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Small and Fabulous: Modular Living as It Should Be

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:48:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

The world is getting hotter and more crowded every day, and modular, prefab housing is just what the doctor ordered. When you go small, it's not just about energy efficiency and carbon footprints -- it's also about being strange, cool and beautiful. We've chosen our favorite houses that meld style with globally conscious living. Enjoy. (Please include your own picks in the comments section.)

Why Dogs hate people

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:53:16 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They look happy on camera, but they can be really bitchy backstage

Clip Source: www.haikupoetshut.com

Caves In China

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:02:59 GMT

clipped by: sweetsfoods

Clip Source: www.frogview.com

Tags: nature, pics., pictures, photos, photography, images

Shell Wildlife Photography of the year - 2007

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:44:17 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Starling spa

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Pool hawk

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Lightning birds

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Hawk owl swoop

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Warbler and its cuckoo

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Grey heron mugging

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Last of the albatrosses

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

The trophy hunter

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Rajan snorkelling

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Passing fin

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Monkey moment

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Snowy owl stoop

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Frozen frenzy

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Battling blackcocks

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Porpoising penguin

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Song of the corn bunting

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Chinstrap slide

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Flight of the yellowlegs

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

The ice-hoppers

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Jackal catch

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Flight of the fishing bat

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Zebra crossing

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Meerkat moment

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Night pride

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Coyote howl

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Cape fox cubs at play

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Great white torpedo

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Ocean glider

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Frog refuge

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Mackerel in synchrony

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

A meal of a worm

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Bouquet of butterflies

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Owl glare

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Griffon picnic

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Night stalker

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Eye of the minke

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Mallard's-eye view

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Bear glare

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Hawk and passing storm

Clip Source: www.nhm.ac.uk

Last light

Napkin PC Enables High-Tech Doodling

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:52:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

Designer Avery Holleman has developed the concept of a Napkin PC, a device that uses e-paper and radio frequency (RF) technology to enable creative groups to collaborate more effectively.

The technology includes a "napkin" holder filled with e-paper napkins, as well as a place for colored pens. When someone gets an inspiration, they simply grab a napkin and start doodling with one of the pens. The pen uses short-range RF technology to send data to the napkin interface. The pen and napkin can also communicate to a base station PC in the napkin holder using long-range RF.

Holleman hopes that the Napkin PC concept could enable creative groups - such as architects, artists, and engineers - to collaborate better because the doodles can be easily shared. Another perk of the concept is that the napkins are modular, so designers can connect them to create large-scale layouts. For example, a block of napkins can be hung side by side on a wall to create a large display.

Tags: technology, doodling

Creationist holds fossil to ransom.

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:24:51 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

How depressing

Category: Creationism
Posted on: January 6, 2008 9:03 PM, by PZ Myers

Creationist can actively impede science. One of the largest mastodon fossils ever found was discovered on a ranch in Texas owned by a fellow named Joe Taylor — an infamous creationist who runs the Mt. Blanco Fossil "Museum", a wacky little place that peddles fossils while claiming they support a 6,000 year old earth. Now he's putting it up for auction, and you can buy the skull for something north of $60,000.

We can't win this one. Even if it's bought by a reputable museum and studied scientifically, it still means that this creationist is going to get a huge chunk of change to use in promoting more lies.

Tags: creationism, religion, stupid religious fuckwits

Baby Mammoth could shed light on extinction

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:26:24 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: It is virtually intact, with the ears and the tail bitten off. It proves Siberia has been cold for a long time.

Clip Source: www.mail.com

HIROKO TABUCHI

Frozen in much the state it died some 37,500 years ago, a Siberian baby mammoth undergoing tests in Japan could finally explain why the beasts were driven to extinction -- and shed light on climate change, scientists said Friday

The 6-month-old calf, unearthed in May by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets autonomous region, is virtually intact and even has some fur, though the tail and ear of the animal dubbed "Lyuba" were apparently bitten off.

"Lyuba's discovery is an historic event," said Bernard Buigues, vice president of the Geneva-based International Mammoth Committee. "It could tell us why this species

didn't survive ... and shed light on the fate of human beings."

The last of the ancient beasts are thought to have roamed the earth from about 4.8 million years ago to 4,000 years ago, and researchers have debated whether their demise was due to climate change or over-hunting by humans

the chance to explain everything about the mammoth

Tags: mammoth, cold, extinct

Which Scifi Drug Do You Wish You Could Take?

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:24:48 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: io9.com

Which Scifi Drug Do You Wish You Could Take?

There's a natural crossover between druggies and science fiction fans, writes Robert Silverberg, author of Son Of Man:

Surveys have shown that the audience for science fiction is primarily adolescent and above average in intelligence; most of the readers are between 15 and 25 years of age (though of course some remain addicts of the genre throughout their lives.) Therefore, there is great correspondence between the main drug-using and science-fiction-reading segments of the population.

That quote comes from a giant survey (PDF) of drug themes in science fiction which Silverberg wrote for the National Institute of Drug Abuse in 1974.

Substance D from A Scanner Darkly

Spice, the awareness heightening drug from Dune.

Soma, the sexy antidepressant from Brave New World

Dust, the drug from Babylon 5 that makes you a telepath for a few hours.

Rapture, the addictive hallucinogen that bonds with you genetically

Tags: scifi, literature, drug, drugs, silverberg, soma, substance d, spice, survey

Butterflies get ants to raise young

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:38:19 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The ants don't seem to mind.

Clip Source: www.mail.com

Call it the cuckoo of butterflies. Like the well-known birds, the Alcon blue butterfly has found a way to get others to raise its offspring. Researchers in Denmark report that the large blue butterfly has managed to produce larvae with a chemical coating similar to that of the local Myrmica rubra ants.

The butterflies deposit their larvae on marsh gentian plants where exploring ants find them, identify the chemical coating, and take the butterfly larvae back to the ant colony and feed them until they grow up and leave, the researchers report in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

The researchers, led by David R. Nash of

the University of Copenhagen, added that elsewhere in Europe the Alcon butterfly uses a different ant species to raise its young.

Super-wine might boost lifespan

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:40:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Would you drink wine made from genetically engineered grapes if it had extra benefits? Such wine could be on the menu, thanks to a grape variety six times richer than normal in resveratrol, the compound in red wine associated with increased longevity, decreased heart disease and a host of other benefits.

Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, made the supervine by equipping it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine. Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production (Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture, DOI: 10.1007/s11240-007-9324-2).

The team plans to make wine from the GM vine, though their main goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol.

Tags: wine, lifespan boost

How to live forever

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:05:33 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.economist.com

It looks unlikely that medical science will abolish the process of ageing. But it no longer looks impossible

“IN THE long run,” as John Maynard Keynes observed, “we are all dead.” True. But can the short run be elongated in a way that makes the long run longer? And if so, how, and at what cost? People have dreamt of immortality since time immemorial. They have sought it since the first alchemist put an elixir of life on the same shopping list as a way to turn lead into gold. They have written about it in fiction, from Rider Haggard's “She” to Frank Herbert's “Dune”. And now, with the growth of biological knowledge that has marked the past few decades, a few researchers believe it might be within reach.

To think about the question, it is important to understand why organisms—people included—age in the first place. People are like machines: they wear out. That much is obvious. However a machine can always be repaired

Tags: ageing, longevity, life

Newborn Planet Found Orbiting Young Star

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:06:36 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Tags: space

Plato Was A Bore

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:21:00 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.arts.unsw.edu.au

Plato was a bore.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.
Ernest Hemingway (1889-1961)

Hemingway was a jerk.
Harold Robbins

A philosophy major? Now, what can you do with a philosophy major?
Bruce Lee: You can think deep thoughts about being unemployed.
Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story