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July 3, 2007
Reduced-lead bullets and recyclable explosives are among the developments being put forward by arms manufacturer British Aerospace (BAE) as part of a major investment in ecologically-sound weaponry.
The company, one of the world's biggest arms-makers, says it has been making investments in creating products that reduce the collateral damage of warfare.
posted by infini at 9:54 PM PST - 28 comments
The "Octapult" is a kinetic sculpture with 8 synchronized catapults, 160 plastic balls per minute are launched, caught, and recirculated. Made mostly of wood, the work is ~36 inches in diameter. It was designed and built on commission by
Bradley N. Litwin, a vocalist and guitar player whose repertoire includes 1920's and 1930's vintage blues, stride and ragtime
posted by growabrain at 7:42 PM PST - 35 comments
Seven Accomplished People Share Their Stories Edutopia invites seven people to write about their personal education and career decisions:
"Successful lives are often the result of what is learned when we are supposed to be learning something else. The following seven personal stories, from accomplished men and women in fields ranging from music to magazines, from real estate to restaurants, from television to literature -- CNN correspondent
Christiane Amanpour, U.S. Representative
Barbara Lee, author
Lemony Snicket, builder Donald Trump, mezzo soprano
Frederica von Stade, restaurateur
Alice Waters, Smithsonian editor in chief
Carey Winfrey -- illustrate the crucial importance of such hard-to-measure factors as serendipity, curiosity, and coincidence, and often a teacher with a keen instinct about a student's unsuspected potential."
posted by landedjentry at 10:58 AM PST - 8 comments
"I've said all along, we are in this together." John Simson, executive director of
SoundExchange - the royalty collecting arm of the RIAA -
extends an olive branch through 2008 that will cap the advance payments internet broadcasters will have to cough up at $2500 per year. This comes in the wake of the
Day of Silence, (it was June 26,
did anyone notice?) spearheaded by Los Angeles-based terrestrial/online radio station
KCRW (home of the brilliant
Morning Becomes Eclectic) and
SaveNetRadio, during which some of the biggest names in online radio - include
Live365, NPR and
Pandora - went dark for 24 hours, airing a
one-hour broadcast twice during that day on the history of flat fees in public broadcasting. [direct .mp3, 38mb] Under the much-maligned changes made by our government's Copyright Royalty Board,
the top six internet radio stations would have had to pay 47 percent of their total revenue (anticipated to be around $37.5 mil.) to the RIAA, starting this July. The Internet Radio Equality Act
[summary, in its entire pdf glory] has been introduced to the House of Representatives, seeking to permanently reverse this decision.
posted by phaedon at 10:10 AM PST - 69 comments
The elixer of youth. Serge Voronoff's
early experiments involved transplanting thyroid tissue into humans with a thyroid deficiency. He also began transplanting the testicles of executed criminals into rich old guys (as a treatment for senility and schizophrenia), but had to stop when the demand for the procedure far exceeding the supply of criminal testicles. At this point, Voronoff began using monkey testicles instead, and his first "monkey gland" to human transplant took place in June of 1920. (via another filter)
posted by caddis at 8:59 AM PST - 30 comments
