{Celebrating #300 in this series of Interesting Reading posts. If you assume that the average “Interesting Reading” contains 15 items, it means there have been about 4,500 articles collected since Interesting Reading began. And not one of them has been censored…}

Nokia developing phone that recharges itself without mains electricity – “A new prototype charging system from the company is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radiowaves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us…”

10 cars that seem to last forever – “If you listen to the radio, you may have heard those Car Talk guys say that buying and maintaining a used car is almost always cheaper in the long run than buying, financing and maintaining a new car. And on the same show, you’ve no doubt heard the countless tales from “Bonnie in Minnesota” and her car with 300,000 miles that just keeps running, even in the harsh winters, and with minimal maintenance. Chances are you’ve heard such stories of nearly invincible cars from people you know, or maybe you’ve even told them yourself…”

John La Grou plugs smart power outlets – “John La Grou unveils an ingenious new technology that will smarten up the electrical outlets in our homes, using microprocessors and RFID tags. The invention, Safeplug, promises to prevent deadly accidents like house fires — and to conserve energy…”

Cell Phones Allow Everyone to Be a Scientist – “Cell phones let you chat with friends, send emails and even guide you to the nearest pizza joint. But now these toys are acquiring more serious roles: They’re turning into personal and environmental sensors useful for health and science…”

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch? – “As authorities continued their search and recovery mission last week following the deadly crash of Air France flight 447, they thought they had finally begun finding pieces of wreckage from the jet. Various objects floating in the Atlantic Ocean near the crash site were examined closely for any evidence of what happened, until investigators suddenly realized what they were looking at. It wasn’t part of the plane; it was just plain old ocean trash…”

Monster Jellyfish – “Jellyfish are normally kept in check by fish, which eat small jellyfish and compete for jellyfish food such as zooplankton, researchers said. But, with overfishing, jellyfish numbers are increasing…”

Palm Pre Ripped Open, Costs $170 – “Most people who hunted down a Palm Pre on Saturday want to actually use the thing, but Rapid Repair and iFixit immediately took the new smartphone apart to find out what’s inside…”

Oprah: Shame on you. – “So last week, Newsweek printed a heroic front-page article detailing the antiscientific medical swill Oprah Winfrey has been routinely doling out to her audiences. This nonsense includes, of course, Jenny McCarthy, as well as dangerous quackery by Suzanne Somers and others. The article really slams Oprah hard, as well it should…”

nano-gigapan of ant head – “This is the first proper nano-gigapan using the a modified gigapan unit attached to a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The image was then assembled was then stitched using the gigapan stitching software. The image is of an ants head at 1000X magnification…”

Army Mechanic’s Garage Tinkering Yields 18-Foot Mecha Exoskeleton – ” 27 hydraulic cylinders bring the mechs to life, its movements matching those of the person inside it…”

Update on Hubble Mystery Object – “Remember the Hubble Mystery Object? In 2006 it steadily brightened, then steadily faded over the course of 200 days total, in a way that resembled no known type of variable object. Even its spectrum was inscrutable, leaving no sign of whether it was a flare on a very faint star in our own Milky Way or some enormous eruption billions of light-years distant…”

Growing Organs in the Lab – “This research isn’t something that might happen in the distant future. It’s being used today to grow fresh organs, open up new ways to study disease and the immune system, and reduce the need for organ transplants. Organ-farming laboratories are popping up across the planet, and showing impressive results…”

The day pain died – “The date of the first operation under anesthetic, Oct. 16, 1846, ranks among the most iconic in the history of medicine. It was the moment when Boston, and indeed the United States, first emerged as a world-class center of medical innovation…”

Universal ‘Rubik’s Cube’ Could Become Pentagon Shapeshifter – “Even by the standards of the Pentagon fringe science arm, this project sounds far-out: “programmable matter” that can be ordered to “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.” But researchers backed by Darpa are actually making progress on this incredible goal…”

Astronomers Find New Way to Measure Cosmic Distances – “Using a rare type of giant Cepheid variable stars as cosmic milemarkers, astronomers have found a way to measure distances to objects three times farther away in space than previously possible…”

Top 20 websites every scientist (or engineer) ought to know – “Below is a list of 20 great websites that every scientist, engineering, or geek-at-heart ought to know about. Some may be familiar, but I hope the majority on this list are new to you…”

PC World pulls Linux netbooks from stores – “PC World, the UK’s biggest computing retailer, is to stop selling Linux netbooks in its stores…”

Berners-Lee: We no longer fully understand the web – “World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wants to put the web under the microscope to investigate how it changes our behaviour…”

University of the People – “Comprised of students from around the world, the student body will learn through the peer-to-peer teaching method with a defined curriculum and support of various educators. Within the online study communities, students will share resources, exchange ideas, discuss weekly topics, submit assignments and take exams. “

Japanese camera buff builds 130-megapixel scanner camera for next to nothing – “The camera won’t fit in your pocket nor would it shoot anything faster than a sloth without blurring but for those pixel-loving camera enthusiasts out there, building your own a super-megapixel camera is relatively cheaper than splurging on a brand-new Sony A-900…”

And the greenest car of the year is … a diesel-powered Volvo – “It may not be a streamlined hybrid, a futuristic electric vehicle or a snazzy biofuel car, but a distinctly boxy diesel Volvo has won What Car? magazine’s award for the year’s greenest car…”

Living without Numbers or Time – “The Pirahã people have no history, no descriptive words and no subordinate clauses. That makes their language one of the strangest in the world — and also one of the most hotly debated by linguists…”

[[[Jump to IR #299]]]