Inspirational and good news.
Slashdot has a great short post about a good proposition for dealing with intellectual property from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce in Britain.
Essentially they feel that intellectually property is helping the few, opposed to helping the public good, and that this needs to be changed – in fast. Power to them!
Thanks, Ben Powers!
Marijuana doesn’t only get you high, it may also help to re-grow brain cells. A Canadian researcher has proposed this.
“In mammals, new nerve cells are constantly being produced in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Other recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress this new growth. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats’ brains”
An increase in HU210 results in more nerve cell growth. Maybe this shows that smart societies are the ones that allow recreational enjoyment of marijuana.
Insects have helped us all once again by providing scientists with a novel way to produce rubber. By analyzing the DNA of fruit-flies they have been able to figure out how to simulate the material (resilin) their wings are made of. Previous attempts at this failed because they looked at different parts of the DNA.
Since a fly’s wings have to bend a lot resilin can be used for bionic parts and other things that require a lot of bending. It is also more resilient than normal rubber.
Former Tyco International executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz were recently denied bail.
“They were convicted in June on charges of first-degree grand larceny and other charges related to accusations they stole $180 million outright and improperly made some $430 million by manipulating Tyco’s stock value.”
It is good to see that the American justice system still applies to people of every walk of life.
Solar Panels have met resistance because they are somewhat hard to install, some people have challenged that notion. A new form of photovoltaic cells being tested now (and expected to be in mass production in two years) are based on a fancy solar ink.
This new form of solar power generation will allow for cheaper, and more widely used, solar panels. The experimental cells can even be easily incorporated into clothing.
Thanks, Colin!