The man who first created and marketed the painfully noisy vuvuzela horn is now including ear plugs with the plastic noisemakers.  But Neil Van Schalkwyk’s generosity may come too late for thousands whose hearing has already been damaged or destroyed.
Meanwhile, shipments of thousands of the hearing-annihilating horns are arriving this week at some U.S. ballparks [...]

There is nothing on this planet that doesn’t have its own unique odor. Some are enticing, seductive, even wondrous. Others are revolting, stomach-turning or repulsive.

Here is a fact of life that will surprise no one: Those who are poor sell what they can and those who have wealth buy what they want.

(This coldtruth.com special report is a follow up to last week’s story on dirty water.)
If your neighbor had plenty of water but you hadn’t enough to keep your family, your livestock and your crops alive, would you fight for it? Would you go to war?
Lots of people – from multi-degreed behavioral psychologists to barroom philosophers [...]

If you want to talk about mixed signals, just step back a bit and look at the messages being sent and received on the care and treatment of the Swine Flu pandemic.
The Seattle Times ran a front-page story about the largest outbreak of H1N1 in the country, so far. Washington State University and community health [...]

A steady stream of people responded to my story on Thursday about a government panel of medical experts reporting that the standard paper surgical mask will do little or nothing to protect healthcare workers and everyone else from breathing in the H1N1 virus.
The panel from the Institute of Medicine and scientists at the CDC and [...]

To celebrate the holiday, here’s a link to a piece called “Capture the Flag,” by New York Times writer Timothy Egan. It’s an interesting essay looking at how and why the American Flag is or isn’t flown in different parts of the country.
Egan’s 18 years as a Times writer has added much-needed color to the [...]

It wasn’t mama who took the Kodachrome away, but Eastman Kodak that finally pulled the plug this week on the 74-year-old film.
It’s a nostalgic time for lovers of bright colors, finicky photographers and the singers Simon and Garfunkel.
For many fledgling photojournalists, finally running Kodachrome through their cameras was a rite of passage, a sign that [...]

I know it sounds weird, but scientists say they’ve tamed one of the world’s most deadly food poisons and turned it into a suicidal strain of microbes that can deliver life-saving drugs into the body.
What prompted Colin Pouton and his colleagues in Melbourne, Australia, to consider using a poison to deliver medicines?
The scientists looked at [...]

I have completed the “everything you need to know about nanotechnology” workshop that the Knight Science Journalism gang was kind enough to host at MIT. I finally graduated from something.
Three observations from the week in Boston:
1.    I can’t believe how little I know.
2.    I am amazed at the potential for good and a bit uneasy [...]