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Microscopic fragments of plastic are a "major pollutant", floating in the ocean, settling on seabeds, and washing up onshore - with unknown consequences for marine ecosystems, according to a new study. "We've found this microscopic plastic material at all of the sites we've examined," [lead researcher] Dr Richard C Thompson [of University of Plymouth, UK] said. "Interestingly, the abundance is reasonably consistent. So, it suggests to us that the problem is really quite ubiquitous."
comment posted at 9:54 AM on May-7-04
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Walking DNA Scientists have created a microscopic walking robot using only the building blocks of life. The robot’s DNA legs move along a DNA footpath, taking a nanostroll in a bath of a liquid called a "nondenaturing buffer", which stops the DNA from falling apart.
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Scientists have created a miniature medical computer out of DNA that can detect cancer genes in a test tube and respond by releasing a drug. However, an injectable version [of the nanoscale robots] would have to work inside cells, and that accomplishment could take decades. Says Shapiro: "I'm not sure it will be within my lifetime."
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comment posted at 10:31 AM on May-6-04

Electoral slight of hand is suggested by NYT columnist Bruce Ackerman in his opinion piece for May 5th, where he suggest that Nader choose Kerry's electoral slate when filing for the November election. It's a clever idea, and I'd be interested in seeing if it has any traction.
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Hunting the Stanford University Lion Stanford University is now debating whether to send hunters into the hills surrounding campus to kill a mountain lion that may have mauled two horses pastured on university land. ................ ................STATE HUNTING REGULATIONS: Create mourning dove season for Minnesota Thirty-nine states allow hunters to take the most popular game bird in the nation, with Michigan set to become No. 40. .................... ................Cult Land Not for Hunting The polygamist cult that bought 1,300 acres of land near San Angelo will not be using it as hunting retreat after all.
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Cough. Yeeowtch! Wow, Lou. Puppies! What a head!
comment posted at 12:58 PM on May-3-04

Advanced methods of bomb detection and investigation. New equipment developed to scan cars and people, such as a parking lot device which quickly bathes the car's trunk in invisible neutrons, a procedure that makes materials inside the trunk emit gamma-rays that would indicate the presence of explosives. Also, a bomb disposal robot which take[s] fingerprints before blowing [a] package up.
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British soldiers in new Iraq torture photos. Brutal photos and story in today's Daily Mirror.
comment posted at 11:47 AM on May-3-04

The oddest bit of Friday flash that I've yet seen. It's apparently an ad for Kikkoman soy sauce... but it's the most bizarre ad I've ever seen. A caped superhero type guy with a whole fish for a head rides on a motorcycle, pours soy sauce on people, apparently drives a cute little kitten to suicide, then goes to bed with the condiment-based superhero world's answer to Sailor Moon. Deeply weird.
comment posted at 11:58 AM on Apr-30-04
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DREAM WORLD Given that green tea provides a more effective and environmentally-friendly method of preparing computer hard disks, pulsars are used to study gravitational waves with great precision, solar cells made from nanocrystals are found to be much more efficient, and scientists have discovered evidence for the earliest known wildfire in Earth's history, 443 to 417 million years ago, it would be hard to make the case that what we are living in is not, in fact, a Dreamworld.
comment posted at 1:54 PM on Apr-27-04
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comment posted at 8:43 AM on Apr-28-04

Remember when you could create subversive campaign posters with the Bush campaign's very own tool? Wasn't culture jamming fun? Well now you can stick it to McDonald's and use their banner design tool to make up your own advertising message! (via NewYorkish)
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March for Choice - Estimates range from 500,000 to more than a million in attendance. With an all-star turnout and a lot of pink, it is one of the largest events to take place on the Mall in Washington D.C.; but how much of an impact will it have on history?
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Oldest Jewelry Discovered In African Cave At least 75,000 years old, the find suggests that early humans had a complex sense of symbolism.
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Apr-16-04
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Bin Laden offers Europe truce
An audiotape purported to be from Osama Bin Laden, offers Europe a truce if it "stops attacking Muslims"...it's apparently genuine, and offers Europe an opportunity to reconcile with Muslims if the respective European countries pull their soldiers out of the Middle East. Europe (including Spain) has said no, saying it will not negotiate under threat of terrorism. The offer was not extended to the US.
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Absolutely, The Universe Could Be Funnel-Shaped At an extreme enough point, you would be able to see the back of your own head. It would be an interesting place to explore - but we are probably too far from the narrow end of the horn to examine it with telescopes. Frank Steiner’s Quantum Chaos group
comment posted at 7:37 AM on Apr-15-04