The Coming Cyber-War

While we're refocusing our national security apparatus around counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, we're falling dangerously behind the curve on cyber security. Defense Tech's Kevin Coleman has some details: China is well known for its global cyber espionage efforts. And while the United States has received most of the media attention given to cyber attacks, we are not the only ones dealing with ...

In India, Skin Lightening Creams Are All the Rage

The Washington Post reports that American-style beautification obsessions are starting to make their way into India. Like this:He's the rugged type, with sculpted arm muscles. He rides a motorcycle and wears a trendy tank top, wraparound sunglasses and slicked-back hair. There's only one problem: His skin color is a few shades too dark. His fair-skinned love interest won't even accept ...

Kindle: Kinda Like A Book But More Expensive

Megan McArdle heartily endorses Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device which, for $400, lets you carry your entire library around with you and read it whilst hanging onto a rail and propped up on one arm (unless you happen to be in a bathtub). It does sound like a handy invention, especially for frequent travelers or those who commute ...

Yahoo Bans Bad Sites from Search Results

Yahoo has taken a major step in removing malicious sites from its search results. Yahoo Inc. and McAfee Inc. are joining to offer alerts about potentially dangerous Web sites alongside search results generated at Yahoo.com. With the new security feature — slated to take effect Tuesday — people who search the Internet using Yahoo will see a red exclamation point and ...

“Windfall Profit” Tax

Both Matthew Yglesias and John Cole agree that the Obama/Clinton proposal to tax the "windfall profits" of the oil companies is a bad idea, and you'll get no argument from me. However, one thing that I did notice when I was doing a little google-fu on the issue is that there appears to be approximately 20 to 50 billion ...

The Computer That Never Was–Now Is!

Wired Magazine's Gadget Blog reports that researchers have actually built a working version of Charles Babbage's difference engine. Click through the link to see video of the engine in operation.Charles Babbage completed plans for an elaborate, all-mechanical calculator in 1849. His Difference Engine #2 was so complicated, with more than 8,000 separate parts, that it was never built during ...

Global Warming Consensus

Ronald Bailey points to an interesting survey by the Statistical Assesment Service (STATS) on global warming. It is a survey of the views of climate scientists. Here are some of the findings: Ninety-seven percent of the climate scientists surveyed believe “global average temperatures have increased” during the past century. Eighty-four percent say they personally believe human-induced warming is occurring, and ...

Information, DNA Testing and Economics

Over at reason Katherine Mangu-Ward has an interesting article on DNA testing and some of the impacts on workers, employers and the health care debate. She points to a bill in Congress that deals with this issue. Congress reached an agreement clearing the way for a bill to prohibit discrimination by employers and health insurers on the basis of genetic ...

Never Make a Prediction on the Internet

Roger L. Simon counsels, readers to "Never make a prediction on the Internet," noting, "Used to be you made a prediction in print and it was gone in a day - lost in the morgue of some newspaper or the bowels of the public library. Nowadays, it's written in indelible digital ink that can make you look almost instantly ridiculous." True. ...

Mother’s Diet Influences Sex of Baby

A new study finds that a mother's diet during pregnancy influences the sex of the baby, giving new meaning to the old adage, "you are what you eat." Oysters may excite the libido, but there is nothing like a hearty breakfast laced with sugar to boost a woman's chances of conceiving a son, according to a study released Wednesday. Likewise, a low-energy ...

Obama Cites Link Between Vaccines and Autism

Ugh. It appears that Barack Obama has joined the John McCain bandwagon in suggesting that there may be a link between vaccines and autism, science to the contrary be damned!"We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to ...

PETA to Offer $1 Million for Lab-Grown Meat

For the first time that I can recall in my lifetime, I actually approve of something that PETA is doing. The animal rights organization has announced that they are offering a one million dollar prize for the first person or company to create lab grown meat that's good enough to fool meat eaters.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ...

Coral Reefs, Carbon Dioxide, and Climate Change

Indur Goklany has a staggeringly scientifcally illiterate post regarding coral reefs and climate change based on the re-emergence of coral reefs over fifty years after nuclear testing took place.How often have you heard that coral reefs are fragile and would be wiped out by global warming? [...] In 1954 the South Pacific atoll was rocked by a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb 1,000 ...

Edward Lorenz, Father of Chaos Theory, Dies

Edward Lorenz has died, thus conforming to a recurring pattern. Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist who became the father of the modern field of chaos theory, died Wednesday of cancer in Massachusetts aged 90, MIT announced Thursday. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lorenz was the first to identify chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems, in ...

1985 AIDS ‘Victim’ Still Alive

Michael Petrelis has learned that Lauren Burk, pictured along with her husband and infant child on a 1985 LIFE magazine feature informing us that "Now No One is Safe from AIDS," is still very much alive. From the 1985 story: Patrick Burk fits the original profile of the AIDS patient because he is a hemophiliac who received the virus in a ...