Interesting: Military Funds Bionic Caterpillars

The secretive U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded $3.3 million to scientists at Tufts University to develop tiny squishy, biochemical robots that can squeeze through a one-centimetre space, then morph into a size 10 times larger and ultimately biodegrade, according to this report at Physorg.com.
TAGS: interesting, military, science

Interesting: Wall St. Firms Knew About Debt Troubles, But Didn't Warn Public

Wall Street firms warned state officials in Massachusetts about problems in a $330-billion slice of the bond market last January, but not the public before the market collapsed on Feb. 13, this Boston Globe report says. Massachusetts securities authorities last week charged UBS Financial Services with fraud for failing to warn individual investors and its own brokers that the market was on the brink of failure, the story says. But other Wall St. firms knew about the troubles, too, the report discloses.
TAGS: interesting, fraud, Wall Street, markets

Interesting: Consumer Safety Agency Staff Down by Half

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has cut half its staff in recent years, according to this report from The Washington Independent.
TAGS: interesting, consumer

Interesting: U.S. War on Drugs Not Working, WHO Says

A World Health Organization survey of 17 counties finds that the U.S., despite some of the world's harshest anti-drug policies, has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use, reports this item from AlterNet.
TAGS: interesting, drugs, cocaine

Interesting: McCain Backer Headed Firm that Funded Colombian Death Squad

A leading John McCain backer presided over a large fruit company that admitted to illegally funding a far-right Colombian death squad, according to this report from The Huffington Post.
TAGS: interesting, John McCain, Colombia

The Biz: Street Papers Reinventing Journalism

In These Times takes us into the exciting happenings in Europe's vibrant street paper scene in this story. TAGS: citizen journalism, the biz, future of journalism

Interesting: U.S. Spies on Iraqi Army

The U.S. is using some of its most sophisticated satellite surveillance technology to spy on the Iraqi army, which it created, trains and and fights beside, reports The Los Angeles Times in this interesting item yesterday.
TAGS: interesting, Iraq, spy, surveillance