Huge telescope to be built in Hawaii

Wired reports that the Thirty-Meter Telescope will be complete in 2018.

Video: Beat Box Kid

Pretty cool.

Likely number of extraterrestrial civilizations is small?

The arXivblog at Technology Review reports on Spanish researchers who conclude that the likely number of extraterrestrial civilizations is less than 10, or else evidence of their existence would have shown up already.  But only under a certain set of assumptions.  Some interesting back and forth in the comments.

Tokyo’s crow problem

From last Sunday’s WaPost, it appears that Tokyo Governor Ishihara is losing his battle with the crows. Late weekend mornings in restaurant districts aren’t pleasant.

Changing economic and social status of hostess work

An interesting article in the New York Times about the greater social acceptability of hostess work in Japan, and higher competition for the available jobs, as other career opportunities for young women dry up in the bad economy.

Lefty’s Barbecue

Lefty’s Barbecue, a fine Waldorf, MD establishment that I highly recommend, is bottling and selling their BBQ sauce.  Featured through this weekend at the Pentagon City Costco.

Is Osaka the world’s best food city?

So says Michael Booth on the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog. Via Japundit.

NASA releases restored Apollo 11 video

On Wired, restored moon landing video to mark the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Public less positive about U.S. science than scientists

Last week, the Pew Research Center for People and the Press released results of a survey on attitudes of scientists and the broader public. Only 17 percent of the public think that U.S. scientific achievements are “best in the world,” compared with 49 percent of scientists.

Worst restaurant names of all time

From the Oddee blog, a few of these are chuckle-worthy.