Mainstream News

Useless U.S.-Canada train roundtrips exploit U.S. energy program

"A train carrying biodiesel crisscrossed the Canada-US border repeatedly without unloading its cargo, exploiting a loophole in a US green energy program. The EPA mandates that oil companies must bring a certain amount of renewable fuel to the US market. Verdeo retired an equivalent number of credits generated from ethanol production that were worth pennies compared to biodiesel credits that traded as high as one US dollar apiece when it turned the train around. A dozen back-and-forth railway trips across the border reportedly cost Can $2.6 million but would have generated biodiesel credits worth US $12 million." Continue reading →

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Sweden’s small Arctic town of Kiruna plans to offer commercial space flights

"Sweden’s small Arctic town of Kiruna has a surprisingly international airport with regular flights to London and Tokyo, but it has even bigger plans: to offer commercial space flights. The idea is that space tourists would take off for a maximum two-hour trip into space aboard futuristic spacecraft currently undergoing testing, which resemble a cross between an airplane and a space shuttle and which can carry between one and six passengers. The sub-orbital flights will send passengers 100 kilometres (60 miles) above Earth and allow them to experience five minutes of weightlessness." Continue reading →

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France bans controversial chemical BPA in food packaging

"The French parliament voted Thursday to ban the use of bisphenol A, a chemical thought to have a toxic effect on the brain and nervous system, in baby food packaging next year and all food containers in 2015. The chemical, commonly known as BPA, is used in 'polycarbonate' types of hard plastic bottles and as a protective lining in food and beverage cans. It became a concern following evidence in lab animals of a toxic effect on the brain and nervous system. Some studies have found a link between exposure to BPA and coronary heart disease and reproductive disorders." Continue reading →

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Genetically modified salmon not harmful, FDA says

"Federal health regulators say a genetically modified salmon that grows twice as fast as normal is unlikely to harm the environment, clearing the way for the first approval of a scientifically engineered animal for human consumption. The document concludes that the fish 'will not have any significant impacts on the quality of the human environment of the United States.' Regulators also said that the fish is unlikely to harm populations of natural salmon, a key concern for environmental activists. The FDA said more than two years ago that the fish appears to be safe to eat, but the agency had taken no public action since then." Continue reading →

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Smugglers use cannon to fire 85 pounds of marijuana into Arizona

"In what appears to be yet another innovation in the drug war arms race, authorities said they found 33 cans of marijuana weighing about 85 pounds, and worth approximately $42,500, strewn across a field on Friday. A search turned up a carbon dioxide tank likely used to propel the containers. The emergence of an actual cannon, though surprising, isn’t an entirely unexpected development. The National Guard said last year that it spotted drug smugglers using catapults. Some have even resorted to homemade submarines — one of which sunk off the coast of Panama just last week." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSmugglers use cannon to fire 85 pounds of marijuana into Arizona

Turning urine into brain cells could help fight Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

"Chinese researchers have devised a new technique for reprogramming cells from human urine into immature brain cells that can form multiple types of functioning neurons and glial cells. The technique, published today in the journal Nature Methods, could prove useful for studying the cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and for testing the effects of new drugs that are being developed to treat them." Continue reading →

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Doctors eradicate girl’s cancer by reprogramming HIV

"A reprogrammed version of the virus that causes AIDS was used by doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to wipe out a little girl’s terminal leukemia. According to The New York Times, 6-year-old Emma Whitehead didn’t have much longer to live when the radical and untested therapy was pitched to her parents. But after two relapses, they’d exhausted all other options. So, using modified HIV that disables transmission of the virus, doctors loaded in up with custom T-cells that reprogrammed her immune system to fight off her leukemia." Continue reading →

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Paralyzed woman controls robotic arm with thoughts alone

"A woman who is paralysed from the neck down has stunned doctors with her extraordinary skill at using a robotic arm that is controlled by her thoughts alone. Several groups around the world are developing so-called brain-machine interfaces to control robotic arms and other devices, such as computers, but none has achieved such impressive results. Researchers said Jan was able to move the robotic arm back, forward, right, left, and up and down only two days into her training. Within weeks she could reach out, and change the position of the hand to pick up objects on a table and put them down at another location." Continue reading →

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SpaceShipTwo edges closer to powered flight

"A long-awaited major milestone for a leading suborbital vehicle developer—the first powered flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo—is a little bit closer to taking place after a test flight Wednesday. Virgin Galactic reported SpaceShipTwo flew its first glide flight in 'powered flight configuration', with its rocket motor system, including tanks and nozzle, installed. The flight also featured the first flight with thermal protection material installed on the vehicle’s leading edges, components needed for high-speed powered flight." Continue reading →

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These Are the Best Internet Service Providers

"If you're looking for the fastest, most reliable internet service provider, here you have the ranking of all the major ISPs in the United States. It's actual, real world performance—compiled by Netflix from all its customer data: 30 million members watching 1 billion hours of movie content every month. That's a lot of data, so you can be sure this is a reliable classification. The best is Google Fiber. According to Netflix, 'Google Fiber is now the most consistently fast ISP in America, according to actual user experience on Netflix streams in November.'" Continue reading →

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