A 17-year-old Ottawa high school student invents way to identify and cure the flu - “The flu virus attacks human cells by binding to a compound called sialic acid, or sialyllactose, on the cell surface. Merziotis synthesized a floating form of the acid, which dupes the virus with an alternative attachment site. She said her process can help with both diagnosis and treatment. “It can be used to detect what strain of influenza is responsible for a specific infection,” she said. “It can differentiate between human and avian strains.”

NASA to Announce Success of Long Galactic Hunt - “NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations…”

Fuel from Trash Will Power California Garbage Trucks - “300 garbage collection trucks in California will soon be fueled by the same trash that they haul. Landfill gas will be purified and liquefied, producing up to 13,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) daily.”

The Cost of Smarts - “Intelligence, it turns out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow off the starting line because it depends on learning — a gradual process — instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to stop…”

Platypus Looks Strange on the Inside, Too - “An international scientific team, which announced the first decoding of the platypus genome on Wednesday, said the findings provided “many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes,” including that of humans, and should “inspire rapid advances in other investigations of mammalian biology and evolution.” ”

Welcome to September 11 Television Archive - “This collection contains television news programs recorded live from around September 11, 2001 by the non-profit Television Archive to help patrons research this important part of United States history. These materials were available on the televisionarchive.org site from October 11, 2001 through 2003…”

The Great Depression of the 2010s - “Inevitably, investment bankers cannot resist the temptations of excessive credit and, like the buyers of teaser-rate home mortgages, they will always overreach themselves—an overreaching that will have disastrous consequences for the society whose savings they bet. The leveraged overreaching by investment banks in the 1920s caused the Great Depression of the 1930s and their more recent overreaching in this decade, the 2000s, is about to cause another Great Depression in the next, the 2010s.”

Lifestyle or Genes? The Health Secrets of a 114-Year Old Man - “Research reveals that there were no genetic modifications which could have contributed to the longevity of a 114-year old Spaniard. The research team, directed by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona professor Adolfo Díez Pérez, pointed out a healthy lifestyle, a Mediterranean diet, a temperate climate and daily cycling until the age of 102 as the reasons for his excellent health…”

Build a Microsoft Surface Like Table By Yourself - “Most of us have seen the intriguing Microsoft Surface commercials and their possibilities, but can we really afford one? A Do It Yourself version has been developed by Eyebeam. For the much lower cost of $500-1000, the Cubit Project is available, allowing you to download the software and also instructions of building one all by your own…”

[See previous IR]

The idea behind the Vulture is to put up a solar-powered, unmanned airplane that can stay aloft for several years. It flies at 50,000 feet or higher to get above any weather/turbulence and to give it a broad field of view:

Vulture - The Unmanned Aircraft Able to Stay in the Air for 5 Years

It acts like a satellite, so it could be used for visual surveillance, radar mapping, cell phone coverage, etc. These videos show two interpretations on how the plane might look:

NASA has already proved out he concept with the Helios:

[See #47]

Kudzu is an amazing plant that, according to the video, now covers 7 million acres of the south and can grow up to a foot a day:

According to this article, it got its start in the US innocently enough:

Don’t demonize kudzu

From the article:

Kudzu was introduced into North America in the Japanese pavilion at the U.S. Centennial Exposition in 1876. People soon were using it to shade porches and courtyards in the Southern U.S., both because of its fast growth and because of its alluring grape-like smell.

At the same time, kudzu was being sold to farmers as an inexpensive forage crop for their animals. In the 1930s, it was pitched to farmers in the South as a cheap and easy way to reduce erosion, particularly in abandoned cotton fields.

But soon it got out of control. Today people are trying to find something useful to do with kudzu, and the answer may be biofuels. With its incredible growth rate, it may become a source of biomass.

Here’s the answer:

Why do whales beach themselves?

[See previous question]

Laid off or not, the article has an interesting perspective on travel:

Laid off? The one thing you absolutely need to do on the first day

A quick look at Bangkok:

And Thailand:

[See previous TIM]

You’ll never look at sand the same way again:

Each Grain of Sand a Tiny Work of Art

See also:

sandgrains.com

[See previous photos]

Top 10 Incredible Recordings - “Before I start on the list, I feel that I should advise that a couple of the items here are quite horrific and I would recommend that those who are weak of heart or who have a nervous disposition avoid them. The items I am referring to are marked in the text. The items are not in any particular order as it is very hard to rate the historical importance versus the just plain weird value….”

VW Confirms 1L Concept Will Become Reality in 2010 - “There’s been talk about the VW 1L concept for years. Since VW built the original, fuel economy, safety, price, and release date has been speculated upon and argued about, and I’d finally stopped thinking it was ever going to happen. However, according to VW’s CEO, it should hit the market in 2010…”

6 Excellent Firefox Extensions Made To Save You Time - “If you are a die-hard Firefox user then I am sure you are always on the look-out for tips and tweaks to get more out of Firefox in less time and hence be more productive…”

Gates says big changes in store for Internet in next decade - ” “We’re approaching the second decade of (the) digital age,” the software mogul and philanthropist told Lee at the start of their meeting at the presidential Blue House, according to a media pool report. “The Internet has been operating now for 10 years,” Gates said. “The second 10 years will be very different.” ”

Folding your arms can help your brain - “The mere act of folding your arms increases perseverance and activates an unconscious desire to succeed, new research shows…”

Atomic Extremeophiles Thrive Where the Life-Giving Energy of the Sun Never Reaches - “The hardy organisms have a unique biology with a very refined palate, consuming the by-products of radioactive breakdown to stay alive. Uranium decay cracks water molecules apart, recombining into peroxide (which you might know as bleach). This combines with fool’s gold (pyrite) to release ions, which the cells’ specialized metabolism can derive energy from…”

5 Garage Inventions That Might Outperform Their Big-Name Predecessors … at Half the Cost - “Like all great DIY projects, the 3rd annual Maker Faire bonanza here this weekend had all the key hands-on ingredients: tools, geeks and BBQ. From fire-breathing robots and algae-gargline biofuel pumps to inspiring talks from PM’s own MythBusters, our buddies at MAKE Magazine threw one helluva gonzo builderfest…”

Gamble your life away in ZT Online - “The main Southern Weekly article on ZT Online follows a gamer as she first becomes interested in the game, through her rise to power, and her eventual disillusionment with the money-sink it had become…”

Boom Blox (Wii) Review - “I’ve been waiting to say something like this for a year and a half: If this is the future of casual gaming, motion controls, and Wii, count me in. Boom Blox may not be the best Wii game, depending on your proclivities, but it’s definitely the best use of the Wii yet. It’s immensely accessible, wonderfully tactile, and stands as one of the best treatments of gaming in a 3D space.”

What can you do with a second Ethernet port? - “he big distinction between your options lies in the effect each has on the other devices on your network (computers, routers, and other appliances) — intelligently routing network traffic between them, linking them together transparently, and so on…”

Manhattanhenge - “Manhattanhenge (sometimes referred to as Manhattan Solstice) is a semi-annual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main street grid…”

Part Of Universe’s Missing Matter Discovered By XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory - “ESA’s orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has been used by a team of international astronomers to uncover part of the missing matter in the universe…”

The Linux ultraportable opportunity - “This summer seems to be shaping up as a key time for ultraportables with new powerful and power-optimized processors coming to market, the highest-profile of which is Intel’s Atom. However, the first real consumer test for these products will be this fall, when the key target market of students see them as a price-competitive alternative to the 15-inch budget notebook…”

Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera - “If you’re using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you’ve got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let’s transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware…”

13 More Things Your Auto Mechanic Won’t Tell You - “Real mechanics reveal more tips to help you avoid an auto-repair scam…”

New wi-fi devices warn doctors of heart attacks - “The Bluetooth wireless technology that allows people to use a hands-free earpiece while making a mobile telephone call could soon alert the emergency services when someone has a heart attack…”

The Largest Insects on Planet Earth - “Cannibals, dancers, and pheromone emitters—some of the largest (and endangered) insects in the world are nurturing mothers in the wild, wearing poison as perfume, and crawling up human backs as friendly pets…”

Behind the Reactive Materials Revolution - “Few people are willing to talk about Reactive Materials, but Danger Room will be bringing you the whole story on the Reactive Revolution and how it is changing warfare. This is a new technology which will transform everything from bombs, missiles and bullets to mines and torpedoes, as well as creating completely new weapons that are unlike anything we have today…”

History’s Worst Software Bugs - “Sixty years later, computer bugs are still with us, and show no sign of going extinct. As the line between software and hardware blurs, coding errors are increasingly playing tricks on our daily lives. Bugs don’t just inhabit our operating systems and applications — today they lurk within our cell phones and our pacemakers, our power plants and medical equipment. And now, in our cars. But which are the worst?”

Autism Risk Linked To Distance From Power Plants, Other Mercury-releasing Sources - “How do mercury emissions affect pregnant mothers, the unborn and toddlers? Do the level of emissions impact autism rates? Does it matter whether a mercury-emitting source is 10 miles away from families versus 20 miles? Is the risk of autism greater for children who live closer to the pollution source?”

[See previous IR]

What happens if the space shuttle has a problem during launch? Here’s the answer:

As Shuttle Lifts Off, NASA Will Man Destruct Switch

[See previous question]

If you want to save money on gas, you have three options: 1) Buy the cheapest gas possible in your area, 2) use as little gas as possible, and/or 3) Buy a car that gets better mileage. These three articles will help you accomplish all three goals:

1) 2008 Most and Least Fuel Efficient Vehicles

2) 104 hypermiling / ecodriving tips - “104 different ways to save gas…”

3) Check Gas Prices Online: 11 Handy Tools - “Crude oil prices keep breaking through record high prices, and it is quickly reflecting itself at the fuel pumps. About the only thing you can do is try to find the cheapest prices, but you can waste as much in gas driving around as you will by finding it, and that’s where gas pricing location sites come in handy. Just log in and see where the best prices are, and save yourself all of that driving around…”

One of the bombs dropped in the previous video is the CBU-87. It is a bomb that contains 200 smaller bombs. You can see it in action here:

Each of the smaller bombs acts roughly like a three pound hand grenade, and the 200 of them together covers an area approximately 600 x 1,200 feet. This article has illustrations showing what’s inside:

CBU-87/B Combined Effects Munitions

A friend sent this - it is a demonstration/enactment of the capabilities of the U.S. Air Force, staged for a live audience sitting in bleachers in the desert. It appears that the Air Force pulls out just about every piece of equipment they have, as well as some equipment they don’t have yet, to show what is possible.

According to the video: “Our demonstration today follows an air expeditionary force into combat as they demonstrate core competencies. The Air Force’s ability to attack rapidly anywhere on the globe at any time is unique. We provide global power projection and presence with a mix of long range and theater aircraft.”

Planes, helicopters, bombs…

(The first two minutes of this first video is a montage - fast forward to the start at 2:15, or straight to the demonstration at 6:00)

A quick article that demonstrates what could be the world’s first digital camera. The size is amazing, and so is the resolution and the storage system:

World’s First Digital Camera (c. 1975)

Makes you wonder what digital cameras will be like 30 years from now…

[See previous BFTP

Funny, and educational too (although the drawings leave something to be desired, or maybe that is part of its charm)…

The subprime primer

[See previous Funny]

If you bought the same house in different markets, how much would the price change from place to place? The range is amazing - from $98,000 (Kansas) to $1.4 million (BH). Location, location, location…

A Comparison of U.S. Home Prices

Here’s the answer (it also answers the question, “how did she break BOTH front ankles?”):

Why are Broken Bones Lethal to Horses?

[See previous question]

The show includes air craft carriers, the largest piston engine ever built, robots, etc.:

[See previous WR]

Here’s the answer:

how many atoms are in a grain of salt?

[See previous question]

40 computer technology courses that can be taken for free online

The sources include MIT, Berkley, About University and the HP learning center. Classes cover everything from WiFi security to building your own PC.

[See previous LS]

The Automotive X-Prize is a $10 million contest to build a 100 MPG car that can be mass produced. Here’s a quick overview:

So far, there are more than 60 entrants in the competition. Popular Mechanics looked through them all and analyzed them on six factors: “technological feasibility, fuel economy, design, performance, price and production reality.” They selected the 10 best entrants and have summarized them in this article:

Top 10 Early Contenders for the Automotive X Prize

The #1 pick is the Aptera. Here’s a description:

Several of the other entries are also interesting.

With a quick calculation, you can prove that the new Dodge $2.99-per-gallon card is in many cases a rip off, as demonstrated here:

Dodge’s New Fuel Price Protection Program Is A Scam

It really is uncomfortable when companies do bait-and-switch stuff like this…

[See previous Doesn’t Work]

The Antilia residence would have to be considered the upper end of the “house” scale, and is estimated to cost roughly $1 billion. Some vital statistics:
- 27 stories
- Almost 50,000 square feet
- A “hanging garden” design
- Probably the most expensive single residence in the world

Photos and a description are available in this article:

Antilia residence

See also:

[See #10]

How did they design the cityscape in Grand Theft Auto IV? Here’s the answer:

1) Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser on Grand Theft Auto IV and Digitally Degentrifying New York

2) A Strange City Called Home

[See previous question]

Did the solar system ‘bounce’ finish the dinosaurs? - “Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth. The Cardiff team found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to 40 million years, increasing the chances of a comet collision tenfold…”

NASA, APL going to the Sun - “The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is sending a spacecraft closer to the sun than any probe has ever gone – and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system…”

Pursuit of youth isn’t always pretty - “Name a badge of aging and there’s a fix being peddled by your local dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Crow’s feet? Freeze them with Botox. Laugh lines? Inject them with Restylane. Saggy neck? Tighten and tuck with a scalpel. But is all this really making us look younger? Or just weirder?”

Rainforest seeds revive lost paradise - “Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world’s tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass. But from this ruined landscape a fresh forest has been grown, teeming with insects, birds and animals, and cooled by the return of moist clouds and rain. It is a feat that has been hailed by scientists and offers hope for disappearing and ruined rainforests around the world…”

Do Americans Have a Right to TV? - “Next February, somewhere in America, someone out there is going to flip on his tube for some Law & Order: SVU and see nothing but fuzz. He’ll probably grapple with his rabbit ears and pound the side of his aging CRT, but no amount of cajoling will bring back Ice-T’s interrogation room or Richard Belzer’s last unfunny stand. That’s because on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, the FCC will repossess the analog spectrum from the major television broadcasters and the networks will go all-digital…”

Top 10 Declassified Secrets - “This is a list of secret projects that have since been found to be true in light of released (either officially, or unofficially) documents. Some have long been the source of conspiracy theories while others have been accepted by the mainstream as real…”

5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed - “Psychologists know you have to be careful when you go poking around the human mind because you’re never sure what you’ll find there. A number of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the subjects…”

Wastewater Could Help Fight U.S. Drought—and Anthrax - “One solution—to reuse more treated wastewater—has led scientists in search of a chemical-free alternative to the chlorination normally used for disinfection. And a team of researchers funded by the University of Illinois-based, multi-institutional research center known as waterCAMPWS may have found it. Their treatment method hinges on a new photocatalyst, titanium oxynitrate (TiON), which reacts with white light to destroy pathogens…”

Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells … With an Inkjet Printer - “Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer…”

20 most profitable tech companies - “Among Fortune 1000 techs, Microsoft remains on top, taking in $14.1 billion in earnings last year…”

[See previous IR]

Once upon a time, like back in the era of the great steam-powered cruise ships like the Titanic, there was a type of steam engine known as the “compound engine”. These were massive engines meant to capture more energy from the expanding steam than the typical steam engine (like that seen on a steam locomotive, for example) could.

The basic principle was easy to understand. You would let steam expand in a normal steam engine cylinder (see How Steam Engines Work for an illustration). But as the steam exhausted from that cylinder, it would still have pressure. So you would let the exhaust steam fill a bigger cylinder and capture the power of that remaining pressure.

This article has several illustrations that show the scale that compound steam engines could achieve:

Machinery of Atlantic steamships

The compound engine saved a lot of fuel, as discussed in the article:

The economy of fuel which resulted from the introduction of high-pressure steam, and the compound engine with surface condensation for steamships, was very remarkable Between 1860 and 1870, when the pressure of steam used for marine engines was about 30 lbs. by boiler gauge, and the steam expanded in a single cylinder, the amount of coal consumed by the best engines was about 4 lbs. per I.H.P. per hour. On the introduction of the compound engine, the consumption fell to a little over 2 lbs. per I.H.P. per hour. The triple expansion engine reduced this to as low as 1.4 lbs. per I.H.P. per hour, and the quadruple expansion engine further reduced the consumption by about 10 per cent. Towards the turn of the century the four cylinder, quadruple expansion engine, appeared in several of the new express liners constructed for the transatlantic passenger trade.

If you have a 10,000 horsepower single-cylinder engine burning 40,000 pounds of coal per hour, and you replace it with a 3-cylinder compound engine burning only 14,000 pounds per hour, that is a huge savings.

This video shows how big a triple-cylinder compound steam engine could get:

[See previous TIM]

What does an oxygen sensor in a car engine do and how does it work? Here’s the answer:

Understanding oxygen sensors

Here’s what an oxygen sensor looks like as it is installed:

Overview of a typical oxygen sensor system (turn down volume before playing):

[See previous question]

The ultimate logic puzzle:

Who Owns The Fish?

From the page:

According to the worksheet I was given, this puzzle is attributed to Albert Einstein. He claimed that 98% of the world could not work it out. Can you?

[See previous test]

What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider? Here’s the answer:

See also this description of the Atlas detector:

See also:

- How the Large Hadron Collider Works

- What might the Large Hadron Collider discover, and when?

[See previous question]

Here’s the photographic evidence demonstrating why you should vacuum out your PC periodically:

Never cleaned the PC

Eventually, as things keep building up, the computer will overheat and fail, as in this case:

At some point there is no way air can flow to cool the CPU or some other important part.

[See previous PSA]

The Rise of the Rest

Look around. The world’s tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India. Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi; the biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Once quintessentially American icons have been usurped by the natives. The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. The largest casino is in Macao, which overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenues last year. America no longer dominates even its favorite sport, shopping. The Mall of America in Minnesota once boasted that it was the largest shopping mall in the world. Today it wouldn’t make the top ten. In the most recent rankings, only two of the world’s ten richest people are American. These lists are arbitrary and a bit silly, but consider that only ten years ago, the United States would have serenely topped almost every one of these categories…

See also: China builds its large-scale future

[See previous MYT]