Almost everyone has battle with a little bulge in their figure. Regardless of the mechanism chosen to slim down, the basic goal has always been to lose the fat. New research has made a discovery that may explain why it seems so hard to lose that fat - it's permanent! Essentially, the quantity of fat cells for a given person is fixed. While the cells themselves do die off, they are replaced by an identical number of new fat cells. Even after patients undergo liposuction, the fat cells will grow back to their original number. The appearance of bulge, therefore, is not a function of having too many fat cells but a function of how full those fat cells are. Such a discovery has led researchers to seek a way to alter the number of available fat cells.

The top brass at the Pentagon has added yet another item to their technological wish list, and this time it's a request for an atomic clock which is small enough to build into a microchip. You might wonder what possible purpose such a small clock would serve; until you realize that insects like the cyborg beetle are easily lost as they fly about, and require an extremely accurate GPS system for their precise positioning and location needs. For some years DARPA's HI-MEMS program (Hybrid Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) has been placing micro-mechanical devices into various insects while in their larvae and pupae stages in order to facilitate a stable tissue-to-machine interface as the insects develop into adults. The main purpose for these mini cyborgs, as we can well guess, is for spying and reconnaissance, but they also have merit for any application requiring the retrieval of information from small or hard to access places. Location tracking via GPS requires extremely accurate clocks in order to obtain the precise positioning needed for what I can only deem as a science fiction scenario coming to life.

In a civilian mass casualty event, whether from terrorism, environmental disaster, accident or pandemic, how is the appropriation of limited life saving resources assigned? For smaller mass casualty events, life savers on the ground will evaluate the scene and triage the patients for priority of care. However, for the most part, care is found for everyone. But, in the case of truly widespread demand for medical resources, a set of guidelines have been put together using input from the military, DHS, CDC and DHHS. The guidance essentially decrees that the elderly, mentally handicapped and terminally/chronically diseased will not get any care until the resources are freed up again.

After extreme weather on the face of Mount Everest damaged several of the base camps, the Chinese climbers attempting to take the Olympic torch to the peak's summit will be underway again. Chinese media are promoting the event and plan to include live television coverage of the ascent itself. But there is more to the story than simply a challenging human feat and a statement of unity to the world. Some may, in fact, argue the opposite. Not too long ago, the American William Holland summited Mount Everest and unfurled a tiny "Free Tibet" flag for a picture at the peak. During his descent, he was detained by the Nepalese government, deported and banned from the country for two years. The action, in part, stems from China's ambition to bring the torch to the peak and to prevent any other form of propaganda from marring the event, nobody else is permitted to summit higher than Base Camp 2 nor are any foreign press allowed onto the mountain.

Almost everything in the US military relies upon electronics. The economy thrives on electronic trading floors, nationwide networking and a 100% reliance upon business computers. Even the national infrastructure is tied heavily into microchips with computerized utilities and transportation systems. For the longest time, the fear of widespread shutdown came from nuclear EMP but now fear has rightfully turned to simpler, more mundane attacks - hidden kill switches. The DoD is concerned enough with the threat of unknown kill switches residing in much of its equipment that DARPA has been tasked heavily with coming up with a detection technique. The idea is very simple, a kill switch does not need to be embedded deeply into a system to make it shutdown, even if a common integrated circuit responded to an single number transmitted by radio and shut itself down, an entire system could turn off depending on the nature of the shutdown circuit - e.g. power supply. Part of the kill switch conspiracy hubbub was revived following the Israeli air strike against the alleged Syrian nuclear facility. Amazingly, the advanced Syrian radar warning systems "just failed."

Could this impetus bring manufacturing back to domestic plants to impose better regulations and bring increased security?

It's always interested me there is no percentage listed next to the protein value on Nutrition Facts labels. The values of other items, such as "Total Fat" or "Total Carb," are listed based on an assumed caloric intake - usually 2,000 calories, or so. When it comes to protein, however, there is nothing. Even obvious percentages (e.g., corresponding to 0g protein in bottled water) are omitted.

While waiting for a smoothie at Smoothie King the other day, though, I examined the back of a random protein bar and saw a percentage value was present. Curious, I checked the protein powder tubs and saw it was also listed there. "That makes sense." I thought. "They're selling a product based on its protein content."

But wait, does it really make sense? Does an aspiring body-builder need to know the protein content more than an average joe? Is protein content not a part of diet planning just like carbohydrates or fats? Given the volume of online information on the subject, it is obvious a percentage could be calculated. Why not include it?

In what is becoming a continuing battle between science, politics and special interest groups, more than half of the 1586 EPA scientists who responded to an independent survey from the Union of Concerned Scientists claimed they had experienced some kind of interference from lobbyists and political leaders. This interference usually came in the form of some sort of suppression or distortion of scientific findings, or the selective use of data to push forward a specific regulatory outcome. Some cases even included political figures directing a scientist to alter or omit inconvenient data from a report. Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists states, "Distorting science to accommodate a narrow political agenda threatens our environment, our health and our democracy itself." However, a government spokesman denies the administrative manipulation saying that scientific findings are merely being balanced with policy concerns.

Ever since Mark McB set me up with an invitation to GMail all those years ago, I have always praised GMail to the masses. The huge storage limit, the grouping of conversations, the way it auto adds contacts to your list for you and now GChat. I have made so many of my friends switch to GMail from their previous accounts with Hotmail, Yahoo, or whatever. But the past week, GMail has really been dropping the ball. Now I am not sure if they are going through upgrades or server issues, but for about a week to 10 days, GMail has constantly been cycling through phases of "Temporary Errors" that have caused both GChat and GMail to crash.

Now I understand that sometimes there are issues that need to be resolved, but my real concern here is why Google or GMail have failed to address what these issues are. Are they upgrading or switching servers? They don't say. Just a generic message that says "Temporary Error (502)." I know it isn't just me, because all of my friends are complaining of the same thing.

I just want to know where to get answers on this.

During times of war or extreme stress can we be held liable for our actions? According to a new article from the Cornell International Law Journal there are fundamental differences in how the conscious and sub-conscious processes information. Our conscious mind is influenced by such factors as morality, emotion, and accountability ... while our sub-conscious seems to rely on training, motive, and pure spontaneity. The real question is - is the total sum of who we are contained in our physical brains? Also, how much influence does the world around us have on the decisions we make?

Just under three years ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency as agreeing with the notion that Israel "should be wiped off the map." Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has announced via ABC "Good Morning America" that she would respond to an Iranian assault on Israel by obliterating their country. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them." Not surprisingly, the Iranians are protesting her commentary, and Iran's UN ambassador issued a statement "to reiterate my government's position that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention to attack any other nations."