We're diving deep into "geek world" today with a story that combines economic hardball, the periodic table of the elements, and a barely noticed provision of the Defense Authorization Act that seeks to break a monopoly which today gives China near-absolute control over the materials that make cell phones, electric cars, wind turbines, and pretty much every other tool of modern life possible.
If we successfully break the monopoly, we'll be able to create millions of new manufacturing jobs in this country-and if we don't, somebody else owns the 21st Century.
Ironically, the global warming we're trying to fight with new green technologies might be an ally in our efforts to make those very same green technologies happen.
There's a revolution in industrial processing going on, rare earths are at the center of it all...and in today's story, the revolution will be televised.
Just in case you didn't find wolves or coyotes scary on their own, check this out:
New DNA evidence reveals that coyotes have bred with wolves in the the northeastern United States, turning mice-eating coyotes into much larger animals with a hunger for big prey, such as deer.
We've had a few high-profile coyote attacks here in the Denver area this year - and now I wonder if they were, in fact, coywolves.
As any reader of this blog knows, I'm sorta obsessed with society's obsession with zombies. So this caught my eye:
In study titled "Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon", researchers scanned 1.7 kg (3.8 pounds) of a dead salmon while it was shown images of humans in various social situations. It's not clear how long the salmon had been dead by the time it was studied, but Craig Bennett at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says he scanned it about an hour after picking it up from the supermarket, so it was definitely already a goner.
So what did he and his colleagues find? Bizarrely, a region of the dead salmon's brain lit up during the task.
New Scientist goes on to posit that this was a false positive reading - but it is really creepy. I mean, the definition of a zombie is a dead brain that is actually reanimated.
Popular Science reports that scientists have isolated the botanical gene that produces THC, the active ingredient of marijuana. This is good news and bad news for those who like to get high:
Finding the genes opens the path to either create drug-free hemp plants for industrial purposes, or to develop plants with much higher concentrations of the psychotropic chemical.
So basically, they can use the discovery to either destroy the existence of THC, or make super-powerful, THC-on-steroids ganja.
Today's Ford diesel engines are derived from and built by what was International Harvester truck and tractor. That is not at all unusual as most diesel engines are modified with bolt-on technology from very old -- we're talking Hindenberg -- original designs.
Even so, this careful approach does not always work. The recent 6.0 ltr diesel in Ford trucks was a fiasco.
For that or whatever reason, Ford decided to design and build -- conceive rather than adopt -- its own diesel engine. They sound like they are doing it right: starting with the metallurgy -- compacted graphite iron.
These long, crazy-looking clouds can grow to be 600 miles long and can move at up to 35 miles per hour, causing problems for aircraft even on windless days.
Known as Morning Glory clouds, they appear every fall over Burketown, Queensland, Australia, a remote town with fewer than 200 residents. A small number of pilots and tourists travel there each year in hopes of "cloud surfing" with the mysterious phenomenon.
Similar tubular shaped clouds called roll clouds appear in various places around the globe. But nobody has yet figured out what causes the Morning Glory clouds.
If you are interested in "cloud surfing," you'll have to go all the way to Australia. But judging by the photos, it may be well worth the trip.
I've always been one of those people who has claimed to feel physical pain when I get particularly sad/stressed/upset. I never had any proof that the pain was genuine...until now:
Researchers have found a genetic link between physical pain and social rejection, which means that breaking up with a partner really can be painful.
Psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles say the human body has a gene which connects physical pain sensitivity with social pain sensitivity.
The findings back the common theory that rejection 'hurts' by showing that a gene regulating the body's most potent painkillers - mu-opioids - is involved in socially painful experiences too.
So yes, getting rejected, humiliated or shunned actually can cause a physiological reaction that creates pain.
You know how in Harry Potter, the newspapers have moving pictures? It seems so cool, and maybe that's the distant future of the Amazon Kindle. Or, maybe it's the near-term future of magazines:
In the latest example of finding media innovation where you'd least expect it, CBS is embedding a video player in a print ad in Entertainment Weekly that will serve up a buffet of its fall TV lineup.
The CBS foray into a print-digital alliance plays full-motion video at a crisp resolution. The ad, dubbed by CBS and partner Pepsi Max "the first-ever VIP (video-in-print) promotion," works like one of those audio greeting cards. Opening the page activates the player, which is a quarter-inch-thick screen seen through a cutaway between two pages concealing the larger circuit board underneath.
I wonder how expensive - and environmentally destructive - it is to pack disposable magazines with video players? I'm guessing very. However, if this makes a splash, get ready to see video in a magazine near you.
The scariest thing about the Terminator series is the prospect of robots developing artificial intelligence and then using that intelligence to eliminate human life from the Planet Earth.
Obviously, artificial intelligence would have to become really advanced to ever get to that point - so advanced that robots could make really human-like calculations. Um, like this:
In an experiment run at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, Switzerland, robots that were designed to cooperate in searching out a beneficial resource and avoiding a poisonous one learned to lie to each other in an attempt to hoard the resource. Picture a robo-Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Pretty creepy. And while I'm not saying it is Skynet, its a little primordial Skynet-ish, dontcha think?
I'm one of those people who is convinced domestic Coca-Cola tastes different than Coca-Cola you find in foreign countries. I'm not alone, of course. It is said that, for instance, Mexican Coca-Cola uses sugar cane and not corn syrup and that many soda connoisseurs prefer that taste (others deny that there's any discernible taste difference).
I'm also one of those people who is convinced that Coca-Cola from an aluminum can tastes different than Coca-Cola from a bottle. This is a more controversial position, as the company officially denies this is the case. However, Popular Science says my taste buds may not be deceiving me:
Is it possible that the subtle variation in taste that some notice among aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles is more than just a psychological effect of their soda-consumption rituals?
Given that the formula is always the same, yes, according to Sara Risch, a food chemist and member of the Institute of Food Technologists. "While packaging and food companies work to prevent any interactions, they can occur," she says. For example, the polymer that lines aluminum cans might absorb small amounts of soluble flavor from the soda. Conversely, acetaldehyde in plastic bottles might migrate into the soda. The FDA regulates this kind of potential chemical contact, but even minute, allowable amounts could alter flavor.
Your best bet for getting Coke's pure, unaltered taste is to drink it from a glass bottle, the most inert material it's served in.
Wired says tonight is the peak of the biggest meteor shower of the year:
Stay up past midnight, grab a blanket and go stargazing tonight: The year's most spectacular meteor shower is expected to peak Wednesday morning around 1 a.m., and then again just before dawn.
The Perseid meteor shower happens every year in August, when the Earth travels through a cloud of debris left by the periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, which last entered our atmosphere in 1992. Under optimal conditions, up to 80 shooting stars can be seen every hour, although how many you'll see tonight depends on cloud cover, the brightness of the moon and the proximity of city lights.
I host morning drive-time radio, so I don't know if I'm going to make it - but I may push through. It looks like it could be pretty cool.
In case anyone ever wants to buy me a present for no reason at all, this is what I want:
The Darth Vader Alarm Clock Radio booms orders to wake yourself in the voice of James Earl Jones and displays the time with menacing red LEDs shining from the Dark Lord's eyes. But obviously that doesn't matter. This is the head of a decapitated Sith Lord on your nightstand, and you can be sure it will find your lack of wakefulness disturbing.
The only downside of this clock is that it might make it hard to sleep. I don't know about you, but for me, Darth Vader is the original symbol of evil. He was the first representation of pure anger and wrath I was ever cinematically introduced to - and having him stare at me from my nightstand might freak me out and keep me awake.
BBC says something pretty bizarre is happening on the planet next door:
Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.
The spot was first identified by an amateur astronomer on 19 July and was later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft.
Data from the European probe suggests the spot appeared at least four days before it was spotted from Earth.
The story says scientists don't know what's going on - they initially said it might be a volcano, "but an eruption would have needed to be extremely powerful to penetrate this far through the planet's dense, mainly carbon dioxide, atmosphere."
And I thought the Pentagon's $1,000 toilet seats were expensive:
A tool bag lost by a spacewalking astronaut last year met its fiery demise in Earth's atmosphere Monday after months circling ever closer to the planet.
The $100,000 tool bag plunged toward Earth and burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center tracking it and more than 19,000 other pieces of space junk in orbit today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(CNN) -- The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that when they injected the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) into rats suffering spinal cord injuries, the rodents were able to walk again, albeit with a limp.
I remember being extremely afraid of red M&Ms when they were introduced a few years back. I can't remember exactly why I was afraid, but I think it had something to do with this. So I'm glad to see that blue M&Ms may actually have a positive health benefit.
In a recent C-SPAN interview, astronaut Buzz Aldrin says NASA has photographic evidence of a strange "monolith" on Mars's moon, Phobos:
Here's the official photo - he's referring to that bump casting a big shadow in the center left of the photo.
So do you think it's just a rock? Or do you think it's something that might have been put there by something/someone? Do you believe, or do you just want to believe?
When you're in high school and learn about tectonic plates and how the continents once moved all over the earth, it always seems so mythic. But in light of this news, it seems quite real - and quite believable:
A massive earthquake last week has brought New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists say.
The 7.8 magnitude quake in the Tasman Sea has expanded New Zealand's South Island westwards by about 30cm (12in).
Seismologist Ken Gledhill, of GNS Science, said the shift demonstrated the huge force of the tremor.
Because there's about 1,400 miles between Australia and New Zealand, the geographic change won't really be visible. But still - pretty crazy, right?
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Today's Ford diesel engines are derived from and built by what was International Harvester truck and tractor. That is not at all unusual as most diesel engines are modified with bolt-on technology from very old -- we're talking Hindenberg -- original designs.
In case anyone ever wants to buy me a present for no reason at all, 
When you're in high school and learn about tectonic plates and how the continents once moved all over the earth, it always seems so mythic. But in light of 
