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POPSI'll Kick The Shit Out Of You! Every once in a while I meet someone who actually brings transformation instead of doctrine, and why that matters. You rock on Mas; you are clearly and inspiration for us all.
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POPSPaper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know So, while it's good to have the alternative (and to recognize the innovation it represents), bioplastics aren't quite ready to save us from the paper or plastic debate. Paper bags or plastic bags: the conclusion Both paper and plastic bags require lots and lots of resources and energy, and proper recycling requires due diligence from both consumer and municipal waste collector or private recycling company, so there are a lot of variables that can lead to low recycling rates. Ultimately, neither paper nor plastic bags are the best choice; we think choosing reusable canvas bags instead is the way to go. From an energy standpoint, according to this Australian study, canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming that canvas bags get a good workout and are used 500 times during their life cycle. Happy shopping!
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POPSUSS Liberty Conspiracy Unravelling, at last!
"The documents also suggest that the US government, anxious to spare Israel's reputation and preserve its alliance with the US., closed the case with what even some of its participants now say was a hasty and seriously flawed investigation. "In declassifying the most recent and largest batch of materials last June 8, the 40th anniversary of the attack, the NSA, this country's chief US electronic-intelligence-gatherer and code-breaker, acknowledged that the attack had "become the center of considerable controversy and debate." It was not the agency's intention, it said, "to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material," available athttp://www.nsa.gov/liberty . "An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman called the attack a tragic and terrible accident, a case of mistaken identity, for which Israel has officially apologized." Israel also paid reparations of $6.7 million to the injured survivors and the families of those
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POPSOne virtual step for man, one real leap for mankind Combining the CityEngine with CyberWalk will allow people to go beyond strolling through the streets of ancient Pompeii and Rome. Architects, for example, could transport customers into the future, and allow them to walk through buildings even before they have been built.
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POPSFirst Underwater Hotel to Open in Dubai Amazing and interesting. Hydropolis reproduces the human organism in an architectural design. There is a direct analogy between the physiology of man and the architecture. The geometrical element is a figure eight lying on its side and inscribed in a circle. The spaces created in the basin will contain function areas, such as restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and theme suites. These can be compared to the components of the human organism: the motor functions and the nervous and cardiovascular systems, with the central sinus knot representing the pulse of all life.
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POPSU.S. Developing Robots to Carry Troops to safety. Absolutley wonderful. Everyday there is a technology story absolutley thrilling me. Along with its bear like looks it has a bear like name (Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR)) The BEAR can move on tracts, wheels or it can walk.
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POPSWhy We're Such Suckers for Advertising Of course, we are also drawn into bad behavior by the other senses — even from blocks away the smell of baking bread can send us reeling, and the sound of '80s rocks and roll can transport us back in time — but humans, like all primates, are visual animals. We are constantly distracted by what we see, and marketers know this. They wave pretty pictures at us and make sure our retinas are branded with words like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme.
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POPSFuture for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates. Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
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POPSHow geology came to help Alexander the Great Marriner's work highlights how the natural causeway started to grow faster sometime before Alexander arrived, and accelerated again after Alexander's construction blocked sediment transport in the area. This latter point is hardly surprising, says Liviu Giosan, a marine geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "Any coastal engineer could tell you about sedimentation around dikes," he says.
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POPSRoom temperature superconductivity: One step closer to the Holy Grail of physics The researchers have discovered where the charge 'hole' carriers that play a significant role in the superconductivity originate within the electronic structure of copper-oxide superconductors. These findings are particularly important for the next step of deciphering the glue that binds the holes together and determining what enables them to superconduct.
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POPSEastern Travel - 'Toy Trains' "The Japanese have taken the idea of ‘child-friendly public transport’ to the next level with these 2 beauties, both designed by eiji mitooka. he was the artistic force behind ‘omoden’ (toy train) and ‘ichigo ec’ (strawberry train), a couple of regional trains which travel on a daily basis on the 14.3km kishigawa line in japan. the Japanese are intent on making train travel a more comfortable experience for everyone, women and children especially, and the results are incredible. Both trains contain hundreds of toys, TV screens showing cartoons, immaculately clean wooden flooring and cots for younger children. Call me cynical but I can’t imagine anything like this emerging in the UK unless it was an attraction at a theme park."
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POPSArtificial Intelligence under the spotlight at BA Festival ‘Computers are now one million times more powerful than when I started my research career – no field has come close to this rate of development,’ he says. ‘If transport had progressed at the same rate we would be flying from London to New York in less than a tenth of second.’
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POPSThe Rudiments Of Wisdom An encyclopedia in cartoon format. Kinda offbeat but fun and informative. It really is surprising the amount of knowledge this guy has crammed into his silly, but somewhat profound site.
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POPSAre photographers really a threat? Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer? Because it's a movie-plot threat. This is worth fighting. Search "photographer rights" on Google and download one of the several wallet documents that can help you if you get harassed; I found one for the UK, US, and Australia. Don't cede your right to photograph in public. Don't propagate the terrorist photographer story. Remind them that prohibiting photography was something we used to ridicule about the USSR. Eventually sanity will be restored, but it may take a while.
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