Burning Ones

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Darkest ever’ material created

Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths.

This is what batman needs to paint his bat mobile with. That, or ninjas must use it to increase their stealth capability… Oh the possibilites.

New program targets gangs, violence in S. Philadelphia | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/17/2008

Teen gangsters in South Philadelphia got a stern warning yesterday from Administrative Judge Kevin M. Dougherty: Land in court and expect to “kiss your mother goodbye” - because street violence will no longer be tolerated.

I can’t really tell what this means.  Is there just a nebulous program that has been started, or was some real law passed (such as the 3 strike law) that will now make it more likely that repeat offenders will be imprisoned?  That would really stink as the prison system is really just a place where criminal go to become completely wrecked for real world life…

Anyone else heard about this?

‘Wii warm-up’ good for surgeons

The fine hand control required to play these games acts as a warm up and hones scalpel skills the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Centre team claim.

This is just awesome! :)

Leading scientists have urged peers not to block the use of human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

Quite frankly, this is just scary. I recently picked a book called Next by Michael Crichton. It wasn’t any good and I decided to sell it or donate it to a library about mid way in, mainly due to it’s high sexual content and pervasive language issues. Just not something that I particularly wanted to be pumping into my brain. The reason I mention it in this context is because the book is all about our genetic world and, to be honest, it freaked me out a little bit. I just had no idea the ramifications of Genetic research. Now I understand, mind you, that Next is a work of fiction, but at the same time it was built around various true reports and research that have come out recently. It was really those that caught my eye most. It’s scary what the scientific community is doing in the name of research.

So, all that being said, I want to emphatically declare that I am against this type of research. I feel it is too unnatural and would be incredibly dangerous if it continued. We have to reign our egos in somehow and just accept that mankind should have some limits.

This is a really great move on MySpace’s part. It’s wonderful that they chose to cooperate with it.

Now, if we could only get people to just stop using MySpace altogether… :)

This article over there at the BBC is pretty encouraging.  I did think it was a mistake by the US and the Iraqis when the Baathists were removed from power and immediately repressed.  It just followed the old Stages of Revolution where the Moderates seize power, then the extremists take over and become worse than the former oppressors, and then the extremely repressed people rise up and throw down the new repressors.  Without a break in this cycle, revolution and war are endless.  So, it’s good to see them attempting offer some sort of an olive branch.

I’m all for this raise in the gas tax.  Anything that will make the cost of transportation via gas powered vehicles too hard to bear in this country is a good thing.  It will force our country to reassess how it faces life.  If we can’t even afford to all drive our SUVs and Minivans and cars alone, how could we remain so ruggedly individualistic.  The country needs this.

Well, maybe that’s extreme…  Oh well :)

As much as I hate to admit it, there are advantages to running a totalitarian government (like being able to enforce efforts to curb pollution just because you said so)…

This article from the BBC documents a possible new source of biofuel.  I was definitely against the use of corn based ethanol because corn is such a staple in the diets of so many third-world countries and would thus adversely affect their food supply.  However, switchgrass?  That’s not so bad.  After all, who eats switchgrass?

However, you still run into the same problems of using fertile land to grow fuel instead of food in third world countries.  As I was reading the article I had a bizarre picture pop up into my head of a time in the future when there will be no more natural land.  Instead, every square acre will be tuned for the support of mankind.  One acre for food production, another for fuel production, another for housing, another for “environmental support” (trees to eat CO2 and produce oygen, etc. etc.).  Anyway, thought that was somewhat interesting.

New Jersey officially apologizes for slavery - CNN.com

Good job! :)