Diederik Stapel, a psychologist working at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said he had "failed as a scientist" and was ashamed of what he had done, but had been driven to falsifying research by constant pressure to perform. The respected journal Science, which published some of Diederik Stapel's work earlier this year, issued an "expression of concern" editorial in which it said it now had serious concerns about the validity of Stapel's findings. Stapel was suspended from his position at Tilburg University in the Netherlands in September when an investigation was launched by the university into his work. "The official report ... indicates that the extent of the fraud by Stapel is substantial," Science's editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts wrote in the journal's online edition Science Express. The editorial was posted online late on November 1. In a statement posted on the internet via the Dutch newspaper Brabants Dagblad this week, Stapel admitted to falsifying data and apologized for his actions.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/us-dutch-scientist-fraud-idUSTRE7A12PL20111102

Caffeinated meat. That’s right, an Army lab is testing a beef jerky stick that looks and tastes just like your average Slim Jim but contains an equivalent of a cup of coffee’s worth of caffeine to give even the sleepiest soldier that up-and-at-’em boost. After a decade of war, military food scientists have been hard at work at a little-known research facility outside Boston transforming the field ration — known as the Meal, Ready to Eat, and perhaps the most complained about food in the world — into something not just good-tasting but full of energy-enhancing ingredients.
“There is a lot of science that goes into this,” said David Accetta, a spokesman for the Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center, where every item put into an MRE is tested and tasted. In addition to caffeine, military technologists are lacing food with supplements such as omega 3s and curcumin, which act as anti-inflammatories. Maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate that gives service members a little turbo charge, is injected into an amped-up applesauce called Zapplesauce. Napoleon said that an army marches on its stomach. But as many battlefield veterans can attest, the Pentagon for years largely paid no heed to the meals soldiers were offered. Feeding thousands of service members during war has always been a challenge. To provide fresh meat during the Civil War, the Army drove cattle alongside soldiers to be slaughtered on the spot. In World War I, soldiers got “trench rations” of “hard bread,” beef, salmon and sardines but scant vegetables. World War II brought more variety and even cigarettes. But during the Vietnam years, rations were still basic meat and potatoes. The first MREs, developed in the early 1980s, weren’t much better. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which at one point helped increase demand for MREs to 8 million cases a year, the taste of the food has become increasingly important. Natick scientists doubled the number of MRE options from 12 to 24, started asking soldiers for feedback and paid closer attention to not only the way meals tasted but how they looked. The military also began experimenting with energy-enhancing supplements for ordinary rations as well as specialized ones. They created what’s called the First Strike Ration, a lightweight, 2,900-calorie meal designed in particular for Special Operations forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. MREs overall have become more diverse and attuned to market trends. Food technologists study menus at T.G.I. Friday’s and Applebee’s for inspiration. http://bangordailynews.com/2011/11/01/health/caffeinated-meat-anyone-army-food-goes-high-tech/

Do you enjoy writing the date? Do you get particular satisfaction when you do so on days that provide a pattern, such as 01:02:03, which presented itself for Americans on January 2nd 2003 and for Europeans a little later, on February 1st? Sometimes the different order of day and month in American and European practice is unimportant: June 6th 2006 is 06:06:06 either way. In 2011, Europeans will get little patterns on the 11th of every month except October and December. Americans can look forward to a thrilling first nine days of November. Everyone will have their own 9:10:11. And 2011 will be special in two respects. First, it will bring 11:11:11. November 11th has been a significant date in many countries since 1918, when, at 11 a.m. that day, the armistice ending the first world war came into effect. Second, it will bring a sprinkling of dates with nothing but noughts and ones. Ultra cool in 2011 will be to write the date in the sequences used in the binary system. That will be easy enough on January 1st (1:1:1011), but it will get harder: 31:12:11 is 11111:1100:1011. http://www.economist.com/node/17492949
Note that when you count four digits of a year rather the last two and use 02 rather than 2 for the second of the month, 11/02/2011 is also a palindrome.

Just how rare is an eight-digit palindrome day? In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Aziz Anin, professor of engineering at the University of Portland, has taken on the discovery of palindrome dates as a sort of hobby, explained that there will only be 12 eight-digit palindrome days this entire century. In addition to the automatic awesomeness of a date being a palindrome, Anin points out that 11/02/2011 is extra special because it is 1001 x 11 x 1001, or the product of a mathematical expression in which both sides are almost mirror images of one another.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/happy-palindrome-day.html

For those with an uncontrollable urge to learn more about special dates, it is important to note that throughout the world different formats are used to write down dates. Some common formats are:
• month / day / year: English language
• day - month - year: other European languages
• year . month . day: Chinese language
Find examples of same number dates, double dates. square root dates and other kinds of special dates at: http://www.iwriteiam.nl/Dates.html

Amazon's opened its Kindle lending library, offering over 5,000 titles for loan, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers. Users subscribing to the company's Prime service - which costs $79 per year - can borrow them for free. There's no time limit on how long you can keep the book, although it's only possible to borrow one book per month, and only one at a time. http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/59422-kindle-lending-library-launches-with-thousands-of-books Information on Amazon Prime at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=13819211

Occupy Wall Street, an unincorporated association, applied for the trademark to its name on October 24. In an application with the same filing date, Arizona-based Fer-Eng Investments, LLC, applied for the same trademark. In the case of two applications filed the same day, the trademark office says the application with the lowest serial number -- meaning it was filed first -- earns the trademark, according to Steven Berk, senior supervisory attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That would give Occupy Wall Street preference: Its serial number is 281 numbers lower than Fer-Eng's. There is also a pending trademark application for a variation on the name of the movement: "Occupy Wall St." Robert and Diane Maresca applied for that trademark after Robert had spent several days at the protest in Zuccotti Park making t-shirts for free with a permanent marker. "I made about 20 on the second day, and then it went up to 80 by the fifth day. And then I realized it's not very healthy to smell the fumes, so then I decided that I should get in touch with a silk-screener," Robert Maresca said. The minimum order was 200 shirts and the couple was concerned that they might be sued if someone else obtained the trademark, so they applied for it. Robert has said he would sell it to the Occupy Wall Street group for $1 after his costs are covered. There's also a wave of trademark applications for slogans related to the movement. Applications have been filed for the trademarks to "We are the 99%," "I am the 99%" and "Occupy D.C. 2012," among other phrases. Merchandise with those and similar slogans is on sale all over the Internet. Self-described "entre-protester" Ray Agrizone sells t-shirts, hats and stickers emblazoned with "Occupy Wall Street" and some of the movement's mantras on his website, TheOccupyStore.com. Agrizone says he is not concerned about a potential lawsuit because he is using his sales to give money to the cause. He says 10% of his proceeds go to Occupy Wall Street.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/31/news/economy/occupy_wall_street_trademark/index.htm