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“Moringa oleifera is a vegetable tree which is grown in Africa, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. It could be considered to be one of the world’s most useful trees,” says Michael Lea, a Canadian water-purification researcher. “Perhaps most importantly, its seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.”

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Gotta love Australians.

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Well. There it is.

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The fundamental difference between the sexes.

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Well, I thought it was interesting.

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And about fargin time, too. One of the things I’ve been waiting for is the development of sophisticated simulation environments that will allow people to practice useful skills in a realistic environment to give them a leg up when they get into the Real Thing. Aircraft flight simulators have made huge strides in this regard, and some would say that high-end computer games have given us a reserve pool of potential tank gunners and fighter pilots the way life on the prairie gave us a huge pool of potential infantry riflemen during the 20th century. (We still have a long way to go — how many people were not surprised when, in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, the party in Moria, surrounded by orcs, stood around and waited for whatever it was that had scared off the orcs. I was bouncing up and down in my seat: GUYS, IF THE ORCS ARE RUNNING THEN YOU OUGHT TO BE RUNNING TOO. DON’T JUST STAND THERE WITH YOUR THUMBS UP YOUR BUTTS. But nobody listens to me….)

So this is a welcome development.

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Which is just another way of saying that the dollar isn’t worth what it used to be, of course.

“As your reward, I will give you a pigeon’s egg the size of a ruby….”

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Yet Another Cute Little Car.

Add a Vulcan mini-gun with heads-up display, and oh, baby….

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Yet Another Cute Little Car.

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It emerged that the S301 – now in trials with the SEALs in Hawaii – had cost just $10m to develop, which contrasted especially well with the $885m+ spent on the ill-fated Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS).

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We’re urging him to call it ‘Obamacare’.

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Yeah, we all need more sticky stuff in our lives….

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We have the technology.

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The Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military. The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads.

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Until some Muslim fundamentalists come along and blow it up, as happened in Afghanistan. Let’s take advantage of it while we can.

Get it.

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Beginning Monday, some of the more outrageous practices of credit card issuers will be outlawed. But just like a bully on a playground who doesn’t punch when the teacher is watching, lenders will find ways to continue pummeling consumers.

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The image of banks locking their doors to keep customers from making withdrawals during a bank run is what immediately came to mind when we heard that Citigroup was telling customers it has the right to prevent any withdrawals from checking accounts  for seven days.

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The fact is that expiration dates mean very little. Food starts to deteriorate from the moment it’s harvested, butchered, or processed, but the rate at which it spoils depends less on time than on the conditions under which it’s stored. Moisture and warmth are especially detrimental. A package of ground meat, say, will stay fresher longer if placed near the coldest part of a refrigerator (below 40 degrees Fahrenheit), than next to the heat-emitting light bulb. Besides, as University of Minnesota food scientist Ted Labuza explained to me, expiration dates address quality—optimum freshness—rather than safety and are extremely conservative. To account for all manner of consumer, manufacturers imagine how the laziest people with the most undesirable kitchens might store and handle their food, then test their products based on these criteria.

David Friedman is joining the give-it-away economy.

My agent, whose opinion I respect, disagrees. Acting on her advice and my own inclination, have just put the entire text of Salamander, my as yet unpublished second novel, on the web for anyone who wants to read it.

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Just for you, Roy. Happy Birthday.

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It’s official: if you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps, then filling your face with chips will cheer you up, according to boffins at Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences.

Add some dead cow, and I’m in.

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Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

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The 18-volume set, from 1797, which is still regularly used by its owner, Charlotte Hampson, has been discovered by Encyclopaedia Britannica after a search.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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But umami is not just an Asian thing. We taste it in other, western, favourites: parmesan cheese, canned anchovies, Parma ham, gherkins, olives and wild mushrooms are umami foods, along with wine and beer. The yeasts on a ripe piece of fruit have a degree of umami, and balsamic vinegar is packed with it. Favourite bottled sauces such as Tabasco and Worcester sauce lend umami to the blandest food….

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Financial institutions reap billions in profits from fees on consumers, many of whom lack the time or information to wade through the fine print.

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Works fine, lasts a long time, fails safe, and drains to the bilge.

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This is God telling you to stay away from foreign food.

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Splendid news on the health front this week, as it has emerged that drinking beer is good for you – and that soft drinks will kill you.

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A good trick, if it works.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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The first entry, of course, ought to be ‘government’, but one can’t expect that sort of insight from just anybody.

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Don’t look for the price to drop any time soon, though.

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Major textbook publishers have struck deals with software company ScrollMotion Inc. to adapt their textbooks for the electronic page, as the industry embraces a hope that digital devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPad will transform the classroom.

This will be helpful.

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Or maybe not. You decide.

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Be afraid.

An Informative Map

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The Quooker supplies instant boiling water through a tap, connected to a small tank hidden in a cupboard underneath the work surface or sink. The heavily insulated three-litre tank is linked to the water supply and heated electrically to keep it at 100C. There is a safety catch to stop children accidentally burning themselves.

I’d buy it.

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Well, that’s what they do.

The Other McCain is on the case.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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Wouldn’t mind having one of these. They probably cost as much as a new car, though. As you can see, it’s designed to be stuck out in the yard, like a garden shed.