The Lumpen Proletarian

YouTube - Drunk History vol. 4 - Featuring Paul Schneider

William Henry Harrison, our ninth president, was sixty eight years old when he was elected. He died thirty days later.Derek Waters presents: Drunk History vo...

New Ocean Carbon Sink Blooms as Antarctic Ice Retreats Rapidly : TreeHugger

photo: Wikipedia. There aren't too many good un-anticipated consequences when it comes to climate change, but here's one: Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have discovered that in areas of open water left exposed by rapid ice melting around

Moscow Journal - An Oasis Is No Match for Bulldozers and Bureaucrats - NYTimes.com
The Soviet government’s land monopoly may have ended some two decades ago, but the ability of the authorities to give and take away territory has not, real estate experts say.

 

The Economics Of Trust - Forbes.com

Trust is about more than whether you can leave your house unlocked. It's responsible for the difference between rich and poor.

Electricity for Americans From Russia’s Old Nuclear Weapons - NYTimes.com

Fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones, generates about 10 percent of America’s electricity.

Cases - Stuck by a Needle, Not by a Decision - NYTimes.com

A health care worker faced an immediate decision on her treatment after sustaining an injury while taking blood from a patient.

New Glimpses of World War II, on History and Smithsonian TV - NYTimes.com

Two documentaries featuring long-lost or overlooked film footage from World War II make their American television debuts this week and next, keyed to Veterans Day.

Carbon Nanotube Sponge Can Absorb Toxic Oils and Solvents up to 180x Its Weight! : TreeHugger

Photo: Peking University and Tsinghua University Is There Anything We CAN'T Do With Carbon Nanotubes? digg_url = 'http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/carbon-nanotube-sponge-toxic-oil-cleanup-180x-weight.php';Cleaning up toxic spills has always been a problem. It's hard, and it's expensive, and you have to be thorough. But things

A Conversation With Ab Klink - Dutch Health Minister Offers Views on U.S. Health Care - Interview - NYTimes.com
What has been sold as a strength of the American medical system does not look like one to the health minister from the Netherlands.

 

A pain in the neck: Researcher studies the effects of too much texting on college students

The world record for fastest text message typing is held by a 21-year old college student from Utah, but his dexterous digits could mean serious injury later on. Most adults aged 18-21 prefer texting over e-mail or phone calls, and ergonomics researchers are starting to wonder whether it's putting ...

Singularity University: Cracking the (Human) Code | Epicenter | Wired.com

The greatest mysteries yield the biggest opportunities. And for Christopher deCharms, the human brain is the most mysterious thing of all. A neuroscientist

AFP: Gun inventor, 'happy man' Kalashnikov turns 90

Q&A With Jeanne Dee, the Nomadic Family Traveler - Frugal Traveler Blog - NYTimes.com

Living off savings and investments, the Dee family - Jeanne, 57, Vince, 56, and their 9-year-old daughter - has been traveling the world and chronicling their adventures since 2006.

Technology Review: Mimicking the Building Prowess of Nature
Scientists build new materials using inspiration from complex biological forms.

 

Venus' Flower Basket - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cornell releases predator beetle to battle hemlock pest

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell researchers released a well-studied beetle predator to test its ability to ward off a hemlock-killing aphid-like insect.

Google Go gets going (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google has introduced its new experimental programming language Go, which aims to combine speedy application development through simplified coding with high-speed program execution.

Researchers Discover Use for Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Columbia University have successfully discovered a beneficial use for carbon dioxide in the conversion of organic materials, such as grass and bark, into fuel. Their findings show that if utilized on a broad scale, their technique could help significantly reduce overall ...

Review: Reporting on Pfizer drug studies fudged

(AP) -- Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often fudged, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company documents showed.

Nov. 11, 1930: Einstein Gets Ice Cold | This Day In Tech | Wired.com
1930: Albert Einstein and fellow nuclear scientist Leo Szilard receive an American patent for a new kind of refrigerator that requires no

 

With Road Trains, Highways Become Public Transportation | Autopia | Wired.com

Researchers in the European Union are using telematics to create road trains that join the benefits of carpooling with the freedom of driving

Graph compares rock music quality with US oil production 1949-2007 - Boing Boing

P.J. Tobia - Afghan Desk – Narcotecture: A Photo Tour of Kabul’s Poppy Palaces - True/Slant

Narcotecture in Afghanistan [Monocle]

Monocle looks at the building boom in the western Afghan city of Herat, where gaudy palaces are wiping out the face of the medieval city.

Microbial menagerie: Junk food binge alters community of microbes in the gut in less than a day
(PhysOrg.com) -- Switching from a low-fat, plant-based diet to one high in fat and sugar alters the collection of microbes living in the gut in less than a day, with obesity-linked microbes suddenly thriving, according to new research at the School of Medicine. The study was based on transplants of ...

 

Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela - NYTimes.com

With his nation plagued by power failures and water shortages, President Hugo Chávez has turned to lecturing about overconsumption.

Star Trek-like Replicator? Electron Beam Device Makes Metal Parts, One Layer At A Time

A group of engineers working on a novel manufacturing technique at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., have come up with a new twist on the popular old saying about dreaming and doing: "If you can slice it, we can build it." That's because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, and its operation sounds like something straight out of science fiction.