In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus.

 
For decades, women have been using the pill to not get pregnant. However, for women who do want a baby but are finding it difficult to conceive, the very same contraceptive may have a reverse effect, say researchers at Tel Aviv University.

Aaron Rower has written a brilliant post on Wired about the “Top 5 Reasons it Sucks to be an Engineering Student” that has drawn a firestorm of commentary. Apparently his words have touched a nerve.

Have you ever just wanted to rock yourself to sleep? Well, Private Cloud is a bed that works like a giant rocking chair. Private Cloud is not a normal bed, is something that wants to revolutionize every bedroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80

Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits before him at a desk and in between them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless. The catch? […]

Organizers of a popular Easter parade are feeling the heat after adult-themed items were thrown to the crowd as prizes during this year’s festivities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9s78j82sY

Everyone seems to be getting into the Olympic spirit.
 

 
University of Maryland physicists have shown that in graphene the intrinsic limit to the mobility, a measure of how well a material conducts electricity, is higher than any other known material at room temperature. Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of semiconductors and metals.

 
The US Internet population remains firmly skewed toward females. 
In 2008, 100.4 million females and 93.5 million males will go online at least once a month, according to eMarketer’s latest estimates. In 2012 females will outnumber males online by more than 8 million.

 
US out-of-home advertising spending grew by 7% in 2007, reaching $7.3 billion, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

 Sometimes it doesn’t take much work at all to catch fish.
 

 
Terminally-ill patients in the Netherlands increasingly receive drugs to render them unconscious until death, according to a study that suggests people are substituting deep sedation for legal euthanasia.
The researchers found that 1,800 people — 7.1 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2005 — were drugged into so-called continuous deep sedation shortly before dying. […]

Yes they look like members of the dreaded KKK, but this holy wardrobe belongs to the “Virgen de la Esperanza” brotherhood as they take part in a Holy Week procession in the northern Spanish city of Zamora.
 

Wikipedia’s current decision making process
Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit, is having an identity crisis: does it include all knowledge no matter how trivial, or does it adopt a more stringent editorial guideline to enhance its reputation as a credible reference?
These two conflicting visions are at the heart of a bitter struggle inside Wikipedia between […]