tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36293793651514732822023-06-20T21:33:44.616-07:00Just My Two CentsHot topics and current events.DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-15973783523058585072013-01-15T12:15:00.001-08:002013-01-15T12:15:22.415-08:00Spider-web patterns to determine toxicityIn 1995 a group of NASA scientists repeated and refined some earlier tests on the effect that various drugs have on the web building abilities of the common garden spider. They tested the the effect of caffeine, benzedrine, marijuana and chloral hydrate and as you can see the results were pretty extreme!
DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-45995828390146978652010-08-03T17:57:00.000-07:002010-08-03T18:08:00.868-07:00Visions of the Brain in Vatican FrescoMichelangelo was a conscientious student of human anatomy and enthusiastically dissected corpses throughout his life, but few of his anatomical drawings survive. This one, a depiction of the human brain and brain stem, appears to be drawn on the neck of God, directly above the altar in “The Separation of Light From Darkness,” another panel from the series of nine depicting scenes from the Book ofDROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-86701926265259200012010-07-17T23:27:00.000-07:002010-07-17T23:29:26.965-07:00Body shape affects memoryA woman's body shape may play a role in how good her memory is, according to a new study.The more an older woman weighs, the worse her memory, according to research released this week from Northwestern Medicine at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The effect is more pronounced in women who carry excess weight around their hips, known as pear shapes, than women who carry it around DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-19908220032365642492010-06-10T19:05:00.000-07:002010-06-10T19:07:38.849-07:00George W Bush on FacebookFormer US President George W Bush has created an account on the social networking website Facebook. His account was given the thumbs up, or "liked", by over 20,000 users within its first few hours. Click here to go to his page.DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-14408603083980426592010-06-10T19:03:00.000-07:002010-06-10T19:04:55.317-07:00Guillermo del Toro 'leaves' as director of The HobbitGuillermo del Toro will no longer direct the two movies based on JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, reports said. "In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," he said.However, del Toro added that he will continue to co-write the screenplays. The project - which has already been delayed for several years - is expected DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-46079802382017166762010-05-24T16:36:00.000-07:002010-05-24T16:38:38.647-07:00Cannes WinnersAnd the winners are:- Palme d'Or - Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul- Best director - Mathieu Amalric for On Tour- Best actress - Juliette Binoche for Certified Copy- Best actor- Javier Bardem for Biutiful and Elio Germano for Our Life (shared)- Best screenplay - Lee Chang-Dong for Poetry- Grand Prix - Of Gods and Men directed by Xavier Beauvois- DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-67342836063731199832010-05-24T16:14:00.000-07:002010-05-24T16:24:19.753-07:00Artificial LifeIt's official. Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-88947412048252886092010-05-24T16:07:00.000-07:002010-05-24T16:13:11.062-07:00A Mind Controlled ArmOtto Bock Healthcare, has developed a mind-controlled technology, which is ready to leave the laboratory and be put to everyday use. It involves a new technique known as targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), where nerves that once controlled a lost limb are used to control a prosthesis. The transplanted nerves allow electrical impulses from the brain to reach the muscles in the chest. The muscles DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-9263530452591565082010-05-24T15:09:00.000-07:002010-05-24T15:11:31.870-07:00Nokia Sues AppleThis month, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the iPad 3G and iPhone infringe five of its patents. Nokia claims the infringements involve technology used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations for compact devices.The Nokia lawsuit came on the day Apple announced that its iPad tablet computer will go on sale in nine countries outside the US on 28 May. Go, Nokia!DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-19556633488258375402010-05-07T00:43:00.000-07:002010-05-07T00:51:36.832-07:00Artificial MusclesResearchers engineered a polymer to reproduce the properties of titin - a protein which largely determines the elastic properties of muscle. The authors suggest that the properties of this material could even be fine-tuned to resemble specific types of muscle by adjusting the compositions of the proteins. Initially, the discovery could assist in the healing of tissue tears, acting as a tough DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-77284083369286414342010-05-07T00:22:00.000-07:002010-05-07T00:26:27.189-07:00Lack of sleep linked to early deathGetting less than six hours sleep a night can lead to an early grave, UK and Italian researchers have warned.They also found an association between sleeping for more than nine hours and early death, although that much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health. Sleep journal reports the findings, based on 1.5m people in 16 studies. The study looked at the relationship between sleep and mortality DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-2190114645098642542010-05-07T00:17:00.000-07:002010-05-07T00:18:39.459-07:00Man Marries CatA German man has unofficially married his cat after the animal fell ill and vets told him it might not live much longer, Bild newspaper reports.It says Uwe Mitzscherlich, 39, paid an actress 300 euros (£260,$395) to officiate at the ceremony, as marrying an animal is illegal in Germany. Never heard of something like that before...DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-86464379645952505572010-05-06T23:59:00.000-07:002010-05-07T00:15:27.990-07:00Wanted! Roman PolanskiFilm director Roman Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland, must be present in court in USA if he wants to resolve the case over a conviction for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski left the US in 1978 before he could be sentenced and never returned to US. Polanski is afraid US wants to "serve him on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-80956290032791959862010-05-02T00:32:00.000-07:002010-05-02T00:39:14.480-07:00Prostate cancer vaccine approvedA "vaccine" which harnesses the body's own immune system to fight prostate cancer has been approved for use by US drug regulators.The drug is not a "cure" but is used in advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other sites in the body and is no longer responding to standard hormone treatment. Clinical trials showed that the treatment extended the lives of patients by four months.DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-10508493128233032192010-05-02T00:28:00.000-07:002010-05-02T00:31:29.570-07:00Chocolate = Depression?People who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive, experts have found. Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again. Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true, although scientific proof for this is lacking. Which means, when you are depressed,DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-58762361666429439872010-04-27T20:51:00.000-07:002010-04-27T21:04:54.824-07:00Aliens May ExistAstrophysicist Stephen Hawking says aliens almost certainly exist but warns it would be a bad idea to contact them. He said that if extraterrestrials visited the planet the outcome would be similar to when Christopher Columbus landed in America, which, he added, didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.Quite possible...DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-6291978785728375192010-04-27T20:47:00.000-07:002010-04-27T20:49:37.418-07:00Avatar Breaking RecordsJames Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic, released in the US on 22 April, sold 4 million DVDs and 2.7 million Blu-rays. The sales brought in $130m (£84.1m). The previous record holder in the US and Canada was The Dark Knight in 2008. It was released on 22 April - "Earth Day" in the US and Canada as well as other countries - to chime with Avatar's environmental theme.DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-5419591414943960142010-04-27T20:40:00.000-07:002010-04-27T20:47:14.569-07:00Icelandic Volcano CrisisThe Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than USD 1.7 B in lost revenue through Tuesday—six days after the initial eruption, according to estimates of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). For a three-day period (17-19 April), when disruptions were greatest, lost revenues reached USD 400 M per day.Following 9/11, the US government provided USD 5 B to compensate airlines for DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-63443434548493827752010-04-17T00:57:00.000-07:002010-04-17T01:25:13.608-07:00Brazil Christ the Redeemer statue closedRio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue has been closed to the public after landslides that hit Brazil, killing some 250 people. The death toll may rise as 200 people are still missing, officials say.Access to the statue was cut off for the first time in its 80-year history as roads were blocked by debris. The landslides in and around Brazil's second biggest city were set off by DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-40922305924908177102010-04-15T14:27:00.000-07:002010-04-15T14:38:07.083-07:00Brain MultitaskingAn inability to deal with more than two things at a time may be "hard-wired" into our brain, research suggests.When we try to do two things at once, each half of the brain focuses on a separate task, French scientists say. It might also explain why people are prone to make irrational decisions when choosing from a long list of items.Lead author Dr Etienne Koechlin told the BBC: "You can cook and DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-45106706448632955432010-04-14T01:49:00.000-07:002010-04-17T01:26:34.569-07:006.9 Earthquake in ChinaAt least 300 people have died and thousands are feared hurt after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck China's Qinghai province, officials say. The powerful tremor hit remote Yushu county, 500km (310 miles) south-west of provincial capital Xining, at 0749 (2349 GMT), at a shallow depth of 10km. One official told journalists more than 85% of buildings in Jiegu town near the epicentre had collapsed. DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-1223230346945129062010-04-11T00:11:00.000-07:002010-04-11T00:27:21.963-07:00Oxygen-free AnimalsScientists have found the first animals that can survive and reproduce entirely without oxygen, deep on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.They were discovered in the course of three oceanographic expeditions conducted over a decade in order to search for living fauna in the sediment of the Mediterranean's L'Atalante basin. The basin, 200km (124m) off the western coast of Crete, is about 3.5km (DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-87726467562242759282010-04-10T23:47:00.000-07:002010-04-10T23:56:21.930-07:00New ElementA team of Russian and American scientists has discovered a new element that has long stood as a missing link among the heaviest bits of atomic matter ever produced. The element, still nameless, appears to point the way toward a brew of still more massive elements with chemical properties no one can predict. The team produced six atoms of the element by smashing together isotopes of calcium and a DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-34417244050795139332010-04-05T02:02:00.000-07:002010-04-05T02:09:08.881-07:00Hadron Collider SuccessThe world's largest atom smasher threw together minuscule particles racing at unheard of speeds in conditions simulating those just after the Big Bang -- a success that kick-started a megabillion-dollar experiment that could one day explain how the universe began. Two beams of protons were sent hurtling in opposite directions toward each other in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel below the DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3629379365151473282.post-74509157523189401482010-04-05T01:58:00.000-07:002010-04-05T02:01:57.828-07:00Father Raped Baby DaughterThe 29-year-old man, from Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, UK raped his daughter at least twice and carried out other sexual abuse which he recorded on his phone. He has been jailed for life.Now - how sick is that???[source:bbc.co.uk]DROYDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159986846860457604noreply@blogger.com0