Link Collection has been moved!

It has been a hassle having some blogs on wordpress and others on blogspot, so I’m moving the Link Collection blog to blogspot. The Link Collection is now being archived at:

http://linkcollectionarchive.blogspot.com/

LOTD for August 30

Researchers concluded that most of Earth’s clouds get their start in deep space–they say that cosmic rays collide with water molecules in our atmosphere to form clouds:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/805/1

Study found that optimists outlive pessimists–optimists were 9% less likely to develop heart disease within 8 years and 14% less likely to die than women who were pessimists:
http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2009/08/10/stay-positive-study-shows-that-optimists-live-longer/

Mosquitoes brought by tourist planes and boats into the Galapagos threaten “ecological disaster”:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/12/galapagos-tourism.html

UK researchers found that crows can use tools to retrieve a worm that they couldn’t otherwise reach–just like in Aesop’s fables:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-birds8-2009aug08,0,272489.story

Survey found that American workers waste two hours per day at work, so this article gives tips on how to avoid time wasters:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2009/08/01/105837605/

Article about how people should try to work no more than 10 hours per day to avoid productivity losses and other problems:
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2009/ca20090724_744218.htm

63-year-old Iowa woman was trapped on a small raft caught in tangled river brush for *five* days. She was a couple hundred yards from a bridge that she could see cars driving over, but nobody could hear her. She had just two cans of Mountain Dew and a bottle of water with her!
http://news.aol.com/article/jeanne-schnepp-survives-5-days-on-raft/628677

Woman in Raleigh, North Carolina is suing the city for $10,000 because men won’t play tennis against her:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/881246.html

Amazing video (shot from the camera on his helmet) of what happened when a skydiver fell 10,000 feet and somehow survived even though his parachute failed to open:
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/478476/Paul-Lewis-miracle-skydiver.html

Four-star hotel near Venice accidentally offered a rate of 1 euro cent (about 1.4 US cents) for a two-night stay. The erroneous rate was just on their website for one night, but 228 people booked 1,400 room nights before they fixed the mistake. They hotel will honor all reservations at that rate, even though they normally charge between $128 and $214 for single night stay…I wonder what happened to the people who messed up in Atlanta:
http://news.aol.com/article/italian-hotel-mistakenly-offers-1-cent/619605

Philadelphia has banned using a cell phone while skateboarding, bicycling, and skating:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111897770

LOTD for August 29

UK scientists developed the first ever biological robot using *mold*. The plasmodium robot (plasmabot) have the number crunching power of super computers, has already demonstrated it can trasport objects, and has parallel inputs and outputs…who knew that *mold* has its own embedded intelligence?
http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/article.asp?item=1553&year=2009

Slow-moving faults may help protect some regions of Italy and other places against destructive earthquakes:
http://www.rdmag.com/General-Sciences-Slowly-slip-sliding-faults-dont-cause-earthquakes/

Utah is treating text messaging while driving just like driving while drunk–texters can get up to 15 years in prison!
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/29/utah-comes-down-hard-drivers-who-text/?uniontrib

Article examines how authorities missed that this kidnapper held a hostage for 18 years:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/29/how-did-captor-go-unnoticed-years/?uniontrib

Placebos are getting increasingly effective, especially with results that have showed that the different colors and sizes of placebos makes them effective for different types of treatments (yellow is better for antidepressants, green reduces anxiety, placebos taken more times per day result in more effective relief). Interesting that the improved placebos are just as effective as established drugs like Prozac!
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

Interesting feature article on how Craiglist started and why it hasn’t changed much since then. It is amazing that eBay has more than 16,000 employees, Amazon has more than 20,000 employees, and Craigslist has 30 employees:
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist?currentPage=all

Canada has become major drug source for the world–Canada is the largest supplier of ecstasy to the US and Japan, and they also apparently dominate the meth supply. Canadian drug traffickers now generate between $34 billion and $56 billion each year from US drug sales:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/17/canada-is-colombia-north/

The proportion of people who are 65 and older will double from 7 to 14 percent of the world’s population by 2040. The number of people over 65 will surpass the number of people under 5 years old for the first time sometime in the next decade:
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/07/20/elder-boom-will-be-felt-worldwide.html

Last year more than 31 million bags (about 1.4% of all checked luggage) checked in for airline flights arrived late and 1.8 million bags were lost:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125002419177123735.html

Ohio woman was driving her car and admiring an American Bald Eagle flying with the fish it had caught…when the fish was able to squirm out of the eagle’s grasp and fell 40+ feet on her car and smashed her windshield!
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2069537/flying_fish_shatters_ohio_vacationers.html?singlepage=true&cat=22

100,000 US kids end up in emergency rooms each year because they have been poisoned, with about 70,000 of those kids overdosing on over-the-counter drugs or prescription medications:
Article link

Russian scientists say that stray dogs have learned to use the Moscow subway system to search for food:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3438747.html?menu=

LOTD for August 28

Research has found that handwriting analysis may be more effective than lie detector tests–apparently people write differently when they are telling the truth than when they are lying:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/w-hto082609.php

Secure communications could get a huge boost by this new nanoparticle ink–the thin, flexible organic gel film results in a medium that erases itself in a few hours. The film can be erased and rewritten hundreds of times with no drop in quality and can even be bent and twisted:
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/23316/?a=f

The ACLU filed a lawsuit to get details about the new US policy that allows border patrol agents to search travelers’ laptops at US borders without any suspicion of wrongdoing:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/170854/aclu_files_lawsuit_on_border_laptop_searches.html

The return of student to college campuses has resulted in a spike of swine flu cases among students. This isn’t surprising considering how large numbers of students sit together for classes and how easily swine flu could spread in a dorm:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMFFeSOcqtJjLKAOn93kt-uRPwUQD9ABOCK00

Article about how we are losing the battle against cybercrime:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/were-losing-war-cybercrime-366?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2009-08-28

The IRS says that Nortel owes $3 billion in back taxes–that could almost wipe out the money available from Nortel’s bankruptcy sale and Nortel’s creditors might get very little money now:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/hits+Nortel+with+billion+claim/1937019/story.html

Very positive article about the Android platform–Android apps are getting as popular with users as iPhone apps and Android phone sales are predicted to grow 900% next year:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/apple-may-have-app-competition-in-android-447?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2009-08-28

China Unicom and Apple finally closed their rumored deal for the iPhone–it is great that the iPhone will finally be legitimately sold in China, but most analysts do not like this deal for China Unicom:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN2835821220090828

Woman caught her husband cheating (the evidence was on his cell phone) and decided that he should stand on a busy street corner during rush hour for a week wearing a sign proclaiming that he cheated:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32573886/

LOTD for August 27

The US plans to go to the moon as a stepping stone to sending people to Mars, but Russia plans to send people to Mars first. They don’t have the money to get to Mars, but they are hoping for an international collaboration:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space-flight/russia-reveals-vision-for-manned

On Tuesday NASA proposed a joint manned Mars mission with the Russian Space agency:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/381269.htm

Today NASA will test the powerful first stage of its new Ares moon rocket, reaching a major milestone in a project they have already spent $7 billion for a rocket that may never be used:
http://www.rdmag.com/General-Scieces-To-the-moon-NASA-not-on-this-budget/

Technology developed for the Mars lander will be used to benefit the healthcare and defense markets:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312835/Wider+application+for+space+systems.htm

The US Army ordered 150 throwable recon robots for 9,000 each and the Navy SEALs are interested in buying them also:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/27/recon_scout_navy_seals/

The Bush administration felt they had no choice and had to ignore the evidence that Afghanistan’s powerful defense minister was a drug lord (he apparently kept his heroin operation even when he was defense minister). Now, the Obama administration has to deal with that drug lord apparently being elected to be the Vice President of Afghanistan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/world/asia/27kabul.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp

A Somali pirate ship fired a “large caliber weapon” at a US Navy helicopter yesterday:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/video-pirates-take-pot-shot-at-us-navy-helo/

Iranian parliamentary investigation apparently proved that some reformers who were sent to prison for protesting the election results were raped (with batons and soda bottles!) in prison:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE57Q2HB20090827?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Researchers are examining a way to use ultrasound procedures to monitor cancer treatment–this would enable cancer treatment to become much cheaper and much easier on the patient’s body:
http://www.ryerson.ca/news/media/General_Public/20090826_rn_ultrasou.html

Experimental procedure may someday enable women to avoid passing certain genetic diseases to their children–they just had a success with the birth of four healthy monkeys:
http://www.rdmag.com/Life-Sciences-Monkeys-born-from-eggs-that-got-DNA-transplant/

Two years of testing by NIST researchers will provide independent data on how electromagnetic radiation penetrates aircraft–this will help determine whether or not travelers really have to turn off their cell phones and laptops during takeffs and landings and help protect airplanes against outside sources of interference:
http://www.rdmag.com/General-Sciences-How-much-EM-penetrates-aircraft/

Solar cells with more than 18% conversion efficiencies are in production in the US:
Article link

New cinema lighting solution is available that reduces energy use and improves the movie viewing experience:
Article link

The Cash for Clunkers program resulted in more than 690,000 new car sales:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/26/AR2009082603482.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner are trialing providing TV over the internet:
http://www.cedmagazine.com/News-Verizon-TWC-Internet-TV-trials-082709.aspx

The BlackBerry Storm 2 is not officially available yet, but prerelease Storm 2s are apparently going for a LOT on eBay:
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-storm-iis-popping-ebay

T-Mobile is lining up celebrities (Phil Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Jesse James) to help promote the myTouch3G phone (the Android-based second generation of the G1 phone). They are trying to position that phone as an iPhone replacement:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/digital/e3if218a38bb19afd8d9b05f949fb7fd1ea

T-Mobile is has been running the world’s first multi-user LTE trial since 2009, the largest European test network that has achieved network speeds of 50 Mbps uplink and downlink. 50 Mbps to a phone for a commercial standard…wow:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-offers-large-lte-trial-austria/2009-08-26?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Motorola’s stock was downgraded because AT&T apparently rejected both Android-based phones that Motorola made for AT&T:
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10591263/1/att-opted-out-of-motorolas-android-plan.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

Nokia released its first Linux-based smartphone:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57Q1W420090827

New Mexico man was arrested for his 22nd drunken driving offense! His blood-alcohol content (.393) was almost five times higher than New Mexico’s legal limit:
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16032/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=L3gEX6RG

Gamers are upset about the CDC study results that indicated that the average age of video-game players is 35, that many male players are overweight, and that female players reported “greater depression” than women who don’t play video games:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32555719/ns/technology_and_science-games/

LOTD for August 26

Researchers found that when high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS, commonly used in soft drinks and dozens of human foods) is exposed to warm temperatures it can form a deadly toxic substance. HFCS is also fed to honey bees to increase reproduction and honey production, but the study found that in warm temperatures the HFCS could kill honeybees…this might be a factor in the mysterious disease that has killed at least 1/3 of the honeybee population in the US:
http://www.rdmag.com/Life-Sciences-When-heated-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

Schools in India use sensors to screen children for swine flu:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/bangalore/Schools-screen-kids-for-flu-with-sensors/articleshow/4938513.cms

A federal investigation found that the flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don’t protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million if they had bought proven equipment:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-25-pumps-new-orleans_N.htm

Britain has about 4 million cameras installed, but it has found that all of this monitoring does not really help fight crime. 1,000 cameras solve an average of less than 1 crime per year…they would probably have been better off paying for more police than those 4 million cameras:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6082530/1000-CCTV-cameras-to-solve-just-one-crime-Met-Police-admits.html

Engineers are using Legos to visualize the behavior of particles, cells and molecules in environments too small to see with the naked eye:
http://www.rdmag.com/General-Sciences-Legos-can-show-what-happen-on-the-nanoscale/

New technology could eliminate odors and air pollutants emitted by industrial chicken rendering facilities and large-scale pig farms. This would be great for people living in the area, especially since the emissions can trigger asthma attacks and cause other adverse respiratory health effects.
http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/this-idea-doesn%E2%80%99t-stink-new-tech-cuts-industrial-odors-pollutants/

Scientists found evidence of vivid iridescent colors in feather fossils more than 40 million years old:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/yu-sfe082409.php

More than 2000 dams near population centers in the US are in need of repair:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/08/usa-over-two-thousand-dams-near.html

Google Maps for mobile traffic will provide *free* traffic updates for all US highways and arterials to help drivers get to their destination quicker:
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/08/bright-side-of-sitting-in-traffic.html

Nokia is going to rely on a Linux-based operating system (Maemo) instead of Symbian for its high-end smartphones:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57P1SG20090826

Pretty sad to see this blue screen of death in this Samsung ad:
http://failblog.org/2009/08/25/samsung-ad-fail/

For Lori: Kate (from Jon & Kate Plus 8 ) will be a guest-host on The View:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i08b5226bcb8cd0c4200dbcfc8493bbf7

LOTD for August 25

Report predicts that *half* of the people in the US could get the swine flu this fall and winter, hospitalizing up to 1.8 million people and causing up to 90,000 deaths:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082401733.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

There are 890 million people on the African continent and an estimated 500 million of them are suffering from neglected tropical diseases! These debilitating and sometimes deadly diseases produce profound physical and mental deficits in children:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/single.php?id=8596

Paleontologist who served as a scientific advisor for the Jurassic Park movies in trying to bring back a dinosaur *without* using DNA. He wants to hatch a dinosaur straight from a chicken egg by making a few genetic tweaks to chicken embryos:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/20/the-quest-to-build-a-dinosaur/

MIT researchers have built a school of swimming robotic fish that swim just like real fish, allowing them to maneuver in places that current underwater robots cannot go:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/robo-fish-0824.html

Chinese companies are trying to dominate the green energy market–they are the main reason why the price of solar panels has dropped by half. As part of this plan, a Chinese company is selling solar panels in the US for less than the cost of materials, assembly and shipping:
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/nyt/20090825_Chinas_solar_charge_undercuts_US_industry.html

South Korea’s first space rocket blasted off Tuesday, but it failed to place a satellite into the designated orbit:
http://www.asd-network.com/press_detail_B.asp?ID=22644&NID=284998

A Federal Appeals court overturned the 2007 decision that ruled that Novell owned the Unix code, so SCO can now pursue their $1 billion copyright infringement case against IBM:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/unix/judge-overturns-2007-unix-copyright-decision-869?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2009-08-25

RIM bought browser company Torch Mobile–this means that the BlackBerry will get the Webkit-based Iris browser and other phone platforms will not be getting it in the future:
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/rim-acquires-browser-development-firm-torch-mobile/2009-08-24

It has already been confirmed that Torch Mobile will no longer support Windows Mobile or Windows CE:
http://crackberry.com/research-motion-acquires-torch-mobile

33 advertisers have decided not to advertise on Glenn Beck’s show after he called Pres. Obama a racist:
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv-news.en.ap.org/tv-news.en.ap.org-20090824-us_tv_beck_s_advertisers

Only Dish Network and Comcast have signed up to carry the NFL RedZone channel so far:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/cable-tv/e3ia76573c6f2d502a10f50e2936e78d18a

The print magazine Entertainment Weekly will feature a full-motion video ad with sound. One of their pages will have an extremely thin screen and speaker imprinted into the page. Only subscribers living in New York and LA will get the special video ads:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45417&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#

Woman posted an expletive-laden rant about her boss to her Facebook page…that type of stuff probably happens all the time. Unfortunately for her, she forgot that she had recently added her boss as a friend in Facebook so he could see everything she wrote! She had two weeks left in her 6-month probation period, so her boss was able to fire her right away without having the hassle he would have had if her probation period was over:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206491/Woman-sacked-Facebook-complaining-boss-forgetting-added-friend.html

LOTD for August 24 (Part 2)

The military’s increasing reliance on UAVs ($3.5 billion in FY2010) have altered the landscape for the defense industry:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/single.php?id=8594

Qinetiq got an AUS$23million order by the Australian Department of Defence for its robots and replacement parts:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312812/TALON+robots+for+Australian+forces.htm

The Big Dog 4-legged robot can carry soldiers’ equipment (already demonstrated a 154kg load) across rugged terrain that vehicles cannot get to. It has already shown that it can hike 12.8 miles over 8 hours without stopping or refueling:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/312799/An+infantryman%27s+best+friend+.htm

Nanoparticle “inks” could allow for solar cells to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the roofs or sides of buildings, leading to a a 90% reduction in the cost to make solar cells. These nanomaterials are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair and are semi-transparent, so even windows could become solar cells:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/uota-lsc082409.php

The cable industry is actually growing *faster* than the wireless industry! The main factor for this is that the wireless industry has a LOT of competition while the cable TV/broadband industry has much less competition:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32503068/ns/us_news-weird_news/

Clearwire’s CEO says that they will have no problem raising the additional billions in capital that they need:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2009722690_qa_with_clearwire_ceo_bill_mor.html

Column that delves into the details of the response AT&T and Apple gave the FCC about the rejection of Google Voice:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/mike-can-you-come-snappy-headline-here-im-brain-dead/2009-08-24?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

AT&T is requiring all of its customers who buy or upgrade to a smartphone to purchase a $30 data plan in addition to their voice plan:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/08/att_data_plans.html;jsessionid=GPYOSFJDMLOXLQE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN

Nokia in entering the competitive netbook market–after all the of the rumors about their using Linux, I’m disappointed that their netbooks are using Windows 7:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57N1ZM20090824

LOTD for August 24 (part 1)

Small company in San Diego that developed an imaging system to find submerged whales from an orbiting Navy UAV (so that no whales are around when the Navy ships and subs do sonar training) may be able to utilize that system to find terrorists camps hiding in jungles…this would save the military from having to spend a lot of money on an expensive radar system that can look through tree cover:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/whale-detecting-cameras-might-spot-bad-guys-in-jungles/

Clearwire is apparently running out of cash and needs several billions of dollars more to fund its business plan. It is hard for them to raise more funding in this tight credit market, especially when their investors feel burned by their previous investments–for example, Intel’s $1 billion investment is now worth $62 million:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45394&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#

All Southwest Airline planes will offer WiFi by next year:
http://gigaom.com/2009/08/21/southwest-to-roll-out-wi-fi-fleetwide-in-q1-2010/

Google’s free WiFi network in Mountain View has doubled its traffic–it is now up to 600 Gbps per day of user traffic:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/google-wifi-continues-be-one-most-successful-wireless-broadband-networks-world-it-cel

11-year-old boy ran into a burning house to save his family.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/1729356,CST-NWS-rescue22.article

For the second time an Iowa man has been fired for sexual harassment after repeating a joke from the Seinfeld TV show. Actually, that is what the headline wants you to believe, but if you read the article you will find out that the man followed up the joke with repeated e-mails to a woman coworker and even tried to give her an unwanted massage on her shoulders:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090823/news01/908230361

Cleveland barber was so upset about the beef jerky he bought that he went to the store he got it from (2 doors down from his barbershop) and tried to rob it! The store owner recognized him and chased him outside with a baseball bat, and the police officer knew him because he cuts the officer’s hair:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/22/ap/strange/main5259546.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines

Junior High School teacher in Utah allegedly *paid* her student $1400 to $1500 each time they had sex:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13177530

This website has a pretty good deal for those interested in ESPN The Magazine and the ESPN insider online content–*free* subscription if you pay the $2.99 annual shipping cost:
http://www.1saleaday.com/

LOTD for August 23

Robots with artificial animal-inspired brains quickly evolved to deceive and cheat each other. Do we really want to encourage robots to cheat and deceive in order to look out for their self-preservation while we also start to arm robots?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/real-life-decepticons-robots-learn-to-cheat/

Nice summary of the electric car development by each car manufacturer:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/08/electric-cars-mitsubishi-now-nissan.html

Interesting summary of the decline in net worth of the super-rich. John McAfee (the founder of the antivirus software company) went from a net worth of over $100 million to $4 million, forcing him to sell his 10-passenger Cessna jet and fly coach instead, and to auction off all of his big properties to get cash to pay his bills:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html

Interesting feature article analyzing the Cash for Clunkers program pros and cons:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/23/8216clunkers8217-provides-quick-test-stimulus/?metro&zIndex=153975

Feature article on the years it took to get approval to make the Rock Band game for the Beatles:
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-09/mf_rockband

Identity fraud is at its highest level in five years, but human error apparently results in most of these cases and not hackers. Problems identified include records dumped in the trash and flash drives lost at conferences or laptops left behind at airports (business travelers lose 500,000 laptops at airports each year!). This article also has some pretty bizarre cases of personal information getting leaked–a Virginia gas station attendant refilled the receipt printer with a used roll that had prior customers’ credit card data printed on the back, a New York community college mailed 14,000 alumni magazines with the recipients’ Social Security numbers printed on the back, and the State of Louisiana mailed 150 tax-bill reminders with a second taxpayer’s data on the back!
http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/budgeting/dingbat-data-leaks/

GM’s pilot program to have their California dealers sell cars on eBay generated interest (630,000 visits in the first week) but resulted in few sales. In the first 9 days of the pilot program, GM dealers listed 16,228 vehicles on eBay and completed 45 sales–but GM said that it got customers to go to dealers to complete sales that were not recorded on eBay:
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1086065

Study found that the spleen is much more useful than previously thought, especially for recovery from heart attacks and diseases. The study results seem to agree with a report from 1977 that found that World War II soldiers who had undergone spleen removal had higher rates of death due to diseases in general (specifically including heart disease and pneumonia) during the 28 years after the war, compared with soldiers who kept their spleens:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/46001/title/The_not-so-dispensable_spleen

70% of American children don’t get enough vitamin D, which has a variety of negative health effects for them when they are children and may increase their risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and a variety of cancers. One problem is that parents are much more worried about skin cancer and are so diligent about putting sun block on kids that kids cannot generate vitamin D from being in the sun:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/03/vitamin.d.children/index.html?iref=newssearch

The most malignant known form of malaria may have jumped from chimps to humans, and the study found that similar disease-causing parasites may soon jump from monkeys and apes to humans:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090803-malaria-origins-chimpanzees.html

Study of brain neurons seems to indicate that we actually learn more from success than failure:
http://www.livescience.com/health/090804-learn-from-success.html

Story about what happened when a husband asked his wife that he wanted a divorce and she chose not to believe him:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/fashion/02love.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

It was a *great* idea for Texas to spend their money on facility improvements for athletics instead of making an endowment like most schools. The stock market crash resulted in most schools losing *huge* portions of their athletic endowments while Texas is earning $25 million from the premium seating projects they spent their money on. This article goes over the disparity in athletic departments in the country–25 athletic programs make money (an average of about $4 million per year) while the other 94 D-IA programs lose money (an average of about $10 million per year):
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/2009/08/22/0822finances.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=54