Saturday, November 14, 2009

Donegal brain surgeon at work in AD 800, burial site reveals

BRAIN SURGERY was being carried out in Ireland more than 1,000 years ago – and patients survived.

People with disabilities were treated with compassion and respect within their communities in medieval Ireland but TB and other diseases, possibly including cancer, claimed many lives while others died by the sword.

A multitude of insights about life and death in Gaelic Ireland were gleaned following the discovery of an unknown medieval church and the graves of about 1,300 men, women and children who lived along the banks of the river Ern

HERE

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Life's Ancient Island in the Ice

Summary: During the last ice age, massive glaciers covered much of our planet. However, a region of Alaska, Siberia and the Canadian Yukon remained ice-free. This region, known as Beringia, supported unique organisms and was an important haven for evolution. Now, scientists may have uncovered how Beringia supported such diversity at a time when conditions for life were harsh.

HERE

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Hitler’s Gold: Uncovering the Biggest Bank Heist in History

Among the chaos of the collapse of Hitler’s empire in April 1945 the biggest heist in history took place. Gold bars, jewels and stolen foreign currency with an estimated worth of $3.34 billion vanished from the Reichsbank vaults, in Germany.

HERE

Friday, September 25, 2009

Project 10^100

From Google:

Vote for the idea you believe will help the most people.

Well, here we are.

Last fall we launched Project 10^100, a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Your response was overwhelming. Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 (or around 10^5.2) ideas, from general investment suggestions to specific implementation proposals. As we reviewed these submissions, we started noticing lots of similar ideas related to certain broad topics, and decided that combining the best aspects of these individual proposals would produce the most innovative approaches to solving some very pressing problems.

The result is the list you see below of 16 "big ideas," each inspired by numerous individual submissions. Which ones should we make happen? You tell us. Your vote for one of these ideas will help our advisory board choose up to 5 projects to fund, at which point we'll launch an RFP process to identify the organization(s) that are best suited to implementing them.

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to lend your energy to Project 10^100. Your idealism will inspire our own efforts to make these world-changing ideas a reality. So please cast your vote, and help us take this next step toward building a better world.

HERE

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Epicenter The Business of Tech FCC Backs Net Neutrality — And Then Some

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski delivered Monday on President Obama’s promise to back “net neutrality.” But he went much further than merely seeking to expand rules that prohibit ISPs from filtering or blocking net traffic — he proposed that they cover all broadband connections, including data connections for smartphones.

HERE

Sunday, September 13, 2009

An American Hero in Iran

One hundred years ago, Howard Baskerville 1907 left Princeton and fought for liberty in Persia

Set in a small walled courtyard amid apricot and almond trees, the grave is a plain stone sarcophagus carved with the martyr's name — Howard Baskerville, a member of Princeton's Class of 1907 — and the dates of his birth (April 13, 1885) and death (April 20, 1909). A hundred years ago, the site, in the city of Tabriz, was a cemetery and hospital grounds for Presbyterian missionaries. Whoever once carefully tended to Howard Baskerville's grave, and his alone, with fresh flowers, no longer does so. The Armenian man who lives in the adjoining house built the wall in part to discourage pilgrims, but Tabrizis still can direct a visitor to the site.

That it is the grave of an American and a Princetonian makes the place remarkable. That it is the grave of a martyr to constitutional liberty, and that it is still honored in the heart of a nation whose government is hostile to the United States and many of its values, makes it more remarkable still.

HERE

Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Road To Moloch

While on a mission to locate three missing soldiers, a team of reconnaissance marines encounter a blood-spattered Iraqi stumbling through the desert. After following the distraught man into the depths of an insurgent cave, the marines make a horrifying discovery bringing them face-to-face with an ancient evil.

HERE

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Hidden Gobi Desert relics found

Rare Buddhist treasures, not seen for more than 70 years, have been unearthed in the Gobi Desert.

The historic artefacts were buried in the 1930s during Mongolia's Communist purge, when hundreds of monasteries were looted and destroyed.

HERE

Genius of Armored Warfare

Major General John Frederick Charles Fuller was, during World War I and through the early 1930s, the British army’s tank warfare go-to guy. He was the man who taught the Wehrmacht how to blitzkrieg, George Patton how to rumble and the Israelis how to kill Syrians. Yet he was an absolute un-Pattonlike, don’t-mistake-me-for-Bernard Montgomery, I’m-no-Heinz-Guderian staff officer. The quintessential egghead, “Boney” Fuller was a tiny man with a modicum of actual combat experience whose bearing, manner and attitude were fully represented by his nerdy nickname.

HERE

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Civil War Veterans at the 75th Gettysburg Battle Anniversary Reunion

Gettysburg National Military Park celebrates its 114th on February 11, but it was the battle anniversaries that interested the men who actually fought in battle. In 1938, the 75th anniversary of the battle, motion picture crews filmed the aged veterans as they gathered for their final reunion on the battlefield. There’s some amazing film footage on the Internet.

HERE

Monday, July 13, 2009

Animated Engines

Here you'll find animated illustrations that explain the inner workings of a variety of steam, Stirling, and internal combustion engines.

HERE

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Prison Wine

I'm simply not cut out for jail. Where I really shine is watching Tivo on a couch. As soon as you need me to survive a sharpened-spoon attack, (or even a regular spoon attack)-- I'm just not your guy.

Nevertheless, if I do ever end up in the big house, there's a chance I'll make it out alive as the prison brewmeister. I know this for I have read the 1994 book "You Are Going To Prison" by Jim Hogshire. (Well, I actually only skimmed through the book, so I'll probably be dead in a day and a half.)

HERE

America Honors Military Hero Ed Freeman

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley ,11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it...
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into themachine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise, ID . . .May God rest his soul.


Source


The BEES of War

Bees have been used as weapons for defense for thousands of years. One of the earliest historical accounts (first century B.C.) that mentions bees being used against enemies involves the Heptakomotes of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) and Pompey the Great. With the aid of their bees, the Heptakometes knew that when bees gather pollen from such plants as rhododendron the honey produced is loaded with alkaloids which are harmless to bees but toxic to humans. They were able to obtain and leave a cache of poisoned honey in the path of 1000 advancing Roman soldiers.

During that time, gains from raiding and looting were part of a soldier's pay, so the Romans naturally seized the honey and consumed it. They were soon deathly ill, and in no shape to resist the attack that followed.

The Romans also used bees, but in a more direct manner. They would catapult beehives at enemy positions. In medieval times, castles were often designed and built with bee hives within the walls.

Years later, bees also played a part in the Civil War. During the Battle of Antietam, attacking Federal troops advancing through a farmyard were routed, not by the heavy gunfire they faced, but by enraged bees from hives shattered by Confederate artillery fire. There's also a well-known case of British troops, in action in German East Africa during WWI, encountering maddened bees, but as at Antietam, the bee attacks seem to be accidental.

During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong guerillas were masters of improvised weaponry, and before attacking, were known to lob 30 or more nests of hornets and wasps into military outposts.

Source

Saturday, July 4, 2009

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Have you ever wondered what happened to the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence? This is the price they paid:

HERE

5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pussy

We all understand that action movies are cheesy escapism. After all, could one commando really take out a whole compound full of bad guys?

Actually, yes. It turns out the history books are full of stories of soldiers doing things so badass they'd hesitate to put them into a film for fear of killing the realism. Like these five, for example.

HERE

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Good riddance, Michael Jackson.

The jury is not still out on Jacko's guilt or innocence when it comes to child molestation. The facts below should put to rest any doubt that this man endangered the lives of children, including his own. Why then is America, and the world, acting as if he was merely an eccentric genius, as opposed to a child predator with multiple victims?

HERE

The Climate Change Climate Change

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

HERE

Friday, June 26, 2009

The weapon Britain hoped would defeat the Nazis...

Tipped with a sewing machine needle and finished with a tail made from a drinking straw, they looked more like a schoolboy's toy than a terrifying weapon. For Britain's wartime scientists, however, these tiny projectiles were the sharp end of a chilling project to secure victory over the Nazis by bombarding German troops with poisoned darts.

A secret file that details British research to develop the lethal anti-personnel darts, carrying a toxin likely to have been anthrax or ricin, casts rare light on the work that was carried out by the Allies during the Second World War into chemical and biological weapons that could be deployed against Hitler's forces.

The document, released at the National Archives in Kew, London, reveals how scientists at Porton Down in Wiltshire, the site of Britain's top secret weapons laboratory, worked between 1941 and 1944 to perfect the projectiles to ensure the maximum number of casualties and the quickest death for enemy soldiers.

HERE


Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hitler's Stealth Fighter

Back when stealth was very, very secret, a few people quietly advised me to take a look at the Horten Ho229, one of WW2 Germany's most advanced designs - a jet-powered flying wing made of wood. In a German book, a British documentary producer had found something even more interesting: the Horten brothers, Walter and Reimar, had planned to use a primitive radar absorbent structure (RAS) in the leading edges. They were to be made from a sandwich of plywood around a carbon-loaded filler. The only question: how well would it actually have worked?

Now, we know:

HERE

Saturday, June 20, 2009

PCLinuxOS 2009

This release features kernel 2.6.26.8.tex3, KDE 3.5.10, Open Office 3.0, Firefox 3.0.7, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, Ktorrent, Frostwire, Amarok, Flash, Java JRE, Compiz-Fusion 3D and much more. We decided to use kde3-5-10 as our default desktop as we could not achieve a similar functionality from kde4. We will however offer kde4 as an alternative desktop environment available from the repository once we stabilize it. PCLinuxOS is an rpm based distribution utilizing apt-get with a Synaptic Software Manager frontend. In addition to the above PCLinuxOS comes with mklivecd GUI, a nice utility to build a custom live CD from your install. Install or remove what you want then remaster your own cd. Great for backups or to give to friends. PCLinuxOS is also known as as rolling release distribution. What that means is you install once and update it when new applications become available from our repository.

HERE

Windows 7 Hits a New Low

I've always wanted to get a modern operating system to work on my graphing calculator. And we're about there, thanks to the efforts of a fellow (or strangly named lady) on The Windows Club forum. A user by the name of "hackerman1" has installed Windows 7 on his PC, which in itself is nothing to write home about. The catch here is that he's gotten a bootable, working installation on no less than a Pentium II system. No, that's not a typo--Pentium Two. The extreme...ly old machine consists of a 266 MHz CPU, a whopping 96 MB of memory, and a next-generation 4 MB graphics card.

HERE

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

How to Build the World's Most Powerful Warship

To design the Navy's new Ford-class aircraft carrier, architects rely on virtual reality to shape 54,000 tons of steel into the world's most powerful warship. Here's how they do it.

HERE

Bridge-to-Home Building Conversions


HERE
Everyone claims they want a house on the water, but few get to experience that desired proximity quite so directly. Large and small, old and new, there are many amazing dwellings built on aged bridges or designed to be a bridge from the day they are constructed - in short, there are many people in the world who get to actually live on bridges.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Tattoos

Tattoos are reverse time machines: with time travel you can send a warning back to your younger self, with tattoos you send a mistake forward to your older self.

HERE

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Can You Spot the Differences?

A few things change in this scene, can you pick them?

HERE

The treasures of Messel

Ida, the fossil of an early primate, caused a sensation when she was unveiled last month. But she is just one of thousands of beautifully preserved ancient creatures that are being unearthed from an old shale quarry in Germany. Patrick Barkham pays a visit.

HERE

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Wolfram

Making the world's knowledge computable

Today's Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer.

HERE

Flight to the Sun


This is an incredible (and genuine) image by a chap who specialises in ‘astrophotography’. He was taking a photo of the sun using something called an H-alpha filter and caught the jet passing through the frame purely by chance.

Source



Sunday, May 3, 2009

Unique Bridges and Interesting Detail‏s

HERE

Shedding light on the Catacombs of Rome

Rome's underground Christian, Jewish and pagan burial sites, the Catacombs, date back to the 2nd Century AD.

There are more than 40 of them stretching over 170km (105 miles).

But, until now, they have never been fully documented, their vast scale only recorded with handmade maps.

That is now changing, following a three-year project to create the first fully comprehensive three-dimensional image using laser scanners.

It is not a virtual image, it is not animation - what you are seeing is real data
Dr Norbert Zimmerman

A team of 10 Austrian and Italian archaeologists, architects and computer scientists have started with the largest catacomb, Saint Domitilla, just outside the Italian capital.

HERE


Sunday, April 26, 2009

10 Most Amazing Temples in the World

More than a quarter of all people in the world belong to Eastern religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism. These people worship in temples, which are architecturally as diverse as the religions are different from each other. From the ancient ruins of Ankor Wat to the distinctly modern Wat Rong Khun, there are hundreds if not thousands of amazing temples in the world.

HERE

Thursday, April 23, 2009

10 Secret Locations Around the World (That Aren’t Area 51) …and 2 extras

I had some fun making this one.

I wanted to make a little exhibit, if you will, of some interesting open source imagery. Every location listed here is described much more fully in plenty of other places on the internet (some more than others, of course). Nothing here is “secret” in any meaningful sense of the term… and yet, these locations – or perhaps more accurately their referents – are indeed secret. What does that mean? It’s an interesting thing to think about, and I did for a few minutes, but then realized it was just a lot more fun playing around with Google Earth and putting this together.

Couple of things: One, click on the images to see a larger version. Also, I’ve marked all the spots here in a single Google Earth overlay file for downloading.

And… on with the show…

HERE

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Stealing Mona Lisa

The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime.

HERE

37 Utilities I Wish Came Shipped With Windows

Have you ever downloaded and installed a new Windows utility and wondered why Windows didn’t have its features inbuilt? I have. Over the last few years, I’ve tried hundreds of apps that have solved common inadequacies in Windows.

This is a list of 37 handpicked Windows utilities that I think will help us in fixing the missing pieces in Windows. Give them a try – these utilities will beat those common Windows annoyances. Good luck. Before reading this post, make sure that you also check out our post on lifesaver windows utilities as well.

HERE

Saturday, April 18, 2009

My First Dictionary

HERE

AlternativeTo

Find better Windows, Mac, Linux and online applications

AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you suggestions on great alternatives! Instead of listing thousands of more or less crappy applications in a category, we make each application into a category. Think of it like forever evolving blog posts about good alternatives to the software that you're not satisfied with. And the "blog posts" are generated by you through suggestions, comments and votes.

HERE

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Linux Shell Scripting

Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial v1.05r3 A Beginner's handbook

HERE

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Giants Causeway of Ireland


The Giant’s Causeway in Ireland never fails to impress anyone. It is a magnificent and magical site which may be one of the best in the world. Mind boggling rock formations and inaccessible bays which have influenced how plants, animals, and locals have survived through the ages.

HERE

Prime numbers

Several students were asked the following problem: Prove that all odd integers higher than 2 are prime.

mathematician: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, and by induction, we have
that all the odd integers are prime."

Physicist: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is ... uh, 9 is an
experimental error, 11 is prime, 13 is prime... Well, it seems that
you're right."

Wouldn't a modern physicist employ something like renormalization?
3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is ...
9/3 is prime
11 is prime, 13 is prime, 15 is ...
15/3 is prime
17 is prime, 19 is prime, 21 is ...
21/3 is prime

Quantum Physicist: All numbers are equally prime and non-prime until observed.

Chemist: "3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime.. that's enough."

Cosmologist: 3 is prime, yes it is true....

Engineer: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is ..., 9 is
..., well if you approximate, 9 is prime, 11 is prime, 13 is prime...
Well, it does seem right."

Engineer: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is not working, fetch
toolbox.

Engineer: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, 11 is prime...
[Continue until told to go home by others]

Computer scientist: I've just whipped up a program to REALLY go and prove
it..." He goes over to his terminal and runs his program. Reading
the output on the screen he says, "1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime,
1 is prime...."

Computer scientist using Unix: 3's a prime, 5's a prime, 7's a prime,
segmentation fault

UN*X program:
% prime
usage: prime [-nV] [--quiet] [--silent] [--version] [-e script]
--catenate --concatenate | c --create | d
--diff --compare | r --append | t --list | u --update | x
-extract --get [ --atime-preserve ] [ -b, --block-size N ]
[ -B, --read-full-blocks ] [ -C, --directory DIR ] [
--checkpoint ] [ -f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F ] [ --force-
local ] [ -F, --info-script F --new-volume-script F ] [
-G, --incremental ] [ -g, --listed-incremental F ] [ -h,
--dereference ] [ -i, --ignore-zeros ] [ --ignore-failed-
read ] [ -k, --keep-old-files ] [ -K, --starting-file F ]
[ -l, --one-file-system ] [ -L, --tape-length N ] [ -m,
--modification-time ] [ -M, --multi-volume ] [ -N,
--after-date DATE, --newer DATE ] [ -o, --old-archive,
--portability ] [ -O, --to-stdout ] [ -p, --same-
permissions, --preserve-permissions ] [ -P, --absolute-
paths ] [ --preserve ] [ -R, --record-number ] [
[-f script-file] [--expression=script] [--file=script-file]
[file...]
prime: you must specify exactly one of the r, c, t, x, or d options
For more information, type ``prime --help''

Computer Scientist: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 7 is prime,
7 is prime, 7 is prime... Bus error. Core dumped.

The computer programmer method is:
"3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, 9 is prime, 9 is prime,
9 is ..."
Opps, let's try that again:
"3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is ... 3 is prime, 5 is prime,
7 is prime, 9 is ... 3 is ..."
Um, right. Okay, how about this:
"3 is not prime, 5 is not prime, 7 is not prime, 9 is not prime..."
So much for the beta releases. Ship this:
"3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is a feature, 11 is prime..."
and put on the cover "More prime numbers thanb anyone else in the
industry!"

Coming soon:
"3 is a prime, 4 is a feature, 5 is a prime, 6 is a feature, 7 is a prime,
8 is not yet implemented, 9 is our backwards compatibilty module, ..."

Windows programmer: 1 is prime. Wait.

Mac programmer: Now why would anyone want to know about that? That's not
user friendly. You don't worry about it, we'll take care of it for you.

Bill Gates: 1. No one will ever need any more then 1.

TRS-80 Computer Programmer: One is prime, Two is prime, Three is prime, Out of
Memory

Software tech support operator: Well, we haven't had any reports of
composite odd numbers... do you have the latest version of ZFC?

Logician:
Hypothesis: All odd numbers are prime
Proof:
1) If a proof exists, then the hypothesis must be true
2) The proof exists; you're reading it now.
From 1 and 2 follows that all odd numbers are prime

Confused Undergraduate: Yes, it's true. Proof: Let p be any prime
number larger than 2. Then p is not divisible by 2, so p is odd. QED

Linguist: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 aaah. I can make 9 a prime.
Linguist: are you lot going to shut up and buy me a beer or not?

Philosopher : why don't we just call all the odd numbers prime and call
all the prime numbers odd, that way all the odd numbers would be prime

Philosopher: 3 is prime. Hum, thats an interesting statment, I'll get
one of my research students to look into that.

Economist: "Assume 9 is prime..."
Economist: 2 is a prime, 4 is a prime.

Theologian: 3 is prime and that's good enough for me!

The Psychiatrist: 1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime
but trying to supress it, 11 is prime......

Shrink: 3 is prime, 5 is prime etc... And how could one specify "prime" anyway?

Sociologist: 3 is a number, 3 is prime, all numbers are prime.

Lawyer: 3 is prime, yet 5 could be anything, taking into account, but not
limited to, the fact that 4 may or may not be prime, depending on the
witnesses' testimonies and the written evidence furnished.

Accountant: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, deducing 10%
tax and 5% other obligations.

Politician: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is composite, 11 is
prime -- we can ignore 9 because the primes have a majority.

Manager: 3 yes, 5 yes, 7 YES, 9 Now let's take a positive attitude here

QA: 1 is not proven, 2 no and reported, 3 not proven, 4 no and reported,
...

Butcher: Prime? What do numbers have to do with meat?

Crank: 9 IS PRIME! NOW WHERE IS THE CAPS UNLOCK?

Tesla High Voltage Generator



HERE

XWindows Dock

Introducing the XWindows Dock

XWindows Dock - or XWD for short - is the newest free Windows Vista and XP program of the class Application Launcher and Desktop Organizer. But it's not just another one: it's the result of years of use and observation of the many dock programs on the market, plus all functions you only dreamed that your dock would offer!

Sure some of the other ones are good, but none has all the functionalities XWindows Dock has for turning your user experience more productive and fun! Besides, XWD is in active development so that new functionalities are added at each new release.

No other Windows application of this class has so many graphical subtleties such as reflections, transparencies, shadow and blur in a single package, even less in a single free package. No Advanced, Plus or Enhanced version for tasting the real goods. Stacks, Lists and its exclusive Galleries are all there waiting for you!


HERE

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

If you want to destroy the world, don't bother building a hydrogen bomb, just steal some self-replicating nanobots and cover the Earth in a layer of all-consuming grey goo.

That's the moral of a hilarious video, which appeared this morning on the Mental Floss website.

"It was created with cutting-edge motion capture technology (which is why it took so darn long), and it dramatizes one of my favorite chapters of the book: How to Destroy Civilization with Nanotechnology", says Ransom Riggs, who directed the dark cartoon.

His film may be a comedy, but it raises a serious question: Is anyone afraid of nanotechnology?

Several teams of social scientists are hard at work, trying to answer that question, and movies like this could turn their world upside down.

Source



Sunday, March 15, 2009

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Are there dead bodies on Mount Everest?

Mount­ Everest is the h­ighest point on planet Earth. Because of this unique distinction, humans have been climbing it since Sir Edmund Hillary's first successful ascent in 1953. The peak of Everest is located in Nepal and stands tall at 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) above sea level [source: mnteverest.net]. The mountain itself shares a border with both Nepal and Tibet. Because of the severe weather at the summit, climbers rarely attempt to complete the trek outside of the May to June window, when the jet stream is pushed north. Even then, the weather is pretty inhospitable. An average day in May 2008 saw a high temperature of minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 27 degrees Celsius) and winds of 51 miles (81 km) per hour [source: USA Today].
At other times during the year, the jet stream passes directly by the summit and winds can blow at hurricane strength -- 118 miles (189 km) per ho­ur -- and temperatures can dive as low as minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 Celsius) [source: teameverest03.org]. Add to this the fact that there's less than one-third the amount of oxygen in the air compared to sea level, and you can see why Everest adventurers have their work cut out for them.

Still, this doesn't stop the adventurous spirit. The downside to having that spirit is that it could lead to your death. Everest News estimates that, as of 2004, more than 2,000 people had successfully reached the summit, while 189 died trying. If you're one of the roughly 150 people to attempt to scale Mount Everest in this year, there's something you'll be sure to see along the way -- dead bodies.

HERE


Sunday, March 8, 2009

50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons

- Except where noted all figures are in constant 1996 dollars -vv

HERE

Monday, March 2, 2009

Science Tattoo Emporium

Science Tattoo Emporium

I once wondered aloud if scientists had tattoos of their science. The answer was yes, and this ever-growing collection is the evidence.

HERE

Sunday, March 1, 2009

100 reasons Linux beats Windows

That's right; you heard me. Here are – count 'em – one hundred reasons why Linux beats Windows.

HERE

50 amazing Ubuntu time-saving tips

How to get the most from the world's favourite Linux distro

HERE

Saturday, February 28, 2009

List of Linux distributions

This page provides general information about notable Linux distributions in the form of a categorized list. Distributions are organized into sections by the major distribution they are based on, or the package management system they are based around.

HERE

Come to the dark side

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Footprints

Footprints are carved into the floorboards by monk who has prayed at the same spot for 20 years

HERE

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Otherkin

This site is not a roleplaying site. It is a page about real vampires and Otherkin. Just because a roleplaying game uses a term that you may read on this site, it doesn not mean we are talking about a roleplaying game. In fact, while writing the site I deliberately did not add a roleplaying section for this reason. I do not want the site to get mixed up and confused as a roleplaying site. This site is for real vampires and real Otherkin

HERE

Beck-- Clap Hands (SNL)

HERE

Louis CK "Everything's amazing, nobody's happy"

We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots."

HERE

Saturday, February 14, 2009

40 years' worth of thanks


In 1968, a white firefighter saved a black baby girl, touching the heart of a divided city. The two did not meet again. Until yesterday.

HERE

Friday, February 13, 2009

WHY MEN SHOULD NEVER WRITE AN ADVICE COLUMN

Dear Larry,
I hope you can help me here. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't driven more than a mile down the road when the engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbor's daughter. I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbor's daughter is 19. We have been married for ten years!

When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. He won't go to counseling and I'm afraid I can't get through to him anymore.

Can you please help?
Sincerely,
Sheila

*****************************
Dear Sheila:

A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and
hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.

I hope this helps,

Larry


A Date with Mr. REAPER and DEATH - Day 3


“FAST 31, Whiteman Tower, Cleared for take off Runway 19. REAPR 21 is 10 miles initial for Runway 19.” And so the adventure of a lifetime began.

HERE

Mysterious number 6174

The number 6174 is a really mysterious number. At first glance, it might not seem so obvious. But as we are about to see, anyone who can subtract can uncover the mystery that makes 6174 so special.

HERE

Monday, February 9, 2009

French expressions you won't learn at school Expressions françaises en Anglais

Here's the A's;


À boire ou je tue le chien!
Bring me something to drink or I kill the dog!
Arriver comme un cheveu sur la soupe
About a remark in a conversation, to be completely irrelevant (literally: "to arrive like a hair in the soup")
Attaquer bille en tête
He didn't beat about the bush (literally: "to attack with a marble in head")
Avoir chaud aux plumes
To escape a danger (literally: "to have one's feathers hot")
Avoir des atomes crochus avec quelqu'un
To have a lot in common with someone (literally: "to have hooked atoms with someone")
Avoir le cul entre deux chaises
To be caught between two stools (literally: "to have one's ass between two chairs")
Avoir les dents du fond qui baignent
To be overfed (literally: "to have one's back teeth swimming")
Avoir les jetons
To be scared (literally: "to have the tokens")
Avoir les chevilles qui enflent
To be very full of oneself (literally: "to have one's ankles swell")
Avoir des casseroles au cul
To be haunted by a scandal (literally: "to have saucepans hung on the ass")
Avec ma bite et mon couteau
To do something with very few tools (literally: "with my dick and my knife")
Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles
To be lucky (literally: "to have the ass full of noodles")
Avoir trois métros de retard
To always be one step behind (literally: "to be three metros late")
Avoir un chat dans la gorge
To have a frog in one's throat (literally: "to have a cat in one's throat")
Avoir un fil à la patte
To be tied down (literally: "to have a thread at the leg")
Avoir un poil dans la main
To be lazy (literally: "to have a hair in the hand")
Avoir une peur bleue
To have a bad scare (literally: "to have a blue fear")

HERE