NEWS 03/24/06

How to save a ton of money and avoid finacial disaster in Finance I'm
gonna save you a ton of bucks right now, and maybe if you are really
unlucky, a few $100,000. In one of those odd confluences of fate, I
heard two really awful insurance related stories yesterday, neither
of which had to be so painful. Learn from them.
Ugly Story One: A relative has her condo up for sale. Long story
short, jewelry was stolen during one of the showings. A few specific
expensive pieces were pilfered. Here's the insurance info you may
not know: Unless you specifically have a rider for individual items
on your Home Owner's policy, you are likely looking at a $3,000 limit
(it varies by policy). Not per piece -- without a rider, that may be
the total limit on personal items. EVEN IF $50K IN GOODS IS STOLEN
(Ouch) Important Lesson: Buy a rider for specific items worth more
than $3k in value: Rings, Bracelets, Earrings, Watches, even Plasma
Screens. I assume the same applies to any Art items -- paintings,
lithos, etc. Of course, save reciepts and place copies in a duplicate
locations. Also, one can never go wrong with an Umbrella Liability
Insurance policy; $3 Million is actually prettty cheap coverage.
Ugly Story Two: You have fire insurance, which you assume covers
rebuilding your home in the event of a total loss. Not true. As one
of my neighbors discovered, their insurance is for a specific dollar
amount -- NOT REPLACEMENT VALUE. So if you bought a house 10 years
ago for $300k, your insurance today (likely $150k -- it covers the
home, not the land) is likely totally inadequate to replace the home
in the event of a total loss. Important Lesson: Periodically
review the replacement cost of your home(s). Get builder/contractors
estimates of a total rebuild costs; Upgrade your coverage to full
replacement cost. Pay attention: I declare today CALL YOUR INSURANCE
AGENT AND COVER YOUR ASS day.

http://tinyurl.com/asdcr

I LOVE GADDAFI.... HE IS SO CRAZY HE IS FUN TO LISTEN TO:

Gaddafi gives lesson on democracy Libyan leader Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi has given US academics a lecture on democracy, declaring his
country's government freer than any in the West. "There is no state
with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet," he told an
audience at New York's Columbia University via live satellite link.
However, he did also use the rare debate to lash out at Middle East
countries, declaring them "backward". The event is the latest example
of Libya's increasing ties with the West. Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya
since 1969, when he came to power in a bloodless military coup. He
has never faced an election. Human rights groups widely criticise
Libya's record, and freedoms of expression and association are
severely limited.

http://tinyurl.com/g7ho4

Spinning new ideas for bikes and trikes

http://tinyurl.com/jalqo

LEGO lie detector makes interrogations fun There are plenty of those
gimmicky vocal stress level lie detectors out there, but as Robert De
Niro made perfectly clear in Meet the Parents, nothing rattles the
subject and amuses the proctor more than actually hooking someone up
to the ol' poly. Unfortunately for amateur interrogators, CIA-quality
lie detection equipment is expensive and hard-to-find, so LEGO-
enthusiast Michael Gasperi's Mindstorms-based "Galvanic Skin Response
Sensor" may be just the DIY option you need to liven up your next
party. Basically a set of foil-lined velcro strips attached by 9V
wire to an RCX control brick, Gasperi's lie detector works on the
principal that people sweat more when they're fibbing, so his device
measures the skin's electrical resistance of whomever's getting
grilled. One word of caution if you decide to build one of these on
your own: unless you want to end up under the hot lights of a real
interrogation room, make sure to, like, keep your subject alive by
powering your detector from batteries and not deadly AC.

http://tinyurl.com/fxdpf

First Steps Toward Artificial Gravity
Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 24, @10:59AM from the stay-
grounded dept. CompaniaHill writes "Have scientists been able to
artificially generate a gravitational field? Researchers at the
European Space Agency believe so. "Small acceleration sensors placed
at different locations close to the spinning superconductor, which
has to be accelerated for the effect to be noticeable, recorded an
acceleration field outside the superconductor that appears to be
produced by gravitomagnetism. This experiment is the gravitational
analogue of Faraday's electromagnetic induction experiment in 1831."
The effect is very small, so don't expect to see it used in
spacecraft any time soon. But the effect is still many times larger
than the predictions of Einstein's theories. "If confirmed, this
would be a major breakthrough," says [Austrian researcher Martin]
Tajmar. "It opens up a new means of investigating general relativity
and it consequences in the quantum world.""
http://tinyurl.com/fuvpv

scrambled? hackz! posted mar 22, 2006, 6:45 pm et by eliot phillips
this story as appeared many different places [via music thing], but i
wanted to make sure you guys didn’t miss out on the fun. scrambled?
hackz! by sven könig is an amazing piece of video remixing software.
it’s built using c++, python and puredata. it takes music videos,
chops them up by beats and indexes the samples by sound signature in
a database. you then beatbox into a microphone to describe the music
you want to hear. the software builds the music you want out of the
sample database. sven has put together an excellent video that
describes the program and has example performances. it’s a must
watch. get it either directly from his site or watch it on youtube. read
http://tinyurl.com/zuegm

New data transmission record - 60 DVDs per second (link to this
article) March 24, 2006 As the world’s internet traffic grows
relentlessly, faster data transmission will logically become crucial.
To enable telecommunications networks to cope with the phenomenal
surge in data traffic as the internet population moves past a billion
users, researchers are focusing on new systems to increase data
transmission rates and it’s not surprising that the world data
transmission record is continually under threat. Unlike records where
human physical capabilities limit new records to incremental growth,
when human ingenuity is the deciding factor, extraordinary gains are
possible. German and Japanese scientists recently collaborated to
achieve just such a quantum leap in obliterating the world record for
data transmission. By transmitting a data signal at 2.56 terabits per
second over a 160-kilometer link (equivalent to 2,560,000,000,000
bits per second or the contents of 60 DVDs) the researchers bettered
the old record of 1.28 terabits per second held by a Japanese group.
By comparison, the fastest high-speed links currently carry data at a
maximum 40 Gbit/s, or around 50 times slower.
http://tinyurl.com/jmwxr

Sea rise could be 'catastrophic' Earth could be headed for
catastrophic sea level rise in the next few centuries if greenhouse
gases continue to rise at present rates, experts say. A study in the
US journal Science suggests a threshold triggering a rise in sea
level of several metres could be reached before the end of the
century. Scientists used an ancient period of warming to predict
future changes. Greenland could be as warm by 2100 as it was 130,000
years ago, when melting ice raised sea levels by 3-4m. The
implication is that Greenland would - eventually - melt by as much in
response to present warming. The findings come from two studies
published in Science by Dr Jonathan Overpeck, of the University of
Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues. Their computer models show that,
in addition to widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet, this
rate of warming could also lead to the collapse of about half of the
West Antarctic ice sheet in 500 years.
http://tinyurl.com/fwpvt

THERE IS ALSO A VERSION THAT USES SUNLIGHT:
I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel about being operated on by
someone armed with little more than a light bulb. Nonetheless, I'm
very impressed to read that researchers in Israel have come up with
an effective surgical instrument that harnesses incoherent light from
a short-arc discharge lamp - basically an intense form of indoor
lighting. The instrument could be cheaper that a surgical laser
because it relies on a series of mirrors to concentrate and refocus
light. And it could also be safer as you can see the beam you're
using - it uses visible rather than infrared or ultraviolet light.
The researchers have used the instrument to remove cancerous cells
from dead animals and are about to begin trials on live ones. Jeffrey
Gordon and colleagues at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have
previously focused the Sun's rays to make a surgical instrument.
http://tinyurl.com/zos7j

Article Preview Everlasting power in the offing It all began with a
dollop of gloopy liquid and a misplaced magnet - New Scientist reports
"IT LOOKED like a slug moving along the lab bench," says Jeffrey
Cheung, a materials scientist at Rockwell Scientific in Los Angeles.
"My first reaction was - oh my goodness someone forgot to turn off
the sprinkler outside, and this thing has crawled into the lab. The
strange thing was, when I moved to the right or the left, it always
followed my movements." Then he leaned over to take a closer look. To
his surprise, the slug shot off the workbench and rocketed straight
at his midriff. That day, Cheung had been doing some experiments
using a commercial ferrofluid. As fate would have it, he made two
crucial errors. First he lost a bar magnet, which he had borrowed
from a colleague for the experiment. Then he spilt a beakerful of the
fluid over his lab bench, leaving it covered with a thick layer of
reddish-brown goo. What happened ...

The complete article is 1235 words long.
http://tinyurl.com/zw8mk

AND

A Truly 'Super' Fluid In the world of quantum mechanics, surprising
discoveries are often made. For instance, what happens when you take
a fermionic superfluid and convert it into a bosonic superfluid? The
answer: a new superfluid that has surprising characteristics that a
superfluid isn’t expected to have. But it can’t be described as
anything other than a superfluid. Aurel Bulgac and Joaquín E. Drut at
Seattle’s University of Washington and their colleague, Piotr
Magierski, at the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, made
just such a discovery. On March 10 their findings were published by
Physical Review Letters and offer insight into a new world that
includes a type of quantum fluid that exists at the crossover state
from fermionic to bosonic. “Simply by changing the temperature,”
explains Bulgac to PhysOrg.com, “you have something that changes
from behaving as a bosonic to behaving as a fermionic system. This is
unusual behavior in any system so far.” What makes this superfluid
so remarkable is that it exhibits properties of both bosons and
fermions at the same time. By definition, something is either bosonic
or fermionic. While it is, in fact, fermions (the elementary
particles of ‘normal’ matter — electrons, protons, and
neutrons — are fermions) that make up most bosons, once these
molecules are created, they act in ways that are baffling. Bulgac and
his colleagues describe it thus: “[It is] an unexpected mélange of
both bosonic and fermionic properties in an utterly puzzling physical
realization.” Another notable oddity is that the thermal properties
of this type of superfluid are different from normal superfluid
properties. One expects to see interaction between bosons in a
bosonic superfluid system, and interactions between fermions in a
fermionic superfluid system. Within this crossover system, however,
there appears to be very little, if any, interaction between the
quantum particles.
http://tinyurl.com/zsyyk

BARNES AND NOBLE BUYS BACK BOOKS:
Sell Us Your Books STEP 1
Locate the ISBN number on the back of the book you want to sell and
enter it above.
STEP 2
Once you click "Get My Quote", you will see how much we will pay for
your book.
STEP 3.
If you agree on that price, sell it to us. We will provide you with a
return label so you can send the book to us for free!
STEP 4.
Once we receive your book, we'll send you a check for your total sale*.
* Online Buyback is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged
books. The postage paid label provided by Online Buyback does not
insure your package or provide any type of delivery confirmation. We
can only accept books mailed from the United States. Should you want
to insure your package or receive proof of delivery, we suggest that
you take the package to your local post office and purchase those
services. The shipping, insurance and delivery confirmation charges
will be your responsibility.
http://tinyurl.com/jywvh

Real Estate Investing for the Young or First Timers
http://tinyurl.com/f9wnl

Strawjet - A Modern Marvel Top 25 Invention of 2006 The History
Channel has just announced 25 finalists in The Modern Marvels Invent
Now Challenge, en route to eventually selecting the Invention of
2006. One of the finalists is the Strawjet — a decade long project
by David Ward, with the Ashland School of Environmental Technology
(ASET). Basically straw is harvested in the field, and aligned in
roughly parallel lanes so it can be fed into a machine which makes a
straw cable, bound with polyester twine. Another machine, the
Strawcore Binder, then “assembles 4 cables in a square pattern with
a papercrete binder and wraps them together with yarn. A final
coating of papercrete completes the process. The form of papercrete
used in this process is made from recycled paper, clay bearing soil,
and a small amount of Portland cement.” These can be further bundled
into continuous beams, that are able to be cut at any length.
Strawbale construction has taken the owner-builder market by storm in
the past 10 years. If the Strawjet is commercialised, it could prove
equally fortuitious, as the processing can pretty much occur onsite,
at the farm. For as ASET put it, “converting straw to a building
material would save resources, provide the farmer with another source
of income, and for every ton of straw preserved in this fashion
approximately 894 lbs. of carbon would be sequestered for the
lifetime of the building.” Other fibres such as Jerusalem Artichoke,
teasel and bamboo as also being investigated. (Another invention in
the running for the History Channel challenge is the 'solar-powered
bus stop light', which allows a waiting passenger to signal an
approaching bus to stop.) Via ::Biz. Yahoo.Com
http://tinyurl.com/kyr6e

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry: Recipe of the Week
We have recently been enjoying cooking from :Fresh Food Fast by Peter
Berley so we are going to offer up another recipe from that book this
week. This is the perfect recipe for this TreeHugger. Start cooking
at 11:30 am while listening to our favourite half hour long radio
show and sit down at noon to a delicious hot lunch. This recipe fits
all the required criteria for a terrific meal – it is fast, easy,
tastes good and is even better the next day. For a quick dinner, just
add a green vegetable or a salad. Berley suggests serving it over
rice or with lavash rather than pita if you prefer. We thought it
would also be terrific diluted with vegetable broth or water and made
into a curried lentil soup on the second day.

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry with Warm Pita Bread

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups red lentils
Pita bread

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a saucepan or kettle, bring
3 ½ cups of water to a boil.
2. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm the oil. Add the onion
and a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion
softens, and 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potato, ginger, garlic, curry powder and bay leaf
and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in the boiling water
and stir in the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and
simmer until the lentils break down and the sweet potatoes are
tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Season with salt.
4. While the potatoes and lentils are cooking, wrap a stack of pita
breads in a slightly damp cotton towel, and place in oven for 10 to
15 minutes.

Serves 4
Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley ::Amazon

http://tinyurl.com/g7wpk