automatic shelter and a few new things

Hmm, lots of science to discuss today.

CNN has a very nice Climate Timeline that unfortunately opens in a pop-up window.


There are some cool pics of a tiger attacking a 'hidden' camera. Including an extreme close-up of his very big canines.

More on Mercury and coal-fired power plants. Lots of people are criticizing the clean air bill saying it does not go far enough and gives a false reason to relaxe. Both sides of the argument have good points, I am undecided on which side i should fall.

Speaking of coal and pollution, the Asia Times has an article on China's abuse of the environment in pursuit of economic advancement.

But lets not be unfair to china, they are not the only ones ignoring the world environment in pursuit of money and prosperity. The US is now playing dirty in its attempts to maintain the status quo of environmental destruction in the name of economic growth. In truth this kind of short term economic growth is bad for the country and the world.

Some smart guys over at Purdue University have figure out that palladium is the best catalyst for burning natural gas. Thats wonderful isn't that stuff damn expensive?

More on the Corn/Sugar/Cattle connection (I am still doing research for my giant expose on the subject). This time a study looking at Beef that was grain fed (read corn) vs beef that was pasture fed has found that the pasture fed beef is a healthier food choice.

But don't overdue the eating of that 'healthier' steak. A study that I could swear I red about a year ago has come out saying that the benefits gained with a reduced calorie diet (long life, low cancer and diabetes risk) can be had with a near normal diet combined with a regimen of fasting every other day.

Again, an item I know I saw years ago in Discover magazine, around the time I was taking child pysch in college. They have discovered that talking 'baby talk' to your baby helps the child learn how to pronounce sounds and build sentences. So those of you with children, please reduce your speech to infant style to help them learn faster.

Wired has picked up that item on instant buildings. Its actually pretty cool, a combination of inflatable tent and concrete half-pipe building. Its a pretty good quick start to building a refugee center..... but when it comes time to make that center actually permanent, then you need to call in one of these things. This is an automated house building machine. In theory you could make these the corner stone of a autonomous city building set. Seriously, you put together a series of robots, type 1 is a remotely controlled surveyor that is dropped in first or unpacks itself first. It is used to map the area, figure out where important items like water, wood, and sand are, and lay out a design that the other robots will follow. Next up are type 2 which run around following the map declared by type 1, clearing brush, making dirt roads, and doing basic prep work on all building sites. Type three runs around building the actual buildings, laying down concrete roads and water courses. Type four runs cables and pipe in a pre-determined manner form each building to a central line (which it runs as well). Thats enough that when the people come in they will have minimal hard labor to be able to get working and living in their new instant city.