Back after a short hiatus

Source: Technology Review Results from clinical trials of vaccines to treat nicotine and cocaine addiction are due out within the next few months. A commercial product is expected to follow shortly thereafter. In addition to reducing the effects of withdrawal, these vaccines also induce the body to generate antibodies that bind to the drug being ingested and reduce the amount that reaches the brain. In effects, they inoculate the body against the effects of the drug by engaging the body's own immune system.

Source: SlashDot Just as Australia (and more locally, Ontario) look to ban incandescent light use, General Electric has unveiled a new breed of high-efficiency light bulbs that are nearly twice as efficient as current light bulbs. They hope to push that efficiency to 4 times the current standard, which is comparable to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Source: SlashDot A Christian group in California is planning to unleash a smear campaign against Wii because they are, apparently, "...a portal to porno". Could it be... Satan?

Source: CBC News Thanks to ancalagon_tbA group of Chinese researchers have succeeded in controlling the flight of a pigeon using a microchip implanted in the bird's head. They hope to put the technology to practical use, but there is no word on what that might be.

Source: New York Times Not feeling popular enough? Like most problems, it can be "solved" by throwing enough money at it. FakeYourSpace.com offers a service in which, for 99 cents a month, you can rent an attractive person to provide comments and photos for your MySpace account. The rest of the article discusses the legalities of this an similar services, including one that you can hire to call your cell phone at a prearranged time to get you out of inconvenient events. Ah, the Internet. So genuine(tm)!

Spicy weight loss and sucking coffee through a straw

Source: News @ Nature A fitness club in Hong Kong is has hooked their stairmasters and stationary bikes to generators to supplement the building's power supply. No word on whether athletes get a discount for the amount of energy they generate.

Source: Reuters A group of US researchers report that, based on a recent study, people identified as having schizophrenia are less successful in detecting "false" notes in music that those believe to not have this disorder. Based on a study of 19 adults with schizophrenia and 19 without, those with schizophrenia were found to be less able to detect changes in pitch. A related project indicated that people with poor musical abilities were the least able to detect the emotional content of speech, so the researchers have extrapolated that poor pitch discrimination in music may indicate that people with schizophrenia are less able to detect verbal emotional cues.

Source: National Geographic One scientist has theorized that correlations between warming trends on Mars and Earth prove that global warming is due to solar cycles and not a result of human activity. The scientist claims that almost all the global warming effects observed on earth can be attributed to changes in solar activity. Understandably, this claim is not being well-received among climatologists, one of whom describes the theory as "...completely at odds with the mainstream scientific opinion...". Further, he claims that we will begin to experience a steep degree of planetary cooling over the next 15 to 20 years because the level of solar irradiance has been declining since the 1990s.

Source: Coolest Gadgets Java Wand is a variant on the french presse coffee maker (which I use regularly at home), but in this case the coffee (or tea) is placed in the mug and the grounds are "pressed" when you sip on the specially-designed straw. Cool idea, but I think I'll stick with the old-fashioned method.

Source: PhysOrg Food Scientists in Taiwan (of course) have determined that capsaicin can stall the development of fat cells, and encourages the immature fat cells to self-destruct, what is referred to as apoptosis. This may indicate that spicy foods could work as a preventative measure against excessive weight gain.