$900 Million Spent Yearly to Treat Deadly Chagas Disease
It turns out that a rather obscure disease is responsible for costing the American economy more than other common illnesses each year. This disease is called "Chagas." An illness like Lyme disease, which is rather well-known in the US, costs the economy $2.5 billion a year according to a study done in 1998. Not lagging far behind is Chagas, costing the economy $900 million a year. Chagas is also responsible for about $7 billion a year being spent throughout the world on treatment, while less than $5 billion is spent on cervical cancer.
Just what is Chagas disease to begin with?...
Fracking: A Godsend or Another Way to Foul Up the Food Supply?
To some people, the concept of fracking is a blessing and is seen as a great way to keep the nation's fuel coming. Fracking is merely hydraulic fracturing of rock formations in order to extract natural gas. Many people, policymakers included, are very happy that scientists have discovered a way to drive gas prices down. The problem is that fracking uses fluid with chemicals in it to extract the natural gas. In the process, any water exposed to these chemicals becomes polluted.
The pollution of the water in these areas is significant because it can affect the crops grown using aforementioned...
A 3D Printer is Being Used to Print a House
A real house printed from a real printer? Yes, you read that right. The Dutch architecture studio Universe Architecture is putting this idea into action. The house they are planning to print will be the first of its kind and will actually be able to be inhabited. This development could lead to a myriad of possibilities for the future of architecture, as well as the way we view building technology in general.
The printer responsible for making this concept a reality is the D-Shape, which is a free-form printer that is capable of producing buildings. Similarly to how a regular printer...
Bringing a Neanderthal Baby into the World
Fifty-eight year old pioneer of genomics and synthetic biology George Church has revealed that he is very close to being able to clone a Neanderthal baby. In case you've forgotten, Neanderthals are Pleistocene-era humanoids that have been extinct for over 30,000 years. Church claims to have extracted enough DNA from fossils that he can bring this idea to fruition. All he says he needs is an "adventurous female human" to act as a surrogate mother, which means the woman would carry the child until it's ready to be born.
One of the problems with this idea is that Neanderthal babies have...
North-Korea Launches Satellite into Orbit, it Goes Out of Control
So, North Korea has managed to get a satellite into orbit. There is a North Korean satellite orbiting above the world right now. Let that sink in for a moment. That's one hell of an achievement for any nation, and something that most countries can't claim. Its been confirmed to be up there by many different sources, including our own government.
Of course, things didn't go completely to plan. North Korea's first satellite is not spinning erratically out of control, and it is now believed to be quite the hazard to other satellites. People are...
Republican Document Slams Copyright Law, Promptly gets Redacted
What happens when your party releases a document that lambasts one of your staunchest supporters? You redact it, of course! That's what happened earlier this week with the Republicans. An 8 page document titled "Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix It" was released by the Republican Study Committee, the House's Republican caucus, tackled the issue of copyright law. and it didn't tow the usual party line.
The document was partly a lesson on what copyright was originally intended to be, and part a skewering criticism of the current legal structure. It...
Oil Platform off the Coast of Louisiana Explodes
With the memory of the Deep Water Horizon disaster still fresh in our memory, and BP just taking a plea bargain with the US government making them criminally responsible for the incident, comes the news of another oil platform explosion. While it doesn't seem to be as severe as the Deepwater Horizon incident was, people are dead, and this is a tragedy.
The platform caught fire earlier this morning. 11 people were airlifted off of the platform, but already 2 of the presumed 28 person crew are dead, and 4 more injured. Two more are still missing in...
Next Star Wars Movie to be Penned by 'Toy Story 3' Writer Michael Arndt
Good news for Star Wars fans, it looks like Disney plans on treating the franchise well. We now know that writer Michael Arndt is doing the script for the new move, a good sign, considering that his previous credits include Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine. If anyone can tackle a heartwarming, slightly classical script for a movie equally about adventure and magic, it would be the man that brought us Toy Story 3.
It was only last month that Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, and already Disney is discussing development ideas with a confirmed script writer....
Despite not being Out, The Hobbit Already Outselling Twilight, Skyfall
Score one for the good guys: despite ticket preorder sales just opening up, The Hobbit is already raking in more money each day than the new James Bond move, 'Skyfall', or the new Twilight movie, 'Breaking Dawn'. The prequel to the Lord of the Rings is looking like it is going to be an enormous success, and probably cement the 'Lord of the Rings' series as one of cinema's greatest series.
Tickets went on sale last Wednesday, and on that day 33% of Fandago's ticket sales were for 'The Hobbit'. That is more than any other movie in theatre...
Ever seen a Parrot Making Tools? Now you have.
So, the faculty for tool use might just be more widespread than we though. We knew that we could use tools, and so could monkeys. Crows have been observed using tools, as have dolphins. But apparently now even parrots are capable of using tools, as evidenced by a video showing one doing just that.
The bird's name is Fiargo, and he is in captivity. Unlike most discoveries about this kind of thing, no scientists were watching when he started using tools. He just did one day, and a caretaker caught him doing it. He was...
Voting Machine Changes Vote for Obama to One for Mitt Romney
Every election cycle, there are swaths of complaints about irregular voting practices and voter fraud. This time, though, there is tangible proof that at least a few voting machines are doing something a little creepy. A software engineer in Massachusetts recorded a video of his voting machine switching an Obama vote to a Romney vote. Every time he tapped the button, it would select Mitt Romney instead of Barack Obama.
Being a software engineer, he decided to test the machine, selecting other candidates to see if it was an isolated problem. It was. He could select...
Victoria Secret Saved the 69th Regiment of the National Guard
Say what you will about the lingerie maker, when times are tough, they are willing to lend a helping hand. Each year for the last three years, Victoria Secret has held a fashion show at 69th Regiment's armory. It was preparing to do so this year, right up until the moment the hurricane hit. Then the lights went out, internet connections went down, and the whole city went to hell.
Fortunately, in order to produce the show, Victoria Secret had dragged eight massive generators to the armory. And the producers were more than willing to let the...
Virginia Citizen Charged $1.5 million for Downloading 10 Movies
Do you use Bit Torrent to download pᴏrn? Perhaps its time to move on to more legally-sound pastures. A Virginia man has just been fined $1.5 million for sharing 10 pᴏrnographic movies. That works out to a price of $150,000 per movie. Of course, that was a maximum sentence. An irate judge hit him with the maximum fine after he failed to show up for court.
Pᴏrn publisher Flava Works takes an approach growing in popularity: every movie downloaded from their site has a unique cryptographic key stored in the file. That key is the...
Felix Baumgartner Completed Record-setting Near-Space Jump
Some people sit at home, blogging about amazing things. Then others do absolutely incredible things that make those sitting at home more than a little jealous.
Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped from the edge of space, 21 miles up in the sky. He has become the only man ever to break the speed of sound outside of a vehicle, reaching mach 1.24 on the way down. That's 833 Mph.
The last time that a similar jump was attempted was 1960, when US Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger. He jumped from a height of 19.4 miles, and reached 614 Mph...
The US Airforce Tried to Build a Flying Saucer
The US Air Force had an unnatural obsession with building flying saucers. All their attempts failed, but one seems like it might have been feasible, if the project had been funded.
Project 1794 was a 1956 project to build an aircraft capable of 360 degree movement, a 1,000 mile range, and a flight ceiling of 100,000 feet. The feasibility study concluded that the design would be capable of all those things, all for the low, low price of $3,168,000 in 1956 dollars, or roughly $26 million today.
The Air Force didn't bite, and the project was eventually dropped. Instead,...
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