Interesting Reading…

by Marshall Brain

The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Bullsh*t Statistics - “Every once in awhile, you’ll hear a statistic so striking you can hardly believe it’s true. Our first impulse is to repeat it, because knowing interesting things tends to make people like us better…”

Microwaves ‘cook ballast aliens’ - “US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo tankers…”

Inside the Tata Nano Factory - “The tale of the creation and design of the world’s cheapest car is one of innovation and ingenuity…”

Ancient Lakes of Antarctica -Living Biological Labs Millions of Years Old - “Buried beneath several miles of ice in Antarctica are lakes ranging in size from Lake Ontario to lakes the size of Manhattan. Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake on Earth, is believed to harbor ancient life that has been isolated from open exchange with the atmosphere for several million years…”

The World’s Spookiest Weapons - “Cyborg animals, psychotropics and flying lasers are just some of the terrifying weapons government labs have cooked up over the years…”

DARPA wants Matrix style virtual world for cybergeddon - “The US military’s famed scientific wingnut farm, DARPA*, has released full details of its planned “National Cyber Range” - a mighty network which could be configured to simulate the cyberspace battlefields of the future. This would allow America’s fighting nerds to train for the net conflicts of tomorrow, mounting attacks on simulated enemies or defending against devastating cyber strikes by the enemies of democracy…”

Researchers Target Tumors With Tiny ‘Nanoworms’ - “Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body’s immune defense system and—like tiny anti-cancer missiles—home in on tumors…”

Particle physicists plumb the depths for Roman lead - “Commercial lead has only tiny amounts of radioactive contaminants such as lead-210, but even this is enough to affect very sensitive experiments. However, the half-life of lead-210 is 22 years, which means that lead excavated a long time ago would have lost most of its radioactive component. In fact, physicists have sometimes relied on lead from old cannonballs for their experiments…”

5 Scientific Laws and the Scientists Behind Them - “Every high school physics student knows about Fourier’s Law of Heat Conduction and Hooke’s Law of Elasticity. But not many know that Joseph Fourier lived inside a wooden box in his old age. Or that Robert Hooke’s arch-nemesis, Isaac Newton, hated him so much that he had Hooke’s portrait removed from the Royal Society and tried to have his papers burned. Imagine how much fun science class would’ve been, had these been taught along side all those equations and formulas…”

Micro Fueler Is First Ethanol Kit for Brewing Backyard Biofuels on the Cheap - “This morning, the E-Fuel Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup, introduced the first ethanol refinery system designed for home use. The Micro Fueler, a backyard fueling station, can create pure E100 ethanol from sugar feed stock…”

Type of body fat ‘boosts health’ - “Body fat found under the skin - and particularly on the buttocks - may help reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, research suggests…”

Your Chance to Finish a Movie Microsoft Started - “The Microsoft Corporation, which is underwriting an online movie-making contest in an effort to stimulate sales and burnish the reputation of its Windows Vista operating system…”

Does your brain have a mind of its own? - “Why can’t we stick to our goals? Blame the sloppy engineering of evolution…”

Top 25 Most Visited Tourist Destinations in America - “Here is the list of top 25 most visited tourist destinations in america according to forbes…”

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