NYT Editorial - Throwing the Rule Book at the N.F.L. - NYTimes.com

NYTimes Editorial

Throwing the Rule Book at the N.F.L.

Published: May 26, 2010

The National Football League does not condone gambling, but it lost a giant bet this week when the Supreme Court firmly rejected its contention that it is not subject to the nation’s antitrust laws. The court’s unanimous decision sends a conspicuous message to other sports leagues — except Major League Baseball — that when it comes to selling merchandise, charging for parking and paying players, they have to play by the rules.

Editorial - Throwing the Rule Book at the N.F.L. - NYTimes.com

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'Impossible motion' trick wins Illusion Contest - physics-math - 11 May 2010 - New Scientist

'Impossible motion' trick wins Illusion Contest

• 17:48 11 May 2010 by James Urquhart
• For similar stories, visit the The Human Brain Topic Guide

Video: Impossible motion

A gravity-defying illusion has won the 2010 Best Illusion of the Year Contest, held yesterday in Naples, Florida.

The visual trick involves a 3D construction of four slopes that appear to extend downwards away from a common centre (see video). When wooden balls are placed on the slopes, however, they bizarrely roll upwards as if a magnet is pulling them.

But the "Impossible Motion" illusion, created by Kokichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Kawasaki, Japan, is soon dispelled when

'Impossible motion' trick wins Illusion Contest - physics-math - 11 May 2010 - New Scientist

Weed resistance could mean herbicide is futile - environment - 13 May 2010 - New Scientist

Weed resistance could mean herbicide is futile

• 13 May 2010 by Bob Holmes
• Magazine issue 2760. Subscribe and save
• For similar stories, visit the Food and Drink and Evolution Topic Guides

THE world's most popular herbicide is losing its knockout punch. More and more weeds are evolving resistance to glyphosate - originally marketed by Monsanto as Roundup - but the problem could have been forestalled by farming practices enriched by a better understanding of evolution.

This is a serious problem. "Glyphosate is as important to world food production as penicillin is to human health," says Stephen Powles, a plant scientist at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

In 1996, Monsanto began selling crop varieties genetically modified to contain a gene for glyphosate resistance. This enabled farmers to spray glyphosate - lethal to plants yet non-toxic to animals - on their fields to kill weeds without damaging the crops, even during the growing season.

Today nearly 100 million hectares worldwide are planted with glyphosate-resistant crops. In much of the south-eastern US, as well as Brazil and Argentina, farmers grow glyphosate-resistant corn, soybeans and cotton year after year and have come to rely almost exclusively on this herbicide. This has encouraged at least nine species of weed to evolve their own glyphosate resistance, to the point where some farmers can no longer control weed infestations.

Weed resistance could mean herbicide is futile - environment - 13 May 2010 - New Scientist

The Moral Life of Babies - NYTimes.com

NYTimes
May 3, 2010

The Moral Life of Babies

By PAUL BLOOM

Not long ago, a team of researchers watched a 1-year-old boy take justice into his own hands. The boy had just seen a puppet show in which one puppet played with a ball while interacting with two other puppets. The center puppet would slide the ball to the puppet on the right, who would pass it back. And the center puppet would slide the ball to the puppet on the left . . . who would run away with it. Then the two puppets on the ends were brought down from the stage and set before the toddler. Each was placed next to a pile of treats. At this point, the toddler was asked to take a treat away from one puppet. Like most children in this situation, the boy took it from the pile of the “naughty” one. But this punishment wasn’t enough — he then leaned over and smacked the puppet in the head.
Continued at The Moral Life of Babies - NYTimes.com

NYTimes

May 7, 2010

Workers on Oil Rig Recall a Terrible Night of Blasts

By IAN URBINA and JUSTIN GILLIS

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly 50 miles offshore at the big oil rig floating on a glassy-calm sea, a helicopter landed early on the morning of April 20, carrying four executives from BP, the oil company. The men were visiting the Deepwater Horizon to help honor the crew for its standout safety record.


The rig workers were buzzing for another reason. They were nearly done with the latest job. It had been a little tricky, but it was nothing they could not handle.

As night fell, Micah Joseph Sandell, 40, was in the small cab of his crane, three stories above the bustling deck. Two floors down from the helipad, men in red coveralls waited for dinner in a hall lined with gold safety plaques. Eugene Dewayne Moss, a 37-year-old crane operator, realized he needed to tear himself away from a movie to get ready for his overnight shift.

“I thought, Oh man, I’ve got to go,” Mr. Moss recalled. “I got up, turned my TV off.”

Seconds later, a thundering explosion rocked the rig, the beginning of a terrifying night for the men who would survive one of the most harrowing disasters in the history of the oil business.

Continued at:  Workers on Oil Rig Recall a Terrible Night of Blasts