Weekend Links

• The Dirt on Biofuels – There's also this Guardian article, and a summary of a few more related articles can be found in Carfree Times no. 51, in the section titled "Rich Drivers Starving Poor Families."
• Latest Efficiency Directive: Low-Resistance Tires – Good idea. (Naturally, the tire industry opposes it.) And while we're legislating about tires, could we follow European standards and limit their maximum sound output to 70 dB? I've routinely measured more than 80 dB from cars on a 30 mph road at one of my bus stops. That's a significant civic noise pollution source.
• Did the Rat Island restoration effort kill 41 bald eagles? – Getting rid of the rats was still a good idea.
• Why Japan's whaling activities are not research – Not that there was any doubt.
• NASA Successfully Launches LRO/LCROSS for Return to the Moon
• SpaceX Update: Falcon 9 Flight 1 – Encouraging progress. Good luck, folks.
• Wayne Hale: Its your choice, really – On the value of exploration. If some of the logic is left a bit fuzzy, it's made up for by the Chinese history lesson.
• Grey hair may be protecting us from cancer – Oh, well, that's all right then.
• Sleeping on a complex decision may be a bad choice
• Smaller reactor design for fusion may work in a "pinch" – Another potential route to fusion power. So, is research in this direction getting all of the funding it needs, or are we keeping all of our eggs in the ITER basket?
• Physicists create 'black hole for sound'
• The Rain's Maintained Speed Strain Is Now Explained – Rain? I've heard of that....
• Nine extraordinary clouds
• University claims Apple's glossy screens may cause injury – Can't stand those pro-glare screens, personally. And, yes, I've seen them used at awkward angles to try to avoid the glare/reflection problem. That's bad on the face of it, but the absurdity is compounded by the fact that all LCD displays have limited viewing angles (some very limited, especially on lower-cost equipment), beyond which many severely distort, or even invert, the colors they display. Which, to my mind, puts the lie to the "glossy screens look better" claim. Under ideal circumstances, they may look better, but in the real world, things are more complicated.
• Pentagon Wants Cyborg Insects to Sniff WMD, Offer Free Wi-Fi
• Krugman: The Big Hate – And some related items bear mentioning: McVeigh did not act alone, there was Terry Nichols, and there've been suggestions of militia groups providing support, as well. Then there was the maniac who crashed a light aircraft into the White House. And the maniac who sprayed the White House with (if memory serves) AK-47 fire. I believe there were other incidents in that period, but the specifics aren't springing to mind.