How to Knit a DNA

This is a knitted model of DNA, complete with GC/TA base pairs represented by orange-green bars with a pointed join and blue-yellow bars with a stepped join (because there weren't enough stitches to make a wave or curve), replicating the standard simplified DNA model.

World War I Photos

Private and military archive fotos of a German officer during WWI. A lot of them unpublished yet. 127 photos in all in Flickr.com.

Bone Marrow Donors Risk DNA Identity Mix-up

Two possible scenarios in bone marrow transplants: 1) destruction the patient's own bone marrow by the new transplanted marrow; in such cases their blood will contain the DNA profile of the donor alone, or 2) some treatments in recent years retain some of the patient's original bone marrow, so their blood can contain a mixed DNA profile.
In a recent case in Alaska, forensic scientists saw a clear DNA match between semen from a serious sexual assault and a blood sample from a known criminal. But the criminal was in jail when this took place. After careful detective work, the mystery was solved: the jailed man had received bone marrow from the assailant many years earlier.

Read entire article.

Revenge of the Halloween Masks

Halloween masks from StarWars.com.

Drawings

This site has nice drawings and paintings, items for sale, even an advice column. Paintings are for sale, though.

Bird Flu Preparations

Seen on Ecobre's blog.

More Longest Stuff

LONGEST CAR
Longest car is a limousine 30.5 meters long (100 ft.).
Features: includes a swimming pool with a diving board and a king size water bed.

LONGEST SNEEZING FIT
Donna Griffiths, UK: 978 days.
It is estimated she sneezed more than 1 million times in the first year. Her sneezes came at 1 minute intervals in the beginning and slowed down to 5 minute intervals near the end. Kleenex stocks went up 75 points during her fit, well, not really, we made that last part up.

LONGEST FULL NAME
Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff

More outrageous stuff.

People Picturing

Here is an exercise from Braingle to help you practice your visualizations.

Visualize each person that you interacted with today. Focus on each person individually and try to form a clear picture of him or her in your mind. Some things to pay attention to: hair, eyes, height, weight, age, clothing, and mannerisms. If this is your first time visualizing people, you will probably find that faces are hard to reproduce accurately, but you will get better with practice.

High Tech Gadget Helps Boost Concentration

Hyper-competitive South Koreans have been using a light and sound machine to help them relax and focus on their studies - but the jury’s still out on the science of the device.
The MC Square is not a hip-hop act, but a small Walkman-sized control unit that runs sequences of flickering lights and rhythmic pulsating sounds out to LED-installed goggles and stereo headphones in combinations that allegedly change brainwaves, helping you to screen out distracting thoughts and ace that big test.

The Car That Makes Its Own Fuel

A unique system that can produce hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company, Engineuity.
Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam.
When it becomes commercial in a few years time, the system will be incorporated into cars that will cost about the same as existing conventional cars to run, and will be completely emission free.

Great Inventions!

On display at the British Invention Show last October 22 are the following:
1. a wrist patch to increase a woman's sex drive
2. another patch that blocks a woman's craving for chocolate
3. a giant appliance called The Egg which a person enters into to have a full body massage with aromatherapy and nice music
4. a coolbag that behaves like a fridge
5. a sideways bike
And many, many more!

Body Language More Expressive Than Faces

Body language can shape first impressions of a person's emotional state, even when attention is focused on facial expression, Netherlands scientists said.
In the experiments, some photographs were altered so, for instance, a fearful facial expression was paired with an angry body posture, which resulted in two "congruent" and two "incongruent" combinations.
Researchers found that when the face and body in the photograph showed conflicting emotions, the participants' judgment of facial expression was hampered and became biased toward the emotion expressed by the body.
Read full article at PhysOrg.

A Website For Superlatives

A site that answers "what is the most...?" types of questions.
For example:
The 2nd most expensive bra (image): $11 million!
The most expensive was the Victoria's Secret 2002 version called 'Red Hot Fantasy' which contains 1,300 diamonds and rubies valued at an whopping $15 million.

Most expensive website: AsSeenOnTv.com $5.1 million
Most expensive book: Gospels of Henry the Lion $12 million
Longest breath hold: 12 min 47 sec by Giancarlo Bellingrath
Longest River: The Nile 6,695 KM - 4,160 Miles

Visit the site which also happens to have the longest domain name in the web.

Antioxidants to the Rescue

(image from IDAP)
Thousands of historical documents are rotting to pieces in archives, and until now, historians have been powerless to preserve the priceless parchments.
Oxidation is slowly destroying thousands of documents in collections around the globe thanks to iron gall inks, popular from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, but with recipes dating back to the Dead Sea scrolls. Oxidation continues in a chain reaction until it encounters a chain-breaking molecule -- known as antioxidants or "radical scavengers" -- such as beta-carotene, vitamin C or vitamin E.
Most well-known antioxidants are not suitable for document preservation because they can leave behind permanent discoloration.
But now conservationists are buzzing about a new technique developed by Ink Cor, a research group concerned with neutralizing the wasting effect of corrosive inks without damaging the underlying paper.
Ink Cor's breakthrough is the discovery of a colorless antioxidant (halide salts) that can prolong the life span of paper containing corrosive ink by a factor of 10. This could lead to new noninvasive treatments for priceless original works by masters from da Vinci to Bach.
Full article at Wired News.

Bird Flu 101

Everything you like to know about bird flu from About.com.

Related article:
Wright State University research biologist says it is only a matter of time before the avian flu virus reaches the United States. The key is following the migratory patterns of birds.

Mathematical Photography

This piece is called Euler's Relation. Its description is excerpted below:

You are probably familiar with the famous optical illusion of a painting of an old crony which suddenly changes into a beautiful young woman as your mental perspective changes. Both images are contained within the picture - they are different aspects of the same pattern of lines on a page. All you have to do is alter your internal viewpoint to see the difference.
Euler’s relation is a bit like this famous optical illusion but on a vastly grander scale.
Euler’s relation links five of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics in a simple and elegant formula. It says that when viewed in a particular way, the concepts of one and zero are the same as the concepts of the exponential power (e), the imaginary number (i), and the irrational number (pi).
-WHATEVER THAT MEANS...WHO CARES?...I just like the photograph, okay? JUST JOKING. I think the images and their descriptions are a product of genius!
See more mathematical photography here.

Rare Misprint Stamps Sell for Nearly $3 Million

A group of four flawed, early U.S. airmail stamps, originally priced at 24 cents each, sold at auction for $2.97 million on Wednesday.
The 1918 stamp depicting a Curtiss JN-4H airplane was the first U.S. airmail stamp. Only a single flawed sheet of 100 stamps showing the airplane flying upside down was ever sold.
The original sheet of "Inverted Jenny" stamps was sold for $24 to William Robey on May 14, 1918. Robey sold the sheet a week later for $15,000. News of the error spread rapidly, embarrassing postal officials, who already faced skepticism over the experimental airmail program.
The sheet has since been split up and prices have rocketed to more than $500,000 for a single stamp.

A Few Thousand Science Fiction Covers

An experimental image-browsing interface by Jim Bumgardner.

Check this out. Very interesting. Be careful to follow instructions on the page.

17 Percent Admit To Picking Nose While Driving

NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) -- Everyone knows not to drink and drive, but you shouldn't pick your nose and drive either.
According to a new survey by Response Insurance, 17 percent of Americans admit they've nearly caused an automobile accident while picking their nose while behind the wheel.

Shelves and Stuff

Very nice bookcase, chair, and stool(?). Seen in nana's blog.

The World's Smallest Car

Using the parts inside a single molecule, scientists have constructed the world's smallest car. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece.
The whole car is no more than 4 nanometers across. That's slightly wider than a strand of DNA. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers thick.
Other groups have made car-shaped nanoscale objects. But this is the first one that rolls "on four wheels in a direction perpendicular to its axles," the researchers reported Thursday.
What's the point? Nanotrucks, of course.
Eventually the researchers want to build tiny trucks that could carry atoms and molecules around in miniature factories.
The article also has links to the world's smallest motor, robot, refrigerator, and fountain pen. Check it out!

Cellphones Learn to Recognize their Owners' Faces

Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. this week began marketing a technology that inexpensively adds face recognition to camera-equipped cellphones. Oki's "Face Sensing Engine" (FSE) "middleware" decodes facial images within 280mS on a 100MHz ARM9 processor, and can restrict access to mobile devices by recognizing their owners, the company says.
Oki says its FSE technology can help protect sensitive personal information such as phone numbers and email addresses from unwanted access, in the event of loss or theft of a mobile device. The use of face recognition, based on the mobile device's built-in digital camera, eliminates the need for users to enter passwords to use their devices, and provides a faster and more natural method of authentication.

Unique Blogs of Portugal

Bloggers in Portugal are crazy over household stuff. They have blogs for toilets, doors, beds, refrigerators, bookcases, etc.
If you want yours posted in these blogs, take a photo of your ref or toilet etc, post it in your blog and notify the owners of these blogs so they can post your photos in their blog. Took a photo of our not-really-full ref and it is in the ref blog now.
See nana's post to see the links to the various blogs.

How Zee (snail's name) Crosses a Gap

Ever wonder how a snail is able to cross over gaps in wood or pavement without falling through the cracks?

52 Percent Of Americans Have Posed Naked?

(watercolor image from artistapril slideshow)

HOUSTON (Wireless Flash) -- A lot more Americans have posed nude than you might think -- and that's the naked truth!
According to a survey by the Adam & Eve sex toy company, 52 percent have stripped down to their birthday suit for a still camera and 38 percent has posed in the buff for digital photos.
In addition, 37 percent have been naked in front of a video camera while 19 percent have been a nude model for a drawing or a painting.
Finally, 21 percent say they have posed nude but won't specify the situation or occasion in which they dropped their drawers.

You know I find this quite hard to believe.....OR am I just too naive? God help America if this survey is accurate.

Punk and New Wave Site

This site is full of scans of punk and new wave record sleeves.

Wireless Projector

Lenovo, makers of Thinkpad, has just announced its first wireless projector, the ThinkVision C400. There is also a USB slot if you want to use your PowerPoint-loaded USB memory key instead. It comes equipped with 2,650 lumens; features DLP technology.

Not Your Spy

Thanks Ross Mayfield!

Doses of Family Wisdom

1. When you are away from home
2. Health hazards
3. 20/20 rule
4. Humor
5. Handling the kids: whining, brushing, special time, exercise
6. Chocolates
7. Dogs
8. Etc.
This article is good stuff.
Read complete article.

Frigo

For Gotinha.



Not much to see, eh?

ASME's Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Past 40 Years

Some, interesting; others, ridiculous.

Sweetheart

Hahahahaha!
Image from nana.

New Molecular Compounds Found Near Fiji

(image from Swansea University)

Scientists have discovered 10 new molecular structures with pharmaceutical potential in a species of red seaweed near Fiji in the South Pacific.
Some of the compounds indicate the potential to kill cancer cells, bacteria and the HIV virus.

Japan's Robot Invasion Begins

Planet Tokyo reports:
Japan is literally being invaded by robots. They're tasting food and guarding stores and doing just about everything humans used to do, but are apparently now too old to do. Will Japan's population ultimately be replaced by robots? Some of the robotic projects currently under way include health food advice robots, guard robots, facial expression robots, fuel cell robots, baseball and golf playing robots, and even brain surgery robots.

Tips for Absentmindedness

There are two types of Absentmindedness.

1. Forgetting something that you did. "Where did I put my keys?"
2. Forgetting if you did something at all. "Did I return the book to the library?"

If you find that you frequently forget something that you did (like where you put your keys) you could try to build a habit around that activity. For example you could install a hook or dish near the door where you always put your keys. If you get in the habit of doing this then you will always know where they are.

If you often forget whether you did something, you should pay more attention to yourself as you do it. One way to do this is to speak your actions out loud: "I am returning the book to the library." Another way is to look around and notice something that you never noticed before. Maybe there is a pretty flower next to the library return slot, or maybe the handle has a rust spot on it. Noticing something about the activity will give your mind something to remember in the future.

Brain Teaser

You have no control over me,
I am not real, though sometimes you believe me,
I come back every night, but am often forgotten,
Though left alone, I will never become rotten,
Sometimes I remind you of things yet to come,
Sometimes, watching me, you do things you've never done,
I rarely ever turn out to be true,
Now I am done with this riddle for you.

What am I?

Show answer

Swiss Knife Bed

What a bed!

Doraemon Watch Madness

Gizmondo reports:
Japan just can’t get enough of the nutty blue robot cat known as Doraemon. This time, Doraemon has his new watch which actually looks pretty sleek. This is no ordinary watch, however. This is a data watch. Coming in 64MB or 128MB sizes, and silver or black color schemes, the watch can store all your files, MP3s, images, and cartoons pirated off of BitTorrent.

NASA's Droid Army?

Gizmondo reports on a NASA robot army:
Finally NASA is getting on the ball by prepping an army of robots to take on the baddies of space. These robots are going to kick ass and take names. And by kicking ass and taking names we really mean fully assist the human astronauts in the daunting day-to-day chores of space travel. The first robot, the Robonaut, is a robot designed to assist the astronaut with daily tasks and, if there’s time, a little space love. The next robot is the Tendril, it is a robot-like snake that can get into small places and has a camera integrated for observation. The Scout is a robotic golf cart that will truck the astronauts around with all of their supplies. And by far the coolest robot is the Spidernaut, this is a 600-pound, eight-legged robot that walks around on the outside of the spaceship repairing various parts.

Dog Trainer

The EZ Digital Trainer is a new device for pet dog training. The product repeats the voice of the master to train the pet dog. The master can train his dog from where he is standing. The device uses latest digital recording technique and hence the master’s command is very natural. Since the device uses high frequency waves only the pet dog is able to listen to master’s command and no one else.

Study: Teen Girls Leading Sexual Revolution

Dave's Daily reports:
A study that began in 1943 and ended in 1999 shows that teenage girls are having sex at a younger age than ever before and are taking the lead in dismantling sexual taboos.
According to the study, the percentage of young girls who participate in premarital sex jumped from 12 to 79 percent, while the percentage of young men who participate in premarital sex jumped from 42 to 71 percent.
Study co-researcher Jean Twenge said birth control and cultural acceptance are the main reasons for the changes. She does not feel the prevalence of sex on television has contributed as much to the phenomenon as people think.
(copyright 2005 by NBCSandiego.com)

OH C'MON, GIVE ME A BREAK! Isn't sex on the media also an indication of cultural acceptance?

Ready When You Are Kettle

Seen on Gizmondo.
This kettle has a radio receiver that allows you to send a text message to the kettle to let it know when you demand your tea, coffee, or boiling water. Of course a satellite will take your SMS, and throw it back to the kettle so it gets boiling.

Funny Flash, Especially for the Ladies

Click on image to play flash movie.

Dont Mess With This Chick

From funthumb.

Why Birth Control is Important

Parents on the left; offspring on the right. (from email)

FAMILY 1











FAMILY 2










FAMILY 3










FAMILY 4










FAMILY 5










FAMILY 6










FAMILY 7










FAMILY 8










FAMILY 9