Dozens of starlings in the Karacabey district of Turkey’s Bursa province were among the victims of a recent spate of mass animal deaths around the world that initially provoked much international alarm. But though scientists have emphasized such incidents are not a sign of broader dangers, plenty of real threats face many of the hundreds of bird species in Turkey…
Continue reading… “Time Running Out For Many Bird Species in Turkey”
Photographer Rafaela Persson has lived in Afghanistan since 2008, and spends time getting to know her subjects.
I had an idea to photograph female drug addicts. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. According to a study made by U.N. Drugs and Crimes Office in 2010, the rate of drug addiction in Afghanistan is twice the global average; Afghans have become the leading consumers of their own opium. Approximately one million Afghans, or eight percent of the war-shattered country’s total population is suffering from drug addiction, a 75 percent increase since 2005. What is even more alarming is that studies show that 50 percent of Afghanistan’s opium-using parents give the drug to their own children…
Continue reading… “The Plight of Female Drug Addicts in Afghanistan”
There are many sides of the to-pirate-or-not-to-pirate debate. From those who think that pirating is wrong on principle, to those who think that pirating a game is a universal right, to those who love to pay money for all of their games but don’t think twice about ripping a copy of StarCraft for a friend, and more.
But there’s one thing that they can all agree on. It’s hard to think of a dumber way to pirate games than to trying to tunnel into a retail store.
But nevertheless, 33 year old Steven Archer was arrested this Thursday in Tennessee for breaking into a vacant building and using it as a base to tunnel into his local GameStop next door….
Continue reading… “Man Arrested for Tunneling Into GameStop to Steal Games”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oivUo2GzWGo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
This video shot by Modernist Cuisine shows a drop of liquid nitrogen hitting a hot frying pan. It doesn’t instantly vaporize because a thin layer of vapor briefly insulates the drop. Scientists call this phenomenon the Leidenfrost Effect…
Continue reading… “Drop of Liquid Nitrogen Skittering Across a Frying Pan in Super Slow Motion”
Our early 21st century civilization is in trouble. We need not go beyond the world food economy to see this. Over the last few decades we have created a food production bubble—one based on environmental trends that cannot be sustained, including overpumping aquifers, overplowing land, and overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide.
Continue reading… “When Will the Food Bubble Burst?”
A group of University of Tennessee plant scientists has genetically modified tobacco plants so that the plants will give off a phosphorescent green “glow” when plant immune systems are under stress – as might be caused by plant pathogens, drought, insects, etc. (The stress-indicating fluorescent proteins can be detected by scientific instruments only, as pictured above.) To implement this on a commercial basis, it is hypothesized, farmers would scatter the day-glow plants amidst a far greater number of normal plants, each GM plant serving as an attack sentinel for the surrounding a crop zone…
Continue reading… “Genetically Modified Crops That Glow Green When Stressed”
Christopher Maag of Credit dot com wrote about a spoof site called the redatory Lending Association, which makes fun of those payday lenders that make big profits gouging the working poor.
Who is terrorizing who here?
The WikiLeaks Twitter account has just posted a press release calling for American politicians and media personalities to stop advocating the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Along with this release comes a handy website, PeopleOKWithMurderingAssange dot com, that gives startling quotations along with the name of the speaker. Each quotation is followed by a link showing the greater context of the often violent and disturbing words.
The site shows a new name and quotation every time you refresh the page; so far, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and many others, including government and military figures, radio hosts, newspaper columnists and TV news reporters, are featured on the site…
Continue reading… “WikiLeaks to U.S. Politicians & Media: “Stop Inciting Assange’s Murder””
The tracking system laws that make it inconvenient to buy cold medicine have not slowed down the meth trade one bit. In fact, they’ve created a new “sub-criminal culture,” says an agent with the DEA.
The U.S. government has asked Twitter to hand over private messages sent to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staffers.
In all likelihood, it’s also contacting other web services Assange may have used to get contact details and personal information about Assage’s activities and supporters.
According to a report just filed by The New York Times, Twitterhas been subpoenaed by the U.S. government in connection to the ongoing WikiLeaks investigation…
Continue reading… “Twitter Subpoenaed by U.S. Government for Wikileaks Accounts”
It seems like an oxymoron that childhood obesity could occur in food deserts, but in much of the country that’s exactly what’s happened. Food deserts, often located in impoverished urban environments, are areas where residents have little access to fresh fruits and vegetables because there are no grocery stores or farmers’ markets nearby. Such areas are often plagued with quickie marts where families feed themselves the processed junk that’s available, fostering an obesity epidemic. Read on to see how one program is working to change Chicago’s landscapes and make these infamous food deserts a thing of the past…
Continue reading… “Chicago Combats Food Deserts and Childhood Obesity One Seed at a Time”
Education technology has become a busy space in recent years. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates continue to push the envelope with enormous philanthropic gifts toward education reform; Blackboard.com was traded at a $1 billion plus valuation; and Google is putting millions into education tech sites like KhanAcademy.
With so many startups on the scene, it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, most innovation is centered around a short list of fundamental ideas. In this post, we’ll walk through a few clusters of education tech companies…
Continue reading… “Online Resources That Are Transforming Education”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.
