Thanks to a new federal regulation meant to conserve energy in the United States, this Sunday our clocks will spring forward three weeks earlier than they did last year. According to scaremongers, this change will trigger a "mini-Y2K." Time magazine, for one, warns that the time change will lead to "computer glitches that some fear could run to Y2K proportions."

Y2K was supposed to bring the world to its knees. Clearly, we're still trying to stand up.

If nothing happened on Y2K, you can expect even less than nothing to happen this Sunday. But best to tweak a few tech devices, anyhow. If you've got a PC, go to microsoft.com/dst2007 and double-check the updates explained there. If you've got a Mac, follow these instructions. Palm and BlackBerry offer downloads for mobile customers, as do nearly all other popular PDA and even phone makers. A lot of dumber appliances — coffee makers, microwave ovens — don't do DST at all, so you'll have to reset them as always. Same old.

And to ensure that you do not miss any meetings or appointments next week, be sure to edit your online calendar to include the correct time in the meeting's subject line. That way if your computer uses the wrong timestamp, you'll be covered.

Scientists Devise New Method of Attacking Cancer
A team of experts from the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research gave mice a chemical that caused cancer cells to "commit suicide," according to BBC news.

"The chemical significantly slowed the growth of the tumors in the mice and could pave the way for a new agent to stop cancer developing."

In further laboratory studies, the research team found that the chemical could kill several types of cancer cells, including bowel, cervical and bone cells.

The Cancer Research UK experts reported their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

$526.62 + $50
What if your monthly power bill jumped nearly 200 percent to $526.62?

An Illinois man who's fed up with a 200 percent higher electric bill has come up with a way to show just how peeved he is with the bill while still paying it: he's going to send 52,662 pennies.

Oh, and the postage to have the pennies delivered: $50.

(via local news)

Biz Quote of the Week
I don't want to be too sophisticated here, but 2007 is going to suck, all 12 months of the calendar year. Our future is not as bright as what we would like it to be. -Donald Tomnitz, D.R. Horton CEO, at a Citigroup Inc. conference in New York

Mission accomplished.

Chinese and Indian Soot Messing with W. Coast
Soot produced by burning coal in China and India is not only making it harder for local people to breathe — it could actually be contributing to freakish weather in Canada and the U.S., reports a team of scientists.

The particles of pollution — aerosols — are responsible for the brown haze over many Chinese cities. However, they also drift upward over the Pacific, where they are causing more large clouds to form higher in the atmosphere where it is colder, Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, tells Canada's The Globe and Mail.

The result has been more intense storms over the ocean, Zhang and colleagues argue in a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More intense storms over the Pacific will change the airflow patterns around the globe, they say.

Human-Rice Hybrid
The first plant/human hybrid is to be approved for commercial scale cultivation.

The plant in question: rice. But according to The Register, the rice has been spliced with human DNA that will make it grow a protein in both human breast milk and saliva. Ventria Bioscience, the California-based firm behind the crop, says the protein can be used to treat children with diarrhea.

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given preliminary approval for the crop to be grown on a 3,000-acre plot in Kansas.

Bulletproof Raincoat
This raincoat is not only weatherproof — it is also bulletproof and stabproof. Supposedly.

According to Boing Boing:

The armor protects against 9mm Full Metal Jacket Round Nose (FMJRN) projectiles, with a weight of 8gm (124gr) at 430 m/s. Full Metal Jacket Round Nose (FMJRN) type DM11A1B2 (DN or MEN) projectiles with a weight of 8gm (124gr) at 415m/s. 44 Magnum jacketed Soft Point (JSP) type Norma 11103/61103 projectiles with a weight of 15.6gm (158gr) at 390 m/s. 44 Magnum Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) projectiles with a weight of 15.6gm (240gr) at 430 m/s. Eastern European Tokarev LC 7.62 x 25mm steel core projectile with a weight of 5.5gm at 455 m/s.

This jacket also protects against stabs, cuts and slashes with sharp and blunt edged weapons up to 25 Joules according PSDB (2003), notes the SpyCatcher product page. Soooooo, if someone on the street tries to jab a broken bottle or an ice pick into your gut, you can just laugh, laugh gaily right in his or her face. Well, until they go for your face or something. The jacket won't protect your face. Just keep that in mind.

Hijacking the Easter Bunny
The city of Walnut Creek, near San Francisco, renamed its Easter Bunny the "Spring Bunny" without controversy in 2003. Dependably tardy to the story, local TV news outlets, and now national news, finally jumped on it Thursday — yes, four years later — after someone wrote a letter-to-the-editor about it.

According to Scripps, the city's Spring Bunny reigns over annual "Spring Egg Hunts" in two city parks. The guy who wrote the letter, which a local paper published Wednesday, said banishing "Easter" from the eggs and especially the bunny strikes a nerve with many people.

"First people can't wish 'Merry Christmas' at a store, and now they've taken Easter away from the Easter Bunny," Runzler said in an interview Thursday.

Speaking of Socially Unacceptable
Anthropologists have labeled the phrase "stone age" as offensive, saying it should not be used to describe living people.

In particular, the Association of Social Anthropologists highlights the way the term has been used to describe tribal and indigenous people, according to BBC News. The anthropologists are backing a campaign to change the language.

Initial reports that the Geico cavemen were seen nodding in agreement have not yet been confirmed.

Q: How Do Astronauts E-mail in Space?
A: According to Slate's Ask the Explainer:

NASA delivers it via satellite. The space agency exchanges data files with astronauts throughout the day using the Ku band of microwave frequencies. This works only when there is an unobstructed path between the antenna on the space shuttle and a relay satellite in contact with Mission Control. The astronauts use the Ku band antenna to pick up and drop off e-mail two or three times a day, for about half an hour. They're each allowed to transfer up to 30 megabytes' worth of data in a session.

Also, astronauts get special NASA.gov addresses just for space missions, one for work and the other for personal use. To check their e-mail, they open Microsoft Outlook on their laptops. The space-bound messages are treated like any other message in NASA's system, except they're scrubbed one extra time for viruses.

Of course, typing can be tricky; in zero gravity, a few clicks at the keyboard can send you floating toward the ceiling. So astronauts wear foot straps when they're using their computers.

Engineering Ingenuity, Pt. 316,768
John Cornwell, who earned his BSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering/Computer Science from Duke University last May, came up with the idea for a beer-launching refrigerator six months ago and has since spent approximately 150 hours designing and building its prototype.

"I was on my couch one day, and I wanted a beer and didn't feel like getting up to get one," he said in the university's paper The Chronicle. "... I had to build it."

Although Cornwell has invented a number of other electronic products in his spare time, the fridge has been his most popular creation. In fact, as a result of the widespread interest, Cornwell has fielded calls from 100-150 people who are interested in owning a beer-launching fridge of their own. "I have been contacted by a late-night TV show and Miller Brewing Company," he said.

At his Web site, Cornwell says he has decided that "there might be a large enough interest to produce a limited number of beer launching fridges." If he were to manufacture them, he would have make a few improvements and all of the parts professionally machined for a much cleaner look (although it would still have exposed motors, gears, etc). The price would be around $1500.

Just need to get those rubber floors like in those Bud Light commercials.


Cheers.