There’s definite story potential in this Harper’s article about the business of International Marriage Brokers. Although it’s just touched on, there’s definitely an element of long tail, Internet-enabled new economy magic here.

I’m not going to hold my breath, since bacteriorhodopsin-based digital storage media have been on the cusp of actualization for years. But a 50 terabyte disc the size of a DVD would go a long way towards enabling my mashup addiction.

In modern Russia, everything’s fake. Including the vacations.

I’d call it biomimicry, but it’s really geomimicry. Bruce Kania, an inventor in Montana, is producing artificial floating islands designed to clean up waterways polluted with biowaste like sewage or animal effluent by providing a home for waterscrubbing plants. And they look nice too.

Just about anyone who took a junior high biology class understand the concept of pollination: plants breed when flying insects, usually bees, spread their pollen from plant to plant. But did you realize that 1/3 of food crops need pollinators? And that bee populations are dying?