Online ‘blood plague’ offers lessons for pandemics – “In September 2005, a plague called “Corrupted Blood” caused mayhem in the hugely popular online game World of Warcraft. What happened next illustrates the kind of issues policymakers will have to grapple with if a deadly outbreak of swine flu in Mexico spreads…”

A Historic Commitment to Science – “Detailing what he called “the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history,” President Barack Obama told the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that he would ramp up R&D spending, create an advanced research agency for energy, and roll out new programs to improve science education…”

Two-Stage-to-Orbit ”Blackstar” System Shelved at Groom Lake? – “For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it’s “out there,” but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative “Blackstar” system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we’ve learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into “black world” history, known to only a few insiders….”

U.S. Army Tests Flying Robot Sniper – “The U.S. Army is testing the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) — a remote-controlled unmanned Vigilante robot helicopter equipped with a high-velocity sniper rifle…”

It Takes a Village Idiot: The Jerks of Online Forums – “Discussion forums are magnets for some of the jerkiest people on the ‘Interwebs’. We profile a dozen of the most common and annoying forum jerks–from ‘The Antagonist’ to ‘The Conspiracy Theorist’…”

G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc – “General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs…”

New blow for dinosaur-killing asteroid theory – “The enduringly popular theory that the Chicxulub crater holds the clue to the demise of the dinosaurs, along with some 65 percent of all species 65 million years ago, is challenged in a paper to be published in the Journal of the Geological Society on April 27, 2009…” See also: Maybe an Asteroid Didn’t Kill the Dinosaurs

What If Vitamin D Deficiency Is a Cause of Autism? – “As evidence of widespread vitamin D deficiency grows, some scientists are wondering whether the sunshine vitamin—once only considered important in bone health—may actually play a role in one of neurology’s most vexing conditions: autism…”

The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs – “According to McCabe’s research team, white male undergraduates at highly competitive schools—especially in the Northeast—are the most frequent collegiate users of neuroenhancers…”

Clive Thompson on Puzzles and the Hive Mind – “Recently, Jonathan Blow issued a plea to his audience: Don’t use a walkthrough to play my videogame…”

Humanity Close to Passing the Hofstadter-Turing Test? – “A version of the Turing Test now running in Second Life could one day prove that humanity is truly intelligent…”

IBM to pit supercomputer against Jeopardy! champs – “It’s bad enough that I can barely compete with the geniuses that parade through the Jeopardy! set every evening: Now us mortals have to face the possibility of competing against a computer loaded with trivia, as IBM preps a special supercomputer that could take on human contestants on a special edition of the popular game show…”

Cars could have external airbags – “Cars could be fitted with external bags to cut pedestrian deaths and injuries, it has emerged…”

Beyond HDTV: 4K digital cinema might soon come home – “Current HD technology, maxing out at 1920×1080 pixels, is still working to gain traction with consumers. But a future home theater based on 4K digital cinema tech may not be far off. Inside, our primer on 2K and 4K technology…”

Secrets of the Phallus: Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? – “If you’ve ever had a good, long look at the human phallus, whether yours or someone else’s, you’ve probably scratched your head over such a peculiarly shaped device. Let’s face it—it’s not the most intuitively shaped appendage in all of evolution. But according to evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany, the human penis is actually an impressive “tool” in the truest sense of the word, one manufactured by nature over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution. You may be surprised to discover just how highly specialized a tool it is. Furthermore, you’d be amazed at what its appearance can tell us about the nature of our sexuality…”

Droste Effect with Mathematica – “The “Droste effect” is when images recursively include themselves. The name comes from Droste brand cocoa powder, which was sold in 1904 in a box that showed a nurse carrying the same box which, in turn, showed the nurse carrying the box, and so on…”

OMG, Multi-Threading is
Easier Than Networking – “How threading is easy and similar to network code…”

Artificial Intelligence Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery – “Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures…”

Science is Sexy: What is Swine Flu? How Does an Animal Disease Spread to a Human Host? – “Have you been watching the news at all recently? If so, you’ve probably heard the term “Swine Flu” bouncing around a lot. While most people come down with the normal human flu at some point, it’s not really a danger to anyone but the very young and the very old. Why is this flu different and what does it have to do with pigs?”

The coral propagators – “Today I would like to speak about REEFSCAPERS which is a very interesting project currently developing in Maldives thanks mainly to two french guys Thomas Le Berre and Cedric Guignard…”

Nucleation in a Soda Geyser – “By now, it’s common knowledge that you can drop a few Mentos candies into a bottle of Diet Coke to produce an impressive geyser of soft-drink foam. The key concept at work is nucleation. Think about blowing an ordinary soap bubble with a bubble wand. Particles are moving from your mouth into the bubble, which eventually seals itself off and floats away. To make the bubble, you had to do some work, and you also needed a gathering point — or a nucleation site — for your breath to collect as the bubble formed…”

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