February 2012
41 posts
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How to Turn a Cockroach into a Mobile, and Kind of...
From the digestive system that demolishes glue and toothpaste comes the first living, breathing, digesting cyborg-insect power source. Researchers have created a fuel cell that needs only sugar from the cockroach’s hemolymph (basically the cockroach version of blood) and oxygen from the air to make electric energy. The cell’s power density, 55 microwatts per square centimeter at 0.2V, is...
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The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary... →
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Bank Fee Backlash Cost Big Financial Institutions... →
According to a recent study by Javelin Strategy and Research, 11% of the 5.6 million people who switched banks over the last three months did so as part of “Bank Transfer Day,” an event inspired by Bank of America’s (BAC) decision to begin charging its customers $5 per month to use their debit cards for purchases. BofA ended up scrapping the plan, but it, and many other...
If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a...
– President Obama will host the second annual White House Science Fair in Washington tomorrow.
“Fourteen year old Joey Hudy from Phoenix, Arizona is already a Maker Faire veteran,” reads the White House press release.
“He invented an Extreme Marshmallow Cannon and an LED Cube Microcontroller...
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Bowman date tonight!
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.c... →
Scorpion Armor Inspires Sand-Resistant Surfaces
I am having chana masala for lunch at 9:00am. I have such a great work schedule.
The Mark →
The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains more than fifteen thousand “confidential human sources.” The Drug Enforcement Administration has its own tipsters, as do the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; over all, the Justice Department pays informants as much as a hundred million dollars a year. Trained agents like Grimm generally create new identities...
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Fecal Transplants: The Straight Poop →
Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about fecal transplants, which have proven to be exceptionally effective at restoring a healthy intestinal microbiome and curing C. diff infections, but which remain in regulatory limbo.
January 2012
79 posts
http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortga... →
Freddie Mac,the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.
Freddie began increasing these bets dramatically in late 2010,the same time that the company was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such high-interest mortgages.
No evidence has emerged that...
Because its easy to like “indie” music like that because it’s all a facade. Getting into real indie rock music is an imposition, not a fashion. You can’t find their albums anywhere. They never tour. They aren’t on Saturday night live or Conan.
Ha ha. The past few years a lot of new music has felt that fashion/blog hype was higher on the priority list then then the music. listened to part...
For the first time in a couple weeks I wasn’t the only cashier on the lumber end of the store today. That was nice, because I had someone to talk to while the store’s traffic was slow this morning. I had one of the few good conversations that I have had at work today. Most of my coworkers only want to talk about video games or reality TV; I don’t have much to say on either of...