The Twilight Digest -Tears, Fears, and Cheers!

Ancient Britons Drank From Skulls

2011-02-17T13:03:00.003-06:00

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Ancient Britons were not averse to using human skulls as drinking cups, skeletal remains unearthed in southwest England suggest.

The braincases from three individuals were fashioned in such a meticulous way that their use as bowls to hold liquid seems the only reasonable explanation.

The 14,700-year-old objects were discovered in Gough's Cave, Somerset.

Scientists from London's Natural History Museum say the skull-cups were probably used in some kind of ritual.

"If you look around the world there are examples of skull-cups in more recent times - in Tibetan culture, in Fiji in Oceania, and in India," said Dr Silvia Bello, a palaeontologist and lead author of a scientific paper on the subject in the journal PLoS One.

"So, skulls have been used as drinking bowls, and because of the similarity of the Gough's Cave skulls to these other examples, we imagine that that's what these ancient people were using them for also," she told BBC News.

Gough's Cave is situated in the Cheddar Gorge, a deep limestone canyon on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills.

Palaeo-investigations started there a hundred years ago, with many of the finds now held at the Natural History Museum (NHM).

The site is particularly noteworthy for the discovery in 1903 of "Cheddar Man", the complete skeleton of a male individual dating to about 10,000 years ago.

But the users - and owners - of the skulls discussed in the PLoS One article are actually from an earlier period in the history of the British Isles.

Dr Silvia Bello explains why it is thought the skulls were used as drinking vessels

This was during a brief warm spike in a series of ice ages that allowed humans living in southern Europe to venture north into what was otherwise an utterly inhospitable landscape.

These Cro-Magnons, as we now call them, were hunter-gatherers living on their wits and, it seems, eating human flesh when the need and opportunity arose.

Gough's Cave famously held the remains of human bones that had been butchered to extract marrow in exactly the same way as animal bones on the site had been processed.

Our modern sensibilities find the thought of cannibalism repulsive, but these people lived in a different age, Dr Bello said:

"They were a one man band; they were going out, hunting, butchering and then eating their kill. And they were extremely skilled at what they did, but then that's how they survived.

"I think the production of the skull-cups is ritualistic. If the purpose was simply to break the skulls to extract the brain to eat it, there are much easier ways to do that.

"If food was the objective, the skull would be highly fragmented. But here you can really see they tried to preserve most of the skull bone; the cut marks tell us they tried to clean the skull, taking off every piece of soft tissue so that they could then modify it very precisely. They were manufacturing something."

The scientists have three skull-cup specimens in their collection from Gough's Cave

NHM colleague Professor Chris Stringer helped excavate one of the skull-cups in 1987 and is a co-author on the paper.

"We've known that these bones were treated in this way for 20 years; it's been evident that there were cut marks on the skulls," he told BBC News.

"But by applying the latest microscopic techniques and the experience we've got in working on butchered animal remains, as well as human remains, we can start to build up a much more detailed picture of how the Gough's Cave remains were treated. Yes, cannibalism is the most likely explanation. What we can't say is whether these people were killed to be eaten, or whether they died naturally. Were they even members of the same group?"

And precisely how the cups were used cannot be known with total confidence either, although more recent examples of such practice suggest they could have held blood, wine or food during rituals.

At about 14,700 years old, the Gough's Cave skull-cups would represent the oldest, recognised examples in the world.

The museum plans to put a detailed model of one of the skull-cups on display this March so that visitors can get a deeper insight the practices of these ancient Britons.

Possible 9th Planet Again?

2011-02-16T13:35:00.000-06:00

A few years ago we all thought there were nine planets. But now space is a whole lot more complicated. The hunt for the giant planet is on.

When Pluto was demoted from its planet status five years ago, we were pretty shook up. Having eight planets just isn't so catchy. Classroom wall charts around the globe were taken down and new rhymes had to be learned. Luckily, scientists have strong evidence to suggest that there is a ninth planet lurking beyond Pluto, and what's more, it's a big one.

Evidence gathered by the NASA space telescope, Wise, offers proof that this gas giant is hidden in the outer Oort Cloud, the most remote part of the solar system. The suspected planet has been named Tyche (pronounced ty-kee) by the two astrophysicists proposing it for "planet" status, Daniel Whitmire and John Matese from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The first batch of data on Tyche is due to be released in April. After that, the planet may reveal itself within two years, say the two scientists. "If it does, John and I will be doing cartwheels. And that's not easy at our age." Professor Whitmire said.

Once Tyche has been located, it is up to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) whether or not it gains full "planet" status. The main problem the IAU could have with the proposal is that Tyche probably formed around another star and was later captured by the sun's gravitational field. They might even have to create a whole new category for the gas-ball giant.

Tyche is suspected to be four times the mass of Jupiter with an orbit around 15,000 times further from the Sun than Earth's, and 375 times further than Pluto's. It will probably be composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with an atmosphere just like Jupiter's. Professor Whitmire added that the planet-in-waiting will have its own moons, like other outer planets, and its surface will be covered in colorful spots, bands and clouds. The Wise data also revealed that Tyche is four or five times warmer than Pluto, at a prediceted -73C (-99F). "The heat is left over from its formation," said Prof Whitmire, "It takes an object this size a long time to cool off."

In a few months time, we could be back to the good ol' nine-planet solar system, courtesy of the giant Tyche. Watch this space.

34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found Buried Alive!

2011-01-13T10:45:00.003-06:00

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer

It's a tale that has all the trappings of a cult 1960s sci-fi movie: Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something ... alive.

Thankfully this story doesn't end with the destruction of the human race, but with a satisfied scientist finishing his Ph.D.

"It was actually a very big surprise to me," said Brian Schubert, who discovered ancient bacteria living within tiny, fluid-filled chambers inside the salt crystals.

Salt crystals grow very quickly, imprisoning whatever happens to be floating - or living - nearby inside tiny bubbles just a few microns across, akin to naturally made, miniature snow-globes.

"It's permanently sealed inside the salt, like little time capsules," said Tim Lowenstein, a professor in the geology department at Binghamton University and Schubert's advisor at the time.

Lowenstein said new research indicates this process occurs in modern saline lakes, further backing up Schubert's astounding discovery, which was first revealed about a year ago. The new findings, along with details of Schubert's work, are published in the January 2011 edition of GSA Today, the publication of the Geological Society of America.

Schubert, now an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii, said the bacteria - a salt-loving sort still found on Earth today - were shrunken and small, and suspended in a kind of hibernation state.

"They're alive, but they're not using any energy to swim around, they're not reproducing," Schubert told OurAmazingPlanet. "They're not doing anything at all except maintaining themselves."

The key to the microbes' millennia-long survival may be their fellow captives - algae, of a group called Dunaliella.

"The most exciting part to me was when we were able to identify the Dunaliella cells in there," Schubert said, "because there were hints that could be a food source."

With the discovery of a potential energy source trapped alongside the bacteria, it has begun to emerge that, like an outlandish Dr. Seuss invention (hello, Who-ville), these tiny chambers could house entire, microscopic ecosystems.

Other elderly bacteria?

Schubert and Lowenstein are not the first to uncover organisms that are astonishingly long-lived. About a decade ago, there were claims of discoveries of 250-million-year-old bacteria. The results weren't reproduced, and remain controversial.

Schubert, however, was able to reproduce his results. Not only did he grow the same organisms again in his own lab, he sent crystals to another lab, which then got the same results.

"So this wasn't something that was just a contaminant from our lab," Schubert said.

Survival strategy

The next step for researchers is to figure out how the microbes, suspended in a starvation-survival mode for so many thousands of years, managed to stay viable.

"We're not sure what's going on," Lowenstein said. "They need to be able to repair DNA, because DNA degrades with time."

Schubert said the microbes took about two-and-a-half months to "wake up" out of their survival state before they started to reproduce, behavior that has been previously documented in bacteria, and a strategy that certainly makes sense.

"It's 34,000 years old and it has a kid," Schubert said. And ironically, once that happens, the new bacteria are, of course, entirely modern.

Of the 900 crystal samples Schubert tested, only five produced living bacteria. However, Schubert said, microbes are picky. Most organisms can't be cultured in the lab, so there could be many living microbes that just didn't like their new home enough to reproduce.

Still, wasn't it exciting to discover what could be one of the oldest living organisms on the planet?

"It worked out very well," Schubert said.

Smart Phones - The Silent Killer

2011-01-07T14:45:00.001-06:00

The ecosystem in the telecom world is evolving. Consumer behaviors are leading to more and more data consumption. Usage of Social networks is on the rise and people are pushing their mobile phone to the limits. Gone are the days of predictable network growth.
Mobile operators around the world have many things to worry about these days, traffic growth has increased by 20-fold while revenue barely double. The decoupling of revenue from traffic has led to a nightmare in planning and designing the network for current and future needs. Traditional planning methodologies no longer apply. Also, the problem of capacity planning has now extended from the radio space to the core elements as more and more smart phones are taxing the networks with ever increasing signaling. Enter the world of predictive and measured growth. How, you may ask? Well one famous North American operator is already living through the nightmare of unpredictable growth, congested network and dropped calls. With the help intelligent and predictive planning, coupled with fast decision making, this situation could be averted.
Cerion Optimization Services is one of the very few companies dedicated to solving complex wireless issues in the core of the network. Much of the focus has been in the radio network over the past decades. This is understandable as most of the issues resided there before. However, the issues are now spilling into the core of the network and building up liked clogged arteries ready to strike, lurking as a silent killer. Operators are often caught off-guard and when they do react it’s too late. The damage is already done. Customers are pissed off and the press is having field day. Not to mention the costly fix operators resort to because they failed to plan sensibly. Most operators caught in this situation throw equipment at the problem hoping for relief, only to find out that they are burning cash and still left with a mess on their hands. Do the right thing and engage in predictive planning, make better decisions and avoid the monster in your network rearing its ugly head.

Must Be Gremlins In Those Lines!!

2011-01-07T14:30:00.002-06:00

Have you made a phone call on AT&T network lately? Well I have, and the quality of the call has not changed from one year ago; it was bad then and it is bad now. The biggest annoyance is the unexpected dropped call and believe me, it happens quite often. I live in one of the “supposedly best” covered metropolitan areas of the country, in proximity to the company’s headquarter, and yet I suffered heavily from poor voice and data connections. Speaking of poor data connection, I would rather watch grass grow, than wait for my applications to run at a reasonable speed. It is a very exasperating and painful experience!! The slow connection is ruining my mobile broadband experience when I still have to resort to the desktop to perform simple tasks. Frankly, I find this service unacceptable considering the high rate plan I am required to signed for up just to use my iPhone and blackberry. It is just plain bad service!! It is like to going an expensive steak restaurant and only to be served spam for dinner. Did I say unacceptable? You get my point!

Just Google “AT&T bad service” or any closely related phrase and you will see the thousands of posting espousing this same theme, so I know I am not the only one wondering here. What a shame to have such a high end product (iPhone) associated with third world phone service. Wait, even third world phone service is better than this. At least I can complete a call without being abruptly cut off. So why is the company not doing anything about it? Well they are doing plenty. So we are told! And I for one do not doubt that the good corporate folks from the old telephone company are doing everything they can to fix the problem. The issue I have is, whatever they are doing is not working fast enough or at all. Sure, they are expanding the network, building more cell-sites, adding more nodes, increasing coverage area and making their pipes bigger. But they keep selling more smart phones and introducing more bandwidth hogging devices in the network. They keep fiddling with their rate plans to stem the tsunami of data consumption on their network. Yet, all this results in AT&T spinning its wheels and running around in circles. They are even drinking their own cool-aid. I heard Steve Jobs recently commented on the why the AT&T network is so bad. He was very careful and deliberate in his answer, but the crux of it is, he was told by very knowledgeable people at AT&T the network needs to get worse before it gets better. Whoa Steve!! I thought you are a smarter guy than that. Yea, I know, you even chuckled at your own answer.

In my humble opinion, I believe AT&T does not have a handle on the problem. They lack the big picture of the impact of data and video consumption by the end user on the network. There are many short-term reactions to the problems but no real long-term visionary planning. They throw equipment wantonly at problem areas, they react to specific geographic areas experiencing eroded quality of service, they continue to introduce bandwidth hungry devices and hope on a wing and prayer that the problem will not escalate. Plain and simple the company needs help, but would ma-bell ego allow that to happen? That is million dollar question or in AT&T case it could be the billion dollar question. And ah! If you think AT&T is the only one having this problem, then think again? Verizon and other Tier1 mobile operators better take plenty of notes here. The same monster could be lurking in your network. It just haven’t reared its ugly head yet! Verizon should milk the map commercial as long they can. Soon the gremlins will start chewing on your wires.

The Catholic Church No Longer Teaches Creationism

2011-01-06T11:20:00.001-06:00

God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope

By Philip Pullella Philip Pullella – 2 hrs 10 mins ago

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday.

"The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe," Benedict said on the day Christians mark the Epiphany, the day the Bible says the three kings reached the site where Jesus was born by following a star.

"Contemplating it (the universe) we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God," he said in a sermon to some 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica on the feast day.

While the pope has spoken before about evolution, he has rarely delved back in time to discuss specific concepts such as the Big Bang, which scientists believe led to the formation of the universe some 13.7 billion years ago.

Researchers at CERN, the nuclear research center in Geneva, have been smashing protons together at near the speed of light to simulate conditions that they believe brought into existence the primordial universe from which stars, planets and life on earth -- and perhaps elsewhere -- eventually emerged.

Some atheists say science can prove that God does not exist, but Benedict said that some scientific theories were "mind limiting" because "they only arrive at a certain point ... and do not manage to explain the ultimate sense of reality ..."

He said scientific theories on the origin and development of the universe and humans, while not in conflict with faith, left many questions unanswered.

"In the beauty of the world, in its mystery, in its greatness and in its rationality ... we can only let ourselves be guided toward God, creator of heaven and earth," he said.

Benedict and his predecessor John Paul have been trying to shed the Church's image of being anti-science, a label that stuck when it condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun, challenging the words of the Bible.

Galileo was rehabilitated and the Church now also accepts evolution as a scientific theory and sees no reason why God could not have used a natural evolutionary process in the forming of the human species.

The Catholic Church no longer teaches creationism -- the belief that God created the world in six days as described in the Bible -- and says that the account in the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the world.

But it objects to using evolution to back an atheist philosophy that denies God's existence or any divine role in creation. It also objects to using Genesis as a scientific text.

Neanderthals' Cousins

2011-01-04T14:12:00.004-06:00

An international team of scientists has identified a previously shadowy human group, known as the Denisovans, as cousins to Neanderthals who lived in Asia from roughly 400,000 to 50,000 years ago and interbred with the ancestors of today's inhabitants of New Guinea.

All the Denisovans left behind are a broken finger bone and a wisdom tooth in a Siberian cave. But the scientists have succeeded in extracting the entire genome of the Denisovans from these scant remains. An analysis of this ancient DNA, published Wednesday in Nature, reveals that the genomes of people from New Guinea contain 4.8 percent Denisovan DNA.

Closed Caption Directv Problem

2009-06-24T14:10:00.006-05:00

If you have Directv service and the closed caption is being displayed, you may think it is an option on your Directv box you need to fix. That was my impression when I first encountered this problem. After several minutes of checking Directv menu options and settings, I could not find anything to turn off the closed caption display. It turned out that if the TV settings are active, closed caption will be automatically be fed from Directv to the TV display. So to remove closed caption when you have Directv service, you must do it from the TV settings and not the set top box that comes with the satellite service.

Another Signs From The Aliens?

2009-06-04T12:59:00.005-05:00

Conspiracists — and Brits — are all atwitter about a crop circle that appeared at an Oxfordshire barley field. Instead of circles, the creators have become far more artistic (or they've figured out how to use Earth landmowers). The "circle" is in the shape of a 600-foot jellyfish.

XP Screensaver Problem

2009-04-30T09:30:00.008-05:00

My screen saver would not kick-in on my XP system. After scanning several blogs and internet support forum, I found the solution to my problem. It is very simple. Remove the PowerDVD program from your computer and your screen saver will work. Go to Start , click Control Panel, click Add/Remove programs, and remove PowerDVD program. It is as simple as that! I do not use PowerDVD so I did not reinstall it on my computer. You may want ensure you can re-install PowerDVD if you intend to use it in the future. Good Luck!

Robotic Fish

2009-03-25T13:23:00.007-05:00

A robotic fish is seen in a tank at the London Aquarium in this October 6, 2005 handout photo made available March 20, 2009. Robot fish developed by British scientists are to be released into the sea off north Spain to detect pollution. The carp-shaped robots, costing 20,000 pounds ($29,000) apiece, mimic the movement of real fish and are equipped with chemical sensors to sniff out potentially hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels or underwater pipelines. The robots to be used are bigger than those which were seen at the London Aquarium and they measure 1.5 metres (nearly 5 feet) long -- roughly the size of a seal.

Distributed Intelligence

2009-02-26T11:17:00.021-06:00

The evolution of intelligence in our universe has long been a fascinating and perplexing phenomenon mankind have known and pondered from time immemorial. The continued wonderment and awe-inspiring thoughts will continue for generations to come, and perhaps even after intelligence has transformed into a new set of physical characteristics and paradigm. This inevitable behavior and trait are inherent in the very intelligence that is undergoing the evolutionary change we experience today.

Humans have embodied the miraculous results of what evolution can lead to. We have developed the intelligence to observe and analyze the very same world that have spawn our beginnings from simple single cell organisms. The question is, where will this ultimately take us? For now, we can safely say that humans are transforming, albeit slowly, but there will come a time when this change will eventually heat up and we will transform into another state of existence. What will this state be and how will it affect who we are? This is a powerful question and one which I will attempt to predict based on our current state of progress in the universe.

One of the basic premise of evolution is that of survival of the fittest. While as humans, we have evolved into a very fit state physically and mentally, and thus we are surviving well in the current Eco system of our world. However, our world is changing and so are we. The changes may seem infinitesimal, but it is change nevertheless. The significance of the impact of every change will increase progressively over time. As our knowledge of the universe increases, we are becoming more aware of how little we know about the world, the laws that govern it, and the immensity of the gap in our understanding the cosmos. We also realize that our place in this universe is so insignificant that all we can do is to awe at the great mysteries that lie out there and all around us. For intelligence to continue to survive, it needs to continue to evolve.

As humans, we are unlocking more and more the mysteries of the universe, yet we are limited by our physical intelligence and biological makeup to make great strides in our interaction with large expanse of the cosmos. Even at the speed of light, it will take billions of light years to travel across the universe. The endless quest for knowledge and the innate drive by the ever changing intelligence of our specie will be the prime enabler of human evolution.

In our current world, machines are evolving rapidly and becoming more intelligent. Also, as machines evolved, they are assuming more and more human tasks and characteristics. This evolution is ongoing at breakneck pace and ultimately we will have machines that will exceed humans in intelligence and capabilities. One key feature of machine evolution is distributed intelligence. We seeing that it make more sense to push intelligence out to the edge or localized it to the function it is necessary to perform. The basic tenet behind this belief is if one part of a machine breaks down it does not impact the entire machine or system. The same logic holds true for network technology evolution. More and more networks are built on the foundation of distributed intelligence. This trend will continue and perhaps one day we will have machines that are fail safe, self-healing and can replicate themselves.

On the other hand, while humans are incorporating intelligence into machines and re-engineering them into a super entities, we are also incorporating machines into our bodies and into our world to help us survive the changing universe. Humans today use machines to replace body parts and to help us interact with the world at large. Someday, I see that humans and machines will merge into one entity. After all, both are made of the basic molecular structure of the universe. It is matter of evolving the molecular structure to a superior state of existence where intelligence can function at a higher level and have a more robust outer shell to withstand the harsh world. Let's face it, space travel will be a lot easier if we had a hard exterior shell that will not evaporate with sudden exposure to outer space, as opposed to our carbon based bodies.

Through this evolutionary process of man and machine convergence, we will also see that intelligence will migrate from a central control point, a la, the brain, to a well distributed system that will incorporate superior features such self replicating intelligence , fail proof learning, and possibly eliminate the concept of death. If the concept of death no longer exist, they concept of birth may also become obsolete. However, not digress from the subject at hand, I will save this topic for another blog.

Milky Way Makeover

2008-06-11T15:45:00.006-05:00

Like early explorers mapping the continents of our globe, astronomers are busy charting the spiral structure of our galaxy. Using infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way's elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two major arms. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms. This artist's concept illustrates this and other new views of the Milky Way produced by other new measurements.

UFO Alert?

2008-05-30T15:28:00.005-05:00

Marriage proposal triggers UFO alert
BERLIN, Germany (AP) --Police say a young man's creative marriage proposal triggered reports of unidentified flying objects from worried Germans. Bavarian police say several people called late Wednesday evening to alert them to what they thought were UFOs and unusual lights drifting across the sky above the sleepy town of Plattling.
They say a police patrol set off to investigate — but was disappointed in its quest for unusual visitors.
A police statement Thursday said officers found a 29-year-old man who had just proposed to his 27-year-old girlfriend.
He had accompanied his proposal by sending up 50 paper lanterns that glowed in the night. Police say his girlfriend said "yes."

It's Money in the Bank

2008-02-25T13:05:00.008-06:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who discovered that millions of dollars had mysteriously appeared in his bank account, and withdrew more than $2 million, has been arrested on charges of grand larceny, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Benjamin Lovell, 48, pleaded innocent on Tuesday to charges that he withdrew money from a Commerce Bank account that had been opened by someone with the same name, prosecutors said.
The account belonged to Woodlawn Trustees Inc, a Delaware property management company, and was listed under the name of its finance director, who is also named Benjamin Lovell, court papers said.
Lovell had just $800 in his own Commerce Bank account when he went to make a deposit, but a teller, mistaking the Woodlawn account for Lovell's personal account, told him that his account contained more than $5 million, prosecutors said.
Lovell made multiple withdrawals even though he knew that the money was not his, prosecutors said. He used the money to buy jewelry for his girlfriend and to make several investments, they said.
Commerce Bank and Woodlawn Trustees did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Legal Aid attorney representing Lovell could not be reached for comment either.
Lovell is being held on $3 million bail. He faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted, prosecutors said.

Interesting Facts

2007-09-14T12:49:00.003-05:00

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.
2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.
5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.
6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.
7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.
8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.
9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
10. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.
11. Dalmatians are born without spots.
12. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
13. The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings).
14. Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.
15. The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.
16. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee.
17. Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks.
18. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.
19. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.
20. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
21. The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
22. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.
23. When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.
24. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor.
25. The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named Volney.
26. Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.
27. Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan.
28. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.
29. The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.
30. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
31. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.
32. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
33. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
34. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
35. Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game.
36. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.
37. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.
38. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like itis smiling).
39. Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”
40. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.
41. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
42. The average person laughs 13 times a day.
43. Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are:Mizaru(See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru(Speak no evil)
44. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
45. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
46. Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
47. Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.
48. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.
49. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.
50. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

Einstein's Warping

2007-08-28T12:41:00.003-05:00

Einstein's predicted warping of space-time has been discovered around neutron stars, the most dense observable matter in the universe.
The warping shows up as smeared lines of iron gas whipping around the stars, University of Michigan and NASA astronomers say. The finding also indicates a size limit for the celestial objects.
The same distortions have been spotted around black holes and even around Earth, so while the finding may not be a surprise, it is significant for answering basic questions of physics, said study team member Sudip Bhattacharyya of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and the University of Maryland, College Park.
"This is fundamental physics," Bhattacharyya said. "There could be exotic kinds of particles or states of matter, such as quark matter, in the centers of neutron stars, but it's impossible to create them in the lab. The only way to find out is to understand neutron stars."

Dumbass

2007-08-15T15:07:00.003-05:00

A Central Florida man who crashed his new $400,000 Lamborghini only hours after getting behind the wheel has been charged with drunken driving, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Officers said Ronald Tridico, 39, was apparently speeding in his bright yellow Lamborghini on state Road 429 near Orlando when he lost control and crashed. Witnesses said he was taking a curve when he crashed. The Windermere resident was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash, officers said. The man's wife was also in the vehicle and suffered a minor injury to her arm.

Avoiding Hangovers

2007-08-13T15:36:00.003-05:00

Seven tips for drinking:
1) Never drink on an empty stomach - food slows down the absorption of alcohol. Before you start drinking, line your stomach with something solid, like bread, and perhaps a non-acidic drink like milk

2) Cut down on cigarettes as smoking makes you thirsty

3) Pace yourself when you drink. Alternate some soft drinks with the alcoholic ones

4) Before going to bed drink plenty of water to help reduce the effects of dehydration. Keep a glass of fruit juice by your bed in case you wake in the night. Besides relieving thirst, it will boost vitaimin C levels

5) In the morning, if you do not feel like food, drink fruit juices and honey

6) Avoid drinking coffee as this increases dehydration

7) Avoid "hair of the dog" cures which involve drinking more alcohol. These may provide a temporary cure, but will make you feel worse in the long run.

Parallel Universe

2007-08-08T13:04:00.004-05:00

Scientists now believe there may really be a parallel universe - in fact, there may be an infinite number of parallel universes, and we just happen to live in one of them. These other universes contain space, time and strange forms of exotic matter. Some of them may even contain you, in a slightly different form. Astonishingly, scientists believe that these parallel universes exist less than one millimetre away from us. In fact, our gravity is just a weak signal leaking out of another universe into ours

Occam's Razor

2007-08-08T12:52:00.003-05:00

"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything"
Occam's razor is a logical principle attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (or Ockham). The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. This principle is often called the principle of parsimony. It underlies all scientific modelling and theory building. It admonishes us to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest one. In any given model, Occam's razor helps us to "shave off" those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there is less chance of introducing inconsistencies, ambiguities and redundancies.

Free House? U move it!

2007-08-01T11:52:00.003-05:00

A church is giving away a house, but nothing's really free. The new owner will have to move it elsewhere. First Wesleyan Church is offering the house because it blocks the view of the church from the road, pastor Ernest Martin said.Martin said the 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bathroom house used to be a parsonage, but has been a rental property since the last pastor moved out 13 years ago. He said the house, which needs some paint, caulking and window work, is worth at least $30,000.Now he wants to get rid of the about 50-year-old house, but it would cost between $7,000 and $10,000 to have it moved off the property, more than the church wanted to pay.Church member Oliver France said the church wanted to get rid of the house since the church bought it 1975."Then we decided we didn't want to pay taxes on it anymore and didn't want to be in the rental business either," France said. "But I think it will make someone a good house."

Phoenix Exorcism

2007-07-30T12:27:00.003-05:00

PHOENIX — Officers responding to a report of an exorcism on a young girl found her grandfather choking her and used stun guns to subdue the man, who later died, authorities said Sunday.
The 3-year-old girl and her mother, who was also in the room during the struggle between 49-year-old Ronald Marquez and officers, were hospitalized, police said. Their condition was unavailable.
The relative who called police said an exorcism had also been attempted Thursday.
"The purpose was to release demons from this very young child," said Sgt. Joel Tranter.
Officers arrived at the house Saturday and entered when they heard screaming coming from a bedroom, Tranter said.
A bed had been pushed up against the door; the officers pushed it open a few inches and saw Marquez choking his bloodied granddaughter, who was crying in pain and gasping, Tranter said.
A bloody, naked 19-year-old woman who police later determined to be Marquez's daughter and the girl's mother was in the room, chanting "something that was religious in nature," Tranter said.
The officers forced open the door enough for one to enter, leading to a struggle in which an officer used a stun gun on Marquez, Tranter said.
After the initial stun had no visible effect, another officer squeezed into the room and stunned him. The girl was freed and passed through the door to the relative, Tranter said.
Marquez was placed in handcuffs after a struggle with officers and initially appeared normal, but then stopped breathing, Tranter said. He could not be revived and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Tranter declined to identify Marquez's daughter and granddaughter but said they lived in the house with Marquez.
The mother was not arrested, but police will consider criminal charges, Tranter said.
There was no phone listing at Ronald Marquez's address

The Purry Grim Reaper

2007-07-26T08:49:00.003-05:00

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.
"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.
After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.
Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.
Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill
She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.
Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.
Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.
No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.
Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.
If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.
Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.
Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

Quarks

2007-07-25T13:15:00.005-05:00

Quarks and Leptons are the building blocks which build up matter, i.e., they are seen as the "elementary particles". In the present standard model, there are six "flavors" of quarks. They can successfully account for all known mesons and baryons (over 200). The most familiar baryons are the proton and neutron, which are each constructed from up and down quarks. Quarks are observed to occur only in combinations of two quarks (mesons), three quarks (baryons), and the recently discovered particles with five quarks (pentaquark).

10 Strange Science Facts

2007-07-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

Animals can rain from the sky
The universe is beige
Poisoning can make masses to dance hysterically
The Moon is moving away from the Earth
Belly button lint comes from your underwear
Fly larvae helps to heal wounds quicker
Animals can explode naturally
You can still have an erection once dead
Male seahorses can get pregnant
A fetus can get trapped inside of its twin

Bikini-clad women mow lawns in Memphis

2007-07-23T14:02:00.004-05:00

One lawn care company is showing a little skin to boost business.
The women of Tiger Time Lawn Care offer to mow customers' lawns dressed in bikinis - a service that attracts more attention to the ladies than the lawns.
"Oh yeah, they honk and yell. They can do everything you can imagine," said employee Blair Beckman, 21.
Beckman said the extra attention is expected, but she looks on the bright side.
"You get the attention but you also get a tan, which I need," Beckman said.
Owner Lee Cathey said the bikini service makes mowing the lawn a lot more interesting, although the fee is slightly higher.
"The yards definitely get more attention when there's a bikini on the lawn," Cathey said. Some customers sit in lawn chairs and have a beer while watching, he said.
The three-month-old company is looking for a way to expand the service through the end of summer.
"In the fall we'll go pick up leaves in the bikinis if need be," Cathey said.
Cathey said there hasn't been any interest in a male version of the bikini lawn cut.

Weird Headlines

2007-07-20T14:25:00.004-05:00

Canada's top court rules that pointing your finger at someone and saying "BANG" is the same as using a real gun

Congress keeps public-broadcasting funding intact, rejecting notions that PBS and NPR are "too liberally biased" to maintain funding

Teenage driver who caused fatal car-crash as she sent text message is given four years in prison. When she asked for a shorter sentence, she was offered '4 YRS N PRSN'

Inmate mistakenly released 36 years early from attempted murder sentence, finds his victim at a bar and... apologizes?

College professor calls prices "immoral," eliminates textbook requirement

Bush to have colonoscopy as doctors attempt to find his head; Cheney to take temporary control

Just another day in Jersey City: A woman finds a six-foot-long missile launcher on her front lawn, which happens to be in the flight path of Newark International Airport

Study finds the more exposure middle school students have to anti-smoking ads, the more likely they are to smoke

TSA slowly waking up to the fact that feeling your balls and taking your spork may not be the best way to prevent terrorist attacks

Strange Facts

2007-07-20T09:46:00.004-05:00

There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.
Porcupines float in water.
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head".
Human teeth are almost as hard as rocks.
A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off. It dies from starvation.
The average person has over 1,460 dreams in a year.
Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.
The State of Florida is bigger than England.
The average Canadian drinks about 600 sodas a year.
The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion dollars worth of pet food a year.
Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.
Most dust particles in your house are made of dead skin.
The average person laughs 13 times a day.
Dogs can hear sounds that people can't.

Celebrities Real Names

2007-07-19T17:46:00.003-05:00

Alan Alda = Alphonso D'Abruzzo
Woody Allen = Allen Konigsberg
Muhammad Ali = Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.
Julie Andrews = Julia Elizabeth Wells
Fred Astaire = Frederick Austerlitz
Chet Atkins = Chester B. Atkins
Frankie Avalon = Francis Thomas Avalonne

2007-07-19T17:45:00.002-05:00

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is 'screeched.'

2007-07-19T17:40:00.003-05:00

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth

2007-07-19T17:38:00.004-05:00

The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad!

2007-07-19T17:36:00.003-05:00

Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark!

2007-07-19T17:22:00.004-05:00

You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206!

2007-07-19T17:15:00.002-05:00

The electric chair was invented by a dentist!

2007-07-19T16:40:00.002-05:00

Brain cells are the only cells in the human body that don't automatically renew themselves