Irrational preferences for rare products are likely to drive the few remaining caviar sturgeon in the Caspian Sea to extinction, warn biologists in France. They have shown that snobbish attitudes drive a strong preference for caviar supposedly from “rare” species, even when the samples are the same.

Thow Away, Throw Away, Throw Away, FLEE!

 
This looks like it could be a lot of fun. The Flee Digital Camera is designed specifically to take photos after you’ve launched it into the air. The casing for the camera actually looks like it was inspired by some of the fancier balls made for playing fetch with […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXYyK4TQQ0

CNET editors rated the iPhone 3G - 8.7 on a 10.0 scale. Not bad!
Just over a year after Apple birthed the first iPhone, the long-awaited, next-generation iPhone 3G has arrived bearing a mildly tweaked design and a load of new features. With access to a faster 3G wireless network, Microsoft exchange server e-mail, and support […]

 
Some robots are just more competitive than others
First, a supercomputer beats a chess master. Then, an artificial intelligence program deals defeat to a poker champion. Next: A robot takes on humans in air hockey.

 
To mark the new mission to the Moon, here’s a collection of wonderful manned lunar rovers
Conditions on the Moon will be harsher, but prototype NASA robotic vehicles braved sand storms and unprecedented temperature swings this month on sand dunes near Moses Lake, Washington, to prepare for future lunar expeditions.

 
People who dump cable TV tend to go out and buy pink chairs
Historically, it’s been a general truth that even lower-end consumers doggedly hang on to their cable TV service in times of economic stress. Even severe economic stress. They routinely cut back on heat and food as they continue to pay for that nightly […]

 
They might be listening
The first thing alien race is likely to hear from Earth is chirps and whistles, a bit like R2-D2, the robot from Star Wars. In reality, they are the sounds that accompany the aurora. Now ESA’s Cluster mission is showing scientists how to understand this emission and, in the future, search for alien […]

EVERY scar tells a story, yet a huge gash on Mars has long proven very hard to read. Now a peek beneath the planet’s surface reveals that the scar is the largest known impact structure in the solar system - gouged out by a collision that reshaped the Red Planet.

 
To win a finger wrestling contest you have to pull your opponent across a table, using only one of your digits
It may sound funny, but for some Bavarian and Austrian men finger wrestling is no joke. They take it very seriously: For them it’s about prestige and honor.
In the old days, people say, it was […]

A Bang Up Menu

A fast-food restaurant in Beirut’s war-torn southern suburb has hit upon an explosive way to attract customers.
Buns and Guns is made out to look like a military post and diners eat to the sound of gunfire instead of muzak.
Owner Yousef Ibrahim presents rebranded Lebanese favourites like the “rocket-propelled grenade” (chicken on a […]

They’re cute little buggers - and they make honey too!
A U.S.-led international team of scientists says it’s identified nearly 19,500 bee species worldwide, which is about 2,000 more than previously estimated.
Research leader Michael Ruggiero of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History said the ongoing colony collapse disorder — an unexplained phenomenon that’s wiping out […]

they’re lining up for it because it works
A peanut butter paste fortified with milk and vitamins is helping to save the lives of thousands of malnourished children in crisis-torn Niger Hilinki Tchadoua’s black eyes sparkle with life. Huge saucer-like objects, they stare out of a tiny face as if she is barely able to believe her […]

 
stop overfishing and the fish increase - no kidding?
A controversial decision to halt commercial and recreational fishing across vast areas of the Great Barrier Reef has proven remarkably effective for reviving coral trout numbers.
“Everyone is a little surprised,” admits Garry Russ, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville.

When they auctioned off lunch with The Oracle of Omaha last year, it went for $650,100. This year they upped the ante…

Burning Man - An event that will change your life
Burning Man began in 1986 when Larry Harvey – ex-bike messenger, ex-cab driver, and landscaper of abnormal gardens - burned a home-made human effigy on a San Francisco beach with 10 people looking on. Twenty years later, Burning Man is a festival […]

 
Abortion rates in the UK have skyrocketed
Pressure to make sex education compulsory in UK schools is likely to mount as latest abortion figures hovered around the 200,000 mark, with a 10 per cent rise in terminations among under-aged girls.
The official survey showed there were 198,500 abortions last year, up by nearly 30,000 in the […]

Sweet!
With the London Olympics a mere 4 years away, Brits are preparing for the huge influx of tourism and media attention that comes along with hosting the Olympic games. One of the things that they’re doing is setting up a fleet of hydrogen hybrid fuel cell taxis to tote the imminent hoards around their fair […]

 
After a few hiccups and false starts, downloads of Mozilla’s highly-anticipated Firefox 3 web browser are flowing smoothly. But for a period of about two hours, the demand for the open-source browser was too much for Mozilla’s servers to handle.

 
Some of the best bumps in in life are not obvious
Philadelphia is rolling out a program to try to get motorists to slow down.
The city is putting out high-tech plastic devices that create a 3-D image that looks like a bump in the road. Chief traffic engineer Charles Denny says in reality, the road is […]

putting it underground
Carnegie Mellon University Professor Edward S. Rubin is urging Congress to approve newly proposed legislation designed to fund pioneering technologies that can trap and store carbon dioxide emissions deep underground - a vital measure needed to control global climate change.
 

The Crown Estate of England has just purchased the prototype of the world’s largest wind turbine, the 7.5 megawatte MBE by clipper. For comparisons sake, the monster in the picture above is Clipper’s Liberty, which produces 2.5 megawatts.

 
Size still matters
From now on Pluto won’t just be any dwarf planet, it will be a ‘plutoid.’
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the name today after two years of deliberation. The new classification will be used to refer to bright dwarf planets that spend the bulk of their time outside Neptune’s orbit.

 
The new iPhone has some sweet new features. As an iPod owner, I can say that a 3G network connection, GPS, and a headphone jack that isn’t completely ridiculous are great additions to an already impressive gadget, and will go a long way to swaying me toward getting one. But let’s be honest - we […]

The power of light microscopes to resolve fine details has just doubled. A new technique can distinguish tiny structures inside cells, in colour and 3D, even if they are only 100 nanometres apart.

 
A research team has uncovered the likely target of niacin (vitamin B3) in the liver, which should provide a clearer picture of how this vitamin helps maintain adequate HDL-cholesterol levels in the blood and thus lower the risk of heart disease.