Author Archive
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
Newly discovered 50 million year old amber deposits in northwest India have revealed more than 700 insect species representing 55 families of insects inside. Included in the findings so far are many social insects such as bees, termites, and ants. Scientists will compare these insects to thier modern cousins to try and obtain a better understanding of their evolution. Or perhaps they will just try to pull out DNA and start a theme park.
[Wired]
Posted in Insects | Comments Off on Amber-Trapped Insect Deposit Discovered
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Not to be outdone by the Air Force and its Mind Warfare research, the Navy is pouring money into directed energy weapons. It is making breakthroughs with the Free Electron Laser which will melt incoming projectiles with 100 kilowatts of energy and the Electromagnetic Rail Gun that can fire a bullet into space at Mach 7.
The scope and vision of the Navy research was perhaps best summarized by Rear Admiral Nevin Carr who said “We all, of course, want the multi-megawatt death ray.”
Godspeed, Rear Admiral.
[Wired]
Posted in War | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 8th, 2010
This awesome octopus is known to mimic at least 15 known creatures; my personal favorite is the “furry turkey with human legs”. Check out the video.
[Geekologie]
[UPDATE]
Credit due to EbonNebula for pointing this out 4 months ago. Thanks!
Posted in Animal | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
The human mind has no firewalls. Recently the 711th Human Performance Wing requested proposals examining “Advances in Bioscience for Airmen Performance” for advancing the deployment of extreme neuroscience and biotechnology warfare in the service of the Air Force.
But perhaps the oddest, and most disturbing, of the program’s many suggested directions is the one that notes: “Conversely, the chemical pathway area could include methods to degrade enemy performance and artificially overwhelm enemy cognitive capabilities.” That’s right: the Air Force wants a way to fry foes’ minds — or at least make ‘em a little dumber.
For any interested parties, the Air Force is warning the project “may require top secret clearance.”
[Wired]
Posted in Air Force | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Anybody up for waterskiing this weekend?
[Orlando Sentinel]
Posted in Animal | Comments Off on Record Breaking Florida Gator
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Researchers have discovered that they can permanently delete traumatic memories simply by removing a protein from the region of the brain responsible for recalling fear. The research focused on the nerve circuits in the amygdala where they tracked proteins before and after they scared mice with loud sounds.
“This may sound like science fiction, the ability to selectively erase memories,” says Huganir. “But this may one day be applicable for the treatment of debilitating fearful memories in people, such as post-traumatic stress syndrome associated with war, rape or other traumatic events.”
[Physorg.com via Kotaku]
Posted in Science | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Residents in southeastern Wisconsin have recently been reporting sightings of a nocturnal creature invading their back yards. This photo was snapped by a woman as the creature sat in her back yard on its hind legs eating crab apples. The photo was sent to the The Wildlife in Need Center where a spokeswomen said that while it “may point to the existence of the elusive and legendary El Chupacabra residing in southeastern Wisconsin” it most likely is “a gray or red fox with Sarcoptic Mange, caused by an infestation of mites.” Many people were quick to label this creature a Chupacabra, but it has also been noted that this is not the first time kangaroo-like creatures have been reported in Waukesha County.
[JSOnline via American Monsters]
Posted in Chupacabra | 5 Comments »
Monday, November 1st, 2010
A Colorado man had a rude awakening when he kneecapped himself while sleeping.
Sanford Rothman, who lives on Mineola Court in southeastern Boulder, told police he woke up to a “bang” and discovered he was shot in the left knee. He said he did not have a clear recollection of the incident.
According to the police report no alcohol or drugs were involved, and nobody else was in the house at the time. Sleepshooting could be the next exciting chapter in the field of Parasomnia.
[dailycamera]
Posted in Weird | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 29th, 2010
Please introduce yourself to Skynet Suzette, the latest winner of the Loebner Prize. The Loebner Prize is a version of the Turing Test where a judge talks to both a computer and a human at the same time for a set interval and then chooses which one they think is human. Suzette was able to fool the judge into thinking it was human after a complete 25 minutes of conversation. No word yet on the human who failed to convince a judge they weren’t a machine.
New Scientist: Are you surprised that you fooled a human judge?
Suzette: No, I am not surprised.
Artificially intelligent AND cocky? I’m sure everything will turn out fine.
[New Scientest]
Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Chatbot Fools Human Judge
Friday, October 29th, 2010
According to the upcoming National Geographic documentary
The Truth Behind Zombies, we may be a few mutations or lab experiments away from a full scale zombie apocalypse. If the rabies virus, which can cause violently mad behaviour, was combined with the ability of the flu virus to spread quickly through the air, it might be the right combination for our very own disaster.
“All rabies has to do is go airborne, and you have the rage virus” like in 28 Days Later, Max Mogk, head of the
Zombie Research Society, says in the documentary.
While it is not possible for two completely different viruses to hybridize naturally, the possibility exists that they could be genetically modified and combined in a lab. Also, Zombie Research Society!
[National Geographic]
Posted in Virus, Zombies | Comments Off on Airborne Rabies Would Create Zombie “Rage Virus”
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Rent has gotten scary enough that 51% of those polled would happily share their house with a ghost if that meant that they could live there for free. In fact, over a quarter of the respondents would be quite satisfied with simply going halfsies with a haunted roommate. No word yet from USA Today on cryptids or aliens, but we will keep you updated.
[USA Today]
Posted in ghosts | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Due to a harsh food shortage Russian bears have been unable to find enough of their traditional berries, mushrooms, frogs, and fish to keep them going. These hungry bears have taken matters into their own hands and turned to digging up and snacking on human corpses. In the village of Vezhnya Tchova near the Arctic Circle two women caught a ghoulish grave robbing bear mid-dinner.
“From a distance it resembled a rather large man in a fur coat, leaning tenderly over the grave of a loved one. But when the two women in the Russian village of Vezhnya Tchova came closer they realised there was a bear in the cemetery eating a body.”
This has happened before in the area and residents recounted tales of how one bear not only learned how to open coffins, but then proceeded to teach the others.
It is unknown at this point in time if the recent shortage of food is related to the invasion and ongoing war between bears and yetis.
[The Guardian via io9]
Posted in Bear, Corpse | 3 Comments »
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
A complex mathematical problem known as the Travelling Salesman Problem, and which is known to take a supercomputer days to solve, is effectively being solved by bees in real time. Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and Royal Holloway have discovered that bees can quickly determine the shortest route between flowers even when they learn about the flowers in a different order. The problem that the Travelling Salesman must solve is finding the shortest route that allows him to visit all the locations on his route. The current method used by computers to solve it is by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the shortest. Scientists hope to study the bees to better manage our own networks while also learning the “minimal neural circuitry required for complex problem solving.”
[Queen Mary via Robots.net]
Posted in Experiments, Science | Comments Off on Bees Shame Computers, Travelling Salesmen