Boeing's Billion Dollar Gamble

Boeing has taken 847 orders for the Dreamliner, worth nearly $150 billion, which makes the 787 the most successful new aircraft in Boeing's 94-year history

Boeing's Billion Dollar Gamble: Inside The World's Biggest Building, Where The New 787 Dreamliner Plane Is Built -- The Daily Mail

It's made in the world's biggest building, takes only four days to put together and is the first commercial aircraft built from carbon composites, but will the revolutionary new Dreamliner win the battle for our skies?

Tucked away in the upper north-west corner of the U.S., about 30 miles north of Seattle, sits the biggest building in the world, utterly dominating the town of Everett. It's three-quarters of a mile long and a third of a mile wide. Beneath the concrete floors there are two miles of pedestrian tunnels, while nestling in the five-storey structures that have sprung up inside the place are meeting rooms, offices and cafes. The inhabitants of this strange, vast palace get around on golf buggies and bicycles. It's so huge that the storm water runoff ponds - a must in Seattle winters - are large enough to float an ocean-going liner, and it has its own fire department.

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Money Can Buy You Happiness – Up To A Point

From New Scientist:

CAN money buy you happiness? The answer, it appears, depends on what you mean by "happiness". High earners are generally more satisfied with their lives, it seems, but a person's day-to-day emotional wellbeing is only influenced by money up to a certain point.

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How To Make The Perfect French Fry

adria.richards/Flickr

From Popular Mechanics:

For fare that looks so effortlessly prepared by millions of restaurant chains and festivals all over America, fried foods undergo a harrowing series of chemical reactions before they end up on your plate. Take the common French fry. Copying the magic of even a simple oil-cooked potato at home requires diligence, resources and certain flirtation with danger. Here is the food science you need to know to fry.

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What Was On Display At A Drone Trade Show

Global Hawk Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk is the highest-flying of the military’s current fleet of UAVs. With its 116-foot wingspan, it can climb to 60,000 feet and has a range of 9,500 nautical miles. Another show-goer gives a sense of scale. Eric Hagerman

Scenes From A Drone Trade Show -- Popular Science

Take a photo tour of AUVSI, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show in Denver

When most people think "trade show," what comes to mind are harsh fluorescent lights and hollow convention halls, all filled with corporate drones (of the human variety) idly wandering through booths hyping the latest in office paper technology, stopping only to hover over bowls of stale candy and cheap swag.

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My Comment: The photo gallery is here.

Fears Of A Decline In Bee Pollination Confirmed

A recent study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — Widespread reports of a decline in the population of bees and other flower-visiting animals have aroused fear and speculation that pollination is also likely on the decline. A recent University of Toronto study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination, while also pointing to climate change as a possible contributor.

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Mediterranean Shipwrecks Reveal Shift To Modern Shipbuilding

A cannon from the shipwreck of a vessel, likely British, recently discovered near Turkey. RPM Nautical Foundation

From Live Science:

Three recently discovered shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea could give archaeologists new insights into the transition between medieval and modern shipbuilding.

The remains of the three craft – all dating from between 1450 and 1600 – were found in the straits between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes. One ship appears to be a large English merchant ship, while the other two are smaller – perhaps a patrol craft from Rhodes and a small trading boat that could have been Turkish, Italian or Greek.

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A Cheaper, Safer Way To Move Natural Gas

Photo: Power snow: A five-centimeter-wide nozzle head (top) sprays out a mixture of methane and water that forms snow-like methane hydrate. Credit: Charles Taylor, NREL

From Technology Review:

A new transport method involving ice crystals could make it practical to get natural gas from remote areas, with no worries about explosions.

Storing and shipping natural gas by trapping it in ice--using technology being developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy--could cut shipping costs for the fuel, making it easier for countries to buy natural gas from many different sources, and eventually leading to more stable supplies worldwide.

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Big Body Movements Key To Attracting Women On The Dance Floor

From The Telegraph:

Running on the spot, windmill arms and spinning may attract ridicule on the dance floor but it will also attract the opposite sex, claim psychologists.

Researchers asked women to judge men purely on their dance moves and found that it was those that showed the most movement of the body that were most attractive.

That means if you use big body movements and fancy footwork you may look like a show off but subconsciously women will desire you.

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Many Fathers Get Depressed After Having Children

A study says one in five men suffer from depression after becoming fathers.
Photograph: Martin Argles

From The Guardian:

One in five men suffer from depression by the time their child is 12, according to a Medical Research Council study.

One in five men become depressed after becoming fathers as they juggle lack of sleep, extra responsibilities and a changed relationship with their partners, new research shows.

By the time their first child is 12, 21% of fathers have had at least one episode of depression, according to an in-depth study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

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An F-22's Rainbow

Refraction Action: Stunning Rainbow Caught In Trail Of F-22 Fighter Jet -- The Daily Mail

It looks like a fancy new special smoke effect that would put the the Red Arrows' simple colours to shame.

But this spectacular photograph is simply a remarkable fluke of nature when all the components that were needed to create this kaleidoscope effect were suddenly present.

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My Comment: As an aviation buff, for me this is cool.

The Natural Selection Of Leaders (Commentary)

Was he born for the job? (Image: David Brown/Polaris/Eyevine)

From New Scientist:

IMAGINE this. You and your colleagues are gathered round a conference table, with coffee and biscuits. You open the door and greet the first sharp-suited candidate of the day. Before evening falls, one lucky applicant will hear the unlikely phrase: "We would like to offer you the job of being our boss."

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The Last Word On Battery Longevity In Gadgets

Your charging habits need to change. There's more life in those batteries than you think. (Photo by Flickr/jzx100.com)

From Popular Mechanics:

Where's the battery-extending truth in the mix of myths, speculation and red herrings? Yes, there is (some) actual scientific research that is all too often ignored. Here is how to make your electronic devices actually last longer.

The proof, to me, was irrefutable. I had bought a new iPod within weeks of my coworker: the same generation player, running on the same lithium-ion (li-ion) cobalt oxide battery. She plugged it into her computer every day to get to her music. That seemed like an astonishing mistake—obviously, her iPod's battery would suffer, since it would cycle every day, multiple times during each 8, 10 or 12-hour workday. My player, which I ran down completely before each charge, would burn less cycles, and retain more power in the long run.

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With Ancient Arches, The Old Is New Again

The Mapungubwe National Park Interpretive Center in South Africa. Robert Rich, Peter Rich Architects

From The Smithsonian Magazine:

An MIT professor shows how ancient architecture can be the basis for a more sustainable future

In a basement workshop, John Ochsendorf stands beneath a thin layer of bricks mortared into a sinuous overhead arch that seems to defy gravity. With the heel of his hand, he beats against the bricks. “Hear that ringing?” he asks. “It’s tight like a drum.”

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The ESO Turns Its Massive Laser Beam On The Heavens (For Science)

The VLT's Yepun Instrument Lights Up the Sky ESO/Y. Beletsky

From Popular Science:

We are not at war with an alien race from the center of the Milky Way, but if we were, this is exactly what we would want it to look like. Snapped at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory -- home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array -- the photo depicts the VLT's Laser Guide Star facility in action.

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A Smile May Not Mean Your Baby Is Happy

Doctors who measured brain activity in babies subjected to a painful procedure found that even when they they did not cry or grimace there was still a pain response in the brain. ALAMY

From The Independent:

If you want to tell whether your baby is in pain, looking at its face may not be enough, researchers have found.

Generations of mothers have depended on their baby's facial expressions to tell them what they are feeling. But a study has found that giving a baby a spoonful of sugar before an injection or blood test may alter its expression without lessening its pain.

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Melting Rate Of Icecaps In Greenland And Western Antarctica Lower Than Expected

This artist's concept shows GRACE's twin satellites, which orbit Earth in a back-to-back manner and change positions in response to variations in Earth's gravity field. The GRACE satellites house microwave ranging systems that measure the change in the distance between the satellites over time, enabling them to essentially "weigh" the changes in glaciers. (Credit: NASA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — The Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps are melting at half the speed previously predicted, according to analysis of recent satellite data.

The finding is the result of research by a joint US/Dutch team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research. The scientists have published their work in the September issue of Nature Geoscience.

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Huge Windstorm Spawns New Classification: 'Super Derecho'

The radar image on the left, taken at 11:56 a.m. on May 8, 2009, shows the super derecho's bow-shaped structure, with a tropical-storm-like eye in the center. A model forecast (right) accurately predicts this rare structure. Credit: NOAA/NWS/Morris Weisman.

From Live Science:

A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May 2009 was so fierce that it has earned a brand-new name: super derecho.

A derecho (from the Spanish adverb for "straight") is a long-lived windstorm that forms in a straight line — unlike the swirling winds of a tornado — and is associated with what's known as a bow echo, a line of severe thunderstorms. The term "derecho" was first used over a century ago to describe a storm in Iowa. Across the United States there are generally one to three derecho events each year.

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Mars Contains Organic Material

New research has concluded that organic material was found on Mars, although NASA's Viking spacecraft, which took theis photograph, sent results in 1976 that were interpreted otherwise.

Not 'Life,' But Maybe 'Organics' On Mars -- Washington Post

Thirty-four years after NASA's Viking missions to Mars sent back results interpreted to mean there was no organic material - and consequently no life - on the planet, new research has concluded that organic material was found after all.

The finding does not bring scientists closer to discovering life on Mars, researchers say, but it does open the door to a greater likelihood that life exists, or once existed, on the planet.

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9/11 Is Still With Us

9/11 Imprint Persists in American Brains, Bodies -- Discovery News

Nine years after the attacks of 9/11, the psyches of people who were even distant from the events, show permanent changes.

To elicit powerful emotions and vivid memories, all it takes for many Americans is the mention of two numbers -- 9/11.

Nine years later, studies suggest, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, continue to affect the way we think, remember and react to stressful situations. The actual trauma ended long ago, but for many people, measures of brain activity and body chemistry are different than they were before it happened.

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My Comment: An old girl friend of mine witnessed the 9/11 attacks from her Manhattan office window a few miles away. After the attacks, she moved back to Quebec and now lives in a small town 200 kilometers north of Montreal .... cities scare her, and when she goes to a city like Montreal she is only there briefly.

Yup .... the 9/11 imprint is still with us .... and for some .... even more so.

Quiet Sun Leads To Upper Atmosphere Collapse

Solar storms have dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009.
Credit: SOHO Consortium/ESA/NASA

From Cosmos/AFP:

WASHINGTON: The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are unexpectedly shrinking and cooling due to lower ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, U.S. scientists said.

The Sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009, a significantly long spell with virtually no sunspots or solar storms, according to scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

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