Michael B. Duff

Rice University researchers are responsible for making the startling discovery, which could cut down greenhouse gas emissions and save money too. We already know that graphene (carbon atoms arranged in 2 dimensional linked hexagons) is the strongest (and thinnest) substance known to man, and importantly can conduct electricity. We can look forward to it replacing valuable copper and silicon—and if it's made from normal table sugar, then that's just doubly sweet.

Despite (or rather, because of) its measly two-dimensionality, graphene is the strongest and thinnest substance in the known universe, can be stretched like rubber, and is impregnable by liquid or gas. It also conducts electricity, allowing it to (someday) beat the pants off the copper and silicon we use in, well, pretty much everything. Still unimpressed? A layer of graphene could hold up a truck atop a pencil. You don't look so great now, do you, neutron.

“They could not have played it better,” Covach said. “They have effectively maxed out the CD sales and are using iTunes as a way to find fresh revenue. I think they say there wasn’t much left in physical CD sales and when the Beatles pulled the trigger on digital distribution, it effectively kills the CD completely.”

In its gloomiest forecast since the 2007/08 food crisis, which saw food riots in more than 25 countries and 100 million extra hungry people, the report's authors urged states to prepare for hardship.

The official inquiry into the incident on 22 May, when the Boeing 737-800 overshot a hilltop runway at Mangalore in western India and plunged down a ravine, concluded that the Serbian captain was asleep for more than half of the three-hour flight from Dubai and was "disorientated" when he attempted to land the plane.

These are kind of amazing. Gena Rowlands IS Betty Draper. And Brando. So much passion, so much crazy.

Blue State QOTD: "The Republicans are going to get their asses handed to them in 2012 and Polosi will hit the ground running. It's hilarious to watch the Republicans gloat while you can sense their panic that they don't have a clue what they are going to do for the next two years except be terrible again as they head into 2012."

Another great summary in video form, explaining where all this free money is going and why it isn't generating jobs. This guy isn't a libertarian quack, btw. He favors targeted government spending instead of QE, but his analysis of the problem is dead on.

Essentially, says Baruch, the stock market rally is like the cat in Pet Sematary: it looks real, but it isn’t. And in fact it’s likely to turn out very harmful indeed.

With the Beatles finally on iTunes, Garth Brooks and AC/DC are among the few notable acts that continue to staunchly hold out, unwilling to agree to Apple's restrictive pricing schemes and loath to see their albums chopped into singles.

All of which means that sovereign debt is going to continue to go up rather than down: at heart, bailouts are a way of moving indebtedness from the bailed-out entity to the government doing the bailing out. With yet another debt reduction task force reporting today, it might be time to start asking how and whether crisis-related bailouts can ever be accounted for in long-term sovereign debt planning.

Miller already had asked married couples among his 1,100 congregants to share their Facebook passwords with each other. He says the reaction to that request was mixed. He says on Sunday that he will also "strongly suggest" that all married parishioners give up Facebook altogether.

McAfee Inc. reported on Wednesday that the spread of malicious software soared in the third quarter. The "Zeus" botnet, aimed at small businesses, has been expanded to infect mobile devices and snare SMS messages that validate transactions, the Santa Clara, Calif., security-technology firm said.

The most recent report, put together by a group called the Bipartisan Policy Center, will call for a one-year payroll tax holiday in 2011 that it says will create between 2.5 million and seven million jobs. The plan would lower income and corporate tax rates and offset them with a 6.5 percent national sales or "consumption" tax as well as an excise tax on sugar drinks like soda.

The study — based on federal financial disclosure data — also showed that more than half of all members were millionaires.

"The inflation data is very supportive of [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke's posture, it supports his view that disinflation is a greater risk than inflation right now," said Matthew Kaufler of Federated Investors.

We'll keep an eye on iTunes this afternoon. We have a feeling the "Glee" Christmas album, Rihanna and other artists who made the poor choice to release albums today will have some serious competition.

"There is a really remarkable, rapid shift of power and influence from the United States to China," Mr. Soros said, likening the U.S.'s decline to that of the U.K. after the Second World War.

Your lead line should read: “The US Government, which has substantial amounts of debt tied to the CPI rate, and which is known to lie about this as well as numerous other factors affecting the public, has calculated the CPI without regard to what is really going on in the world.”

GenePartner.com is a straight-from-sci-fi site that analyzes couples' DNA compatibility. Simply swab your suitor's cheek, send it to a lab in Switzerland and wait to hear if you're a match made in genetic heaven.

Duvall's and Jones's stories are strikingly similar: both had talked to school officials without success, and both felt they had no other option but to take things into their own hands.

Two quotes: "Who's the Colonel now?" and "Next time, we're eating a library."

QOTD: "Sure, go ahead, after all, I was just given $24 by a complete stranger and am still so surprised by that occurrence that I shall take no notice of you drawing a blood sample."

"Now Facebook does a debt collectors work for them. Now it's not only family members, it's all of your associates. It's a very powerful tool for debt collectors to use," says Howard.

Raunchy but hilarious.

Alex Roman is some kind of wizard. I suspected it when I saw his jaw-dropping CGI mini-movie The Third & The Seventh, but after watching his new 100% computer generated commercial, there's simply no other explanation. My brain is goop.

Cybercrime experts have found proof that China hijacked the Internet for 18 minutes last April. China absorbed 15% of the traffic from US military and civilian networks, as well as from other Western countries—a massive chunk. Nobody knows why.

Yeah, he's violating a trademark or two, but I love his initiative. He had a friend in China send him the pieces directly and started assembling white iPhones for people before Apple was ready to release it.

"The bad news is that this is probably the final straw for Cooks Source. We have never been a great money-maker even with all the good we do for businesses. Having a black mark wont help…and now, our black mark will become our shroud. Winters are bleak in Western New England, and as such they are bleak for Cooks Source as well."

My favorite: Nabarkov

Dear Science: PLEASE STOP MAKING INTELLIGENT BACTERIA. Your friend, Michael Crichton's Ghost

Magnificent.

Cruel and hilarious. "I do not like my Blackberry. I would like to torture it until it begs me to kill it."

Nothing quite like the billionaire whose entire fortune is invested in the successful perpetuation of the ponzi, thanking the administration for taking trillions of dollars out of the taxpayers' pocket and preserving the broken system for a few more years, just so said billionaire can wax holier than thou on the pages of the administration's newspaper and thank the administration for allowing him to swim in his nickel pool through expiration. If one tries hard enough, one can almost spot a ridiculously hypocritical vicious loop in there somewhere…