Thursday, June 10, 2010

I wonder why this bird is endangered

Oil from Gulf Spill Could Have Powered 38,000 Cars (and More) for a Year, Researcher Says

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — As of June 9, 2010, if all the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been used for fuel, it could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year, according to University of Delaware Prof. James J. Corbett. That's based on the estimated spill rate of 19,000 barrels of oil per day.

Monday, June 7, 2010

North Korea Develops Anti-Aging "Super Drink"

Posted by samzenpus on Monday June 07, @11:44AM
from the can-full-of-wonder dept.
__roo writes"According to North Korea's official news agency, a drink produced by North Korea's Moranbong Carbonated Fruit Juice Joint Venture Company, can cure aging and all disease. 'It, with effects of both preventive and curative treatment, helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells. It also protects skin from wrinkles and black spots and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral hemorrhage, myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.' It also has no side-effects."Last month they announced their fusion breakthrough, and now they have a super drink. One can only imagine what wonders they will reveal in July, perhaps self buttering toast.

Blocking DNA Repair Protein Could Lead to Targeted, Safer Cancer Therapy

ScienceDaily (June 7, 2010) — Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and the School of Medicine have discovered that inhibiting a key molecule in a DNA repair pathway could provide the means to make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation therapy while protecting healthy cells.

Canada's Largest Cities Seeing the End of the Phone Book

Posted by timothy on Monday June 07, @02:05AM
from the straight-to-the-pulping-machine dept.
innocent_white_lamb writes"Telephone directories are available on the Internet, and many phones even store their own directories. There is less and less demand for a printed phone book, so residential phone books will no longer be printed and delivered in Canada's seven largest cities. Do we now expect everyone's grandma to look up phone numbers on the Internet? Of course, the Yellow Pages, where businesses pay for a listing, will still be delivered."

The Men Who Stare At Airline Passengers, Coming To the UK

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 06, @10:57PM
from the setting-aside-american-senators dept.
An anonymous reader writes, "The Economist's Gulliver reports on a story in Nature that questions the current airport security regimen," excerpting:"Over the past four years, some 3,000 officers in America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have been specially trained to spot potential terrorists at airports. The programme, known as SPOT, for Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, is intended to allow airport security officers to use tiny facial cues to identify people who are acting suspiciously. The British government is currently launching a new screening regime modelled on the Americans' SPOT. There's just one problem with all this: there's no evidence that SPOT is actually effective. The whole thing is mostly based on pseudoscience, Sharon Weinberger reports in Nature."Happily, Nature's original article is available in full, rather than paywalled.