The Amazing U-2

High Spy: The Amazing U-2 -- Air & Space Smithsonian

Who would have thought that the Lockheed U-2, Kelly Johnson’s late, uninvited, and losing entry into a 1950s Air Force competition for a reconnaissance aircraft, would still be flying intelligence-gathering missions almost 60 years after its first flight? Challenged for its role as the sultan of surveillance by reconnaissance satellites, by Lockheed’s Mach 3 glamour puss, the SR-71 Blackbird (retired in 1999), and most recently, by the big Northrop Grumman surveillance UAV, Global Hawk, the U-2 flies on—above 70,000 feet, for as long as 12 hours at a time.

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My Comment: A collection of fascinating stories on the U-2.

Can Fiction Survive The Ebook Age?

A little light reading? ... reading an ebook at the beach. Photograph: Alamy

Can Literary Fiction Survive The Ebook Age? -- The Guardian

Some claim that literary fiction has 'lost the next generation' of readers – but brilliant writing remains as important as ever

The death knell has been sounded for literary fiction often enough that it's great to see someone cheering it on. But when Francesca Main added the words "Go print" to a tweet celebrating the strong performance of literary paperbacks, it was enough to launch a fierce debate about what literary fiction is really for.

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My Comment: If the content is there ... the readers will also follow.

An End To An Era For NASA

Space Shuttle Enterprise's Historic Flyover Wows New Yorkers -- Space.com

NEW YORK — Hundreds of space shuttle fans braved the chilly temperatures and biting wind Friday morning (April 27) along the Hudson River here to catch a glimpse of NASA's prototype orbiter as it flew past the museum it will soon call home.

Enterprise, the agency's original test shuttle, flew to New York today from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., atop a modified Boeing 747 jet. Before landing at New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, the piggybacking duo flew over the Statue of Liberty, then followed the Hudson River past the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it will soon be placed on public display.

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My Comment: This is a sad day for America.

The Army's Future Truck?

Future Army Truck Inspired by the iPhone -- Danger Room

The Army’s next truck should be smart, flexible, user-friendly, partially autonomous and affordable. In other words, the automotive equivalent of a gadget from Apple. At a trade conference in Virginia on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Stephen Farmen, the chief of U.S. Army transportation, held up an iPhone. “How do we put the kind of power and technology like this into a wheeled vehicle and hit the right price point?” Farmen asked, according to a report by National Defense.

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My Comment: Interesting .... but still far away from implementation.

For An Oil Spill, Send In The Navy Drones

Designing Sailbots to Mop Up Oil Spills -- Wired

It’s the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of the many terrible lessons learned from the event, perhaps the most tragic is the shocking inadequacy of current cleanup technology. Given how often we spill oil this is an urgent problem.

Enter Protei: an open source, shapeshifting, oil-spill-cleaning sailboat drone. Developed by a globally connected network of designers, engineers, tinkerers, and makers who are hell-bent on finding a better way to clean up the ocean, Protei kicked off just after the Deepwater Horizon accident.

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The Four Ages Of The Universe

The Four Ages of the Universe -- What's Next? -- Discovery News

The Greek poet Hesiod described the Five Ages of Man in mythology.

They progress from the Golden Age, when people lived among the gods, through the warlike Bronze Age and on to the Heroic Age. His narrative ends with the Iron Age, a period of toil and misery for mankind.

Science has now replaced these mythologies. We are at the point where we look at the entire universe as a grand series of game-changing leaps toward our emergence as an intelligent species. It is an epic story more compelling than anything from creation mythology.

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Is This The Perfect Face?

Is This the Perfect Face? -- Discovery News

What would a scientifically perfect face look like?

England thinks it would mirror Florence Colgate's. The 18-year-old student recently won a competition to find Britain's most naturally beautiful face. Although the final test came down to an opinion poll, science backs up Colgate's perfection, according to the Daily Mail.

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My Comment: What's my take .... beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

A Search For The Bones Of An Early American

The Young Man of Chan Hol II skeleton was laid to rest 10,000 years ago when sea levels were much lower (Image: Eugenio Acevez/Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia/REUTERS)

Bones Of Early American Disappear From Underwater Cave -- New Scientist

One of the first humans to inhabit the Americas has been stolen – and archaeologists want it back.

The skeleton, which is probably at least 10,000 years old, has disappeared from a cenote, or underground water reservoir, in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

In response, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico City has placed "wanted" posters in supermarkets, bakeries and dive shops in and around the nearby town of Tulum. They are also considering legal action to recover the remains.

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Is Global Warming Just Hot Air?

Global warming: A retreating glacier in Alaska USA. But despite alarmist theories, temperatures have barely risen in the past 20 years

Is Global Warming Just Hot Air? World Temperatures Have Risen By Just 0.29C In The Last Two Decades -- Daily Mail

'Green' policy burdens will cost families £267 a year extra by 2030

World temperatures have remained almost stagnant in the last two decades, new figures have revealed.

Temperatures across the globe rose by around a third of a degree last year from the average of 14 degrees Celsius recorded between 1961 and 1990.

In some years, temperatures rose by just 0.29 degrees C while in others they rose by .53 degrees.

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The Invasion Of The Black Tiger Shrimp

This black tiger shrimp was caught in 210 feet of water off the coast of Louisiana.

Scientists: Giant Cannibal Shrimp Invasion Growing -- CNN

An invasion of giant cannibal shrimp into America's coastal waters appears to be getting worse.

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday that sightings of the massive Asian tiger shrimp, which can eat their smaller cousins, were 10 times higher in 2011 than in 2010.

“And they are probably even more prevalent than reports suggest, because the more fisherman and other locals become accustomed to seeing them, the less likely they are to report them,” said Pam Fuller, a USGS biologist.

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My Comment: Talk about jumbo shrimp.

Robots And Other Tech To Evacuate Wounded Soldiers (Maybe)

Airmule

Wanted: Robots To Evacuate Wounded Soldiers -- Popular Mechanics

A Pentagon study looks at the future technology for evacuating wounded soldiers, including UAV rescuers, human hibernation, and more.

On the battlefield of the future, a wounded soldier could be scooped up by a robot, placed in a specially equipped drone, and then flown to the closest manned-medical center, where he or she is diagnosed with automated equipment that can deliver treatment without human intervention. Of course, that brings up the question: If robots can do all that, will there be human soldiers on the battlefield?

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My Comment: A summary of what is in the works.

Who Is Flying Drones (And Where) In The U.S.

More Drones are Coming to U.S. Airspace U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Who Is Flying Drones In The U.S. And Where Are They Flying? -- Popular Science

FAA releases a list of authorized domestic UAVs.

A list of current entities permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly unmanned aerial vehicles in U.S. airspace says one thing very clearly: if you fear the drones, stay the hell out of Texas. The Washington D.C. area as well, for that matter. The list of Certificates of Authorization, obtained by civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, shows that even as the FAA scrambles to open up the U.S. airspace to commercial drones over the next three years, there are already quite a few of them in the sky.

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My Comment: I expect this list of authorized domestic UAVs to increase substantially in the next few years.

Anti-Piracy Curtain

Video: 'Anti-Piracy Curtain' Makes Boarding Ships a Wet, Dangerous Mess for Pirates -- Popular Science

It’s perfectly understandable why commercial shipping vessels are prohibited from carrying arms in international waters. But when it comes to dealing with the threat of piracy, battles that pit water hoses against small arms and RPGs are decidedly one sided. So Japanese companies MTI and Yokoi have teamed to create what they call the “Anti-Piracy Curtain,” a system that makes it difficult--and quite intimidating--for anyone to board a ship without the consent of a crew.

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My Comment: Impressive.

Getting Ready For The True 4G Revolution

UN Clears The Way For Faster Mobile Devices -- US News and World Report

Faster networks could be up to 500 times faster than 3G smartphones.

GENEVA (AP) — A United Nations telecom meeting has approved the next generation of mobile technology, which experts say will make devices 500 times faster than 3G smartphones and eliminate the wait time between the tap of a finger and the appearance of a Web page.

The technology will be used immediately for planning changes to equipment but it could take two years to show up on consumers smartphone, tablets and other devices because of the time it takes to get to production, International Telecommunication Union spokesman Sanjay Acharya said Thursday.

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My Comment: 500 times faster than 3G smartphones .... now we are talking.

US Navy Is Developing 'Intelligent' Uniforms

One of the U.S. military's many attempts to design a uniform of the future. Photo: RDECOM

New Navy Uniform Could Monitor Sailors’ Pee for Signs of Nuclear Attack -- The Danger Room

The military’s uniforms will probably never be runway ready. But in the future, a soldier’s threads might very well be quite a bit sharper.

As in, more intelligent. At least if the Office of Naval Research gets its way. On ONR’s latest call for research proposals, the organization is asking for uniforms to be capable of measuring soldiers’ vital signs, detecting the location and severity of their bullet wounds and even transmitting their location to medical personnel via GPS sensors implanted into clothing fabric.

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My Comment: I expect the fruits of this research to one day also show up in regular clothing.

Earth's Glaciers Are 'Out Of Wack'

The retreat of McCall Glacier in North Alaska. The left panel is 1958; the right panel is 2003

World's Glaciers 'Out Of Balance' -- BBC

Earth's glaciers are seriously out of balance with the global climate and are already on their way to losing almost 40% of their volume.

That is the assessment of scientists after studying a representative group of 144 small and large glaciers around the world.

Their figure assumes no further warming of the climate.

However, if temperatures continue to rise as models predict, the wastage will be even higher, the team says.

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Your Next Password Could Be Your Brain

Forget fingerprints and eye scans, your next password could be your brain (Source: Petrovich9/iStockphoto)

Your Brain Could Become Your Password -- ABC Science

When it comes to high-tech passwords, there are fingerprint scanners for computers and facial recognition programs for closed-circuit cameras, and retinal scans are a mainstay of the movies.

Now researchers are looking beyond those technologies to using brain scans and heartbeats to identify people in ways that can't be faked.

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Ecstacy May "Reset" The Body Clock

The research is the first to look at the impact of a single low dose of the drug (Source: iStockphoto)

One Hit Of Ecstasy 'Resets Body Clock' -- ABC News (Australia)

Just one or two pills of ecstasy can reset your body clock and have lasting effects on your ability to sleep peacefully, new research suggest.

Rowan Ogeil, of Monash University, and colleagues, report their findings in a recent issue of Psychopharmacology.

"Of course ecstasy affects your sleep because it's a stimulant," says Ogeil, who did the research as part of a recently completed PhD, under the supervision of Dr Jillian Broadbear. "But we've shown is it has lasting effects and that the body clock is involved."

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My Comment: One more reason to stay away from drugs.

The History Of The Zipper Revealed

Google Honors Gideon Sundback: Father Of The Zipper -- Christian Science Monitor

Gideon Sundback is certainly the inventor of the modern 'zipper.' Except Sundback didn't invent the name.

Except, Sundback didn't invent the zipper. He invented the "Hookless No. 1" in 1914.

And as radically brilliant and enduring as his design may be, it wasn't until the 1920s, when B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio bought a bunch of "Hookless No. 2s" did the "zipper" make it's debut.

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My Comment: The zipper has gone a long way since it's invention in 1914.

Can Organic Food Feed The World?

Organic market in Vienna. (Credit: © Tupungato / Fotolia)

Can Organic Food Feed the World? New Study Sheds Light On Debate Over Organic Vs. Conventional Agriculture -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2012) — Can organic agriculture feed the world? Although organic techniques may not be able to do the job alone, they do have an important role to play in feeding a growing global population while minimizing environmental damage, according to researchers at McGill University and the University of Minnesota.

A new study published in Nature concludes that crop yields from organic farming are generally lower than from conventional agriculture. That is particularly true for cereals, which are staples of the human diet -- yet the yield gap is much less significant for certain crops, and under certain growing conditions, according to the researchers.

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