• Nature’s strongest glue could be used as a medical adhesive
  A force of about 1 micronewton was required to remove a single Caulobacter crescentus from a glass pipette: 70 N/mm^2! That’s roughly equivalent to three or four cars suspended from a quarter-sized dollop of glue. Superglue wimps out at 18 to 28 N/mm^2.
  
• Study Links Punishment to an Ability to Profit – New York Times
  “About two-thirds of the students initially chose to play in a group that did not permit punishment. In the other group, the students had the option in each round of penalizing other players; it cost one token to dock another player three tokens. All participants could see who was contributing what as the game progressed, and could choose to switch groups before each round. By the fifth round, about half of those who began the study in the no-penalty group had switched to the punitive one. A smaller number of students migrated in the other direction, but by Round 20 most had come back and the punishment-free community was a virtual ghost town.” I don’t know that it’s about punishment, as about fairness — punishment is a means, justice the end.
• Inhabitat: Paulo Mendes da Rocha wins 2006 Pritzker Prize
  This year’s Pritzker Prize has been awarded to Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Da Rocha’s work is significant for his poetic use of an utterly simple material — concrete. In 60 years of practice, the architect has created high-rises, stadiums, houses, museums, and even a chapel from concrete. Da Rocha’s choice to work in concrete was a practical one; Brazil was not a wealthy nation and it lacked the highly trained workers required to tackle other building methods. His creative use of this humble material became a major influence helping define “Brazilian Brutalism” as an architectural style for the growing nation. ” The pdf photobook is well worth the download; if you like modernist architecture and/or concrete, his work is lovely.
• Study Skills Library – Academic Skills Center – Cal Poly
  “The simple cure? Do everything opposite. Tell yourself: this isn’t so hard, it won’t take long, and I am sure that I know how to do it, or that I can learn while I’m doing it. And no one else really cares because they are all so busy with their own problems.” Via rebecca blood.
• Michael Bérubé’s “Web” “Log”: How Horowitz is My Valley
  More whup-ass: Berube rips Horowitz his — what, fourteenth? — new asshole. Most entertaining.
• I deeply resent the way this Administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist.
  The quotable TNH.
• DocBug: Webaroo
  Here’s an interesting idea: cache the web locally. All of it.
• Research provides clues to obesity’s cause and hints of new approach for curbing appetite
  CRP modulates leptin signaling; mechanism/function not clear.
• Americans love competition, but is it pushing our scientists too far?
  “A new study suggests that the competitive nature of research fosters an environment where scientific misbehavior takes place far more often than the misconduct that makes headline news. And because scientific misbehavior involves more mundane decisions and actions, it may be easier for researchers to look the other way.”
• Circadiana: Chossat’s Effect in humans and other animals
  Bora helps to usher in a new era of scientific publishing. I’m serious.
• : : Speak Up > Ye Olde Graphic Designer : :
  Heraldry for corporations. Clever, thorough and satisfyingly geeky. Via Coudal.
  
• Chuck Currie: Erik Sten, Jack Bog & The Truth About Homelessness In Portland
  Whup. Ass. Chuck Currie gives the egregious Jack Bog a lesson in knowing what the fuck you’re talking about.

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