Monkey to be sent to Mars – “The Institute is in preliminary talks with Russia’s Cosmonautics Academy about preparing monkeys for a simulated Mars mission that could lay the groundwork for sending an ape to the Red Planet, he said…”

Chimps master first step in controlling fire – “Chimps remain cool under fire, possessing a near human ability to predict how wildfires spread and react accordingly…”

Public Schools Outperform Private Schools in Math Instruction – “In another “Freakonomics”-style study that turns conventional wisdom about public- versus private-school education on its head, a team of University of Illinois education professors has found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on standardized math tests, thanks to two key factors: certified math teachers, and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum…”

How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room – “Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful “deal” so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen…”

What the coroner’s office means when it says Brittany Murphy died from natural causes – “For a coroner, any death caused by disease or old age is natural. When someone dies a violent or suspicious death, medical examiners try to determine both a “cause” and a “manner.” The cause refers to the biological condition that killed the victim—in Murphy’s case, sudden cardiac arrest. The manner describes all the other circumstances that led up to that particular cause. Most states recognize five different manners: homicide, suicide, accident, natural, and undetermined. If a manner of death is deemed to be “natural,” then the victim is thought to have died of an internal disease process or normal deterioration of the body. Outside forces, like chemicals or human intervention, had only a minimal influence…”

50 most popular baby names of the decade (2000-2009) – “Some of the top names had their heyday in the early part of the decade, others shot up the ranks later, and some were persistently popular all the way through….”

Engage the x drive: Ten ways to traverse deep space – “So if we want to explore the depths of deep space and journey to Alpha Centauri and beyond, we’re going to need some new technologies. Here, we look at 10 of the most intriguing…”

NASA MMO Game – “The power of games as educational tools is rapidly gaining recognition. NASA is in a position to develop an online game that functions as a persistent, synthetic environment supporting education as a laboratory, a massive visualization tools and collaborative workspace while simultaneously drawing users into a challenging, game-play immersion…”

Nokia N900 Unboxing:

Caught on tape: Burglars target wrong techie – “A Framingham, Mass., resident received an urgent text message at work on Friday. It was from his home computer reporting the presence of movement inside of his apartment, which he had equipped with a motion detector and surveillance camera after a recent burglary. The guy logs on, calls up the video feed, and bingo: Two burglars are having their way with his stuff. He calls the cops, who I’m going to presume have rarely had an easier collar…”

First New U.S. L-3 Spy Plane Due in Afghanistan by Christmas – “The Air Force as soon as Christmas Day will deliver to Afghanistan the first of 24 new Hawker Beechcraft Corp. planes modified by L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. to support ground troops with video, still images and eavesdropping…”

Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too – “But before we cede the entire moral penthouse to “committed vegetarians” and “strong ethical vegans,” we might consider that plants no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my Christmas clay pot. This is not meant as a trite argument or a chuckled aside. Plants are lively and seek to keep it that way. The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds…”

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem – “To videogame fans, that logo is instantly recognizable. It’s the insignia of Duke Nukem 3D, a computer game that revolutionized shoot-’em-up virtual violence in 1996. Featuring a swaggering, steroidal, wisecracking hero, Duke Nukem 3D became one of the top-selling videogames ever, making its creators very wealthy and leaving fans absolutely delirious for a sequel. The team quickly began work on that sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time…”

The Geoengineering Gambit – “For years, radical thinkers have proposed risky technologies that they say could rapidly cool the earth and offset global warming. Now a growing number of mainstream climate scientists say we may have to consider extreme action despite the dangers…”

From Cinepak to H.265: a brief history of video compression – “When we asked our faithful readers what technological advances had made the biggest difference to their lives, Prospero424 stepped up to the plate to deliver a humdinger: video compression…”

Uncertainty in Science: It’s a Feature, Not a Bug – “What accounts for the traction of beliefs that scientists have refuted with conclusive amounts of evidence? The first annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) met in New York this September to discuss, among other things, why so many Americans are convinced that a link between vaccines and autism exists, despite extensive studies showing none; and that evolution and global warming are unproven theories, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting them…
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See Norway by Train. From Your Laptop. – “The Bergensbanen is an amazing stretch of rail linking Bergen on the west coast of Norway with the capital city of Oslo. The tracks are the highest in all of Northern Europe, crossing the Hardangervidda plateau some 4,060 feet above sea level. It’s a spectacular ride with spectacular scenery. And now you can take it without leaving home…”

Overview of the first decade:

Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11 – “It’s getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11. If you’ll recall, Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i back in May when it was found that Word’s handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files infringed upon i4i’s patented XML handling algorithms…”

Snow Storm Buries the U.S. East Coast – “The Mid-Atlantic states were completely white on Sunday, December 20, 2009, in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm. The storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on December 19, according to the National Weather Service. For many locations, the snowfall totals broke records for the most snow to fall in a single December day…”

The LHC Hits 2.36 Trillion Electron Volts—But What Does it Mean? – “The Large Hadron Collider is back up and running and already breaking records, with a 1.18-trillion-electron-volt beam. But even the basic definition of an electron volt is Latin to most. So what do the new numbers mean? Here, PM explains the electric insides—the electrons and proton beams, joules, volts and megawatts, created and consumed by the world’s most powerful proton accelerator…”

First Commercial 3-D Bioprinter Fabricates Organs To Order – “The problem with organ transplants is that the organ has to come from someone else. Since most people rather fancy their hearts and lungs, getting any organ other than a kidney usually requires the difficult combination of donor consent and timely death. In an attempt to circumvent that limitation, the engineering company engineering firm Invetech teamed up with the medical company Organovo to produce the first commercial 3-D bio-printer…”

[[[Jump to Interesting Reading #381 – Venomous dinosaurs, brain implants, the importance of sleeping in, 10 most pirated movies and much more…]]]