Archive for the 'News You Can Use.' Category
27th May 2008
Read it.
The reason the system works so well is that it puts decisions in the hands of patients and doctors rather than of government bureaucrats and insurers. The state’s role is to provide a safety net for the few people unable to save enough to pay their way, to subsidize public hospitals, and to fund preventative health campaigns.
How weird is that?
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Quality Health Care for Peanuts: How Singapore Does It
27th May 2008
Read it.
A footloose hippopotamus which has been tracked down the South African coast for months has fascinated locals by surfing in the waves.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Hippo surfing into danger
27th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Cup dates to 300BC
26th May 2008
Read it.
If anybody can do it, it would be the Japanese.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Japanese scientist claims breakthrough with cold fusion experiment
26th May 2008
Read it.
Those weird shades look like cobras.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Designer proposes VEIL Solar Shades to help power schools
26th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Physicists develop plastic semiconductors for laser diode use
25th May 2008
Read it.
I think the lesson here is, don’t go surfing off the Mexico coast.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Shark bites US surfer off Mexico coast
24th May 2008
Read it.
Boy, that’s going to piss off the Greenpeace crowd.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
23rd May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The Minnesota Department of Transportation admits that Republican Sen. John McCain was right about that bridge collapse.
23rd May 2008
Read it.
A bit of Inside Grammar for those of us who care — and you know who you are.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Poor pitiful which
23rd May 2008
Read it.
That will be good news, if only because it will shut up the alternative-energy fruitcakes.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Solar Photovoltaics Competitive By 2015?
22nd May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Court Says Reselling Software Is Okay
22nd May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Tradeoffs: who knew?
22nd May 2008
Read it.
They couldn’t do any worse than the dorks that do the uniforms for the American military.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Designer to the Russian Military, Dressing to Kill
22nd May 2008
Read it.
Just in case you were wondering. I wasn’t, being one of the few people in the country who know the correct answer to that question.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Is it a good idea to drink urine when water is scarce?
21st May 2008
Read it.
The EFP is nasty because it can penetrate the armor on just about anything but an M-1 tank. An EFP is a precision weapon, not an ad-hoc assemblage of explosives (like most roadside bombs). Your typical EFP is a cylindrical device, the optimal one often described as similar to a coffee can. But the cylinder metal must be thicker. You fill about 60 percent of the “coffee can” with explosives (C4, also known as plastique will do). Then you insert a detonator on the closed end of the “coffee can” and a concave copper plug that is pushed into the plastic explosive. The tricky part here is that the depth of the concave copper part, and the thickness of the copper, have to be just right. It requires someone expert at math and the chemistry of explosives to make those calculations. You can make a mould for casting the copper plug, but you must make sure you get the thickness just right. The more precisely the copper plug is made, and the EFP assembled, the more armor the device will penetrate, and the more damage it will do inside the target vehicle.
Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Dealing With EFPs
20th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Cornish language makes a comeback
20th May 2008
Read it.
Yes, Jay, especially for you.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Jabberwocky in Latin
20th May 2008
Read it.
Another event from early 1992, still reverberating today: On January 10, a container holding almost 29,000 plastic bath toys spills off a cargo ship into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and breaks open. The unsinkable toys, which were en route from Hong Kong to Tacoma (Washington), include a lot of iconic yellow rubber ducks that have since been caught up in the world’s ocean currents and continue turning up on the most improbable shores. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a retired oceanographer, saw from the beginning how valuable the rubber duckies could be in tracing ocean currents, and correctly predicted their trip through the Northwest Passage.
Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.
Cool map.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The Friendly Floatees’ World Tour
19th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Robot surgeon removes brain tumor from Canadian, will see more patients soon
19th May 2008
Read it.
Still no explanation for rap, though.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Study Finds Genetic Component Of Musical Aptitude
18th May 2008
Read it.
There, don’t say I never put in anything useful here.
Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »
18th May 2008
Watch it.
Who knew that a bicycle is a martial arts weapon?
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Top 10 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes
17th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Wartime naval legend HMS Exeter found off Java
16th May 2008
Read it.
This is actually very clever.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Solarial solar blimp concept could aid in disaster relief, terrify villagers
15th May 2008
Read it.
Load it with OS X, and you’re in business.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Microsoft intros the TouchWall — maps will never be the same again
14th May 2008
Ross Douthat makes a surprising connection.
He includes a map.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The Case For Obama-Webb, Again
14th May 2008
Read it.
*sigh* All of my illusions, shattered….
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Sloths are not so slothful after all
13th May 2008
Read it.
Tell the truth — who, being an elephant, would not have done the same?
They’re lucky it didn’t try to climb on top of the car just to see how far it would squish.
I would have. But that’s me.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Swiss couple on safari has close encounters of the elephant kind
12th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Facebook Can Be Fun, But It’s Also Useful
12th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime
11th May 2008
Read it.
Great. When New York and Los Angeles go under water, we can move to Australia. They’ll have enough food for us.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on WARMING CAUSES FOODING
11th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Tony Stark’s Iron Man Dream Lab
11th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The World’s Spookiest Weapons
10th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Terrafugia hopes to showcase drivable airplane this summer
9th May 2008
Read it.
Can you say “Mystamation”? If you can, and know what it means, then you’re an old fart just like me.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds
9th May 2008
Read it.
Aw, isn’t that cute….
Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »
9th May 2008
Read it.
Microsoft has been under huge pressure from its hardware OEMs to dump XP, thus forcing millions of customers who have been avoiding Vista and Vista’s inevitable hardware upgrade to finally buy new computers. Dumping XP will help Dell and HP AND Microsoft, big-time. It won’t do anything for you or me, though, since Vista still sucks, but we obviously don’t matter.
Time to buy a Mac.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Cringely explains it all
8th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on More details about the Triac highway-capable three-wheel electric car emerge
8th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on PEAK PlasmaBlade electrosurgery scalpel is amazing, disgusting
7th May 2008
Read it.
Funny things happen when you ask an economist.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The Gasoline Market
6th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Researchers develop copper nanowires for field-emission displays
6th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Wisdom From Avaition/Military Manuals
5th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Paralysed woman taught to walk again
5th May 2008
Read it.
This could be useful.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Magenn gets its MARS floating wind turbine off the ground
5th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Molecular Action May Help Keep Birds on Course
4th May 2008
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Winter the dolphin gets bionic tail
3rd May 2008
Read it.
With the Conservative victory in London’s mayoral election, perhaps the days of Londonistan are numbered.
I’m not holding my breath.
Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »
2nd May 2008
Read it.
And there was much rejoicing.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Another Spammer Sent To Prison
30th April 2008
Watch it.
Just in case you were wondering. I know I wasn’t.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on An Engineer’s Guide to Cats