The critically-endangered Northern Bald Ibis birds are being taught to follow microlight planes to try to familiarise them with their old migration pattern.Not sure why I find this inspiring, but I do.
The aim is to teach the birds, which have an aversion to flying and bad sense of direction, the instinct to fly the 400-mile journey to Tuscany, Italy, in autumn and back to the Austrian Alps in spring on their own.
Spectacular. Worth watching only if you care about NFL, the Denver Broncos or John Elway.
Two years ago Google launched the 10^100 project to give millions to fund ideas that will change the world. After being overwhelmed by 150,000 ideas, Google finally announced five winners on Friday.
One of the top five is a company appropriately called Shweeb that proposes building a monorail made of little clear capsules powered by people pedaling recumbent bicycles. Google is giving the company $1 million to fund R&D to “test Shweeb’s technology for an urban setting.”
The others seem a bit more conventional.
Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/googles-vision-of-the-future-bicycle-m...
I love these types of shots of the earth. Just so spectacular, when our day to day lives can be a bit mundane.
Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a significant amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge deep into the surrounding sea. Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology and plate tectonics, but they still call it the 'Great Australian Bight' proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory, but they can't spell either.
The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other landmasses and sovereign lands are classified as either continent, island, or country, Australia is considered all three. Typically, it is unique in this.
Wildlife
The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories: poisonous, odd, and sheep. Australia has a large proportion of the world's poisonous arachnids, and more than its fair share of venomous snakes - there would probably be even more snakes if the spiders didn't keep eating them! But even the spiders won't go near the sea (see below). Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on), under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is very useful for this task.
Strangely, it tends to be the second class of animals (the odd) that are more dangerous. The creature that injures the most people each year is the common wombat. It is nearly as ridiculous as its name, and spends its life digging holes in the ground, in which it hides. During the night it comes out to eat worms and grubs.
The wombat injures people in two ways: first, the animal is indestructible. Digging holes in the hard Australian clay builds muscles that outclass Olympic weightlifters. At night, they often wander the roads. Semi-trailers (road trains) have hit them at high speed, with all nine wheels on one side, and this merely makes them very annoyed. They express this by snorting, glaring, and walking away. Alas, to smaller cars, the wombat becomes an asymmetrical high-speed launching pad, with results that can be imagined, but not adequately described.
The second way the wombat injures people relates to its burrowing behaviour. If a person happens to put their hand down a wombat hole, the wombat will feel the disturbance and think 'Ho! My hole is collapsing!' at which it will brace its muscled legs and push up against the roof of its burrow with incredible force, to prevent its collapse. Any unfortunate hand will be crushed, and attempts to withdraw will cause the wombat to simply bear down harder. The unfortunate will then bleed to death through their crushed hand as the wombat prevents them from seeking assistance. This is considered the third most embarrassing way to die1, and Australians don't talk about it much.
At this point, we would like to mention the platypus, estranged relative of the mammal, which has a duck-bill, otter's tail, webbed feet, lays eggs, detects its aquatic prey in the same way as the electric eel, and has venomous barbs attached to its hind legs, thus combining many of the 'typical' Australian animal attributes into a single improbable creature.
Last of all is the fact that the sheep, a particularly innocuous animal, outnumber the humans by an extraordinary ratio. Australians have an affinity with sheep, some would say a relationship that is a trifle worrying, and the love of this animal is expressed so strongly that a huge concrete monument has been erected to honour the animal in the city of Goulburn. Sheep are almost as important as beer to Aussies. But not quite.
History
The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants. First, a short history: some time around 40,000 years ago, some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and a lot of them died. The ones that survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in, and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories.
Then, around 1770ish, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent over, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom), ate all their food, and a lot of them died. About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since.
It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilised culture, they say) - whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.
Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on an extended holiday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely-tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.
And then...
There is also the matter of the beaches.
Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill you just from the pain), blue-ringed octopuses (cute little things that can kill you in a second) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk of all of these.
Aussies
As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger, unless they are an American. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly, and reach for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string, and mud.
Alone of all the races on Earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass is greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land 'Oz', 'Godzone' (a verbal contraction of 'God's Own Country') and 'Best bloody place on earth, bar none, strewth'. The irritating thing about this is they may be right.
There are some traps for the unsuspecting traveller, though. Do not under any circumstances suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer. Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt. Religion and politics are safe topics of conversation (Australians don't care too much about either) but sport is a minefield. The only correct answer to 'So, howdya like our country, eh?' is 'Best [insert your own regional swear word here] country in the world!'.
It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will 'adopt' you, and on your first night will take you to a pub where Australian beer is served. Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes. Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and wave off any legal difficulties with 'It's his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub', to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook. Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage, and noting how strong the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture.
Most Australians are now urban dwellers, having discovered the primary use of electricity, which is air-conditioning and refrigerators.
Typical Australian Sayings
G'Day!
Ken Oath!
She'll be right.
Tips to Surviving Australia
Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason whatsoever.
We mean it.
The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
Always carry a stick.
Air-conditioning.
Do not attempt to use any Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.
Thick socks.
Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.
If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die.
Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.
See also: Deserts: How to die in them, The Stick - second most useful thing ever and Poisonous and Venomous arachnids, insects, animals, trees, shrubs, fish and sheep of Australia, volumes 1 - 42.
1 Don't ask what the first two are.
Australian animals can be divided into three categories: poisonous, odd and sheep.
Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every 23 people.
I liked the beer pouring one at the airport in Tokyo.
It is his birthday today. Interestingly you can read it online courtesy of the University of Adelaide.
Yanko Tsvetkov, a Bulgarian designer and illustrator living in London, has produced seven maps in which countries and regions are labelled according to the stereotypes of their inhabitants held by the people of other nationalities.
In a map titled Europe According to USA, Russia is blocked out in red and labelled "Commies" while France reads "Smelly People" and Germany reads "dirty porn". Britain is simply labelled: "Mummy".
Now for the politcally correct bit?
Humans are one step closer to being replaced by machines after Japanese researchers unveiled a model they hope could lead to humanoid menial workers.
Kawada Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science (AIST) this week revealed the HRP-4 robot they hope will lead to easing greying Japan's looming labour shortage.
"We designed a working robot in the image of a lean but well-muscled track-and-field athlete," said Noriyuki Kanehira, robotic systems manager at Kawada at a press conference to unveil the blue-and-white robot.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/hrp-4-worker-robot-made-to-replace-humans/s...
Thanks Cameron Reilly
Cardinal Walter Kasper, a senior aide to the Pope, has pulled out of the Pontiff's visit to Britain after saying the country resembled a “Third World country” where “aggressive new atheism” is rife.
Great lesson in PR.
It's so amazing how people can be so lonely in the U.S. You can be living in a neighborhood without seeing the neighbors at all. Your closest friend or family could be several miles away.
It's also amazing how automated things are: ATM bank machines, highway toll stations without cashier, gas stations without pumpist, or a car wash station without car washers.
Some people go out so underdressed! Guys wearing sandals and shorts to go to work, eating and drinking while waiting for a bus or while walking along the sidewalks.
So first of all we have the Blade Runner universe that for me is one of the main dystopian worlds that comes to mind, certainly it may not actually be the best example however it certainly is one of the more popular. In the film there is an almost oppressive backdrop enforced by the constant gloom and the weather. There is little left of nature, even the animals are all robots and there is the ever present police. Rather than explain in any great detail the nature of the Blade Runner universe the atmosphere throughout allows us to form our impressions through the imagery.
So first of all we have the Blade Runner universe that for me is one of the main dystopian worlds that comes to mind, certainly it may not actually be the best example however it certainly is one of the more popular. In the film there is an almost oppressive backdrop enforced by the constant gloom and the weather. There is little left of nature, even the animals are all robots and there is the ever present police. Rather than explain in any great detail the nature of the Blade Runner universe the atmosphere throughout allows us to form our impressions through the imagery.
Me I much prefer the dysfunctional world of Blade Runner, although I quite like Scottie.
In 1898, the steamship Valdivia left Hamburg for a nine month scientific voyage to the Atlantic, Indian and Great Southern oceans [map]. Known as the German Deep-Sea Expedition, the mission was led by Leipzig University Professor of Zoology, Carl Chun and investigated chemical, zoological and physical characteristics encountered in the oceans during the voyage.Setting some of the groundwork for people like David Attenborough and his fantastic series, Life, these illustrations are fantastic. Watching the Humboldt Squid and the the Fried Egg Jellyfish last night gave me pause about resuming my diving career.
The Valdivia was equipped with state of the art biological and chemical laboratories, a first-class scientific library and ample storage space for marine specimens collected while at sea. With these specialist ship fittings and overall expedition objectives as well as vessel size, the Valdivia resembled the famous HMS Challenger from the 1870s, which had essentially established oceanography as a scientific discipline.
And like the Challenger expedition, the German Deep-Sea Expedition gave rise to an extensive series of post-voyage scientific publications. Professor Chun contributed a book on cephalopods (with a corresponding illustration/photograph atlas) to a multi-volume work called 'Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen Tiefse eexpedition auf dem Dampfer Valdivia' (From the Depths of the World Sea: Descriptions of the German Deep Sea Expedition).
The pictures show the spider with its long black legs wrapped around the body of a dead bird suspended in its web.
The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland's tropical north.
Despite their unlikely subject matter, the pictures appear to be real.
Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.
"Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.com.
Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger.
Humboldt Squid are carnivorous marine invertebrates that move in shoals of up to 1,200 individuals. They swim at speeds of up to 24 kilometres per hour (15 mph/13 kn) propelled by water ejected through a hyponome (siphon) and by two diamond shaped fins. Their tentacles bear suckers lined with sharp teeth with which they grasp prey and drag it towards a large, sharp beak.
Although Humboldt squid have a reputation of being aggressive, the only reports of aggression towards humans have occurred when reflective diving gear or flashing lights have been present as a provocation.
The rain has moved on and we have beautiful clear blue skies this morning.
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The technical artist Frank Munger, who has died aged 90, specialised in cutaway line drawings of aircraft, their engines and missiles. His work was published in Flight International magazine for more than 40 years. Frank managed to make a seemingly complex subject readily understood, even down to the pilot's safety harness.
Using pen and ink on art board, he opened up aeroplanes, ranging from the lumbering Vickers Vimy bomber of the first world war to the supersonic Concorde. In the aftermath of the Concorde crash in 2000 in Paris, Frank's cutaway showed the relationship between the fuel tanks and the plane's undercarriage. (A metallic strip found lying on the runway had burst one of the plane's tyres, and the resulting rubber fragments punctured a fuel tank that caused a fire.)
Frank's detailed knowledge of how aircraft were constructed was gained during the second world war when he was in the RAF. He was born at Walters Ash, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and attended Naphill primary school. He grew up with a passion for drawing, mostly horses and internal combustion engines. He learned to dismantle and reassemble the motorbike engines of his friends and neighbours, and at the outbreak of the war was managing, without any formal engineering training, the servicing of food lorries. He volunteered for the RAF, and, to his delight, was posted to a course for engine fitters at Squires Gate, Blackpool.
Frank was then posted to a Vickers Wellington bomber squadron before moving in 1941 to Singapore. With few aircraft to service, and knowing that Japanese forces were about to strike, he and his fellow airmen spent their time destroying anything that could be of use to the invading forces. He boarded the Empire Star shortly before the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Sailing for Sumatra, he and his comrades, armed with rifles, lined the decks to shoot at Japanese bombers that were attempting to sink the vessel.
Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers – but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with.
Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines – the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite – before heading into the mountains to sleep. A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don't make it home."They are not just eating our grapes, they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," said Jean Naude, general manager at the vineyard, which is celebrating its 325th birthday this year. Guards banging sticks and waving plastic snakes have been deployed with only limited success, and not even a blast of a vuvuzela, the plastic horn made famous at the World Cup, seems to frighten them.
Space agency researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to “narrow in” on what they believe comprises the energy, which pushes our universe apart at ever-increasing speed.
Discovered it in 1998, astronomers have been unable to say what the mysterious force is, except that it is invisible and makes up a “large chunk of our universe”, or 72 per cent of its size.
Almost a quarter, 24 per cent, is thought to be "dark matter", which is also mysterious but easier to study than dark energy because of its “gravitational influence”.
The rest of the universe, a mere four per cent, is made of “the stuff that makes up people, planets, stars and everything made up of atoms”.
The drug has traditionally been used as an anaesthetic for animals and, in some cases, humans – but has also established itself as a nightclub favourite in recent years, where it is nicknamed Special K.
But studies have found it can treat depression within hours, even when years of alternative treatments have failed.
And the effects of just one dose can last up to 10 days.
Most antidepressant drugs currently available on prescription need several months or even years to take effect and must be taken everyday.
However, scientists discovered that rats given ketamine stopped displaying symptoms of depressive behaviour within hours of their first fix.
The drug was even shown to restore brain-connections damaged by stress.
A similar study conducted at the Connecticut Mental Health Centre also found 70 per cent of depressed patients who failed to respond to years of treatment on traditional antidepressants improved within hours of receiving a dose of ketamine.
Professor Ronald Duman, at Yale University, discovered that ketamine progresses through the nervous system in a different way to traditional drugs.
It follows a pathway that rapidly forms new synaptic connections between neurons, a process called "synaptogenesis".
Professor Duman hailed the potential of ketamine. He said: "It's like a magic drug — one dose can work rapidly and last for seven to 10 days."
Until now, ketamine's clinical use has been limited by the fact that it has to be injected and can cause hallucinations.
But it only needs to be used in low doses for depression.
George Aghajanian, co-researcher on the study published in the journal Science also warned that the drug needed further analysis and modification before it could be approved for general use.
He said: "The pathway is the story.
"Understanding the mechanism underlying the antidepressant effect of ketamine will allow us to attack the problem at a variety of possible sites within that pathway."
Glenn Garnham, a drug and alcohol counsellor for UK charity Admit voiced concerns over the study's findings.
He said: "Ketamine is a very addictive drug which is normally used on horses. I deal with many people who are addicted to ketamine and it affects their life in the same way as any other addiction does, leading to serious problems with health, money, friends and family.
"It is already very cheap and easy to become addicted to – approving it for medical use might remove some of its stigma and lead more people down the path of addiction."
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That's what little boys are made of !"
What are little girls made of?
"Sugar and spice and all things nice
That's what little girls are made of!"