The Lumpen Proletarian

China Tightening Control of Rare Earth Minerals - NYTimes.com [via claudio]

The government’s plan to tighten limits on the production and export of so-called rare earth elements would force more manufacturers to make their wares in China.

 

Last Night's Television: Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture, BBC4<br />Embarrassing Bodies, Channel 4 - Reviews, TV & Radio - The Independent

You might be a little sceptical about the broad demographic appeal of Mud, Sweat and Tractors, a four-part examination of agricultural history in the 20th century. We're not talking Victorian Farm here, after all, with lots of dressing up and ginger-beer making. We're talking about a programme in which the passage of the 1947 Agriculture Act counts as a dramatic narrative twist. But there is one group of people for whom it must be absolute bliss. For years, they've had to watch as their flashier academic colleagues hog the limelight in history programmes and science strands. For them the call to produce a six-part series, complete with spin-off book for the BBC, never came. They had, I imagine, long ago given up hope that the broadcasting section of their publication record would contain anything other than occasional down-the-line contributions to Farming Today. But now at last their moment has come. Step forward, among a number of other agricultural experts, John Webster, emeritus professor of animal husbandry at the University of Bristol, to whom I am indebted for the information that the modern milk cow can deliver 110 pints of milk a day.

 

Technology Review: Blogs: Potential Energy: Cleaner Weed Eaters
From MIT. Information on Emerging Technologies & impact on business & society

 

NBC.com - Community

INDEX:DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

YouTube - Flame Drill

Innovative technology may bring geothermal energy to the forefront of green alternatives.Man Made: Underground Power : http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/...

 

Human Size Consistency Baffles Scientists | Wired Science | Wired.com
Crunch the numbers on the animal kingdom's sizes and shapes, and humans differ from each other far less than most species. The reason why is a

 

Renewable Energy Made by Mixing Salt and Fresh Water

(PhysOrg.com) -- When a river flows into the sea, the location is more than just a haven for water commerce. The mixing of fresh and salt water that occurs at an estuary also dissipates energy, as the different salinity waters combine into a state of less-ordered, uniform salinity. The mixing generates ...

 

Diesel exhaust is linked to cancer development via new blood vessel growth

Scientists here are the first to demonstrate that the link between diesel fume exposure and cancer lies in the ability of diesel exhaust to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumors.

 

YouTube videos yield clues to brain injury symptom

Brain injury researchers at the University of Kentucky have spent hundreds of hours watching YouTube videos of people getting smacked, punched and knocked in the head during sporting events and recreational activities. But those researchers weren't goofing off on the Internet; they were doing hard science.

 

Methane gas likely spewing into the oceans through vents in sea floor (w/ Video)

Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the atmosphere. Once released, that methane gas would speed up global warming by trapping the Earth's heat radiation about 20 times more efficiently ...

 

Humans causing erosion comparable to world's largest rivers and glaciers

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study finds that large-scale farming projects can erode the Earth's surface at rates comparable to those of the world's largest rivers and glaciers.

 

Sustainable fertilizer: Urine and wood ash produce large harvest
Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers. The study appears ...

 

Lasers Can Chill Stuff Super Fast | Wired Science | Wired.com

Need to cool something extra-fast? New research suggests that lasers might do the trick. Physicists proposed the idea of laser cooling 30 years ago, but

 

Placebo button - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sweet Juniper!

New design keeps buildings standing and habitable after major earthquakes (w/ Video)

A new earthquake-resistant structural system for buildings, just successfully tested in Japan, will not only help a multi-story building hold itself together during a violent earthquake, but also return it to standing up straight on its foundation afterward, true and plumb, with damage confined to a ...

 

Scientists Seek Warning Signs for Catastrophic Tipping Points | Wired Science | Wired.com
Tipping points are found in ecosystems, economies and even bodies. But they're usually recognized in retrospect, when it's too late for anything but

 

New Electric Motor is 50% Smaller but has 2x More Torque (!) : TreeHugger

Image: Yasa Motors Less is More With Electric Motors Too digg_url = 'http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/yasa-motors-advanced-electric-motor-more-powerful-efficient.php';Electric motors are very efficient compared to gasoline or diesel engines, but it seems like there is still room for improvement. One promising company working on this

 

Mexico water shortage becomes crisis amid drought -- latimes.com

In the parched Mexican countryside, the corn is wilting, the wheat stunted. And here in this vast and thirsty capital, officials are rationing water and threatening worse cuts as Mexico endures one of the driest spells in more than half a century.

 

Technology Review: Gasoline from Vinegar

A process that converts acids from garbage into fuel gets a boost.

 

Technology Review: Forget Curbing Suburban Sprawl

Building denser cities would do little to reduce CO₂ emissions, a new NAS report concludes.

 

Abu Dhabi’s $10 Billion Chip Gamble - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
The government of Abu Dhabi has poured $10 billion into the chip industry over the past year. The investments could turn out to be a license to print money -- or a huge financial blunder.

 

Findings - A Clash of Polar Frauds and Those Who Believe - NYTimes.com

Using “motivated reasoning” to vindicate Cook or Peary as making a historic first.

 

Vital Signs - Sickened by Brownies, but It Wasn’t Food Poisoning - NYTimes.com

When several preschool teachers fell sick after eating brownies, public health investigators suspected it wasn’t a typical case of food poisoning. The real problem was something a little different.

 

Movie Review - Crude - Big Oil’s Stain in the Amazon - NYTimes.com

Oliver Stone Returns to Wall Street for a Sequel - NYTimes.com

In case you missed the point the first time, Oliver Stone returns to Wall Street.

 

Dandelion rubber

Most natural rubber comes from rubber trees in Southeast Asia, but this source is now under threat from a fungus. Researchers have optimized the Russian dandelion to make it suitable for large-scale rubber production.

 

More oxygen -- colder climate
Everybody talks about CO2 and other greenhouse gases as causes of global warming and the large climate changes we are currently experiencing. But what about the atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content? Which role does oxygen content play in global warming?

 

Chemical Additive Could Make Old Antibiotics Viable Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Texas Tech researcher said a recently patented chemical additive could break down the shield of certain types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

 

In Taming Dogs, Humans May Have Sought a Meal - NYTimes.com

A DNA study suggests a single domestication event in China, as well as a reason behind it.

 

Army Seeks Super-Sniffer to Detect Explosives, Bio-Agents | Danger Room | Wired.com

Coverage of the new technology of metamaterials has tended to focus on the possibility of a real-life invisibility cloak. That kind of application is a long

 

Pigeon transfers data faster than South Africa's Telkom | News | News.com.au

FRUSTRATED IT workers have shown that a pigeon can transfer data faster than a major internet service provider.

 

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How Foreclosures Breed Mosquitoes | The Big Money
Andrew and Leslie Cockburn on &quot;American Casino.&quot; Filmmakers Andrew and Leslie Cockburn discuss a scene from their new documentary American Casino. The scene shows how a sea of abandoned swimming pools in California has become a mosquito