North Brother Island

How can an island in the East River in New York City be forgotten? Ah, because it’s a protected nesting area, and therefore off-limits to the public. Still, this particular island has quite a history.

Of all the forgotten and mysterious places in the Five Boroughs of New York City, few have histories as rich and interesting as that of North Brother Island. Situated in the Hell Gate, a particularly treacherous stretch of the East River, North Brother was home to the quarantine hospital that housed Typhoid Mary, was the final destination of the General Slocum during its tragic final voyage, and was the site of an experimental drug treatment program which failed due to corruption. Riverside Hospital, the name of the facility on the island throughout its various incarnations, treated everything from smallpox and leprosy to venereal disease and heroin addiction; after the Second World War, it housed soldiers who were studying under the GI bill. The entirety of the island has been abandoned since 1963; over a dozen buildings remain, in various states of disrepair.

The Kingston Lounge not only has more on the history of the island, but lots of pictures of the buildings in their process of decay.

Full Story

Elakala Waterfalls, West Virginia

Nice use of a small aperture/long exposure to transform the motion of the little whirlpool.  

This photo was one of three "Pictures of the Year" in Wikipedia Commons for 2009.  

The other two photos (and winners in previous years) can be seen here.

Whales Burp Plastic in the Great Lakes

Photo by Chris J. Benson, provided by Minnesota Sea Grant

Just what the Great Lakes needs, more aquatic invasives. We're worrying about Asian carp and now we have whales? Whales in the Great Lakes, on Lake Superior? Well, "whale burps" have been found on the shore of Lake Superior. But they're also called surf balls, and are little bundles of fibrous material produced by winter winds. They're kind of beautiful in their own way.

Article continues: Whales Burp Plastic in the Great Lakes

Time Travel Through Quantum Entanglement

If you think you’ve got a firm grasp on reality, obviously you’re not a quantum physicist.
Recently, a new study by physicists in Australia revealed that quantum entanglement – a puzzling quantum physics phenomenon that Einstein himself called "spooky action at a distance" – also exists in respect to time.
I’ll skip the technical explanation (not that I understand it anyhow), but the study posits an interesting idea:

… Olson and Ralph’s teleportation provides a shortcut into the future. What they’re saying is that it’s possible to travel into the future without being present during the time in between.
That’s a fascinating scenario that immediately raises many questions. One of the first that springs to mind is what advantage might we get from this process. Might it be possible, for example, to make short-lived particles live longer by teleporting them into the future?

Full Story

Caligula Statue Hints at Lavish Villa

Thought to be worth about $1.6 million, the statue features Caligula sitting on the throne as the god Jupiter.  

Read more

What Did Iron-Age Beer Taste Like?

Barley grains are providing savory insights into this ancient Celtic malt beverage.   

Read more 

World's Oldest Heidsieck Champagne Found in Shipwreck

A third brand has been discovered in a cache of 200-year-old bottles of champagne.  

Read more 

Mastodon tusks

From the Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress.

Pterosaurs 10 Times Heavier than Biggest Birds

These dinosaur-era reptiles weighed up to 320 pounds, new calculations from footprints show. Read more 

How dinosaurs arose

Ask your kid what happened to the dinosaurs, and he or she will likely tell you that an asteroid killed them all. But ask how dinosaurs rose to prominence and you’ll likely get a blank stare. Even many paleontologists may have little to say about th…

Full story

B.C.

Rare salamanders hatch at aquarium

A clutch of eggs from a rare species of salamander known as the Peter Pan of the aquatic world have been hatched at an aquarium.

Rare salamanders hatch at aquarium

Expensive Fishing Trip

Two avid fishermen go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment: the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. They spend a fortune.

The first day they go fishing, but they don't catch anything. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on the last day of their vacation, one of the men catches a fish.

As they're driving home they're really depressed. One guy turns to the other and says, "Do you realize that this one lousy fish we caught cost us fifteen hundred dollars?"

The other guy says, "Wow! It's a good thing we didn't catch any more!"

Sharks Are Color-Blind

Color vision is less important in marine environments than it is on land.

Read more 

Calcarifera ordinata

Wattle Cup Caterpillar

This amazing-looking creature is the larval form of a rather unremarkable brown Cup moth, but as a caterpillar it is highly toxic. 
It lives, with all the other toxic, poisonous, and venomous creatures, in Australia.

Stinky guest on 'Letterman'

Stinky guest on 'David Letterman'

Web searches on the skunk-like zorilla surge after its appearance on the show. 

'Smelliest animal in the world' 

Also: 

• More on the animal
• Stars and their dogs
• Discovery's new channel

Chihuahua survives owl attack in suburban Chicago

An owl attack has left a 4-pound Chihuahua with a healthy fear of the dark.
The attack happened when Chico the Chihuahua was out for a walk with his owner George Kalomiris in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake last week.

Full Story

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Your focus is currently on one-to-one relationships, and it will stay there for the next few days -- much to your lucky sweetheart's delight.
You'll enjoy this time with them for obvious reasons, but be careful that you don't let a disagreement over something petty or irrelevant come between you.
That goes for everything from which wine to order to which candidate to vote for.
Concentrate on what you've got in common.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Kuala Lumpr, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Beziers, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Sorel, Quebec, Canada
Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
London, England, United Kingdom
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Lille, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Bilbao, Pais Vasco, Spain
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Napoli, Campania, Italy
Delhi, Delhi, India
Vasteras, Vastmanlands Lan, Sweden

as well as Malta, 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, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as North Royalton, Latrobe, Inman, Phoenix and more.

Today is:

Today is Tuesday, January 18, the 18th day of 2011.

There are 347 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is: 

Thesaurus Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Welcome New Readers

We would like to welcome our newest readers from Madagascar.

Newest Country

Madagascar 

Random Celebrity Photo

Tina Louise

The reason anybody watched Gilligan's Island.

Buzz over China state dinner

Questions swirl around China state dinner

The White House looks to make up for past snubs and gaffes with an opulent black-tie affair. 

Secretive preparations 

Also: 

• Hu takes unusual risk
• $600 million deals unveiled  
• Obama's op-ed 

Paris 26 Gigapixels Picture

Dive into the 26 billion pixels of the world's largest image with incredible detail if you zoom in. 

See Paris like never before!

Twenty Untranslatable Words from Around the World

7. Tartle

Scottish – The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.

20 Untranslatable Words from Around the World

Auction block for historic scotch

Some people brag about serving scotch whiskey that's 15 years old. But three bottles of Mackinlay's scotch flown to Scotland by private jet Monday date back to the late 19th Century.

Full Story

Threat of California 'superstorm'

Threat of California 'superstorm' on the rise

Scientists warn the state could face a disaster up to five times worse than a major earthquake.  

'Atmospheric river' 

Also: 

• Once-in-200-year flood
• Deadly Brazil mudslides  
• Earth's icy sunshade melts

The Oronteus Fineus map of an "ice-free Antarctica"

 

Reading of what some would term "fringe archaeology" articles and books - material that advocates viewpoints not in line with mainstream historical archaeology and history:  Vikings in America (the Kensington Runestone),  ancient astronauts (the Chariots of the Gods, the Nazca lines), lost continents, "unexplainable" artifacts, Zheng He's voyages to the Americas can be quite interesting ...

Occasionally one encounters references to an "ice-free Antarctica" and maps depicting it, including one at Ancient Destructions -

In 1959, however, in the Library of Congress, Hapgood noticed a presumably authentic map that instantly wiped out his doubts: a map of what was almost certainly Antarctica, done in 1531 by the French cartographer Oronce Fine, also known as Oronteus Finaeus... Admittedly it is too close to the tip of South America, and it is incorrectly oriented, yet the proportions seem similar, the coastal mountains, found in the 1957 geophysical study are in roughly the right places and so are many bays and rivers. Furthermore, the shape of South America itself seems right, and the close resemblance between a modern, scientifically exact map of the Ross Sea and Finaeus' unnamed gulf is striking.

What is different, however, is that the Oronteus Finaeus map does not seem to show the great shelves of ice that, today, surround the continent, nor the great glaciers that fringe the coastal regions. Instead there seem to be estuaries and inlets, suggesting great rivers... It also suggested to Hapgood that since the Antarctic was certainly ice-bound in 1531 - when Oronteus Finaeus made his map - Finaeus must have had access to very ancient maps indeed: maps made when Antarctica was largely free of the mile-thick ice cap that buries it today, and presumably has covered it for millennia.

The map above, is a quite striking for a document from the early 1500s.  It took a bit of searching, but here is a well-written (and extensively illustrated) site that addresses these questions from a "mainstream" point-of-view.

 

Some of the land depicted to the south of South America may be Antarctica, but the map also conflates that land mass with Tierra do Fuego itself and, more significantly, the continent of Australia (see the screencap above). 

So much for an ice-free Australia within recorded human history.  But the Kensington Runesone and Zheng He's voyages are still intriguing possibilities ... 

Awesome Pictures

Artificial Reefs

In May of 2009, the missile-tracking ship General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was hauled out in the Gulf of Mexico. Planted explosives blew holes in the ship’s hull, and she sank to the bottom in just a couple of minutes. You can see the process in a time-lapse video. Deliberately sinking a ship sounds like an environmental crime on the surface, but the Vandenberg was carefully prepared: ten tons of asbestos and over 800,000 feet of electrical wiring was removed before she was sunk. The sinking was part of an environmental program to create artificial reefs where sea life -from coral and plankton to game fish- can live and reproduce.

The Vandenberg is certainly not the first ship to be deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef. The waters off the Florida Keys have become the grave site of the Coast Guard cutters Duane and Bibb and the U.S. Navy landing ship Spiegel Grove, and on the sandy bottom 20 or so miles out to sea from Pensacola lies an entire aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Oriskany—the largest ship in the world intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. Dozens of World War II cargo vessels known as Liberty ships have been submerged, or to use the proper jargon, deployed, all along the Gulf, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts.

National Geographic tells us the history of artificial reef programs and how they are used to encourage marine life to flourish.

Full Story

Ten Recycled Ship Houses

 

image credit

Old ships are far too beautiful and far too useful to send them to the junkyard. In fact, recycled ships can make for some stunning homes! Ships can be floating houses and houses sometimes can be ships. But, if you mix the two and recycle ships into houses, you can expect some unusual and beautiful results.

City considers putting DUI mug shots on Facebook

Police in a city ranked top in the state for alcohol-related traffic fatalities might soon be trying a new tactic to keep drunken drivers off the road: Electronic shaming on Facebook.

Full Story

It's a Blond World

Returning home from work, a blond was shocked to find her house ransacked and burglarized. She telephoned the police at once and reported the crime. The police dispatcher broadcast the call on the radio, and a K-9 unit, patrolling nearby, was the first to respond.

As the K-9 officer approached the house with his dog on a leash, the blond ran out on the porch, shuddered at the sight of the cop and his dog, then sat down on the steps.

Putting her face in her hands, she moaned, 'I come home to find all my possessions stolen. I call the police for help, and what do they do? They send me a BLIND policeman!'

Man killed wife for 'lucky' lotto fetus

A man told police he murdered his pregnant wife with an axe because he wanted the fetus to make a lucky charm which might help him win the lottery.

Full Story

Definition

Arizona legislators want to expand gun rights after assassination attempt

Man, what a fucked up state!

We ought to just put a fence around the state and let them have all the guns they want.

Tragedy proves tricky for media

Dilemma for media: How to depict a killer

The unsettling mugshot of Ariz. suspect Jared Loughner complicates tough calls. 

Magazines try different tactics 

Also: 

• Ariz. eyes more gun rights
• Loughner's chaotic night  
• Troubled kids vex schools

Pilot's bold act of kindness

Pilot's act of kindness strikes a chord

A bold gesture for a grieving passenger bucks a trend of miserable air travel stories.  

'We'll get you there' 

Also: 

• Acts-of-kindness project
• Brother's selfless plea
• AZ victim saves a life

Flying safely with electronics

When electronics can be a flight hazard

Using phones, iPods, e-books, and tablets may be riskier on certain planes.

Why people don't turn off devices 

Also: 

• Tech problems solved
• Cell phone users gullible  
• 9/11 oral history app

Non Sequitur

For Fiscal Year 2010, teabaggers 'requested more than $1 billion in earmarks'

Change teabaggers can believe in!

Influenced largely by the tea party, repugicans in Congress this year have taken a 'firm' stance against earmarks to show their commitment to cutting back government spending.

It turns out, however, that members of the House tea party cabal requested more than $1 billion in earmarks in the 2010 fiscal year, the National Journal reports.

After reviewing data compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Journal found that several of the 52 tea party cabal cultists made requests for earmarks -- federal funds that go to specific districts for specific companies or projects. In all, tea party cabal cultists requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150.

Financial Advice from a Man Who's Been Retired Since 1969

Leonard McCracken worked for a steel company until he retired in 1969. He’s now 107 and has been living on savings, Social Security, and an annuity payment ever since. Bankrate.com’s Jennie L. Phipps asked McCracken to share his wisdom about managing personal finances that permitted him to remain retired for 41 years. Among his suggestions was to always get a job, even if it’s for much lower pay than you’re used to:

McCracken was unemployed about 45 years ago after his previous employer went bankrupt. He had to take a job driving a truck that paid $5 per day. It was a low point in his life, but between that and a commission sales job that he took at night, he and his family muddled through until he got back on his feet.

Full Story

How long to keep tax records

The tricky rules on keeping tax records

You should hold onto old tax returns, but some receipts can get tossed.  

3-year rule on home improvements

Also:

• Tax-organization tips
• Get started on 1040 form  
• Check your payroll taxes

Degrees that pay you back

Six college degrees that pay you back

These diplomas lead to good salaries, job satisfaction, and promotions.

Up to $91,500 in midcareer pay 

Also: 

• Prepare for a career move
• Great jobs paying $70K  
• What bosses don't say

The good news about economy

The good news about U.S. economy

Consumer spending is leading big firms like Target to expand in big ways.

Which large companies plan to hire 

Also: 

• Firms hiring have leverage
• Banks to pay dividends

Wizard of Id

New report finds 129 million Americans under 65 have a 'pre-existing condition'

The insurance companies invented the whole pre-existing condition to prevent having to pay for coverage. And, a lot of Americans now fall into that category:

As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for health insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more for coverage.

The secretary of health and human services released the study on Tuesday, hours before the House plans to begin considering a repugican bill that would repeal the new law to overhaul the health-care system.

A vote is expected on Wednesday. But while repugicans may muscle through a repeal bill in the House, its prospects are slimmer in the Senate, where Democrats and independents will enjoy a 53-47 majority.

I have to imagine that a lot of members of Congress have some kind of pre-existing condition. They're not the healthiest group of Americans. But, I doubt members of Congress get much of a run around from insurance companies.

The insurance industry's lobbyist, of course, disparaged the report. But, as the article notes, it's based on that industry's definitions:

The study found that one-fifth to one-half of non-elderly people in the United States have ailments that trigger rejection or higher prices in the individual insurance market. They range from cancer to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, asthma and high blood pressure.

The smaller estimate, by Health and Human Services Department researchers, is based on the number of Americans whose medical problems would make them eligible for states' high-risk pools - special coverage for people denied insurance because of their medical history. The researchers arrived at the larger figure by adding in other ailments that major insurers consider a basis to charge customers higher prices or to exclude coverage for some of the care they need.

So, this week, the repugicans are taking on 129 million Americans under 65 and their families. That sounds like it should be, using repugican terminology, a political job-killer.

Fear Of Dentists And Needles Needs Sympathetic Ear

Nobody enjoys going to the dentist.
But for some people their feelings of anxiety can turn into fear and even a fully-blown phobia.
Dentophobia is an extremely common affliction.
Around 12% of us suffer from extreme dental anxiety and 25% suffer from some sort of anxiety before visiting the dentist.

Fox Hunting - the New "Most Dangerous Game" ?

The title refers not to the report earlier this week of a fox shooting a hunter, but to an announcement that some hunting clubs in England have replaced the traditional quarry with… humans.

And although he started the day nursing a sore knee, 54-year-old Andy Kay and his fellow runners are putting up a fine chase, it has to be said, pausing occasionally to listen for the hounds in pursuit or to pull brambles from their hair. Despite the suction of the mud and the slight rasp that comes from inhaling frigid air, this fit crew of three men and two women, given a half-hour head start, is maintaining an exhilarating lead over the hounds….

There are several advantages to hunting men rather than hunting fox:

Hunting foxes can be a dangerous pastime, and not just for the fox. That’s because foxes show so little concern for the welfare of their pursuers: They’ll dart across major roads and leap over train tracks, with unwitting members of the pack following doggedly along behind. Sometimes to their doom…
Men, Budd argued, can be instructed to stay away from roads and railway tracks. They also avoid disturbing farmers’ livestock. And they can choose to lead the hounds and horsemen on a challenging chase over the highest hedges and the triangular wooden fences known as tiger traps.

The Washington Post article at the link goes on to explain how the club overcomes the problem of the humans not being sufficiently malodorous, the pleasures derived from the humans by the sensation of being hunted, and what happens when the hounds catch the humans

Full Story

Female Drug Addicts in Afghanistan

Photographer Rafaela Persson has lived in Afghanistan since 2008, and spends time getting to know her subjects.

I had an idea to photograph female drug addicts. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. According to a study made by U.N. Drugs and Crimes Office in 2010, the rate of drug addiction in Afghanistan is twice the global average; Afghans have become the leading consumers of their own opium.  Approximately one million Afghans, or eight percent of the war-shattered country’s total population is suffering from drug addiction, a 75 percent increase since 2005. What is even more alarming is that studies show that 50 percent of Afghanistan’s opium-using parents give the drug to their own children.

Persson shares her photographs and stories in an essay at Camera Obscura.

Your Brain Influences Itself with Its Own Electric Field

Your brain is electric. Tiny impulses constantly race among billions of interconnected neurons, generating an electric field that surrounds the brain like an invisible cloud. A new study published online July 15 in Neuron suggests that the brain’s electric field is not a passive by-product of its neural activity, as scientists once thought. The field may actively help regulate how the brain functions, especially during deep sleep. Although scientists have long known that external sources of electricity (such as electroshock therapy) can alter brain function, this is the first direct evidence that the brain’s native electric field changes the way the brain behaves.

Scientific American: Neural Feedback: Brain Influences Itself with Its Own Electric Field

Stolen laptop may contain cure for cancer

Oklahoma City police officers probably never thought it would be their job to find the cure for cancer, but they're now working a case that has the potential to save millions of lives. That's because a crook in Oklahoma may have the cure for cancer, and not even know it. It's now a race against the clock to find it before it's erased forever. Sook Shin says, "I cannot eat and sleep since last Sunday."

Last Sunday, Shin was carrying a possible cure for cancer in the back of her car. Years of data stored on a small iMac computer. She says, "I'm devastated. And I feel so guilty." Shin and her husband are leading cancer researchers in an OU research lab. The two have committed their lives, working long hours, seven days a week to find a cure for prostate cancer. She says, "It has been a long journey up to now."

 

YouTube link.

They stopped at a restaurant on North Western to grab a meal before heading back to the lab. When they finished, they found their car windows busted and the laptop gone. Shin says, "I just cannot eat, sleep. I feel enormous guilty feeling. Not backing up." Most of that data was never backed up, a mistake Shinn says could be a major setback in the fight against cancer. She says, "Please return the computer with the data saved. This would tremendously help us and you would do something for society."

The couple says that computer has the power to save millions of lives, but they're afraid whoever took it will wipe its memory and sell it. They're posting a flier in pawn shops hoping someone can help in time. Some of that data can never be replicated, and other parts of that research could take up to 2 years to do over. That's earth shattering, considering 30,000 men die in the U.S. every year from prostate cancer. Meaning more than 60,000 people could lose their lives, all because of a stupid crime.

Plan to resurrect mammoth

And how could this go wrong?

Plan to bring ancient mammoth back to life

Japanese scientists will use cloning technology to resurrect the long-extinct animal.  

Their timetable 

Also: 

• More on the creature
• T. rex ancestor found
• Ancient squid's last meal

B.C.

Upping the cute factor

Australian man charged after swordfish skeleton stabbing

Police in Victoria have charged a man with attacking another man with a swordfish skeleton.

The 50-year-old man who has been charged is alleged to have attacked the other man with the bill of the fish at Colac, in Victoria's south-west, in October last year.

He has been charged with assault with a weapon, summary assault and possession of a weapon.

The victim received minor injuries.

People and their pets

Solar-Powered Hornet Found; Turns Light Into Electricity

The oriental hornet has built-in “solar cells” that generate electricity from sunlight—a first in the animal kingdom, according to a new study.
Scientists already knew that the hornet species, for unknown reasons, produced electricity inside its exoskeleton, according to study leader Marian Plotkin of Tel-Aviv University.
Plotkin’s late mentor Jacob Ishay made the discovery after observing that the insect is active when the sun is most intense—unusual for hornets.
Plotkin and colleagues recently went a step further by examining the structure of the hornet’s exoskeleton to find out how the electricity is produced.
Their research revealed that pigments in the hornet’s yellow tissues trap light, while its brown tissues generate electricity. Exactly how the hornets use this electricity is still not entirely understood, Plotkin noted.

National Geographic: Solar-Powered Hornet Found; Turns Light Into Electricity

Animal Pictures