Directed panspermia missions could target interstellar clouds such as the Rho Ophiuchus cloud complex located about 500 light-years away.
Eventually, the day will come when life on Earth ends. Whether that’s tomorrow or five billion years from now, whether by nuclear war, climate change, or the Sun burning up its fuel, the last living cell on [...]

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue,  the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, moved more than $110 million in suspect funds into U.S. accounts
Foreign officials with potential corruption links are exploiting weaknesses in federal anti-money-laundering safeguards to move millions of dollars into U.S. bank accounts and properties, according to a Senate report released Thursday.
 

 
One important factor that can explain Avatar’s success at the box office is certainly the 3D experience viewers can have when they walk into the right movie theater. But what about watching Avatar in “4D”? In Korea, you can.

California’s global warming law calls for utilities to increase their use of renewable energy to at least 30 percent by 2020
Conservatives propose an initiative that would delay curbs on greenhouse gas emissions until the state’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, a level not seen since 2007.
 

If you’re stealing a car these days, there’s a good chance you’re not bothering to actually pick the locks, but if you are, your job is about to get a little easier. A device called the Electronic Key Impressioner is inserted into a car door and scans the position of the tumblers inside. ..

Isabel’s parents never consented to DNA testing
When Annie Brown’s daughter, Isabel, was a month old, her pediatrician asked Brown and her husband to sit down because he had some bad news to tell them: Isabel carried a gene that put her at risk for cystic fibrosis.
While grateful to have the information — Isabel received further [...]

Bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae, red) under attack by a neutrophil (blue).
Scientists have long pondered the seeming contradiction that taking broad-spectrum antibiotics over a long period of time can lead to severe secondary bacterial infections. Now researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have figured out why.

A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to new research.
A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published February 3 in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other [...]

An Icey New Idea
An abandoned home has been encased in ice in an effort to draw attention to the housing crisis in the US.
Gregory Holm, a photographer, and Matthew Radune, a New York architect, picked a house in Detroit which had been slated for demolition, from the state’s land bank.
In return, they agreed to pay [...]

Just what we need. Murray Hill Incorporated has just announced its intention to run for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Murray Hill Inc. is believed to be the first “corporate person” to exercise its constitutional right to run for office. As Supreme Court observer Lyle Denniston wrote in his SCOTUSblog, “If anything, the decision in Citizens United [...]

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said. The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did [...]

 In PART 1 of this series, we saw the first round of what seems to be turning into a dastardly trend. Now, Brian Krebs continues to scare the pants off of us with his ongoing series on sophisticated ATM skimmers (devices that capture your card number, working with a hidden camera to catch your PIN). [...]

UK citizens can claim a cash reward by attempting to peacefully arrest former prime minister The Reverend Tony for crimes of aggression.
Newspaper columnist and author George Monbiot has launched a website offering guidelines for people seeking to undertake a citizen’s arrest of Blair, as well as accepting donations to reward those who try.

Puff, puff, Puffin and away!!!

NASA is developing an aerial vehicle that will probably come as close to the personal jet-pack we were looking forward to.  The “Puffin” features Vertical Takeoff and Landing, an electric engine, and a face-melting top speed of 300 miles per hour.  They are already fine tuning its performance values for military use:
The rather [...]

Here’s how it works. Air is pumped into the columns and beams that support the structure, which are made of heavy material like that found in inflatable lifeboats. Air is also pumped into walls and roofs made of two layers of nylon about 18 inches apart when inflated. The air gives them stiffness and insulating [...]

An environmental campaigner protesting against the grim outcome of GM crops.

Fresh fears were raised over GM crops yesterday after a study showed they can cause liver and kidney damage.
According to the research, animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by the U.S. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just [...]

Scott Allen over at Mental Floss posted a very timely piece about the warm climate countries that participate in Winter Olypics.

The Winter Olympics are traditionally dominated by athletes from countries where winter brings freezing temperatures and snow, but that hasn’t stopped a number of athletes from more tropical climates from infiltrating the ranks of the [...]

Yoga Heals The Mind and Frees The Body

Prisoners in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are being freed early if they complete yoga courses.
For every three months spent practising posture, balance and breathing the inmates can cut their jail time by 15 days.
The authorities say the lessons help to improve the prisoners’ self-control and reduce [...]

Fly me to the moon!

If you just so happen to be in the market for a second hand space craft, NASA has a deal for you, pal. The Space Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour are currently for sale with a price tag of $28.2 m each. Just think, you could park one of these bad boys in [...]

Some communiites are starting to ban red-light cameras
Red-light cameras that have been gaining a foothold in many states face a growing public backlash and outright removal.
 

Frooting amazing!

With the environment and sustainability firmly in mind the Dell Froot concept saves the planet courtesy two projectors: One for the virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor.Designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest sponsored by Dell, the Froot also uses a colorful case that’s constructed out of a biodegradable starch-based [...]

Ya gotta be dreaming big…

For the discerning mad scientist: the list of items up for auction by the University of Delaware from a former Chrysler plant in Newark, Delaware. The university bought the plant after it closed, and apparently got the contents as well. The coolest items are probably the 6 axis robot arms, some [...]

Tricky Bastards!

Brian Krebs’s “Krebs on Security” features an ATM skimmer that is chillingly well-camouflaged. After seeing photos of early, crude skimmers — devices that capture your card number and work in concert with a hidden camera that records you punching in your PIN — I assumed that I could rely on my own powers of [...]

Forward Equality Thinking Races Forward In Italy

Italy is to open one of the world’s first prisons for transgender inmates, reports say.
The prison, at Pozzale, near the Tuscan city of Florence, is expected to house inmates who mainly have convictions for drug-related offences and prostitution.
Gay rights groups in Italy welcomed the move to convert an almost [...]

Leopard. The leopard cannot change its spots, nor can the tiger change its stripes, but new research tells us something about how cats end up with their spots and stripes.
The leopard cannot change its spots, nor can the tiger change its stripes, but a new research report published in the January 2010 issue of the [...]