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04:50 pm
8/7/09

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Writer's Block: I May Be Crazy

What does this Rorschach blot look like to you?


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Alien owl.
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09:26 pm
6/8/09

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My reclusive online persona...
...is going to come back out to play.
Current Mood:
 refreshed refreshed
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04:54 pm
6/4/09

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Ephemera.

  • New software has enabled researchers to recreate a long-forgotten musical instrument called the Lituus, despite the fact that no one alive today has ever seen or heard one. The eight-and-a-half-foot instrument fell out of use some 300 years ago.
  • True muonium, a long-theorized but never-seen atom-like configuration of a muon and its anti-particle, might be observed in future experiments thanks to recent theoretical work by researchers. True muonium was first theorized more than 50 years ago, but until now no one had uncovered an unambiguous method by which it could be created and observed.
  • Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new carbon nanotube-based technique that could potentially store data that lasts more than a billion years.
  • In nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle -- but at much greater speed.
  • Olive waste obtained during the oil extraction process may be used to eliminate heavy metals from sewage or waste waters of productive activities. The olive industry produces great amounts of such sub-products in and their cost is very low or nothing.
  • Physicists have demonstrated entanglement -- a phenomenon peculiar to the atomic-scale quantum world -- in a mechanical system similar to those in the macroscopic everyday world. The work extends the boundaries of the arena where quantum behavior can be observed and shows how laboratory technology might be scaled up to build a functional quantum computer.
    * * *
    02:26 pm
    5/28/09

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    Ephemera.

    • The puzzling quadrupole moment measured in the cosmic microwave background may be due to a lens-like distortion caused by the terminal shock wave at the heliopause.
    • A giant balloon, taller than a football field, is now flying at the edge of space to collect data on cosmic rays -- the most super-charged particles in the universe.
    • In what could be a biomedical research milestone, scientists have genetically modified a line of marmosets so that they glow green — and they can pass the trait to their children.
    * * *
    05:07 pm
    5/20/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Portions of Alaska are rising relative to sea level as billions of tons of glaciers melt away.
    • A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus, a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
    • The inexpensive plastic now used to manufacture CDs and DVDs may soon be put to use in improving the integrity of electronics in aircraft, computers and iPhones. Researchers have demonstrated ultra-high electrical conductive properties in these plastics, when combined with carbon nano-tubes.
    • Of the 92 naturally occurring elements, add another to the list of those that are superconductors. Scientist have discovered that europium becomes superconducting at 1.8 K (-456 °F) and 80 GPa (790,000 atmospheres) of pressure, making it the 53rd known elemental superconductor and the 23rd at high pressure.
    • As a fast and efficient means of transport, jellyfish-like organisms could play a major role in the marine carbon cycle. Marine biologists report that dead bodies of the marine organism Pyrosoma atlanticum may be transporting much more carbon to the seafloor than phytoplankton or other jellyfish-like creatures.
    • Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have immunized monkeys against the simian immunodeficiency virus, the animal model that is closest to HIV. They did so by shuttling a gene into the monkeys' muscles, making the muscle cells produce antibody-like molecules that work against SIV.
    * * *
    03:42 pm
    5/15/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Periodical cicadas, insects best known for their 17-year long life cycle, are emerging four years early in several Atlantic states. The emergence was first noticed in Greensboro, NC, early in May and has since been reported in Maryland.
    • A new way of reading light will sharpen the view of exoplanets. Researchers have created an "astro-comb" to help astronomers detect lighter planets, more like Earth, around distant stars.
    • Scientists have developed an efficient method to detect entanglement shared among multiple parts of an optical system. They show how entanglement, in the form of beams of light simultaneously propagating along four distinct paths, can be detected with a small number of measurements. Entanglement is an essential resource in quantum information science, which is the study of advanced computation and communication based on the laws of quantum mechanics.
    • Scientists have found that global warming was inadvertently curbed in the past by atmospheric lead pollution. Apparently lead stimulates the production of ice clouds, which radiate atmospheric heat more efficiently.
    • Two physicists have used string theory to argue that all subatomic particles are in fact tiny black holes.
    • Researchers have successfully captured a single electron in a highly tunable carbon nanotube double quantum dot. This was made possible by a new approach for producing ultraclean nanotubes. Moreover, the researchers discovered a new sort of tunneling as a result of which electrons can fly straight through obstacles.
    • Applying innovative measurement techniques, researchers have directly measured the unusual energy spectrum of graphene, a technologically promising, two-dimensional form of carbon that has tantalized and puzzled scientists since its discovery in 2004.
    • Scientists have developed a new polymer that reduces the amount of radioactive waste produced during routine operation of nuclear reactors.
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    04:46 pm
    5/5/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Carpet cloaks make practical cloaking at visible wavelengths possible for the first time.
    • Using laser light, researchers can control neurons in the primate brain. This has been done in mice and fish, but the jump to primates opens the door for new therapies. The technique is very specific, affecting just the desired neurons and leaving the rest alone, which reduces side effects.
    • Astronomers suspect that hundreds of medium-sized black holes are roaming loose in the Milky Way. These rogues, according to a new study, are the orphaned central black holes of the many smaller galaxies that the Milky Way has swallowed over its billions of years of existence.
    • Ten years ago, Stanford University School of Medicine scientist Emmanuel Mignot, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues made headlines when they identified the culprit behind the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Now Mignot and his collaborators have shown for the first time that a specific immune cell is involved in the disorder -- confirming experts' long-held suspicion that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease.
    • Biologists have discovered that zebra finches raised in isolation will, over several generations, produce a song similar to that sung by the species in the wild. The experiment provides new insights into how genetic background, learning abilities and environmental variation might influence how birds evolve "song culture" -- and provides some pointers to how human languages may evolve.
    • Pioneering mathematical engineers have discovered for the first time a rigid structure which exists within the center of turbulence, leading to hope that its chaotic movement could be controlled in the future.
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    01:57 pm
    4/27/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Engineers have discovered a way to use an ancient life form to create one of the newest technologies for solar energy, in systems that may be surprisingly simple to build compared to existing silicon-based solar cells. The secret: diatoms.
    • A Japanese company is preparing limited mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit which dramatically increases user strength up to ten times. The "Hybrid Assistive Limb" suit synchronizes movements of a mechanical exoskeleton to biological nerve signals detected by biopads on the body.
    • A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report in the journal Science. Chemical analysis of effluent from the inaccessible subglacial pool suggests that its inhabitants have eked out a living by breathing iron leached from bedrock with the help of a sulfur catalyst.
    • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York is developing flexible nanotubes inserted under the skin to create a handheld display — inside your hand. They wirelessly receive data and display reminders and text messages, and the concept has also been broadened to include programmable, customizable digital tattoos.
    • Scientists have found a way to add ferroelectric capability to silicon, the first step towards creating a transistor that would make instant-on computers a reality.
    • Monsanto, a US based multinational biotech company, is causing a stir by its plan to patent pig-breeding techniques including claim on animals birthed by the techniques.
    • Scientists from the UK and Germany are proposing a third kind of quantum tunneling. They propose that a quantum particle is capable of changing into a pair of "virtual particles" capable of passing through a potential barrier before changing back. The supposition also provides some interesting methods of possibly testing string theory.
    • Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings.
    • Astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed when the universe was only 800 million years old. Dubbed an extended "Lyman-Alpha blob," it is a huge body of gas. It is named Himiko for a legendary Japanese queen and stretches for 55 thousand light years, a record for that early point in time. Its length is comparable to the radius of the Milky Way's disk.
    • The world's brightest X-ray source sprang to life last week at the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) offers researchers the first-ever glimpse of high-energy or "hard" X-ray laser light produced in a laboratory.
    • Scientists have discovered that the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself. This discovery may lead to new marijuana-like drugs for managing pain, stimulating appetite and preventing marijuana abuse.
    • General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs.
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    03:42 pm
    4/13/09

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    Zeitgeist!

    • A US citizen who tried to board a domestic airplane while carrying $4700 in cash was detained by the TSA and subjected to abusive language and threats when he said that he would only answer the TSA's inquiries, such as, "Where do you work?" and,"Why are you carrying cash?" if he was required to by law.
    • New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority is planning to roll out a
      new blog       next month focusing on hipster central, the L line, which serves Williamsburg and Bushwick and is one of the fastest growing riderships in the system.
    • Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, were given a very special gift by US marines: a signed photo of Saddam Hussein. During his captivity, the marines forced Saddam to repeatedly watch the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as the boyfriend of Satan. Stone said, "We're very proud of our signed Saddam picture and what it means. It's one of our biggest highlights."
    • The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight.
    • Natalia Morar, one of the organizers of a recent anti-Communist flash mob in Moldova, has been officially charged with "calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances" over Twitter.
    • The Conficker worm has revealed its deadly purpose: hawking a phony anti-virus product and sending spam.
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    03:52 pm
    4/9/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now using viruses to build cathodes for lithium-ion batteries.
    • Two patients who received double hand transplants regained motor control of their hands, suggesting it's possible to regenerate neuro-muscular control systems.
    • Australian scientists have made a discovery that may one day remove the need for a lifetime of toxic immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplantation.
    • A bad connection in the brains of schizophrenic patients seems to leave them unaffected by a common optical illusion that turns the concave backside of a mask into a convex face. The difference may be a disconnect in the schizophrenic brain between what it actually sees and what it expects to see based on past experience.
    • In a finding that may help speed the production of ultra-clean fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen, scientists in Michigan are reporting development of a sponge-like nanomaterial with a record-high surface area for holding gases. Just 1/30th of an ounce of the material has the approximate surface area of a football field.
    • Researchers have developed an entirely new method for starting chemical reactions. For the first time, they used mechanical forces to control catalytic activity -- one of the most fundamental concepts in chemistry. This allowed them to initiate chemical reactions with mechanical force. This discovery paves the way to developing materials capable of repairing themselves under the influence of mechanical tension.
    • Discovery of an efficient artificial catalyst for the sunlight-driven splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen is a major goal of renewable clean energy research. Scientists have devised a unique new mechanism for the formation of hydrogen and oxygen from water, without the need for sacrificial chemical agents, through individual steps, using light.
    • Sunspot activity is on track to beat last year's near historical low. 2008 saw no sunspot activity on 266 out of 366, or 73 percent, of its days. To find a year with less sunspot activity, you'd have to go back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. But sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days, or 87 percent.
    • Though greenhouse gases are invariably at the center of discussions about global climate change, new NASA research suggests that much of the atmospheric warming observed in the Arctic since 1976 may be due to changes in tiny airborne particles called aerosols.
    • Cancer researcher have shown that a common virus can infect and kill breast cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are difficult to kill as they respond poorly to chemotherapy and radiation.
    • Cannabinoids such as the main active component of marijuana have anticancer effects on human brain cancer cells, according to new research.
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    01:35 pm
    4/8/09

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    Zeitgeist!

    • With the economy in trouble, funding has dried up for green tech companies trying to bring new clean energy technologies to market, according to two new research reports.
    • More than three years after an immigration detainee died in custody in New Jersey, the mere fact of his death proved troublingly hard to confirm.
    • Russia is keeping troops in Georgia's breakaway regions, despite agreeing to pull out last year as part of a deal that halted the nations' brief war.
    • The House and Senate approved budgets of about $3.5 trillion without a single Republican vote.
    • A unanimous ruling has made Iowa the first Midwestern state where same-sex marriage will be legal.
    • Video footage of a young woman being flogged by a Taliban leader in Swat raised questions about the Pakistani government's peace deal with militants in the region.
    • North Korea launched a three-stage rocket over the Pacific. Although the third stage probably crashed into the ocean, the North Korean government claims that it successfully lifted a satellite into orbit that has been broadcasting patriotic tunes towards Earth.
    • President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan ordered a review of a new law that curbs women's rights and permits marital rape.
    • The government of Sri Lanka and ethnic Tamil freedom fighters ignored a call by the secretary general of the United Nations for a cease-fire, as soldiers battled guerrillas in hand-to-hand combat.
    • The government in Thailand has set up a special website urging people to inform on anyone criticising the monarchy.
    • The Walgreen pharmacy chain has pulled the Chia Obama ceramic-plant product from its shelves, saying the likeness of President Barack Obama is not appropriate.
    • The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records.
    • The conviction of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been thrown out due to alleged misconduct by the prosecutors, despite reportedly overwhelming evidence of Stevens' guilt.
    • The Reading Rights Coalition and the National Federation for the Blind staged a protest in New York at the offices of the Authors Guild, to let the Guild know that their successful campaign to remove the text-to-speech feature from the Kindle has hurt blind people and undermined their ability to access a wide variety of works in a more-accessible form.
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    11:20 am
    4/3/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and US scientists published Monday. The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it 'far from conclusive.'
    • Considerably more people than previously believed are allergic to the most common fragrance ingredient used in shampoos, conditioners and soap. Researchers found that over five percent of those who underwent patch testing were allergic to the air oxidized form of the fragrance ingredient linalool.
    • A Japanese company has developed a toothbrush that uses ions to remove plaque and cleans teeth with water alone.
    • Scientists studying a mysterious neurological affliction in cats have made the surprising discovery that their central nervous system has the ability to repair itself and restore function.
    • Chemists are reporting development of what they term the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel.
    • Biologists have discovered that the shell lengths of snails in the northwest Atlantic Ocean -- an important member of the Atlantic food chain -- have increased by 22.6 percent over the past century.
    • Researchers have taken a major step forward in the technology of spintronics by controlling spin states of highly mobile electrons at different locations in a semiconductor and turning the collective state on and off at will. The discovery also represents a new conservation law, an important advance in fundamental physics.
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    04:31 pm
    4/2/09

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    Zeitgeist.

    • Boat owners whose boats have become too expensive to keep are abandoning ship.
    • An EU plan that provides government subsidies to drivers who trade in their old jalopies for new cars has exceeded expectations.
    • FBI agents in Arkansas are enlisting the online public's help in catching bank robbers with a mashup of bank spycams and Google Maps. And it appears to be working.
    • Spam is back up to 94% of all email, following the shutdown of McColo Corporation, the service provider which had been responsible for delivering up to 75% of global spam.
    • NASA has found itself in a tough spot after Stephen Colbert won the vote in NASA's contest to name a new module on the International Space Station.
    • The number of US Facebook users over 35 has nearly doubled in the past 60 days.
    • Two new lawsuits filed in federal courts say the practice of using electronic toll systems to charge residents less than out-of-staters at some bridges and tunnels is unconstitutional, because it violates the constitutional provisions that prohibit burdens on interstate commerce and promise equal treatment under the law.
    • Massachusetts' top securities regulator has sued Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, which directed billions of dollars of its clients' money into Bernard L. Madoff's investment firm.
    • Over the past two years, the U.S. military has paid $241 million to supply the Iraqi government with Russian helicopters – but has yet to receive a single aircraft. Now the U.S. Army appears to be paying an additional $80 million on the same non-performing contract.
    • The Financial Accounting Standards Board, pressured by U.S. lawmakers and financial companies, voted to relax fair-value accounting rules that Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. say don’t work when markets are inactive.
    • An unfinished version of the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked one month before its scheduled opening date.
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    03:12 pm
    3/31/09

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    Zeitgeist.

    • The need for constant updates has created a cottage industry that celeb fans may not be aware of: Twitter ghostwriters.
    • Foreign men have been losing their attraction as potential husbands for unmarried Chinese women since the global financial crisis started.
    • A US judge has ordered that the morning-after pill, "Plan B", be made available to 17-year-old girls without a prescription – a reversal of Bush-era policy.
    • Two American journalists will face charges of perpetrating "hostile acts" against North Korea after wandering across the country's border with China. The crime is punishable by years in a labor camp.
    • An electronic spy network linked to China, known as GhostNet, has infiltrated the computers of government offices, NGOs and activist groups in more than 100 countries, say researchers. Institutions with infected computers include the offices of the Dalai Lama and and embassies of India, South Korea, Germany, Pakistan and Taiwan.
    • The depth of the recession and the use of taxpayer dollars to bail out companies have made it politically acceptable for overseers to tinker with employment agreements.
    • Concrete, a product relatively unchanged for two centuries, is being tweaked to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
    • Piracy is increasingly rampant in the iPhone's application store, where 24 percent of all paid apps have been illegally cracked for free distribution.
    • A federal judge in Pennsylvania has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent a district attorney from charging three teenage girls with the production of child pornography for allowing someone to take revealing photos of them.
    • An Alaskan state legislator revealed the identity of an anonymous local blogger who was made famous by her criticisms of Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign season.
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    12:39 pm
    3/31/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Researchers are studying some common soil bacteria that "inhale" toxic metals and "exhale" them in a non-toxic form. The bacteria might one day be used to clean up toxic chemicals left over from nuclear weapons production decades ago.
    • By peering into the brain as it learns, scientists have found that the presence of a specific brain wave pattern predicts your ability to remember something. If it's there, you'll remember. If it's not, then, uh, you'll forget.
    • Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player's real-world vision, according to new research. The ability to perceive changes in shades of gray improves up to 58 percent.
    • Using aquatic microbes as their "canary-in-a-cage," scientists from Ohio are reporting that nanoparticles now being added to cosmetics, sunscreens, and hundreds of other personal care products may be harmful to the environment.
    • Mixing tea tree oil and silver greatly increases their antimicrobial activity and may minimise any side effects.
    • The intrinsic rotation of electrons -- the "spin" -- is a promising property for future electronics devices. Physicists have now succeeded in aligning electron spin, bringing it to a controlled "waver" and reading it out. The electron spin can also be realigned as required at any time using optical pulses.
    • A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to engineers. The process does not sequester carbon, but it does turn carbon dioxide into fuel, according to researchers.
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    04:49 pm
    3/27/09

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    Ephemera.

    • Scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas have created nanotube-based artificial muscles that are light as air and work even under extreme temperatures. The 'muscles' expand width-wise by about 200 percent when a voltage is applied, but are stronger than steel lengthwise.
    • Scientists are building a shoal of robot fish to be let loose in the port of Gijon, Spain, equipped with tiny chemical sensors capable of detecting pollutants in the water.
    • Scientists have succeeded in using genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes.
    • Everyone makes an occasional error due to lack of attention. Now scientists have found a distinct electric signature in the brain which predicts that such an error is about to be made.
    • Red jasper cored from layers 3.46 billion years old suggests that not only did the oceans contain abundant oxygen then, but that the atmosphere was as oxygen rich as it is today, according to geologists.
    • Certain bacteria have learned to manipulate the proportion of females and males in insect populations. In the future sex-manipulating bacteria may be used as environmentally friendly pesticides against harmful insects.
    • A type of brain cell that was long overlooked by researchers embodies one of very few ways in which the human brain differs fundamentally from that of a mouse or rat. Human astrocytes are bigger, faster, and much more complex than those in mice and rats.
    • Earlier this month, an expedition fertilized 300 square kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean with six metric tons of dissolved iron. This triggered a bloom of phytoplankton, which doubled their biomass within two weeks by taking in carbon dioxide from the seawater. The dead phytoplankton were then expected to sink to the ocean bed, dragging carbon along with them. Instead, the bloom was eaten by a swarm of hungry copepods. The huge swarm of copepods were in turn eaten by larger crustaceans called amphipods, which are often eaten by squid and whales.
    • Northwestern University researchers have designed a high-performing photoconducting material that uses zinc oxide -- an environmentally friendly inorganic compound found in baby powder and suntan lotion -- instead of lead sulfide.
    • Mathematicians have for the first time estimated, from mathematical symmetry arguments, the size of a fundamental imbalance pervading the subatomic world. This imbalance, called the CP violation, distinguishes matter from antimatter and is essential to understanding why matter predominates over antimatter in the natural world.
    * * *
    03:23 pm
    3/26/09

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    internought
    Zeitgeist.

    • The use of BlackBerrys, iPhones, Google and Twitter by jurors is wreaking havoc on trials around the country.
    • Spurred by anger over A.I.G., the House voted 328 to 93 to a 90 percent tax of bonuses paid by any company owing more than $5 billion in bailout money.
    • A.I.G. is using taxpayer money to sue the United States for the return of $306 million in tax payments.
    • An anti-capitalist group calling itself Bank Bosses Are Criminals today claimed responsibility for vandalising the home of disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin, and ominously warned that the attack was only the start of a campaign against executives.
    • The Obama administration supports fines up to $150,000 per pirated music track. Weighing in for the first time in a Recording Industry Association of America file-sharing case, Obama took the same position as his predecessor.
    • Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica and long time opponent of file sharing, admitted to pirating his own album, Death Magnetic, last year. 'I sat there myself and downloaded Death Magnetic from the Internet just to try it,' he said. 'I was like, "Wow, this is how it works." I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download Death Magnetic for free, it's me.'
    • DNA evidence from a multimillion-euro jewelry heist in Berlin leads to twins with a criminal record, but since the evidence could point to either one, German law says that neither can be convicted. Each criminal must be individually proven guilty, but the twins' DNA is so similar that neither can be exclusively linked to the evidence using current methods of DNA analysis.
    • An East London pub was evacuated after a Monty Python prop was mistaken for a grenade. But after nearly an hour of analysis bomb experts realised that the cause of the scare was in fact a copy of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" used by Eric Idle to slaughter a killer rabbit in the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail.
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    01:23 pm
    3/20/09

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    internought
    Ephemera.

    • A man who was wheelchair bound due to a motorcycle accident twenty years ago gained the ability to walk again after being bitten by a recluse spider.
    • A bat was seen clinging to the external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery before its launch on Sunday, and it apparently held on for dear life as the spaceship lifted off. The shuttle accelerates to an orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour, which is 25 times faster than the speed of sound, in just over eight minutes. It is not known whether the bat made it into space.

    • A new study shows that detergents used to clean up spills of diesel oil actually increase its toxicity to fish, making it more harmful.
    • A new paper suggests that four specific, separate processes combine as a "signature" of conscious activity. By studying the neural activity of people who are presented with two different types of stimuli -- one which could be perceived consciously, and one which could not -- researchers show that these four processes occur only in the former, conscious perception task.
    • Three new species of bacteria which are not found on Earth, and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.
    • Electric lasers have hit battlefield strength for the first time, paving the way for energy weapons to go to war.
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    04:00 pm
    3/16/09

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    Zeitgeist.

    • Rights advocates say leaders are using "black houses" to reduce the number of petitioners reaching Beijing. The petition system provides people with the semblance of an appeals process that top leaders hope will keep them off the streets. But for officials at all levels, it seems, the appearance of order — measured by reducing the number of petitions — is an acceptable approximation of actual order.
    • After years of sharply reduced political violence in Northern Ireland, suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents calling themselves the "Real IRA" attacked a group of British soldiers outside a British Army base near Belfast, killing two soldiers and wounding two others. Two unfortunate pizza delivery men were also wounded in the exchange.
    • A cut kid's song about a mythical alpaca-like animal called a "grass mud horse", a name which sounds like "fuck your mother" in Mandarin, slipped past China's automated internet censorship system to become a runaway hit in that country.
    • A defense attorney used comments posted by the arresting officer on MySpace, Facebook and other websites to help clear his client of several charges made against him.
    • The Obama adminstration said that it would abandon the Bush administration's term "enemy combatant" as it argued in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
    • The Obama administration is refusing, on grounds of 'national security', to divulge details of a proposed international treaty that many believe would criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow internet service providers to monitor their customers' communications.
    • Emergency workers responded to two unusual suicides a thousand miles apart, in which young men took their lives by combining two easily purchased chemical products and sealing themselves in their cars. The cases are the first to copy a deadly Japanese fad that killed hundreds last year, and injured scores of innocent bystanders.
    * * *
    12:27 pm
    3/16/09

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    Ephemera.

    • An engineered solid-state metamaterial proved it can function as a state-of-the-art device in the complex terahertz (THz) range of the electromagnetic spectrum, controlling the phase of a THz beam 30 times faster and with far greater precision than a conventional optical device.
    • A new analysis of old data shows that gravitational waves may have been detected in 1987.
    • NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found within Saturn's G ring an embedded moonlet, some half a kilometer across, that appears as a faint, moving pinprick of light. Scientists believe it is a main source of the G ring and its single ring arc.
    • A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye.
    • Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep the nation's water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up.
    • A Purdue University researcher has found a way to eliminate bacteria in packaged foods such as spinach and tomatoes. By placing two high-voltage, low-watt coils attached to a transformer on the outside of a sealed food package, a plasma field of ionized oxygen is generated, which forms ozone. Ozone kills bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.
    • Two separate research teams have come up with four different methods to sniff keystrokes by detecting the electromagnetic radiation leaked from a computer keyboard.
    • Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, in Japan, have discovered a spin battery effect: the ability to store energy into the magnetic spin of a material and to later extract that energy as electricity, without a chemical reaction.
    • Dutch scientists have successfully weakened fear memories in human volunteers by administering the beta-blocker propranolol. Interestingly, the fear response did not return over the course of time.
    • A new theory of variable gravity involving two cosmological-scale extra dimensions may account for observed gravitational anomalies on the medium scale.
    • Scientists have discovered a transparent form of the element sodium (Na). They were able to demonstrate that sodium defies normal physical expectations by going transparent under pressure.
    • Researchers in England have used fMRI to map the activity in volunteers' hippocampuses. From these scans, they could pinpoint exactly where the volunteers were in a virtual reality landscape.
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