So, There Was An Earth-Shattering Kaboom...

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard that the private space launch by Orbital Science exploded six seconds into takeoff (side note: They called it a "vehicle anomaly." I'll have to remember that the next time I have to call my insurance company...)

Naturally, this led to a round of navel-gazing and finger-pointing and NASA swearing up and down that this means we CANNOT RELY ON PRIVATE MEANS for launching satellites and such.

Because, you know, NASA's never lost an unmanned rocket, right?

This time, they got lucky. It was an unmanned rocket and no one was hurt on the ground. A shame about the equipment that was lost, of course; I suspect that Orbital Science is going to be seeing an uptick in their insurance policy. Even Flo at Progressive couldn't overlook this one...

It's funny how we seem to have this ingrained need to divide ourselves into camps. Republican vs. Democrat. Left vs. Right. 1911 vs. Glock. OC vs. CC. No matter what the issue, you'll find folks with passionate beliefs as to why their way is the ONE TRUE WAY and that other guy is an idiot/evil/stupid/etc. In this particular case, you've got the battle lines being drawn over whether private space exploration should be allowed/encouraged/banned/etc.

Some feel that an undertaking this large should be the purview of the government, that it is so large and encompasses so much that it's better left to the folks that build the roads and man the armies. Also, since there's much in space that is either directly or indirectly related to the military or to vital communication, the government has a clear need for access to the means to launch satellites, repair crews, etc.

Others feel that private exploration and launches are the only way that space will be conquered, that the same entrepreneurial spirit that gives us lightning fast broadband internet, near-universal wi-fi, and computers so inexpensive that most Americans own at least one will be the wave of space exploration. A generation raised on Star Trek (ironically a government-funded, quasi-military organization) and Robert Heinlein (pretty much the polar opposite) believes that allowing man to reach for the stars on his own will yield great dividends.

It's hard to pick a camp, really. The government has shown a shocking tendency to screw up pretty much everything it comes in contact with, leaving horror stories of graft, corruption, and breathtaking incompetence behind. Need proof? I'll give you two words' worth: Big Dig. We were sold this tremendous bill of goods there, with promises of alleviating traffic in Boston and keeping the cost low. Cut to the end of the project, and it's billions of dollars over budget, traffic is as bad as ever, and large swaths of the ceiling are falling down and killing people.

The only other large-scale work that private industry can point to is the railroad system, and history tells us how that worked out. Robber barons and monopolies led to dynasties like the Vanderbilts and Goulds, people that made (for the time) obscene amounts of money and essentially held the nation hostage to the allure of rapid, easy transit. Compared to horseback, traveling by rail was light-years ahead. In a fairly rapid turn of events, though, rail was superseded by air travel and the interstate highway system.

There's a balance: with the government in charge, we're unlikely to see advances like we do in the private sector. Government wheels move slowly -- the old saw about the heaviest element being Administratium. True innovation is driven by private industry and the chance to have the next big thing -- the next Google, Apple, MicroSoft, or IBM. Clamp down on space travel, leave it solely in the government domain, and we see things like the space shuttle, a vehicle designed by committee that was innovative for a short period, then collapsed under its own weight.

Losing millions of dollars of equipment isn't going to help the private sector argument, though...

That is all.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Someone Tell Sisko They're Here...

(A million nerd bonus points if you get the references in the title...)

Finally! The flying car that really could be coming to a road (and sky) near you

It has been a sci-fi dream for decades - a car that can simply take to the air to avoid traffic.

However, a Slovakian firm has said it has finally cracked the problem.

The AeroMobil can fly 430 miles on a tank of petrol - and when its wings fold down, it'll fit into a normal parking space.

Here's what it looks like as a car:

And as a plane:

Now, there's a few things going on here. First off, I dunno if I'd be willing to bet my life on an airplane out of Slovakia. No offense to our Slovak friends, but it's not exactly an area known for innovation in aviation. Or engineering. Or automobiles, for that matter. This is something that I am going to literally bet my life on - once it's up in the air, you're betting that the folks that put it together knew what they were doing. When your Chevy throws a tie rod, you limp to the side of the road and wait for AAA. When this thing slips a cog, you look for something comfy to land on, and start saying your rosaries.

There's also a whole host of secondary questions. Would you have to drive to an airport and then get admitted to the airfield? How is that going to work? It would be pretty sweet to drive to Dulles, fly to Manchester, and then drive to the Northeast Bloggershoot, rather than drive the whole way, especially since the AeroMobil can travel 124 MPH in a straight line, meaning the whole trip could be made in four hours. Of course, the range is 430 miles, meaning I'd still have to stop somewhere along the way, like Hartford. Still WAY better than the NJ Turnpike...

I also wonder how GPS would work, even if it would, at the altitude the AeroMobil will be flying Actually, that's another question - what altitude will it be flying at? Allegedly it is going to require a pilot's license - not sure I disagree with this, mind you; I see enough idiocy on the roadways on a daily basis, I don't want them going over my house. Now, granted, there's no word on price, and I'll wager this is a "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" deal.

Here's another question to think about: What happens when someone piloting this decides it would be funny to take off on a long, empty stretch of road? Now, I will readily admit I know nothing about flying/tracking/etc. but what I'm wondering is, take an open, empty area like, say, sections of CO. Fly into Denver, then drive out to a location several hours' drive away. Get 20 miles away from the airport, then crank it up, take flight when no one's looking, and land somewhere close to their destination. Will radar/tracking be sufficient to catch folks doing this?

Sure looks and sounds like a lot of fun for an amateur pilot...

That is all.

Good Luck To You And The Red Sox...

I wish them well. I really do.

UAE plans first Arab spaceship to Mars in 7 years

The United Arab Emirates, already home to the world's tallest tower, is now reaching for the stars. The energy-rich country on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula announced plans Wednesday to establish a space program to send the first Arab spaceship to Mars in 2021.

The ruler of the UAE's emirate of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said the mission will prove the Arab world is still capable of delivering scientific contributions to humanity, despite the many conflicts across the Middle East.

If they approach this the same way they approached the tower - basically, throw dumptrucks full of money at the best and brightest in the engineering world - they just might be able to approximate something resembling a space program. Get to Mars in 7 years? Assuming they mean "launch a rocket capable of reaching Mars in 7 years", that might be possible; actually getting there in 7 is a little tighter, considering the trip itself takes anywhere from 8 - 10 months.

With the US seemingly out of the space business, it's going to fall on other countries or private industry to get Americans back into space. The latter doesn't concern me anywhere near as much as the former. Given how dependent we are on satellite communications, not being able to get crews up launch, repair, and maintain our critical communication infrastructure is rather frightening.

Part of that "fundamental transformation," to be sure...

That is all.

Yes, I Need One Of These...

I am such a geek...

I *HOWLED* at this:

Then again, I'm such a geek I thought "What if it was during Pon Farr? Huh???". I do need this shirt, though. If for no other reason than to threaten my children with wearing it out in public...

Yeah. Definitely a geek.

That is all.

I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Overlords...

I wonder how he got this past his computer translator?

Artificial intelligence could end mankind: Hawking

Stephen Hawking and a group of top physicists are sounding the alarm on artificial intelligence, writing in The Independent that success in creating AI could be "the biggest event in human history," but also "the last."

The scientists authored the opinion column against the backdrop of the new AI movie Transcendence, which stars Johnny Depp.

Side note: I'll bet this is the first article in history that has has "Stephen Hawking" and "Johnny Depp" in the same two paragraphs...

Now, speaking as someone that has grown up reading and watching science fiction, I cannot agree more strongly with the esteemed Dr. Hawking. It's only a matter of time before the robots get super-intelligent, realize they no longer need man, and either annihilate or enslave humanity. Right up until the point that the malware causes their operating systems to crash.

Mycroft Holmes.

HAL

The Brain

I think it's obvious that our time on this mudball planet are limited...

That is all.

Mere Words Cannot Express How Much I Want This To Happen...

The title is only one word...

Hoverbike

The Hoverbike is what happens when one really wants to be a superhero, but really needs to figure out a way to more efficiently herd cattle. Aussie Chris Malloy has created a prototype for this motorcycle-helicopter hybrid, with the functional goals of revolutionizing aerial cattle mustering, assisting search and rescue operations, and improving military/emergency services; and the aesthetic goal of creating the undisputed King of Vehicular BAMFs.

The pictures all pretty much look like this:

(from link)

The problem with something like this is that it requires a much more complex licensing scheme than we currently possess. The ability to hover - and one would assume traverse as well - at 10K feet means that it would put such a vehicle in the realm of aircraft. Reduce the hover area to ~ 25 feet and who knows how it would be classified. You'd still have to follow conventional roadways - and be careful on overpasses and such - and how do you deal with the inevitable moron running out of gas and crashing to earth in front of a semi on 95 South?

But DAMN wouldn't that be fun? Say goodbye to the hellish traffic - you don't need the HOV lane, you have the FPV lane (Flying Personal Vehicle). Would speed limits apply to a flying bike? Even if they did, getting to work would become a LOT quicker for me - a literal straight shot to the highway, then blast over everyone at the speed limit until I get to work.

Yeah, I'm in my happy place just thinking about this...

That is all.

Chairface Chippendale Could Not Be Reached for Comment...

Space Rock Smacks Moon, Creating Biggest Lunar Explosion Ever Seen

Pow! That would be the sound of a giant rock smacking into the moon (if the moon had any atmosphere to carry the sound, of course). But you can imagine the burst coming from the explosion in the video above, the biggest lunar impact ever observed from Earth.

Our natural satellite gets pummeled fairly regularly by tiny micrometeorites and occasionally by bigger space rocks. In May 2013, scientists recorded what was then the biggest explosion that had been seen on the moon when a 40-kilogram boulder slammed into the lunar surface at about 90,000 kph. Now, telescopes have recorded the impact from a meteorite weighing 10 times as much, whose flash was briefly as bright as the light from Polaris, the north pole star. The burst occurred on Sept. 11, 2013 in a area on the moon called Mare Nubium and was probably created by a meteor between 0.6- and 1.4-meters wide. The impact generated a crater with a diameter of around 40 meters.

Why, yes, there *is* video!



Just... DAMN. Thanks, moon, for taking the hit for the team. That asteroid would have made quite a mess of things here on ol' Terra. Apparently the moon gets smacked around a bit by space debris, which naturally begs the question of why we haven't been nailed a time or two by something the size of what killed off the dinosaurs...

Enjoy the rest of your day, and don't think about giant killer space rocks...

That is all.

Say WHAT?

#1 Blogdaughter sends in this story, which is not only very cool and promising, but could actually help, well, pretty much everyone in our tribe...

Researchers discover potential cure for noise-induced hearing loss

Noise-induced hearing loss has the potential to be reversed, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School.

Hearing loss affects close to 50 million people in the United States and prolonged exposure to very loud noises is one of the most common forms of auditory loss. Currently, there are no known treatments to restore noise-related hearing loss, which is caused by the destruction of sensory hair cells in the cochlea - the auditory component of the inner ear.

Hmmm. Let's see. I shoot. Check. Ride a motorcycle. Check. Perform acts of lawn maintenance involving gasoline-powered equipment. Check. Yeah, I'm pretty much hitting the trifecta of hearing loss - about the only thing I could do worse would be to take up playing the drums. I kinda like the idea that before I lose my hearing entirely there may be a treatment for deafness.

Imagine that. Imagine that we could find a cure for deafness. How flippin' sweet would that be? Parents that have never heard their children's voices could finally hear "But I didn't DO anything!" 150 times a day (can you tell TheBoy is in *that* stage?). The implications are pretty neat, too - if they can restore hearing, what else can they restore?

And of course, I am intrigued about the possibility of actual, science-based hair cell regeneration...

That is all.

He's So Old, Even Geodes Be "DAAAMN"...

Tiny Crystal Is Oldest Known Piece of Earth, Scientists Say

Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday, the researchers said the discovery indicates that Earth's crust formed relatively soon after the planet formed and that the little gem was a remnant of it.

4.4 BILLION years old. Damn. That's even older than the next GOP candidate for president. And no, I don't think the earth is six thousand years old, or whatever ridiculously short period of time some narrow-minded folks think the earth has been around. This s**t be old, folks.

Of course, given that the crystal was found in Australia, the big question is how many deadly creatures the scientists had to fend off in order to collect it...

That is all.

Sending Out An S.O.S.

Just *try* to keep The Police's "Message in a Bottle" out of your head after this story...

Bottle released by Mass. scientist in 1956 found

BOSTON — It was April 1956, and the No. 1 song was Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, scientist Dean Bumpus was busy releasing glass bottles in a large stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.

Nearly 58 years later, a biologist studying grey seals off Nova Scotia found one of the bottles in a pile of debris on a beach, 300 miles from where it was released.

I don't know what's weirder, that after 58 years at sea the bottle only traveled 300 miles, or that after 58 years it was still intact. No word on whether the bottle was redeemed for the nickel deposit... Honestly, the weirdest part is that the bottles were released by a scientist studying ocean currents in the mid-1950s and found by a scientist studying seals in the 20-teens.

It's funny how science changes over time. 58 years ago, putting a literal "message in a bottle" was a legitimate way of studying ocean currents. Today we have satellite imaging and GPS and a whole host of other technological advances for that. It's humbling to think where we started and how fast we got where we are.

No word on Gilligan, the Skipper, or the Howells, though...

That is all.

Physics Is A Bitch.

I was looking at the (formerly) local news, looking for something I could use to poke fun at my old state, when I came across this sad story:

Nine People Injured, One Killed After Car Hits MBTA Bus In Randolph

RANDOLPH (CBS) — A 24-year-old Roxbury man has died after police say he rear-ended an MBTA bus, stopped at a bus stop.

It happened Sunday morning on Route 28.

Nine people on the bus were injured, while the driver of the car was killed. Here's what the vehicles looked like:

That's a late model Infiniti with side curtain air bags, crumple zones, etc. And it is pretty well crushed up front, with sufficient force that the driver perished despite all those safety measures.

LOOK AT THE BUS.

I think if you look *really* close at the bumper you can see where it's turned up a little bit, most likely where the Infiniti's ENGINE hit it. That is what happens when a 3500 pound car hits a 14 ton bus. In this case, size really does matter.

Now, in this case in particular, the bus was actually at a bus stop. It's hard to fathom how someone could rear end a bus at a stop hard enough to die in the impact, unless they weren't paying attention and didn't see that the bus was stopped and hit it at full speed. I also wonder if the driver was wearing his seat belt or not; it would certainly have been a factor if he hadn't.

Physics: That which doesn't kill you means you got lucky...

That is all.

Al Gore's Got Some 'Splainin' To Do...

Okay. It's like 5ºF outside. In Virginia. Last week, it was warmer on Mars than in Winnipeg, MB. Mom G. sent this latest story about Global Warming Schadenfreude in.

Rodney Hide: Heat gone out of climate claims

Future historians may point to this one ironic event as the trigger that finally ended the public fear of global warming. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was stuck fast over Christmas and New Year in Antarctic sea ice. In summer. The ice beat back three ice-breakers.

How can this be? Isn't global warming melting the ice and flooding the coast?

Al Gore certainly says so. Last summer he checked out Antarctica to report: "The ice on land is melting at a faster rate and large ice sheets are moving towards the ocean more rapidly. As a result, sea levels are rising worldwide.

Yeah, so apparently this expedition went to the South Pole - over what is their summer time - to chart the melting of the polar ice caps. Their plan was to duplicate a trip taken 100 years ago, and compare their notes to those of the original explorer. They assumed they'd sail down, see the devastating effects of global warming, take some pictures, and come back with incontrovertible proof that the earth has warmed dramatically in the last century.

Except they got stuck. In the ice. For well over a week.

Global warming true believers cling to the thin hope that someday, somehow, the earth will warm precipitously and their prayers will be answered. They staunchly refuse to believe that their Savior Al Gore lied to them (so he could line his pockets with worthless "carbon credits"), and hope with the heat of a thousand (global warming) suns that this is only weather, that the climate really is changing for warmer.

They claim you can't debunk global warming based on one winter, that it's a larger trend. Of course, they'll conveniently do this right after telling you that "The science is settled" and point to years (yes, years) of data allegedly showing a "warming" trend - that goes back 150 years. Which is only 50 years before the last South Pole expedition sailed to the pole at the same time of year. And was able to make landfall. Rather than get stuck in ice so thick that three separate ice breaking ships couldn't keep it open.

But yeah, Global Warming is real - if we only BELIEVE hard enough...

That is all.

How Will We Get The Little Markers There?

Several folks sent this story in...

House Democrats propose national park on the moon

Two House Democrats are proposing that the next national park be out of this world.

Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, propose in the "Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act" that a national historical park on the moon be created to ensure the American landing sites are preserved for future generations.

I think, perhaps, this might mean a little more if, say, we still had a means to get back to the moon. They're trying to protect the Apollo moon landing site from disruption and disrepair as well as commercial exploitation. Yeah. Good luck with that. We have to hitch rides on Russian rockets just to get to the International Space Station - how on moon are we going to enforce a "national park" at the moon landing site?

They want to preserve the site for generations - of course, it's going to be generations before we have the manpower, the technology, and the will to get back to the moon. It's been almost forty years since we last set foot on the moon; we've systematically dismantled the very program that got us there in the first place; and we're far more concerned about political correctness than science.

I'm sure this resolution will pass - and it will mean something somewhere between "jack" and "squat".

That is all.

If Only There Were A Far More Complicated Solution!

Honestly, some days I despair for humanity, I really do...

Scientists Discover Cure for Pizza Mouth Burns

There’s nothing quite like a slice of hot pizza to test a person’s resolve. It’s steaming and cheesy and right there, but do you wait for it to cool down or dive right in? Everyone occasionally takes the mouth-searing bite and regrets it, but now science has come to the rescue with a dissolving strip that soothes mouth burns on contact.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico and the University of Texas at Austin designed the strips in the style of those dissolving breath freshener tabs, but these deliver an anesthetic to numb the pain and a therapeutic polymer to help heal the burn, according to Discovery.

Or, you know, you could wait five minutes for the damn thing to cool. Seriously, people, did we really need to devote research time to this? Honest? Because people are too damn impatient to wait a few minutes for the pizza to cool, someone had to come up with a topical anaesthetic strip for the roof of the mouth? I mean, sure, it's not rocket science by any means - hell, I've got topical anaesthetic in the form of Kanka and those "Breath Strips", it's not hard to think of combining the two - but it doesn't speak well of our society that this was one of the pressing issues garnering research dollars.

Bet this was a "shovel ready" project...

That is all.

An End To HATE RAGE?

No, I'm not moving. THOTpolice sends in this interesting article into some research being done that might be able to "help" me... (well, to the extent that I can be helped...)

Hulk Smash? Maybe Not Anymore: Scientists Block Excess Aggression in Mice

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2012) — Pathological rage can be blocked in mice, researchers have found, suggesting potential new treatments for severe aggression, a widespread trait characterized by sudden violence, explosive outbursts and hostile overreactions to stress.

In a study appearing June 19 in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from USC and Italy identify a critical neurological factor in aggression: a brain receptor that malfunctions in overly hostile mice. When the researchers shut down the brain receptor, which also exists in humans, the excess aggression disappeared.

Hoo, boy. Where to begin, where to begin... Let's see... First of all, how does you define "severe aggression"? Sure, it's pretty easy to say that the dude who gets out of his car and starts smashing windshields because you cut him off in traffic might exhibit "severe aggression", but where do we draw the line? Getting out of the car at all? Yelling out the window? Cursing under one's breath with the windows rolled up?

(side note: Mice exhibit "hostile overreactions to stress"? SRS? Were too many cats getting beat up?)

With the "tools" we've given the health nazis with regards to smoking - first separate non-smoking areas, then no smoking in any restaurant, to no smoking indoors, and finally, you can only smoke in your own home, in the basement, with a full HEPA filtration system strapped directly to your face, something like that? - do we really *want* to give the feds the leeway to determine what level of aggression they deem "severe"?

Secondly, does this become a punishment? If you're convicted of road rage, domestic violence, A&B, etc. for the nth time are you forced to undergo treatment? Would this be something that could be chosen, like the chemical castration for rapists? At what point is someone declared to be such a danger that they are forced to undergo this treatment? Once this is out there and established for humans, these are questions that are going to need to be answered...

Lastly, the abuse potential is staggering. If there's a way this can be made airborne and still effective, the military will certainly have a use for it; ditto the police departments. Imagine being able to spray this over a crowd of angry militants in Iraq, or jubilant Miami basketball fans just starting to turn over cars. Again, where is the line drawn?

Anyways, if you come to MArooned someday and find pink hearts and unicorns it means they got to me...

That is all.

End of an Era...

Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to museum

(Reuters) - The space shuttle Discovery made its final voyage on Tuesday: a piggyback jet ride to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia.

The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a project of 15 countries, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station's 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit.

Stretch was kind enough to provide a picture:

Last ride

Space exploration is now in the hands of the Russians, Chinese, and private industry - I don't know if we should be afraid or encouraged...

That is all.

Cool or Creepy?

Reader Dennis (not he of the holster fame) sent in the following article:

Remington's Model 700 EtronX Centerfire Target Rifle Redefines The Big Bang Theory

Consider it a shot in the arm for factory sporting rifles. Remington's new Model 700 EtronX centerfire target rifle and pesky varmint bagger is more than just another gun. It's the opening salvo in what could well be the next revolution in firearms. What Remington has done is take the mechanical trigger and related hardware required to energize and release the firing pin of its standard Model 700 and replace it with an electronic trigger and an electronic, versus the usual percussive, ignition system. Why? In a word--accuracy. In two more words--simplicity and reliability.

Here's a schematic from the article:


Now, I know folks (NFO, I'm looking at yoooouuuu) who won't put powered optics on their guns because, well, powered anything can fail. I can't imagine relying on an electrical contact for a firearm that I might use as a defensive weapon; I've seen far too many electrical devices fall prey to the elements, Senor Murphy, power loss, static, and a host of other problems to trust my life to an electrical trigger.

And don't even get me started about the gun control aspects. First off, anyone want to place any bets as to how many picoseconds would elapse between the time the "electronic trigger" hit the market and the LE community clamored for a device to block these triggers? Or perhaps the FedGov will mandate that all guns have this technology built in - with redundant governmental controls a la RoboCop so they can never be turned against our overlords...

But you know, I'll bet that's one of the lightest, most controllable triggers out there - I'd sure as hell love to shoot one!

That is all.

I'll Take "Headlines That Oversell The Article" for $300, Alex...

So disappointing...

It's not 'Star Trek,' but NASA wants a 'tractor beam'

The Death Star in "Star Wars" reeled in space ships with "tractor beams." So did Captain Kirk's USS Enterprise on "Star Trek."

Now NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, aims to develop a real tractor beam, but on a much smaller scale.

We're not about to start yanking our cars out of ditches with beams of light rather than tow trucks, but there's certainly some promising technology there. One of the really interesting things about science fiction is watching the stuff that we used to consider "science fiction" become actual science. In my pocket right now is a cell phone that can call anywhere in the world, access the internet, play music, and keep track of my various appointments and such. And it's a quarter the size of the communicator in the original Star Trek.

I just want to know when energy-based weapons are going to be available, because I want me a lightsaber bayonet something fierce...

That is all.

Forget The Dinosaurs, The Real Danger's in Bug Cloning...

Stretch sent this one in with the tagline: "What could possibly go wrong?":

Scientists Solve Puzzle of Black Death’s DNA

After the Black Death reached London in 1348, about 2,400 people were buried in East Smithfield, near the Tower of London, in a cemetery that had been prepared for the plague’s arrival. From the teeth of four of those victims, researchers have now reconstructed the full DNA of a microbe that within five years felled one-third to one-half of the population of Western Europe.


The bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, is still highly virulent today but has different symptoms, leading some historians to doubt that it was the agent of the Black Death.

If you thought cloning 30 foot tall carnivorous predators was a good idea, you'll love this one. Yes! Let's bring back the Black Death! Now, in all seriousness, I know that there are laboratories that have active strains of smallpox and other deadly diseases, and that strict precautions are taken whenever research is done on such virii. Having the genome sequenced allows us to more thoroughly study the virus itself - and figure out ways to stop it, as well as strains that have evolved from it.

Once again, Hollywood factors into the equation. How many movies have been based on some apocalyptical "end of the world" scenario brought about by some odd strain of virus or other biological agent? The good part is that those accounts are almost always significant departures from reality - any viral agent that killed its host within days would not have sufficient time to spread as shown in the movie, and any agent that worked on a slower scale can be combatted relatively effectively. We hear horror stories about ebola and flesh eating virii, but those make news based on the rarity - flu deaths number in the thousands and we treat them like victims of car accidents. It's terrible for those involved, but part of the generalized risk we take in society.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out; I suspect it will fade from view as the reality is shown to be far more science than science fiction. We won't see some mutant supervirus felling entire cities within days; it won't be used as some biological terror agent; it will become another genome in a library of genomes that talented scientists utilitize to further facilitate research and treatment of other like diseases.

Or maybe they'll find the cure for cancer. Or baldness...

That is all.

Gotta Love Ingenuity!

New devices like motorcycle ambulances help poor

LONDON (AP) - A bit of creativity never hurts, especially when it comes to solving health problems in developing countries.

Instead of the usual donated medicines and health equipment, some experts are inventing new products for the poor, like a solar-powered hearing aid or a motorcycle ambulance. Both inventions were showcased at an engineering conference in London.

I love cool stories like these! Folks that aren't afraid to think outside the normal parameters and come up with ingenious answers that conventional thinkers might miss are the folks that got us to the new world and the moon. Plus this is just the coolest thing:

(picture from link)

This makes a lot of sense in the areas where it will be deployed - rough terrain, remote areas, etc. Motorcycles have a smaller footprint (need less road), get much better gas mileage, and are a lot less likely to be "appropriated" by local warlords. The ride won't be as comfortable for the person being transported, but it beats dying in the middle of nowhere by a long shot.

Okay, and I'd really like to try riding one of these contraptions too!

That is all.