Interesting reading…

Timeline of the universe - “Scientists can now tell us what happened in nearly every millisecond of the big bang. Robert Matthews takes us through the first crucial moments…”

Postcards from the future - “Postcards is a large-format feature motion picture that explores our future in space - seen through the eyes of an engineer working to build a base on the moon, and who occasionally sends video postcards back to his wife and family on Earth…”

What’s wrong with this picture? - “The last 11-year sunspot reached minimum about a year ago, in March 2007. (Here’s what the Sun looks like near maximum.) Since then there have only been a few, very small, isolated sunspots: far fewer than would be expected a year into a new cycle…”

Urban miners look for precious metals in cell phones - “Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics — many of which are enjoying near-record prices. It’s called “urban mining”, scavenging through the scrap metal in old electronic products in search of such gems as iridium and gold, and it is a growth industry around the world as metal prices skyrocket…”

Who Needs Air Conditioning When You’ve Got Ice-Cold Water Running Through Your Shirt? - “It was about two years ago when I first saw ice vests in a running catalog and thought something along the lines of “wouldn’t that be a sweet thing to wear in the car on the way to school instead of blasting my (non-working) A/C!” Well, it seems the idea hasn’t quite died. ..

Build a 14.5 watt data center in a shoebox - “Earlier this month, Buffalo dished out the dual drive LinkStation Mini. This baby weighs just 1.1 pounds and measures 1.6 inches by 3.2 inches by 5.3 inches. It will ship in volume next month with a capacity of 1TB. Buffalo aims this device at Windows (Vista, XP and 2000) and Mac (10.3.9+) users who want to store a lot of media files. The box eats up just 10W and has a handy web access tool (http://www.buffalotech.com/technology/our-technology/web-access) for grabbing files whenever you need them…”

High gas prices prompt call for 4-day work week - ” The idea isn’t new one. The oil crisis of the 1970s prompted some employers to switch to a four-day work week, but the idea never took hold nationally. These days, though, energy and congestion issues may give the concept more traction. Several petition drives for a shortened work week are now circulating on the Internet…”

Gene therapy experiments improve vision in nearly blind - “Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to dramatically improve sight in people with a rare form of blindness, a development experts called a major advance for the experimental technique…”

Amazing spiderman tattoo - “It seems more people are getting tattoos these days to show loyalty to a particular brand or product than for traditional rebellious reasons. We’ve all seen our share of Nintendo, Apple or even Zune tattoos, but none of them come even close to the ink that one Spiderman fan had done. The tattoo is designed to look like the guy’s skin is actually being torn away to reveal the Spiderman costume underneath. While I personally think having the Superman logo revealed on his chest would’ve been slightly cooler, this tattoo is still an impressive piece of work…”

Doomed Chernobyl reactor to be buried in giant steel coffin - “Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, work is under way on a colossal new shelter to cover the ruins and deadly radioactive contents of the exploded Soviet-era power plant…”

Air Traffic Controller Sounds Alarm - “Doug Church, union spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says the practitioners of this unsung profession are being hung out to dry. ‘We’re left trying to hold the system together like MacGyver — with duct tape and scissors and string.’”

The Best Game Ever - “This was the game that launched pro football into the stratosphere of billion-dollar franchises and multimillion-dollar player salaries. With 17 future Hall of Famers on the field and on the sidelines, it was watched by a TV audience of 45 million, the largest ever to witness a football game to that point. It remains in the memory of many sports fans…”

NASA gets small with tiny satellite program - “NASA said today it would team with m2mi to develop very small satellites, called nanosats which weigh between 11 to 110lb, for the development of telecommunications and networking services in space…”

Space ’spiderwebs’ could propel future probes - “new type of solar sail has been woven by a team of scientists in Finland. The spiderweb-like sail is designed to catch the wind of ionised gas that blows from the Sun, carrying spacecraft to the outer reaches of the solar system, or letting them tack back and forth through the asteroid belt on exploration or mining missions…”

The way to a man’s heart? Through his left ear - “If you’re thinking of asking your beloved to marry you, make sure that you utter your declaration of love into his or her left ear; it may increase your chances of hearing a heart-lifting “yes”. New research suggests that declarations of love, jokes, or words of anger are best remembered when they are heard through the left ear, while instructions, directions and non-emotional messages have more impact on the right side…”

Technological Breakthrough In Fight To Cut Greenhouse Gases - “cientists at Newcastle University have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases. The Newcastle University team, led by Michael North, Professor of Organic Chemistry, has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates…”

12 Memory Tricks - “So I decided to look into it myself and talk to the experts — people who teach memory skills professionally. At the end of this column I’m going to list 12 tips I distilled from their recommendations, but first, to put those tips in context, let me just review how memory works…”

What’s the next big thing for the wireless industry? - ” As constantly proclaimed by industry experts at “The Mobile Future” conference in Santa Clara last week, the wireless industry is supposed to revolutionize our lives. So, just how will that happen?”

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