The Lumpen Proletarian: February 2010

Shoddy Huron Lodge work to cost millions, city alleges [via claudio]
The online source for Windsor news, business, sports, entertainment, classified ads, horoscopes, weather, local news and more.

Charles Anderson discovers dragonflies that cross oceans | Video on TED.com [via claudio]

TED Talks While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the globe skimmer, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp: a plea for bees | Video on TED.com [via claudio]

TED Talks Bees are dying in droves. Why? Leading apiarist Dennis vanEngelsdorp looks at the gentle, misunderstood creature's important place in nature and the mystery behind its alarming disappearance.

Measuring rainfall with mobile phone antennas

As rain interferes with radio signals, researchers have been able to measure rainfall using data supplied by the mobile telecommunications company Orange. The new method offers greater spatial resolution than traditional point measurements provided by rain gauges. In the future, this could be combined with intelligent control systems for sewer networks so as to reduce water pollution in urban areas.

Technology Review: Finding a Parking Space Could Soon Get Easier

Networking sensors attached to taxis could ease the hunt for street parking.

America’s Cup Rivals Race With the Wind at Their Wings - NYTimes.com

The sailboats competing in the America’s Cup are the fastest ever built but about as delicate as a house of cards.

Findings - People Share News Online That Inspires Awe, Researchers Find - NYTimes.com
A University of Pennsylvania study found that readers of news in print and online had more exalted tastes than might be expected.

Newly engineered enzyme is a powerful staph antibiotic

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the past decade, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has ushered in a new era in the fight between man and bug. By harnessing the power of nature’s own antibiotics, scientists have engineered an enzyme known as a lysin that not only kills MRSA in mice but also works ...

Study reveals new details on the dangers of third-hand smoke

Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to virtually all surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens. This new potential health hazard was revealed in a multi-institutional ...

Boat of plastic bottles has trial sail

Nuit Blanche Boing Boing

China Overtakes Germany as Top Exporter - NYTimes.com
Chinese exports amounted to $1.2 trillion in 2009, while German exports totaled $1.1 trillion, or €797 billion, the German Federal Statistical Office said.

'Revolutionary' water treatment units on their way to Afghanistan

The United States Army has taken delivery of the first two units of a 'revolutionary' waste-water treatment system that will clean putrid water within 24 hours and leave no toxic by-products, according to scientists at Sam Houston State University.

Could Making Our Electronics Sneeze Extend Their Life? The Gesundheit Radio Says Yes (Video) : TreeHugger

Image via Unplggd Keeping dust out of your gadget's inner workings is a sure way to make them last longer. And making your gadgets last longer is a sure way to reduce the amount of e-waste heading to landfills

Technology Review: A 50-Watt Cellular Network

Solar-powered base stations can link up remote rural areas.

Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors' blog: Ancient Human Genome Sequenced

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

Are bees also addicted to caffeine and nicotine?
A study carried out at the University of Haifa has found that bees prefer nectar with a small concentration of caffeine and nicotine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all. 'This could be an evolutionary trait intended to make the bee addicted,' the researchers say.

Walhalla temple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slumburbia - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

It's not our cities that are in big trouble: what will fill the empty homes and lots of suburban America?

A Menu for Feeding 9 Billion - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

With a mix including genetically modified crops and expanded aquaculture, where appropriate, scientists foresee a well-fed human population later in the century.

Cambridge researchers show Chip and PIN system vulnerable to fraud

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory have uncovered flaws in the Chip and PIN system that allow criminals to use stolen credit and debit cards without knowing the correct PIN.

Taiwanese bus rijdt op file in | Flabber

Een bus met Prius-remmen rijdt in Taiwan op een file in.

Mud Volcano Was Man-Made, New Evidence Confirms | Wired Science |

Wired.com
A new analysis shows that a deadly mud volcano in Indonesia may not have been a natural disaster after all. The research lends weight to the controversial

YouTube - Greens Keepers - Lotion

"It puts the lotion on it's skin." Inspired by Silence of the Lambs

Antibiotics Breed Superbugs Faster Than Expected | Wired Science | Wired.com

A newly discovered mechanism of antibiotic resistance helps explain how bacteria have so quickly undermined medicine's front-line defenses, turning miracle

Habitats - The Domestication of a Dive - NYTimes.com

Joel Hinman has lived in the same NoHo apartment for 35 years, first with a college roommate and now with a family.

For State’s Detained Youths, No Full-Time Psychiatrists to Help - NYTimes.com

New York State does not have a single full-time staff psychiatrist to oversee 800 youths detained in facilities.

Professor Is Held After Three Are Killed in Alabama - NYTimes.com

Three faculty members at the University of Alabama at Huntsville were shot to death and three other people were critically wounded on Friday afternoon.

Plant buffers may limit spread of antibiotics in animal waste
Research by scientists at the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry suggests that buffer strips of grasses and other plants can trap and break down veterinary antibiotics in manure fertilizers.

Bank of America forecloses on house that couple had paid cash for - St. Petersburg Times

Calls to Bank of America didn't help couple. SPRING HILL — Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure.

Millimeter-scale, energy-harvesting sensor system developed

Store Clerk Payback on truTV.com Video

A store clerk chases after beer-stealing criminals.

Poverty in Mississippi Delta worsened by poor broadband Boing Boing

Man smashes 27 TVs at Wal-Mart Boing Boing

Murder scene shows up on Google Street View Windsor - thestar.com

Google has apologized for a shocking image that turned up on its first week of showing Street View maps of Windsor, Ont.

Google Street View shows murder scene - UPI.com

The Google software company agreed to a request from the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario, to remove its Street View images of a murder scene.

Works and Days » Why Did Rome Fall—And Why Does It Matter Now?

Chris Hedges: Zero Point of Systemic Collapse | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters [via claudio]

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Bees recognize human faces using feature configuration
Martin Giurfa from the University of Toulouse, France, and Adrian Dyer from Monash University, Australia, have shown that bees can be trained to recognize human faces, so long as the insects are tricked into thinking that the faces are oddly shaped flowers. The insects use the arrangement of facial features to recognize and distinguish one face from another. The Franco-Australian collaboration publishes its discovery on Jan. 29, 2010, in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Not-so-standard safety features - The Globe and Mail

From pop-up hoods to thermal-imaging systems, auto makers get innovative to keep pedestrians safe

Technology Review: Flexible Sheets Capture Energy from Movement

Material could charge portable electronics with every step.

Results of Study on Cellphone Use Surprise Researchers - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

So, if fewer people use cellphones while driving, that will reduce accidents, right? Nope.

Self-healing polymer 'starfish' prolong lifetime of automotive oils

Researchers have created self-healing polymers that could extend the lifetime of automotive oils. These polymers are suitable to add to lubricants and could maintain the physical properties of engine oils for longer, they claim helping engine efficiency. Biological materials, such as skin, self heal ...

Class size, number of rivals fuels competiveness

(PhysOrg.com) -- Class size or the number of rivals in any competitive situation matters, according to University of Michigan research showing students are more willing to try hard as the number of competitors decreases.

Nonlinear thinker: Making sense of previously insoluble problems
If an airplane is cruising along and raises the flaps on its wings a degree or two, it will tilt upward. If it raises the flaps twice as much, it will tilt upward about twice as much. But if it tilts upward too far — generally more than 15 degrees — the airflow over the wings becomes chaotic, and anything ...

Peering inside an artificial sun

(PhysOrg.com) -- After more than five decades of research, a major milestone toward the harnessing of fusion power is expected within the next year or two. This milestone, known as 'fusion ignition,' should take place at an experimental facility built for that purpose in California. Known as the National ...

Fiery European Festivals - The Big Picture - Boston.com

The Big Picture - News Stories in Photographs from the Boston Globe

Cigarettes May Cause Infections | Wired Science | Wired.com

The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new

Sundrop Fuels Looks To Combine Sun Wood Chips For Gas - Business News - Portfolio.com

Sundrop Fuels believes it can combine wood chips with sun power to make gasoline and diesel fuel.

Focusing 192 lasers on one little target

Hair and mushrooms create a recipe for cleaning up oily beaches - SFGate
A group of guerrilla volunteers is cleaning oil from San Francisco's beaches using an unorthodox, albeit totally organic, method: human hair and mushrooms.Using mats made of hair, they are absorbing

Cornish Journal - A Recluse? Well, Not to J.D. Salinger's Neighbors - NYTimes.com

To the residents of Cornish, N.H., J. D. Salinger was not a recluse. He was a townsperson — just a guy called Jerry.

In Portland, Going Green and Growing Vertical in a Bid for Energy Savings - NYTimes.com

The federal government plans to plant a bold vertical garden with “vegetative fins” that will grow more than 200 feet high on the western façade of the main federal building.

Unboxed - Advances in Sensor-Based Computing Bring ‘Smart Dust’ Closer - NYTimes.com

Some ambitious projects in sensor research offer a glimpse of where this fledgling field may be headed.

Levitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- ...

The population crash | Fred Pearce | World news | The Guardian

Across Europe, we are having fewer babies. In many places, such as the deserted town of Hoyerswerda in east Germany, the falling birth rate is already taking its toll

Genetically Modified Forest Planned for U.S. Southeast: Scientific American
International Paper and MeadWestvaco are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern U.S. by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus

Basics - Abstract Thoughts Prompt Literal Physical Responses - NYTimes.com

Researchers have found that the body embodies abstractions the best way it knows how: physically.

Ecologists discover forests are growing faster

Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study to be published the week of Feb. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past ...

New adhesive device could let humans walk on walls

Could humans one day walk on walls, like Spider-Man? A palm-sized device invented at Cornell that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond just might make it possible.

Students failing because of Twitter, texting - Canada - Canoe.ca

Canada and International News

Foamy Invention Could Save Energy and Lives | LiveScience

An engineer has devised a brand new material that can save energy and lives.

Barefoot running: How humans ran comfortably and safely before the invention of shoes
Scientists have found that those who run barefoot, or in minimal footwear, tend to avoid "heel-striking," and instead land on the ball of the foot or the middle of the foot. In so doing, these runners use the architecture of the foot and leg and some clever Newtonian physics to avoid hurtful and potentially damaging impacts, equivalent to two to three times body weight, that shod heel-strikers repeatedly experience.

Gustave (crocodile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portuguese cork gets wings as stoppers war rages on | Reuters

LISBON (Reuters) - Making cork fly is easy, just pop a bottle of bubbly. But imagine a plane with wings largely made of pressed cork soaring through the skies. From aircraft in the sky to the microscopic

In China Underworld, Hacking for Fun and Profit - NYTimes.com

A young hacker let a reporter into his world of trolling for information that may one day be worth money.

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous ...

Mass drug overdose – none dead - health - 01 February 2010 - New Scientist

Hundreds of volunteers attempt to overdose on homeopathic remedies, without ill effects

Could Cars Have Caused the Mortgage Meltdown? | Autopia | Wired.com
In yet another analysis of the causes behind the current financial crisis, it turns out that vehicle ownership and a lack of access to public transportation

Gone with the wind: Tubes are whisking samples across hospital - Office of Communications & Public Affairs - Stanford University School of Medicine

Eco-friendly way of decomposing BPA-containing plastic

Just as cooking helps people digest food, pretreating polycarbonate plastic -- source of a huge environmental headache because of its bisphenol A content -- may be the key to disposing of the waste in an eco-friendly way, scientists have found.

For Scots, a Scourge Unleashed by a Bottle - NYTimes.com

Buckfast has emerged as a symbol of Scotland’s entrenched drinking problems at a time when it is urgently debating how to address them.

Europe Takes Its Own Path Toward Economic Recovery - NYTimes.com

European firms have been more willing than their U.S. counterparts to accept lower-profits and productivity in the short-term to preserve jobs.

Here's looking at dew: spiders snare water from the air
Fog-catching nets which provide precious water in rain-starved parts of the world may be poised for a high-tech upgrade thanks to the spider.

Everywhere in a Flash: The Quantum Physics of Photosynthesis | Wired Science | Wired.com

By hitting single molecules with quadrillionth-of-a-second laser pulses, scientists have revealed the quantum physics underlying photosynthesis, the

French Using Sewage to Heat Their Swimming Pools : TreeHugger

When water from the shower, dishwasher, or washing-machine is drained into the sewer-pipes, it's not just a waste of water, but a waste of the energy used to heat that water. In fact, the water in city pipes averages

High-tech aerogels wrap homes with insulation | Green Tech - CNET News

Aspen Aerogels is selling aerogels--a high-tech insulating material used in oil and gas pipelines and in aerospace--to retrofit older homes to be more energy efficient. Read this blog post by Martin LaMonica on Green Tech.

BrightFarm Systems Designs World's First Sustainable Rooftop Greenhouse Integrated On An Affordable Housing Development, South Bronx, NY - BrightFarm Systems - pitchengine.com

BrightFarm designs 1st #sustainable rooftop greenhouse integrated on affordable housing dev, S Bronx #greenbuilding

Technology Review: "Melting" Drywall Keeps Rooms Cool

Developers think these phase-change materials could reduce the need for air-conditioning.

Technology Review: Brain Imaging Lets Vegetative Patient Communicate
The surprising new research is likely to challenge our notions of consciousness.

Technology Review: Biofuels from Saltwater Crops

A research project will make jet fuel without wasting fresh water or farmland.

Generation B - Fatherhood Late in Life? Priceless - NYTimes.com

An older fathers’ group enjoys the ability to control their time in a way they never could as young men.

On College Campuses, a Shortage of Men - NYTimes.com

When women outnumber men at a college, dating culture is skewed.

Undercover Boss - TV Pilot - Review - NYTimes.com

Google Earth dives into oceans and WW II

Google Earth mapping service is letting people use the Internet to dive into the world's oceans or see the ruin that World War II bombings rained on European cities.

Unmanned U.S. frigates to stalk submarines (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the U.S. the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is planning to introduce unmanned frigates for long missions shadowing diesel-electric submarines.

High achievers more likely to be bipolar

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said 'there is no great genius without a mixture of madness,' and now there is some scientific evidence that there is a link between mania and high IQ and creativity, since a study of over 700,000 subjects showed those who scored the highest grades ...

Leaves Show Looped Networks May Be Better Than Branched | Wired Science | Wired.com

Tree branches have inspired efficient transit networks, but a new study finds inspiration in leaves. The curvy, connected leaf veins found in some plants

Electric Charge Can Change Freezing Point of Water | Wired Science | Wired.com

A watched pot never boils, but an electrically charged pot sometimes freezes. A study in the Feb. 5 Science reports that water can freeze at different

Shanghai's Crackdown on... Pajamas Boing Boing

Science of gun duels Boing Boing

Born Poor? | Santa Fe Reporter

Santa Fe economist Samuel Bowles says you better get used to it

Friday, February 26, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Sunday, February 7, 2010

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