Can Animals Be Gay?
“In recent years, more biologists have been looking objectively at same-sex sexuality in animals — approaching it as real science.”
In my opinion, if a human being can be gay, why is it so difficult for scientists to believe any organism could be?
(via New York Times)
Tuesday, April 6th 2010 11:21am
37,000 year old fully intact baby woolly mammoth.
The frozen body of a baby woolly mammoth discovered last year in Arctic Russia has provided the first detailed internal look at a prehistoric mammal, scientists report. The oxygen-deprived environment of its final resting place, likely a watery marsh or bog, prevented decay and kept it intact save for only its tail and shaggy coat.
(via National Geographic)
Sunday, March 7th 2010 6:51pm
A Base for War Training, and Species Preservation
“Even as it conducts round-the-clock exercises to support two wars, Fort Stewart spends as much as $3 million a year on wildlife management, diligently grooming its 279,000 acres to accommodate five endangered species that live here.
The military has not always been so enthusiastic about saving endangered plants and animals…But base commanders have gradually realized that working to help species rebound is in their best interest, if only because the more the endangered plants and animals thrive, the fewer restrictions are put on training exercises to avoid destroying habitat”
(via The New York Times)
Sunday, February 21st 2010 2:18pm
A Harvard professor decide to map the Milky Way as a Tubular Transit System. It started when a group was opining that you would need a map to transit the Milky Way providing you had suitable transport.
Thursday, February 18th 2010 7:19pm
The Orgasm Gap
“Women and men are more ambivalent about the importance of women’s sexual pleasure [outside] of relationships,” says England. “Our findings suggest that both women and men have absorbed a notion that women are entitled to sexual pleasure in a relationship, but not necessarily in casual scenarios.”
(via The Daily Best)
Tuesday, January 26th 2010 9:44am
Jigokudani, Japan: In sub-zero temperatures Japanese macaque monkeys soak in the warmth of a mountain hotspring (via The week in wildlife | Environment | guardian.co.uk)
Thursday, January 14th 2010 6:19pm
Thursday, January 14th 2010 10:30am
The Eyewriter
Behold the latest ocular assault weapon from the Graffiti Research Lab, openFrameworks, The Fat Lab and The Ebeling Group: The EyeWriter. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus + custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.
The goal of the hardware component of the EyeWriter project is to make the most simple and inexpensive eye-tracking head-set possible to use with the “EyeWriter” software suite. Obviously, there are numerous ways to make eye-tracking hardware. Many of these designs, especially those produced for academic research projects (Open Eyes ), have already been published openly on the internet.
Our functional design specifications are as follows:
1. The EyeWriter should be as inexpensive as possible
2. The fabrication and assembly of the system should require only common hand tools
3. Whenever possible components and parts should be available for purchase locally versus online
4. The camera should produce 640 x 480 NTSC video
5. The camera should be sensitive to near-field IR light
6. The camera should not auto-iris (or auto-iris should be disabled in the camera’s driver).
7. IR LEDs should be used to illuminate the pupil
Beyond that its up to you… this instruction set details a solderless variation of the EyeWriter that uses a hacked PS3 Eye and a pair of stunnas we bought on Venice Beach and suggests other possible EyeWriter configurations.
(via Make Zine and Anne Montone)
Thursday, November 19th 2009 12:03pm
