“ China’s share of the world’s published scientific articles soared from 0.2% in 1980, to 7.4% in 2006, when it overtook Japan for the first time (see graph). Productivity in this respect is not yet matched by quality. The citation impact score for Chinese research — a measure defined so that the average for the world is 1.0 — remained stagnant at about 0.35 for decades. In the decade from 1995, it doubled to 0.73, and in materials science and nanotechnology, two of China’s specializations, its score is approaching 1.0.
China: The great contender
Udderings
Cards announce Ballpark Village plan - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
The existence of this hole greatly annoyed me senior year.
Feist on Sesame Street (via BobbyBenson85)
Fear of thieves siphoning fuel has made these locking gas caps all the rage these days. One gas-cap maker has already sold more locking caps in the first six months of this year (about 1.3 million) than in all of 2007. (per Time)I wonder if they make these for golf cart gas tanks. We have no proof, but we suspect two carts were drained of gas a few weeks back while out for a round of golf. Four gallon tanks and people are stealing the gas. Is it really worth the effort to steal $16 worth of gas?
Another reason to switch to electric vehicles…
Earnings Fall at American Express, and Its Shares Suffer - NYTimes.com
This is what happens to your company when you refuse to believe your customers who say they’ve moved from Virginia to Massachusetts…
A quest for oil and gas on Georges Bank
A lot of people fighting wind turbines off Cape Cod view them as the new version of the oil platforms they had to deal with in the late 70’s.
(On a different note, searching for Georges Bank, MA on Google Maps proves the value of them integrating user-created content into results. The user-created entry is infinitely more useful than any result Google would have otherwise provided. Color me impressed.)
“ I’ve been on the job 27 years, and I’ve never had 10 people struck by lightning at once.
An EMS Supervisor on the freak accident in Dorchester last night (5 remain in intensive care after lightning strike)
A lot of people don’t believe me when I say my former roommate is a bodybuilder. I hope this serves as proof. He came second overall in this competition. If he had come in first, he would have qualified for the professional circuit.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
A description of St. Louis in annoyingly well-enunciated VOA Special English
MIT researchers offer glimpse of rare mutant cells - MIT News Office
Back during my time at MIT, I thought this system being developed by the Engelward lab was amazing. It’s nice to see it being published. Essentially, they can make cells fluoresce when they they mutate, which helps in understanding cancer. The MIT news article doesn’t mention that it only works in certain tissues, which limits it’s applicability, but they’ve already made a key insight into mutation with this piece showing that 90 percent of mutated cells inherited the mutation instead of mutating on their own.