in the news: wtf

[michael]

monkey controls robot arm w/ mind: wtf


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... eo-ap.html

too bad theres no screencap

video is ridiculous

[michael]

With this device, the monkey can reach out, grab and move a handle by just thinking about it.

As a reward, the monkey gets a sip of water when it completes this task.

[michael]

The researchers claim that the monkey does not feel the electrodes in the brain.

[Stephen]

I just want to know what's under that turban - obviously too grim for the public eye.

[michael]

starfish covered in crystal lenses that function as an all-seeing eye: wtf

In a clever twist of nature, the sea has eyes in its stars.

Scientists have discovered a species of brittle star whose outer skeleton is covered with crystalline lenses that appear to work collectively as an all-seeing eye.

The visual system of lenses in the species Ophiocoma wendtii is the first of its kind observed in nature and is superior to any manufactured lenses, said Joanna Aizenberg, a researcher at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

"These lenses have exceptional optical performance," said Aizenberg, who is co-author of a report on the discovery published in the August 23 issue of Nature. "They are compensated for physical effects that bother us when we fabricate lenses in the laboratory"—effects known as birefringence and spherical aberration.

Brittle stars are sea creatures that have long, thin arms emanating from a small disk-shaped body. They belong to the phylum of echinoderms, which includes sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea stars.

O. wendtii is about the size of an outstretched human hand and lives in coral reefs from Bermuda to Brazil.

Light Sensitive

Gordon Hendler, a marine biologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in Los Angeles, California, and co-author of the study, discovered that O. wendtii is sensitive to light and can change color.

"They are dark reddish in color during the daytime and go through a striking change in color at night, turning a blackish brown and gray," he said.

After several years of studying the species, Hendler realized that the change in color is controlled by chromatophores, or cells that contain pigment. The chromatophores are clustered around clear "windows" in the bones on a brittle star's arms.

"I started thinking then that those windows might be involved in the reception of light by brittle stars," he said. "The chromatophores could control the amount of light let in."

Hendler presented his hypothesis to Aizenberg and her colleagues Steve Weiner and Lia Addadi at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, who began studying the phenomenon. One of the group's main areas of investigation is the exceptional properties of biologically formed minerals, in aprticular calcitic skeletal tissues.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... heyes.html

[michael]

trash-vortex in the ocean is twice the size of texas: wtf

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... cific.html

[AlbionMoonlight]

It's not quite what you're imagining.

There's quite a bit of footage in this mini-doc and it's actually worse than you're imagining.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/garbage-island-1-of-3

[michael]

It's not quite what you're imagining.

There's quite a bit of footage in this mini-doc and it's actually worse than you're imagining.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/garbage-island-1-of-3

shit i went to high school w/ the guy in the glasses & beard

[jkudler]

It's not quite what you're imagining.

There's quite a bit of footage in this mini-doc and it's actually worse than you're imagining.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/garbage-island-1-of-3

shit i went to high school w/ the guy in the glasses & beard

i've been watching this because the topic sounded interesting, but so far it's mostly underwhelming insights on cabin fever and that one dude you went to HS with (ostensibly a writer!) using "fucking" to precede every adjective he says. also, the vbs player seems to suck.

-jesse

[michael]

yeah, you should probably skip to the last video


the guy that i know... totally doesnt surprise me hes an editor for vice. his segments in the mini-doc probably do not convey this, but hes actually really smart & funny

[jkudler]

i've read other stuff he's written and thought he was exactly standard vice-writing: sometimes funny and insightful, sometimes irritating and boring and needlessly snarky. someone sent me something he wrote about going to the insane clown posse juggalo-fest that was kinda interesting until i realized it was deadeningly long. he's ok in this video but seriously needs to learn a new adverb.

-jesse

[michael]

yeah, dudes a total hipster now.

though i would also say he was like 7 or 8 years ago in high school

[michael]

this doesnt really fit in w/ the irreverent tone of this thread, but an equally disturbing article about increasing suicides in the army


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/02suicide.html

The number of suicides reported by the Army has risen to the highest level since record-keeping began three decades ago. Last year, there were 192 among active-duty soldiers and soldiers on inactive reserve status, twice as many as in 2003, when the war began. (Five more suspected suicides are still being investigated.) This year’s figure is likely to be even higher: from January to mid-July, 129 suicides were confirmed or suspected, more than the number of American soldiers who died in combat during the same period.

this part literally made the hair on my arms stand up

He slept restlessly, sometimes grabbing or punching her in his sleep, and had nightmares about his two friends who had died. “He dreamt that they were still alive,” Ms. Plumley said, “that they had come over and hung out and he was trying to tell them that they were dead and they didn’t know what he was talking about.”

[michael]

aussie u-19 girls soccer team pelted with bottles by chinese soccer fans: lol


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=664965

However following the final whistle, an Australia player fell to the ground while remonstrating with the Chinese, prompting captain Tameka Butt to charge across the pitch and grab the perceived offender.

That sparked a mass brawl as both sets of players and backroom staff charged onto the pitch, with punches thrown.

Once order was restored, several plastic water bottles were thrown from the crowd in the direction of the Australian team - whose ages range from 15 to 19 - as they made their way down the tunnel with local police imploring fans to stop the behaviour.

[michael]

the pope to release album on geffen records: wtf

Geffen Records, whose roster of stars has included Guns n' Roses, Elton John, Donna Summer and Snoop Dogg, yesterday announced that it had signed a new artist: Pope Benedict XVI.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ju ... alma-mater

[michael]

aral sea loses 80% of water in its eastern section w/in 4 years: wtf



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... cture.html

[will]

aral sea loses 80% of water in its eastern section w/in 4 years: wtf


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... cture.html

Looked at picture, thought "man, Michigan is looking really slender and arid".

[jkudler]

"Rapper C-Murder Convicted Of Murder"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/1 ... 56795.html

[flies]

Prof. Robert Smith? (the ? is part of his name) produces a mathematical model of zombie apocalypse and proposes an effective response:

http://elizabethrstark.com/2009/08/18/s ... er-run-us/

[Gaendaal]

""I have no reason to cut someone's head off, I've never cut someone's head off."

Man kills wife in 'knife fight' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hamp ... 320753.stm