Artificial Flaggella

According to Ars Technica the Applied Physics Letters report that researchers have succeeded in creating the same microscopic propulsion devices found in nature. The rotation of the coiled tails of the flagella can be controlled by a magnetic field and steered. Such a mechanism could be used as a propulsion device for micro-robots in medical applications for example.

Birth of the War On Terror

The Department of Justice in the US has released a series of memos like this one in which the groundwork was laid for the recent spate of anti-terrorist legislation, including NSA´s increased wiretapping powers and the controversial Patriot Act. John Yoo was giving legal counsel to the White House following 9/11 and went further than just advising by also proposing measures to give powers to the president, that would legally circumvent the Fourth Amendment. Now although Obama is freeing prisoners from Guantanomo and undoing some of the other Bush blunders, the US has still managed to piss off a lot of people in the meantime, and that will be the thankless task of Obama and friends to try and clean up.

Nuclear Relic

A bottle discovered at a nuclear waste site in Washington state contains the oldest example of bomb grade Plutonium. The Hanford nuclear site was part of the Manhattan project in 1943 according to the BBC, and the same plutonium discovered there was used for the first atomic bomb tests as well as the weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The researchers at Pacific North West Laboratory call their field ¨Nuclear Archaeology¨. Considering the half-life of the crap that´s been produced over the years, they´re probably not going to be stuck for work for a long time.

Beauty Perceived Differently by Men and Women

According to an article in Ars Technica, a collaborative ressearch project has revealed that men and women use different sides of the brain to perceive beauty. By measuring areas of brain activity, men apparently focus on the global picture while women in addition look at specific details. This is probably related to the different roles of men and women in hunter gatherer societies, in which women being the primary gatherers would have to pay more attention to fruits and berries.

The Internet Kills

Use of the internet is leading to increased social isolation, according to Dr. Aric Sigman in an article on The Register. It has long been known that singles live shorter lives and that social interaction is beneficial to health. Although the internet is providing means of communications across the globe and some of that is interactive, this is no substitute for real-world interpersonal social contact. Even in the home individuals are spending more time behind their own screens on the internet rather than talking to each other. In the long term this may lead to increased ailments associated with social isolation, such as depression and reducing the body´s natural immune system.

Violent Video Games

Following on from on of previous posts about violent video games may actually help in the devlopment of young boys, California have apparently reversed a judges decision to ban selling violent video games to minors, according to The Register. In another ruling which implies that porn is considered more harmful than graphic violence, one wonders where priorities in the US lie. One cannot compare Tom and Jerry to Fallout 3 and classification of video games is there for a reason. Adults should take some responsibility in considering what is right for children so why isn´t selling an 18 rated video game to a minor at the same level as selling alcohol to someone who is underage?

Hitler Spared Blackpool

During the second world war the Germans knew that soldiers on leave stayed in Blackpool area and that there was even aerospace manufacturing for the Wellingtonm bomber in the area. The area was spared from bombing because Hitler wanted to use the town as his private resort after he´d conquered Britain, according to The Register. Now although Blackpool was the resort for the working communities of East Lancashire and lovely when it´s sunny, and retains a certain Victorian feel, it is distinctively grey when the weather is bad. I don´t know whether he actually visited the place, but one wonders about the quality of German intelligence.