Scientists may finally be on the cusp of finding a vaccine for the Ebola virus. According to an article in EurekAlert:

An Israeli team of computer scientists has developed software that ranks facial attractiveness of women. Instead of identifying basic facial characteristics, this software has been designed to make aesthetic judgments — after training. The lead researcher said this program ‘constitutes a substantial advance in the development of artificial intelligence.’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q54VKT_mZfI

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne in England between Gateshead on the south bank, and Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The award-winning structure was conceived and designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and structural engineers Gifford. Second video after the jump.

Our friends at the Telegraph in London have come up with their list of the top 101 websites on the Internet. We are pretty sure they have overlooked a ton of great sites, and its skewed towards British thinking. But its worth a look.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is to raise plans for a tunnel to link his country with America when he meets his US counterpart, George W Bush, next Sunday.
The 64-mile tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska; the cost is estimated at £33 billion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNFRLrP014

Prepare yourself for this one - maybe with a Stoli martini or two. This is the craziest version of “Sweet Home Alabama” you’ll ever see.  Ever!
 

The Fang is an ice formation in Vail, Colorado is a world famous ice pillar that forms on exceptionally cold winters. Then, when the weather drops, these cascades turn into a giant pillar of ice: a 50 meters high column and about 8 meter large at the base. Video after the jump.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqWKGh4XLbk

 This short video shows you how flexible a robotic spider can be.  Very cool.
 

A surgeon has devised a new way of adding up to 2 inches to a person’s height - inserting a silicone head implant.
During a 90-minute operation an incision is made in the side of the head and the implant squeezed in between the skull and the scalp.

Anxiety is the affliction of life in the modern world. Now add to the stress list: “nomophobia”, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
Researchers in Britain have carried out a study and found that nomophobia is plaguing our 24/7 life — running out of battery or credit, losing one’s […]

Rising costs and regulation have led to shutdowns and restructurings in China like those that tore through America’s heartland.

ZnSe nanowires grown on a ZnSe particle which appeared as a heart shape.

Just back away from the set. There is nothing to confuse you here.
Baby boomers may have more buying power than millennials, but those younger consumers are more comfortable using new technology such as streaming video, DVRs, VOD and PPV.

They have quaint names like the fangtooth, the roundnose grenadier, the chiasmodon niger, the spookfish and the dolichoteryx longpipe.
But they are some of the most frightening-looking and ugliest creatures on earth – denizens of the deep which inhabit the darkest reaches of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, one of the most inhospitable places on the planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_mLumx-6Y

Dean Kamen’s “Luke arm”—a prosthesis named for the remarkably lifelike prosthetic worn by Luke Skywalker in Star […]

A group of scientists has created a new, improved fuel-cell electrode that is very lightweight and thin. Composed of a network of single-walled carbon nanotubes, the electrode functions nearly as well as conventional electrodes but renders the entire fuel cell much lighter. The research is an important step toward lightweight power supplies, which are becoming […]

Switzerland’s storied role as discreet banker to the world’s tax-avoiding wealthy is under threat like never before, and this time the country ultimately may not be able to stop the rest of the world from prying into those legendary ’secret’ accounts, said to contain between $1 trillion and $2 trillion.

 
This is a crazy drumming robot always looking for a new surface
to start banging on. Kinda like having a little kid around.
 

To prevent rain over the roofless 91,000-seat Olympic stadium that Beijing natives have nicknamed the Bird’s Nest, the city’s branch of the national Weather Modification Office–itself a department of the larger China Meteorological Administration–has prepared a three-stage program for the 2008 Olympics this August.

Life in Nebraska was so much easier before they passed the law
requiring all highways be rolled up at night
This weeks Top 10 Photos are crazy, unusual, and twisted. That just means they are really, really funny.
 

The US has taken a serious issue with India’s new competition law that requires foreign companies to seek regulator’s approval for mergers and acquisitions made anywhere in the world.

 
The next time you see your kids chatting to themselves, don’t worry - for a new study has shown that children who talk to themselves do better on motor tasks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-KoSgec58

Like a cross between a skateboard and inline skates, but with more freedom and simplicity than either, the Orbitwheel is a brand new concept for wheeled sports. Price $145.

Princeton society members employ “philosophical-ethical arguments” to support their belief that promiscuity “deeply compromises human dignity,” and psychological and sociological rationale to justify the claim that casual sex leads to “personal unhappiness and social harm.”

 
The catalytic converter is made with trace amounts of platinum, palladium and rhodium, which speed chemical reactions and help clean emissions at very high temperatures. Selling stolen converters to scrap yards or recyclers, a thief can net a couple of hundred dollars apiece. Exactly how much depends on the size of the car and its […]