Enhancing Berries and Soapy Uppers

Source: New Scientist Boeing has suggested a way to increase the accuracy of weather forecasts: equip commercial and military aircraft with weather radar and have them collect the data while going about their usual business. The constantly-updated data would then be used to improve simulations on which forecasts are based.

Source: New Scientist The US House of Representatives have recently passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act which makes it illegal for a person to lose their job or be denied insurance because they have the genetic predisposition for a particular illness. All that remains is for the President to sign it into law, a step that many are confident will take place. The only question in my mind is: does this deal with the possibility of an insurance company effectively denying coverage by making the premiums astronomical?

Source: Reuters According to Thai researchers, alcohol enhances the antioxidant properties of berries, already believed to have considerable antioxidant properties of their own. So the moral is that if you want to be sure that bowl of strawberries is going to be healthy, best mix it into a daiquiri. Better to be safe than sorry.

Source: Sky News A British company by the name of Bladerunner is hoodies lined with Kevlar to schoolchildren. The jumpers are, apparently in demand to protect the teenagers from being stabbed. I never knew being in high-school was such a dangerous profession.

Source: Improbable Research Morning rush got you down? How about combining two morning necessities, namely showering and the morning cup 'o jo. A new soap, called Shower Shock, is infused with enough caffeine that you can absorb the equivalent of two cups of coffee through your skin during the average wash.

Bonus fun fact from Improbable Research: The penis of a mallard duck can stretch 18 centimetres, and that of the Argentine lake duck can be as long as 42.5 centimetres. A researcher is building a transparent female duck so that she can see exactly what happens during copulation. If there are pictures or video, I don't want to see them.

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