An unpopular pigment used by artists in the 18th Century could lead to more energy efficient, faster computers. Cobalt green, as the dye is known, has been tested by a US team who believe it could be used in “spintronic” devices. Spintronics involves manipulating the magnetic properties of electrons to do useful computational work. Cobalt…
Lt. Watada May Face Court Martial
I heard Watada speaking at length the other day on KTUH, our uncompromised college radio station on Oahu. His arguments were compelling. Consider that at the time Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded, most of the country supported the invasions, mainly because they were being decieved by Bush and Co., consider that most of the country…
Gnarly Mamas – The Spanish Version
When I was a kid, our gang of kids used to play a game we called Gnarly Mamas. It was a stupid game. The idea was to go out at night where there were icy roads and stand in the street letting cars get as close to you as possible before diving off the road…
Dubai man-made island nears completion
This is amazing. As the oceans dissolve amidst global warming we can fill in the area with leisure capitals. We are terra-forming ala star trek. Now if we can figure out how to keep from killing ourselves or poisoning the planet, we can really begin to go somewhere. Check it out here cd Dubai man-made…
Mt. Olomana- Matterhorn of Oahu
Today I got together with my friends Ryan and Jessie and we climbed Mt. Olomana in Kailua. Stuart Ball describes it in “The Hikers Guide to Oahu” as “Oahu’s Version of the Matterhorn.” It is a 6-mile roundtrip, ungraded hike with an elevation gain of 1600 feet. There are three peaks. The access is through…
Hushed puppies at BOW WOW BISTRO: At Deco's Dog Cafe, you and your best friend both eat, but he never picks up the check.
I think it’s interesting what people eat…apparently dog is still good food in parts of Switzerland too. These days dogs are treated like an adored member of the family in Seoul where they were once raised to feed the hungry stomach of their masters. Yet dog meat is so popular among the Korean people even…
Drug 'treats depression in hours'
This is amazing. It takes weeks to feel the effect of currently-available antidepressants. The only thing that works faster is good old “electroshock therapy” (which might seem kind of primitive, but actually helps a lot of people who don’t respond to medication). Ketamine is primarily used in veterinary medicine in the US (and recreationally as…
Chinese 'anger bar' is a big hit
I guess bartenders have always done more psychotherapy than psychologists…. A bar in eastern China has come up with a novel way of attracting clients – they are allowed to beat up the staff. The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing lets customers smash glasses, rant and even hit specially trained workers, state media…
Mix up your reality…one day we'll just download ourselves to an Ipod.
“When reality gets hard to take, there’s an escape to a parallel universe — a virtual world without end where real people create online personas called avatars. Anything is possible.” The TransVision 2006 annual conference of the World Transhumanist Association, Helsinki 17-19 August 2006, organized by the WTA and the Finnish Transhumanist Association, will be…
Tibetan government in exile launches online TV site
Xeni Jardin blogged this over at BoingBoing. I like the stories Xeni posts. Sometimes she scoops me, but sometimes I scoop her too. If she ever wants to blog with us, the door is certainly open. cd http://www.tibetonline.tv/ On August 3, the Central Tibetan Administration — that’s the official name for the Tibetan government in…