The Lumpen Proletarian

Lions Ex-Stadium, Once Super Bowl Host, Sells for $7.25 a Seat - Bloomberg.com

It cost more than $55 million to
build the Silverdome football stadium in Pontiac, Michigan.
Yesterday, it sold for the price of a one-bedroom apartment in
Manhattan.

 

Technology Review: A New Route to Cellulosic Biofuels

ZeaChem's pilot plant will make ethanol using termite microbes.

 

New Method to Measure Snow, Soil Moisture With GPS May Benefit Meteorologists, Farmers
(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected to benefit meteorologists, water resource managers, climate modelers and farmers.

 

Dutch build more dunes against rising seas

On the beach at Monster, bulldozers painstakingly turn sand dredged from the bottom of the North Sea bed into dunes in an ambitious effort to safeguard the Netherlands from flooding.

 

Istanbul Opens World’s Largest Earthquake-Safe Building | Wired Science | Wired.com

The world's largest seismically isolated building, the new international terminal at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, is now complete and open for

 

Malaria Gaining Resistance to Best Available Treatment | Wired Science | Wired.com

WASHINGTON — Malaria that is resistant to the best available drug is more widespread in Southeast Asia than previously reported, new research shows. The

 

Vaccine being developed to help smokers quit

(PhysOrg.com) -- Glaxo-SmithKline has joined forces with Nabi Pharmaceuticals to produce a vaccine to help smokers give up their addiction permanently.

 

Technology Review: A 25-Year Battery

Long-lived nuclear batteries powered by hydrogen isotopes are in testing for military applications.

 

Turning heat to electricity... efficiently
(PhysOrg.com) -- In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of that wasted heat and turn it ...

 

Fighting climate change by turning CO2 to stone

(PhysOrg.com) -- While politicians debate the best ways to cut global carbon dioxide emissions, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory's Center for Advanced Energy Studies are charging ahead on a strategy to defuse the CO2 the world already produces. They want to inject the greenhouse gas deep underground, ...

Pilot study relates phthalate exposure to less-masculine play by boys

A study of 145 preschool children reports, for the first time, that when the concentrations of two common phthalates in mothers' prenatal urine are elevated their sons are less likely to play with male-typical toys and games, such as trucks and play fighting.

 

Novelties - From the Lab, a New Weapon Against Cholesterol - NYTimes.com

Tiny particles containing gold and other metals may someday help keep cholesterol from building up in blood vessels.

 

Op-Ed Columnist - An American Catastrophe - NYTimes.com

Detroit and its environs are suffering because of policies that resulted in the implosion of crucially important components of America’s manufacturing base.

 

How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world | Mail Online

As 50 giant oil tankers lurk off the British coast, we reveal an even more scandalous threat to the global environment.

 

Voracious Invader May Be Nearing Lake Michigan - NYTimes.com
Evidence of Asian carp, a fish that some fear could destroy the ecosystem of Lake Michigan, has been found beyond a barrier intended to keep the fish out.

 

Captured Photo Collection » Native American Prints from the Pennington Photo Studio Photos

Crawling Around with Baltimore Street Rats | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

The “urban ecosystem” serves as a research lab for scientist Gregory Glass, who studies the lives of the Charm City’s rats

 

Facebook 'Kick a Ginger' campaign prompts attacks on redheads - Telegraph

The teenager behind a "Kick a Ginger" group on Facebook is being investigated by police after reports of attacks on redhead children.

 

Video of Tiny Tim performance mentioned in Pynchon's Inherent Vice - Boing Boing

Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Microwave Lava - Boing Boing

Economic View - What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head? - NYTimes.com

There may be credibility in the idea that rebounds from recessions are attributable mainly to public psychology.

 

Getting a charge out of Nissan's Leaf -- latimes.com [via claudio]

This thought came to me as I was piloting the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle prototype around Dodger Stadium last Friday: When gasoline-powered cars sleep at night, they dream of being electric.

 

Researcher's labour of love leads to MS breakthrough - The Globe and Mail [via claudio]

New way of thinking about debilitating disease has yielded stunning new treatments – but MS societies urge sufferers to be cautious before experimenting

 

Sugar Cane Waste to Replace Coal in Coal-Fired Power Plants? : TreeHugger

Via Green Inc Here's a promising project: Brazilian and Italian entrepreneurs are investing $114 million in a plan to convert bagasse, a waste product from sugar cane, into pellets that can be burned as fuel at your average, run-of-the-mill

 

Hidden fibres capture solar power › News in Science (ABC Science)

Dig this: RoboClam

Device could lead to 'smart' anchors, more

 

In Mississippi, Farmers' Promising Summer Washed Away by Fall Rain - NYTimes.com

In August, Southern farmers thought they had a bumper crop — the best in years. Then heavy rains in September and October spoiled the harvest.

 

Study Links Chinese Drywall and Corrosion in Homes - NYTimes.com

Federal investigators reported a “strong association” between chemicals in Chinese drywall and complaints by homeowners of metal and electrical corrosion.

 

Sewers at Capacity, Pollution Spills Into Waterways - Series - NYTimes.com

Many sewer systems are overwhelmed, spilling excrement, medical waste and chemicals into waterways.

 

A Survey Shows Pain of Recession for Artists - NYTimes.com

A major new survey of American artists and how they are weathering the economic downturn has found that slightly more than half experienced a drop in income from 2008 to 2009.

 

Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago
A new study provides 'incontrovertible evidence' that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report.

 

Intensive land management leaves Europe without carbon sinks

A new calculation of Europe's greenhouse gas balance shows that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide tip the balance and eliminate Europe's terrestrial sink of greenhouse gases.

 

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Remarkable Creatures - Darwinian Details on Origins of Snakes and Snails - NYTimes.com

As the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” some facts on snails and snakes that would have intrigued him.

 

BBC News - Dirt can be good for children, say scientists

Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who say being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

 

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