The Lumpen Proletarian

Savings Rate in U.S. at Highest Point in 15 Years - NYTimes.com

Tax cuts and increases on Social Security checks lifted personal incomes in May, but it appears that many people are putting that money away instead of spending it.

Study shows 1 in 25 deaths worldwide attributable to alcohol

Research from Canada's own Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) featured in this week's edition of the Lancet shows that worldwide, 1 in 25 deaths are directly attributable to alcohol consumption. This rise since 2000 is mainly due to increases in the number of women drinking.

BBC NEWS | Business | China argues to replace US dollar

China's central bank reiterates its call for a new global reserve currency to replace the US dollar.

Apocalypse Not: Behind the Swine Flu Hysteria
See the latest multimedia and applications including videos, animations, podcasts, photos, and slideshows on Wired.com

Why are There 60 Minutes in an Hour? | Scienceray

We are all familiar with dividing our days into 24 hours and our hours into 60 minutes. But why do we use these particular units for measuring time?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Web slows after Jackson's death

The net was sorely tested as news of Michael Jackson's death spread with both Twitter and Google reporting outages.

YouTube - Alcoholic Vervet Monkeys! - Weird Nature - BBC animals

In the Caribbean, Vervet Monkeys have developed a taste for alcohol and can regularly be spotted stealing cocktails from humans on the beach. Brilliant wildl...

Debunking Canadian health care myths - The Denver Post

Debunking Canadian health care myths

Technology Review: New Drug Kills Cancer with Few Side Effects

A personalized therapy targets the molecular mechanism behind a specific kind of tumor.

Book Review - 'The Industrial Revolutionaries - The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914,' by Gavin Weightman - Review - NYTimes.com
This engaging study of the figures behind the global rise of industrialism overflows with fascinating human portraits.

G.M., Detroit and the Fall of the Black Middle Class - NYTimes.com

The Powell family left the South in the 1960s, seeking better opportunities up North in the auto industry. Now the life they built is in danger of slipping away.

Why Saints Sin and Sinners Get Saintly

(PhysOrg.com) -- To many, New York Gov. Eliott Spitzer's fall from grace seemed to make no sense at all. But a new Northwestern University study offers provocative insights that possibly could relate to why the storm trooper of reform -- formerly known as the Sheriff of Wall Street -- seemingly went ...

Culligan lobbies hard as water softeners become a drought issue - Los Angeles Times

Government bureaucrats want your water softener.

Honduran President Is Ousted in Coup - NYTimes.com

President José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army on Sunday in the first military coup in Central America since the cold war.

Plan Won’t End Louisiana Erosion, Report Says - NYTimes.com

A large area of marshlands will be lost despite a plan to restore the flow of muddy water, scientists reported.

'Infomercial King' Billy Mays Found Dead in Home - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment - FOXNews.com
'Infomercial King' Billy Mays Found Dead in Home , Television pitchman Billy Mays � who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets � died Sunday, MyFOXTampa.com reports.

YouTube - Feynman and the Train

Physicist Richard Feynman explains how a train stays on the tracks... From BBC TV 'Fun to Imagine' (1983)

Madoff may not have benefited most in scam - Small business- msnbc.com

Charles Ponzi himself was the biggest beneficiary of his scams. But it now appears that Bernard Madoff may not have benefited the most from his version of the scheme. It may be Jeffry Picower.

TheStar.com | Canada | Tories call in Mounties over mint's missing millions

The Toronto Star

BBC NEWS | Technology | Pirate Bay starts video streaming

Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay lifts the lid on a proposed video streaming service.

The Girlfriend Experience - The Globe and Mail
Sex, lies and the credit crunch

A meal that never gets old

Wally and Andre take their seats, eat dinner and talk. That’s it. But the nature of the conversation

World wheat production threatened by fungus

Scientists in Canada and around the world are racing to find a way to stop a destructive fungus that

Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk" | Video on TED.com

TED Talks Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.

Zoo Installation Shows Trouble In Wildlife Paradise : TreeHugger

Photo courtesy of Steinbrener-Dempf Trouble in Paradise--an art installation at Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo--shows the troubling impact of modern civilization on wildlife habitat. The installation is the work of Austrian artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf who have set up six

Iraq Oil a Big Draw for Chinese - NYTimes.com
China is showing increasing interest in oil fields that had seemed until very recently to be firmly in the American sphere of influence for natural resources.

Findings - Calculating Consumer Happiness at Any Price - NYTimes.com

Could it be that humans are not quite as gullible as advertised? Researchers can’t always sway diners with the lure of a bargain.

Scientists create first electronic quantum processor

A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

First step to converting solar energy using 'artificial leaf'

An international team of researchers has modified chlorophyll from an alga so that it resembles the extremely efficient light antennae of bacteria. The team was then able to determine the structure of these light antennae. This is the first step to converting sunlight into energy using an artificial ...

Pirate Bay Unveils YouTube-Like Site | Threat Level | Wired.com

This is not your parents' YouTube. This is VideoBay, a YouTube-like service without the worries and hassles of those annoying copyright takedown

There, I Fixed It.

Why boys will pick Bob over Barbie - children are genetically programmed, say scientists | Mail Online
Tests involving children as young as three months suggest biological differences and not social pressures dictate which toys children like to play with.