This song does what it says in the title, and will make you laugh. It was meant as a study aid, but it didn’t help me memorize the elements at all. How about you?
Continue reading… “Periodic Table SYMBOLS in Order Song”
Urine-soaked eggs a spring delicacy in China
A urine-soaked egg.
At the end of the school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school. That is also the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favored by local residents.
Continue reading… “Urine-soaked eggs a spring delicacy in China”
1940 census graphics show dramatic changes in America over past 70 years
The full results of the 1940 census was released online today by the National Archives, and the Census put together some intriguing full-page graphics to illustrate how the country has changed over the past 70 years.
Continue reading… “1940 census graphics show dramatic changes in America over past 70 years”
Richard Branson to explore the Center of the Earth – April Fools Day Joke
What will the view be on the inside?
(Sorry, this was so brilliantly outrageous, we thought we’d play along.)
After filmmaker James Cameron set a depth record for exploring the Marianna Trench and Jeff Bezos found the engines from Apollo 11, entrepreneur Richard Branson felt a need to do something even more spectacular. The head of Virgin galactic is preparing to launch a journey to the center of the earth! The new company Virgin Volcanic, an offshoot of Virgin Galactic, has developed a vehicle called the VVS1 to tackle one of the Eight Grand Challenges – the Race to the Core.
Using patented carbon-carbon materials pioneered for deep space exploration, Virgin is proud to announce a revolutionary new vehicle, VVS1, which will be capable of plunging three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano…
Continue reading… “Richard Branson to explore the Center of the Earth – April Fools Day Joke”
New method neuters your dog without removing his testicles
This is great news for dogs and dog lovers: there is a new method to sterilize male dogs without surgery! It’s called Esterilsol, a solution of zinc gluconate, L-Arginine and water that is shot into the dog’s scrotum.
The method—also called zeutering—will sterilize your dog within a month. It has now been approved for 10-month and younger dogs in the United States. So far, about 300 dogs have been neutered in this way…
Continue reading… “New method neuters your dog without removing his testicles”
Visa and Mastercard announce massive data breach, 10 million credit cards compromised
It was ONLY 10 million cards…
In the last few days, news has been filtering out that Visa and MasterCard data was compromised by persons unknown. The card issuers have sent private alerts to banks indicating a data breach occurred between January 21, 2012 and February 25, 2012 and official announcements have since been made. After the news broke, payment processor Global Payments Inc. was identified as the compromised party, and we’re now learning that the data theft seems to be extensive.
Canada kills the Penny
Will all coins go away now?
Finally, after years of talking, the Canadian government killed the penny in its recent budget. Finance Minister Flaherty was clearly thinking of decluttering and interior design, noting “Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home.”
There is also a real green side to this; the weight of all those pennies adds up, as does the cost and footprint of shipping them.
Continue reading… “Canada kills the Penny”
Bees ‘Self-Medicate’ when infected with some pathogens
When faced with pathogenic fungi, bees line their hives with more propolis – the waxy, yellow substance seen here.
Research from North Carolina State University shows that honey bees “self-medicate” when their colony is infected with a harmful fungus, bringing in increased amounts of antifungal plant resins to ward off the pathogen…
Continue reading… “Bees ‘Self-Medicate’ when infected with some pathogens”
Oldest man-made animal structures found by Google Earth
Google Earth strikes again!
It looks like simple mounds of earth from ground level, but when archaeologist Robert Benfer looked at Google Earth images of Peru, he discovered that they look like orcas, condors, and even a duck.
Archaeological evidence at the sites pegged the mounds at more than 4,000 years old – making them the oldest animal-shaped structures made by man…
Continue reading… “Oldest man-made animal structures found by Google Earth”
Screen rage is the new temper-tantrum
Don’t take away the iPad!
At five years-old, it’s no fun getting interrupted while you’re focused on something. As a parent, I compensate for that by employing a series of intricately planned measures to guide my son from whatever he happens to be doing towards whatever it is that I want him to do instead.
The extremity of these measures depends entirely what’s being interrupted. If he’s playing outside with his sister, the steps I take are fairly mundane. I give him a few, gentle time checks (“five minutes until dinner” … “3 minutes until dinner” …), and then offer something enticing enough to make putting down the ball seem like less of an intrusion (“Tonight’s chicken has both teri and yaki on it!”).
If I need to transition my son from building a cardboard village with grandma to going to bed for the night, I need to combine my time checks with some subtle threats and an Obi Wan Kenobi-like response to his three hundred or so repetitions of some variation of, “No. I don’t want to. But you said. Why are you doing this to me?”
The techniques are all pretty simple and effective. Until it’s time to get him to put down the iPad.
Continue reading… “Screen rage is the new temper-tantrum”
The 9 to 5 is dead – redesigning work for the modern economy
No-hour work week.
The 9 to 5 workday is outdated. Happy workers are more healthy and more creative, so it’s time to start giving our workers the leeway to be happy (because otherwise they work all the time). The secret: Treat them like people.
Continue reading… “The 9 to 5 is dead – redesigning work for the modern economy”
Physicists add 11 colors to the rainbow by tearing apart atoms
New colors found utilizing lasers and ion cascades.
True, the pink is a lie. But a UC Santa Barbara research team has honestly just generated eleven new hues using lasers and ion cascades.
The team created the new colors by aiming a pair of lasers—one high-frequency, the other low-frequency—at a slab of semiconductor material, a gallium arsenide nanostructure. The high-frequency beam separates an electron from its host atom, generating what’s known as an exciton (a bonded pair consisting of a negatively-charged electron and a positively-charged host). The powerful, low frequency wave then accelerates the freed electron, which goes crashing into the electron-less atom in front of it. Since the electron has extra energy from the acceleration when it recombines with the host atom in front of it, that energy is radiated as light. Previously unseen frequencies of light…
Continue reading… “Physicists add 11 colors to the rainbow by tearing apart atoms”
