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It now costs more than a penny to make a penny

cost of a nickel is more than 7½ cents.

Copper and nickel prices have tripled since 2003 and the price of zinc has quadrupled

California proposes $7 billion for prison healthcare

The Schwarzenegger administration says the plan is aimed at bringing care up to constitutional standards. The amount is nearly triple what had been previously proposed.

In a proposal that would nearly double the state's prison construction program, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration asked lawmakers Friday to approve $7 billion in new spending to bring medical and mental healthcare in California prisons up to constitutional standards.

Drugs In The Water No Big Deal, Says NYC Official

In regards to a headline grabbing AP investigation that found the drinking water of major cities contained trace amounts of an array of pharmacopoeia, the deputy commissioner of New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, "A person would have to drink one million glasses of water to get the dose of even one over-the-counter ibuprofen tablet or the caffeine in one cup of coffee...Even at eight glasses of water per day, this would take the average person over 300 years to consume."

Exposed: the great GM crops myth

Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Tastes Like Chicken

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has just offered a $1 million prize to anyone who develops a commercially viable "in vitro chicken-meat product." The catch is that the product can't contain or entail the use of "animal-derived products, except for starter cells obtained in the initial development stages."

The idea is simple: Instead of growing a chicken embryo into a bird and cutting meat from it, you skip the bird part and grow the meat directly from the embryo.

CERN to Morons: Large Hadron Collider Won't Destroy Earth. Morons.

Contrary to the somewhat feverish claims laid out in an recent lawsuit, when our favorite particle-smashing, Force-finding Large Hadron Collider is switched on soon it will not result in the destruction of life as we know it.

Such claims are "complete nonsense" say the scientists at CERN (and everywhere else,) in response to the suit.

Pre-Emption Doctrine Would Make FDA Responsible For All Drug Problems, Shield Big Pharma From Lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson is waiting to hear whether or not a judge in Ohio will allow any lawsuits over its Ortho birth control patch to move forward, and the New York Times says lawyers on both sides think there's a good chance he may find in the company's favor based on the doctrine of pre-emption. The argument goes that it's the FDA's responsibility to monitor the safety and labeling of drugs that go to market, and therefore if something goes wrong, it's the agency's fault and not the pharmaceutical company's. The Ortho patch releases high levels of estrogen and can cause problems for some patients, but J&J says it's the FDA's fault for not requiring a label sooner:

The F.D.A. did not warn the public of the potential risks until November 2005 — six years after the company's own study showed the high estrogen releases. At that point, the product's label was changed, and prescriptions fell 80 percent, to 187,000 by last February from 900,000 in March 2004. Gloria Vanderham, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, said the company acted responsibly.

Olympic torch extinguished, then re-lit

The Olympic torch has been briefly extinguished by officials and put on a bus during the Paris leg of its relay amid anti-China protests, The Associated Press has reported. The incident came one day after anti-Chinese demonstrators attempts to grab the Olympic torch were foiled as it made its journey through London, making it seem more like running the gauntlet than a journey of celebration.

Thousands of French police are on duty to protect the Olympic torch after it departed from the Eiffel Tower at around 1030 GMT (0630 ET). It is then due to be carried through the boulevards of the French capital amid threats of protests.

Scientists Create First Memristor: Missing Fourth Electronic Circuit Element

Researchers at HP Labs have built the first working prototypes of an important new electronic component that may lead to instant-on PCs as well as analog computers that process information the way the human brain does.

The new component is called a memristor, or memory resistor. Up until today, the circuit element had only been described in a series of mathematical equations written by Leon Chua, who in 1971 was an engineering student studying non-linear circuits. Chua knew the circuit element should exist -- he even accurately outlined its properties and how it would work. Unfortunately, neither he nor the rest of the engineering community could come up with a physical manifestation that matched his mathematical expression.

Darque Tan Prevents You From Dying Of Vitamin-D Deficiency

According to an article in The Daily Texan, law student Emily Prewett, has filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General against the company Darque Tan because of their misleading and irresponsible ads. One of their television commercial begins with a man in white lab coat saying, "Science has discovered that UVB from tanning converts cholesterol into Vitamin D." Then the narrator says, "Mmm yeah. Vitamin D-licious. Come get yours with a free week of level 1 tanning." The TV ad and more details, inside...

In another advertisement a man in a lab coat says, "Getting the Vitamin D you need has never been easier. To get you 4000 IU, it takes 20 cans of sardines - Mmm good - or 40 glasses of milk, if you tolerate lactose. Better yet, get a full 4000 IU of Vitamin D in just five minutes in a tanning bed at Darque Tan."

Double Your Lifespan with a Drug that Mutates Your Ribosomes

It's been known for a while that restricting your diet will increase your lifespan, but now researchers have shown one reason why: Eating less causes your ribosomes (your cells' protein factories) to mutate. And it's looking like mutated ribosomes (pictured here) could be one key to life extension.

Biologists at the University of Washington have managed to induce the life-extending mutation in ribosomes with a drug that doubles the lifespan of yeast cells.

Gator Blood May Be New Source of Antibiotics

Call it a case of gator aid. New research suggests that alligator blood could serve as the basis for new antibiotics targeting infections caused by ulcers, burns and even drug-resistant "superbugs."

The research is in its early stages -- extracts of alligator blood have only been tested in the laboratory -- and there's no guarantee that it will work in humans. Still, the findings are promising, researchers said.

Should The Government Set Up A "Do-Not-Track" List?

Now two privacy advocacy organizations are calling for the creation of a "do-not-track" list that would protect registered users from online data collection.

They argue that a list is needed because too many consumers won't or can't understand the methods behind online tracking.

Many deported migrants give up after one try

U.S. crackdown is causing the longest and most significant drop in illegal migration from Mexico since the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. economic downturn, tighter security and a more perilous and expensive journey are persuading many who try to sneak into the U.S. to give up sooner.

Two years ago, scientists had high hopes for new pills that would help people quit smoking, lose weight and maybe kick other tough addictions like alcohol and cocaine.

by blocking pleasure centers in the brain that provide the feel-good response from smoking or eating.

pills worked

Three humans skulls being sent to Britain were seized at Indonesia's international airport,

sponge-wrapped skulls were packed in separate boxes and labeled as handicrafts

Two were intricately carved

Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian". The islanders say that if they are successful they may then start to fight the word lesbian internationally. The issue boils down to who has the right to call themselves Lesbians. Is it gay women, or the 100,000 people living on Greece's third biggest island - plus another 250,000 expatriates who originate from Lesbos? The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, claims that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them around the world. He says it causes daily problems to the social life of Lesbos's inhabitants.

In court papers, the plaintiffs allege that the Greek government is so embarrassed by the term Lesbian that it has been forced to rename the island after its capital, Mytilini.

The term lesbian originated from the poet Sappho, who was a native of Lesbos.

Microsoft UK is developing a "senior PC", which will have a simple interface and be aimed at older users. The PC will come with software that allows users to manage prescriptions as well as simplified tools for everyday use, such as managing photos.

In the UK alone, some 17 million citizens are described as "digitally excluded". In the United States, Microsoft already offers a number of so-called senior PCs, in conjunction with HP computers.

Spam - the scourge of every e-mail inbox - celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend. The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker. The message was sent via Arpanet - the internet's forerunner - and won its sender much criticism from recipients.

Statistics suggest that more than 80%-85% of all e-mail is spam or junk and more than 100 billion spam messages are sent every day.

The sender of the first junk e-mail message was Gary Thuerk and it was sent to advertise new additions to DEC's family of System-20 minicomputers. It invited the recipients, all of whom were on Arpanet and lived on the west coast of the US, to go to one of two presentations showing off the capabilities of the System-20. Reaction to the message was swift, with complaints reportedly coming from the US Defense Communications Agency, which oversaw Arpanet, and took Mr Thuerk's boss to task about it.

Los Angeles embarked on one of its most ambitious projects to combat global warming

becoming the biggest city in the nation to impose "green" building rules that would potentially cut millions of tons of pollution

passed an ordinance requiring builders of large commercial and residential developments to adopt such measures as planting drought-resistant landscaping and using recycled materials and energy-efficient heating, cooling and lighting.