On:

Musicians treasure the small number of Stradivarius violins that were made in the small area of Cremona, Italy in the 17th century. Modern manufacturers have struggled in vain to make instruments that have the same musical qualities. Now a tree-ring dating expert and a climatologist have discovered the secret of the Stradivarius.

Henri Grissino-Mayer and Lloyd Burckle say the “Little Ice Age” in Europe, which lasted from the mid-1400s until the mid-1800s, produced long winters and cool summers that slowed down tree growth, making the wood used for the violins incredibly dense.
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On:

A cocktail of dangerous chemicals has been found in the blood of every person tested in a study in the U.K., and everyone in the U.S. probably has them too. The 77 chemicals found include PCBs, which can affect gender, and a common fire retardant.

Shaoni Bhattacharya quotes toxicologist Matthew Wilkinson as saying, “Every single person we monitored had a range of these chemicals.” Some of these chemicals persist in the blood for a very long time, as shown by the fact that 99% of the people in the study tested positive for DDT, which has been banned for decades in the U.K. Animal tests show these chemicals can be harmful at high levels, but no one knows the effects of carrying low levels of these chemicals around in your blood for a long time.
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On:

Terrorists are deploying in South America, and using the countries there as bases from which to attack the U.S. For instance, Paraguay reports that many visitors who look Middle Eastern are carrying European passports but can’t speak the language of the country they’re supposed to be from.

Yoram East writes for G2Bulletin about a “Belgian” who arrived from Cairo on Egypt Air. Paraguay was a refuge for Nazis after World War II and it may become a haven for Islamic terrorists in the 21st century.

Increasing numbers of Muslims are moving to South American countries. East quotes an official in Columbia as saying, “?Problems arise from recent immigrants who import new jihadi philosophies.” There were attacks on Jewish areas in Buenos Aires in the 1990s.
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On:

It’s a scene we’d all love to see on the evening news: a battle where soldiers aren’t in tanks, Humvees or Bradley fighting vehicles?they’re riding circles around the enemy on their Segways.

Michael P. Regan writes in space.com that we may see it a version of this someday, since the Pentagon is planning to base battlefield robots on the Segway model. These robots could search out the enemy, especially in dangerously mined areas, take injured soldiers to safety or haul heavy gear.

Pentagon procurement would caused a big jump in Segway sales. So far only 6,000 of them have been sold, probably because they cost between $4,000 and $5,000 and most cities won’t let you ride them either in the street or on the sidewalk.
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