Category: Blog

This is freaky!

Oozing Through Texas Soil, a Team of Amoebas Billions Strong – NYTimes.com

After producing superlatives like the world’s biggest statue of a jackrabbit and the nation’s most unpopular modern-day president, Texas can now boast what may be its most bizarre and undoubtedly its slimiest topper yet: the world’s largest known colony of clonal amoebas.

Scientists found the vast and sticky empire stretching 40 feet across, consisting of billions of genetically identical single-celled individuals, oozing along in the muck of a cow pasture outside Houston.

This should give you a laugh or two – brilliant.

Asperger Test (AQ Test) – Pie Palace

Anyone involved with geeks will know that we share many character traits with those suffering Asperger syndrome: obsessive attention to detail, social awkwardness, and some difficulty relating to other people. A few years ago, I ran across a test used to diagnose Asperger syndrome, and was surprised to note that it seems like a thumbnail description of your average geek.

Being a geek, I decided to port the test from dead trees to PHP and Javascript. You can find your AQ by filling in the form below.

Apparently, this is a problem that is growing thanks to the fact that many jurors can now surf the web via their phones.

NYTimes.com

Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock.

Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.

washingtonpost.com

At least 3 percent of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a “generalized and severe” epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials tomorrow.

I heard this on NPR. It’s great that they were able to open the watch to see if the folklore was true.

NYTimes.com

Confirming a rumor that has circulated for generations, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened a gold pocket watch that belonged to Abraham Lincoln on Tuesday and discovered a message secretly engraved there by a watchmaker who repaired it in 1861.

“Jonathan Dillon April 13- 1861 Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon,” the brass underside of the watch movement reads. It continues: “April 13- 1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.” The back of the watch movement also bears two other inscriptions: “LE Grofs Sept 1864 Wash DC,” probably engraved by another repairer, and what appears to be “Jeff Davis.” Whether the latter was intended as a retort by another watchmaker to Dillon’s pro-Union sentiments is unknown.

“Jonathan Dillon April 13- 1861 Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon,” the brass underside of the watch movement reads.

The inscription continues: “April 13- 1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.”

But, perhaps the best thing was the reaction by the great-great-grandson of the engraver:

“My goodness, that’s Lincoln’s watch,” he said later in wonderment. “My ancestor put graffiti on it.”

Some Banks, Citing Strings, Want to Return Aid – NYTimes.com

The conditions are necessary to prevent Wall Street executives from paying lavish bonuses and buying corporate jets, some experts say, but others say the conditions go beyond protecting taxpayers and border on social engineering.

Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the bailout money. The list includes small banks like the TCF Financial Corporation of Wayzata, Minn., and Iberia Bank of Lafayette, La., as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

You really must click thru to see the insanely cute video of taste-tester Hammy.

Hammy the Hamster Goes Organic

Does organic food really taste better?

At CooksDen, we decided to apply the scientific method to that important question. We brought in an unbiased test subject — one who has superior taste buds, is unaffected by marketing hype, and is unafraid to express her opinions publicly.

Meet Hammy the Hamster. Hammy was kind enough to participate in hours of rigorous testing in order to get to the bottom of this critical issue. Read on for the results — they just may surprise you.

Spit happens: Saliva’s mysteries revealed – CNN.com

Your saliva is doing all kinds of useful things for you all the time — for instance, helping you chew and taste food. It’s also home to more than 600 species of bacteria, which are harmlessly enjoying the moisture of your mouth.

Since people have different eating habits in different places, you might think an American’s saliva might look a lot different from, say, a South African’s. But a new study published in the journal Genome Research finds that bacteria in saliva may not be as related to environment and diet as you might think.

Pink dolphin appears in US lake – Telegraph

The world’s only pink Bottlenose dolphin which was discovered in an inland lake in Louisiana, USA, has become such an attraction that conservationists have warned tourists to leave it alone.