One Third of U.S. Bird Species Endangered, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com
The survey found that over the last four decades, grassland birds had declined by 40 percent and birds in arid lands by 30 percent.

A quarter of the world's population depends on degrading land

A new study published in the journal Soil Use and Management attempts for the first time to measure the extent and severity of land degradation across the globe and concludes that 24% of the land area is degrading - often in very productive areas.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Good Nazi of Nanjing' sparks debate

A film on German John Rabe, who saved over 200,000 Chinese during the Japanese massacre in Nanjing, sparks fresh debate on the 1937 atrocities, writes the BBC's Zoe Murphy.

BBC NEWS | Politics | MP Galloway is banned from Canada

Respect MP George Galloway is banned from Canada on security grounds.

Crawling the Web to Foretell Ecosystem Collapse | Wired Science from Wired.com

Clever as a Fox

Remi Gaillard speelt indiaantje | Flabber
Elke dag een paar bijzondere, interessante, sexy of humoristische posts.

Getting a Masters of Science Degree in Creationism | Friendly Atheist by Hemant Mehta

Texas has enough problems of its own when it comes to Science standards. This doesn't make it any better: A Texas legislator is waging a war of biblical

Molecular Frameworks, the Building Blocks of All Life

Read about the latest medical technology, pharmaceuticals and biotech trends including diets, drugs, genetics, stem cells, medicine, health, and cloning from Wired.com.

Simon Jenkins: As they did Ozymandias, the dunes will reclaim the soaring folly of Dubai | Comment is free | The Guardian

Simon Jenkins: This off-the-shelf city state, built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid, stands on the brink

Technology Review: Nanocapacitors with Big-Energy Storage

Nanopore arrays combine high power and storage capacity.

A Sturdier Russia Beckons Its Children Home - NYTimes.com

The government is trying to head off a severe population decline by luring back Russians from as far as Uruguay.

Sniffing keystrokes via laser, power lines - Hack a Day

No user serviceable parts inside@Everything2.com

How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people who buy bottled water have access to clean drinking water virtually for free (in the US, tap water costs less than a penny per gallon, on average). Nevertheless, the consumption of bottled water continues to grow, far surpassing the US sales of milk and beer, and second ...

The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can
survive being rendered a...

BBC NEWS | Africa | 'Deadly' stampede at Pope speech

Two people reportedly die in a stampede in Angola as the Pope gives an address at a football stadium in the capital.

A Slippery Place in the U.S. Work Force - Series - NYTimes.com [via claudio]
Many immigrants from Latin America are learning how uncertain their foothold is in the work force.

Some Rich Districts Get Richer as Federal Money Is Rushed to Schools - NYTimes.com [via claudio]

In pouring cash into school districts, Washington is using a tangle of well-worn federal formulas that seem to take little account of who needs the money most.

Florida Water Worries: Serious Shortages For Tampa Bay : TreeHugger

Alafia River Florida, one of several potential sources of drinking water for Tampa Bay. Image credit:Florida State Parks. Last summer I posted on Tampa Bay Florida's new desalination plant, an expensive technology that was needed to cope with the

The Island - Roslyn Heights - Intel Judges Award Roslyn Senior a Scholarship for Her Project on Teenage Drinking - NYTimes.com

A Long Island teenager wins a prestigious Intel Science Talent Search scholarship with a study on parental links to teenage drinking.

Close-up van stembanden | Flabber

Elke dag een paar bijzondere, interessante, sexy of humoristische posts.

First automated carbohydrate 'assembly line' opens door to new field of medicine

Scientists from Germany today reported a major advance toward opening the doors of a carbohydrate-based medicine chest for the 21st Century. Much more than just potatoes and pasta, these carbohydrates may form the basis of revolutionary new vaccines and drugs to battle malaria, HIV, and a bevy of other ...

Wereldwaterdag 2009 | Flabber
Elke dag een paar bijzondere, interessante, sexy of humoristische posts.

Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave - tech - 19 June 2008 - New Scientist

Flashes that last just billionths of a billionth of a second have been used to take photographs of a laser beam pulse

FRONTLINE: the medicated child | PBS

Ten years ago, stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall were the drugs of choice to treat behavioral issues in children. Today children as young as four years old are being prescribed more powerful anti-psychotic medications that are much less understood. The drugs can cause serious side effects and virtually nothing is known about their long-term impact.

GRcade.com • View topic - BLH's tour of Chernobyl. Hello Digg/Reddit/world!!

Discuss anything and everything gaming related here.

With Temperatures Rising,<br/> Here Comes ‘Global Weirding’ by John Waldman: Yale Environment 360

They’re calling it “global weirding” – the way in which rising temperatures are causing species to change their ranges, the timing of their migrations, and the way they interact with other living things. And the implications of all this are only beginning to be understood.

PHOTOS: Rat Attack in India Set Off by Bamboo Flowering
In a phenomenon occurring just twice a century, tens of millions of rats decimate fields and forests in northeast India and parts of Burma and Bangladesh. The cause: bamboo.

YouTube - Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air

http://www.ted.com Researcher Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home or office building, can re...

Fox News mocks the Canadian military | Video Cafe

The Recession May Be a Boon to Book Sales - NYTimes.com
As the recession leaves other media industries in tatters, the oldest mass medium of all is holding up surprisingly well.

A natural approach for HIV vaccine

For 25 years, researchers have tried and failed to develop an HIV vaccine, primarily by focusing on a small number of engineered 'super antibodies' to fend off the virus before it takes hold. So far, these magic bullet antibodies have proved impossible to produce in people. Now, in research to be published ...

New organic material may speed Internet access

The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard.

Treatment for Peanut Allergies Shows Promise - NYTimes.com

Children receiving daily doses of peanuts under medical supervision were able to build a tolerance.

BBC NEWS | Education | Warning over narcissistic pupils

An expert warns the expectation placed on teachers and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding narcissistic children.

Zionism is the problem - Los Angeles Times

It's hard to imagine now, but in 1944, six years after Kristallnacht, Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, felt comfortable equating the Zionist ideal of Jewish statehood with "the concept of a racial state -- the Hitlerian concept." For most of the last century, a principled opposition to Zionism was a mainstream stance within American Judaism.

globeandmail.com: The true costs of the tar sands project
The most authoritative news in Canada featuring articles from The Globe and Mail, breaking news coverage, national news, international news, sports, weather, Report on Business.

Technology Review: A Better Biofuel Bug

Zymetis is testing genetically modified bacteria that efficiently convert biomass into sugar.

Hippo Sweat Offers Key to Natural Sunscreen : Discovery News

Hippos can stand in the hot sun all day but never get burned. Now researchers are studying why, in the hopes of creating a product that could help people avoid sunburn and bugs at the same time.

Fed Will Inject $1 Trillion More Into the Economy - NYTimes.com

The Fed dramatically increased the amount of money it will create out of thin air to thaw frozen credit markets.

Basics - In One Ear and Out the Other - NYTimes.com

Why the best jokes are the most difficult to remember.

Manufacturing inefficiency: Study sees 'alarming' use of energy, materials in newer manufacturing processes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Modern manufacturing methods are spectacularly inefficient in their use of energy and materials, according to a detailed MIT analysis of the energy use of 20 major manufacturing processes.

Scenes from the recession - The Big Picture - Boston.com
The Big Picture - News Stories in Photographs from the Boston Globe

Have Humans Created a New Epoch in the Planet's History? -A Galaxy Insight

No one can realistically argue that humans haven’t dramatically transformed the face of the planet. But now scientists propose that humankind has so altered the Earth that that we have brought about an end to one epoch and entered a...

Bucky's Back: Domes Come in From the Cold : TreeHugger

Intershelter An Alaskan company has crossed Bucky Fuller's geodesic dome with walk-in cooler and come up with the Artic Dome [their spelling]. Intershelter's twenty foot diameter dome is built like a boat, with a gelcoat exterior and a core

Tasty recipes for saving traditional wildlife from alien species | Environment | The Guardian [the picture on the front page reminded me of a story you told me once]

Alien species are being put on the menu in what campaigners say is the perfect green solution to save the UK's native animals, says Nigel Burnham

Teeth of Columbus' crew flesh out tale of new world discovery

The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology.

Officials Hoard Valuable Databases Funded by Taxpayers

Despite federal and state open records laws, the public is finding it hard to get its hands on sophisticated digital maps and other data produced at tax payer expense. Here's why.

Recession Ends Pollution of World’s Largest Freshwater Lake : EcoWorldly

Culture skews human evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- The rise of agriculture 10,000 years ago meant the end of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle for which human beings had been optimized by millions of years of evolution and the beginning of an era where culture encourages habits unhealthy for us and for the world around, with uncertain evolutionary ...

Phytoplankton is changing along the Antarctic Peninsula

As the cold, dry climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula becomes warmer and more humid, phytoplankton - the bottom of the Antarctic food chain - is decreasing off the northern part the peninsula and increasing further south, Rutgers marine scientists have discovered. In research to be published tomorrow ...

natural_selection_christmas_card_for_atheists-p137257007937898567qt1t_400.jpg (JPEG Image, 400x400 pixels)

“Avoided Deforestation” Plan Gains Support | Worldwatch Institute

Rooftop Gardens Will Save the Bugs : TreeHugger

Image from Buglife Rooftop gardens are being proposed for the top of some of London's biggest buildings. By installing them on the rooftops of places like universities and town halls, it is hoped that endangered species of birds and

China’s Leader Says He Is ‘Worried’ Over U.S. Treasuries - NYTimes.com

The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern on Friday about China’s $1 trillion investment in U.S. government debt.

Picky preschoolers: Young children prefer majority opinion

When we are faced with a decision, and we're not sure what to do, usually we'll just go with the majority opinion. When do we begin adopting this strategy of 'following the crowd'? In a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Kathleen ...

Einstein researchers develop novel antibiotics that don't trigger resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of medicine's most vexing challenges. In a study described in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University are developing a new generation of antibiotic compounds that do not provoke bacterial resistance. ...

Patient Money - Bargaining Down the Medical Bills - NYTimes.com

If you’re out of work or underinsured, hospitals and doctors may be willing to negotiate their fees.

March 13, 1964: No One Helps as Kitty Is Slain
Get the latest in science news, including space, physics, planet earth, discoveries, NASA, satellites, and space travel from Wired.com

How To: Survive the Apocalypse (Think D.I.Y. Knives, and Solar Stills) | Danger Room from Wired.com

Best-selling author Neil Strauss helped Jenna Jameson show us How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. Then he taught us the finer points of attracting mates in The Game:

What Economic Crisis? | Mother Jones

Dek:&nbsp;Ten big winners of the financial collapse. Short Body:&nbsp;"Everyone is suffering," President Obama said in his speech to a joint session of Congress in late February. He was referring to the global financial and economic

China Comes to Africa - Photo Essays - TIME

In the last decade, trade between China and Africa has mushroomed to over $106 billion. In his new book, La Chinafrique photographer Paolo Woods explores how the Chinese are changing life on the vast

Brazilian City Makes Food A Basic Right And Ends Hunger : TreeHugger

Restaurant Popular (People's Restaurant) by Bruno Spada/MDS Back in 1993, the newly elected city government of Belo Horizonte, Brazil declared that food was a right of citizenship. At that time, the city of 2.5 million had 275,000 people living

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Australia spill '10 times worse'
An oil spill along the coast of Queensland is 10 times worse than originally thought, Australian authorities say.

Tired of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own - NYTimes.com

Some laid-off workers are turning to their inner entrepreneur in what could be a boon for the economy.

Is It Time to Retrain Business Schools? - NYTimes.com

Some are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades.

Death Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk - NYTimes.com

Newly unearthed recordings by the band Death reveal a remarkable missing link between the hard rock of Detroit bands and the high-velocity assault of punk of 1976 and ’77.

YouTube - Death - Politicians In My Eyes

via Drag City records: &quot;Also hot on February 17th is the 1975 archival album from Death titled for the Whole World to See. Death were the Hackney brothe...

Wind shifts may stir CO2 from Antarctic depths

Natural releases of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean due to shifting wind patterns could have amplified global warming at the end of the last ice age--and could be repeated as manmade warming proceeds, a new paper in the journal Science suggests.

A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout - NYTimes.com [via claudio]
The insurer planned to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday, though some payments were reduced after the Treasury secretary intervened.

Freeman Affair Puts Israel Lobby in Spotlight - by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe [via claudio]

Robotic gardening: MIT course creates robot-tending tomatoes

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the middle of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) sits a platform of fake grass with tomato plants nestled in terra cotta pots, growing under the light of an artificial sun. But this urban, indoor garden has a twist: the caretakers of the plants are entirely ...

Study suggests salt might be 'nature's antidepressant'

Most people consume far too much salt, and a University of Iowa researcher has discovered one potential reason we crave it: it might put us in a better mood.

TG Daily - MIT's revamped Li-ion batteries fully recharge in seconds, not hours [via claudio]

TG Daily, MIT's revamped Li-ion batteries fully recharge in seconds, not hours

Energy Dept. Said to Err on Coal Project - NYTimes.com
The Energy Department made a $500 million math error a year ago when it withdrew its support from a “near-zero emissions” coal plant in Illinois.

Obama Wants Global Financial Plan - NYTimes.com

President Obama called on foreign governments to increase their domestic spending to stimulate their economies and asked for greater coordination of regulatory oversight.

New super-bouyant material: Life preserver might float a horse

Here's a story that might float your boat: Researchers in China are reporting the development of miniature super-bouyant boats that float so well that an ordinary life preserver made from the same material might support a horse without sinking.

Physicist develops battery using new source of energy

Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, Japan, have been able to prove the existence of a 'spin battery,' a battery that is 'charged' by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The new technology ...

New Battery Could Recharge in Seconds | Wired Science from Wired.com [further information about the claudio supplied link]

A new battery material that recharges 100 times faster than the lithium-ion in your laptop has been revealed by researchers at MIT. The discovery could lead to cellphone-sized batteries that

Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline - Photo Essays - TIME

Two French photographers immortalize the remains of the motor city on film Photographs by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

Dr. Charles Lieber Dies at 78; Worked to Legitimize Study of Alcoholism - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
Mr. Lieber upset scientific dogma by showing that alcohol in excess can cause cirrhosis despite an adequate diet.

U.N. report: Forestry can create 10 million jobs - CNN.com

The United Nations is urging countries to invest in green jobs working with "sustainable forest management" to address the growing problem of unemployment worldwide.

Vicious Cycle: Drought Threatens Amazon Forest, Speeds Global Warming : TreeHugger

Fewer Trees = More Warming = Fewer Trees A 30-year study (!) involving 68 scientists from 13 countries just published in the prestigious journal Science reports bad news: the world's largest tropical rain forest is more sensitive to drought

Technology Review: TR10: HashCache

Vivek Pai's new method for storing Web content could make Internet access more affordable around the world.

Harvard’s masters of the apocalypse - Times Online

If Robespierre were to ascend from hell and seek out today’s guillotine
fodder, he might start with a list of those with three incriminating
initials beside their names: MBA.

Op-Ed Contributor - For Sale - The $100 House - NYTimes.com

Filling Detroit’s desolate neighborhoods with starving artists.

Generation OMG - NYTimes.com

What will become of the youth shaped by what some are already calling the Great Recession?

Wirth's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seven Evolutionary Leftovers in the Human Body

Wings on a flightless bird, eyes on a blind fish, and sexual organs on a flower that reproduces asexually—the casual observer might ask, what’s the...

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Population: The elephant in the room
Environmentalists must accept that uncontrolled population growth threatens to undermine efforts to save the planet.

The History of US Government Corporate Bailouts | Financial Infographics

Get the breakdown on who the United States has bailed out, for how much, and what happened, in this infographic:

“We Blew Her to Pieces” | Dahr Jamail - Independent Reporting from Iraq and the Middle East [via claudio]

Aside from the Iraqi people, nobody knows what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq better than the soldiers themselves. A new book

Obama Lifts Bush’s Strict Limits on Stem Cell Research - NYTimes.com

In a ceremony at the White House, President Obama pledged that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”

Well - Unlocking the Secrets of Gray Hair - NYTimes.com

Is a graying hairline a sign of age, stress or something else?

Coral reefs may start dissolving when atmospheric CO2 doubles

Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting effects on ocean water are making it increasingly difficult for coral reefs to grow, say scientists. A study to be published online March 13, 2009 in Geophysical Research Letters by researchers at the Carnegie Institution and the Hebrew University ...