Who Invented the First Shovel?

Bjorn Carey of Life’s Little Mysteries did the detective work:

Like many East Coasters, I spent just a little bit of time digging out from this past weekend’s snow storm. As I stabbed my wood and aluminum shovel at a hip-high snow bank, I couldn’t help but marvel at the tool I was using. So simple, yet so useful.
The first known shovels, I found out in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, were discarded ox scapula (shoulder blades) that folks in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain used to move soil and rocks. 5,000 years ago, people probably didn’t need to clear a path through snow drifts to get to their car, but I’d bet that they used these tools to push around snow, too.

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The Ancient Underground Cave Cities of Turkey

Cappadocia is an amazing place - see why here.

Hang Ken

Mammoth cave discovered in Vietnam

The "mountain river cave" is big enough to hold a skyscraper and contains a jungle.  

The spectacular photos 

Also: 

• More on the cave
• Vietnam's new airport
• Agent Orange cleanup

Hang Ken, a cave rediscovered in Vietnam last year, may be the largest in the world:

Surrounded by jungle and used in the Vietnam war as a hideout from American bombardments, it is so large that it could hold a block of 40-story skyscrapers. Its entrance was only rediscovered last year.
The photograph was taken by a British expedition returning to the rugged Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park near the border with Laos.
The cave, lit from above through a skylight, is one of a network of some 150 connected caverns, many still not surveyed, in the Annamite mountains.

Story  and Slideshow

Monstrance axe

A ritual axe from Berlin's Ethnologisches Museum, which I found posted at A London Salamagundi.  Made in New Caledonia (?when), of hair, jadeite, shell, stone, and textile (source).

I found more explanation re the name of the object at Tribal Art:

Admiral Bruny d’Entrecasteaux and his sailors were the first in the West to encounter an unusual object... in what we now know as New Caledonia from April 17–May 3, 1793. His stay was longer than Captain Cook’s in 1774, and he was able to observe objects other than the spears and clubs that his illustrious predecessor had seen. While there, he was presented with an object that he had difficulty describing. He thought that it slightly resembled the monstrance used in Catholic ritual in connection with the Host, and to this day the term remains part of the French name for the object, which is called hache ostensoir, or “monstrance axe.” 

Additional information at Tribal Art and at the Ngilong Art Gallery.

Why Humans Are Getting Dumber

Our Brains Are Shrinking!

Got a crotchety old guy who kept telling you that youngsters today are getting dumber by the minute (right before he told you to get off his lawn)?
Well, he may be onto something: scientists discovered that our brains are actually shrinking!

The downsizing of human brains is an evolutionary fact that took science writer Kathleen McAuliffe by surprise.
"I said, ‘What? I thought it was getting bigger!’" she tells NPR’s Jacki Lyden. That was the story up to 20,000 years ago, she learned. Then, the brains of our ancestors reversed course and started getting smaller — and they’ve been shrinking ever since.
Cro-Magnon man, who lived in Europe 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, had the biggest brains of any human species. In comparison, today’s human brain is about 10 percent smaller. It’s a chunk of brain matter "roughly equivalent to a tennis ball in size," McAuliffe says.
The experts aren’t sure about the implications of this evolutionary trend. Some think it might be a dumbing-down process. One cognitive scientist, David Geary, argues that as human society grows increasingly complex, individuals don’t need to be as intelligent in order to survive and reproduce.

I don’t know about the science, but it sure explains Jersey Shore!

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Was Israel The Birthplace Of Modern Humans?

It has long been believed that modern humans emerged from the continent of Africa 200,000 years ago. Now Tel Aviv University archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Homo sapiens roamed the land now called Israel as early as 400,000 years ago - the earliest evidence for the existence of modern humans anywhere in the world.

The findings were discovered in the Qesem Cave, a pre-historic site located near Rosh Ha'ayin that was first excavated in 2000. Scientists performed a morphological analysis on eight human teeth found in the Qesem Cave. According to researchers, the discoveries made in the Qesem Cave may overturn the theory that modern humans originated on the continent of Africa.

B.C.

The Top Dinosaur Discoveries of 2010

The biggest dinosaur discoveries of the year include dinosauromorphs, or dinosaur precursors, plus dinosaur diets, dino nurseries, and dinosaur colors. Shown is the feathered dinosaur Anchiornis, whose colors were determined by feather fossils. Check out the entire list, with links to further reading, at Smithsonian.

Upping the cute factor

Who, Dat?

Invasive Species May Trigger Next Mass Extinction

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks/Creative Commons

Throughout the history of the Earth, there have been five great extinction events—periods in which there was a sharp decrease in both the diversity and abundance of life. With estimates indicating that currently one animal species is lost every 20 minutes, some have begun calling the present period the "sixth great extinction."
The loss of species alone, however, does not tell the entire story of an extinction event. According to new research, the lack of new species is also important—and the spread of invasive species may be the greatest hindrance to the process of speciation.

Article continues: Invasive Species May Trigger Next Mass Extinction

Face-palm

Even the animals know repugicans are stupid.

Sandfish lizard "swims" through sand

A team at Georgia Tech has been studying the biomechanics that allow the "sandfish lizard" to propel itself so quickly through sand.

"Goldman described the sandfish as a little lizard that lives in the desert in North Africa. When startled, it can burrow 10 cm beneath the surface in less than half a second. Its wedge-shaped head, which biologists believe gives the critter its lightning-quick burrowing ability, was the project's inspiration..."

A cylinder pulled through sand generated lift, but the lizard's head generated "negative lift," keeping it submerged.

"On an earlier research project, Goldman's CRAB Lab used high-speed x-ray imaging to observe the lizard's movement when submerged. They found that it doesn't use its legs when swimming through sand, instead tucking them by its side and slithering like a snake."

 
Additional information at Physics Buzz.

'Magic pythons' married in Cambodia to bring luck

Hundreds of villagers flocked to a wedding ceremony Monday between a 16-foot , 200-pound female python and her slightly smaller mate - both believed to be magic snakes that bring prosperity and peace.The two-hour ceremony in Svay Rolum village, 12 miles south of the capital Phnom Penh, ended with two Buddhist monks blessing the pair and villagers ...

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Shrimp

Limbs virtually transparent except for that remarkable purple vasculature. 
Found at Pixdaus.

Newborn miniature panda cow one of only 24 worldwide

It is safe to say that Ben is the last miniature panda cow born anywhere in 2010. In fact, he has few peers, being a calf and one of only 24 of the scarce breed in the world. At just after 8 a.m. on Friday, on a farm east of Campion, Ben entered the world after mother Bella, a lowline Angus cow, spent a zero-degree night in labor in her stall.

Two hours later, still wet and shivering, the tiny calf snuggled against his diminutive mother. The miniature panda cow is the result of 44 years of genetic manipulation by Richard Gradwohl, a farmer in Covington, Wash., about 20 miles southeast of Seattle.

A white belt encircling the animal’s midsection, and the white face with black ovals around the eyes, give the cow an appearance that is very much panda-like. “We had a Chinese delegation visit our farm, and they were fascinated,” Gradwohl said. “They want them in China, so we’re going to be exporting.”

 

YouTube link.

He describes the breed that he has trademarked as an eight-breed composite, drawing on previous strains of miniature cattle that he also developed. “There are 26 breeds of miniature cattle in the world, and we developed 18 of them,” said Gradwohl who has seven of the existing 24 panda cows on his Happy Mountain Farm. Miniature panda calves sell for as much as $30,000 from Gradwohl’s online clearinghouse for mini-cow aficionados. While Chris Jessen said he’ll likely sell Ben, his price has not been set.

Snails Use Light To Defend Themselves

Animals use a lot of things to defend themselves: skunks use bad odor, armadillos use their tough leathery armor shell, and porcupines use their sharp quills.
But scientists studying the clusterwink snail have discovered what could be the strangest defensive weapon used by an animal: light.

Dimitri Deheyn and Nerida Wilson of Scripps Oceanography (Wilson is now at the Australian Museum in Sydney) studied a species of "clusterwink snail," a small marine snail typically found in tight clusters or groups at rocky shorelines. These snails were known to produce light, but the researchers discovered that rather than emitting a focused beam of light, the animal uses its shell to scatter and spread bright green bioluminescent light in all directions.
The researchers, who describe their findings in the Dec. 15 online version of Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), say the luminous displays of Hinea brasiliana could be a deterrent to ward off potential predators by using diffused bioluminescent light to create an illusion of a larger animal.

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Pair of eerie wildlife die-offs

Second eerie die-off hits state's wildlife

A massive fish kill turns up just 125 miles from where 5,000 birds dropped out of the sky.  

Autopsy results 

Also: 

• New tactic in lamprey fight
• 'Magic pythons' get hitched
• Rare 'panda cow' born

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
A friend's tale of woe may have you taking out the tissues and formulating a revenge plan, but hold off on moving forward, because there are three sides to every story.
What you know right now is only part of the picture and new information will be coming tomorrow that will change how you feel today.
Unless you want to get left with egg on your face, you need to avoid making any moves on behalf of this other person.
Let them fight their own battles and learn their own lessons.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France

Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Espoo, Southern Finland, Finland

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland

as well as Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as Canton, Toledo, Norwalk, Cincinnati and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, January 2, the 2nd day of 2011.

There are 363 days left in the year.

Today In History January 2

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is: 

There isn't one.

 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

As the fortune cookie crumbles ...

Man Found his Double on Facebook

Graham Comrie of Aberdeen thought someone was impersonating him when he heard of a Facebook account of a Graham Cormie of Ellon, Aberdeenshire. Friends even thought Cormie was using Comrie’s photos, since they looked so much alike! But it was no imitation -just a eerie set of coincidences.

The Grahams soon realized they were both professional photographers.
And as the two men chatted online, they found out they both had red-headed wives and were both set to celebrate their silver wedding anniversaries next year.
Other striking similarities included that they both had two daughters and both owned Lhasa Apso dogs.
When they saw each other’s pictures, they realized they were the absolute spitting image of each other, too.

The Grahams are only two years apart in age -and live only ten miles from each other. They checked and found that they are not related, just new friends.

Full Story

Brand New Pair Of Roller Skates

Melanie

NHL game played in rain

Hockey game played outside in the rain

The Capitals and Penguins make NHL history in less than ideal weather conditions.  

Warm gametime temp 

Also: 

• Winter Classic photos
• Star in funny NHL ad
• Lemieux takes to the ice

Australia's 'biblical' flooding

'Biblical' floods sweep through Australia

Thousands more homes are threatened by record-setting waters in Queensland. 

200,000 people already affected 

Also: 

• Photos of high waters
• Flooding in the bible  
• Your weather forecast

Visitors snap up 100 trillion Zimbabwe bank notes

Western visitors to Zimbabwe are looking for zeros.
They're snapping up old, defunct Zimbabwe bank notes, most notably the one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, as an economic souvenir.

Full Story

Cyber War Now Being Waged on Iran?

The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops."

So tweeted John Perry Barlow, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and cyberlibertarian activist, as attacks began on the websites of businesses that had spurned Wikileaks after it published cables of American diplomacy.

Websites of MasterCard and Visa, which had withdrawn services allowing donations to Wikileaks; the Swedish government, which charged Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with sex-related crimes; and a Swiss bank that froze Mr. Assange's account were among those attacked. None of the commercial sites was seriously prevented from conducting business. The attacks ended up being more like painting slogans on a wall than war.

But cyberwar actually has begun, and it has nothing to do with Wikileaks.

The Jerusalem Post reported recently that the Stuxnet computer virus may have caused the decommissioning of as many as 1,000 centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility. The virus caused the speed of the motors in the centrifuges to vary, creating vibrations that damaged the machines, the Post deduced from interviews with experts on the attack.

The Post cited speculation that Israel's military defense unit was behind the attack, possibly aided by the United States.

Taking out a tenth of the centrifuges at the Iranian facility is comparable to an air strike. Now that is war.

But even if the Wikileaks version of cyberwar was underwhelming, there are some lessons to be learned from it.

The attacks launched by a loose confederation of Web activists calling themselves Anonoymous aren't new or uncommon or even especially sophisticated.

The attacks on perceived enemies of Wikileaks and of Mr. Assange were of a type called Distributed Denial of Service attacks, in which computers controlled by the assailants flood a website with so many requests that the servers seize up under the onslaught.

Often DDoS attacks are launched by criminals using botnets, networks of compromised computers assembled by a worm. The owners of the computers in the botnet are unaware that their machines are being used to send spam or bring down a website.

But the implementation by Anonymous had an interesting twist not used by spammers or run-of-the-mill malware spreaders.

Riva Richmond, blogging for the New York Times, explained it this way:

The tool of choice is a new open-source software program named Low Orbit Ion Cannon, or L.O.I.C. Once a hacktivist downloads the tool, he can operate it manually or connect to "Hivemind," a control system that makes their computers part of a "voluntary botnet" that Anonymous commands.

L.O.I.C. in its various forms was downloaded more than 100,000 times during period of the Wikileaks attacks Some people believe that manual launches of the attacks were coordinated by Twitter messages such as "fire, fire, fire." That is presumably why Twitter canceled the account of Anonymous.

The new wrinkle is that users volunteer their computers to be part of the attacks, rather than having them taken over without their knowledge.

Craig Labovitz, posting on the site of the security firm Arbor Networks, said the attacks orchestrated by Anonymous were small and low-level.

"Despite the thousands of tweets, press articles and endless hype, most of the attacks ... were both relatively small and unsophisticated. In short, other than intense media scrutiny, the attacks were unremarkable," Mr. Labovitz wrote.

Although the attacks by Anonymous amounted to little more than cybervandalism, Mr. Labovitz warned that the trend of using DDoS attacks for protest is troubling.

"Overall, DDoS fueled by the growth of professional adversaries, massive botnets and increasingly sophisticated attack tools poses a real danger to the network and our increasing dependence on the Internet," he wrote. So 2011 may be a year that sees cyberwar between nations and protest attacks by citizens.

Son of Iran stoning woman wants sentence commuted

The son of an Iranian woman, whose death sentence by stoning for adultery sparked world outrage, demanded Saturday that his mother's verdict be commuted.

Full Story

Man says he committed burglaries to pay lawyer defending him on previous burglary charges

A man who police said has been in and out of jail several times since September is back in jail again, accused of committing half a dozen home burglaries. The arrest affidavits detail two of the cases against Michael Elias, 28, one of which dates back to June of this year. Both happened on the northwest side of the city.

The report shows Elias is a suspect in a June 18 break-in at a home in the 300 block of Cherry Ridge. The resident told police someone had ransacked his home, taking two laptop computers, two video game systems, jewelery and other items.

On Nov. 8, another resident reported a burglary in the 11500 block of Huebner Road in which a 50-inch plasma TV was stolen. Police said they recovered fingerprints from both locations that later proved to be Elias's.

The affidavit shows that after his arrest, Elias told investigators how he had learned to commit burglaries using a crow bar to gain access to homes. Elias also told investigators he had to keep committing the burglaries so he could afford to pay his attorney a $150 weekly fee to keep him out of jail.

There's a news video here.

Hurry

What not to buy in 2011

10 products you shouldn't buy in 2011

Tests find that a coffeemaker, air purifier, and beauty serum aren't worth the money.

An unreliable car for $54K 

Also: 

• More products to pass up
• Appliances not worth it  
• Products worth the cash

Gas prices to hit $4 this year

Gas predicted to hit $4 a gallon in 2011

With oil poised to reach $100 a barrel, experts say drivers in 15 states face a big increase at the pump.  

When 

Also: 

• Find cheap gas
• BP's Gulf spill costs  
• U.S. dollar will rise

Expedia drops major airline

Major airline dropped from Expedia

It's the second travel website that will no longer sell the carrier's tickets because of a pricing dispute.

Effect on travelers 

Also: 

• Airlines raise many fares
• Fines over tarmac delays?  
• Best and worst airlines

Fourteen words added to banished list

14 overused words are 'banished'

A college's annual list of oft-repeated, misused, and hackneyed terms is released. 

'Viral' deemed the worst 

Also: 

• 2010 World of the Year
• China bars English words  
• Find crossword puzzles

Extremely Narrow Buildings in Japan

Real estate development in densely-populated Japan can be expensive, so some architects have made good use of very narrow lots. Pictured above is one such project in Nagasaki. You can view several other very narrow buildings at the link.

Full Story

Ziggy

Neanderthals Had a Sweet Tooth

Food found stuck between their teeth reveals that Neanderthals enjoyed cereals and other carbs.  

Full Story

Mona Lisa's Childhood Home Found

The woman behind one of the world's most famous paintings lived in a humble house.
Mona Lisa's Childhood Home Found

Broken glass yields clues to climate change

Clues to future climate may be found in the way an ordinary drinking glass shatters.

Results of a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences find that microscopic particles of dust can break apart …

Full story

Secrets of an ancient Tel Aviv fortress revealed

Tel Qudadi, an ancient fortress located in the heart of Tel Aviv at the mouth of the Yarkon River, was first excavated more than 70 years ago ― but the final results of neither the excavations nor the finds were ever published.

Full story

Pamukkale

Turkey's Cotton Castle

 

image credit

In Turkish the name literally means Cotton Castle and it is easy to see why it was given that name. Yet this geological wonder is also the site of the ancient city of Hierapolis and over the centuries the two have seemed to come together, merged almost, into one. In fact some of the old tombs in the city's necropolis have beome part of landscape.

The site itself is a series of travertines and hot springs. The travertines here have a concentric appearance and are almost sheer white giving the area an ethereal, other worldly appearance. The hot springs precipitate calcium carbonate at their mouths and produce the strange almost organic looking structures.

Shingles

Have you noticed that more doctors are running their practices like an assembly line?

One fella walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."

So she took down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.

Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aide came out and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."

So she took down his height, weight, a complete medical history, and told him to wait in an examining room.

A half hour later a nurse came in and asked him what he had. He said "Shingles."

So she gave him a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, told him to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.

An hour later the doctor came in and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."

The doctor said, "Where?"

He said, "Outside in the truck. Where do you want them?"

Universal Truths

1) Triangular sandwiches taste better than square ones.
2) At the end of every party there is always a girl crying.
3) One of the most awkward things that can happen in a pub is when your pint-to-toilet cycle gets synchronized with a complete stranger.
4) You've never quite sure whether it's OK to eat green crisps.
5) Everyone who grew up in the 80's has entered the digits 55378008 into a calculator.
6) Reading when you're drunk is horrible.
7) Sharpening a pencil with a knife makes you feel really manly.
8) You're never quite sure whether it's against the law or not to have a fire in your back garden.
10) Nobody ever dares make cup-a-soup in a bowl.
11) You never know where to look when eating a banana.
12) Its impossible to describe the smell of a wet cat.
13) Prodding a fire with a stick makes you feel manly.
14) Rummaging in an overgrown garden will always turn up a bouncy ball.
15) You always feel a bit scared when stroking horses.
16) Everyone always remembers the day a dog ran into your school.
17) The most embarrassing thing you can do as schoolchild is to call your teacher mum or dad.
18) The smaller the monkey the more it looks like it would kill you at the
first given opportunity.
19) Some days you see lots of people on crutches.
20) Every bloke has at some stage while taking a pee flushed half way through and then raced against the flush.
21) Old women with mobile phones look wrong!
22) Its impossible to look cool whilst picking up a Frisbee.
23) Driving through a tunnel makes you feel excited.
24) You never ever run out of salt.
25) Old ladies can eat more than you think.
26) You can't respect a man who carries a dog.
27) There's no panic like the panic you momentarily feel when you've got your hand or head stuck in something.
28) No one knows the origins of their metal coat hangers.
29) Despite constant warning, you have never met anybody who has had their arm broken by a swan.
30) The most painful household incident is wearing socks and stepping on an upturned plug.
31) People who don't drive slam car doors too hard
32) You've turned into your dad the day you put aside a thin piece of wood specifically to stir paint with.
33) Everyone had an uncle who tried to steal their nose.
34) Bricks are horrible to carry.
35) In every plate of chips there is a bad chip.

Non Sequitur

False Hope Syndrome

Why New Year Resolutions Fail

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? Many people did, but – here’s the bad news – despite their best effort, most will utterly fail. Why are New Year’s resolutions so hard to keep? You can blame the False Hope Syndrome, the unrealistic expectation of self-change:

As many as 90 percent of attempts at change fail, yet New Year’s resolvers are undeterred. In a 2002 report in the journal American Psychologist, University of Toronto researcher Janet Polivy and a colleague came up with a name for this "cycle of failure and renewed effort": the False Hope syndrome.
The False Hope syndrome may be particularly common among those who resolve to lose weight, Polivy said. And the chief cause is a combination of unrealistic goals and a misunderstanding of our own behavior.

For example, take the perenial New Year’s resolution for millions, dieting. Instead of resolving to lose weight this year, perhaps the trick is to keep a food journal instead:

For example, dieters may chastise themselves for eating a few Oreos and feel sad about it. But this only increases their likelihood of emotional overeating. Jotting down a few notes about the sweet snack, however, allows you to be more realistic. By writing, "A couple of cookies isn’t so bad," you can prevent feelings of failure and the desire to give up, Mosunic said.
Caitlin Mason, an exercise and health researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said a food journal also reinforces what you’re doing right.
"It can help you see the positive changes you’ve made," Mason said, "and help you identify what triggers might be holding you back from your goals."

Full Story

The crock that is our healthcare system

Doctors who seriously care about patients in pain are risking prison.

Why Our Body Temperature is 98.6 °F

The Perfect Balance Between Fighting Fungal Infections and Eating All The Time

Ever wonder why our body temperature is 98.6 °F (37 °C)? Scientists at Yeshiva University discovered the answer.
Turns out that our normal body temperature is the perfect balance of being warm enough to ward off fungal infection but not so hot that we need to eat all the time to maintain metabolism:

"One of the mysteries about humans and other advanced mammals has been why they are so hot compared with other animals," said study co-author Arturo Casadevall, [...] "This study helps to explain why mammalian temperatures are all around 37° C."
The research builds upon earlier work by Dr. Casadevall showing that the number of fungal species that can thrive and therefore infect an animal declines by 6 percent for every 1° C rise in temperature. This means that tens of thousands of fungal species infect reptiles, amphibians and other cold-blooded animals, but only a few hundred harm mammals. Such protection against fungal infection, Dr. Casadevall has speculated, could have been crucial for the triumph of mammals following the age of dinosaurs.

Full Story

Extreme Close-Ups of the Human Eye

Suren Manvelyan is a photographer and physics teacher. He’s created a series of detailed images of the human eye called “Your Beautiful Eyes”:

The 34-year-old from Yerevan, Armenia, explains: ‘It is quite natural when you shoot macro shots of insects and plants, but to try to make a picture of the eye? I did not expect these results.
‘I was not aware they are of such complicated appearance. Everyday we see hundreds of eyes but do not even suspect they have such beautiful structure, like surfaces of unknown planets.’

Full Story

B.C.

Who's the boss?

Now, who do you think is boss here?

Wikimedia Commons Pictures Of The Year

 

image credit

Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It's a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, from which uploaded files can be used across all Wikimedia projects. The repository contains over seven million media files.

According to Wikimedia Commons, 'The Commons Picture of the Year' is a competition that was first run in 2006. It aims to identify the best freely-licensed images from those that during the year have been awarded Featured picture status. Here are 23 of the best winners from the Creative Commons Pictures of the Year competition.

Secret to birds' first flights

The secret to ancient birds' first flights

Scientists believe they've uncovered a link to why some creatures were able to take to the air.

What may be the key 

Also: 

• Birdlike dinos' diet
• First flying dinosaurs 
• Huge new fossil find

Rare 'panda cow' born in northern Colorado

A rare miniature cow with markings similar to a panda bear was born on a farm in northern Colorado.

Full Story

Bull Escapes While Being Transported to Slaughter

Photo: Tony the Misfit

A 900 pound bull just disappeared according to a story in the Daily Item. The bull was being transported to slaughter when the massive creature escaped and led authorities on an hour long chase along a highway near Danville, Va.

Article continues: 900 Pound Bull Escapes While Being Transported to Slaughter

More Than 1,000 Dead Birds Fall From Sky In Arkansas

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.

Full Story

Scientists Created Singing Mouse.

No, Seriously, Folks.

Having cured cancer and other serious ailments, a team of Japanese scientists from the University of Osaka turned to the next most vexing scientific problem facing the world today, the lack of singing mice, and licked that problem too. No seriously. Singing mouse.

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their "Evolved Mouse Project", in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.
"Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura told AFP.
"We checked the newly born mice one by one… One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.
"I was surprised because I had been expecting mice that are different in physical shape," he said by telephone, adding that in fact the project had also produced "a mouse with short limbs and a tail like a dachshund".

Disney, understandably, should be worried:

Uchimura dreams of further "evolution" of mice through genetic engineering.
"I know it’s a long shot and people would say it’s ‘too absurd’… but I’m doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day," he said.

Full Story