The Lumpen Proletarian

More Americans Joining Military as Jobs Dwindle - NYTimes.com [Via claudio]

The last fiscal year was a banner one for the military, with forces meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals for the first time since 2004.

CES Gadget: USB Plant Sensor EasyBloom (Video) : TreeHugger

Upon her first visit to my less-than swinging bachelor pad, the woman who was to become my wife was most impressed by (in addition to the absence of dirty socks on my carpet) the lush green houseplants posed in

How to purify water in the wild with 2 water bottles.

This is a entry in the water bottle contest. In this instructable, I will show you how to purify abit of water when you ...

Banks Foreclose on Builders With Perfect Records - NYTimes.com

Lines of credit for home developers is no longer a matter of payment history, but of risk analysis and management in a shrinking real estate market.

For Peruvians, Baskets for the U.S. Market Bring a New Way of Life - NYTimes.com

Women in a remote Amazon village weave baskets for export to the U.S., aiming for “productive conservation” that protects the environment and offers better lives for the weavers and their communities.

Growing Taste for Reef Fish Sends Their Numbers Sinking - NYTimes.com
Overfishing is threatening fish populations in the Coral Triangle, one of the world’s richest marine reserves.

Parasites in the genome -- A molecular parasite could play an important role in human evolution

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, determined the structure of a protein (L1ORF1p), which is encoded by a parasitic genetic element and which is responsible for its mobility.

Nile Delta fishery grows dramatically thanks to run-off of sewage, fertilizers

While many of the world's fisheries are in serious decline, the coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile Delta has expanded dramatically since the 1980s.

Essay - The Evolutionary Search for Our Perfect Past - NYTimes.com

The term “paleofantasies” applies to nostalgia for the very old days as a touchstone for the way life is supposed to be and why it sometimes feels so out of balance.

Liquid Wood Is Plastic of Tomorrow, Say Scientists | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 18.01.2009

Plastic was one of the great innovations of the 20th century, but German scientists believe a new invention, liquid wood, could soon supplant the chemical in terms of everyday usefulness. DW-WORLD.DE: German and European news, analysis and multimedia from Deutsche Welle - in 30 languages

Detroit Auto Show: The 11 Most Depressing Moments Of The 2009 Detroit Auto Show

Our microbes, ourselves
In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth. Numbering in the tens of trillions and representing many thousands of distinct genetic families, this microbiome, as it's called, helps the body perform a variety of ...