Mutant Purple Potatoes and Bubble Computers

Source: MAKE Magazine Tired of stacking dishes? This device recycles cups, bowls and plates by molding new ones from the remains of the old. The device uses the shape-memory of acrylic to regenerate a dish thousands of times before becomes real garbage. Mind you, it still doesn't replace a dishwasher, just the cupboards.

Source: MedGadget Duke University researchers have developed a way to weave artificial cartilage. The weave forms a scaffold on which stem cells can be placed to grow replacement cartilage.

Source: MedGadget MIT researchers have developed a "computer" that uses bubbles instead of electronics to transfer information.This means that the bubbles themselves can carry information that previously had to be converted to electrical impulses. The interactions of bubbles within the microfluidic channels becomes a form of processing, with the presence or absence of a bubble being equivalent to a high or low voltage in a conventional microprocessor.

Source: SlashDot The University of Washington is working on a system for allowing the death deaf (thanks trippingpossum) to talk through cellphones using sign language. The challenge is to find a video compression method that will work with the low data rates that cellphones use while retaining the message. The study is looking for people fluent in ASL (American Sign Language) so if you are interested, pay them a visit at http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/MobileASL/ where you can find a sign-up page.

Source: BBC News Thanks to ancalagon_tb for alerting me to this. The latest food fad in Shanghai is mutant potato. Specifically, consumers are lining up to sample purple potatoes grown from seeds mutated in space during a recent manned Chinese space mission.

Clocks and Coatracks

Source: ChronArte Canna Water Clock is a Series of Tubes, Looks Lovely

Source: Hook Box Combines Two Conveniences In One

Source: $230k Flight Simulator Took 10 Years in the Making

Source: Senz Aerodynamic Umbrella Breaks Wind Without the Smell

Source: An Orange Clockwork

Various and assorted

For the musicians out there: Rose Garden ( http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ ) music software is Open Source and looks like it has some powerful features. Only runs on Linux though, so I can't give it a go myself.

According to Warren Ellis ( http://www.warrenellis.com/ ), Valentine's day was another Christianized pagan holiday that originally involved blood, sex, and werewolves. He suggests we great each other with "Happy Horny Werewolf Day".

Paper #1 has passed two internal reviews and just awaits a review by my supervisor at Carleton. After that, it goes to a journal to see if it will be accepted. Papers #2 and #3 are on the queue for today and tomorrow.

The difficult part of research is not the theory, or even coming up with new ideas. It's attempting to jam the round peg of theory into the square hole of what your test equipment can do. Often, as I am being reminded currently, the system was never designed to do what you want it to do because you're the first one to think of making it do that.

U.S. group wants Canada blacklisted over piracy

Source: Globe and Mail

U.S. group wants Canada blacklisted over piracy

BARRIE MCKENNA

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

WASHINGTON — A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize.

( The rest of the article for those who are interested )

Mostly Medical

Source: EurekAlert! A recent study by the American Journal of Medical Genetics revealed that people with genetic-based illnesses are twice as likely to report being denied health insurance as those with other types of chronic illnesses.

Source: PhysOrg Scientists have successfully cloned healthy mice that have lived to adulthood from adult skin stem cells. The stem cells, called keratinocytes, are obtained from part of the hair follicles and are involved in skin repair and hair growth. Stem cells from male mice were found to be significantly more successful in producing viable embryos (5.4% versus 1.6%), and all mice were eventually found to be healthy and fertile.

Source: New Scientist Scientists are experimenting with modifying a type of protein found in the hair cells of the human ear, called prestin, which can be used to convert motion into electricity. They envision using this to create a "power skin" that generates electricity when the wearer moves. The first application they describe is to augment the power supplies of astronauts by having their suits generate energy every time the astronauts move.

Source: New Scientist Researchers at the University of Geneva have developed a haptic glove that allows you to experience the feel of different fabrics. The glove contains an array of pins, 24 pins per square centimetre, under each finger which move to emulate the feel of a particular fabric. The challenge is that the "refresh rate" of your touch sensors is more than 500 times each second, compared to the 20 to 30 times per second of the average person's visual system. So far, they have been able to achieve 40 refreshes per second. Now, what else could this be used for....

Source: Sci Fi Tech This is a mod of a standard in-car cassette player in which the internal workings have been replaced with an iPod mount. Unfortunately, it's not for sale, but expect to see something similar offered in cars soon as the iPod wave continues.

Tech for your Valentine (or Horny Werewolf)

Source: HTTP Panties

Source: Rulered Sheets Make Sure You Stay On Your Side

Source: Geekiest Wedding Ring, it’s Binary

Source: Heart-Shaped, Wireless Vibrating Panty Insert - Whee!

Source: iDo: Utilizing the iPod for Wedding Planning

Scientists in love: When two worlds collide

Source: News @ Nature: Special Report

A very interesting article on the problems of being two scientists in a relationship, written by one-half of a newly-married scientist couple.