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World's Most Beautiful Transparent Animals

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:35:16 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: somethinbeautiful.blogspot.com

Here are the most Beautiful transparent animals, Nature sure butterflies is very interesting photos!

Transparent Frog

Transparent Head Fish

Transparent Butterfly

Transparent Squid

Transparent Zebrafish created by scientists

Transparent Icefish

Transparent Amphipod

Transparent Larval Shrimp

Transparent Salp

Transparent Jellyfish

Why you aren’t nearly as unique as you think?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:37:49 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Since 1994, photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have been trekking the globe together, recording Exactitudes — “exact attitudes” captu(red) in people’s peculiar dress code as an attempt to differentiate themselves from others or identify with a group."

Clip Source: www.brainpickings.org

Why you aren’t nearly as unique as you think, or what 12 Japanese school children have to do with 12 homeless people in Rotterdam.

Each “exactitude” consists of twelve distinct portraits structured in a grid. Think of it as street fashion meets cultural anthropology meets data visualization — a visceral exploration of subcultures, group identity and individualism.

The series is also an ethnographic and temporal portrait of our collectively individual identity across time and space — the big bags of 2008, New York’s yupster girls, the tracksuits of Japanese schoolkids, the soccer jersey fetish of European teenage boys, even “street style” at its rawest in the face of the homeless.

We see the Rotterdam-based duo’s work as a collage of contradictions — between individuality and uniformity, between street style and studio setting, between self and group — that make you question our cultural givens and our self-conception as unique personas.

"Holding hands — and that's how they died,

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:15:28 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: an amazing story of couple married and living together for 75 golden years...quite moving...

Clip Source: www.wfaa.com

Couple, married 75 years, pass away hours apart

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

On Tuesday afternoon, 100-year-old J.C. Cox and his and 96-year-old wife Josie were buried together.

The couple — married for 75 years — died within five hours of each other.

Their story begins on Christmas Day in 1932.

"They stayed together the whole time," Williamson said, pointing out the bed they had shared.

Mrs. Cox insisted on being the sole person to care for J.C., even up until the moment they entered a nursing home last month.

"She was still ironing his clothes three weeks ago," Williamson said.

"She was going to make sure — even though he never went anywhere — his clothes were going to be starched," Grimm said.

Persistence never left them. They kept their wedding vows for 75 years, through the deaths of their own children, the lives of three new generations and the inevitable changes in each other.

"Holding hands — and that's how they died," Williamson said, with tears in her eyes. "Pa died holding onto Granny."

Why do we nod our heads for "yes" and shake them for "no"?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:50:13 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Dear Cecil:

"With reference to your column on gestures, did you leave out or just not know that in Greece the five fingers spread out and thrust forward at someone means "[poo] in your face"? - Had to Tell You.

Cecil replies:

"Thank you for sharing that with us. Just shows you how the Greeks continue to enrich civilization. "

Clip Source: www.straightdope.com

No less a personage than Charles Darwin looked into it

Nodding and head-shaking turned out to be pretty common, but there were some striking exceptions. For example, certain Australian natives, when uttering a negative, "don't shake the head, but holding up the right hand, shake it by turning it half round and back again two or three times."

Abyssinians said "no" by jerking the head to the right shoulder and making a slight cluck, while "yes" was expressed by the head being thrown backwards and the eyebrows raised for an instant.

The Dyaks of Borneo supposedly raised their eyebrows for "yes" and slightly contracted them, "together with a peculiar look of the eyes," for "no." Eskimoes nodded for "yes" and winked for "no."

where they completely reverse the meaning of our nod and head-shake gestures is Bulgaria. There a nod means no and a shake means yes.

One shudders to think of the implications this has for cross-cultural dating in that country.

STATUE OF LIBERTY PICTURES: Rare Views, Inside and Out

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:43:02 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie
clipper's remarks: The torch has been off-limits to visitors since the "Black Tom" explosion of July 30, 1916. Debris from the attack on U.S. ammunition supplies on nearby—and long since subsumed by landfill—Black Tom Island, New Jersey, pierced the statue.

Another attack—the terrorist assault on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001—prompted the full closure of Liberty Island, which was reopened a hundred days later. The Statue of Liberty would reopen in 2004, and the reopening of the crown will complete the process on the Fourth of July, 2009.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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July 2, 2009--Photographed from a rare vantage point, several of the Statue of Liberty's 25 observation windows look out over New York Harbor in an undated picture.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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Now with safer, higher railings, a refurbished spiral staircase

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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As seen in 1984, strap-iron armature holds the statue's copper skin in place.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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Circa-1930 tourists peer out of the Statue of Liberty's crown

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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Before crowds ascend again on the Fourth of July, 2009, Statue of Liberty park ranger Lance Williams quietly takes in the view

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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The circa-1886 Statue of Liberty's angular steel skeleton meets its elegantly undulating copper toga in this 1984 picture.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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Invisible to tourists, the Statue of Liberty's 25-foot-long (7.6-meter-long) left foot, pictured in 1984

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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the replacement of the torch.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

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ladder is the only way to the torch, the Statue of Liberty's highest point.

Tags: historic american engineering record, library of congress

How close was that?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:04:22 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie
clipper's remarks: And he casually takes a photo after.....

Clip Source: tinypic.com

View Raw Image">

Tags: near death experience

Population Density Triggered Rapid Growth of Human Brain Over Past 2 Million Years

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:16:20 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Population Density Triggered Rapid Growth of Human Brain Over Past 2 Million Years

For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals

niversity of Missouri researchers studied three common hypotheses for brain growth: climate change, ecological demands and social competition

The team found that social competition is the major cause of increased cranial capacity.

Our findings suggest brain size increases the most in areas with larger populations and this almost certainly increased the intensity of social competition

When humans had to compete for necessities and social status, which allowed better access to these necessities, bigger brains provided an advantage

"Brains are metabolically expensive, meaning they take lots of time and energy to develop and maintain, making it so important to understand why our brains continued to evolve faster than other animals

Palin to resign this month

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:35:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: May indicate plans to go after a presidential run.

Clip Source: www.ktuu.com

Gov. Sarah Palin to resign her office

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor's Picnic at Pionner Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.

There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

The stunning announcement by Palin opens the floodgates for the 2010 gubernatorial race. Speculation that Palin might not seek re-election had fueled further conjecture of who might run.

Tags: palin

Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat Caves

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:51:32 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly
clipper's remarks: more (at source): Asish and colleagues made their discovery by extracting proteins from the livers of two long-lived bat species (Tadarida brasiliensis and Myotis velifer) and young adult mice and exposed them to chemicals known to cause protein misfolding. After examining the proteins, the scientists found that the bat proteins exhibited less damage than those of the mice, indicating that bats have a mechanism for maintaining proper structure under extreme stress.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) — Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history—significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the cover of the July 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that proper protein folding over time in long-lived bats explains why they live significantly longer than other mammals of comparable size, such as mice.

"Ultimately we are trying to discover what underlying mechanisms allow for some animal species to live a very long time with the hope that we might be able to develop therapies that allow people to age more slowly," said Asish Chaudhuri, Professor of Biochemistry, VA Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas and the senior researcher involved in the work.

Tags: bats, 'fountain of youth'

Children of gay couples speak out

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:34:53 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Jesse Levey is a Republican activist who says he believes in family values, small government and his lesbian mothers' right to marry.

Levey is part of the "gayby boom" generation. The 29-year-old management consultant is the son of a lesbian couple who chose to have a child through artificial insemination. He's their only child.

Critics of same-sex marriage say people such as Levey will grow up shunned and sexually confused. Yet he says he's a "well-adjusted heterosexual" whose upbringing proves that love, not gender, makes a family.

It damages the children, says Dale O'Leary, author of "One Man, One Woman: A Catholics Guide to Defending Marriage." She says that all children have a natural desire for a parent of each gender.

O'Leary says she doesn't personally know any same-sex parents or their children. That's the problem, some children of same-sex children say. So many people are talking about them; not enough are talking to them, they say.

Tags: gay, lesbian, gay marriage, family, children

Blind man has TOOTH implanted into his eye

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:36:21 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: "When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like.

The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago.

But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has now pierced his world of darkness."

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Mr Jones,

had already spent eight years without his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard.

He suffered 37 per cent burns and had to wear a special body stocking for 23 hours a day. He also has his left eye removed.

But surgeons were able to save the right eye, even though he was unable to see through it.

It was only when a revolutionary new operation was pioneered at the Sussex Eye Clinic in Brighton that he was given a chance to have his sight back.

During the procedure, a minute section of a patient's tooth is removed, reshaped and chiseled through to grip the man-made lens which is then placed in its core.

It is implanted under an eyelid where it becomes covered in tissue.

The process requires a living tooth as an implant because doctors suggest there are chances the eye would reject a plastic equivalent

'I feel fantastic getting my sight back,' he said. 'I

Tags: science, health, eye, blindness, surgery

Jon Stewart Blasts Glenn Beck & Michael Scheuer For Promoting Slaughter Of Americans (VIDEO)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:34:45 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Beck, of course, has launched some campaign called the 9/12 Project, in which he beseeches Americans to start being the people they were on September 12th. I gather now that when Beck says that, he'd saying he'd like many of us to be like the people on September 12th who were scorched into ashes by Osama bin Laden.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Hey, you remember a couple of days ago when Michael Scheuer appeared on the "Glenn Beck Whirligig Of Freakjuice" to talk about border security, and he said that "the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." And then Glenn Beck was all up inside Osama bin Laden's head like he was the star of "CSI: Methamphetaminetown," gravely noting, "Which is why I was thinking this weekend if I were him, that would be the last thing I would do right now."

Remember that? Well, I think we can all say that reasoned discourse was perfected that day. I think the next time I see someone on the streets caught out in the rain, I'm just going to march up to them and yell, "What's it going to take, jerkface? Another HURRICANE KATRINA? Before you remember your fracking umbrella?"

Tags: glenn, chciken, little, beck, wants, to, nuke, america, talk-hate, media

All-purpose tanuki testicles (prints by Kuniyoshi)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:33:57 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly
clipper's remarks: Recently finished reading Tom Robbins' "Villa Incognito" (recommended) in which, one of the main protagonists, is a Tanuki (or rather 'The' Tanuki). So I found these prints even more amusing.

Clip Source: www.pinktentacle.com

In the mid-1840s, ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) created a number of woodblock prints showing legendary tanuki (raccoon dogs) using their humorously large scrota in creative ways.

River fishing

Shelter from evening showers

Rokurokubi (long-necked monster) disguise

Net fishing

Making dashi (soup stock)

Weightlifting

Catfish mallet

Coming and going

Making mochi

Visiting Konpira, the guardian deity of seafaring

Boy’s festival

Cause of chronic abdominal pain

Shichifukujin (the Seven Lucky Gods) disguise

Fortune-telling tent

Shop signs

River crossing

Towboat

Seine fishing

See more of Kuniyoshi’s tanuki images at Kuniyoshi Project (1, 2).

Tags: testicles, tanuki, kuniyoshi

3-D View of San Andreas Fault

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:15:30 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Much of the length of the fault is lined by a distinct trough.

The black line curving along the east side of the fault is I-280, and California highway 92 runs from the top right across to the center left of the image, heading towards Half Moon Bay to the west. San Mateo and Burlingame are parts of the large urbanized area in various tones of pink and green, and Foster City is the area of curved streets extending out into the San Francisco Bay at the top right.

Earth’s crust is a collection of fractured plates that shift across the planet’s surface over millions of years. Two of the major plates meet at the coast of California; the Pacific Plate, under the ocean, is drifting slowly northwest, grinding along the margin of the North American Plate, to the east. Where they meet, the intense pressure of the collision creates an a 800-mile-long fracture zone called the San Andreas Fault.

Tags: fault, geology

Missing Moon-Landing Videotapes May Have Been Found

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:43:54 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, NASA may have found the long-lost original Apollo 11 videotapes.

If true, as Britain's Sunday Express reports, the high-quality tapes may give us a whole new view of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar strolls.

Back on July 20, 1969, the raw video feed from the moon was beamed to the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in southeastern Australia, and then compressed and sent to Mission Control in Houston.

Because of technical issues, NASA's images couldn't be fed directly to the TV networks.

Those images survive, and anyone can see them on YouTube. But the original, sharp, black-and-white tapes that were recorded at Parkes vanished.

Around the same time, though, a cache of tapes containing data from moon-surface experiments from the entire Apollo program was discovered in a university basement in Perth, Western Australia, on the other side of the country from Parkes.

Tags: history, moon, video