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Gene Simmons Unleashes 4Chan On Himself

Gene Simmons Unleashes 4Chan On Himself

Oct 21 2010 | comment(s)

Gene Simmons of KISS fame is all about the money - most aging rockers don't have the pretense they had when they were young ("it's not about the money, man, it's about the MUSIC") and make no secret of the fact they want to get paid.

So when Gene Simmons stated he didn't think the RIAA was aggressive enough prosecuting grandmothers if their grandkids downloaded a Justin Bieber song ("Make sure your brand is protected. Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars.") and Anonymous at 4Chan (all million of them) tried to rattle his chain, he wasn't impressed.
Google's Dutch Sandwich Saves Them $60 Billion In Taxes

Google's Dutch Sandwich Saves Them $60 Billion In Taxes

Oct 21 2010 | comment(s)

It's good to be a big company.   Middle America is about to get clobbered with higher taxes to pay for a health care reform that won't reform anything but Google's clever income shifting helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.
Number of sisters affects male sexuality

Number of sisters affects male sexuality

Oct 21 2010 | comment(s)

Unburdened by social engineering, some females prefer males who act like males so growing up with lots of sisters makes a male less sexy - for rats, anyway.

A new study published in Psychological Science, says that the sex ratio of a male rat's family when he's growing up influences both his own sexual behavior and how female rats respond to him.
When males who were raised with a lot of sisters were presented with receptive female rats, they spent less time mounting them than did male rats that were raised in male-biased litters or in balanced families.
Chinese economic sabotage? Rare earth exports cut

Chinese economic sabotage? Rare earth exports cut

Oct 20 2010 | comment(s)

Like 'green' technology?  Currently 97% of the world's 17 rare earths originate from China and they are necessary for catalytic converters that reduce emissions in cars, for computer monitors,  pharmaceuticals and many other things that require these specialty metals.
Google Maps locates The Bat Cave

Google Maps locates The Bat Cave

Oct 20 2010 | comment(s)

Is nothing secret any more?    Not with Google Maps prowling the planet.

The top secret location of Batman's Batcave has been revealed and it's not under Wayne Manor - it's at an Air Force base in Okinawa.

Batman symbol Air Force’s 44th Fighter Squadron, the Vampire Bats

Why is it there?  The 44th Fighter Squadron is known as "the Vampire Bats", according to an Air Force spokesman.   Suuuuuuure, that's the truth.
Whose head is in that jar?

Whose head is in that jar?

Oct 20 2010 | comment(s)

Unlike the American Revolution, the French one turned out to be a bloody mess and led to Napoleon sacking all of Europe.   Because the French hated the British, they then instituted a French clock with 100,000 seconds per day (ten hours of a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds), a French calendar (three décades of 10 days per month - which meant each day of rest was after 9 working days, you can imagine how the French workers loved that) and even a new measurement system, the meter, which like most things French they calculated incorrectly but still caught on, even in Britain.
iPad sales disappoint so Steve Jobs blames rivals

iPad sales disappoint so Steve Jobs blames rivals

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

Not understanding what capitalism means when he isn't giving himself illegal stock options or basking in the glow of an upward stock price, Steve Jobs took the opportunity to explain low iPad sales by ... blaming Google.

He also went after Samsung and Dell, deflecting talk of Apple's 6% stock drop.   "The current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA, dead on arrival  Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small."
World's Most Considerate Computer Thief Backs Up Victim's Data And Mails It to Him

World's Most Considerate Computer Thief Backs Up Victim's Data And Mails It to Him

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

When a professor at Sweden's Umea University had his computer stolen, he was devastated by the loss of his data more than anything. But a week after the theft, he got a package in the mail: A USB drive.

Tip of the Science Sombrero to Gawker
A hair brush that reads your mind

A hair brush that reads your mind

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

Stupid hair getting in the way of your functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiments?   Good news!  Researchers from Texas speaking at the Optical Society's (OSA) 94th annual meeting in New York have created a "brush optrode" with fiber tips designed to thread through hair to enhance scalp contact.

fNIRS is an optical technique that measures oxygen levels in the brain to chart neurological activity. The big advantage over something like an EEG is portability and cost, which means beter imaging of changes in cortical plasticity as a function of impairment severity, like in children with cerebral palsy.
It's New York - Rent Is Too Damn High Party Steals The Debate

It's New York - Rent Is Too Damn High Party Steals The Debate

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

The problem with modern progressive notions of equality is that all must be equal - and New York is the home of modern progressive idealism, so serious candidates in the governor's race had to share a stage with Jimmy McMillan of the "Rent Is Too Damn High" Party and he stole the show, issuing forth sage wisdom at random intervals like 
"The chemicals of Agent Orange -- dioxin and a lot of other chemicals mixed up -- I would get sick. When I get home tonight, I know I'm not going to be able to breathe if I take them off. It could be psychological, I don't know, but I just put 'em on and wear them anyway."



Can't get enough of Jimmy McMillan? Here is some video:


President Obama to appear on

President Obama to appear on "Mythbusters", make world safe from ancient death rays

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

With an economy in freefall and his party poised to lose control of the House, President Obama has found time to appear on "Mythbusters", which will shore up the one demographic already guaranteed to vote for anyone not a Republican - scientists.
Caveman's kitchen - grains on the menu 20,000 years before farming

Caveman's kitchen - grains on the menu 20,000 years before farming

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

Hunting as the primary source of food is the common conception of prehistoric man but that may be incorrect, says Anna Revedin of the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Early History in Florence, who ancient starch grains on grinding tools buried at three prehistoric settlements in the valleys and floodplains of Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic.

Read the tale by Kristen Minogue at Science Now.
Press coverage casts doubts on scientists' climate change debate claims - BBC

Press coverage casts doubts on scientists' climate change debate claims - BBC

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

Press coverage has cast further doubt on climate scientists' claims that man-made global warming is real and adversely affecting the planet, according to a report by Adam Fleming at the BBC.
Google putting Dead Sea Scrolls online

Google putting Dead Sea Scrolls online

Oct 19 2010 | comment(s)

Israel's Antiquities Authority is partnering with Google to bring the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls online, in the original languages and in translation.  Some scholars have complained that access to the ancient texts, among the more interesting archaeological finds of the last century, has been too limited. 

The images of the 30,000 fragments will be in high resolution, preventing a need for them to be re-imaged in the future and allowing in-depth analysis.

The first photographs are slated to be online within months.
Goodnight Moon & The Astrophysics of Bedtime Stories

Goodnight Moon & The Astrophysics of Bedtime Stories

Oct 18 2010 | comment(s)

Chad Orzel at Scienceblogs.com has a fun article on "Goodnight Moon" and a bunny that says good night to a lot of stuff and tackles the question everyone has - how long does it take to say goodnight to all that stuff?

Using the awesome power of science, he lets us know ... 

He's also doing the blogging event for the educational charity DonorsChoose so if you want to donate and help under-funded schools, here is the direct link.
Friends don't let friends sacrifice goats while drunk

Friends don't let friends sacrifice goats while drunk

Oct 18 2010 | comment(s)

In the 'You shouldn't mix alcohol and goat sacrifice' department, we have this news from Associated Press/NPR;  a 10-day Navratri festival that honors Durga, the Mother Goddess in the Hindu religion, went awry after a scuffle broke out concerning who would get their goat sacrificed first.

It's not like they wouldn't all get a chance - some 30,000 goats were sacrificed at the temple on Saturday, it is said.   But being first was the issue so with 40,000 people at the Tildiha village temple needing their goats sacrificed, it was bound to get ugly.  And so it did, with 10 dead and 11 wounded.
The dark side of trilobites: Cannibalism

The dark side of trilobites: Cannibalism

Oct 18 2010 | comment(s)

One of the most cuddly early animals might have been a pack-hunting cannibal.   

Those cute critters of the early Earth may have been roving packs of cannibals, according to new evidence on trilobites.  Teeth marks, attack positions, shredded relatives and other signs of cannibalism have been found in the fossilized remains of tiny agnostid trilobites, affectionately called "bugs" by paleontologists and fossil hunters.

Earth's Early Cannibals Caught in the Act
Why sex for reproduction?

Why sex for reproduction?

Oct 18 2010 | comment(s)

In dioecious species you have males and females, and males do not directly produce offspring. The increase of the population is constrained by the number of females in such lineages (male gametes are cheap). There is no such limitation in asexual lineages, where every individual can contribute to reproductive “primary production.” Additionally, the mating dance is another cost of sex. Individuals expend time and energy seeking out mates, and may have to compete and display for the attention of all. Why bother?
The answer on the broadest-scale seems to be variation, says Razib Khan...
Multiculturalism is a failure, says Merkel (multicellularism still going strong, says Science 2.0)

Multiculturalism is a failure, says Merkel (multicellularism still going strong, says Science 2.0)

Oct 18 2010 | comment(s)

America is a 'melting pot', it used to be said - everyone adds their own stuff but it's part of the same dish.   In the 1970s, partly due to elitism and partly due to idealism, that began to change and multiculturalism took hold.  America was not a melting pot, proponents said, it was a salad bowl and each part needs to remain whole.  People who dislike foreigners happily embraced that progressive idealism.
Chinese women drink collagen to fight aging

Chinese women drink collagen to fight aging

Oct 17 2010 | comment(s)

In China, collagen is not just for ridiculous fake lips.  For those women who think facelifts and Botox are just not enough, they can now buy collagen-enhanced drinks.  


"Take a collagen drink for 30 days and have skin as soft as a baby's"

One 22-year-old enthusiast in the Guardian says her skin is "super smooth" after a six-month course.  Well, it's a little easier at 22, isn't it?