producer asked him to take calls from viewers. "I've got to tell you something," Scherer said he was forced to confess. "I don't know how to use a computer." - Source 12/30/07 - Remedy Aches and Pains on the Cheap Got a pressing headache? How about an aching sunburn? Prevention magazine asked seven experts for their home remedies to cure common health concerns. For example, if your teeth aren't as pearly white as you want them to be, combine 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 or 2 drops peroxide. Brush the solution onto your teeth and then rinse. Headaches can be relieved with do-it-yourself acupressure or by massaging a few drops of peppermint oil on your lower neck. For a charley horse, apply pressure to the middle of the calf for 30 seconds. The article lists an additional 14 home remedies that are cheap, fast, and will hopefully cure your aches. Surely, these are better options than going to the drugstore and taking over the counter medications-again. - Source 12/30/07 - Holiday Humor - Fark Headline Contest No site has better headlines than Fark. Now they're holding a Headline of the Year contest. It's in four parts, one for each quarter of the year: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4. Just a few examples: * Newspaper publisher complains that Americans can no longer express themselves without swearing. Can you believe that sh*t? * Palm Beach County prosecutor survives shark attack while surfing. Was let go due to professional courtesy * West Virginia governor appoints wife, son and cousin to powerful state positions. Surprisingly , that's three different people * Billy Graham's wife Ruth has left him to be with Jesus. Evangelist always suspected their gardener was up to no good * Bear attack victim had 'tender heart,' according to friends, family, bear * Man who beat his girlfriend with a flashlight charged with assault. Flashlight charged with battery * Old-school vinyl records are still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a...still hanging on to a * What do you do if you're a Chilean supermarket cashier and not allowed to take a bathroom break? Depends * Deaf-mute couple having trouble getting divorced. The paperwork was a cinch but the hearing didn't go so well * Gatorade inventor Dr. Robert Cade, 80, has died. Remains will be cremated, and then the ashes will be dumped over some coach's head - Source 12/30/07 - Pig Spleens Used to Forecast Weather Paul Smokov, 84, raising cattle on a 1,750-acre ranch north of the town Steel, North Dakota, forecasts the weather by peering at two of brown, glistening, foot-long spleens on his kitchen counter. If the spleen is wide and then narrows, it means winter will come early with a mild spring; if it is narrow and then widens, it usually means harsh weather in the spring; if it is pretty uniform in thickness, it indicates no drastic changes, Smokov said. "The spleens are 85 percent correct, according to my figures, and those guys (the weathermen) aren't any better," the farmer said. Smokov's Ukrainian parents brought their knowledge of pig spleen forecasting with them when they went to the United States a century ago. "It's folklore and a dying art," said Janice Stillman, editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac in Dew Hampshire. - Source 12/30/07 - Problem Solving - Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100 The List of 100 is a powerful technique you can use to generate ideas, clarify your thoughts, uncover hidden problems or get solutions to any specific questions you’re interested in. The technique is very simple in principle: state your issue or question in the top of a blank sheet of paper and come up with a list of one hundred answers or solutions about it. "100 Ways to Generate Income", "100 Ways to be More Creative" or "100 Ways to Improve my Relationships" are some examples. "One hundred entries? Isn't that way too many?" Bear with me: it's exactly this exaggeration that makes the technique powerful... - Source 12/30/07 - $25M for your own Island Katafanga Island in the South Pacific paradise of Fiji is available. Imagine the opportunities! 225 acres of unspoiled beauty for a very reasonable €25,000,000. / (Hmmm, how about a 225 acre country devoted to future and alternative science research and development? There would be plenty of extra cost for equipping and support but there are people out there with that kind of money, though I've not met any...yet... And to get funding, setup a system like in the Peter Sellers' movie 'The Mouse that Roared', "A cold war satire emphasising the new emerged American Superpower's use of foreign aid to buy friends and keep then away from the USSR's influence. Peter Sellers, as the scheming Prime Minister of Grand Fenwick, plots with Peter Sellers, as the scheming Grand Duchess, to declare war on the USA, lose and get that foreign aid." - JWD) - Source 12/30/07 - Scrap detox diets, expert urges The food watchdog's chief scientist has urged consumers to ditch detox diets and supplements. Drinking water, taking exercise and eating home-cooked food can all help tackle festive excess, according to Andrew Wadge, of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). In his online blog, the FSA's chief scientist says: "There's a lot of nonsense talked about 'detoxing' and most people seem to forget that we are born with a built-in detox mechanism. It's called the liver." - Source 12/30/07 - Flying on Water Scientists have developed the first completely autonomous seaplane. At only slightly bigger than a pelican, it's not going to set any lift records, but it definitely represents an interesting solution to yet another aviation problem. The aircraft is named Flying Fish after fish that pop out of the water and fly. That led to a study of sea birds, which led to the current Darpa-funded design. "We studied sea birds seriously," Meadows said. "They're all about the same size-about 20 pounds with a 2-meter wingspan. It turns out that, aerodynamically speaking, that's a sweet spot to be flying close to the water. Our plane is about the size of a large pelican." Flying Fish, an electric vehicle, drifts until its onboard Global Positioning System tells the craft it has floated too far. That triggers the takeoff sequence, which gets the plane airborne in just 10 meters. Other GPS coordinates trigger the landing sequence. The craft accomplishes both in simple ways, explained Ella Atkins, associate professor of aerospace engineering and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. - Source 12/28/07 - New hope for a cure to liver cirrhosis Cirrhosis of the liver, an irreversible condition usually caused by heavy drinking, may be reversible after all. Experiments in mice show that the condition may be prevented - and the liver allowed to recover - if a protein activated by liver injury can be silenced. - Source 12/28/07 - Wear tinfoil hats when using Adobe products You're not the only one watching what you do in Adobe Creative Suite 3, the company's ubiquitous photo-and-design software package. Adobe is watching you, too. - Source 12/28/07 - Brain Imaging Links Thinking Patterns to Addiction In a study comparing brain activity of sober alcoholics and non-addicted people making financial decisions, the group of sober alcoholics showed significantly more "impulsive" neural activity. “Our data suggest there may be a cognitive difference in people with addictions,” Boettiger said. “Their brains may not fully process the long-term consequences of their choices. They may compute information less efficiently.” “What’s exciting about this study is that it suggests a new approach to therapy. We might prescribe medications, such as those used to treat Parkinson’s or early Alzheimer’s disease, or tailor cognitive therapy to improve executive function” she added. - Source 12/28/07 - Nuclear Waste Could Power Britain A plan by the nuclear industry to build a £1bn fuel processing plant at Sellafield is being backed by the government's chief scientist. The plant would turn the UK's 60,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste into reactor fuel that will provide 60 per cent of this country's electricity until 2060, it is claimed. 'We can bury our reactor waste or we can treat it and then use it as free fuel for life,' said the cabinet's chief science adviser, Sir David King. 'It's a no-brainer.' To make nuclear fuel from this waste, its plutonium and uranium would have to be extracted, a task that can be achieved using Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant, though it will require a £1bn refurbishment to achieve this, said King. Alternatively, a new reprocessing plant will have to be built. Then the plutonium and uranium will have to be turned into a fuel called mox, or mixed oxide. A plant to make mox could cost a further £1bn, or Sellafield's existing mox plant could be refurbished at a similar cost. Once these two plants - Thorp and mox - are ready, the 60,000 tonnes of nuclear waste, the leftovers of fuel production work and other highly radioactive material that has accumulated from Britain's nuclear energy programme, could be processed. The resulting fuel rods and pellets could then be burned in nuclear reactors over the next few decades. In turn, the waste could be burned in a new generation of power plants called fast breeder reactors. - Source 12/28/07 - Soaring toll of patients hit by drug side-effects Last year, 4,635 people were taken to hospital suffering adverse reactions from medicines they had been prescribed - up from 4,429 in 2004. And 964 people died from drug side-effects last year, compared to 861 in 2004. - Source 12/28/07 - GOP caging Democrats from pollbook Earlier today Kris Kobach, chairman of the Kansas GOP, sent out a self-congratulatory litany of accomplishments. Among them was one particularly eye-catching item: "To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!" Caging is a particularly devious and underhanded method of purging likely Democratic voters from the pollbooks. It's also illegal. - Source 12/28/07 - Book Argues That Bell Stole Phone Idea A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime - that Alexander Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray. In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell - aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner - got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first. Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook, which was restricted by Bell's family until 1976, then digitized and made widely available in 1999. The notebook details the false starts Bell encountered as he and assistant Thomas Watson tried transmitting sound electromagnetically over a wire. Then, after a 12-day gap in 1876 - when Bell went to Washington to sort out patent questions about his work - he suddenly began trying another kind of voice transmitter. That method was the one that proved successful. - Source 12/28/07 - The last great land rush is at the bottom of the ocean Never before has the world's attention been so fixed on the deep ocean. Inflated oil, mineral, and gas prices, coupled with collapsing global fisheries, are pushing industries into remote seas once too expensive to tap. Pressing concerns about global warming are bringing scientists to explore uncharted depths - both to understand how they influence climate and to take the pulse of abyssal life before human impact irrevocably transforms it. At a time when still so little is known about the ocean's very nature, it has suddenly become a place of extraordinary geopolitical, economic, and scientific value. - Source 12/28/07 - Worms infect more poor Americans than thought Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. - Source 12/28/07 - Clean Diesel Cars Greener Than Hybrids Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago, when the twin energy crises of the 1970s propelled diesels into national popularity and kept them there for a decade. Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. The new cars run as well as their gasoline-powered competitors. And as for the emissions problems of the past-well, the dirty bird of fossil fuels isn’t so dirty anymore. - Source 12/26/07 - New method enables scientists to see smells Animals and insects communicate through an invisible world of scents. By exploiting infrared technology, researchers at Rockefeller University just made that world visible. “We needed to create an environment in which we knew something about the spatial arrangement of the odors,” says Vosshall. “We needed to see the smells.” In collaboration with colleagues in Thomas P. Sakmar’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, the researchers used a novel spectroscopic technique that exploited infrared light to create environments where they could see, control and precisely quantify the distribution of these smells. - Source 12/26/07 - Synthetic fuel recipe mixes reclaimed CO2, water, sunlight Sandia National Laboratories is building such a fuel synthesizer in a bid to harnesses sunlight to reverse the process of combustion. The reactor would use reclaimed carbon dioxide emissions to create renewable synthetic fuel by combining the CO2 with water. "Rather than make hydrogen for people to use in fuel cells, we think it might make more sense to make a synthetic fuel that is already compatible with our existing [gasoline engine] infrastructure," said Rich Diver, inventor of the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5). "Others are working on ways to make liquid synthetic fuels from natural gas, but we are going back a step further and looking at ways of thermochemically making the precursors for synthetic fuel using solar energy, carbon dioxide and water." Unbelievable as it sounds, Diver claims that his solar-powered reactor could help clean up the planet by making internal combustion a reversible process. His team calls the project Sunshine to Petrol (S2P) and the envisioned synthesized product Liquid Solar Fuel. "One way to look at it is as reverse combustion-taking heat from the sun, adding it to carbon dioxide and water, and making a synthetic fuel from them," said Diver. "We were originally just looking at ways of using solar energy to make hydrogen from water, but some of the same principles can be used to upgrade carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. And with the right combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, you can make synthetic liquid fuel." - Source 12/26/07 - Young inventors test energy saving engine A young couple from Patna have invented an energy-saving engine, at a cost of Rs 35,000, which can run without petrol or diesel and can last for a 4.5-lakh kilometre run. Kanishk and Lipika Sinha are a wife-husband team of inventors of the fuel-free engine that they invented some three years ago. Kanishk Sinha recently got the engine patented (1077/Del/2005) with BigPatents India, a body supported by the Ford Foundation. The duo today carried out a demonstration by running a bicycle with the engine. Though the mechanic who ran it seemed tad afraid of its speed at first, later he managed an effective demonstration. “The vehicle made to run without conventional form of fuel is based on the law of interconvertible energy which states that total energy in an isolated system is conserved and can neither be created nor destroyed. “The motor created by us has a power range of 40-50MW, good enough to meet the needs of a four-wheeler,” explained Lipika. The inventors added that an engine would cost Rs 35,000 and can be refilled for Rs 10,000. Any four-wheeler could be fitted with the eco-friendly fuel-free engine. Though both claimed that there are thin chances of an engine breakdown, the husband-wife team have taken it upon themselves to train engineers and mechanics and place the engines in towns across Bihar and Bengal. “We received a proposal from Tata Motors stating that they would like to give our invention a brand name and its service centres,” said Kanishk. The engine has no exhaust pipes and thus it is pollution free. “Another strong feature is its suitability. It can bear the rough, tough and bumpy Bihar roads,” said the young man enthusiastically. - Source / THE ECO FRIENDLY VEHICLE/ ENGINE - Application 1077/DEL/2005 published 2005-06-03, filed 2005-05-02 - The vehicle made to run without conventional form of fuel that we use today, i.e. petrol or diesel. It is based on the law of interconvertible energy i.e. total energy in an isolated system is conserved. In this system energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This production of electricity is actually inter conversion of mechanical energy into the desirable form of utilizable energy needed to run the vehicle. The power range of the motor that is i.e. 40-50MW is expected to meet the (simulated energy) needs of the vehicle. - Big Indian patent / The engine can run for a 4.5 km lakh run. Lakh = 100,000 so that would be 450,000 km which is 280,000 miles between refills that cost $255 so that would be 1,098 miles for $1 of fuel. 12/26/07 - Israeli nanotech invention provides green electricity Barry Breen uses little nano-sized cells, coated with an organic dye engineered to react when hit by sunlight to produce energy more efficiently, effectively, and cheaply, than current solar systems. The system includes cells consisting of titanium oxide layers coated with the organic dye and connected to a battery. The key is in the nano-sized chunks of titanium oxide. "At sizes as small as 10 nanometers, the laws of physics take some interesting turns," says Breen. "We have discovered that when light hits titanium oxide particles of this size coated with our dye, a great deal of energy is produced. It's like photosynthesis. Just as a plant produces nourishment for itself when exposed to sunlight, our cells produce energy, converted to electricity." The energy produced by the reaction is shunted into a charge controller, and then transferred to a battery, where it is stored. Orionsolar's system, he says, is more efficient, since the dye technology can be used even under low lighting situations, guaranteeing a greater power yield as it continues to gather energy even during the early morning or late afternoon hours. And Orionsolar's dye cell system produces power much more cheaply; module production costs are about half that of silicon photovoltaics, while the cost to put up a manufacturing line is a small fraction of those of silicon based photovoltaic systems, he adds. Orionsolar's systems, which should be commercially available within a year, will be manufactured in Israel, with almost all production geared for the company's Third World electrification project, Breen says. However, he says, the company will be happy to sell to anyone. - Source 12/26/07 - Egypt to Copyright Pyramids and Sphynx "We all know the usual pro-copyright arguments. Most of them hinge on the fact that the individual or company that has a copyright needs an incentive to make something that is copyrightable, and therefore ensure a revenue stream in a period after the copyright has been granted. In a never-surpassed move, Egypt is working on legislation to extend copyright well above 3000 years - they are going to start claiming royalties for using likenesses of the Sphynx and the Pyramids. It is still unclear whether the original intent of the Pyramids included 'making sure them bastards pay for a plastic copy in 3000 years' alongside 'securing a pathway to the heavens for the God King.' Speaking as a Greenlandic national, I want dibs on ice cubes." - Source 12/26/07 - Kid uses mousetrap to catch money-thief Harry Cordaiy, an 11-year-old Australian boy, was tired of thieves stealing his and other students' lunch money and bus tickets from classrooms. The school administrators weren't doing anything about it, so he rigged up a mousetrap coated with green food coloring, attached a $5 bill to it, stashed it in his backpack, and waited. He had squirted the device's main bar and metal fittings with green food colouring, cutting a small hole in the note and securing it on the bait hook with sticky tape, so that the thief would have to wrestle with it, thereby setting off the spring and getting hit with the coloured bar. To his surprise, the thieves took the bait and - after he spread the word among classmates - a witch-hunt began. "I thought 'Oh my God, I might catch these guys'," Harry said. "Everybody was running around seeing who had green on their fingers." One of the offenders was caught green-handed en route to the bathroom in a desperate bid to wash off the evidence. The younger boy confessed his guilt. An accomplice in the same year was also nabbed. / (I loved the ingenuity of this kid when school officials wouldn't do anything about it. - JWD) (via boingboing.net) - Source 12/26/07 - Free Downloadable Flash Games Right Click and "Save As" to your computer... These games are "standalone" - they run as programs... Remember where you put them! All have been thoroughly virus checked. - Source / (I received an email saying, "We followed one of the source links - 12/26/07 Free Downloadable Flash Games - and started to run one of the games offered. Then our virus scan software, McAfee 8.0, came into action warning us that a Trojan was hidden in the executable. That saved the day and triggered us to send this e-mail." They didn't say which game caused the alarm, so I downloaded them all, burned them to a CD and ran an AVG virus scan on the CD with no errors. Some antivirus software gives false detects on .EXE programs. I ran several of the games and didn't experience any problems, plus last night I scanned my entire drive using Spysweeper and AVG with nothing detected. Waiting for an email for which game cause the error. - JWD) 12/26/07 - Illegal immigrants "self deport" as woes mount A growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States who are starting to pack their bags and move on as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants widens and the U.S. economy slows, turning a traditional Christmas trek home into a one-way trip. In the past year, U.S. immigration police have stepped up workplace sweeps across the country and teamed up with a growing number of local forces to train officers to enforce immigration laws. Meanwhile, a bill seeking to offer many of the 12 million illegal immigrants a path to legal status was tossed by the U.S. Congress, spurring many state and local authorities to pass their own measures targeting illegal immigrants. The toughening environment has been coupled with a turndown in the U.S. economy, which has tipped the balance toward self deportation for many illegal immigrants left struggling to find work. While some illegal immigrants are simply self deporting, others are moving within the United States to avoid federal immigration raids and pro-enforcement measures passed by a patchwork of state and local authorities. "Everyone lives in fear of the police stopping you for some minor infraction and then asking for your papers," Gutierrez said as he touted for work in the chill morning air at a Phoenix day labor site. "I want to get as far away from here as possible." - Source 12/26/07 - Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park' As the credit paralysis stretches through its fifth month, a chorus of economists has begun to warn that the world's central banks are fighting the wrong war, and perhaps risk a policy error of epochal proportions. York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster. "The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says. "They still have another couple of months before this starts imploding. Things are very unstable and can move incredibly fast. I don't think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park," he adds. Quietly, insiders are perusing an obscure paper by Fed staffers David Small and Jim Clouse. It explores what can be done under the Federal Reserve Act when all else fails. Section 13 (3) allows the Fed to take emergency action when banks become "unwilling or very reluctant to provide credit". A vote by five governors can - in "exigent circumstances" - authorise the bank to lend money to anybody, and take upon itself the credit risk. This clause has not been evoked since the Slump. - Source 12/24/07 - Introducing the Solar Tree The solar trees went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street - the Ringstrasse - in Vienna, Austria. They were able to provide enough light during the night-time even when the sun did not show for as much as four days in a row. The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting. Putting solar powered LED light systems on trees would cut down on the carbon emissions and also slash the bills of local authorities. Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton. The use of more energy-efficient lighting in the Austrian city of Graz, with a population of almost 300,000 saved the city 524,000 KWh of electricity and 67,200 euros [US $96,800] in 2005. The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one comprising 36 solar cells; they also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems. A sensor was used to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise. - Source 12/24/07 - Mankind needs to make artificial life to survive The future of life on Earth depends on creating synthetic organisms to cut greenhouse gases, according to the leading American scientist who is poised to create the world's first man-made species. Craig Venter, who made headlines around the world when he cracked the human genetic code, or genome, in 2000, wants to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as to absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases. He envisions "thousands of bio-refineries distributed around the country" creating clean fuel from silos filled with artificially created bacteria. Artificial life created through the science of synthetic genomics could be harnessed to create much more besides. "Plastics, carpets, clothing, medicines and motor oil - all of these things can be created by biological organisms". - Source 12/24/07 - Chicken fat to Biodiesel Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products. - Source 12/24/07 - Detecting Cattle Disease Before Physical Signs Appear Thanks to research taking place at K-State's Beef Stocker Unit, modern-day cowboys could soon be using a bit of old-fashioned science to fight disease in the feedlot. A K-State professor of animal sciences and industry, is researching the effectiveness of a new radio-frequency identification ear tag that takes the animal's temperature. Elevated temperature is thought to be a precursor to the onset of disease. - Source 12/24/07 - Mojo Working - Don't lug your laptop around - December 2007, Week 5 Mojo is an old African term for a talisman with magic powers. Now it's digital. This digital Mojo lets you put any program onto any hard drive, flash or otherwise, and then run that program on any Windows XP computer anywhere you happen to be. Attaching your Mojo-enhanced drive to that PC makes it come up with your own familiar desktop screen and all your familiar programs. Beats lugging your laptop. We first came across it recently as part of StealthSurfer, a $179 flash drive that lets you surf the Web, well, stealthily. But we can beat the devil out of that price,Stealth Surfer because Mojo is free from MojoPac.com, and we can load it onto any drive. Since the StealthSurfer is a 2GB flash drive, and we can buy 2GB flash drives for $20, we just saved enough for lunch in London. - Source 12/24/07 - Hack Yourself Self-examination can be paralysis. Don't “remember to breathe” - just breathe. It's a Tao thing. It's the paradox at the center of all this - remember that, “Am I living up to being the person I want to be?”, is not a question the person you want to be would ask. If I can leave you with just one thought, it's this: Stop wasting your time fretting over not being happy. Just be happy. (via lifehacker.com) - Source 12/24/07 - Ron Paul DVD 60,000 copies sold in 72 hours (Watch the Video) One day after Ron Paul grass roots supporters made political history by raising over 6 million dollars in a single day, the One day after Ron Paul grass roots supporters made political history by raising over 6 million dollars in a single day, the RonPaulReveres.com website released a new Ron Paul Canvassing DVD, selling over 60,000 copies in the first 72 hours. The DVD, also available for free online, introduces prospective supporters to presidential candidate Ron Paul's philosophy and key positions.website released a new Ron Paul Canvassing DVD, selling over 60,000 copies in the first 72 hours. The DVD, also available for free online, introduces prospective supporters to presidential candidate Ron Paul's philosophy and key positions. / FORCE him past the parties and electoral college, WRITE IN RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT! - Source 12/24/07 - Cancer from what you Eat The American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund recommend: * Maintaining a healthy body mass index of 18.5 to 24.9 (compute your BMI here) * Limiting consumption of red meat to no more than 18 ounces (cooked) a week * Eliminating processed meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and lunch meat (more on this point below) * Eating five servings or more of fruit and vegetables a day * Limiting consumption of alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women * Exercising at least 30 minutes a day * Limiting consumption of salt * Limiting processed foods high in added sugar and fat - Source 12/24/07 - Drilling Up' Into Space for Energy While great nations fretted over coal, oil and global warming, one of the smallest at the U.N. climate conference was looking toward the heavens for its energy. The annual meeting's corridors can be a sounding board for unlikely 'solutions' to climate change _ from filling the skies with soot to block the sun, to cultivating oceans of seaweed to absorb the atmosphere's heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Unlike other ideas, however, one this year had an influential backer, the Pentagon, which is investigating whether space-based solar power _ beaming energy down from satellites _ will provide 'affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and expandable energy for mankind.' - Source 12/24/07 - Syphilis makes grand return to Europe In Britain syphilis cases have increased almost ten times during the recent ten years. There were 3,702 cases registered there in 2006. In Germany the statistics is alarming too: the rate among men was fewer than two per 100,000 in 1991; by 2003, it was six per 100,000. In France, there were 428 cases in 2003 - almost 16 times the number just three years earlier. In the Netherlands, cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, up to 31 men per 100,000 were infected, while the rate was much lower in other regions. Similar trends have been observed in the USA too. The disease was extremely rare in the United States in 2000. Six years later the situation changed when 9,800 people were diagnosed with syphilis. Many doctors were puzzled about the return of syphilis; some of them had trouble diagnosing it. Though these days it mainly affects urban gay men, experts worry that the disease could also rebound in the general population if stronger efforts to fight it are not taken soon. - Source 12/24/07 - A Drink a Day Might Keep a Cold Away Drinking. Two large studies have found that although moderate drinking will not cure colds, it can help keep them at bay, reports The New York Times. One, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, looked at 391 adults and found that resistance to colds increased with moderate drinking, except in smokers. - Source 12/24/07 - Fuel from Waste Two companies, Diversified Energy and Velocys, are working together on a portable system that converts coal, natural gas, and biomass into diesel and jet fuel. The military could use the system to convert waste created at military bases--food scraps, paper, wood--into a fuel for military jets and vehicles. The system has two main parts: a gasifier and a fuel reactor. Diversified Energy, an energy company based in Gilbert, AZ, will make the gasifier that converts any carbon-containing material into a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as synthesis gas, or syngas. The fuel synthesizer made by Velocys, based in Plain City, OH, will convert the syngas into a hydrocarbon liquid fuel. The transportation of fuel to bases accounts for 70 percent of military trucks and convoys that are on the road in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the military has to truck out waste from bases to dispose of it. Portability is the key aspect of the waste-to-fuel system. Erik Kallio, power and energy technology team leader at the army's research and engineering center, says that the system will have to be scalable to different sizes, making daily anywhere from about 2,100 to 21,000 gallons of fuel, while weighing between 150 and 1,500 tons, respectively. The system should also be able to make fuel from various feedstocks, including coal and natural gas. - Source 12/22/07 - 57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago Looking back at the 1987 Honda Civic CRX shows us why cars use so much more gas today and about the trade-offs we've had to make. The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway. Why then, not now? One answer for the mileage drop is that the rating system has changed. Beginning with the 2008 model year, the EPA began using a more rigorous fuel economy test that means lower numbers for most cars. But that's only a small part of the answer. If the old CRX HF were tested using today's rules, its highway fuel economy would drop to 51 mpg, according to the EPA's calculations. That's still much better than any mass-market car sold today, including hybrid cars. The bigger answer is that the Honda Civic has changed a lot in twenty years. Honda no longer sells a tiny two-seat version like the CRX. Even Civics with back seats are much bigger and heavier today than similar versions were in 1987. - Source 12/22/07 - The Library of Congress in your wrist watch? As reported in the latest issue of Technology Review, Khizroev is leading a team exploring lasers so tiny that they point to a future where a 10-terabit hard drive is only one-inch square. That is 50 times the data density of today’s magnetic storage technology, a technology that has nearly reached its limit for continued miniaturization. Khizroev, an associate professor of engineering at UCR, and colleagues at the University of Houston led by Professor Dmitri Litvinov, have for the first time achieved a nanolaser which can concentrate light as small as 30 nanometers. For many substances, that is the molecular level. Just as importantly, their nanolaser can focus 250 nanowatts of power, enough to assure effective storage of the information. The next goal of the researchers is to refine the nanolaser to produce light beams as small as five or 10 nanometers. Khizroev said there are a number of challenges for getting the tiny disk drives to the market, including lubricating tiny parts and integrating the nanolaser with a recording head. Still, he insisted, the 10-terabit hard drive will be a near-term innovation, appearing in as little as two years. The implications of the ability to focus light at these scales are even more fantastic in the longer term. The use of photochromic proteins with nanolasers should help lead to nanocomputers and the ability to store still more data in smaller places, Khizroev said. Those proteins paired with nanolasers should also impact energy harvesting and a wide range of medical applications, he added. - Source 12/22/07 - Laser Spark Plug Vienna physicist Johannes Tauer has revolutionized a 100-year old system: in future, laser light could be used instead of electric spark plugs to ignite gas and petrol engines. As part of his thesis, Tauer developed a prototype of a laser spark plug that can be used to improve the performance of engines and at the same time reduce fuel consumption and emissions. "The idea of igniting a flammable mixture with a laser isn’t new," says the Austrian, "It was put forward just a few years after the first experimental demonstration of a laser in 1960," he continues. Past projects mostly failed due to the end-product's lack of suitability for everyday use: The spark plugs were too large for use in an engine, they did not provide enough energy, or they were not robust enough to function consistently in spite of the high level of heat and constant vibration. Tauer's working group has been working on this problem for more than eight years, and in 2005 he himself was commissioned with the task of developing a suitable ignition laser. No simple task for a physics student whose previous lectures only marginally covered laser systems. Tauer therefore spent the summer before his admission to the research group studying the relevant literature. He never had any doubts that his thesis would not deliver the desired results: "We knew that it had to work. My colleagues had done such good preparatory work", says Tauer. Moreover he was given sound support. "My supervisor and I complemented each other very well the whole way through. The things I had difficulties with, he could master, and vice versa," says Tauer, describing their successful collaboration. Together Tauer and Kofler developed a laser ignition that, in comparison to predecessor models, met all the requirements for an everyday system. How it works is best explained by the researcher himself: "The principle of laser ignition is to strongly focus a pulsed laser beam using suitable optical lenses within a highly combustible mixture, with the focus able to be placed on any point of ignition. At the point of ignition a plasma is created that is hot enough to ignite the fuel, but far enough from any cooling metallic surfaces." To fulfil the increasingly urgent requirements placed on engines for higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions, car manufacturers must, among other things, increase the mean pressure in the engine. With conventional spark plugs, however, this increases the ignition voltage, which in turn can lead to electrode erosion and ultimately to spark plug failure. The advantage of Tauer's system is that a laser spark plug has no electrodes and is therefore also compatible with even the highest engine pressures. In addition, a laser ignition can also be used to ignite much more meagre mixtures, because more air is involved in the combustion process than is actually necessary. This leads to a slight increase in efficiency, but much more importantly to the currently so coveted reduction in fuel consumption and nitrogen emissions. Another advantage is the choice of virtually any laser focus. "With conventional spark plugs, the spark is located right next to the electrodes, causing losses," explains Tauer. A laser pulse on the other hand, can be precisely focused on the ideal ignition point in the cylinder, thereby ensuring optimum combustion efficiency and power generation. This again saves fuel and reduces emissions. - Source 12/22/07 - The Marvelous Chicken-powered Motorcar Harold Bate, chicken farmer and inventor from Devonshire, England says that you can power your motor vehicles with droppings from chickens, pigs or any other animal of your choice . . . even with your own waste! To prove his statement is no idle boast, Harold has been operating a 1953 Hillman and a, five-ton truck on methane gas generated by decomposing pig and chicken manure for years. He claims that the equivalent of a gallon of high-test gasoline costs him only about 3¢ and that the low-cost methane makes his vehicles run faster, cleaner and better than they operate on "store bought" fuel. Mr. Bate stands beside his famous Hillman. (Photos: Hillman modified Car. RIGHT: We find, secured by another twist of wire, the pressure tank of methane which fuels the Bate Hillman. In this case, the tank is a recycled ""camping gas"" bottle of a type common in England. Middle: The patented Bate Auto Gas Converter with all frills removed. This important piece of hardware and instructions for setting up your own methane plant is what you receive when you buy a converter from Bate. Lower Middle: There are days when being a world-famous chicken farmer-inventor is a royal drag. - Source 12/22/07 - The Post-Oil Economy: After The Techno-Fix The path beyond petroleum begins by considering five principles: that alternative sources of energy are insufficient; that hydrocarbons, metals, and electricity are inseparable; that advanced technology is part of the problem, not part of the solution; that post-oil agriculture means a smaller population; and that the basis of the problem is psychological, not technological. Everything in modern industrial society is dependent on oil and other hydrocarbons. From these we get gasoline, heating fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, lubricants, plastic, paint, synthetic fabrics, asphalt, pharmaceuticals, and many other things. Speaking in more general terms, we can say that we are dependent on hydrocarbons for manufacture, for transportation, for agriculture, for mining, and for electricity. - Source 12/22/07 - V-shaped solar cells could lead to better efficiency Organic solar have an active layer made out of molecules, such as pigments or polymers. They are low-cost and flexible. However, as Peumans points out, “organic solar cells typically have low efficiencies.” A traditionally designed organic solar cell consists of a film layer of the light absorbing material spread on top of some sort of substrate. The Stanford team found that if they took a traditionally designed solar cell and then bent it to form a v-shape, it was possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the cell. “It’s about light management,” Peumans says. “This is a pretty simple solution.” Peumans goes on to explain that most organic solar cells are made on planar substrates. “When the light hits it, there is only one bounce - only once chance for the light to be absorbed.” The v-shape, he continues, creates an environment in which the light can bounce around. “Every time the light bounces, it has a chance to be absorbed into the cell.” - Source 12/22/07 - Bamboo road bridge can support 16-tonne trucks Bridges built from bamboo instead of steel could provide a cheaper, more environmentally sustainable engineering solution in China, a recent experiment suggests. A novel type of bridge with horizontal beams made from a bamboo composite proved strong enough to support even heavy trucks in tests. The bamboo beams are cheaper and more environmentally friendly to make than steel or concrete, yet offer comparable structural strength. Instead of using round, pole-like pieces of unprocessed bamboo, which have been used as building material for many thousands of years, he came up with a way of assembling timber-like beams from many smaller strips of bamboo. Precise details on the process remain proprietary, but Xiao says the strips are cut from large stalks of bamboo, arranged in multiple layers, and bonded together with glue. The technique has never been used to build such large beams before, Xiao says. - Source 12/22/07 - New 'Lobster Vision' Cam Sees Through Walls A Torrance, California, company called Physical Optics Corporation is working on a camera based on lobster eyes that can see through walls. Called LEXID (Lobster-Eye X-ray Inspection Device). The LEXID can see through wood, concrete and even steel by beaming X-rays, then focusing on the reflection (rather than refraction) of objects -- which is how lobsters see through murky waters. The LEXID should be available for purchase by the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies. (via therawfeed.com) - Source 12/22/07 - Blurry X-rays become clear with new software Software that creates high-quality images by combining several blurry ones could lead to safer X-rays and digital cameras that automatically sharpen up snapshots. The software uses a number of low-resolution images to produce a single high resolution one - a technique known as "super-resolution". Forensic scientists and astronomers already use super-resolution to produce clearer images from blurred security and astronomical images. US researchers have now adapted the approach to produce usable X-ray images with less radiation. Meanwhile researchers in the UK have improved the algorithms behind the technique, perhaps paving the way for super-resolution consumer cameras. 15 images made with low doses of X-ray radiation and applied super-resolution to turn them into a single picture with four times better resolution than any of the originals. To produce the same quality image would normally mean using a third more radiation than the combined dose of all 15 low-resolution exposures. - Source 12/22/07 - Many Analog TV Watchers Aren't Aware of Upcoming Switchover A recent poll of TV watchers shows that many Americans aren't aware the end times are coming for analog broadcast signals. "The survey found that the group most affected by the analog cutoff -- those with no cable or satellite service -- are most in the dark about what will happen to their sets: Only one-third of them had heard that their TVs are set to stop receiving programs. Of course, there are solutions. Congress is subsidizing the purchase of digital television receivers. And the cable TV industry is hoping that this will spur the last holdouts to buy pay TV." - Source 12/22/07 - Hugh's List of Bush Scandals A progressive named Hugh started making a list of Bush scandals late last summer...Initially, the list entries were very brief...But Hugh edited each entry by adding enough information so that even a mainstream media reporter would understand what event or action the entry implied or recognized...Most are breaches of the public trust, many violations of Bush's Oath of Office... (source; with images of list unfurled as a 60-foot scroll) - Source 12/22/07 - Nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels. Silicon placed in a battery swells as it absorbs positively charged lithium atoms during charging, then shrinks during use (i.e., when playing your iPod) as the lithium is drawn out of the silicon. This expand/shrink cycle typically causes the silicon (often in the form of particles or a thin film) to pulverize, degrading the performance of the battery. Cui's battery gets around this problem with nanotechnology. The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture. - Source 12/22/07 - Debunking medical myths Physicians understand that practicing good medicine requires the constant acquisition of new knowledge, though they often assume their existing medical beliefs do not need re-examination. These medical myths are a light hearted reminder that we can be wrong and need to question what other falsehoods we unwittingly propagate as we practice medicine. We generated a list of common medical or medicine related beliefs espoused by physicians and the general public, based on statements we had heard endorsed on multiple occasions and thought were true or might be true. We selected seven for critical review: • People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day • We use only 10% of our brains • Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death • Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser • Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight • Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy • Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals. - Source 12/22/07 - Time is running out - literally, says scientist Scientists have come up with the radical suggestion that the universe's end may come not with a bang but a standstill - that time could be literally running out and could, one day, stop altogether. The team's proposal, which will be published in the journal Physical Review D, does away altogether with dark energy. Instead, Prof Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock that needs winding. The principle is the same as that of an ambulance siren which gets higher as it comes towards the listener but lower as it moves away. Similarly, a star moving away appears redder in colour than one moving towards us. However, he adds that the team is only assuming there is one dimension of time. Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has put forward the bizarre suggestion that there are two dimensions of time, not the one that we are all familiar with. Prof Senovilla says: "One thing that is definitely not included in our models is the possibility of having more than one time dimension." - Source 12/22/07 - 20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity Usually, in lists like this, a few items are bogus. But in this case, every item is valid. 1. Christianity is based on fear 2. Christianity preys on the innocent 3. Christianity is based on dishonesty 4. Christianity is extremely egocentric 5. Christianity breeds arrogance, a chosen-people mentality 6. Christianity breeds authoritarianism 7. Christianity is cruel 8. Christianity is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific 9. Christianity has a morbid, unhealthy preoccupation with sex 10. Christianity produces sexual misery 11. Christianity has an exceedingly narrow, legalistic view of morality 12. Christianity encourages acceptance of real evils while focusing on imaginary evils 13. Christianity depreciates the natural world 14. Christianity models hierarchical, authoritarian organization 15. Christianity sanctions slavery 16. Christianity is misogynistic 17. Christianity is homophobic 18. The Bible is not a reliable guide to Christ's teachings 19. The Bible is riddled with contradictions 20. Christianity borrowed its central myths and ceremonies from other ancient religions - Source 12/20/07 - Toshiba Builds Ultra-Small Nuclear Reactor "Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs." / The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy. - Source 12/20/07 - Nanofabrication Finds New Mineral Property U.S. physicists have discovered a new electronic property in lodestone, also known as magnetite -- one of the most studied magnetic minerals on Earth. Led by Rice University Associate Professor Doug Natelson, the physicists found by changing the voltage in their experiment, they were able to reduce magnetite's temperatures lower than minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. That resulted in the mineral reverting from an insulator to a conductor. It's fascinating that we can still find surprises in a material like magnetite that has been studied for thousands of years, Natelson said. This kind of finding is really a testament to what's possible now that we can fabricate electronic devices to study materials at the nanoscale. - Source 12/20/07 - Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels Transparent electrodes created from atom-thick carbon sheets could make solar cells and LCDs without depleting precious mineral resources, say researchers in Germany. Solar cells, LCDs, and some other devices, must have transparent electrodes in parts of their designs to let light in or out. These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but experts calculate that there is only 10 years' worth of indium left on the planet, with LCD panels consuming the majority of existing stocks. The group has managed to produce electrodes just 10 graphene layers thick, or roughly five nanometres. These have a transparency of about 80%, which is comparable to the indium-based electrodes normally used for dye sensitised cells. But, unlike these electrodes, graphene ones are completely transparent to infrared light, which could allow solar cells to collect more of the Sun's energy. - Source 12/20/07 - Acupuncture relieves cancer chemotherapy fatigue Crippling and long- lasting fatigue is one the most common side-effects of chemotherapy. The new work indicates that acupuncture can boost energy levels and radically improve a patient’s quality of life. Numerous trials have shown that acupuncture appears to work for a variety of conditions. Last year, two studies demonstrated that acupuncture may help boost fertility after IVF, although a third study failed to demonstrate an effect. The US National Institutes of Health says that acupuncture is an effective treatment for nausea caused by anaesthesia and cancer chemotherapy, as well as dental pain following surgery. - Source 12/20/07 - Making an invention idea a reality can be a hard road Bob Wise, president of the Texas Inventors’ Association, says only one in 10 inventions that receive a patent make significant money. And no more than a third of the inventions that come through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are given a patent, he said. Getting to that point can cost amateur inventors up to $11,000. “I have yet to find an inventor who has not thought his invention was the best thing since sliced bread,” said Wise, a patent attorney for 30 years and a former patent examiner. “But it’s more difficult than people may think, and there are a lot of factors that play into it.” When that idea comes to you, experts say don’t wait - and don’t tell anyone. “You never, never should tell anybody about your invention, even your mother, before talking with a patent attorney,” Wise said. While the grace period with the patent office currently stands that the inventor hasn’t revealed it more than a year after coming up with the idea, there is legislation in the works that would void an inventor’s patent rights the moment he or she discloses the idea to anyone. Wise said if the invention is worth pursuing, why wait? - Source 12/20/07 - Vertical Farming: Apple Store Meets Greenhouse Meets Skyscraper For more than a decade, Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier has argued that agriculture needs to expand upwards, not outwards. Forget the noble farmer in his fields; enter the 30-story greenhouse running on solar energy and urban wastewater, churning out food year-round. Once seen as an amusing novelty, Despommier's vertical farms went mainstream in 2007, garnering widespread press attention and investor interest. No wonder: by 2050, Earth's population will swell to 9 billion people. Feeding them -- especially if they demand protein-rich Western diets -- will require a doubling, even a tripling of global food supplies. - Source 12/20/07 - E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the proposed California rules were pre-empted by federal authority and made moot by the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said California had failed to make a compelling case that it needed authority to write its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks to help curb global warming. The decision immediately provoked a heated debate over its scientific basis and whether political pressure was applied by the automobile industry to help it escape the proposed California regulations. Officials from the states and numerous environmental groups vowed to sue to overturn the edict. The 17 states - including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut - had waited two years for the Bush administration to issue a ruling on an application to set stricter air quality standards than those adopted by the federal government. The decision, technically known as a Clean Air Act waiver, was the first time California was refused permission to impose its own pollution rules; the federal government had previously granted the state more than 50 waivers. - Source 12/20/07 - Formal Apology Form (via j-walkblog.com) - Source 12/20/07 - Proxz.com Proxz.com was created to supply the general public with free proxy servers. We do this because proxy servers are very useful tools. They can be used for but not limited to hiding your IP, secure web surfing, faster connection response, and firewall bypassing. A proxy server does not insure that your completely anonymous, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Proxz.com is updated with fresh proxies daily from our extensive database, and are sent via RSS feed. Our proxies are tested for quality before being placed in our proxy lists. We offer a wide range of different types of proxy servers, below is a list of the types and what they do. - Source 12/20/07 - Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public The London police force clearly has the graphic-design edge , but the Chicago Police Department matches if not outshines the British bobbies for the ardor and toxic nuttiness with which it propagates anti-terrorist paranoia. Click on the image to read which categories of people are considered suspects now. You might want to duct-tape your jaw to your face first (be careful not to do this in public; I'm sure the cops consider duct tape highly fishy too). Like the London example, this flyer is genuine. You can find it on the City of Chicago's website here. If terrorists do their dirty work by spreading, well, terror, what should we call public servants who aggressively promote fear and unhinged suspicions by telling the public to report note takers, binoculars users, camera enthusiasts, map owners, and motorists who time traffic lights? (via boingboing.net) - Source 12/20/07 - Psychic gramophone of 1932 Major Raymond Phillips, O.M.E., late member of the Inter-Allied Commission of Control, claims to have evolved apparatus which will cause a gramaphone or kettle to function entirely by will power. Major Phillips explains that the human body acts as an earth and the constant capacity is maintained within three yards of the apparatus. A momentary pause in the flow to earth through the body-produced entirely by mind concentration-is followed by an upward surge of sufficient intensity to cause a series of relays to operate. - Source 12/20/07 - How Spicey is Your IT Dept Spiceworks.. The FREE Helpdesk,IT Assset, Software Inventory, Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting Tool. Setup takes about 5 mins. Scan your network (i prefer to do this overnight) and check out the reports. Ever want to find out exactly how many machines: Have P2P software on them, Who doesn't have Anti-virus software or is out of date, Whose machine doesn't install the windows updates automatically, Have that annoying old version of the NIC driver that craps out under load and soo much more. These are just a couple of examples of what i did with Spiceworks. The helpdesk ticket system is helping my IT people keep track of nagging issues and helping those that are out of the know stay in the know. Try it out.. its Free!! - Source 12/20/07 - The dangers of living in a zero-sum world economy We live in a positive-sum world economy and have done so for about two centuries. This, I believe, is why democracy has become a political norm, empires have largely vanished, legal slavery and serfdom have disappeared and measures of well-being have risen almost everywhere. What then do I mean by a positive-sum economy? It is one in which everybody can become better off. It is one in which real incomes per head are able to rise indefinitely. How long might such a world last, and what might happen if it ends? The debate on the connected issues of climate change and energy security raises these absolutely central questions. - Source 12/20/07 - New phone device allows you to 'speak' through your ear The device -- named "e-Mimi-kun" (good ear boy) -- doubles as an earphone and a microphone by detecting air vibrations inside the ear, developer NS-ELEX Co. said. The earpiece and an accompanying device can be connected to a mobile phone, or wirelessly to a Bluetooth handset, so that users no longer have to cover their mouths when speaking in a loud environment, the company said. Exterior noise is reduced six-fold by the earpiece, it said, while a chip developed by Sanyo Electric for the accompanying device reduces sound levels ten-fold, it added. - Source 12/20/07 - Funniest 404 page Face it, this page is probably a lot more interesting that what you were looking for in the first place. - Source 12/18/07 - Impossibility of Perpetual Motion Shown at Chicago Fair - Sept. 1934 A “BALL power wheel” which is supposed to turn continuously because it is always unbalanced is just one of the many interesting “perpetual motion” models on exhibit in the Hall of Science of A Century of Progress. In spite of the fact that centuries of effort have failed to produce a single working perpetual motion machine, inventors continue wasting time and money on the idea. This exhibit is intended to show in a convincing manner just why it is impossible to construct such a device. Though many of the models run a surprisingly long time, friction eventually stops every one. - Source 12/18/07 - ‘Combinatorial’ Approach Squashes Software Bugs Faster, Cheaper A team of computer scientists and mathematicians from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Texas, Arlington is developing an open-source tool that catches programming errors by using an emerging approach called “combinatorial testing.” - Source 12/18/07 - Autophagy - Aging Gracefully Requires Taking Out the Trash Suppressing a cellular cleanup-mechanism known as autophagy can accelerate the accumulation of protein aggregates that leads to neural degeneration. In an upcoming issue of Autophagy, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report for the first time that the opposite is true as well: Boosting autophagy in the nervous system of fruit flies prevented the age-dependent accumulation of cellular damage in neurons and promoted longevity. - Source 12/18/07 - Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines The AFRL is developing an electric motor-powered micro air vehicle (MAV) that can "harvest" energy when needed by attaching itself to a power line. It could even temporarily change its shape to look more like innocuous piece of trash hanging from the cable. AFRL's initial aim is to work out how to make a MAV flying at 74 kilometres per hour latch onto a power line without destroying itself or the line. In addition, so as not to arouse suspicion, AFRL says the spy plane will need to collapse its wings and hang limply on the cable like a piece of wind-blown detritus. Much of the "morphing" technology to perform this has already been developed by DARPA, the Pentagon's research division. Technologies developed in that program include carbon composite "sliding skins", which allow fuselages to change shape, and telescopic wings that allow lift to be boosted in seconds by boosting a wing's surface area. - Source 12/18/07 - Night Into Day - Feb. 1947 A NEW radiance may soon pour-down from the night sky, dispelling the darkness and changing the life of mankind in the future. This light, the brilliant glow of activated gases in the Ionosphere, is now a definite scientific possibility. Professor Etienne Vassy, Maitre de Conference of the Faculty of Sciences, Sorbonne University, Paris, has set imaginations soaring with his new theory. He proposes to shoot a power ray 50 miles into the air, up into the thin gases of the Ionosphere, activating these gases and causing them to glow with a neon-like light. An artist’s conception of this effect upon the business section of New York City is shown in the accompanying photograph. In this island of light, people could work without artificial illumination. - Source 12/18/07 - 15 Weird Gadgets Here are some weird gadgets that were born as the result of the wildest imagination by their inventors. Here are the top 15 weird gadgets that you never thought existed. - Source 12/18/07 - Norway's carbon emissions rose 80 percent despite Kyoto Just as Norwegian delegates to the UN's conference on climate change started heading home from Bali, came news that Norway's own carbon emissions rose 80 percent from 1990 to 2004. Statoil's refinery at Mongstad is the biggest contributor. Some politicians found themselves in embarrassing spots as well. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had to admit to newspaper Dagsavisen that he still uses an old-fashioned and emission-generating oil heater in his home, even though his own government is strongly encouraging Norwegian households to replace such heating systems. - Source 12/18/07 - Britons 'healthier in medieval times' People in medieval times were healthier than modern Britons because they did not suffer from cholesterol related diseases, it has been claimed. While those living in the Roman and Tudor periods faced hazards such as the "pox and plague", it seems that their daily diet lacked foods which could lead to heart disease. Excessive levels of cholesterol were non-existent in Roman and medieval times. It is a current phenomenon and a direct result of modern excess and a lack of exercise. Research by Lloydspharmacy, the chemist chain, found that the daily diet consumed by Britons in the Roman period of fruit, fish, whole grains, vegetables and olive oil washed down with red wine amounted to approximately 120g of fat, 80g of protein and 600g of carbohydrates. Two thousand years later the average British diet is higher in fat, lower in fruit and vegetables and higher in refined sugar, all of which have contributed to the rise in obesity-related disease and cholesterol. But the average lifespan in medieval times was about half of what it is now because many died in childbirth or from infections. - Source 12/18/07 - Get ready for traffic jams on the Moon It might be time to consider traffic lights on the moon. In the past week, governments, space agencies, and even a company from the Isle of Man announced plans to land on the moon. But it won't just be the big players adding to the traffic jam. Last week a private company called Odyssey Moon - based on the Isle of Man - became the first entrant in the Google Lunar X prize. The contest, announced in September, offers $20 million to the first privately funded mission to land a probe on the moon before 2012 and send back pictures. - Source 12/18/07 - Convert Videos for Phones, iPods and More with WinFF Windows and Linux: Free and open source application WinFF is a graphical front end for the command line tool FFMpeg, a veritable Swiss Army knife of mutimedia file conversion. Load an audio or video file into WinFF, select from a wide variety of output formats-including Flash files, phone-friendly ringtones and DVD templates-and hit convert. Users of Ubuntu and some other Linux distros may have to enable their FFMpeg tool to use additional codecs, which the author describes at his site. WinFF is a free download for all Windows systems and Linux distributions, with pre-compiled Ubuntu/Debian and Red Hat packages available at the link. - Source 12/18/07 - Scitopia In the world of online scientific research, Web giants Google and Wikipedia may not be ideal places to begin your search. Students, particularly in America, are discovering Scitopia, a new search engine that gathers its information from more than three million scholarly and government documents as well as European, Japanese and U.S. patent offices. - Source 12/18/07 - Judge Judy not real? We were operating under the misunderstanding that Judge Judy was a broadcast of an actual small claims court somewhere, but then our legal beagle intern Alex informed us that it's really just arbitration dressed up to look like small claims court. The power the judge has over the parties is granted by the contract of adhesion they sign to appear. If the defendant loses, the tv product team pays the plaintiff the judgment fee. If the judge finds for the defendant, both parties receive an appearance fee. The judges are not bound by real rules of procedure, evidence, or even behavior. Since it's a contract of adhesion, a decision can only really be successfully appealed if the decision falls outside the scope of what's in the contract. - Source 12/18/07 - 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On The war that's coming between the fundamentalist Christians and the hard-core Atheists probably won't be the most violent of the holy wars. But it has the potential to be the most annoying. We'll, I'm going to try to stop it. - Source 12/16/07 - Signs of the Future IT'S the year 2040 and Ray Hammond is getting advice from his software assistant Maria. Located in an implant just behind his left ear, Maria has a direct connection with Mr Hammond's brain. Linked with Google and other search engines, Maria is able to filter, search and speak softly to Mr Hammond, as quietly and as transparently as if she were his own thoughts. Maria is the product of one of the six key drivers of change, something he calls "accelerating exponential technology" - "I use Google a metaphor for an emerging intelligence. Every single day that I use Google, and I use it constantly, I notice that it's getting a little bit more capable at understanding what I mean when I don't say precisely what I mean. "Now, if brainpower in the computer is doubling every 12 months and Google is gathering every single minute of every day the intentions of all the humans in the planet, imagine where that might lead in 10 years. And if we accept that Moore's law (that the number of transistors on a chip should double every 18 months to two years) will continue, somewhere between the years 2020 to 2035, artificial intelligence will equal human intelligence and by definition, it will then double it." The result, he says, will be a rupture in human evolution. "We are effectively inventing a new species. So where does that leave us then? In control." - Source 12/16/07 - Auto Mileage Standards Raised to 35 mpg "The Senate just passed a bill that will increase auto mileage standards for the first time in three decades. The auto industry's fleet of new cars, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans will have to average 35 mpg by 2020, a significant increase over the 2008 requirement of 27.5 mpg average. For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years auto companies will likely build more diesel-powered SUVs and gas-electric hybrid cars as well as vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol. Automakers had vehemently opposed legislation in June that contained the same mileage requirements and Fortune magazine reported that American automakers were starting the miles-per-gallon race far behind Japan and that the new standards could doom US automakers. At the time, Chrysler officially put the cost of meeting the proposed rules at $6,700 per vehicle. The White House announced the President will sign the bill if it comes to his desk." / (They should have made it 50mpg instead of just 35. - JWD) - Source 12/16/07 - Geldof blasts 'Mickey Mouse' energy The Irish former rock star, known for his campaigning on poverty relief in Africa, was writing on a blog set up by carmaker Lexus to promote hybrid road vehicles. "The reality is that we need to do much more than change the type of car we drive to make an impact on climate change. In the UK, we'll soon have to scramble for more nuclear power," Geldof wrote. "On this issue, I don't care what anyone says: we're going to go with it, big-time. We may mess around with wind and waves and other renewable energy sources, trying to make them sustainable, but they're not. They're Mickey Mouse," he said. - Source 12/16/07 - Faster Shutdowns Using the Run Dialog Whenever I tried to shutdown my work laptop it would take almost five minutes. Five minutes! Since I work in a completely locked-down environment I couldn't look to any third party applications for help. Entering the following shutdown command in the run dialog speeds up my shutdown time dramatically. Open Run and type: shutdown -f -t 0 / The command Eric uses immediately forces any open applications to close without warning prior to Windows shutting down. (via lifehacker.com) - Source 12/16/07 - Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad New advertising technology manufactured by Holosonic transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium. The technology, ideal for museums and libraries or environments that require a quiet atmosphere for isolated audio slideshows, has rarely been used on such a scale before. For random passersby and residents who have to walk unwittingly through the area where the voice will penetrate their inner peace, it's another story. Ms. Wilson, a New York-based stylist, said she expected the voice inside her head to be some type of creative project but could see how others might perceive it differently, particularly on a late-night stroll home. "I might be a little freaked out, and I wouldn't necessarily think it's coming from that billboard," she said. - Source 12/16/07 - Living bioterror detector The trouble with biochemical weapons detectors is that they generate an unacceptable number of false positives, says Benjamin Shapiro, an aerospace engineer at the University of Maryland, US. The system that Shapiro and colleagues have come up with uses cells that die when exposed to a particular pathogen, which provides the early warning. The cells are also engineered to produce a signal, such as fluorescence, when attacked. They are stored on a chip that keeps them alive and that also monitors the light they produce. The cells can be exposed to pathogens in the air via a semi-permeable membrane. When the cells die and emit light, the system should know within minutes that pathogens are present - just like the canaries that were once used to warn miners of a build-up of toxic gas. - Source 12/16/07 - Kidney Cell Battery One of the potentially useful things that a living cell can do is pump ions across its membrane. Simon Levinson, a biophysicist at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, US, says this generates a potential difference and so could be exploited to make a biobattery. Levinson believes that kidney cells, which are particularly good at transporting ions, could be well suited to making a miniature battery. This would be formed by stacking up large numbers of cell layers to boost the voltage and current they can produce. He suggests that such biobatteries might be ideal for powering devices inserted in the body, such as insulin pumps or pacemakers. - Source 12/16/07 - Mobile Remote Eyes for Security A new invention that let’s you keep an eye on your valuables when you are far from home could give homeowners the peace of mind they have been craving. The Smart Eyes robot - an off-the-shelf remote control rally car that has a cellphone-capable phone video mounted on its roof. The modified rally car is Guan’s honours engineering project. The vehicle can be operated via cellphone, feeding footage to a video-capable cellphone anywhere in the world. Guan says he had always planned to manufacture a surveillance product and after he realised there were no products on the market that allowed the camera to move, he knew what he wanted to create. Guan designed and built the upgraded remote control car, putting additional technology “on top” and getting the system working in a matter of weeks. - Source 12/16/07 - Watch predicts your Death U.S. patent 5031161, the Life Expectancy Timepiece. The watch tackles a complex problem the same way those generic email questionnaires your friends send you do - by using the same actuarial tables insurance companies use to determine your life insurance premiums. "This actuarial table data is based on a number of factors, such as overall health of the individual, whether a person smokes cigarettes, consumes excessive alcohol, and genetic factors such as family histories of known diseases and recorded life spans." So, just like the clock that activates the New Year's Eve ball in Times Square every year, this watch is always in countdown mode! Unlike a traditional watch that will run, theoretically, forever, the Life Expectancy Timepiece has an end time or hard stop. Happy "another year down and only so many left to go" goner boy! - Source 12/16/07 - Painless Bubble Injections Sixth-grader inventor James Gentry is confident and curious. Cradled in his hands is another hand, a yellow one made with a wad of tissue packed into one of his mother's dishwashing gloves. Clear packing tape holds a dime-size dot to the wrist of the faux-paw. That dot -- a Bubble Wrap bubble packed with glue -- could be James' ticket to New York, to scientific stardom. It's his entry in a Sealed Air Corp. young inventor competition, and James is one of 15 semifinalists. His creation: medicine-filled bubbles that leach through the skin, eliminating the need for needles. James said he hopes to create a painless injection, a godsend to children and squeamish adults. "I'm hoping it will actually work by next year, so I don't have to take a shot," the 12-year-old said. "I do not like shots." - Source 12/16/07 - Ron Paul Supporters - Will they actually VOTE? "Can a legion of joystick wielding and mouse clicking armchair generals actually get off their asses and vote? I think Ron’s a bit out there, but I do admit to having an extreme amount of impish glee in the way he and his supporters are using UGC, social media, grassroots politics, and technical savvy to turn the current political structure upside down and upset the apple cart. If I were the Ron Paul Group I’d really start working voter registration into the mix sooner rather than later, it’s much easier to create an online account and vote for a story as opposed to getting in your car and driving to your local school to vote." - Source / What do you have to do to VOTE? Here are the guidelines. - Source with a bit of - Additional Information 12/16/07 - We're not getting enough sun for health People should sit outside in the middle of the day to help stave off potential deadly medical conditions, an Australian researcher says. Current recommendations about when people should be exposed to the sun the most were wrong and did not allow people to get enough vitamin D, according to David Turnbull, a research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland's Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health. - Source 12/16/07 - Jet Packs are here! Mow comes a new jet pack from Jet Pack International! "These turbine jet packs are supposed to have much greater flight time and be much safer than traditional jet pack technology. It is supposed to travel 16km without refueling." Not too shabby. The consumer model will come with all the training necessary to fly it safely and will run $226,000. - Source 12/16/07 - L.A. must dump water from two reservoirs In the midst of a drought, Los Angeles officials announced today that 600 million gallons of water must be dumped from two reservoirs that supply a large swath of the city because an unexpected chemical reaction heightened by sunlight rendered it undrinkable. The Department of Water and Power must drain the Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs, which together provide drinking water to residents in portions of central Los Angeles, the Eastside and South Los Angeles. Officials believe that intense sunlight, bromide in ground water and chlorine combined to produce bromate, a carcinogen that is dangerous through long-term exposure. - Source 12/16/07 - Turning Homosexuality On or Off To their surprise, neurobiologists have discovered that homosexuality can be turned on or off in fruit flies. They’d known that sexual orientation can be genetically programmed, but they didn’t realize it could also be altered by giving a drug that changes the way the flies’ sensory circuits react to pheromones. Within hours of the treatment, previously heterosexual male fruit flies would be courting other males, and treatment could also cause flies who had been engaging in homosexual behavior to become exclusively heterosexual, the neurobiologists report in Nature Neuroscience. You can read a summary of it here from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the home of one of the researchers, David Featherstone. I don’t think of homosexuality or heterosexuality as an “illness” to be “cured,” but I wonder how people would use the ability to control sexual orientation - to have a designer libido. - Source 12/16/07 - Is dirty hardware making you sick? Take a look at your keyboard. Is last week's lunch still decorating the space bar? What about your phone? Does the earpiece look as greasy as a spoon in a truckers' café? Office equipment harbours millions of germs - with telephones, keyboards and mice particularly fertile breeding grounds for nasties, claims IT equipment cleaning company PROtech IT Hygiene. - Source 12/14/07 - Machine Turns Junk into Usable Petroleum and Gas Everything that goes into Frank Pringle’s recycling machine-a piece of tire, a rock, a plastic cup-turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects-or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste-tires, plastic, vinyl-into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running). Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. It’s a $5.1-million microwave machine the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. - Source 12/14/07 - Toshiba To Launch "Super Charge" Batteries Toshiba announced that it has developed a new type of rechargeable battery dubbed the Super Charge ion Battery, or SCiB. Toshiba claims the new battery will mainly target the industrial market, though they hint the technology may eventually find a home in electric vehicles. The SCiB can recharge to 90% of total capacity in under five minutes, and has a life span of over 10 years. "Toshiba also says the battery has excellent safety with the new negative electrode material having a high level of thermal stability and a high flash point. The battery is also said to be structurally resistant to internal short-circuiting and thermal runaway." - Source 12/14/07 - Radio Bomb Jammer The "Bomb Jammer," that blocks the remote control detonation of Improvised Explosive Devices, which have been used extensively to kill U.S. coalition forces in Iraq. "What it does," Viper explains, "is put a jamming wave out using radio frequency technology... that successfully targets radio-controlled devices and jams them before transmissions can get to the receiver." Viper looks to the future and explained that HSS has three new products that will soon be available, a new digital Jammer controlled by computer which uses the new Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) technology, and a second generation Jammer that covers a wider range of the radio spectrum. Another product in development, said Viper, is the Gauntlet, "a pre-detonation system for roadside IEDs" that can be used for any type of IED, not just a radio-controlled IED. It could possibly be used to combat suicide bombers, who wear explosives and blow themselves up in the attack. - Source 12/14/07 - Body clock 'control switch' found We are governed by an internal 24-hour clock. Although the process involves complex genes, the whole mechanism is controlled by a single amino acid - a building block of protein. The body's internal clock, a highly sensitive mechanism able to anticipate changes in the environment, regulates a host of body functions, from sleep patterns to metabolism and behaviour. It is estimated that it regulates up to 15% of all human genes. Disruption of these rhythms can profoundly influence human health and has been linked to insomnia, depression, heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. The gene CLOCK and its partner BMAL1 control the body's internal clock. The latest study found that a single amino acid in a protein produced by BMAL1 undergoes a modification that triggers the genetic chain of events involved with setting the body's rhythms. The researchers found that if this modification is impaired in any way, the switching mechanism can be thrown off, undermining the whole system. They are currently testing antibodies that can target the activity of this amino acid. - Source 12/14/07 - Does Active SETI Put Earth in Danger? "There is an interesting story in Seed Magazine on active SETI - sending out signals to try to contact other civilizations in nearby star systems. Alexander Zaitsev, Chief Scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, has access to one of the most powerful radio transmitters on Earth and has already sent several messages to nearby, sun-like stars. But some scientists think that Zaitsev is not only acting out of turn by independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet but believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness. This ground has been explored before in countless works of science fiction most notably "The Killing Star," a 1995 novel that paints a frightening picture of interstellar civilizations exterminating their neighbors with relativistic bombardments, not from malice, but simply because it is the most logical action." - Source 12/14/07 - Video - Spanish for your Nanny Too funny! When I ask people what various words or phrase mean here, I learned never to trust the first interpretation but to look it up and/or ask others what it means before I try to use it. So much of the language in daily use here in Mexico is slanguage and many words or uses of them don't match what is taught in Spanish classes. - Source 12/14/07 - Sex determined by Mother's Diet? Have a burger and chips before getting pregnant and you’re more likely to have a baby boy - whereas a girl is more likely if you eat chocolate or ice cream. It may sound about as convincing as puppy-dogs’ tails, but this is the latest cutting-edge science as reported in New Scientist. Researchers at the University of Pretoria in South Africa found that mice given drugs that reduced their blood-sugar levels produced more female than male pups. And the finding fits with traditional wisdom that mothers should feed on red meat and salty snacks if they want a boy and chocolates and sweets if they want a girl, according to lead researcher, Professor Elisa Cameron. - Source 12/14/07 - Northern Lights Controlled by Magnetic ''Ropes'' NASA spacecraft have revealed new insights into the forces that cause the northern lights, including giant magnetic "ropes" between Earth and the sun. "The auroras surged westward twice as fast as anyone thought possible, crossing 15 degrees of longitude in less than one minute," Angelopoulos said. "The storm traversed an entire polar time zone, or 400 miles [640 kilometers], in 60 seconds flat." An artist's conception of an aurora (red and green stripes) appears over a series of NASA ground stations (blue circles) used to monitor a series of orbiting satellites dubbed THEMIS. New findings from the THEMIS probes suggests that the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are fueled by magnetic "ropes" linking the sun and Earth. / (Years ago, in discussion with Walter Rawls who worked in magnetics research with Albert Roy Davis, Walter showed me this photo of lines taken from a TV screen excited with a magnet. The point was the 'ropes of magnetic force' which when magnified show a trinary, tetrahedral shape inside each of these ropes. This was one of Keely's claims, that the universe is made up of these trinary flows. - JWD) - Source 12/14/07 - Find Your Soul Mates Through Body Odour! ScientificMatch.com, says that the body odour is the main source of attraction. According to the founders, ScientificMatch.com is the first service to use its DNA matching to link somebody to that perfect someone. The service asks its members to submit a DNA sample, the saliva-swab normally used in paternity or drug testing, and then examines it to compute their ideal partner. The company said that in analysing the use of DNA, the immune system genes would identify compatible match from people with different immune systems. According to ScientificMatch.com, "a natural odour you''ll love, with whom you''d have healthier children and a more satisfying sex life." "The fact is, we love how other people smell when their immune systems are different from ours - they smell sexier," the company added. - Source 12/14/07 - Scramjets - 2 hours New York to Tokyo "Recent breakthroughs in scramjet engines could mean two-hour flights from New York to Tokyo. This technology, decades in the making, could redefine our understanding of air travel and military encounters. 'To put things in context, the world's fastest jet, the Air Force's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over an hour. That's about the limit for jet engines; the fastest fighter planes barely crack Mach 1.6. Scramjets, on the other hand, can theoretically fly as fast as Mach 15--nearly 10,000 mph.'" - Source 12/14/07 - False copyright claims are a lucrative business for sleazoids Copyfraud is everywhere. False copyright notices appear on modern reprints of Shakespeare's plays, Beethoven's piano scores, greeting card versions of Monet's Water Lilies, and even the U.S. Constitution. Archives claim blanket copyright in everything in their collections. Vendors of microfilmed versions of historical newspapers assert copyright ownership. These false copyright claims, which are often accompanied by threatened litigation for reproducing a work without the owner's permission, result in users seeking licenses and paying fees to reproduce works that are free for everyone to use. Copyright law itself creates strong incentives for copyfraud. The Copyright Act provides for no civil penalty for falsely claiming ownership of public domain materials. There is also no remedy under the Act for individuals who wrongly refrain from legal copying or who make payment for permission to copy something they are in fact entitled to use for free. While falsely claiming copyright is technically a criminal offense under the Act, prosecutions are extremely rare. These circumstances have produced fraud on an untold scale, with millions of works in the public domain deemed copyrighted, and countless dollars paid out every year in licensing fees to make copies that could be made for free. Copyfraud stifles valid forms of reproduction and undermines free speech. - Source 12/14/07 - NY police train citizens to be bad samaritans Despite anyone finding a lost wallet having 10 days by law to return it, NYPD is using entrapment techniques to immediately arrest anyone who picks up planted wallets and bags which are now seeded with credit cards to make it a felony (instead of just cash which was a misdomeaner). Over half the people arrested had no previous criminal record whatsoever. The cops were ordered to stop "Operation Lucky Bag" by the court but apparently it continues with officers now instructed to writeup "suspicious behavior." - Source 12/14/07 - Non Profit squanders By many measures, this is the golden age of the charitable-industrial complex: gifts are up. Growth is off the charts. These days, nearly everybody seems in on a benevolent act or the catalyst for one - movie stars, rock stars, former presidents, financiers, school teachers, and CEOs. From all appearances, the nonprofit sector has never been so positioned to make substantial headway against challenges such as disease, poverty, and environmental calamity. How much is squandered? Yet as Americans give away more money than ever before - the total amount of U.S. philanthropy is on track to top $300 billion this year - an unpleasant question lingers: how much of that money is well-spent, and how much of it is squandered? The uncomfortable truth: no one knows for sure, and even worse, few are checking. Donor confidence is shaky. Americans have come to believe that there is some sort of leaky bucket that no matter who they give to, some of the money will be lost through waste, inefficiency, and high executive salaries. - Source 12/14/07 - UPS saved 3 Million Gallons of Gas By Not Turning Left It seems that sitting in the left lane, engine idling, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so you can make a left-hand turn, is minutely wasteful - of time and peace of mind, for sure, but also of gas and therefore money. Not a ton of gas and money if we’re talking about just you and your Windstar, say, but immensely wasteful if we’re talking about more than 95,000 big square brown trucks delivering packages every day. And this realization - that when you operate a gigantic fleet of vehicles, tiny improvements in the efficiency of each one will translate to huge savings overall - is what led U.P.S. to limit further the number of left-hand turns its drivers make. - Source 12/14/07 - The Ethyl-Poisoned Earth At the turn of the twentieth century, as the age of automobiles was afoot, the newfangled gasoline-powered internal combustion engine began to reach the limitations of the fuel that fed it. As higher-compression designs were tried, an engine-wrecking condition known as "knock" or "ping" would invariably develop. Though they didn't know it at the time, the noisy destruction was caused when the the increased heat and pressure prompted the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder to detonate all at once as opposed to an orderly burn. In spite of this problem, there was a demand for high-compression designs since they provided increased horsepower and fuel efficiency. The latter was particularly appealing in light of America's forecasted fuel famine. In 1921, after a long string of inadequate solutions, a clever but chronically catastrophic chemist named Thomas Midgley developed a fuel additive which eliminated ping problems while increasing fuel efficiency. Though the chemical agent eventually gained worldwide acceptance, it left a rash of psychosis, a trail of bodies, an epidemic of crime, and an irreparably damaged environment in its wake... - Source 12/12/07 - V2G Car Generates Electricity, and Cash University of Delaware researchers have created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology--known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid--lets electricity flow from the car’s battery to power lines and back. A team of UD faculty has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology--known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid--lets electricity flow from the car’s battery to power lines and back. When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery’s charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car’s battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid. Kempton estimates the value for utilities could be up to $4,000 a year for the service, part of which could be paid to drivers. The technology will work on a large scale, he said, because on average 95 percent of all cars are parked at any given time. One hour a day of car usage is the average in America. “A car sitting there with a tank of gasoline in it, that’s useless,” he said. “If it’s a battery storing a lot of electricity and a big plug that allows moving power back and forth quickly, then it’s valuable.” Kempton already has one of those large plugs at his home. He has a 240-volt plug that gives the battery a full charge--or a range up to 150 highway miles--in just two hours. A smaller, standard 110-volt plug works but provides a full charge in about 12 hours. The smaller plug also moves less power for the grid operator when the car is in V2G mode, Kempton explained. “The bigger the plug, the more power you can move, the more revenue,” he said, explaining that it cost about $600 to have the larger plug installed. - Source 12/12/07 - Car Exhaust Cleaner patented A plasma reactor that could be attached to the exhaust system of motor vehicles to dramatically reduce harmful emissions has been developed by researchers at Old Dominion University’s Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics. By squeezing the discharge plasma between insulating plates the efficiency of decontamination was increased dramatically. An example of a reactor that could be placed within the exhaust system of a motor vehicle helps to explain the invention. The use of plasmas to treat engine exhaust was proposed years ago. (Electrons in supercharged plasmas bombard emission gases such as nitrogen oxides, turning noxious molecules into molecules of more benign gases.) But a conventional device to produce low-temperature plasmas requires too much energy to be a feasible anti-pollution device, Schoenbach said. Malik’s and Schoenbach’s idea was to change the design of the reactor, which conventionally has two plates perhaps one centimeter apart that create a plasma discharge between them. Instead, the new reactor has several plates and they are much closer together.“ Researchers at ODU believe such a reactor could efficiently split the molecules of harmful emissions at a cost that could be attractive to motor vehicle manufacturers. The application potentially could be used by many other industries whose processes and products create harmful chemical emissions, Schoenbach said. - Source 12/12/07 - Magnetic monopole discovered (yeah right) A press release claims the invention of a 'Static Field Converter.' What astonishes me is that this guy has the stones to claim he is working with University at Buffalo, SUNY on this “invention”, and even more laughable, radio stations are interviewing this nut job to get the story on his groundbreaking invention. The way the press release was worded you can see that even the non-technical radio interviewers think is schwacked and I hope you will all agree. And no, I am not going to publish this clown’s name or link to his website, he as gotten enough attention already. The only problem? Well, it is not a static field converter. He puts a coil around a permanent magnet and then rotates a “diamagnetic element” around the magnet to alternately shield and expose the coil to the field. Sure sounds like a varying magnetic field to me. So this is no more a static field converter anymore than a permanent magnet generator is a static field converter. - Static Field Converter patent. - Source 12/12/07 - 'Place' Affects Quality of the Water We Drink Two University of Iowa researchers recently completed a three-part study, "Economics of Place-based Monitoring under the Safe Drinking Water Act," showing that taking local geography into account would result in testing that is at least as effective as current federal testing, but also less-expensive, so that resources could be used to test for a wider range of contaminants in more communities. - Source 12/12/07 - The Dual-Rotor Flying Carpet PAM group's Individual Lifting Vehicle (ILV) is an intuitive flying platform that's roughly as easy to pilot as a Segway, shifting your weight as you stand right above the twin propellers. It's not a distance traveller, more of a compact levitation device designed for crop spraying, aerial movie videography, search and rescue and other short-range, low-altitude applications. With a theoretical maximum speed of around 60mph, the ILV could be a very effective tool within its design parameters. PAM Group's ILV is lifted by a counter-rotating rotor system powered by twin Hirth F-30 4-cylinder, 105 horsepower engines. As a safety fall-back measure, either engine is fully capable of powering both rotors in the event one engine fails. The rotors are over 9 feet in length, and spin on an axis directly underneath the platform the pilot stands on. This arrangement allows pilots to steer the ILV simply by leaning and shifting their bodyweight, while the natural physical act of balancing the body acts to stabilize the platform in the air. Safety-wise, apart from the ability to run on only one engine, the company plans to offer a ballistic parachute as an option. The structure itself is designed to withstand high impact speeds - but it's unclear whether that's very healthy for the pilot when it hits the ground. Either way, the ILV is probably best used at a hovering height of 20-30 feet, so it's not the most dangerous device around. The PAM 200 ILV will be introduced in the USA as a kit with a price of approximately US$50,000. - Source 12/12/07 - Earth's Magnetic Field Could Help Protect Astronauts on the Moon Earth is largely protected by its magnetic field, or magnetosphere, but new University of Washington research shows that some parts of the moon also are protected by the magnetosphere for seven days during the 28-day orbit around Earth. "We found that there were areas of the moon that would be completely protected by the magnetosphere and other areas that are not protected at all," said Erika Harnett, a UW assistant research professor of Earth and space sciences. Solar energetic particles, which are generated during solar storms, carry enough energy to disrupt communications on Earth or even kill satellites in Earth orbit. During those same storms, particles from Earth's ionosphere, primarily oxygen, also can become significantly energized. Though they are not as powerful as solar energetic particles, they still pose a significant threat to astronauts working on the moon, or even en route to Mars. - Source 12/12/07 - Self-Ticking Laser Oscillator Jau and Happer explain that in conventional atomic clocks, a quartz crystal is used “as a flywheel to keep the clock ticking strongly, with the atoms as a weak controlling element.” They point out that if the quartz crystal fails, the clock will cease working. “These are the types of clocks used in GPS satellites and in cell-phone towers,” Happer says. The push-pull laser-atomic oscillator built by the two consists of a semiconductor laser with alkali-metal vapor (in this case Potassium) in the external cavity. A time independent current is used to pump the semiconductor laser. “The laser will automatically modulate its light and its electrical impedance at the clock frequency of the atoms,” Happer says. This in turn eliminates the need for an external modulator, like the quartz crystal, or for a photodetector. “It’s really a souped-up mode-locked laser,” Happer says. “While our laser has much in common with a mode-locked laser, there are some differences. The atoms in the vapor cell notice if the frequency of the mode-locked laser drifts and they automatically correct the frequency with no need for any external feedback loops.” Happer continues: “An important benefit of push-pull pumping with alternating circular polarization is that none of the atoms are wasted.” “In most atomic clocks,” Jau adds, “many of the atoms are wasted. Only a very few are in the clock state. With this push-pull pumping, all of the atoms are put into a clock state.” Along the way, the two discovered something interesting. “The self-modulation occurs over a limited range of laser injection current. We weren’t surprised that too little current didn’t work. What surprised us was that too much current caused the laser to stop modulating,” Happer says. Jau continues: “This new oscillator, where the polarized atoms, the modulated photons, and the laser gain centers are all coupled together has very rich and interesting physics. ” - Source 12/12/07 - Tibetan Ice Cores in Stasis New Tibetan Ice Cores Missing A-Bomb Blast Markers; Suggest Himalayan Ice Fields Haven't Grown In Last 50 Years. Ice cores drilled last year from the summit of a Himalayan ice field lack the distinctive radioactive signals that mark virtually every other ice core retrieved worldwide. - Source 12/12/07 - Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies To see if danger makes people experience time in slow motion, scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston tried scaring volunteers. However, roller coasters and other frightening amusement park rides did not cause enough fear to make time warp. Instead, the researchers dropped volunteers from great heights. Scientists had volunteers dive backward with no ropes attached, into a special net that helped break their fall. They reached 70 mph during the roughly three-second, 150-foot drop. Volunteers estimated their own fall lasted about a third longer than dives they saw other volunteers take. To see if this meant people in danger could actually see and perceive more-like a video camera in slow motion can-Eagleman and his colleagues developed a device called a "perceptual chronometer" that was strapped onto volunteers' wrists. This watch-like device flickered numbers on its screen. The scientists could adjust the speed at which numbers appeared until they were too fast to see. If the brain sped up when in danger, the researchers theorized numbers on the perceptual chronometers would appear slow enough to read while volunteers fell. Instead, the scientists found that volunteers could not read the numbers at faster-than-normal speeds. "We discovered that people are not like Neo in The Matrix, dodging bullets in slow-mo," Eagleman said. - Source 12/12/07 - Want Kids? Then Pay a Climate Tax Parents who have more than two children should be charged a lifelong climate change tax to offset the effect of their extra greenhouse gas emissions, an Australian medical expert has proposed. They should pay $5000 a head for each extra child and up to $800 every year thereafter, according to the plan published in the Medical Journal of Australia. In contrast, contraceptives and sterilization procedures would be eligible for carbon credits, suggested Professor Barry Walters at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth. - Source 12/12/07 - Manned lunar bases may launch new era in space tourism The primary goal of Russian and American lunar base projects is to conduct scientific research works to obtain natural and power recourses of the Moon. Japanese cosmic futurologists consider lunar tourism to be the best way to provide profitability. Some measures are to be taken to carry out scientific or other programs connected with continuous presence of people on the Moon; proper living conditions should be provided too. Scientists should explore the lunar power and raw materials recourses to use them while building bases under unusual conditions: habitual building materials deficiency (wood, concrete, glass and metal), and the lack of atmosphere. The latter implies serious pressurization requirements. All outside building works are supposed to be done in special space suits. Moon orbital motion also complicates the situation: our habitual 24 hours last there nearly a month. The energy of temperature difference on the lunar surface and the solar energy conversion with the help of gas-turbine generators seem to be quite effective. In addition, on condition that the Moon obtains some necessary raw materials, the use of other energy sources (atomic, for instance) becomes possible. - Source 12/12/07 - Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power The only way to rescue our plug-hungry planet from catastrophic global warming is to embrace nuclear power, and fast. That's the argument of Gwyneth Cravens, a novelist, journalist and former nuke protester. Her new book, Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy, is a passionate plea to understand, instead of fear, atomic power. We could have more wind farms and solar. But I then learned about base-load energy, and that there are three forms of it: fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear. In the United States, we're maxed out on hydro. That leaves fossil fuels and nuclear power, and most of the fossil fuel burned is coal. In the U.S., 24,000 people a year die from coal pollution. Hundreds of thousands more people suffer from lung and heart disease directly attributable to coal pollution. WN: That's opposed to a minuscule number of people who have been directly harmed by nuclear power? Cravens: It's zero in the United States. Of course there is the occasional industrial accident amongst the workers. But over the lifetime cycle of nuclear power, if you go cradle-to-grave with uranium, the total carbon emissions are about those of wind power. - Source 12/12/07 - Nobel prize winner Lessing warns against 'inane' internet The inanities of the internet have seduced a generation, and we live in a fragmenting culture where people read nothing and know nothing of the world, the new Nobel laureate novelist Doris Lessing warned... Lessing, described by the Nobel committee as "that epicist of the female experience", has been in poor health, and the £750,000 Nobel prize for literature was presented [December 7th] in London, while a recording of her acceptance speech was relayed to the Swedish Academy hall in Stockholm. Her tone was profoundly pessimistic. Although she is still working hard at the age of 87, and she insisted the world would always need stories and storytellers, she also warned: "Writing, writers, do not come out of houses without books. We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned, and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing... - Source 12/12/07 - Mediterranean diet cuts mortality Consuming a Mediterranean diet can make you live longer, according to a major study published today. Eating plenty of fruit, vegetables and fish instead of meat, not to mention olive oil rather than saturated fats, is generally accepted to be good for you, but only a few studies have attempted to work out whether such a diet would help people to live longer. - Source 12/10/07 - 15MV/meter from Lightning Bolts within Cells Using novel voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, researchers have found electric fields inside cells as strong as those produced in lightning bolts. Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells. University of Michigan researchers led by chemistry professor Raoul Kopelman encapsulated voltage-sensitive dyes in polymer spheres just 30 nanometers in diameter. When illuminated with blue light, the voltage-sensitive dyes emit a mixture of red and green light; the exact frequency of light emitted is influenced by the strength of local electric fields, allowing the researchers to measure those fields. Testing these nanoparticles in the internal fluid of brain-cancer cells, Kopelman found electric fields as strong as 15 million volts per meter, perhaps five times stronger than the field found in a lightning bolt. - Source 12/10/07 - German battery could jump-start electric car production German cars are known for strength, speed and high fuel consumption, but a firm in eastern Saxony has designed a lithium-ion battery membrane that could finally make electric cars common. Batteries made by the a firm called Li-Tec "take up 30 percent less volume than those from Toyota" and "allow you to go three times further for the same weight than French models," said Tim Schaefer, a director of the company in eastern Kamenz. Housed in a stylish rectangular silver pouch, the "Separion" consists of two lithium electrodes in an electrolyte, or liquid conductor. What differentiates it from similar batteries is that the electrodes are separated by a flexible ceramic membrane that provides greater thermal stability, according to the German group. A drawback of lithium-ion batteries is a risk of explosion if they overheat. - Source 12/10/07 - Stealing Focus Has this ever happened to you? You're merrily typing away in some application, minding your own business, when-- suddenly-- a dialog pops up and steals the focus from you. At best, your flow is interrupted. You'll have to switch back to the window that you were using, figure out where you were, and resume your work. But it can be worse. So, so much worse. If you happen to be typing something that can be interpreted as an action by that dialog-- and remember, pressing the space bar is the same as clicking a button when it happens to have the focus -- you could suddenly and very much accidentally be in a world of pain. - Source 12/10/07 - Moonbeam Collector Curious onlookers migrate to a patch in the Arizona desert to bask in light from the world's first moonbeam collector. Jaron Ness stands in the cool desert air waiting for the clouds to clear and the moon to rise. As the conditions come into alignment, he steps into the path of a cool blaze of blue-white light bounced off a wall of highly polished parabolic mirrors five stories high. "It feels magnetic," he says, turning his hands slowly in the reflected glow of the light from the almost full moon. The young professional from Colorado is among a growing number of curious people beating a path to this patch of scrub-strewn land out in the Arizona desert to bask in light from the world's first moonbeam collector. A Tucson-based inventor and businessman Richard Chapin and his wife Monica are behind the giant device, which gathers up and focuses the light of the moon. The effect of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth's tides and other natural phenomena has been studied for millennia. Less attention has focused on the sunlight reflected from its surface. The Chapins built the large, one-of-a-kind contraption that stands in the desert some 15 miles west of Tucson, Arizona, in the belief that moonlight might have applications for medicine, industry and agriculture. The device is five stories tall and weighs 25 tons, and is covered with 84 mirrored panels set on a hydraulic mount that, the Chapins say, can focus the light of the moon with "the precision of a Swiss watch." There is no charge to use the facility, although the couple accept donations of $10 from people who use it to defray some of the operating costs. So far they have had more than 1,000 visitors, with interest from as far a field as Australia, Japan, India and Saudi Arabia from people seeking either a new experience or in the hope of some kind of medical benefit. Some visitors to the site believe that exposure to the moonlight has helped alleviate some medical conditions. After bathing in the moonbeams, Carr said he noticed an improvement in a long-standing asthma condition. However, no clinical experiments with moonlight have been carried out on people. Scientists say there is no proof that it has any effect whatsoever on medical conditions and diseases, and are skeptical of anecdotal claims. (via impactlab.com) - Source 12/10/07 - Pretend It Never Happened? If the USA had completely ignored the 9/11 attack - just shrugged and rebuilt the building - it would have been better than the real course of history. But that wasn't a political option. Even if anyone privately guessed that the immune response would be more damaging than the disease, American politicians had no career-preserving choice but to walk straight into al Qaeda's trap. Whoever argues for a greater response is a patriot. Whoever dissects a patriotic claim is a traitor. - Source 12/10/07 - The Best Way to Deflect an Asteroid The best method, called “mirror bees,” entails sending a group of small satellites equipped with mirrors 30 to 100 feet wide into space to “swarm” around an asteroid and trail it, Vasile explains. The mirrors would be tilted to reflect sunlight onto the asteroid, vaporizing one spot and releasing a stream of gases that would slowly move it off course. Vasile says this method is especially appealing because it could be scaled easily: 25 to 5,000 satellites could be used, depending on the size of the rock. The losing ideas - satellites equipped with lasers; detonating a nuclear explosion; pushing the asteroid with a spacecraft, to name a few - might still have their place. - Source 12/10/07 - Real Action on Climate Change Real action. Not promises, not hopes for new technologies, not high-minded rhetoric, but action. When I was in Japan last month, I saw real action in action. After a day of meetings at the Foreign Ministry, a young diplomat escorted me to the entrance just after 5:00. We walked through a darkened hallway; I assumed that we were in a part of the building under renovation. Not so - my guide explained to me that all non-essential lights were turned off “to save energy and the environment.” We came to the elevator bank, where 5-6 people were waiting in front of an elevator even though the elevator next to it was there and empty. I gestured toward it, and my guide again explained that after 5:00 only one elevator ran - the others were blocked. The next day in the train station I commented on the waste-bins with three or four different compartments for different kinds of waste. - Source 12/10/07 - FDA bans import of unproven machine Trying to shut down a federal fugitive's medical-device empire, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is blocking the import of the machine he claims can cure diseases such as cancer and AIDS. The desktop device, called the EPFX, is manufactured in Hungary by William Nelson, who fled the U.S. in 1996 after he was indicted on felony fraud charges related to his invention. "This is pure, blatant fraud. The claims are baloney," Ulatowski said. "These people prey in many cases on consumers who are desperate in seeking cures for very serious diseases." The FDA said it took action as a result of a recent Seattle Times investigation that uncovered a global network of manufacturers who sell unproven devices and practitioners who exploit unsuspecting patients. Also in response, a congressional subcommittee is investigating how these manufacturers have taken advantage of federal loopholes to profit from the machines. And last week, the Washington State Chiropractic Association asked a state board that governs chiropractors to ban the EPFX. - Source 12/10/07 - 2 men claim to have more powerful solar panel A local entrepreneur and an electrician from California say they have exclusive rights to a solar panel that will turn the energy industry on its head and help the environment - a device 15 times more powerful than any other and cheaper to boot. It produces about 3,200 watts of power versus 200 watts cranked out by an average photovoltaic solar panel. The device is based on traditional silicon-chip technology, but its purported advantage is that it captures all of the light in the solar spectrum, as opposed to about 17 percent in the most efficient photovoltaic cells to date. FreEnergy President Andre Woods called the device "possibly earth-shattering." The company declined to say who invented the panel, how they came to acquire the rights to manufacture it or how they will bankroll the 200-worker factory they are proposing to buy or build by summer. FreEnergy said the panel was patent-protected but would not elaborate, citing fears of knockoff products. The company said the oil industry has squashed or shelved similar technology. "The only reason there aren't solar panels on every rooftop is that big oil companies have not figured out how to charge you for the sun," Woods said. Powering an average-sized house with FreEnergy panels would cost about $19,000, versus $30,000 for conventional photovoltaics, according to Woods. (via zpenergy.com) - Source 12/10/07 - Video Surveillance Identifies Threat Patterns "When the 2008 Olympic Games kick off in Beijing next year, organizers will be using a sophisticated computer system to scan video images of city streets looking for everything from troublemakers to terrorists. The IBM system, called the Smart Surveillance System, uses analytic tools to index digital video recordings and then issue real-time alerts when certain patterns are detected. It can be used to warn security guards when someone has entered a secure area or keep track of cars coming in and out of a parking lot. The system can also search through old event data to find patterns that can be used to enable new security strategies and identify potential vulnerabilities. IBM is also developing a similar surveillance system for lower Manhattan, but has not yet begun deploying that project. "Physical security and IT security are starting to come together," says Julie Donahue, vice president of security and privacy services with IBM. "A lot of the guys I'm meeting on the IT side are just starting to get involved on the physical side."" - Source 12/10/07 - New Gadget Scans Text, 'Speaks' Translation A South Korean company called Mouscan plans to sell next year a new gadget called Voiscan, which scans any text, then READS IT ALOUD IN ANY LANGUAGE. The pocket-size gadget uses HP's text scanning technology -- the same used in the old CapShare product. - Source 12/10/07 - Obfuscate your Power Switch Just in time to keep your friends from sharing your toys, [l0rdnic0] brings you this simple mod: replace your power switch with a reed switch. Of course, now you'll need a magnet every time you want to use your PSP. Of course, if my older brother did this, I'd build a big electromagnet and start firing it whenever he started playing games. / (Great idea to install in any electronics device you don't want others to be able to operate. - JWD) - Source 12/10/07 - Electric Cars to Help Utilities Load Balance Grid "A team at the University of Delaware has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology, known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid, lets electricity flow from the car's battery to power lines and back. When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery's charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car's battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid." - Source 12/10/07 - FlipClock screen saver Mac and Windows only: Spruce up the functionality and aesthetics of your screeensaver with Fliqlo. Fliqlo mimics an old school clock with flipping digits. The time can be customized to display in 12-hour or 24-hour formats. Additionally, you can customize the zoom using the up and down arrow keys. Fliqlo is a free screensaver that has been around for ages but never made an appearance on Lifehacker. Not into the clock? We've posted a few other screensavers you might like. Fliqlo is a free download for Mac and Windows only. (via lifehacker.com) - Source 12/10/07 - Huckabee Stands by AIDS Statement GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he won't run from his statement 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated. / Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk." As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies. "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague," Huckabee wrote. - Source 12/08/07 - Sunshine To Petrol Project Seeks Fuel From Thin Air Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype device intended to chemically “reenergize” carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide could then be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such as methanol or even gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The prototype device, called the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5, for short), will break a carbon-oxygen bond in the carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide and oxygen in two distinct steps. “What’s exciting about this invention is that it will result in fossil fuels being used at least twice, meaning less carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere and a reduction of the rate that fossil fuels are pulled out of the ground,” Diver says. As an example, he says, coal would be burned at a clean coal power plant. The carbon dioxide from the burning of the coal would be captured and reduced to carbon monoxide in the CR5. The carbon monoxide would then be the starting point of making gasoline, jet fuel, methanol, or almost any type of liquid fuel. The prospect of a liquid fuel is significant because it fits in with the current gasoline and oil infrastructure. - Source 12/08/07 - Offshore wind to power every British home by 2020 Within the next 12 years, the seas of Britain could have enough wind farms to power every one of the country's 25 million homes. Harnessing the vast potential of the UK's island status has entered a new phase with Energy Secretary John Hutton announcing proposals to open up its seas to up to 33 GW (gigawatts) of offshore wind energy. The UK has some of the best offshore wind resources in the world, a long history of design, installation and operational expertise in the offshore environment and the skills and manufacturing capability to transfer to the emerging sector. On top of that, the UK is now the number one location for investment in offshore wind in the world and next year will overtake Denmark as the country with the most offshore wind capacity. The government is also working on a regulatory regime to ensure that all offshore projects can connect to onshore electricity transmission and distribution networks, quickly, securely and as cheaply as possible. - Source 12/08/07 - Malawian invents yeast-and-sugar electricity generator Dr Cedrick Ngalande developed the yeast-and-sugar powered generator he says could power cell phones and medical devices for up to eight hours. The Malawian inventor said he was motivated by the fastest growth of cell phone in Africa to develop the energy source. "The problem most Africans have is that they cannot charge those cell phones due to lack of electricity. Some have to walk long distances just to charge cell phones. My invention will make it easy for these people to charge their cell phones," said Dr Ngalande. He said the generator would be essential when the US$100 computers are introduced in Africa. "People will also be able to use this gadget to charge LED's or operate bulbs for light provisions. A larger version of the generator can be used as a power backup in homes," explained Dr Ngalande He described the power source’s potential as "extensive". "A young child who studies using paraffin lamps benefits from this because she/he now will have an ability to use LED or bulb lights. Students in remote areas will be able to do experiments or use gadgets they wouldn't have used if they didn't have power sources," said the inventor. - Source 12/08/07 - Superbug cured with feces A grandmother who contracted a potentially fatal superbug in Scotland has been saved after a hospital fed her daughter’s faeces to her. Ethel McEwan, an 83-year-old from Guardbridge, Fife, was near death after contracting Clostridium Difficile, the Daily Record reported. But she was saved after receiving a "faecal transplant" from her daughter, Winnifred. The treatment involves liquidising a sample of faeces from a close relative of the patient, and feeding the liquid down a tube into the stomach. The treatment restores the bacteria to levels at which they help the recovery process. "When you tell people about the treatment, they wrinkle their noses," Mrs McEwan told the Daily Record. "But it’s not like they put it on a plate and have you eat it. You don’t ever see or smell a thing. - Source 12/08/07 - New Self Powering Light Source Development/design of long-life, self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres (non-toxic) emit light continuously for 12 plus years (half-life point) without any exposure to a light or other energy (not effected by cold or heat). This extremely low cost material offers 24/7 light, which can be injection molded or added to paint. It is 5,000lb crush resistant, stable and constant light source (gives off no U.V. rays). It is designed to give off almost any color of light desired. Our goal is to mass produce this material and supply OEM’s. Litroenergy has potential to save billions of dollars in energy costs world-wide. Litroenergy surpasses all known available lighting options for cost/durability/reliability (12+ years) and safety. The fill rate of Litroenergy micro particles in plastic injection molding material or paint is about 20%. The cost to light up 8 ½ x 11 piece of plastic 1/8” thick is about .35 cents. - Source 12/08/07 - Induced Stem Cells Cure Blood Disease in Mice Scientists have cured a blood disorder in mice using "induced stem cells"--adult skin cells taken from the animals' tails that were reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. The findings are the first proof of principle for the potential of these kinds of cells to treat disease. In the new experiment, published online today in Science Express, Rudolph Jaenisch and his colleagues at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, in Cambridge, MA, generated stem cells from the tails of mice with a form of sickle-cell anemia--an inherited blood disorder marked by abnormal blood cells. The researchers then corrected the genetic defect and differentiated the cells into blood-forming stem cells. When injected into mice, the cells developed into healthy blood cells, and the animals' symptoms began to improve. - Source 12/08/07 - Sun Jar This traditional-looking frosted glass container houses a solar cell, battery and LED lights. The idea is to leave the Sun Jar near a window or under some decent artificial light so that it can collect energy throughout the day. Then when darkness falls it provides a warm, ambient glow. Clever eh? - Source 12/08/07 - Nanotube-Excreting Bacteria Allow Mass Production "Engineers at the University of California, Riverside have found semiconducting nanotubes produced by living bacteria - a discovery that could help in the creation of a new generation of nanoelectronic devices. This is the first time nanotubes have been shown to be produced by biological rather than chemical means. In a process that is not yet fully understood, the bacterium secretes polysacarides that seem to produce the template for the arsenic-sulfide nanotubes. These nanotubes behave as metals with electrical and photoconductive properties useful in nanoelectronics. The article abstract is available from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." - Source 12/08/07 - Get Fit in 10 Minutes Have you ever felt that there are just too few hours in the day to squeeze in a fitness routine? You're not alone. The Revolution Health guide feels your pain and suggests 25 ways to fit in some exercise. For example, doing jumping jacks for 5-minutes can get your heart rate up. If you're waiting for something (a friend after class, a child after practice, etc.), take a quick walk. Instead of using the elevator, climb stairs. If you're traveling, avoid the mechanized "moving carpets" and walk the distance instead. The article targets itself to women, but these are practices that can be implemented by anyone, and these small workouts ultimately all add up to improve your lifestyle. - Source 12/08/07 - Venture Navigator VentureNavigator is a free and impartial online service for businesses and entrepreneurs. If you have a new business idea or an existing company ready for growth, VentureNavigator can help you steer a course to success. - Source 12/08/07 - Court Challenge to 'In God We Trust' An atheist pleaded with a federal appeals court to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency, saying the references disrespect his religious beliefs. "I want to be treated equally," said Michael Newdow, who argued the cases consecutively to a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. He added that supporters of the phrases "want to have their religious views espoused by the government." / Congress added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, and passed a law requiring all U.S. currency to carry the motto "In God We Trust" a year later. Congress first authorized a reference to God on money in 1864. In describing the historical context for use of the word "God," the government cited the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." In 2005, Newdow sued Congress and several federal officials, arguing the motto's presence on coins and currency violated his First Amendment rights. A federal judge in Sacramento ruled against him last year, and Newdow appealed. On Tuesday, Justice Department lawyer Lowell Sturgill Jr. said "In God We Trust" is not an endorsement of a particular faith, but simply a patriotic or ceremonial message. Judge Stephen Reinhardt indicated support for Newdow's position. The "In God We Trust" motto "affects Mr. Newdow every moment of his life," Reinhardt said. "The government has no compelling interest to put a slogan on a dollar bill." Newdow said he didn't advocate hostility toward God or religion and respected people's right to their own beliefs. He said he wanted equal respect for atheists. - Source 12/08/07 - It's Inconvenient Being Green I am not particularly eco-conscious. But I am increasingly eco-anxious. Every day, it seems, I hear of some new way the world around me is going aggressively green. Workers in Portland, Ore., are cycling to the office. Ireland has slapped a tax on plastic bags. Incoming freshmen at California colleges are asked to keep their Red Bulls in thermoelectric fridges. David Duchovny says he recycles, has solar power and drives an electric car. Now every time I purchase a single-serving water bottle, I hear the opening theme from The X-Files. - Source 12/08/07 - MP3 Recording Nets Charges for NY Detective A teenage suspect who secretly recorded his interrogation on an MP3 player has landed a veteran detective in the middle of perjury charges, authorities said Thursday. Unaware of the recording, Detective Christopher Perino testified in April that the suspect "wasn't questioned" about a shooting in the Bronx, a criminal complaint said. But then the defense confronted the detective with a transcript it said proved he had spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to persuade Erik Crespo to confess-at times with vulgar tactics. Once the transcript was revealed in court, prosecutors asked for a recess, defense attorney Mark DeMarco said. The detective was pulled from the witness stand and advised to get a lawyer. - Source 12/06/07 - Mike’s Electric Stuff The first image shows a bipolar marx generator. The output is a million volts. Mike’s Electric Stuff web site contains three major sections: Antique Glass Stuff, Tesla coils and High-voltage stuff and Miscellaneous electric, science & laser stuff. This site is definitely a look but don’t touch kind of site. Please enjoy the high voltage, but do not attempt to build these devices unless you have experience working with High Voltage. I ran across Mike’s site, who is from the UK, because of his interesting section on Nixie clocks and Nixie tubes. Little did I know just what kinds of wild devices of destruction and collections of glass he has. And a couple more images. Anyone care for a fried PCB? - Source 12/06/07 - Electricity Revives Bali Coral Reefs Coral is thriving on dozens of metal structures submerged in the bay and fed by cables that send low-voltage electricity, which conservationists say is reviving it and spurring greater growth. Rod Salm, coral reef specialist with the Nature Conservancy, said while the method may be useful in bringing small areas of damaged coral back to life, it has very limited application in vast areas that need protection. "The extent of bleaching ... is just too big," Salm said. "The scale is enormous and the cost is prohibitive." Others note the Bali project is mostly dependent on traditionally generated electricity, a method that itself contributes to global warming. Goreau himself concedes it has yet to attract significant financial backing. Goreau's method for reviving coral is decidedly low-tech, if somewhat unorthodox. It has long been known that coral that breaks off the reef can be salvaged and restored if it can somehow be reattached. What Goreau's Bali project has done is to construct metal frames, often in the shape of domes or greenhouses, and submerge them in the bay. When hooked up to a low-voltage energy source on the shore, limestone - a building block of reefs - naturally gathers on the metal. Workers then salvage coral that has broken from damaged reefs and affix it to the structure. Goreau and his supporters say the electricity spurs the weakened coral to revival and greater growth. "When they get the juice, they are not as stressed," said Rani Morrow-Wuigk, an Australian-German woman who rents bungalows on the beach and has supported efforts to save the reefs for years. And indeed, the coral on the structures appear vibrant, and supporters say they have rebounded with impressive vigor. The coral in Pemuteran teems with clownfish, damselfish and other colorful tropical animals. Funding, however, is a major problem. There are some 40 metal structures growing coral in Pemuteran Bay and about 100 cables laid to feed them with electricity, but only about a third of the wires are working because of maintenance problems and the cost of running them, said Morrow-Wuigk. The electrification program is part of a wider effort in the bay to save the coral. - Source 12/06/07 - Homebrew camera-phone se-cam looks like a bomb Here's a brilliant rube goldberg security camera made out of a camera phone, some homebrew circuits and solenoid relays. When the phone is called, it activates the relays, which tap out the "take picture/send picture" sequence on the phone-keypad, which then takes the pic and sends it off. Added bonus: this thing actually looks sinister. If I were god-emperor of the world, all CCTVs would look this alarming, so every time you were in their scrutiny, you'd get that atavistic taste of being surveilled. The idea is to replace your fingers with the relays and your brain with a microcontroller. Depending on how complex your phone is, i.e. number of different keys to press in order to send a picture, choose your microcontroller accordingly. My setup uses four outputs (four different keys on the phone) and one input on the microcontroller. It allows me to send a SMS text message (or call) to my hacked phone and it then cycles through the code, clicking its way through the menus, taking photos and returning them to me. (via boingboing.net) - Source 12/06/07 - How To Beat Congress's Ban Of Humans On Mars "Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban humans on Mars at NASA: "Provided, That none of the funds under this heading shall be used for any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars." The bill is held up in Congress and the anti-Mars language may be taken out. But in case the Mars ban becomes law, the Space Review has a handy guide on how NASA can beat the ban and continue its research and development without breaking the law." - Source 12/06/07 - A Better Resonator Researchers have made defect-free gallium-nitride nanowires that could replace bulky quartz crystals in cell-phone receivers. Resonators are an integral part of radio receivers and cell phones. Typically made of quartz crystals, these devices perform the critical function of picking out the frequency of the relevant radio signal from the cacophony of transmissions in the airwaves. While quartz crystals perform exceedingly well, they are bulky. "If you look at the chips in cell phones, resonators are huge compared to the rest of the circuitry," says NIST researcher Kris Bertness, a coauthor of the Applied Physics Letters paper that outlines the new work. Crystal resonators take up areas of millimeters squared, while control electronics occupy square micrometers, she says. Researchers have been trying to build micro- and nanoscale devices to replace quartz resonators. The problem is, as resonators shrink in size, they don't work as well. In the past, researchers have made resonators using silicon nanostrings and carbon nanotubes; the nanowires grown by the NIST/Colorado team work at least 10 times better than any of these. - Source 12/06/07 - The Electric Skateboard The Metroboard looks pretty much like a regular skateboard with a brick bolted underneath it. The brick, however, is in this case a 450 Watt (0.6 horsepower) electric motor capable of whizzing the board along at up to 15mph. You control the Metroboard via a 6-button infrared remote. Three buttons on the left set your speed/power level - slow, medium and top speed - two on the right are held down to activate soft or hard regenerative braking back through the engine. Sabar advises “extreme caution” when using top speed or heavy braking as it’s probably not difficult to fall off. The final black button activates a beeping bell to part the red sea of pedestrians, and combinations of buttons can be used to check the remaining battery life. Different battery pack options on the short and long deck versions of the Metroboard will get you different range capabilities between 4 miles and about 10 miles under optimal conditions. So, not much. Charging takes around 4 hours, but if the board runs out of puff while you’re out, it’s geared low enough to be able to kick it along too. It’s also one of the lightest electric boards out there at only 18lbs (8kg) for the lightest version and 31lbs (14kg) for the heaviest - so it’s not such a pain to carry. Then there’s the pricing, which starts at USD$399 and goes up to USD$575 - understandable given the componentry but a fair slug for a skateboard. Still, in certain low mileage lifestyles, there’s no doubt a place for such a compact and simple form of transport. - Source 12/06/07 - Self-Powering Battery? DeGeus was in fact the inventor of a thin wafer-like material/device that somehow specially aligned the atoms or electron currents ongoing in that material, so that the wafer produced a constant amperage at a small voltage - continuous real power, or in other words a strange kind of “self-powering battery”. It is actually powered by the ongoing and continuous tremendous exchange of energy by the active vacuum with the charges of any material. This exchange is exceptionally powerful, and normally our electromagnetic systems and devices only use just a tiny bit of it. DeGeus appears to have readily achieved different voltages and currents (different levels of power) by grouping, multiple-layering, etc. - much like connecting or grouping individual batteries. The novelty was that the inventor had discovered how to build these wafers extremely cheaply - couple bucks each for a small one, with an assembly of them for greater power just requiring multiples of the basic cost. He is believed to have been from a well-to-do European family with significant assets in South America. His family is reported to have claimed the body and officially tied up all his assets, effects, records, etc. The legal ongoings are likely to permanently suppress any and all technical lab notes, descriptions, etc. Unknown to the authorities investigating his death, DeGeus was on his way to Europe to receive very substantial funding to put his invention into mass production and marketing. (via zpenergy.com) - Source 12/06/07 - Chinese Moon Photo Doctored, Crater Moved "A controversy over last week's photo of the lunar surface, allegedly from China's lunar spacecraft Chang'e, appears to be resolved. It's real but it isn't. An expert says the photo's resolution shows that it is of recent origin. However, for some inexplicable reason, someone on Earth edited the photo and moved a crater to a different location. 'In the week since the picture was released amid much fanfare in Beijing, there have been widespread rumors that the photo was a fake, copied from an old picture collected by a U.S. space probe. The photo from China's Chang'e 1 orbiter is clearly a higher-resolution view, with sunlight streaming from the northwest rather than the north. The mission's chief scientist, Ouyang Ziyuan, told the Beijing News that a new crater had been spotted on the Chang'e imagery - a crater that didn't appear on the US imagery. Lakdawalla determined that the crater in question wasn't exactly new - instead, it appeared to be a crater that had been moved from one spot on the picture to another spot slightly south.'" - Source 12/06/07 - Russian fighter jet can stop in mid-flight Russian SU-30- Vectored Thrust with Canards. As you watch this airplane, look at the canards moving along side of, and just below the canopy rail. This is a video of an in-flight demonstration flown by the Russian SU-30MK fighter aircraft. You'll not believe what you are about to see. The fighter can stall from high speed, stopping in less than a second. Then it demonstrates an ability to descend tail first without causing a compressor stall. It can also recover from a flat spin in less than a minute. These capabilities don't exist in any other aircraft in the world today. Take a look at the video with the sound up. This aircraft is of concern to U.S. and NATO planners. We don't know which nations will soon be flying the SU-30MK, hopefully China isn't one of them. - Source 12/06/07 - Dymo Disc Printer # Prints in full color, directly on discs, from edge-to-hub* up to 1200 dpi / # Only about 60 seconds to print 600 dpi quality / # Easy-to-use software works with Mac or PC. For only $279.95, the DiscPainter™ CD/DVD printer features patented technology - the disc is printed as it spins - now that’s a revolution with great results! Full color graphics and images are printed with superior quality at industry-leading speeds**. You don't need much space for the DiscPainter™ printer's compact footprint. And you won't have to fuss with hard-to-use trays. Simply put your disc inside, close the lid and print. Say goodbye to laborious labels and messy markers. Say hello to professional-looking DVDs and CDs for all your projects. - Source 12/06/07 - Is toilet water cleaner than the ice that's in your drink? Next time you go out to eat or to a bar, it might be a good idea to say, "Hold the ice." In a test of ice cubes from 49 fast-food and casual-dining restaurants and hotel bars in the city and suburbs, the Chicago Sun-Times found that more than one of every five samples contained high levels of bacteria. By comparison, a water sample taken from a toilet in a men's room at the Sun-Times tested cleaner than the ice obtained at 21 of the restaurants and bars. - Source 12/06/07 - New Fuel Cell Cleans Up Pollution And Produces Electricity In the new study, Bruce E. Logan and colleagues point out that so-called acid-mine drainage (AMD) is a serious environmental problem that threatens the health of plants and animals as well as the safety of drinking-water supplies, due mainly to the high acidity of contaminated waters and its high content of metals, particularly iron. AMD poses difficult and costly environmental clean-up problems. They describe development of a new type of fuel cell that is based on microbial fuel cells, which are capable of generating electricity from wastewater. Using a solution similar to AMD, they showed that the device efficiently removed dissolved iron from the solution while also generating electricity at power levels similar to conventional microbial fuel cells. Improvements in the fuel cell will lead to more efficient power generation in the future, the researchers say. The iron recovered by the device can be used as a pigment for paints or other products, they note. - Source 12/06/07 - Environmental Coalition sues Land Office over wind farms The famed King Ranch and a coalition of environmental groups sued Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in federal court Tuesday, seeking to require extensive environmental review and public comment on two planned wind power projects along the Gulf Coast in Kenedy County. The coalition, the Coastal Habitat Alliance, also sued over the wind project in state District Court in Travis County. That suit claims that the state's Public Utility Commission illegally denied the alliance's request to participate in permit hearings for the wind project's transmission line. The lawsuits threaten to delay or stop the two massive wind projects, which could place more than 600 turbines on 60,000 acres near Laguna Madre, south of Corpus Christi. Part of the wind projects would place about 250 turbines just east of a portion of the sprawling King Ranch. - Source 12/04/07 - Fluorescent light powers camera NEC of Japan has stumbled upon a new development - it has successfully rolled out a wireless camera which can be powered by a fluorescent light - and act that is done by simply attaching a ring-shaped component for power acquisition to the bulb. This surely beats the inconvenience of solar energy, where only power can be stored whenever there is sufficient sunlight available. The implementation of this fluorescent-powered wireless camera means the camera can practically be used round the clock without running out of juice - as long as the office lights are turned on. - Source 12/04/07 - Patents versus trade secrets Simply put, a patent is the exclusive right (or monopoly) given by the Government to the owner of an invention, in return for the sharing of his knowledge and experiences in the making of the invention. Once he has obtained the patent, the patent owner is legally the only one who can make, import, offer for sale, sell or use the invented product or process. Anyone else doing any of these acts would be infringing the patent owner’s rights. The patent owner can therefore sell his product or process in the marketplace without fear of any legitimate competition. As you can imagine, this exclusive right is strong incentive for most patent owners to, in return, share their knowledge with the public. The patent owner’s exclusive rights are not forever. They only last 20 years, calculated from the date of the patent application and are enforceable only after grant. Patent rights are also not automatically valid worldwide. They are valid only in the countries in which a patent application has been filed and a grant obtained. / To be kept as a trade secret, the information you are trying to protect must be secret, it must have commercial value and you must have taken reasonable steps to keep it secret. Obviously, something that is already well known among the public cannot suddenly be termed as a “trade secret”! In deciding between protection as a patent or as a trade secret, you should consider: # What is the expected commercial life of the product/information? If the invention is not likely to go out of date for a long time, it may be better to protect it as a trade secret rather than limit your advantage to 20 years. # How susceptible is it to reverse engineering or independent discovery? While a patent can be used to stop any one else from infringing on your exclusive rights, with a trade secret you cannot take action against someone who independently has come up with the same invention. # Is it patentable or registrable? If the invention is not patentable or no longer registrable (e.g. because you disclosed it), you may not have much choice but to try and keep it a trade secret. - Source 12/04/07 - Gmortal Virtual You - your Google Immortal The loss of a loved one can be a troubling thing. The grief, inconvenience, and loneliness brought on by the sudden separation from a spouse, colleague, or even a casual acquaintance often causes a profoundly negative effect on productivity and quality of life. However, here at Google we have a solution: Google Immortal (or Gmortal). Gmortal allows you to continue making decisions, communicating with loved ones, and even maintain your blog long after you expire. It's particularly useful for bloggers. Don't want to let your loyal fans down, do you? By utilizing your RSS subscriptions and an analysis of your Blogger content, we can continue to make relevant and personalized blog posts on your behalf! No one has to know you're gone. That's an excellent reason to switch to a Blogger account. - Source 12/04/07 - Recapture Heat From Millstone's Cooling System Nuclear power has the benefit of producing electricity without direct greenhouse gas production. But the current process does add hot water to the Sound on a continuous basis, causing environmental damage both from the water diversion and from the heating of the Sound. Heat exchange technology should be added to the Millstone system, using the hot wastewater to vaporize refrigerants that can drive turbines and extract more electricity from the hot water that is picked up by the cooling system. It is not just the economy of the nuclear plant that is involved here, but the economy of the region that is at risk. We cannot afford to damage our Sound any further. Even if hybridizing the Millstone plant just breaks even or has a negative cash flow, this cannot compare to the cost of producing this extra power from fossil fuels, while damaging the Sound from water diversion and superheated water outflow. Energy conservation can go a long way to easing the crisis, but the Earth's population continues to grow at the rate of a New York City every month, and conservation alone will not be an adequate solution to a sustainable society. We need to make every bit of energy production itself more efficient, from all sources... - Source 12/04/07 - Chinese Military Plans to Destroy GPS Satellites The Chinese military is reportedly developing both the means and contingency plans to "destroy or temporarily incapacitate every enemy space vehicle when it is located above China," according to the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. "The Chinese also plan to ATTACK U.S. GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS (GPS) satellites through various means, including anti-satellite weapons, high-energy weapons, high-energy weather monitoring rockets and ground attacks on earth-based stations." - Source 12/04/07 - Canadian Inventor Creates Flying Wagon For Rescue Canadian inventor Bill Lishman, the guy who inspired the 1996 movie Fly Away Home, has invented a PORTABLE FLYING RESCUE VEHICLE. The craft, which looks like a child's wagon with three wheels lashed to a kite with a lawnmower engine strapped to the back, would be loaded by the dozen into planes and flown to disaster areas. Then the craft would be assembled, and pilots would fly them in all directions to towns or villages to deliver relieve supplies like medicine, food and water. The invention would be far cheaper, faster and more flexible than current methods of getting helicopters to deliver supplies. (via therawfeed.com) - Source 12/04/07 - $999 For a Complete DNA Scan, Worth it? "ZDNet is reporting that 23andme.com will open its doors on Monday, allowing you to send them a cheek swab and have your DNA analyzed for $999 (plus shipping, of course... ;)). So what's a thousand bucks buy you? They can tell you your ancient ancestry, They can tell you what diseases you're predisposed to, They give you a "Gene Explorer" that allows you to do a search in your genome to find out if you have a certain gene (e.g., you just heard on the news that Gene XYZ has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease)." - Source 12/04/07 - Christmas lights powered by electric eel An aquarium filled with exotic fish here is using an electric eel to power lights on a Christmas tree. Each time the electric eel at the Aqua Toto Gifu aquarium touches a copper wire in its tank, it sends power that lights up globes decking a Christmas tree. Officials expect the "eel Christmas tree" to be a popular attraction for dating couples in the lead-up to Christmas Day, when the tree will be removed. Electric eels are capable of generating electricity in their bodies. They have notoriously poor eyesight and use electric shocks to stun prey so they can catch and eat them. (via boingboing.net) - Source 12/04/07 - Chimps Outscore College Students on Memory Test Young chimpanzees were better at remembering a series of numbers flashed on a screen, than the Japanese college students used as a control group. Scientists plan to repeat the experiment using 5th graders against the great apes. - Source 12/04/07 - Power House: Nifty Sustainable Living Project Kit for Kids "Power House" is an intriguing project kit for children twelve and up, designed to teach about the benefits of intelligent and environmentally-friendly housing choices. The $130 kit includes not only everything necessary to build the frame of a simple house, but a motor and electric train that can be powered by solar cells or windmill, with measurements taken by thermometer. There are real seeds inside to teach kids about the addition of live plants to a clever home. One of the projects is to build a water desalination unit. - Source 12/04/07 - Reason TV: paramilitary raid on veterans' poker game "Poker is about as American as baseball and apple pie," Carey says in the Reason.tv video. "It was born here in America. Mark Twain loved it. He's a great American. Until recently, Supreme Court justices had a monthly game. They're great Americans. You'd think playing poker in a VFW hall would be about as American as anything you could do." "This story highlights the hypocrisy that surrounds gambling in this country," said Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.tv. "States will gladly take your hard-earned money if you want to play the government's lottery. But if you sit down with some veterans to play Texas hold 'em you may end up with cops, in full riot gear, busting down your door. No one gets hurt when consenting adults sit down for a game of cards. And there's no reason for the government to get involved." The busted poker players have a court date on December 5, 2007. - Source 12/04/07 - Top 9 unique structures soon to be built Obviously, construction technologies are advancing extremely quickly. couple that with multi-billionaires / deep-pocketed companies trying to outdo each other in the quest for the next standout design and you have a near-future filled with mile-high skyscrapers and buildings that no longer look like buildings. Below are 9 strange and unique structures which have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval. some have already been partially constructed. Welcome to the future landscape. - Source 12/04/07 - Spam Trap Claims 10x-100x Accuracy Gain A NYTimes article on a new approach to spam detection that claims out-of-the-box improvement of 1 or 2 orders of magnitude over existing approaches. The article wanders off into human-interest territory as the inventor, Steven T. Kirsch, has an incurable disease and an engineer's approach to fighting it. But a description of the anti-spam tech, based on the reputation of the receiver and not the sender, is worth a read. - Source 12/04/07 - 12 ways to de-commercialize the holidays Did that first Christmas song over the radio this year fill you with Scrooge-like gloom? For many people, Christmas means a severe case of holiday dread, directly tied to a sense of obligation to spend money in order to have a meaningful celebration. We all know the pain of those credit card bills in January and February. If we've been particularly festive, that pain might even stretch into the spring or summer, or -- yikes -- the next holiday season. This year the average U.S. consumer plans to spend $817 on holiday-related shopping, plus an additional $107 on "non-gift" purchases of promoted or discounted items, according to the National Retail Federation -- up 3.7 percent from 2006. At the same time, however, 70 percent of Americans say they would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending during the holiday season, according to the Center for a New American Dream. If you're among those who feel holiday spending is out of control, remember: It doesn't have to be that way. - Source 12/04/07 - Software That Learns from Users CALO, a massive, four-year-old artificial-intelligence project to help computers understand the intentions of their human users. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and coordinated by SRI International, based in Menlo Park, CA. CALO can learn about the people and projects that are important to a user's work life by paying attention to e-mail patterns. It can then categorize and prioritize information for the user, based on the source of the information and the projects to which it is connected. The system can also apply this type of understanding to meetings, using its speech-recognition system to make a transcription of what's said there, and its understanding of the user's projects and contacts to process the transcription intelligently into to-do lists and appointments. Finally, a user can teach CALO routine tasks such as purchasing books online and searching for bed-and-breakfasts that meet specific criteria. CALO can interact with other people, taking on tasks such as scheduling meetings, coordinating among people's schedules, and making decisions, such as deciding to reschedule a meeting if a key member becomes unable to attend. "It's an amazingly large thing, and it's insanely ambitious," Domingos says. "But if CALO succeeds, it'll be quite a revolution. Even if it doesn't, so much good research is happening under it that it will still have been worthwhile." The goal is to build an artificial intelligence that can serve as a personal assistant for someone--not something with a rigid structure within which it can be helpful, like the animated paper-clip assistant featured in Microsoft Office products, but a system that can learn about a user's environment and needs, and adapt to them, without having to be programmed anew by engineers. - Source 12/04/07 - Generator Monitoring in a small package My company just purchased one of these and now my IT team and I can sleep a little better at night. The GS5000 is a tiny gadget that will let you know via a celluar that your Generator is Running, has fuel, has moved from its designated location (obviously only good for portable gensets) and a whole lot more. Here are just a couple of the features: -Alarms/events sent by text message to pagers, cell phones and email. - Records all events in an event statistics log. -Service and maintenance log to track all work or repairs performed on equipment. - Remote startup and shut down. - GPS tracking of mobile equipment. There is no feeling like walking into the office @ 6AM on a Monday only to find out that you have a utility failure and your Gen has been running all weekend and will likely run out of fuel before you can get a truck there to re-fill. Servers will go down and heads will roll. - Source 12/04/07 - Helium isotopes maybe best source of geothermal energy With fossil fuel sources depleting and global warming on the rise, exploring alternative means of power for humans is a necessary reality. Now, looking to the sky, relying on the wind or harnessing water power are not the only remaining options. Deep within Earth is an untapped source of energy: geothermal energy. It has been estimated that within the continental United States, there is a sizable resource of accessible geothermal energy - about 3,000 times the current annual U.S. consumption. - Source 12/02/07 - To The Moon! (In a Minivan) The United States is long overdue for a new spaceship. The last time NASA's engineers sat down to design one--the space shuttle--it was 1974, and George W. Bush hadn't yet received his MBA from Harvard, or met Laura; the IBM (NYSE:IBM) Selectric was the dream office machine; a microwave oven was found in just 4% of U.S. kitchens. For NASA and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), the principal contractor for designing America's next spacecraft, the goal is simplicity, not razzle-dazzle. The nation's new spaceship is called Orion. In shape, it looks like a big version of a 1960s-era Apollo craft--a cone-shaped crew capsule atop a cylindrical service module. "This is not a Ferrari, like the space shuttle," says Skip Hatfield, NASA's project manager for the capsule. "It's more like a minivan. It's more of a vehicle to go to the grocery store in." Tucked between space-station modules sits a squat white cone not much larger than a medium-size family camping tent and made mostly of plywood and plastic: This is the full-size Orion crew-capsule mock-up. Duck through the hatch and have a seat in the capsule, and the functional austerity of Orion becomes vivid. It is designed to carry six people to the space station, or four to the moon. With six metal seat frames bolted in place, there is no open floor space. The capsule feels snug with four people inside; none of us are wearing space suits. A spot has been carved out for the toilet, tucked to one side, just below floor level. For privacy, it will have a wraparound curtain. It's definitely a step up from Apollo--which relied on adhesive plastic bags--but, really, no more private than the third row of a minivan. - Source 12/02/07 - General Motors Corp shows first hybrid vehicle The first hybrid vehicle to be manufactured in Mexico for export to the United States and possible domestic sale in the future was finally shown. The Saturn Vue, a medium-size sports utility vehicle that runs on both gasoline and electric power, has already rolled off the assembly line in the northern state of Coahuila and is being readied for export, GM officials said at a joint news conference with President Felipe Calderon. The SUV will allow consumers to use an average of 27 percent less gasoline, General Motors de Mexico spokesman Mauricio Kuri said. The company will have the capacity to export about 6,500 of the vehicles a year, said Kevin Williams, president of GM's Mexico division. GM will test 10 to 15 units of a slightly modified version of the SUV under the name Chevrolet Captiva Sport, and expects to determine if the vehicle can be sold in Mexico by mid-2008, Kuri said. - Source 12/02/07 - Putin Aerospace Push Inspires Soviet Union-Style Bureaucracy 95-year-old Boris Chertok, a former deputy chief designer in the Soviet bureau that put the first Sputnik satellite into orbit 50 years ago, still has strong opinions on the evolution of Russia's space program. Chertok says the free-market changes instituted by President Boris Yeltsin after the Soviet Union fell apart were disastrous for Russian science. ``We need to restore what we have lost over 15 years of destructive reforms,'' says Chertok, whose very name was once a state secret. ``The market economy is incapable of fulfilling such large national programs as flight to the moon.'' President Vladimir Putin is listening. He's launched a new program to make Russia a scientific and technological power -- in space and missile rocketry, where it excelled in Soviet times, and in a half dozen other areas. ``We are consolidating assets and focusing government attention on high-tech industries: nuclear energy, space, nanotechnology, aircraft and shipbuilding,'' Ivanov told reporters on Oct. 15 after attending a meeting on nuclear energy. The government has earmarked 674 billion rubles ($27.4 billion) for nuclear energy, 246 billion rubles for aerospace, 149.4 billion rubles for electronics and 130 billion rubles for nanotechnology, the manipulation of particles smaller than a billionth of a meter. The Economy Ministry says its goal is to capture 10 percent of the global market for information technology and office equipment by 2020, which it estimated at $750 billion in 2007. The Russian government is implementing a program to invest 305 billion rubles in its space program from 2006 to '15, according to the agency Web site. It plans to put a man on the moon by 2025 -- that would be 56 years after the U.S. did so -- and on Mars after 2035. On a more practical level, Russia is spending 9.9 billion rubles in 2007 to turn its Global Navigation Satellite System, Glonass, into a rival of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS. Russia plans to have full global coverage with 24 satellites in orbit by 2010. - Source 12/02/07 - Tesla of moon crater fame Inventor Nikoal Tesla observed unusual signals that he later believed to be sent by extra terrestrial life on Venus or Mars. Such theories led to him being labelled a mad scientist. He later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks. The Telefunken Wireless Station built by him in Long Island was destroyed by the US military in 1917 due to nonsensical rumours that it was being used by German spies. Adding to his woes, Tesla lost the funding from his European patents during the war. He also began to exhibit symptoms of the obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was little understood at the time, and led his detractors to label him as insane. In 1917, Tesla pioneered the principles regarding the first radar. On his 75th birthday, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. He obtained a patent in 1928 for the first VTOL aircraft, refused a proposed 'retirement scheme' funded by American companies, and chose to exist on a modest pension given by the Yugoslav government. He continued experimenting right till his death, all alone in a New York hotel room, in 1943. He was 83. He was destitute and saddled with significant debts. Later that year, the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent 645,576, giving a legal basis to his claim to be the inventor of the radio. Though his name is not known as universally as that of Marconi, he has a cult following and the Tesla crater on the far side of the moon is named after him. The year 2006 was celebrated by UNESCO as the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nikola Tesla. - Source 12/02/07 - Why Our Farm Policy Is Failing Agricultural policy is not sexy. You probably don't know the intricacies of "loan deficiency payments" or "base acreage," and you probably don't care. This was once an agrarian nation, but now there's a less than 1% chance that you're a farmer, and if you are, you're probably part time; the average farm family gets 82% of its income from nonfarm sources. We're not a people of the soil anymore, and for most of us, our eyes glaze over when we see farm statistics like the ones in that last sentence. But farms still cover most of our land, consume most of our water and produce most of our food. If you eat, drink or pay taxes--or care about the economy, the environment or our global reputation--U.S. agricultural policy is a big deal. It's also a horrible deal. It redistributes our taxes to millionaire farmers as well as to millionaire "farmers" like David Letterman, David Rockefeller and the owners of the Utah Jazz. It contributes to our obesity and illegal-immigration epidemics and to our water and energy shortages. It helps degrade rivers, deplete aquifers, eliminate grasslands, concentrate food-processing conglomerates and inundate our fast-food nation with high-fructose corn syrup. Our farm policy is supposed to save small farmers and small towns. Instead it fuels the expansion of industrial megafarms and the depopulation of rural America. It hurts Third World farmers, violates international trade deals and paralyzes our efforts to open foreign markets to the nonagricultural goods and services that make up the remaining 99% of our economy. - Source 12/02/07 - Euthanasia triggers development of suicidal tourism in Switzerland Euthanasia is considered to be one of the most complex issues nowadays. Is it well-intentioned help to someone who suffers and wishes to die or a murder of a human being? While some people whose relatives are at death’s door would sacrifice everything to ease and stop their poignant death agony, the Orthodox community holds debates about the sinfulness of suicides and illness as a punishment. Meanwhile, people suffering from incurable diseases from different countries, whose relatives did not give them “help”, come to Switzerland to meet “easy” death at the hands of professionals in accordance with the law. Switzerland is one of the few European countries where euthanasia is legalized. A person, who knows about his or her hopeless situation and is unable to endure terrible pain, has a right to stop the torment. Such suicide has been legalized in Switzerland since 1942. There are only three required conditions: a documented proof of the existing disease, relatives’ disinterest in the death of a person and a signed contract, confirming that the decision to leave this world is voluntary and invariable. Formerly only hospitals had the right to commit euthanasia. Nowadays, apart from them, there are four specialized companies working in this industry. They provide all necessary services for certain pay (usually not more than €5,000). People from other countries, not only Swiss-based, can deal with these companies. - Source / And a file from years ago that might be of interest - Redneck Kevorkian for DIY termination. 12/02/07 - Mandatory Arbitration An interesting article about mandatory arbitration, a strange concept that everyone must agree to: How Car Dealers and Other Businesses are Taking Away Your Right to Sue. Mandatory arbitration provisions, forcing people to waive their legal rights, have become standard fare in consumer contracts. Now, Congress is beginning to push back-and the business community is mobilizing for a fight. The problem, of course, is that that business get to choose the arbitrator. And arbitrator who rule for consumers don't get chosen. (Scott Adams test) - Source 12/02/07 - Brand New Insulators for Power Lines Patented The new insulators are made of organosilicon polymer, not of traditional porcelain, and another peculiarity is brand new coating technique for a bearing component. Silicon rubber is a perfect material for external insulating covers and engineers already use it for several years. Common technique is simple in theory: a cup is filled with polymer, which resembles plasticine, under pressure and annealed at high temperatures. Completed article is extracted from the cup, which is reusable. However, cups and equipment are very expensive, and the whole process is not so simple as it may seem. The new technique is based on plasticity of polymer mass, which comes from an extruder and “spooled” on a rotating stem - now an article is ready for annealing without pressure, additional equipment and cups. New technology makes isolators cleaner and dryer than ordinary ones, thus more reliable. Another advantage of new isolators is their safety - they never explode is case of electric breakdown or mechanical damage, and their mechanical strength is very high. The last and not the least facts to be mentioned about new isolators are their small weight and ability to stand high voltage. - Source 12/02/07 - Nano-sized voltmeter measures electric fields deep within cells "The basic idea behind this field of research is to follow cellular processes-both normal and abnormal-by monitoring physical properties inside the cell. There's a long history of research on the chemistry happening inside the cell, but now we're getting interested in measuring the physical properties, because physical and chemical processes are related," said Kopelman, who is the Richard Smalley Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Applied Physics. With a diameter of about 30 nanometers, the spherical device is 1,000-fold smaller than existing voltmeters, Kopelman said. It is a photonic instrument, meaning that it uses light to do its work, rather than the electrons that electronic devices employ. With the new approach, the researchers don't simply insert a single voltmeter; they're able to deploy thousands of voltmeters at once, spread throughout the cell. Each unit is a single nano-particle that contains voltage-sensitive dyes. When stimulated with blue light, the dyes emit red and green light, and the ratio of red to green corresponds to the strength of the electric field in the area of interest. Tyner's measurements revealed surprisingly high electric fields in cytosol-the jellylike material that makes up most of a cell's interior. "The standard paradigm has been that there are zero electric fields in cytosol," Kopelman said, "but all of the 13 regions we measured had high electric field strength-as high as 15 million volts per meter." In comparison, the electrical field strength inside a typical home is five to 10 volts per meter; directly under a power transmission line, it's 10,000 volts per meter. Kopelman, Tyner and coauthor Martin Philbert, professor of environmental health sciences and associate dean for research at the U-M School of Public Health, published a report on the nano-voltmeter and their paradigm-shattering findings in Biophysical Journal in August. Those findings leave the researchers wondering why electrical fields exist inside cells. - Source 12/02/07 - Weeds Shot With Electric Pistol - Nov. 1935 WEEDS that mingle with the lawn grass have long proven obstinate foes to combat, yielding to most garden instruments only at the expense of considerable turf. Now, however, a new weapon has been devised which electrocutes them instantly. The weed electrocutor is built like a pistol, the barrel of which terminates in a sharp point. The point is jabbed into the tap root of the doomed weed, and a charge of electricity is released when the trigger is pulled. As the electric current is confined to the point only, the instrument is perfectly safe. - Source 12/02/07 - Just Two kinds of Work Bertrand Russell sez... "There are two kinds of work: First, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter. Second, telling other people to do so. " - Source 12/02/07 - Pomegranate Juice as Good as Viagra Men who want to boost their performance in the bedroom should drink pomegranate juice, says a new research. According to the University of California scientists, a daily glass can act like Viagra. Lead author Dr Christopher Forest says that the juice is rich in antioxidants, which increases blood supply to the genitals. For the study, the team tested 53 men with libido problems. They found that nearly half the men who drank it for a month said they found it easier to perform. During the study, the researchers measured the men’s PSA levels to calculate how long they took to double. They found that men suffering from prostate cancer with short doubling times are more likely to die from their illness, and that the average doubling time is 15 months. They noted that consuming a glass of pomegranate juice everyday extended the doubling period to 54 months, and that there was also evidence that the juice was actually killing off prostate cancer cells. - Source 12/02/07 - Scientists Allegedly Close To Finding Elixir of Youth Researchers were able to rejuvenate the skin of elderly mice by blocking the activity of a single gene. Not only did the skin of the two-year-old mice appear more youthful, but at a biological level they resembled newborns. Howard Chang, from the Stanford School of Medicine in California, who led the research, said the findings showed ageing could be temporarily reversed. "These findings suggest that ageing is not just a result of wear and tear, but is also the consequence of a continually active genetic program that might be blocked for improving human health," he said. However, there is no telling what long-term harmful side effects might result from tinkering with the gene, NF-kappa-B. The protein made by the gene has roles in a number of body functions including the immune system, and may help fight cancer or other diseases, the researchers said. - Source 12/02/07 - Protection from Cell Phone Electromagnetic Radiation Developed Russian scientists claim nanotechnologies are able to protect people from electromagnetic radiation of cell phones and air from exhaust gases. Researchers from “Kurchatovsky Institute” science centre have already used nanomaterials for developing special coatings for cell phones, which absorb electromagnetic radiation; however, these coatings are not yet used in everyday life. Scientists also report about new hydrogen engines, which prevent air from being polluted with exhaust gases and nano-dyes for drawing magnetic characters on securities. Other interesting projects of Russian research fellows include nano-size hard drives for computers, which are able to carry much more information than current versions of hard drives. - Source 12/02/07 - Recipe for a Storm - Forecasting a Hurricane Season "Kossin and Vimont, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, noticed that warmer water is just one part of a larger pattern indicating that the conditions are right for more frequent, stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic. The atmosphere reacts to ocean conditions and the ocean reacts to the atmospheric situation, creating a distinct circulation pattern known as the Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM). The AMM unifies the connections among the factors that influence hurricanes such as ocean temperature, characteristics of the wind, and moisture in the atmosphere." - Source 12/02/07 - Baking soda could help save the planet Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine, which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade baking soda. There's still quite a bit of work to be done to make the current system viable on a large scale, but the baking soda idea offers solutions to some of the economic problems posed by other carbon sequestration methods. For starters, according to Jones, the stuff can be sold for home or industrial use or buried harmlessly in landfills or abandoned mines. Jones apparently got the idea for the SkyMine system while watching a Discovery Channel show with his kids. He pulled out an old college science textbook and immediately turned to a passage about converting C02 to baking soda. - Source Future News/Links