Archive for 2013

THE MOST ACCURATE GUN CONTROL POLL IN AMERICA.

I’D NEVER HEARD OF EDWIN MELLEN PRESS BEFORE, but it sounds as if they haven’t heard of the Streisand Effect before, either.

FASTER, PLEASE: Unique Peptide Has Therapeutic Potential Against Cancers, Neurological Disorders, and Infectious Diseases.

UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have synthesized a peptide that shows potential for pharmaceutical development into agents for treating infections, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer through an ability to induce a cell-recycling process called autophagy. . . . In their latest findings reported online in the journal Nature, Center researchers were able to synthesize a peptide called Tat-beclin 1, which induces the autophagy process. Mice treated with Tat-beclin-1 were resistant to several infectious diseases, including West Nile virus and another mosquito-borne virus called chikungunya that is common to Asia, Africa, and India. In additional experiments, the team demonstrated that human cells treated with the peptide were resistant to HIV infection in a laboratory setting.

Hmm.

WHY GUN CONTROL IS OBSOLETE: New 3-D Printed Rifle Magazine Lets You Fire Hundreds of Rounds.

Meet the “Cuomo.” It’s a new printed magazine for your AR-15 rifle, soon to be available for download, and it holds 30 bullets. Upgrading an earlier design that didn’t hold up particularly well after extended use, it’s an unsubtle rejoinder to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who recently signed a magazine-restriction law limiting mags to seven rounds. Defense Distributed is basically saying that if you’re not going to be allowed to buy larger magazines in the near future, you can print them yourself — if, that is, 3-D printed weapons don’t fall into legislators’ own crosshairs.

In recent tests at a gun range near Austin, Texas, Defense Distributed fired a total of 342 rounds using the magazine with no issues, according to the group’s founder, Cody Wilson. The group fired 227 of those rounds using full automatic fire, while swapping out the barrels on the rifle to keep them cool. The group also uploaded a promotional video, seen above, demonstrating a portion of the test.

Cool. And gun control, by the way, is a movement of old, uncool white people.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Where’s My Personal Jetpack? I think I left it in the trunk of the flying car.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Finally confirmed: An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. “A team of American and European researchers have confirmed that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction — the event that wiped out roughly 75% of the planet’s species, including almost every dinosaur — was caused by an asteroid impact in Mexico 66 million years ago. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction was the last great extinction event to occur on Earth, and is most notable for causing the diversification of mammals that eventually resulted in Homo sapiens.”

DAREDEVILS SLAMMED for cable car stunt.

A pair of daredevils have been criticised for riding on top of a cable car as it climbed more than 3,000ft to a mountain precipice.

The pair sat calmly eating snacks as they dangled their legs over the edge of the gondola as it inched its way up in China’s Qingtianhe national park.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” said one fellow tripper.

“After a few minutes they opened the door and climbed onto the roof and sat there as relaxed as if they’d been sitting on the ground.

“It must have been freezing for them but when they got to the top they just hopped off looking very pleased with themselves,” they added.

Officials at the park in Jiaozuo, Henan province, warned other visitors of the risks.

No, it’s not safe.

WELL-MANNERED KIDS EARN A RESTAURANT DISCOUNT.

Another restaurant receipt has gone viral, but this one has a happier story behind it than the last one. The King family of Washington state went out for pizza and discovered to their surprise that the restaurant gave them a $4 discount on the receipt for “well behaved kids.” (They have three, ages 2, 3, and 8.) A friend posted the receipt to Reddit, and it quickly became an Internet hit.

Nice.