The Lumpen Proletarian

Higher Schooling in Michigan - Video Library - The New York Times

Last November, Michigan became the 13th state to legalize medical marijuana. One young entrepreneur sees it as a business opportunity.

 

Canadian National Railway Engineers Begin a Strike - NYTimes.com

The walkout may create difficulties for U.S. and Canadian manufacturers and resource companies.

 

Economic View - The Danger to America of an Overheated China - NYTimes.com
How growing overcapacity in the Chinese economy is a risk to its economic growth and its ability to continue to fund deficits in the United States.

 

Tom Wujec demos the 13th-century astrolabe | Video on TED.com

TED Talks Rather than demo another new technology, Tom Wujec reaches back to one of our earliest but most ingenious devices -- the astrolabe. With thousands of uses, from telling time to mapping the night sky, this old tech reminds us that the ancient can be as brilliant as the brand-new.

 

Astrolabe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Protecting the Forests, in Hopes of Countering Global Warming - NYTimes.com

To the list of essential functions proclaimed for the giant evergreens of the West, add protection against climate change.

 

Tiny magnetic discs could kill cancer cells: study

Tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a metre in diameter could be used to used to kill cancer cells, according to a study published on Sunday.

 

Paper-thin Batteries Made from Algae | LiveScience

Scientists develop a battery that can be used as wrapping paper.

 

YouTube - Kanzi and Novel Sentences
Kanzi's language comprehension has been demonstrated in research using novel sentences — phrases that preclude the learning of specific responses. Visit www....

 

Food Stamp Usage Across the Country - Interactive Map - NYTimes.com

The number of recipients has risen by 10 million in two years.

 

What the iPod tells us about Britain’s economic future – Telegraph Blogs

In my column this morning on manufacturing (Shock news - Britain still makes things) I didn’t have space to mention one other important misconception about manufacturing: that just because something is “made in China” or somewhere else in the emerging world doesn’t necessarily mean that the money from its construction...

 

Cameron Sinclair: Los refugiados del auge y la bancarrota. | Video on TED.com [via claudio]

TED Talks En TEDGlobal U, Cameron Sinclair muestra el coste sin denuncia de los mega-proyectos inmobiliarios en quiebra: miles de emigrantes trabajadores de la construcción sin poder volver a sus casas y sin dinero. A sus compañeros arquitectos les dice que sólo existe una única respuesta ética.

 

Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: Fingerprints: Signal Processors for Touch

From MIT. Information on Emerging Technologies & impact on business & society

 

As Sales Vanish, Skins Stay on Alligators - NYTimes.com
The peculiar relationship between hardy bayou men and Paris and New York fashion setters has soured of late.

 

LED Bulbs Save Substantial Energy, Study by Osram Finds - NYTimes.com

Over the entire life of a bulb, from manufacturing to disposal, the energy used for incandescent bulbs is almost five times that of LED lamps.

 

Some Biologists Find an Urge in Human Nature to Help - NYTimes.com

Biologists are forming a better view of humankind than the traditional opinions of it as warlike and selfish.

 

Global Update - Salmonella - Drug-Resistant Strain of Bacteria Gains in Africa, With High Death Rates - NYTimes.com

A new drug-resistant strain of salmonella is causing an unusual number of deaths in Africa.

 

Pickin' Up Good Vibrations to Produce Green Electricity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Vibrations from the environments we live and work in could be much more widely harnessed as a clean source of electricity, due to cutting-edge UK research.

 

BBC News - The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.

 

Culture of Old Europe Is Uncloaked in an Exhibit at N.Y.U. - NYTimes.com
A little-known people existing before Ancient Egypt and Greece’s glory worked with metal and had an evolved visual language.

 

Kangaroos may hold skin cancer cure: study - Yahoo! News

Kangaroos may provide the key to a potential treatment to prevent skin cancer, Australian scientists said on Monday.

 

Somali pirate stock-market: "we've made piracy a community activity." - Boing Boing

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com

“I just wrote my first reference for
a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the
good character of a [bn:WBTKR=GS:US] Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [] banker who applied
to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had
told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded
up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if
there is a populist uprising against the bank.

 

Baltimore’s Mayor Is Convicted - NYTimes.com [via claudio]

The conviction on Tuesday of Mayor Sheila Dixon for one count of embezzlement may force her from office.

 

Technology Review: Cheaper Color-Changing Window
Thin, battery-like films change color when the weather changes.

 

Male and female shopping strategies show evolution at work in the mall

Male and female shopping styles are in our genes---and we can look to evolution for the reason. Daniel Kruger, research faculty at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, says it's perfectly natural that men often can't distinguish a sage sock from a beige sock or that sometimes women can't ...

 

Fears mount over giant carp reaching Great Lakes

(AP) -- Fears that giant, voracious species of carp will get into the Great Lakes and wipe out other fish have led to rising demands that the government close the waterway connecting the lakes to the Mississippi River - an unprecedented step that could disrupt the movement of millions of tons of iron ...

 

Toxic chemicals found in a third of children's toys: study

A third of the most popular children's toys in the United States this year contain harmful chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury, a US consumer group said Wednesday.

 

Research shows some plants can remove indoor pollutants

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some plants have the ability to drastically reduce levels of indoor pollutants, according to new research at the University of Georgia. Researchers showed that certain species can effectively remove air-borne contaminants, including harmful volatile organic compounds, suggesting a critical ...

 

Overfishing linked to algal blooms : Nature News

Nature - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop

 

Obama acid Boing Boing

Plastic Solar Breakthrough: Efficiency Record Broken by Solarmer : TreeHugger

Photo: Solarmer Plastic Organic Photovoltaic Technology is Maturing The Californian startup Solarmer has been making good progress with its plastic organic PV in the past few years. It hit 6% efficiency in 2007, 7.6% a few months ago, and

 

Offset Your CO2: Buy the Pill for the Poor : TreeHugger

The world's population has reached 6.8 billion people, and that number is growing. A year from now, it's said to increase by about 86 million, or over 7 million people a month--enough to fill a city like Hong Kong.

 

Capstone MicroTurbine - In The News

Artificial Intelligence Shuffles Schedules, Cuts Patients' Wait Times

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some of the same artificial intelligence (AI) underlying NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is now streamlining patient care at Strong Memorial Hospital, helping radiologists and technologists juggle the hundreds of requests for CT scans, ultrasounds, and other imaging procedures that they ...

 

BBC - Earth News - Vine seeds become 'giant gliders'
Remarkable footage is captured of falling Alsomitra vine seeds, which use wings to disperse like giant gliders.

 

mUOHn.jpg (JPEG Image, 400x619 pixels)

Greenpeace ads featuring aged politicians in 2020 apologizing for climate change Boing Boing

Op-Ed Contributor - A Cloud Still Hangs Over Bhopal - NYTimes.com

A gas disaster that happened 25 years ago has not been cleaned up because Dow Chemical has not acknowledged responsibility.