meta-roj

ot to be outdone by their british colleagues, researchers at virginia tech and the university of new south wales have decided to skip the flower part and make their hydrogen from sunlight.

the virginia tech group uses “supramolecular complexes” to do the deed – you can read more here. the catch here is that their supramolecular complexes are expensive. this work is with karen brewer.

the new south wales group opted for titanium oxide ceramics. you can read the press release (which is conveniently prominently linked from the university’s front page), or for a glossy version, check out the brochure [pdf]. leads here are charles sorrell and janusz nowotny.

for those of us interested in the potential of a hydrogen economy, it may be a good idea to stock up on sunflowers. university of leeds department of fuel and energy researchers have developed a fossil-fuel-free hydrogen production process based on a couple catalysts and water.

the paper, Production of Hydrogen from Sunflower Oil [pdf], was presented yesterday by dr. valerie dupont.

it’s a little late to participate much, but today is still, technically, the save darfur day of conscience.

i’ve mentioned sudan a few times here. do something.

death psychology

it’s the big story this week, but i want to emphasize one particularly disturbing statement.

General: Some abuse at Abu Ghraib amounted to torture [cnn, august 25, 2004]

He [general paul kern] said the investigation also found that at least eight “ghost” detainees were kept at Abu Ghraib. They were not registered on official logs and were allegedly moved around the facility and hidden from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Intel Unit Members Faulted in Iraq Abuse [ap via abc news, august 25, 2004]

The nonmilitary interrogators had wider latitude in determining what techniques they could use. They also kept at least eight “ghost detainees” prisoners concealed from the International Committee of the Red Cross. One of those detainees died during interrogation.

you don’t “hide prisoners” and “move them around” and let them die during interrogation without the support of someone withsome power and influence in the facility. this can’t be just a few people doing bad things.

this is a story about one “ghost prisoner” that came back to life.

the conflict between jibjab and ludlow music, which claimed copyright on “this land is your land” is settled, based on the discovery that the song is, in fact, in the public domain.

the news is at eff which brought a lawsuit on behalf of jibjab. corante has a decent collection of posts and links on the story as it developed (start at the bottom, read up).

i didn’t see any news about refunds for anyone else that had been shaken down by ludlow music for use of the song since the copyright expired, but that would be an interesting follow-up.

hanged at 16

super typhoon chaba [133k jpg]

the new york times, on august 22, ran an article called Google Is One for the Books, Leaving Some With Regrets. that’s not terribly surprising, since google was a big attention getter over the past few months leading up to the ipo. what’s surprising is that the new york times has the google ipo happening in august of 2000. [and for when that link dies, here’s a local copy.]

ipo like it’s 1999!

[via kevin marks, who saw it first]

from the chemistry department, we’ve found pterostilbene in blueberries. known to occur in grapes for a while now, this stuff is in a sublcass of antioxidants called phytoalexins and apparently lowers cholesterol.

so add blueberries to your chocolate-and-red-wine diet.

better living through chemistry, indeed. get your polyphenyls, flavanols and phytoalexins. just be careful with the wonka brand gum.