The Heartbreaking Demise of Southwestern Solar Power – “The Bureau of Land Management said it will suspend all new solar energy projects on federal land for the next two years until it completes an environmental impact review…”

Hacking Skype: 25 Tips to Improve Your Skype Experience – “How versatile is your Skype? Ours can podcast, translate French, take conference calls from 15 people, and tutor calculus. Want to learn how to turn your Skype telephone into a multipurpose office machine? We’re going to tell you how…”

NASA ready to fly a kite in space with NanoSail-D – “As early as July 29, 2008, NASA will attempt to deploy a solar sail in space after launching it into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket…”

I can’t find Nemo! Pet trade threatens clownfish – “Five years after the hit film that endeared the clownfish to audiences the world over, Nemo is becoming increasingly difficult to find…”

To Produce Good Health, Bite Into Fruit and Veggies – “Imagine a drug that could whittle your waistline, control blood pressure, keep you regular, protect your heart, strengthen your bones, cut the risk of stroke and possibly help you sidestep some types of cancer. And what if this drug were also easy to obtain and inexpensive, and it even tasted good?”

Space-age suits stir waters at US Olympic trials – “Behind the battle for Beijing berths at the US Olympic swimming trials another conflict was simmering: The swimsuit wars…”

Cancer ‘cure’ in mice to be tested in humans – “Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice…”

It used to be deer poaching, now rural gangs move into the oil business – “It may not be quite like the film Mad Max out there, with violent gangs roaming Britain in search of the few remaining drops of fuel, but for farmers like Eddie Cowpe it feels a little bit like it…”

Iran ready to strike at Israel’s nuclear heart – “Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week…”

At least 1,000 people suffer horrific burns from ‘toxic’ leather sofas – “At least 1,000 people have suffered horrific burns from leather sofas sprayed with a toxic substance to stop them going mouldy…”

Topia Prototypes 150kg One-seater Electric Vehicle – “Topia Corp, a company engaged in designing and prototyping automobiles, prototyped a single-seater electric vehicle “HUVO,” which weighs only about 150kg (330 lb)…”

Glomar Explorer – “The Hughes Glomar Explorer was a salvage ship built for a clandestine Central Intelligence Agency mission to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine. The United States government approached billionaire Howard Hughes in the late 1960s with a proposal to build the vessel under the guise of a business venture to mine manganese nodules off the ocean floor. The building of Glomar Explorer, or Hughes Mining Barge 1, and the submarine recovery effort were code named Project Jennifer…”

Valve: Why the PC is the future – “You want figures? There are 260 million online PC gamers, a market that dwarfs the install base of any console platform, online or offline. Each year, 255 million new PCs are made; not all of them for gaming, it’s true, but Newell argues that the enormous capital investment and economies of scale involved in this huge market ensure that PCs remain at the cutting edge of hardware development, and consoles their “stepchildren”, in connectivity and graphics technology especially. Meanwhile, Valve’s business development guru, Jason Holtman, notes that without the pressure of cyclical hardware cycles, PC gaming projects – he points to Steam as an example – can grow organically, over long periods of time, and with no ceiling whatsoever to their potential audiences…”

How gun makers can help us – “Make firearms manufacturers figure out how to reduce the 12,000 shooting deaths each year…”

Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis? – “Weedy ancestors of our food crops, some scientists predict, will cope far better with coming climatic changes than their domesticated descendants…”

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