Do history’s greatest figures owe their success to sleeping LESS? – “Throughout history powerful and influential figures from politicians to performers, inventors to artists have carried out incredible acts on very little sleep….”

Ion engine could one day power 39-day trips to Mars – “There’s a growing chorus of calls to send astronauts to Mars rather than the moon, but critics point out that such trips would be long and gruelling, taking about six months to reach the Red Planet. But now, researchers are testing a powerful new ion engine that could one day shorten the journey to just 39 days…”

Cubs Fan Yet To Figure Out How To Use A Hat – “That brings us to the man in the picture. At the ball park enjoying the game, he seems to be a bit distracted by the sun…”

Mike Rowe on Fora:

NYCLU, Annenberg Institute Release Report on Successful and Safe NYC Schools that say No to Aggressive Police Tactics – ““The schools profiled in this report prove that there are effective, real-world alternatives to making schools feel like jails,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “They show that treating students with dignity and respect is the best approach to producing good, safe schools.” “

Women are getting more beautiful – “FOR the female half of the population, it may bring a satisfied smile. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors…”

Top Gear star to build Lego house – “Top Gear presenter James May is looking for volunteers to help him build a new house in Surrey – made entirely out of Lego bricks…”

Cash for Clunkers attracting buyers – Better hurry – “The government has set aside $1 billion to fund this program. When the money ends, so does the program. And Alsop said while it was scheduled to run through November, he doubts it will last that long. “I don’t know that it will make it through the next three or four weeks,” said Alsop.”

Why markets can’t cure healthcare – “Judging both from comments on this blog and from some of my mail, a significant number of Americans believe that the answer to our health care problems — indeed, the only answer — is to rely on the free market. Quite a few seem to believe that this view reflects the lessons of economic theory. Not so…”

Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare – “This is big, what’s happening. President Obama appears to have misstepped on a major initiative and defining issue. He has misjudged the nation’s mood, which itself is news: He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae. Resistance to the Democratic health-care plans is in the air, showing up more now on YouTube than in the polls, but it will be in the polls soon enough. The president, in short, may be facing a real loss. This will be interesting in a number of ways and for a number of reasons, among them that we’ve never seen him publicly defeated before, because he hasn’t been. So we may be entering new territory, with new struggles shaped by new dynamics…”

Bribery, Threats, Broken-Down Vehicles, Lawsuits, Pioneers, Good Food: Tales From OC’s Taco Trucks – ““It was hell in the old days,” says José, who requested the Weekly not use his real name. The Michoacán native has operated loncheras on and off for 20 years, mostly in Santa Ana residential neighborhoods and Anaheim industrial parks. “One of my first routes was around 1990. I had to pay a guy $50 a week just to be able to work a neighborhood. He was a friend, but he said the money was necessary to pay off gang members and cops.””

Traffic Jam Solution: The Jerk Who Cut You Off – “The next time someone cuts you off on your morning commute, don’t be so quick to call the driver a jerk; you may have a reason to say thanks. According to the latest physics research, rule-breakers — drivers passing you on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to the intersection — actually help smooth the flow of traffic for the rest of us…”

The Truth Behind Secret Recipes in Coke, KFC, Etc. – “In his book “Big Secrets,” William Poundstone revealed a laboratory analysis of Kentucky Fried Chicken: “The sample of coating mix was found to contain four and only four ingredients: flour, salt, monosodium glutamate, and black pepper. There were no eleven herbs and spices — no herbs at all in fact… Nothing was found in the sample that couldn’t be identified.” So much for the “secret.” In fact, the chicken’s ingredient statement is available on KFC’s Web site…”

They Scrapped the F-22! – “The remarkable vote to kill the plane and what it means for America’s military future…”

Implantable Device Offers Continuous Cancer Monitoring – “Such implants could one day provide up-to-the-minute information about what a tumor is doing—whether it is growing or shrinking, how it is responding to treatment, and whether it has metastasized or is about to do so. “What this does is basically take the lab and put it in the patient,” said Dr. Cima…”

Let the Baby Have His Bottle? – “Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of hubbub in the news over the chemical bisphenol A. They say it’s in a lot of baby products, like bottles and sippy cups and hard plastic water bottles, too. But I can’t tell if this is really a big deal or just an overblown chemical panic. What’s the Green Lantern’s take on BPA?”

Defense Focus: Carrier strategy – “ussian and Chinese naval weapons designers know they lack the resources and the technology to match the awesome power of U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups ship for ship and plane for plane. So instead, for decades, they have opted for asymmetrical solutions to the problem of killing U.S. super carriers. And they have come up with some lethal weapons…”

Barnes & Noble playing catchup with new e-books – “A year ago, it wasn’t even clear that traditional book retailer Barnes & Noble had an e-book plan. But, over the past few months, the company has picked up several small e-book companies, and on Monday it announced the end results of its efforts: dedicated readers for phone and desktop platforms, an exclusive deal with an upcoming portable reader, and a massive library of over 700,000 books, most of them free. Despite the impressive numbers, B&N is still playing catch up with Amazon in a number of areas…”

Designing Emergent AI, Part 1: An Introduction – “A lot of people have been curious about how the AI in AI War: Fleet Command works, since we have been able to achieve so much more realistic strategic/tactical results compared to the AI in most RTS games…”

Ethanol Hero — the next big thing? – “As if US ethanol producers didn’t have enough to worry about, the man behind the design of Nintendo’s popular wii game controller, Thomas Quinn, says his E-Fuel Corp has invented a device that will make ethanol for consumers right in their own homes…”

Why do we throw away vast amounts of food? – “Campaigners like Tristram Stuart are tackling the scandal – by digging around in supermarket bins for their dinner…”

Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global – “At first glance, Japanese cellphones are a gadget lover’s dream: ready for Internet and e-mail, they double as credit cards, boarding passes and even body-fat calculators…”

[[[Jump to IR #315]]]