Category Archives: Learn Something New Everyday

moron index
Aug 25 2012

News Mash: Heavy metal is an important building block in life? Why, yes…Yes it is!

When it comes to the importance in life…

Heavy metal?

Far more important than most people realize.

[via Space]How to Build a Planet: Heavy Metals Are Key Ingredients

Planets may not be able to form without a heaping helping of heavy elements such as silicon, titanium and magnesium, a new study suggests.

Stars that host planets have higher concentrations of such “metals” — astronomer-speak for elements heavier than hydrogen and helium — compared to iron than do planetless stars, the study found.

“To form planets, one needs heavy elements,” said lead author Vardan Adibekyan, of the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto in Portugal. [Read More]

Heavy metal?

Yeah…

On that note?

Here you go.

Life?

You are very welcome.

Happy to help.

….

…….

……….

Get it?

Did you see what I did there?

Didja?

Oh, come on…

WHA?!

Nov 21 2011

The best weapons are weapons that one can fit into ones purse!

Weapons?

We all have our favorites.

Mine?

The type I can fit in my purse.

Take slingshots, for instance…

A personal favorite of mine.

Why?

Besides full of physics awesomeness…

[via Gizmodo]The Physics Of Slingshots Explains Why They’re So Destructive and So Awesome

Smarter Every Day’s Destin flew to Germany to meet up Joerg Sprave, the man behind those highly entertaining slingshot videos, to take an educational look at the physics behind them. He also brought a high-speed camera with him—need I say more?

We’ve featured Joerg’s Slingshot channel before, and his crazy creations and shaved head have already made him a bona fide internet celebrity. But it’s nice to step back and take a more cerebral look at his mad scientist inventions and the science behind why simple elastics can be so devastating. And seeing Destin and Joerg together in the same video reminds me of those old cartoon crossovers, like when the Jetsons met the Flintstones, minus the awkward laugh track. [The Physics of Slingshots, with Joerg] [Read More]

That WON’T get you arrested if you?

If you are caught with them in your possession, by a police officer.

Like say?

This pocketknife .22 caliber pistol.

[via Gizmodo]Pocketknife Revolver Evens the Odds When You Bring a Knife To a Gunfight

If I built a time machine I’d choose a pickup truck over a Delorean, just so I could bring back all the awesome stuff that’s been deemed unsafe over the years. I mean you can get a Swiss Army knife equipped with everything imaginable these days, except a .22 caliber pistol, which were readily available in 1930.

This amazing little feat of engineering known as the “Defender” packs the only tools you should really need in a pocketknife. A sharp sturdy blade, and a concealed .22 calibre handgun that accepts any type of cartridge. My immediate reaction was to imagine the agony were this to accidentally go off in my pocket, but I think people realized how dangerous guns were even back then. So the Defender appears to have adequate safety mechanisms so it doesn’t go off while you’re whittling or picking your teeth. Not too shabby for just $5 right? I wonder if the Johnson Smith Catalog has an online store these days? [Weird Universe via BoingBoing] [Read More]

Or…

How about this fishing rod rifle.

[via Gizmodo] You Won’t Need Bait With This Ultralight Rifle Fishing Rod

Compact pack rifles are usually designed to be carried for emergencies, and this ultra lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber model, from Mountain View Machine & Welding, will greatly improve your chances of survival since it can also be transformed into a telescoping fishing rod.

Weighing in at just under a pound, the .22 caliber single-shot bolt-action rifle is not only light and easy to carry, but the use of aluminum and carbon fiber make it weather resistant too. When you’re hungry, or when the local wildlife decides that they are, you don’t want a little rain to get in the way of putting this to good use.

The rifle breaks down into two main components in just a couple of seconds, making it easier to stash in a backpack. And with the addition of a reel screwed onto the pistol grip, and a rod that extends from the stock, you’ve got yourself another survival tool in the same $425 package. Let’s see your corkscrew-packing Swiss Army knife do that. [Pffft, see above!] [Pack-Rifle via The Firearm Blog via UberReview] [Read More]

Or finally…

This do-it-yourself handheld flame thrower pistol.

[via Instructables]The idea for this project was born from trying to get our campfires started with kindling and wood so wet we couldn’t get them to burn with dry paper. Sure charcoal lighter would work but where’s the fun in that?

Please don’t be misled by the term Moose/Bear Repellent, I only used it to create more interest. It probably wouldn’t deter a bear that was intent on inflicting harm. If anyone wishes to visit Alaska to enjoy the great outdoors, I would recommend some sort of bear deterrent. Be advised a big ol’ can of pepper spray isn’t always effective, they have even been seen licking it from the ground. Making plenty of noise or an occasional blast on a portable air horn while you’re hiking will keep surprise encounters to a minimum. As for the moose, beware, they usually aren’t afraid of anything and would love a chance to bully you for your snacks, or for no reason at all.    

Some words of caution: Be safe, have a fire extinguisher or bucket of water nearby and someone else there in case whats burning is you. Never operate indoors. You wouldn’t pee up a rope or spit into the wind, it’ll get ya if you do, so don’t use it when the wind is blowing.

The Epilog Zing laser is the perfect machine for the microshop or for taking your laser mobile, such as flea markets. My eldest son has recently been turned on to Instructables, and will be completing his second tour of duty fighting for our freedom this winter. The Zing would make the most awsome welcome home gift.      

Materials: All materials are available at Lowes or Home Depot except the butane refills and birch plywood, which can be found at tobacco shops and craft stores respectively. Total estimated cost $50-$60 US.

8 in. of 1-1/2 in. type “L” copper tubing
1-1/2 in. copper end cap
1-1/4 in. copper end cap
1 in. length of 3/4 in. soft copper tubing
1/4 in. x 1-3/4 in. hitch pin
4 in. x 4 in. x 5MM extruded acrylic
24 in. x 12 in. x 1/8 in. birch plywood
1-1/4 in. length of 1/4 in. oak dowel
1-1/2 in. x 1-1/8 in. x 1/2 in. long aluminum angle
4 pcs. 1/8 in. tension pins 5/8 in. long
12 pcs. #8 x 3/4 flat head wood screws
3 pcs. #6-32 x 1/4 in. flat head machine screws
1 pc. #8-32 x 1 in. flat head machine screw
2 pcs. #6 x 1/2 in. flat head wood screws
1 pc. #8-32 x 1/4 in. flat head machine screw and lock nut
1 pc. #10-24 x 3/8 in. pan head machine screw, flat washer, lock washer and nut
pulse ignition for gas grill with wiring harness ( Lowes or Home Depot )
1 pc. AA battery
2.1 oz. can butane
1 paper clip
1 pc. 3/4 in nylon pipe cap
Titebond wood glue
super glue
a bit of solder

Tools used:

Laser cutter
Pipe cutter
Hand drill and assorted bits
Dremel with cut-off wheel and drum sander
Wire crimper
Sand paper
Scotchbrite
Propane torch
Router table
Phillips screwdriver [Read More - Links to the drawing files]

So, yes…

Slingshots?

My preferred weapon.

Especially if they cut off the heads of zombies.

What?!

I have a big purse.

Sep 28 2011

Good News: Beer ice cream Bad News: Hair is cooked in your pizza crust!

This next bit of information falls into the category of “Things to know and learn”…

Where with some, “knowing and learning” makes me very happy.

Especially?

When it comes to consumption and the emotional state of my belly.

What am I talking about?

Beer. Ice cream.

Seriously…

Can life get any better than that?

No…

Don’t think it can.

[via FitPerez] Are you tired of pouring beer into your ice cream to get that perfect combination of brew and cold sweetness?

We know we are!

Well soggy beer floats be gone! There’s a new kind of cold treat in town — infusing the beer and ice cream from the beginning and just getting right to the Beer Ice Cream.

Frozen Pints decided that the two most refreshing things on a hot summer day should be one in the same, and created flavors like: Honey IPA, Malted Milk Chocolate Stout, and Brown Ale Chip. [Read More]

On the opposite end of that learning scale however…

Science is really going out of its way to try to ruin pizza for me, dammit.

…

[I hate choo, Science, I hate choo!]

[Source]

Needless to say?

I am not happy about it at all.

When it comes to “knowing and learning” in THIS instance…

My gawd, if only I could forget.

(NaturalNews) If you read the ingredients label on a loaf of bread, you will usually find an ingredient listed there as L-cysteine. This is a non-essential amino acid added to many baked goods as a dough conditioner in order to speed industrial processing. It’s usually not added directly to flour intended for home use, but you’ll find it throughout commercial breads such as pizza dough, bread rolls and pastries.

While some L-cysteine is directly synthesized in laboratories, most of it is extracted from a cheap and abundant natural protein source: human hair. The hair is dissolved in acid and L-cysteine is isolated through a chemical process, then packaged and shipped off to commercial bread producers. Besides human hair, other sources of L-cysteine include chicken feathers, duck feathers, cow horns and petroleum byproducts.

Most of the hair used to make L-cysteine is gathered from the floors of barbershops and hair salons in China, by the way.

While the thought of eating dissolved hair might make some people uneasy, most Western consumers ultimately have no principled objections doing so. [Ooh, ooh *waves hand in air* I do, I do!] For Jews and Muslims, however, hair-derived L-cysteine poses significant problems. Muslims are forbidden from eating anything derived from a human body, and many rabbis forbid hair consumptionfor similar reasons. Even rabbis who permit the consumption of hair would forbid it if it came from corpses — and since much L-cysteine comes from China, where sourcing and manufacturing practices are notoriously questionable, this is a real concern. In one case, a rabbi forbade the consumption of L-cysteine because the hair had been harvested during a ritual at a temple in India. [Read More]

Give me a few days, and hopefully I will have this information full repressed and will be back to happily eating pizza once again…

Without any thought of hair from Chinese people cooked into my pizza crust.

And given all of the trauma from my childhood I successfully repressed, this should be a piece of pie…

It darn well better be, or someone will be punished!

[Source]

Sep 12 2011

This ‘flutter’ and odd putter is for the birds!

THIS flutter has power…

Who knew the word flutter could be a word to fear?

And the fact that it can, and I just found out why…

Very cool.

Learn something new every day.

However apparently birds have been very secure in this knowledge all along…

I adore how smart birds are.

[via io9] Hummingbirds dive to sing with their tails

Many birds sing to woo females, but some hummingbirds go to great lengths to do so. They climb to between 5 and 40 metres before plummeting past perched females in death-defying dives. They pull up at the last minute, spread their tail feathers and produce a loud chirpy song. The song comes not from the birds’ mouths, but from their tails. The splayed tail feathers vibrate as air rushes past them, causing them to flutter.

Flutter sounds colloquial and innocuous, but it can be deadly. It’s what happens when air, moving at just the right speed, zooms past objects with just the right stiffness, setting up large and potentially disastrous vibrations. Flutter brought down the passenger plane Braniff Airways Flight 542, killing everyone on board. Flutter wrecked the Tahoma Narrows Bridge, causing it to warp and twist like a piece of rope. But flutter also ensures that male hummingbirds get some action.

Christopher Clark from the Peabody Museum of Natural History has found that males of different hummingbird species have their own unique tail songs. Their feathers that flutter at different frequencies, and the sounds produced by different feathers blend into one another. This allows each male bird to create an entire symphony with its bottom, independently of its calls or the famous humming noise produced by its wings. These songs tell eavesdropping females about the male’s species, as well as his quality.

Clark clipped tail feathers from 14 different hummingbird species and placed them in a wind tunnel. As the air swept past, Clark measured the feathers’ vibrations using a laser Doppler vibrometer – a device that engineers use to inspect everything from speakers to bridges. He also recorded the sounds they made using a microphone.

At both low and high wind speeds, the feathers were silent. The tail feathers only fluttered in the right way at intermediate speeds, matching those that the birds dive at. The feathers are very finely tuned musical instruments. Tiny changes in their weight, stiffness, size and shape can greatly change the pitch and volume of the sounds they create.

Clark also found that neighbouring feathers interact with one another. In Anna’s hummingbird, the second tail feathers from the outside amplify the sounds created by their outermost pair, making them four times louder. In Allen’s hummingbird, the third and fourth pairs of tail feathers flutter at different frequencies, creating a symphomy of two tones – the bird also adds a third by singing in the more traditional way. In the Calliope hummingbird, the tail feathers strike one another during the dive, creating a sputtering noise on top of the normal song. [Read More]

OK…

Let me amend that.

*coughs, clears throat*

I love how smart…

SOME birds are.

put·ter

v. put·tered, put·ter·ing, put·ters
v.intr.

To occupy oneself in an aimless or ineffective manner.

Yep.

Total ‘Species Exclusion’ Clause. Proving, once again?

There are always those, no matter how smart the species, that ruins it for the rest of them.

See?

Way to go.

*shakes head sadly*

Sep 7 2011

Freaky & bizarre: Fun Mythological Creatures and Natures ‘WTH is that!’

This little puppy doesn’t seem to know how lucky it is…

And looks a tad more than hesitant, don’t you think?

[Source] [Tumblr]

He has NO reason to be dubious.

Really, he is, after all, totally being blessed with good fortune and prosperity by a Maneki Neko.

In Tokyo lore and mythology, the “Beckoning Cat” is a real thing…

And one to be both respected and appreciated!

[via cnngo]

Maneki Neko

Description: Ostensibly a totally normal cat … save for that one paw raised in a feline high-five. The name translates into “beckoning cat,” and they are symbols of good fortune and prosperity.

Trivia: A cat’s cupped paw resembles the typical way Japanese people beckon each other over — palm-side down as opposed to the Western palm-side up.

How to find one: C’mon, you can’t walk five meters without spotting a Maneki Neko statuette in this city. But for those who really want to beckon in the loot, we recommend visiting Gotoku-ji Temple in the Gotokuji neighborhood of Tokyo, which has hundreds of the lucky kitties on display. [Read More]

It’s not the only extremely cool Mythical beast Tokyo has to offer…

Check out these additions!

[via cnngo cont...]

Catfish God

Mythical Japanese animals

Catfish God — the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll critter.

Description: In times of old, the Japanese believed that earthquakes were caused by an enormous Catfish God thrashing deep beneath the surface of the earth.

Trivia: Some scientists believe the long whiskers of the Japanese catfish are capable of detecting tremors before they occur, but so far hard evidence is scant.

How to find one: Disaster evacuation routes throughout the city and suburbs are marked with super-cute catfish mascots, a nod to the old legends.

Komainu

Mythical Japanese animals

Open wide and say ‘Get the frick outta my temple, bad luck.’

Description: Usually (but not always) carved from stone, Komainu flank the entrances to Shinto shrines and serve much the same purpose as gargoyles on Western churches. Always found in pairs, one with its mouth open and the other with its mouth closed.

Trivia: The open-and-closed mouths are said to resemble the shape of the mouth when pronouncing “a” and “um,” which taken together sound like “beginning and end” in Sanskrit.

Where to find them: Almost any shrine, but there’s a particularly splendid pair to be found right outside of Asakusa Shrine, just behind Senso-ji Temple.

Kirin

Mythical Japanese animals

Drink a few too many Kirin Ichibans and you could well be seeing these in your house.

Description: A mythical beast said to hail from China. It may look ferocious, but it actuality punishes the wicked, eats only fruits and vegetables and is seen as an all-around harbinger of good fortune.

Trivia: Giraffes are also known as kirin in Japanese, as scholars confused the African animal for the mythical creature when they first learned of it.

How to find one: This is easy. Go to the convenience store and purchase a six-pack of Kirin Beer. You’ll find the Kirin right on the label — and who knows, perhaps right before your eyes if you slam those “tall boys” quickly enough.

Nue

Mythical Japanese animals

The Nue — that’s one mixed-up scary mutha.

Description: A Japanese chimera. Head of a monkey, body of a tiger, tail of a poisonous snake. Bad news all around if you encounter one — Nue are said to induce sickness in any who so much as lay eyes on one.

Trivia: The A-list anime company “Studio Nue” takes its name from this creature.

How to find one: Give it up. It’s too dangerous to track one down. But you can see the next best thing at the Tokyo National Museum — a ceremonial katana sword bestowed upon Minamoto no Yorimasa for felling a Nue that was harassing the Emperor back in 1153.

Baku

Mythical Japanese animals

Dream eater, take away my worries of today …

Description: Superficially resembling the animals called tapirs (which, not coincidentally, are also called baku in Japanese), these stout creatures with elephant-like noses are voracious eaters … of dreams.

Trivia: Chanting “I give this dream to you, Baku” after a nightmare will ensure you never see the bad dream ever again.

How to find one: Baku are commonly used as design elements in Buddhist temples. Look up at the eaves of a temple next time you visit — you might just see a Baku looking back at you. The Yakuoin Temple atop Mount Takao is a good place to start.

Houou

Mythical Japanese animals

Peace out, y’all — the Houou is a mellow beast.

Description: Also known as the “Japanese phoenix,” these indescribably beautiful avian creatures represent harmony and tranquility. Said to descend in times of peace and leave when threatened, it’s not particularly surprising that nobody’s actually seen one for generations.

Trivia: In China, the Houou is paired with the dragon in a symbol of matrimonial bliss … and conflict.

How to find one: Good luck finding a real phoenix in the era of seemingly endless conflict and disasters that we live in. You can enjoy the next best thing by searching for carvings of them on temples and shrines. Those of Taishakuten Temple (Shibamata Station) are particularly fertile phoenix hunting grounds.

Shachihoko

Mythical Japanese animals

Mash together a fish and a dragon and you’ve got yourself a Shachihoko.

Description: Creatures that resemble a mix of fish and dragon that sit in pairs atop the roofs of traditional Japanese buildings. Their curved bodies give castles and other structures their distinctive “horned” silhouette.

Trivia: Shachi is the Japanese word for orca or killer whale, and some theories speculate that Shachikoko and the cetaceans are one and the same.

How to find one: The more opulent the building, the higher a chance you’ll see Shachihoko. One of our favorite hunting spots is the East Garden of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which features a rare Shachihoko on display at ground level.

Dragon

Mythical Japanese animals

Can’t very well have a mythical creature parade without a dragon, can we?

Description: Giant, serpentine creatures of the sort that have populated myths in Asia and abroad for … well, forever, really. Capable of exhaling both water and fire, they are formidable beasts of Chinese, Korean and Japanese mythology.

Trivia: The Dragon King’s palace (Ryugu) supposedly sits on the seafloor near the Okinawan islands (Ryukyu).

How to find one: Dragons are common design motifs on temples throughout Japan. Here’s one you may have missed — the next time you visit Asakusa’s Kaminarimon Gate, stand beneath the giant red lantern and look straight up. You’ll find a dragon carved into its base.

Gama’s Toad

Mythical Japanese animals

Gama’s toad bestows the essence of life in its breath — let’s hope there’s no kissing on the agenda, though.

Description: A three-legged toad that acts as the familiar of Gama Sennin, one of the Eight Taoist Immortals of Chinese legend. Gama supposedly found the strange little creature in a well one day, and they’ve been fast friends ever since.

Trivia: Gama’s Toad can exhale a cloud that represents the “life-breath” that animates all living beings.

How to find one: We left the trickiest one for last; Gama and his toad are obscure even by the standards of veteran creature-watchers. There is a faded, centuries-old painting of the pair on the left side of the Honden (worship hall) of Mitake Shrine, atop Mount Mitake, but you’ll need to attend a service to see it. [Read More]

And…

Last but not least!

OK…

Devil’s Flower Mantis?

Doesn’t make the ‘Mythical Beast’ cut.

But it definitely makes the bizarre, “What the Hecate is THAT?!?!’ so I’m counting it…

Just look at that thing!

Jeez…

Robbed.

Aug 27 2011

This is what I’m talkin’ about: College courses aren’t just educational, but fun!

Much like one’s experiences, one’s education is never complete…

With that said, it has always been a dream of mine to go back to college, but not with any specific degree in mind, just the goal to learn as much and all I can.

Cause, come on, seriously…

Who wouldn’t want to take THESE classes?

[via Mental Floss] From the Sociology of Lady Gaga to the Joy of Garbage, here are some of the coolest and weirdest college courses being taught this fall.

1. Sociology of Fame and Lady Gaga
University of South Carolina

No, you won’t get extra credit for wearing sirloin to class. As the syllabus warns, “This is not a course in Lady Gaga but in sociology; and it is not a course about Lady Gaga as much as about the culture of the fame as exemplified by the career of Lady Gaga. There will be no PowerPoint presentations in this class nor any music or videos.”

2. Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble
Princeton University
Obsessed with Words With Friends? If you’re at Princeton, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this class, where students will “challenge one another to games of Scrabble and Boggle, and enjoy the ‘Princeton dimension’ of the whole enterprise.”

3. “Oh, Look, a Chicken!” Embracing Distraction as a Way of Knowing
Belmont University
Not only does it have an amazing name, “Oh, Look, a Chicken!” has the best course description I’ve ever read:

“Oh, look, a Chicken”….This course will pursue ways of knowing through embracing [little ants, carrying a morsel of food across the table] what it means to be a distracted [I could sure enjoy a peanut butter sandwich right now] learner as well as [OMG--I get to go to the beach this summer] developing an awareness [I need to trim my fingernails] of one’s senses.

The instructor teaches in the school of music, [do I hear water dripping?] so there will be an element related to that woven [spiders are amazing] into the course. [oh, it's the fish tank behind me] Those registering for this section may even learn to juggle [I'll be right down, I just have to finish this...what was I working on?].

4. Things That Go Bump in the Night
Hampshire College
Great course title, and fascinating topic. It looks at “experimental topics in the philosophy of mind,” including phantom limb phenomena, ambiguous figures and “split-brain syndrome,” when the two brain hemispheres seem to be occupied by two independent consciousnesses.

5. Theory and History of Video Games
Swarthmore
“Historical, cultural and formal perspectives on video games, tracing their emergence as new medium, big business, and social force.” If this means playing Halo and Mario Kart in class, I’m sure it’ll be a big hit. (It must be – registration for the class is already closed.)

6. Fly Fishing
Montana State
And if fly fishing doesn’t trip your trigger, you can also earn a credit for pocket billiards, bowling fundamentals, or Skiing, Snowboarding and Telemarking.

7. Physics for Future Presidents
UC Berkeley
Planning to fill Obama’s shoes one days? Then you better check out this course, which will make you well-versed in topics like spy satellites, medical imaging, nuclear weapons and energy conservation.

8. Zombies in Popular Media
Columbia College Chicago
Capitalizing on the current zombie trend? Maybe, but it still sounds like fun:

“This course explores the history, significance, and representation of the zombie as a figure in horror and fantasy texts.

Instruction follows an intense schedule, using critical theory and source media (literature, comics, and films) to spur discussion and exploration of the figures many incarnations. Daily assignments focus on reflection and commentary, while final projects foster thoughtful connections between student disciplines and the figure of the zombie.”

9. Cyborg Anthropology
Lewis & Clark College
Finally, you’ll know what Skynet knows. OK, not quite – it’s actually about “Cultural practices surrounding the production and consumption of technoscientific and biomedical knowledge,” but “Representation of science and technology in popular culture” all but guarantees a viewing of at least one of the Terminators.

10. Popular Flops: Bad Movies
Tufts
I have a feeling this seminar will be a blockbuster, even if they are looking at some of the biggest flops to grace the silver screen. Sounding equally interesting is “Are You There God? It’s Me, Gossip Girl.”

11. Philosophy and The Wire
Georgetown
Philosophy and Star Trek has been around for a while, but The Wire is a more recent addition to college courses inspired by the small screen. As in the Lady Gaga course, the college is careful to mention that the class isn’t actually about the show:

“The class is not about The Wire; instead, the class will use The Wire as an environment for philosophical work, a dramatic and shared vehicle for scratching beneath the surface of the everyday concept of responsibility to find questions we hadn’t thought to ask and to begin to answer them.”

12. Tightwaddery, or the Good Life on a Dollar a Day
Alfred University
Is it really possible to live on a buck a day? This honors seminar at Alfred doesn’t presume to say that you should be shopping at the 99 cent store, but rather asks the question that Socrates once asked: “What is the good life for a human being?”

13. Biology of Jurassic Park
Hood College
From the syllabus: “Even though they are extinct, dinosaurs can serve as models to understand many biological principles, including patterns of biodiversity, evolution, extinction, community ecology, homeostasis and behavior. To understand these principles, we will answer questions such as: How many species of dinosaurs were there? Are birds really dinosaurs? Did dinosaurs show parental care?”

The real question, I think, is whether velociraptors can be brought back to life and exhibited in an amusement park.

14. Joy of Garbage
Santa Clara University

What would have happened to Woody and the Toy Story 3 gang if they hadn’t escaped that incinerator by the skin of their teeth? That’s what Santa Clara University wants you to know. Your unwanted junk is recycled, burned, reused, shipped abroad or dumped on minority communities.

15. Disney Feature: Then and Now
UCLA
“Evaluation of why Disney’s animated features have dominated until recently and ramifications of this dominance on animation and society.” Do you suppose it includes field trips to nearby Disneyland or Disney Studios? I’m guessing not.

16. How to Watch Television
Montclair State
Has that big screen in your living room always perplexed you? Flummoxed by the little rectangle that seems to control its every image and sound? Sorry to say, this class isn’t going to help. Despite its title, “How to Watch Television” is really about analyzing the medium and evaluating TV’s impact on our lives.

17. Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond
University of Texas at Austin
The class explores the Star Trek language and Esperanto, among others. I’m willing to bet there’s a bit of Elvish thrown in there, too.

18. The Phallus
Occidental College
I feel like this one speaks for itself, but just in case you need it spelled out for you, here’s an excerpt from the syllabus: Topics include the signification of the phallus, the relation of the phallus to masculinity, femininity, genital organs and the fetish, the whiteness of the phallus, and the lesbian phallus.

19. The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur
University of Washington
Though Tupac has been gone for nearly 15 years, he lives on at U-Dub. The course “explores the philosophical, historical and literary influences of the late rapper and activist, Tupac Shakur.”

20. The American Vacation
University of Iowa
Sounds like a breezy look at the Hamptons, Disneyland and Route 66, doesn’t it? Not quite. Students will focus on “Social history of vacations; cultural significance of contemporary patterns; [and] how experiences and meanings are shaped by race, class, gender.”

21. California Culture
San Francisco State
Are California Gurls really undeniable? You probably won’t find confirmation of Katy Perry’s lyrics in this course. It’s more about the state as a “flawed paradise” and addresses the Golden State’s function in Pacific relations. You’ll also examine the “dynamics of California society and culture in recent times.”

22. Goldberg’s Canon: Makin’ Whoopi
Bates College


If you’ve been dying to take this class since we first mentioned it a few years ago, your time has finally come: Makin’ Whoopi is back at Bates this semester.
* * * [Read More]

Although those classes are not easily accessible?

One freely is…

And I do mean freely – Check out THIS bit of awesomeness: Standford is offering a FREE online Introductory Course on Artificial Intelligence…

AYMAHGAWD!

[via io9] Enroll in a free course on artificial intelligence, taught by two world-renowned AI experts

If you’ve ever wanted a world-class introduction to the basics of artificial intelligence, here’s your chance. Every fall, engineering students at Stanford University can enroll in a class titled “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence.” And now you can, too.

The class is taught by world-renowned AI experts Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, and while the course typically accommodates about 200 students, this year Stanford is experimenting with opening up its introductory AI curriculum to the entire world — and they’re doing it for free.

According to the course webpage:

A bold experiment in distributed education, “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” will be offered free and online to students worldwide during the fall of 2011. The course will include feedback on progress and a statement of accomplishment. Taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, the curriculum draws from that used in Stanford’s introductory Artificial Intelligence course. The instructors will offer similar materials, assignments, and exams.

Artificial Intelligence is the science of making computer software that reasons about the world around it. Humanoid robots, Google Goggles, self-driving cars, even software that suggests music you might like to hear are all examples of AI. In this class, you will learn how to create this software from two of the leaders in the field.

Up top you’ll find your personal invitation to enroll in the course, courtesy of Sebastian Thrun himself. Here’s the syllabus. Here’s the (non-required) course textbook. An online study group has even cropped up over on reddit.

So far over 130,000 people — from high schoolers to retirees — have signed up for the course, which kicks off on October 10th. In other words, if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about artificial intelligence, you have basically no excuse not to enroll, which you can do right here.  [Read More]

Come October 10th, I am so there – Very exciting!

And cool…

Cause how often are YOU going to get the chance to say you took a course, ANY course, from Stanford, hmm?

Do NOT let this opportunity pass you by!

I mean it…

DON’T be a big chicken and NOT attempt this course – Just DO IT!

Aug 20 2011

Did you know: 1) Cosmetics contain dangerous chemicals and 2) Dandelions are edible!

Being a woman today…

Definitely HARD on a gal.

How else would you describe the fact that the cosmetics we depend on…

The same cosmetics guys depend on that we wear?

Possibly filled with poisons.

Wonderful. /sarc off

[via NextWorldTV]1,100 chemicals that are banned in Europe are still allowed in the US, in our lotions, shampoos, lipsticks, aftershaves and other personal care products — baby products included.

Of the 80,000 chemicals used in this country, only 200 have been tested for safety.

This video tells us that the average woman exposes herself to 167 different chemicals on her body and face during her daily beauty regime.


It continues to offers points on what to look for and avoid. You DO want to study the small print before you buy.

There is no reason that companies that make chemical-free beauty products shouldn’t be just as affordable and available — we just have to support them.

They also tend to be the ones that don’t test on animals.

Some products we may be able to do without. Some we can make our own home made versions of. Imagine all the money and packaging we’ll be saving while avoiding all these toxins… — Bibi Farber [Read More]

Not only that, but now…

Science is telling us we should EAT flowers.

My soul dies a little inside just thinking about it.

[via NextWorldTV] One day it will surely be a baffling mystery to anyone studying our stage of humanity: Why we went to considerable effort, expense and energy killing “weeds” with beautiful bright yellow flowers that are edible and have tremendous healing properties.

Dandelions are rich in vitamins A,B,C,D, iron, calcium, beta carotene, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. They are said to aid healing in anemia, arthritis, cysts, cancer, liver, pancreas, bladder and kidney problems.

The greens, flowers and roots can all be eaten.


There are some look–alikes, but no poisonous ones. However, please use caution when picking them, because it is extremely important that the ground has not been sprayed with any chemical fertilizer or herbicides. Make sure that the pesticide DDT was not used as it stays in the ground for decades and remains toxic.

Find a safe dandelion patch, and bring home the makings for pasta sauce!

This video includes a dandelion pesto recipe! Bon Appetit! –Bibi Farber [Read More]

Makes me truly fear what the world could possibly, in the form of trauma, have in store for the fairer sex…

A scientific study that states women should limit themselves to ONE pair of shoes?

Perish the thought.

Aug 7 2011

Seriously – You mean there’s a name for that?

Very cool bit of useless information that someone FAR more amazing than me, put together.

And because this information was put together in such a spectacular fashion? It could not be passed up.

After all, who doesn’t love a bit of useless information now and again?

Enjoy!

[via Buzzfeed]

  • 1. Tittle

    The dot over an ‘i’ or ‘j.’

  • 2. Lunule

    The white, crescent shaped part at the top of a nail.

  • 3. Crepuscular Rays

    Rays of sunlight coming from a certain point in the sky. Also known as “God’s rays.”

  • 4. Ferrule

    The metal part on a pencil.

  • 5. Gynecomastia

    Man-boobs.

  • 6. Muntin

    The strip separating window panes.

  • 7. Morton’s Toe

    When your second toe is bigger than your big toe.

  • 8. Arms Akimbo

    Exactly what it looks like. Hands on your hips.

  • 9. Desire Path

    A path created by natural means, simply because it is the “shortest or most easily navigated” way.

  • 10. Semantic Satiation

    What happens when you say a word for so long that it loses its meaning. Limit limit limit limit limit limit limit limit limit.

  • 11. Skeuomorph

    “A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary.” For example, rivets on jeans, copper color on pennies, the shutter sound on a digital camera, and the pointless handle above.

  • 12. Brannock Device

    What is used to measure your feet at the shoe store.

  • 13. Paresthesia

    The pins and needles feeling you get when part of your body falls asleep. Bonus! This is known as obdormition.

  • 14. Phosphenes

    The lights you see when you close your eyes and press your hands to them.

  • 15. Armscye

    The armhole in most clothing.

  • 16. Wamble

    Stomach rumble.

  • 17. Feat

    A dangling piece of curly hair.

  • 18. Peen

    The side opposite the hammer’s striking side.

  • 19. Rectal Tenesmus

    The feeling of incomplete defecation. We’ve all been there.

  • 20. Dysania

    The state of finding it hard to get out of the bed in the morning.

  • 21. Mondegreen

    Misheard lyrics.

  • 22. Petrichor

    The it smells outside after rain.

  • 23. Philtrum

    The groove located just below the nose and above the middle of the lips.

  • 24. Purlicue

    The space between the thumb and the forefingers.

  • 25. Aglet

    The plastic coating on a shoelace. [Read More]

If you enjoyed this information as much as I did, make sure you click the link and give the original poster some love…

For this bit of info-brain-crack-fun?

They deserve it!

Jul 28 2011

What you don’t know, won’t scare you! Or will it?

One of my favorite horror movies of all time.

It freaked me out, still does…

Well, it DID!

Then I had to watch this movie about film psychology, discussing my film fav:

How Stanley Kubrick used Escher-styled spacial awareness & set design anomolies to disorientate viewers of his horror classic The Shining. This is a must for serious Kubrick fans and psychology students. Written, narrated and edited by Rob Ager

Visit my website for more film and psychology related videos
http://www.collativelearning.com/

My full analysis of The Shining can be found here:
http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining.html

My other Kubrick analysis articles and videos include:
A Clockwork Orange
http://www.collativelearning.com/ACO%20expanded%20analysis%20.html
2001: A Space Odyssey
http://www.collativelearning.com/2001%20analysis%20new.html
Full Metal Jacket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdfCTAqO9pw

Now anytime I watch this movie, I will be so concentrated on what shouldn’t be there, I lose the grasp on the “Spooky”.

Ah, well…

Guess, I will just be trading one bit of coolness for another.

Cause film psychology?

Rocks.

I love knowing and learning new things, don’t you?

Jul 10 2011

It’s time: A bit of religious history reveals itself!

About to get my ‘geek on’ for a second, you will have to excuse me.

I admit it, I am a fan of religious history…

The drama, the good, the bad, the STORIES – Amazing!

Find it all very fascinating really, not just the history itself, which is interesting enough, but man’s relationship and ideas on said history that draws me in.

Enchants me.

How can it not?

VATICAN CITY (The Blaze/AP) — The Vatican will be displaying 100 select documents from its Secret Archives at an unprecedented exhibit next year, including previously unpublished papers on its World War II-era pope.

The exhibit is the first of its kind and will likely shed light on some important questions surrounding the Church’s involvement and opinions surrounding World War II, the Armenian genocide and other important events and occurrences. According to the Archives’ web site:

The activity of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano pursues two main goals. One is to protect its documentary heritage and ensure its preservation, while the other is to provide scholars with research tools to enhance access to this treasure trove of Church activity conserved in documents spanning thousands of years.

The Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, unveiled plans for “Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed” at a briefing Tuesday.

The exhibit, which runs from February to September at Rome’s Capitoline Museums, marks the first time such precious documents, manuscripts and parchments have been allowed out of the Vatican vaults for view by the general public. The occasion is the Archive’s 400th anniversary. [Read More]

The REAL Vatican Archives. Television footage behind the (closed) doors of one of the most mysterious places on earth. The Vatican Secret Archives. Television footage recorded at the occasion of the publication of the first illustrated book on the Vatican Secret Archives ever. http://www.vdhbooks.com

As much as so many like to fight any views or ideas about religion, it has left a lasting mark on both us and our history which will never be able to be erased.

Not even by the harsh sands of time.

(07-08) 03:44 PDT TEL EL-SAFI, Israel (AP) –

At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.

The city of Gath, where the annual digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more nuanced portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.

Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills. The city’s most famous resident, according to the Book of Samuel, was Goliath — the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd David and his slingshot.

The Philistines “are the ultimate other, almost, in the biblical story,” said Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation.

The latest summer excavation season began this past week, with 100 diggers from Canada, South Korea, the United States and elsewhere, adding to the wealth of relics found at the site since Maier’s project began in 1996.

In a square hole, several Philistine jugs nearly 3,000 years old were emerging from the soil. One painted shard just unearthed had a rust-red frame and a black spiral: a decoration common in ancient Greek art and a hint to the Philistines’ origins in the Aegean.

The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.

At Gath, they settled on a site that had been inhabited since prehistoric times. Digs like this one have shown that though they adopted aspects of local culture, they did not forget their roots. Even five centuries after their arrival, for example, they were still worshipping gods with Greek names.

Archaeologists have found that the Philistine diet leaned heavily on grass pea lentils, an Aegean staple. Ancient bones discarded at the site show that they also ate pigs and dogs, unlike the neighboring Israelites, who deemed those animals unclean — restrictions that still exist in Jewish dietary law.

Diggers at Gath have also uncovered traces of a destruction of the city in the 9th century B.C., including a ditch and embankment built around the city by a besieging army — still visible as a dark line running across the surrounding hills.

The razing of Gath at that time appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael in 830 B.C., an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.

Gath’s importance is that the “wonderful assemblage of material culture” uncovered there sheds light on how the Philistines lived in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., said Seymour Gitin, director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and an expert on the Philistines.

That would include the era of the kingdom ruled from Jerusalem by David and Solomon, if such a kingdom existed as described in the Bible. Other Philistine sites have provided archaeologists with information about earlier and later times but not much from that key period.

“Gath fills a very important gap in our understanding of Philistine history,” Gitin said.

In 604 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines’ cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.

Crusaders arriving from Europe in 1099 built a fortress on the remains of Gath, and later the site became home to an Arab village, Tel el-Safi, which emptied during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. Today Gath is in a national park.

An Israeli town founded in 1955 several miles to the south, Kiryat Gat, was named after Gath based on a misidentification of a different ruin as the Philistine city.

The memory of the Philistines — or a somewhat one-sided version — was preserved in the Hebrew Bible.

The hero Samson, who married a Philistine woman, skirmished with them repeatedly before being betrayed and taken, blinded and bound, to their temple at Gaza. There, the story goes, he broke free and shattered two support pillars, bringing the temple down and killing everyone inside, including himself.

One intriguing find at Gath is the remains of a large structure, possibly a temple, with two pillars. Maeir has suggested that this might have been a known design element in Philistine temple architecture when it was written into the Samson story.

Diggers at Gath have also found shards preserving names similar to Goliath — an Indo-European name, not a Semitic one of the kind that would have been used by the local Canaanites or Israelites. These finds show the Philistines indeed used such names and suggest that this detail, too, might be drawn from an accurate picture of their society.

The findings at the site support the idea that the Goliath story faithfully reflects something of the geopolitical reality of the period, Maeir said — the often violent interaction of the powerful Philistines of Gath with the kings of Jerusalem in the frontier zone between them.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time,” Maeir said. [Read More]

Nor should it be.

Jun 22 2011

A picture is worth a thousand words, even if they’re wrong!

The Earth is flat!

For the longest time, it wasn’t just a theory but an ironclad held belief…

Here’s the picture to prove it!

[via Daily Mail] The Library of Congress in Washington DC is about to be given a rare and unusual gift — a 120-year-old map supporting the theory that the Earth is flat.

There are five million maps in the library’s collection, but not one matches the one belonging to Don Homuth.

Mr Homuth, of Salem, Oregon, says the map was given to him by his eighth-grade English teacher John Hildreth.

Heading for the capital: After years of being folded away at a house in Oregon, the rare map is going to the Library of Congress Heading for the capital: After years of being folded away at a house in Oregon, the rare map is going to the Library of Congress

He says he will donating the map later this month.

It was created by Orlando Ferguson of Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Mr Homuth, who used to live in Fargo, North Dakota, and was a state senator, said: ‘Mr Hildreth was just one of those teachers who had quite an influence on me.

‘I think he’d be tickled that one of these artifacts that his grandfather gave to him is going to the Library of Congress.’

Mr Ferguson’s map supports a theory that the Earth is flat.

Robert Morris, senior technical information specialist in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, said they searched through 75 to 100 related maps before confirming they didn’t have a similar map in its collections.

Rare and unusual gift: The Library of Congress is looking forward to receiving the 120-year-old mapRare and unusual gift: The Library of Congress is looking forward to receiving the 120-year-old map

‘Probably very few copies were printed, and even fewer survived,’ he said.

The only other known remaining map is in the Pioneer Museum of Hot Springs, Mr Ferguson’s home.

But the map in the museum is missing a bottom portion, making Mr Homuth’s the only identified and fully intact map left.

‘For years and years I had it folded away,’ he said.

‘It was a shock to hear it may be the only (map of its kind) in the world.’

Morris encourages the public with questions about possible one-of-a-kind artifacts to contact the Library of Congress.

‘People donate to the Library of Congress in various divisions on various occasions, and we welcome the public to contact the Library of Congress with offers,’ he said. [Read More]

But how did everyone begin to figure out they were wrong?

That’s what I wondered anyway.

Well, you see?

There was this clock…

[via New Scientist] In Measure of the Earth, Larrie Ferreiro recounts the fascinating tale of an equatorial expedition to determine the shape of the planet

IN 1671, France sent astronomer Jean Richer to South America to map the skies of the southern hemisphere. Richer, whose work helped the French navy navigate the world, took with him two pendulum clocks. Though they had been carefully calibrated in Paris, he was dismayed to find that they lost 2 minutes 28 seconds per day in French Guyana compared with local clocks.

Upon his return home in 1673, this discrepancy caused an international scientific uproar. Isaac Newton declared that the clocks beat more slowly near the equator because the force of gravity was less there, and that gravity was less because the planet bulged at its waist due to the centrifugal force generated by its rotation. French scientists rejected Newton’s oblate Earth, maintaining instead that the planet is pointed, rather than flattened, toward the poles.

Both sides realised that measuring the length of a degree of latitude at various points – especially near the equator and poles – would reveal the true shape of the Earth. An expedition needed to be sent to the equator to survey a line, as nearly north-south as possible, hundreds of kilometres long. With Africa considered impenetrable and Asian equatorial sites very far away, Spanish America beckoned.

measure-of-the-earth.jpg

In 1733 a Franco-Spanish team of scientists, naval officers, device-makers and servants was assembled. In Measure of the Earth, Larrie Ferreiro tells the story of their adventures. They set sail in 1735, expecting to spend three or four years taking measurements in the viceroyalty of Peru. Instead, it would be nine years before any of them would see Europe again, and several would never make it. Their surgeon died by the sword, the youngest succumbed to malaria, while two were marooned in the New World for lack of money.

The team did measure the surface distance of one degree of latitude in what is now Ecuador. They found it to be 56,753 toises (a French unit of measurement at the time) – just 50 metres off today’s value – proving Newton right. Ironically, by the time they reached Paris, another French team had gone north to the Arctic circle and taken measurements confirming the Earth to be oblate, ending the debate.

Unlike past seafaring and polar ventures, these geodetic expeditions are now almost forgotten. Although Ferreiro explains their scientific work, his main interest is the human story, very much warts-and-all. Expedition members quarrelled, overspent their budgets, and one leader abandoned two daughters in Peru. The team came prepared for steamy jungles, but suffered more from altitude sickness and cold. And perhaps most tellingly, these Europeans scarcely noticed the indigenous people who cooked their food and carried their burdens. [Read More]

Cool, eh?

What can you do with this knowledge?

Absolutely nothing…

Other than?

Enjoy the simple act of ‘knowing’.

That in and of itself?

Makes it pretty priceless.

At least for me…

How about you?

Jun 12 2011

What is more feasible: The ‘God’ Particle or Gödel’s Ontological Proof?

Science is a man-conceived discipline and because within every human mind there exists  a periphery where its intellectual influences  ceases, within ‘every human mind a periphery beyond which it CANNOT function, and every human heart a periphery beyond which it cannot feel. Somewhere there is a limit to the scope of awareness…’ (Manly P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, pg. 5.)

There must be something existential to describe that, which thus far, remains ‘undefinable’ outside our limits to the scope of awareness.

But, yes…

In case you were wondering?

There was a ‘proof’ devised for that.

Does it explain that which is beyond?

Who’s to say we will ever have the answer.

[via io9] — Kurt Gödel was best known as a mathematician and secondarily known as an extreme eccentric. After his death, he became known for something else: creating an ontological proof of the existence of God.

While some branches of reasoning are meant to start with observable phenomena, ontological proof doesn’t grow out of earthly proof. What heavenly thing could? Sure, things might look bleak on earth, but there could be other worlds where things always go swimmingly. Or perhaps in this world everything is going the only way they could possibly go, under the watchful eye of a loving God, but us humans are too blind to see that. Observation can’t prove what is supposedly unprovable. Instead of detective work and evidence, ontological arguments are derived from reason alone. A set of assumptions, or axioms, are combined to prove a larger truth.Gödel finished the proof in the early 1940s, but the proof was not copied by peers until the 1970s. He didn’t let anyone know about it until he believed that he was dying. It wasn’t finally published until the 1980s. Let’s take a good look at it:

Well this clears everything up, doesn’t it?

Gödel based his argument on an early argument of St. Anselm’s. St. Anselm defined God as the greatest being in the universe. No greater being could be imagined. However, if God did not exist, then a greater being had to be possible to imagine – one which exists. Since it wasn’t possible, by definition, to imagine a greater being than the greatest being imaginable, God had to exist.

Gödel twisted this argument a little. He used modal logic to prove his point. Modal logic distinguishes between certain different states that certain suppositions have. Some suppositions are possible in some worlds, some possible only in a certain world, and some true in all possible worlds. If they are true in all possible worlds, they are considered to be always ‘necessary’.

God can either necessarily exist, or necessarily not exist. If God is an all-powerful being, and he exists, he necessarily exists in all possible worlds. If he doesn’t exist, he necessarily doesn’t exist in any possible worlds. It is not possible to say that God does not exist in any possible world. No matter how slim the chance is, God might exist. That means that God can’t necessarily not exist. Since the choices are either God necessarily does exist, or necessarily doesn’t, and we have eliminated the possibility that he necessarily doesn’t, the only possibility left is that he necessarily does.

Start prayin’.

Or maybe not. There’s no doubt that Gödel was a brilliant man – he was a good friend of Albert Einstein’s, who admired him greatly. It is also thought that, during his life, he had certain religious and mystical convictions. However, he specifically held the proof back during his lifetime because he didn’t wish it to be taken as ‘his proof that God exists’. He, in fact, didn’t want people to think he believed in God at all. He was clear that the entire proof was simply an exercise in modal logic, derived from a certain set of assumptions. Those assumptions can be questioned. For example, Gödel’s definition of God didn’t have anything to do with the behavior of a deity, it was just a variation on St. Anselm’s ‘greatest imaginable being’. In other words, it was an axiom specifically chosen for both a vague sense of religion and the ability to make the rest of the proof work. If someone defined God differently – the being that made the world in seven days, for example – then the proof no longer applies. There have plenty of atheist thinkers knocking down the proof. And plenty of theist thinkers expanding on it.

It’s a pretty looking page, though.

Via Stanford and Philosophy of Religion. [Read More]

It all comes down to what we are known as opposed to what we are comfortable ‘accepting’.

In so many areas of the undefined, science is willing to ‘keep an open mind’ regarding that which it doesn’t know, much less understand…

Yet it still manages to search blindly, for that which it only presumes to exists.

Why?

Because this ‘truth’, at least for scientists?

Far more comfortable.

[via The Blaze] In April, we reported that scientists may have finally found the “God particle” — the hypothetical Higgs boson at the center of life. Back then, by using a giant atom smasher, there were rumors of a major discovery. Scientists scrambled to duplicate the experiment to get confirmation. But alas, confirmation never came.

Foxnews.com reports:

The quest for the elusive Higgs boson seemed over in April, when an unexpected result from an atom smasher seemed to herald the discovery of the famous particle — the last unproven piece of the physics puzzle and one of the great mysteries scientists face today.

Researchers were cautious, however, warning that it would take months to verify the finding.

Their caution was wise.

Scientists with the Tevatron particle accelerator at Chicago’s Fermilab facility just released the results of a months-long effort by the lab’s brightest minds to confirm the finding. What did they find? Nothing.

“We do not see the signal,” Dmitri Denisov, staff scientist at Fermilab, told FoxNews.com. “If it existed, we would see it. But when we look at our data, we basically see nothing.”

“At this point I’d say the chances are 50/50 for the Higgs to exist at all,” he added.And there are many others who are skeptical, too.

“Still too early to get excited, I’m afraid … I think this story will reach a  conclusion at the main summer conferences this year — end of July. By then, the LHC experiments will have analyzed enough data to be able to say something,” James Gilies, a spokesman for CERN, the agency that operates the LHC atom smasher, told FoxNews.com.

“I had known from the start. It could not be a Higgs, and it can’t be anything else either,” Tommaso Dorigo, an experimental particle physicist who works with both atom smashers, told FoxNews.com. Denisov agreed.

“It was never the way the Higgs boson was supposed decay. It was something completely different. It wasn’t even obtained by the group that was hunting for the Higgs!” he added.

The search for God, or at least his particle, continues.

(Read the full story at Foxnews.com) [Read More]

And no, just in case you were wondering…

That’s not hypocritical of science at all!

Jun 10 2011

Spiders: By land or by sea, nothing is scarier than thee! AARRGGHH!!!!

A spider that hunts spiders?

Not such a bad thing…

Until it runs out of spiders to hunt, because THEN what do you think ithunts next?

*whimper*

That’s right…

Us.

Call me paranoid all you want…

It’s just what my mind knows to be true!

Evil is as evil does, though not always equal.

Some?

Just greater than the other.

NO species highlights this fact better than spiders.

read this and tell me…

You know I’m right.

[via New Scientist] Species: Palpimanus gibbulus

Habitat: Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain and Portugal, lurking under rocks and tiptoeing towards other spiders

If you, like Mark Zuckerberg, plan to kill something and eat it, pick something that’s either smaller than you or can’t fight back, or preferably both. Otherwise you might bite off more than you can chew.

Not every predator takes things that easy. The desert long-eared bat happily munches on deadly scorpions, and recent footage showed a ground beetle tackling a toad several times its size. That’s impressive, but toads are not exactly vicious predators.

To really display your ballsiness as a predator, you need to take on other predators – preferably ones that would eat you given half the chance. That’s exactly what the spider-eating spider Palpimanus gibbulus does. This arachnid thug muscles its way into other spiders’ homes and attacks them head-on.

On the hunt

If you have never seen a P. gibbulus in action, you’re not alone. They hunt at night and are extremely rare, so we know very little about how they behave.

Stano Pekár of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and colleagues wanted to find out how the spiders hunted. But they proved so elusive that the team had to combine P. gibbulus data with observations of a related species, Palpimanus orientalis. Found in Israel, P. orientalis is very similar to P. gibbulus: they can be distinguished only by looking at their sex organs.

The team captured spiders in pitfall traps and by searching under stones, and kept some of them in their lab. To find out what they could hunt, they tested 92 P. gibbulus and 65 P. orientalis. In each trial they put a single spider in a Petri dish, along with a single prey spider, and observed whether the Palpimanus could catch it.

It turned out they could catch each of the 29 kinds of spider they were offered, and caught all but one species in more than half the trials. It didn’t matter which family the prey came from, nor what size they were: Palpimanus was equally happy catching spiders a third its size or twice its size.

In one series of experiments, they presented P. gibbulus with a jumping spider called Cyrba algerina, which also habitually eats other spiders. P. gibbulus caught it in 90 per cent of trials, although in the other 10 per cent it was itself captured.

Armoured spider

What’s their secret? According to Pekár, Palpimanus have a battery of adaptations that help them hunt other spiders.

The most obvious is their massive front legs, which they use to grab their prey. Like many hunting spiders, they have dense tufts of extremely sticky hair on the tips of their legs. When Pekár glued these hairs together, the spiders became much less successful at hunting.

Palpimanus isn’t fast but it’s stealthy, closing on its prey so carefully that the prey may not be able to detect any vibrations from its footfalls. That means it can get up close, at which point it lunges, grabs the prey with its forelegs and administers a venomous bite.

In many cases the prey spider bites right back, but this doesn’t do it much good. Palpimanus has a cuticle tens of micrometres thick, over twice as thick as any of its prey species and possibly the thickest for a spider of its size, so bites rarely do it any harm. Apart from the trials with Cyrba algerina, only 1 per cent of trials ended with the prey species killing Palpimanus.

Pekár thinks that Palpimanus hunts by entering other spiders’ webs and burrows – a related Ugandan species has been seen doing just that. Confident in its armour, Palpimanus could trap its prey in their homes and overwhelm them.

Its intricate offensive strategy puts Palpimanus on a par with the more famous spider-eating spiders Portia. Found in tropical forests, Portia wait for their prey to be distracted by food before attacking, and sometimes twang their prey’s web to mimic the impact of a twig, disguising their approach. They can even plan new strategies to handle unfamiliar prey.

Can Palpimanus also learn and plan? There is much less information than there is for Portia, says Pekár, so we can’t say for sure. But Palpimanus does use different strategies for prey in webs, in nooks and crannies, and in the open, so it is versatile. Pekár suspects it can learn from its experiences and change its strategies accordingly. [Read More]

Evil little suckers is what they are!

And that is evil that is by land…

AND by sea.

Wha?!

Spiders can swim under the water for up to 24 hours at a time.

Meet? The Scuba spider, That’s right, its a spider who lives under water thanks to its web-devised scuba suit…

I only wish I were joking.

Tell Me Mother [Nature]…

Is nowhere safe?

[via New Scientist] Using its web as a gill, the diving-bell spider can live underwater with only occasional visits to the surface.

The arachnid (Argyroneta aquatica) breathes air from a bubble that it grabs from the surface of water using fine hairs on its abdomen. The spider traps the air within a bell-shaped silken web that it constructs underwater and carries around like an aqualung.

It was first described over 250 years ago, but until now biologists didn’t know how it managed to remain underwater without frequent visits to the surface to renew the oxygen in its tiny air bubble.

To find out, Roger Seymour from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and Stefan Hetz of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, placed 12 spiders in individual aquaria and measured the oxygen levels within the air bubbles using optical fibres tipped with oxygen-sensitive dye. Seymour also measured the concentration of oxygen in the water outside the bubble.

“The spider’s web acts like a gill,” says Seymour. The silken web allows oxygen to diffuse from the surrounding water into the depleted air, as well as release carbon dioxide.

Run silent, run deep

Based on the rate that oxygen diffused into the air bubble, Seymour calculated that 70 per cent of the spider’s oxygen supply comes from diffusion through the web.

During the day, Seymour never observed the spiders replenishing their air supply. He believes they can survive underwater for more than 24 hours, allowing them to stay out of sight of predators and prey alike. However, as oxygen levels go down, nitrogen concentrations increase in the bubble. Nitrogen starts to diffuse out into the water, and eventually the bubble collapses.

“I’d always assumed the spider had to keep replenishing its oxygen source,” says Cor Vink, an entomologist at biosecurity firm AgResearch, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. “It shows how amazing and versatile spider webs can be.” [Read More]

Versatile?

Yeah…

Evil is like that.

This is just wrong, Mother Nature…

W R O N G!!!!!

Spiders on land, in space, and now under water…

Can we not ever escape these eight-legged creatures of festering evil…

Why, Mother?

WHY?

WHY?!?!

May 31 2011

Stupid, creepy, human-attacking, turtle flesh-eating bug!

A freaking BUG eats  a turtle?

Little bug thinks it bad, does it, but you know what?

It ate a turtle.

It’s not wrong.

[via Physorg] In a recent journal published in Entomological Science, Dr. Shin-ya Ohba shares the unusual behavior and role reversal of a giant water bug becoming the predator and eating a juvenile turtle in a ditch in central Japan. While this Kirkaldyia deyrolli, or giant water bug, from the Lethocerinae family has been seen preying on small vertebrates such as frogs and fish, Ohba has captured images of the bug eating small turtles and snakes.

The K. Deyrolli is a native bug from Japan and is listed by the Japanese Environment Agency as an . They live primarily in the rice fields throughout Japan and feed on small and fish. These bugs can grow up to 15cm long and inflict a venomous bite. They have been known to occasionally bite humans, causing a burning pain that lasts for several hours.

Ohba was conducting a night sampling in the central Japan region of western Hyogo when he recorded images of the giant water bug feeding on a small Reeve’s pond turtle. The insect used its front legs to hold on to the turtle while it inserted its rostrum into the prey in order to feed. While the bugs are known for only attacking moving prey, Ohba assumes that the bug caught and killed the turtle before he stumbled upon it.

More information: Field observation of predation on a turtle by a giant water bug, Entomological Science, DOI: 10.1111/j.1479-8298.2011.00450.x

Abstract
The giant water bug, subfamily Lethocerinae, which has the largest body size among Belostomatidae, is known to be a vertebrate specialist that preys upon fish, amphibians and snakes. However, there have been no reports concerning predation on a turtle by Lethocerinae. Here, I report that a male giant water bug Kirkaldyia (Lethocerus) deyrolli (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae) (58.09 mm in total length) was catching hold of a turtle Chinemys reevesii (34.14 mm in carapace length) in a ditch adjoining a paddy rice field. This is a first report of K. deyrolli eating a turtle. [Read More]

But I dare this bug to have a go at THIS bad boy. [ Don't blink at 1:00!]

Somehow, I have a feel the bug wouldn’t end up so much as having dinner as BEING dinner.

Stupid, creepy, flesh-eating, human-attacking bug…

I hate those guys!