can you wrap your head around this? it is a compelling interactive visualization of the metric system on the logarithmic scale - going from sub-nuclear levels (10^-15meters) all the way to the scale of tens of thousands of lightyears (10^20 meters).
Woah.

The latest war funding request, ostensibly to be approved of before Congress takes their Holiday break, would bring the total spent on GWOT to $611 billion. Up to the fiscal year that ended in October 2007, we spent $455 billion over 55 months. That means we are renting Iraq for about 8 billion dollars a month (that includes the $ for Afghanistan, but this figure is also lower than the average since the surge started). Whether or not we wind up with a more stable Iraq than what existed before Bush undertook this adventure still pretty open, but a very interesting question is “How else could this money have been spent to better secure and advance the American national interest?”

Some astute folks over at the Boston Globe decided to answer this question in a compelling slideshow.

My favorite:

“With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over.”

It must be tough being filthy rich. You always have to worry who has more money than you, whether your kids are doing too much blow, whether you are making enough appearances at charity to not justifiably be called a greedy parasite, and of course, whether your spouse married you for the money, etc etc.

BUT, you shouldn’t have to worry whether or not there are mouse turds in your $1000 sundae. Alas, it turns out that the cliché petulantly proffered by the wealthy “it’s so hard to get good help these days” from time to time applies at the heretofore ultra-chic eatery Serendipity 3. That’s right, one of a few Hot-Shit Magnets in NYC got shut down for failing two — not one, but TWO — department of health inspections in the span of a month. From Yahoo:

An inspector spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings, fruit flies, house flies and more than 100 live cockroaches.” Both inspections revealed rodent and fly infestation and conditions conducive to pest infestation, including stagnant water in the basement,” the department said.

Mais quel dommage! Why is this such a shame, you ask?

People stand in line for hours outside the Manhattan restaurant, known for its extravagant and expensive desserts. Its $25,000 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate features top-grade cocoa, edible gold and shavings of a luxury truffle and was declared the most expensive dessert in the world
by Guinness World Records. The eatery also offers a $1,000 sundae named Golden Opulence requiring 48-hour advance notice.

I think some renaming is in order. Serendipity 3 should be “FailedHealthInspections 2″. Any suggestions for their $25,000 “Frrrozen Haute Chocolate”?

It’s always nice to start your day with some uplifting news. Turns out some researchers from Penn State that have been trying to increase the efficiency of hydrogen production using bacteria that feed on biomass (plant matter, food scraps, and on Mondays only, dogshit) have recently made a headline-grabbing breakthrough:

In laboratory experiments, their reactor generated hydrogen gas at nearly 99 percent of the theoretical maximum yield using aetic acid, a common dead-end product of glucose fermentation.

“This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added in the process,” said Bruce Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State.

Can you imagine filling your gas tank with the leftovers from your picnic (assuming you had mostly vegetables)? The best part is this is not another one of those greenwashing stories á la “we-can-power-a-car-on-hydrogen-but-it’ll-take-another-20-years” variety; according to one of the team members, the technology is available today.

“The technology is economically viable now, which gives hydrogen an edge over another alternative biofuel which is grabbing more headlines”, Logan said. “The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road,” said Logan.

Pretty wonderful news. Let’s hope that enough information about the process gets out so people can start tinkering with this technology, and we won’t have to wait for the auto industry to investigate.

This is a pretty awesome animation. It takes a minute to load, but is well worth the wait.