Overall Winner: The Swimming City — András Gyõrfi
The Seasteading Institute, committed to the ongoing development of ocean communities, has just announced the winners of their first annual design content. Could people really end up living in these hypothetical off-shore communities? (Pics)

Fossils of three new species of dinosaurs have been discovered in Australia
Fossils of three new species of dinosaurs have been discovered in Australia, including a meat-eater larger than Velociraptor from the Jurassic Park movies, suggesting Australia may have a more complex prehistoric past.
 
 

The red is a thermal radius.
North Korea’s aiming their test missile near Hawaii. The US military says they can protect the islands, and locals aren’t too worried, but if something happens, the thermal, shockwave and radioactive fallout will look something like this.
 

An aerial view of a patch of deforested jungle
More than 800 animal and plant species have gone extinct in the past five centuries with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday.
 
 

How much light is reflected and how much is absorbed depends on two factors
It appears to be a paradox: ultra-thin material that absorbs all the incident light. Nonetheless, it does exist.

Desert Rhubarb 
Scientists have discovered the world’s first ’self-watering’ plant in Israel’s Negev desert – one of the driest regions on earth. The Desert Rhubarb can hold 16 times more water than its rivals and has developed a unique ability to effectively water itself in its barren habitat.

 
Scientists have discovered a mega-colony of this invasive insect species that stretches across the globe
Argentine ants from three huge colonies in Europe, America and Japan are actually part of one global super-colony, scientists have revealed.

The emergence of empires of one, business colonies and seed capitalists
The importance of stimulating entrepreneurship has not been lost on Asian nations. Communist Youth League of China will set up a fund to help young people establish their own businesses, as part of efforts to ease employment pressures, particularly among graduates, China.com reported in February.

The map uses 1.3 million images and covers Earth’s land surface between 83 degrees North and 83 degrees South latitudes 
An astonishing new map has revealed the elevation of nearly every place on Earth.
The Global Digital Elevation Model was created using nearly 1.3million images collected by a Japanese camera on board Nasa’s Terra spacecraft. It is [...]

A boy drinking water from a borehole in Zimbabwe 
In this months PLoS Medicine Editorial, the editors argue that — despite recent international objections — access to clean water should be recognised as a human right.

The solar plane has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 
It has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but weighs less than a small car – and could be the first plane to fly around the world powered entirely by the sun.

View this century’s longest solar eclipse aboard the JetLite 737-700 
On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, we are going to witness the greatest eclipse of the 21st century. A total eclipse of the sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow will begin in India [...]

 
This is the first of a pair of artist’s representations showing what one of the
galaxies inside a blob might look like if viewed at a relatively close distance.
The “coming of age” of galaxies and black holes has been pinpointed, thanks to new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This discovery helps resolve [...]

 
Illustration of Enceladus
For the first time, scientists working on NASA’s Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn’s outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of liquid water — perhaps an ocean — beneath its [...]

A cheeky monkey decided to spend a penny on Zambian President Rupiah Banda – as he held a news conference on the economy in the capital Lusaka.

China to build largest amphibious airplane
The development and production of the Dragon 600, intended to be the world’s largest amphibious aircraft, has received government approval, AVIC General Aircraft Company Ltd. said Wednesday.

Is This a Horrible or Fantastic Idea?

Luxury ocean liners in Russia are offering pirate hunting cruises aboard armed private yachts off the Somali coast.
Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders.

Photo of volcanic eruption taken from space 
A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is [...]

 
reconstructed landscape showing the Shalbatana lake on Mars as it may have looked roughly 3.4 billion years ago.
A University of Colorado at Boulder research team has discovered the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars, an indication of a deep, ancient lake there and a finding with implications for the discovery of past life on [...]

 
Earth…

By using a super-computer to virtually squeeze and heat iron-bearing minerals under conditions that would have existed when the Earth crystallized from an ocean of magma to its solid form 4.5 billion years ago, two UC Davis geochemists have produced the first picture of how different isotopes of iron were initially distributed in the solid [...]

YourSpace is shrinking.
In May 2009, Facebook became the most popular US social networking site.
But it was close.
According to comScore, Facebook totaled 70,278,000 unique visitors, up 97% from May 2008 to May 2009. MySpace hits shrank 5% over the same timeframe, fading to 70,255,000 unique visitors.

Glass or Crystal Frog
A scientific expedition along one of the most bitterly contested international borders in recent history has revealed a fascinating array of species, many of which are believed to be new to science, Conservation International (CI) announced. (Pics)

Large blue butterfly
A blue butterfly died out in Britain 30 years ago because of disruptions to a life cycle that includes pretending to be an ant, according to a study published Tuesday that points to smarter ways to protect wildlife.

Scientists working to develop wheat varieties resistant to a strain of “stem rust” 
The Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world’s wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S.

Sardine Run
Every year, between the months of May and July, many millions of silvery sardines travel north from the cold southern oceans off South Africa’s Cape Point, hugging the shore as they make their way up along the coastlines of the former Transkei (northern Eastern Cape) and KwaZulu-Natal in what is commonly known as the [...]