This is a science site and not a political or economics one and therefore we have poor grasp of things we know nothing about, like how missing cigarette tax revenue can possibly be responsible for bloated governments being unable to pay their bills.

But apparently it is and a new method of securing cigarette tax stamps from counterfeiting and falsification could save nations otherwise losing more than $50 billion annually - which, like 'jobs saved' is a number you can believe if you want, because someone said it - that's all according to a group of companies that make holograms designed to ... prevent counterfeit cigarette tax stamps.

The New Cosmetic Surgery Journalism Prize will be awarded by DDr. Heinrich for outstanding reporting on New Cosmetic Surgery techniques.

That's right, journalists. You can win a prize from a cosmetic surgery company if you simply write about the techniques used by their cosmetic surgery company.   Sure, it's like being a public relations flack but since it's a prize rather than a paid puff piece you won't feel dirty.

They want your contribution to be be well-researched and include general legal disclaimers and information, like that cosmetic surgery is not actually taught in public hospitals for a reason.

Boring Science Produces Awesome results


The simple scientific observation that you can't use the same energy twice is absolutely awesome!

This is a further article in my occasional series about coal, engines and energy, heat and thermodynamics.


What is 'hot'; what is 'heat'?

Usually when the word "belief" comes up, the first thought is religion, but the general occurrence of beliefs is actually a much broader concept.

Beliefs may be religious, supernatural, philosophical, etc.  In short, we all have beliefs that define how we think the world works and how we should interact with it.  Beliefs bridge the gap between what we "know" and what we "assume" in order to function in the world and make decisions.