Gold craziness

Gold over $1000 an ounce? Hard to believe -- and I only hope not too many objects valuable for more than their metal content get melted down this time around (there were quite a few losses when gold broke the $800 barrier briefly back in 1980: adjusted for inflation, twice the current price).

Meanwhile, this just in from Ethiopia:

Ethiopia's national bank has been told to inspect all the gold in its vaults to determine its authenticity.

It follows the discovery that some of the "gold" it had bought for millions of dollars was gold-plated steel.

Hacking medical implants

Brave new world:

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal -- if the device had been in a person.

De-salting mural paintings

Danish scientists have discovered a way of preventing murals in medieval churches from crumbling and disappearing altogether. . .

The salt content in the bricks causes the stones to change shape if subjected to temperature changes and fluctuating humidity levels. When humidity in the air is high, the salt dissolves causing the stones to warp over time. When the air is dry, the salt is pushed out of the bricks causing them to disintegrate.

Along with a colleague, Inge Rörig-Dalgaard, a PhD student at the Technical University of Denmark, recently developed and patented a new method of removing the salt and reconstructing the brick wall. The method will be tested on the murals in Our Lady's Abbey in Helsingør after Easter.

The method uses electricity to remove the salt from the medieval bricks. A row of electrodes are placed on the ceiling of the abbey and an electric field is established that creates ion movement and extracts the salt out of the stones.

Tunneling through Rome

A sixth-century copper factory, medieval kitchens still stocked with pots and pans, and remains of Renaissance palaces are among the finds unveiled by archaeologists digging up Rome in preparation for a new subway line.

Archaeologists have been probing the depths of the Eternal City at 38 digs, many of which are near famous monuments or on key thoroughfares.

Scapegoating the plastic grocery bag

Whole Foods stopped providing plastic bags to shoppers at the beginning of this month. As many pointed out, it was misconceived: many of us recycled those bags for household garbage, but now will have to buy plastic bags instead. And now, the Times of London points out that much of the demonization of plastic bags is based upon a misreading:

Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags which they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated claims . . .

The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds [birds are now mammals? -- D.], were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.

Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian Government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to "plastic bags".

The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers.

John Lewis added that a scheme in Ireland had reduced plastic bag usage, but sales of bin liners had increased 400 per cent.