Dear Lazyweb,

I have an Illustrator file. I wish to have the outline therein manufactured into a flat plastic object. Say, 1mm thick. It's basically a comb for holding some small components at a fairly precise spacing, say, ±0.2mm tolerance. (Nevermind what it's for.)

I believe that here in the future, there should be some web service where I upload my .ai file, and then my object arrives in the mail. However, the only one I know of is Ponoko. Which sounds like exactly what I want... except that they're in New Zealand, a fact which they only cop to after you've gotten almost all the way through checkout and only then discover that their shipping rates are insane (like, I think you can put payload into orbit for less.)

It seems like most people who have cutters and fabricators are from the last century, and want to spend a bunch of time talking about it and holding my hand and writing me a personalized quote for the work and asking me about my feelings or whatever. Screw that. I just want the Kinko's of fabbing. Where is it?

The stretch of Brannan between 9th and Division is between me and many of my destinations, and for at least six years, it's had a very nasty collection of potholes: less potholes than long, thin chasms on the gap between the asphalt and the concrete. I've lost at least two bike tires to them over the years.

So, on Feb 27, I thought "what the hell", and emailed potholes@sfdpw.org saying, basically, "hey, how about patching those."

On or about Mar 15... THEY DID.

Maybe this is just a coincidence, but, damn. I almost wiped out from the shock of it alone!

"Everybody kills Hitler on their first trip."

Making cows fart like kangaroos

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

"Fourteen per cent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep," said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers and graziers. "Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating," said Dr Klieve.

I've been wondering about this ever since I learned about fecal bacteriotherapy!

Deaf demand right to designer deaf children

Deaf parents should be allowed to screen their embryos so they can pick a deaf child over one that has all its senses intact, according to the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID).

Ballard's stance is likely to be welcomed by other deaf organisations, including the British Deaf Association (BDA), which is campaigning to amend government legislation to allow the creation of babies with disabilities.

A clause in the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, which is passing through the House of Lords, would make it illegal for parents undergoing embryo screening to choose an embryo with an abnormality if healthy embryos exist. [...] Disability charities say this makes the proposed legislation discriminatory, because it gives parents the right to create "designer babies" free from genetic conditions while banning couples from deliberately creating a baby with a disability.

Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug.

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.

The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.

Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.

The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide's absence in causing sleepiness. It stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, said Siegel.

"What we've been doing so far is increasing arousal without dealing with the underlying problem," he said. "If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin."

Previously.

Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14

"It is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have. It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers."

Other reports have suggested a computer error might have been to blame. Defence pundit Helmoed-Römer Heitman told the Weekend Argus that if "the cause lay in computer error, the reason for the tragedy might never be found."

In "automatic mode," the weapon feeds targeting data from the fire control unit straight to the pair of 35mm guns, and reloads on its own when its emptied its magazine. [...]

But the brave, as yet unnamed officer was unable to stop the wildly swinging computerised Swiss/German Oerlikon 35mm MK5 anti-aircraft twin-barrelled gun. It sprayed hundreds of high-explosive 0,5kg 35mm cannon shells around the five-gun firing position. By the time the gun had emptied its twin 250-round auto-loader magazines, nine soldiers were dead and 11 injured.

Dear Lazyweb, my iMac is 17 months old now. I'm ready for it to be twice as fast. The new iMacs appear to be only 40% faster. What happened to this "Moore's Law" I've heard so much about?

Also, still only 4GB RAM? WTF, am I the only person who wants to be able to run Photoshop and Safari at the same time?