- UN: Food prices hit record high in February
- Global food prices reached new highs in February, a U.N. food agency said Thursday, warning that oil price spikes could provoke further increases.
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- Graphene etching to usher in computing revolution – physics-math – 03 March 2011 – New Scientist
- “We are able to remove one layer at a time. Before this, lithography could never give you single atom precision…”
This level of control is important because the number of layers in a graphene stack determines its properties. For example, a single layer of graphene behaves like a metal whereas a double layer is like a semiconductor and can be built into a transistor…
Now this degree of precision has been reached in the vertical direction, the next coup would be to get that same level of control laterally. Horizontal precision would allow trillions of one-atom-thick transistors to fit onto a chip…
- TIME Magazine’s consumer research round-up | Cognitive Science Blog
- TIME Magazine has published an interesting round-up of seven research studies that examine consumer and buying-related behaviors:
* Walmart makes you fat
* The “last-name effect” makes you more eager to buy stuff
* IKEA is purposely confusing to spur on impulse buying
* The more you earn, the more you feel pressed for time
* One high-end purchase begets another
* You will spend money to gain social acceptance.none
- WH Report: Gender Pay Disparities Persist Despite Increase in Women with Higher Education
- “Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being” details how the status of women is changing in five areas: demographic and family changes, education, employment, health, and crime and violence.
The report reveals that the number of women with bachelor and graduate degrees has surpassed men. However, there continues to be a wage gap between women and men, with women earning approximately $0.80 for every $1.00 that men earn.
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- You’re ooonly cheating yourself – Bad Science
- [Clever Hans effect demonstrated with sniffer dogs]
Overall, the [handlers'] beliefs had a greater influence over what was found than the dogs. If you’re a smuggler, get a haircut and buy a suit.
…you’ll have heard all about brain scanners being the next horizon in lie detectors. Neuroimaging lie detectors work by watching areas of the brain which are known to exhibit modest changes in blood flow when you’re shown a stimulus that has “salience”, like the box of poison you used to kill your wife, perhaps.
In a new study, the experimenters taught their subjects how to fake that signal.
- This Day in African History — Ethiopia’s Decisive Victory at Adowa
- On 1 March 1896, troops of Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, routed those of General Oreste Baratieri, Italian governor of Eritrea. The victory at Adowa saved Ethiopia from Italian colonization and raised its status to that of an equal partner in the world community of nations.
• Battle of Adowa Timeline
• Map of the Battle of Adowa
• Conflict In Late 19th Century Ethiopianone
- German defense minister’s plagiarized PhD dissertation visualized
- [FlowingData - Nathan Yau]
As some of you might know, Germany’s defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned yesterday after admitting that he plagiarized his PhD dissertation. Pitiful, I know.
Gregor Aisch visualized Guttenberg’s dissertation, highlighting the plagiarized portions…
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- Hagfish May Absorb Carcasses With Their Skin, Gills
- [Wired: Science - Susan Milius]
Lab tests suggest that hagfish actively take up nutrients through their outer tissues, says fish physiologist Chris M. Wood of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Plenty of marine animals without backbones can feed through their skin, but no one had demonstrated the power in a species so close to fish and modern vertebrates…
“One of the important steps in evolution was abandoning feeding through the skin and concentrating on feeding through the gut,” Wood says. Skin with strong barriers against outside substances allowed animals to keep their inner chemistry more separate from the outside world, and thus move into fresh water or onto land.
…he’s trying to study more natural feeding behavior. In lab tanks, though, hagfish turn out to be uncooperative, picky eaters.
- About that fetal testimony in Ohio…
- [Pharyngula]
The fetal test has come and gone with a quiet flop. They didn’t actually have a 5-week pregnant woman to test, and it failed to work for a 9 week fetus.
…But have no fear! The technology will inevitably improve, and they’ll be able to detect heartbeats earlier and earlier. …
And the heartbeats of women can be ignored again, also as god intended.
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- 4 New Species of Zombifying Ant Fungus Found
- [Wired: Science - Danielle Venton]
Four new species of brain-manipulating fungi that turn ants into “zombies” have been discovered in the Brazilian rain forest.
These fungi control ant behavior with mind-altering chemicals, then kill them. They’re part of a large family of fungi that create chemicals that mess with animal nervous systems.
- Watch a Machine Get Upgraded from MS-DOS to Windows 7
- Andrew Tait was curious, what would happen if you followed the entire upgrade arc for Windows from the 1980s to the present all on one machine?
Thanks to VMWare he was able to find out, following the upgrade path all the way from MS-DOS to Windows 7.
Check out the video below to see what happens: …
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- Daily Tip: Move the WordPress 3.1 Admin Bar to the Bottom
- Want to move the new WordPress 3.1 admin bar to the bottom of the page where it will be a little more out of the way? No problem! Download and install the Stick Admin Bar to Bottom plugin and it will be instantly changed for you.
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- Top 20 Free Themes in the WordPress Theme Directory
- [Pressography - Sarah Gooding]
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- Weblog Tools Collection: Admin Bar Plugin Roundup
- Admin Bar ID Menu
Debug Bar
Debug Bar Console
Debug Bar Extender
Logged Out Admin Bar
Snack Bar
WordPress.com Stats
WP Custom Admin Bar
- The History of the French Railroad Industry in the Nineteenth Century
- [I keep looking at this title and thinking, *someone* will surely find this incredibly fascinating and be happy I shared the link. I just don't know who. Historical train buffs, represent? -L]
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[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Thu, Mar 3rd, 12pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.