As many of you may remember, last year J. Craig Venter and his team created the first synthetic life form by replacing the genetic code of the bacterium Mycoplasma capricolum with DNA that they created themselves. In order to create and identify thier own DNA, they composed it from two quotes. One quote was from Richard Feynman (and was actually misquoted), and the second quote was from James Joyce’s A Potrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Not long after this announcement Venter received a cease and desist letter from the Joyce estate claiming violation of fair use. So now there is a situation where life was created using information that falls under copyright and is faced with a cease and desist letter. Does this mean that the life must be destroyed? The bacterium has already reproduced and is a viable life form.
“Which brings to mind the question…are we now nearing a point where copyright law can result in the retraction of a life form?”
It will be interesting to see where this case ends up.
Remember the floods that devastated Pakistan last year? Well all of that flood water drove spiders into trees by the millions where they took over and created giant spider condos, which is pretty much one of the last things I ever want to walk under. I am not sure how concentrating millions of spiders into one location helps lower the population of the highly mobile mosquitoes, but that is what is being reported. Maybe it is teamwork.
Although slowly killing the trees, the phenomenon is seemingly helping the local population. People in Sindh have reported fewer mosquitos than they would have expected given the amount of stagnant water in the area. It is thought the mosquitoes are getting caught in the spiders’ webs, reducing their numbers and the associated risk of malaria.
As reported on UFO Casebook, a Louisiana star gazer looking to get some shots of the recent Supermoon might have snapped a pic or two of an unsuspecting space craft not used to being visible in regular moonlight.
The object apparently held perfectly still while the entirety of the photographers family took turns locating it with the camera.
Ever wondered if there was a degree ever more impractical than your double major of philosophy and sociology? We encourage you to submit your application to Kemerovo State University where you can become culturally enriched and educated at their recently announced Yeti Institute.
The facility comes after a recent run of Abominable Snowman sightings in the Siberian mountains. It will be headed up by Igor Burtsev who believes the current creatures being spotted are surviving Neanderthals.
He explains:
‘We spoke to local residents’, said Dr Igor Burtsev, who conducted an expedition last summer and will head the new institute at Kemerovo State University. ‘They told us Yetis were stealing their animals.’
The academic claims around 30 Yetis live in a remote region of Mount Shoria in in southern Siberia.
He strongly denies accusations that the ’sightings’ are a bizarre ruse to attract tourists to the far-flung region.
Reports say the two-legged creatures are heavy-set, more around 7ft tall and resemble bears.
‘Their bodies were covered in red and black fur, and they could climb trees,’ said one account.
We immediately have two questions. Is there anything more awesome than this? Will they accept transfer credits from community college?
What’s more surprising, that we’ve radically reshaped our understanding of physics or that it happened by way of a violent message board flame war? Brian longs (via a series of increasingly complicated metaphors) for the day when we can find life under the frozen waves of a far away planet. Justin joins the Nation of Islam in their belief that a Wheel In The Sky keeps on turning. Andrew wrestles with an email which credits him for inventing a device that opens up a line of communication to the great beyond.
Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices, by clicking on the image:
We aren’t out and out saying this is definitive video proof that a ghost came down from heaven and blocked this goal from going in so the LA Kings could secure a better seeding in the NHL playoffs, but consider the similarities between this and the 1994 family comedy Angels In The Outfield.
First, both took place in the greater Los Angeles area.
Okay, that’s pretty much it. Unless Christopher Lloyd is dead and turned into a ghost so he could replay his role as Al the mischievous head angel in reality. But Christopher Lloyd isn’t dead.
In the town of Bennington, Vt., a squirrel has attacked three humans in the course of a week, biting and scratching the peaceful residents without provocation. The Bennington game warden is on the hunt for this angry squirrel, but it continues to elude the authorities. “It is just wildlife being wild”, says the game warden.
“[It] just latched on to my shoulder, and I went back and it’s a gray squirrel,” victim Kevin McDonald told the TV station.
McDonald was shoveling snow outside his home when the sneak attack began. “He was holding on. He wouldn’t let go. I was finally able to get him off, and as soon as I got him off, he just jumped right at me again.”
Did the Chupacabra mythos start as fan art for the 1995 Sci Fi thriller Species?
That is the assertion of Benjamin Radford who tracked the legend to it’s roots on the island protectorate of Puerto Rico. According to new research, all Chupacabra references can be traced back to a newspaper article in the second week of August in 1995. The alleged eye witness Madelyne Tolentino who provided the illustration depicted a lanky bobble headed creature with spikes jutting from the spine area.
Radford’s theory is that the creature might have been inspired by the 1995 erotic, science fiction thriller Species. In that film, a shape-shifting alien Natasha Henstridge attempts to mate with a human male. Her true form most notably bares resemblance to Tolentino’s drawing in the spikes and boney hands.
Which might be no coincidence, since according to Radford, Tolentino admits that she saw the film before penning her illustration and confesses that it might have inspired her final product. Species was released in theaters on July 7th, only a month and a half before the original newspaper report.
It’s pretty apparent the sky is going effing bananas. Moon’s are going super and now the sun is frigging multiplying. Or, at least is seemed like it was. This shot from Chinese television appears to show a pair of suns shining down like this was a contemplative shot from the sands of Tatooine.
As it turns out, it was just an optical illusion. Although, no one is quite sure what that illusion is exactly:
What’s going on? Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to Space.com, asked Jim Kaler, the University of Illinois astronomer who squelched the excitement over the aforementioned exploding Betelgeuse and who has written books on the day and night sky.
The double sun image is an effect of optical refraction, Kaler said, but it’s a “pretty darn rare” one, and one not fully explained by science.
“I doubt it’s been computer modeled,” he said. “There must have been some blob of atmosphere somewhere that caused this truly spectacular phenomenon, which in a sense is a mirage.”
In short, we cannot be sure that the sun has not, in fact, multiplied and is preparing to bleach all of our bones with their combined heat beam.
Iran decided that they needed a spy drone that looks like something from a bad 1950s movie. Released at an exhibition, the machine is named “Zohal” and at least it has some modern characteristics.
The flying machine is equipped with an auto-pilot system, GPS (Global Positioning System) and two separate imaging systems with full HD 10 mega-pixel picture quality and is able to take and send images simultaneously.
Zohal uses a small, portable navigation and monitoring center for transmission of data and images and can fly in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
The capsule you was unfit to leave Earth and you knew it before you left. Power failed and your orbit trajectory is about to send you screaming to your death. Atmospheric reentry will turn your body to goo before you hit the ground.
With your last moments of radio communication you make sure that those with your blood on their hands know it. You curse the officials who sent you up in this death trap. You begin to weep in anger. Unsaid is why you went up knowing full well that you’d not come back alive: to protect a national hero who happens to be a drinking buddy.
These were the last moments of Vladimir Komarov. His extraordinary story of bravery, friendship and barbaric bureaucracy behind the Iron Curtain are told in the book Starman.
The mission was to stage a mid-space meeting between two Russian vessels where the crews would exchange one passenger each and come back to earth. It was to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Communist revolution, a very important moment for current head of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev.
The problem was the Soyuz 1 capsule meant to carry Komarov was found to have 203 structural problems before it even left the ground. When it became clear that Brezhnev’s desire to see the mission take place would overrule any kind of safety concern, Komarov insisted on completing his mission because his back-up pilot was Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space and an icon of the Soviet space program. Not to mention a friend.
So Komarov went up and his legend reverberates to this day.
A family out for a nice day target shooting with shotguns is disturbed by a helicopter that won’t go away. Oh, and yeah, the helicopter is probably chasing Bigfoot.
“My husband and I took our kids target shooting. A helicopter was over our heads the entire time annoying us. We thought at first they were curious of why and what we were shooting. Later when we watched the video we noticed something that looked like bigfoot running in the trees. We assume now the helicopter was hunting the bigfoot. Scary!”
Thanks to a bizarre clerical error by the government, the boys all find themselves in the same place at the same time during South By Southwest 2011 in Austin, Texas. Would Brian and his lovely wife purchase a house that was allegedly built by goblins? Can the fabric of the trio’s friendship survive a screaming match over the merits of Jurassic Park?
Make sure you listen to this completely LIVE edition of the podcast featuring no edits and all a cappella sound effects.
Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices, by clicking on the image:
Apparently the devil has hit the skids because, according to one man, he has been staying at a Days Inn just north of Seattle. Claiming that Satan was sharing his hotel room (and probably not going halfsies) a month long resident of the hotel set the room on fire. The fire department was called in Friday when smoke began billowing out of his room and they were able to confine the damage to six rooms. According to hotel staff, the man had repeatedly called them the “anti-Christ” and “spawns of Satan.” I am not sure how using fire against Satan works out as a valid strategy, but hey, I guess you need to use the tools you have. No word yet on whether hotel staff was able to relocate Satan to a new room.
The man told police that he set the room on fire because Satan was in there, according to the affidavit. He reportedly said he wanted to protect “the good people” by setting the fire.
As many of you may remember, last year J. Craig Venter and his team created the first synthetic life form by replacing the genetic code of the bacterium Mycoplasma capricolum with DNA that they created themselves. In order to create and identify thier own DNA, they composed it from two quotes. One quote was from Richard Feynman (and was actually misquoted), and the second quote was from James Joyce’s A Potrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
