Submarines appear to be the latest way to import cocaine into the United States:

Narco subs pose new challenge for US coast guards

From the article:

The first time they found one, authorities dubbed it “Big Foot.” They had heard rumors that such things existed, but nobody had actually seen one.

It was late 2006, and Big Foot was not lurking in a forest, but at sea, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Costa Rica. And it was not an ape-like creature, but a hulking, blue vessel resembling a submarine and carrying several tons of cocaine…

Dozens of these subs have been intercepted, with the largest carrying 5 tons of cocaine.

See also:

Will MIT create fusion power? Here’s the answer from Noah Smick, one of MIT’s scientists:

MIT helps inch towards the goal of fusion power

See also:

- MIT Fights for Clean Power With Holy Grail of Fusion in Reach

- Fusion Reactors: The Ultimate Nuclear Power Plant

[See previous question]

First, watch this video to understand just how powerful fleeting, subliminal messages can be. It is a six minute video, but the payoff is worth it because the power it demonstrates is impressive:

Then see one small example of how subliminal messages are being used in the presidential campaign:

See also:

If you foreclose on a house, and it has a pool, and the house stays vacant for more than a few weeks, then you will have a problem: the pool becomes a giant mosquito breeding ground. It turns out there is a fish called the mosquito fish that can solve this problem for a couple of bucks:

For Mortgages Underwater, Help Swims In

From the article:

The mosquito fish is well suited for a prolonged housing slump. Hardy creatures with big appetites, they can survive in oxygen-depleted swimming pools for many months, eating up to 500 larvae a day and giving birth to 60 fry a month. That can save environmental crews from having to repeatedly spray pesticides in the pools while the houses grind through the foreclosure process…

More info on the mosquito fish program:

What is the universe expanding into? Does the universe have a center? Is energy conserved in an expanding universe? Here are the answers from Sean Carroll’s cosmology FAQ:

Cosmology Primer

See also Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe:

[See previous question]

This series of photos shows the development of a panda cub over its first three months:

Panda Bear Cub’s Growth

See also:

The obvious question is, “why are they so small at birth?” This article offers the following description:

At birth, the cub is helpless, and it takes considerable effort on the mother’s part to raise it. A newborn cub weighs three to five ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. Pink, hairless, and blind, the cub is 1/900th the size of its mother. Except for a marsupial (such as the kangaroo or opossum), a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother’s size.

Cubs do not open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks of age and are not mobile until three months. A cub may nurse for eight to nine months. A cub is nutritionally weaned at one year, but not socially weaned for up to two years.

See also:

- Growth and Development of Giant Panda Cubs: A Timeline

- Meet the pandas

[See previous photos]

An in-depth and damning article on Scientology from Time magazine:

The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power

From the article:

The Church of Scientology, started by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to “clear” people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion. In reality the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner. At times during the past decade, prosecutions against Scientology seemed to be curbing its menace. Eleven top Scientologists, including Hubbard’s wife, were sent to prison in the early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing and wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations. In recent years hundreds of longtime Scientology adherents — many charging that they were mentally or physically abused — have quit the church and criticized it at their own risk. Some have sued the church and won; others have settled for amounts in excess of $500,000. In various cases judges have labeled the church “schizophrenic and paranoid” and “corrupt, sinister and dangerous.”

[See previous doesn’t work]

HowStuffWorks has an in depth article entitled How Breast Implants Work. This video offers an overview of the topic:

If you would like to witness an actual surgery, this video shows the procedure. It is not for those who get queasy easily:

Breast Augmentation Surgery

There are also non-surgical options available, including the Brava vacuum device:

Brava Breast Non-Surgical Enhancement News Story

For more info see: How Breast Implants Work

I can remember seeing this movie by Francis Ford Coppola in college. Looked at strictly for its images, it contains a large number of interesting fast-motion and slow-motion scenes:

Now it is available on Google video, which does not seem so out of balance.

This article shows you how to start building your own poker bot. It can go out on the net and play in real money poker tournaments on your behalf:

How I Built a Working Poker Bot, Part 1

From the article:

Several years ago, a client asked me to come up with a prototype for a real-money online poker bot. That’s right: a piece of software you park on your computer while it goes out to a site like PokerStars or Full Tilt and plays no-limit Holdem for you, at 4 or 14 different tables, for real-money stakes.

If you’re a poker player, and particularly if you’re an online poker player, you’ve probably heard rumors about the rise of the poker bots. Unfortunately there’s very little hard information out there (for obvious reasons) about how to build one of these bots. In fact, many so-called authorities still dismiss poker bots as a relic of the overactive poker player’s imagination.

Well, I’m here to tell you that online poker bots are 100% real, and I know this because I’ve built one. And if I can build one, well. Anybody can build one. What’s more, over the course of this multi-part article, I’ll show you how…

[See previous DIY]

Here’s the answer:

What is Web 3.0?

Eric Schmidt of Google answers the question briefly:

Kevin Kelly answers the question in more detail:

See also: How Web 3.0 Will Work

[See previous question]

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.