2EveryDays

28 Dads That Have Parenting Down

2015-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Description: These awesome dads have this whole parenthood thing all figured out.

US Centcom's Twitter page hacked

2015-01-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Twitter site of the US military's Central Command has been compromised by hackers claiming to be working on behalf of fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Hackers filled the CENTCOM social media site on Monday with threats that said "American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back".

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate continues its CyberJihad," the Centcom Twitter feed said after being hacked.
Other postings appeared to list names and phone numbers of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps.
"We can confirm that the CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised earlier today. We are taking appropriate measures to address the matter," Central Command said in a statement.

The White House said it was monitoring the extent of the hacking incident.

President Barack Obama is preparing to outline new proposals to protect the United States from cybersecurity threats.
After the hacking, the heading of the Central Command Twitter account showed a figure in a black-and-white headscarf and the words "CyberCaliphate" and "I love you ISIS," using an acronym for the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL.
Central Command's YouTube account featured videos posted by the US military of air strikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq. It apparently was hacked to add two videos titled "Flames of War ISIS Video" and "O Soldiers of Truth Go Forth".
Central Command is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and handles US military operations covering the Middle East and Central Asia. Central Command oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is managing the US air strikes against ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria.
The attack comes on the heels of accusations by the US that North Korea launched a cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment in November.

The head of the FBI, James Comey, said last week he was confident Pyongyang carried out the attack, although North Korea has denied the accusations and called for a joint probe with Washington.

The US has imposed sanctions against three North Korean organisations and 10 individuals over the cyberattack.

A Plethora Of Physic Phenomena Outside An Airplane Window

2015-01-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Between ice crystals, raindrop lenses, and a setting sun, the physics is just packed into this photograph from an airplane window somewhere over the arctic.

This really is an admittedly dorky exercise, but one of the things I love about science is that it's absolutely everywhere. I've heard accusations that endless scientific explanations take the awe and beauty out of nature, but I find the inverse is true: understanding the patterns and rhythms enhances the beauty of everyday phenomena for me.

Ice crystals on airplane windows are frequently strange shapes, the crystal growth dictated by scratches and flaws on the window surface. The feathering growth is fractal with the pattern related to the mass and area of the aggregates.

Usually, anywhere that you find ice you don't find water, but in this particular photo the double-pane windows have a layer of ice outside and water droplets within. On the inner pane,each raindrop acts as a convex lens, replicating a miniature inverted copy of the view below.

Rayleigh scattering through the thick atmosphere sheds the shortest wavelengths of light, scattering blue for the skies above, while allowing longer wavelengths light to pass through and tint the sunset red.

And finally: the landscape itself. Assuming a typical airline cruising height of 12,000 m, a bit of math reveals the distant horizon is just under 400 kilometers away.

NASA's Exoplanet Travel Posters Have Us Planning Our Space Vacation

2015-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Where are you going on your next vacation? The beach? The Grand Canyon? Hiking in the mountains? NASA has a much better idea: How about an exoplanet? And, after seeing these gorgeously retro travel posters they've produced, we're ready to spacesuit up.

While we can't quite yet travel to an exoplanet ourselves, these posters from NASA's sadly not-yet-active Exoplanet Travel Bureau (presumably to be located somewhere out of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and also in my dreams), have us doing some seriously long-range vacation planning.

The artwork — that both seems to harken back to another long ago great age of space exploration (check out that white picket fence blocking off the forests of Kepler-186f or the long shadows of the astronaut surveying the corral on Kepler 16-b) while also looking ahead to the strangeness of just what we might encounter on an exoplanet — is particularly gorgeous.

Here are the three posters — along with descriptions of the three fabulously far-off destinations they represent:

Kepler-186f is the first Earth-size planet discovered in the potentially 'habitable zone' around another star, where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. Its star is much cooler and redder than our Sun. If plant life does exist on a planet like Kepler-186f, its photosynthesis could have been influenced by the star's red-wavelength photons, making for a color palette that's very different than the greens on Earth. This discovery was made by Kepler, NASA's planet hunting telescope.

Like Luke Skywalker's planet "Tatooine" in Star Wars, Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars. Depicted here as a terrestrial planet, Kepler-16b might also be a gas giant like Saturn. Prospects for life on this unusual world aren't good, as it has a temperature similar to that of dry ice. But the discovery indicates that the movie's iconic double-sunset is anything but science fiction.

Twice as big in volume as the Earth, HD 40307g straddles the line between "Super-Earth" and "mini-Neptune" and scientists aren't sure if it has a rocky surface or one that's buried beneath thick layers of gas and ice. One thing is certain though: at eight time the Earth's mass, its gravitational pull is much, much stronger.

This Curiosity Image Suggests Microbial Life Once Existed On Mars

2015-01-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

It may not look like much — just an old rock with dust on it. But after careful examination of this and other images taken of the Martian surface, a geobiologist is now claiming that these distinctive surface features could have only come from one source: microbes.

This isn't proof that life once existed on Mars. Far from. But it's certainly one of the more intriguing hypotheses we've seen in quite some time.

Working under the (fairly safe) assumption that Mars once featured extensive and persistent surface water, Old Dominion University geobiologist Nora Noffke examined photos taken by Curiosity as the rover traveled through the Gillespie Lake outcrop in Yellowknife Bay in hopes of finding signs of MISS — microbially-induced sedimentary structures.

"Microbial Mats"

These geological layers formed from "microbial mats" and can be found here on Earth in any number of environments, including tidal flats, lagoons, riverine shores, and lakes. Billions of years ago, these highly diverse microscopic communities of bacteria became trapped and were rearranged in shallow bodies of water. Their fossilized remnants are still identifiable today.

Noffke reasoned that if Mars once harbored early-stage microbial life, it probably looked a lot like Earth's early-stage microbial life, and that it would have left behind these tell-tale remnants.

Indeed, the Gillespie Lake outcrop would be a great place to look. It's one of many playas on the Red Planet — a dried up lakebed that was filled with water about 3.7 billion years ago. Noffke took a look at Curiosity's Gillespie photographs hoping to find similarities between similar structures here on Earth, specifically 3.48-billion-year-old MISS that she herself discovered in Western Australia's Dresser Formation. It's considered the oldest ecosystem ever found, and about 300 million years younger than previous finds. She also compared the images to sedimentary features found in Germany, the United States, and other locations in Australia.

Hard to MISS

In the ensuing study, Noffke shows dramatic similarities between Martian sedimentary structures found in the lakebed to microbial structures found on Earth. These features included geological remnants like cracks, chips, pits, pockets, domes, and roll-ups.

Looking at the overlay sketch above, Noffke documented various sedimentary features, such as an elevated planar surface (defined by a 3-4 cm "cliff" with triangle-shaped protrusions), flat clasts, several round-shaped depressions (many of which are surrounded by half-moon-shaped ridges), and larger lineations. These and other features, say Noffke, display a variety of sedimentary structures that have equivalent features to MISS that formed on Earth in similar environmental settings.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of Martian and terrestrial features. These images compare the elevated and planar surface portion visible on a rock bed.

Above is a comparison of sedimentary structures on a Martian rock bed (in a different location on the Gillespie playa) with those on Earth. As Noffke writes:

The rock bed surface on Mars [shown in A] displays two depressions associated with triangular structures and ridges; linear ripple-like features occur in the base of the larger depression. Terrestrial erosional pockets [shown in B] produced by erosion of a microbial mat–covered sedimentary surface in a modern setting. Note the elongated roll-up structure of the original microbial mat on the left side of the erosional pocket in the center of the photograph.

Here we see Martian features compared to microbial terrestrial erosion found at a site at Carbla Point, Western Australia.

Other Explanations?

Noffke concedes there could be other explanations, writing that "it is important to consider that the Martian structures may simply represent products of abiotic processes."

Pits, for example, could simply be wind-formed artifacts — the result of saltation of rock beds by pebbles blown in by strong winds. Flat clasts, fragments, and flakes of rock could have emerged from a process known as insolation. Cracks could have formed as the result of the precipitation of minerals, and so on. But as she points out in the paper, the similarities of so many features would "constitute an extraordinary coincidence."

To verify the hypothesis, Noffke has presented a four-step process to help find MISS on Earth and other planets:

Detection: the search for aquatic environments where microbial mats could have formed and been preserved
Identification: the ability to distinguish actual MISS from abiotic structures
Confirmation: the search for microscopic textures or structures in candidate features
Differentiation: the comparison of candidate structures with possible abiotic, but physically and chemically similar structures

"These steps were developed in order to cover the criteria of biogenicity of MISS that is required to prove definitively whether a candidate structure is of biological origin," she writes. "This search requires rover capability and could be conducted during the Curiosity mission as well as a part of any other astrobiology-focused rover mission to Mars."

An Exciting Hypothesis

Reservations aside, Noffke's hypothesis has a number of people excited. As noted in an Astrobio article:

"The fact that she pointed out these structures is a great contribution to the field," says Penelope Boston, a geomicrobiologist at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. "Along with the recent reports of methane and organics on Mars, her findings add an intriguing piece to the puzzle of a possible history for life on our neighboring planet."
[...]
"I've seen many papers that say 'Look, here's a pile of dirt on Mars, and here's a pile of dirt on Earth,'" says Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and an associate editor of the journal Astrobiology. "And because they look the same, the same mechanism must have made each pile on the two planets.'"
McKay adds: "That's an easy argument to make, and it's typically not very convincing. However, Noffke's paper is the most carefully done analysis of the sort that I've seen, which is why it's the first of its kind published in Astrobiology."

And as Noffke is quoted in the Astrobio article, "All I can say is, here's my hypothesis and here's all the evidence that I have, although I do think that this evidence is a lot."

The Weather Channel's Winter Storm Names Are a Cheap Advertising Ploy

2015-01-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

No credible agency in the United States names winter storms. That being said, The Weather Channel sent out a press release this morning announcing this year's list of winter storm names. The project continues the network's incredibly clever viewer-run advertising campaign.

The Weather Channel began naming winter storms back in 2012 as a way to help residents keep track of winter storms—the same reason we've given hurricanes proper names since the 1950s. However, The Weather Channel is the only outlet in the United States that acknowledges and uses these names, as the program is an advertising campaign meant to force you to tune in to their coverage.

The argument goes like this: blizzards that hit major metropolitan areas are widely remembered and often become part of local legend. We remember some major blizzards by the name they were given in the media—the 1993 Superstorm, the Blizzard of 1996, the President's Day Blizzard of 2002. After social media became prevalent, people started giving these storms "clever" names such as snowpocalypse, snowmageddon, and the classic #snOMG.

The Weather Channel, seeing the tendency for people to name storms on their own, decided to fill the void and come up with its own list of winter storm names. Unlike the hurricane name lists produced by the World Meteorological Organization, which use proper names submitted by member countries, the television network uses mythical and fictional figures to populate the list. This is how thousands wound up screaming about "Winter Storm Nemo" or "Winter Storm Janus" (which took on a life of its own thanks to poor graphics placement).

The criteria set forth by the network is clear as mud, and for good reason! Contrary to hurricane naming conventions—which provide a storm a name based on meteorological criteria, regardless of whether it's barreling towards New York City or harmlessly meandering in the open ocean—the network's meteorologists regularly state that they will name a winter storm when it's expected to have great impacts on a heavily populated area. That is, one inch of snow in Atlanta creates more of an impact that six inches of snow in Lanford, Illinois. The Atlanta storm could get a name while the middle-of-nowhere storm goes unmentioned. It's a clever way for The Weather Channel to only name winter storms where lots of people live. It's a ratings jackpot.

The Weather Channel's list of winter storm names is a brilliant, near-zero-budget advertising campaign that uses you as their mouthpiece. They knew that by going about these winter storm names unilaterally, with zero input from the weather community and attempting to force everyone to fall in line, that The Weather Channel would be the only one talking about "Nemo" or "Brutus" tearing through New York or Washington. When people go to the National Weather Service's website or check their WeatherBug app, they won't see anything about Winter Storm Skittlebip. The only place the public will hear those names is on The Weather Channel, so that's where they'll turn for weather coverage.

Clever, ain't it?

The list of names is irrelevant—suffice it to say, whenever it snows in a ratings-rich city, The Weather Channel will be there with graphics blazing—but don't take my word for it! Here's what Sam Champion, managing editor for The Weather Channel and anchor for the network's morning talk show AMHQ, had to say about winter storm names while he was still at Good Morning America (and a few months before The Weather Channel hired him):

Nothing says that the network is the "leader of the weather community" better than hyping up Winter Storm Gorgon. #idontplay indeed.

Vengeful Doe Attacks Old Man After He Shoots Her

2015-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

On January 2, a man in Wisconsin shot a deer with a bow and arrow. But did this deer—a doe—just roll over and die? Did she give up? No, she did not. Instead she attacked the 72-year-old and sent his old ass to the hospital.

"Apparently the man was going through some thick brush (to track the wounded animal) and the deer leaped out and went after him," Fond du Lac Sheriff's Officer Jeff Bonack told the FDLReporter. "The doe struck him in the leg with her head."

The man, who'd been hunting with family members, was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital, where his condition is unknown. But what about the hero deer?

"I'm guessing the deer got away," Bonack said.

Tell Us The Most Fascinating Story From Your Area's Local History

2015-01-06T21:22:00.000-08:00

There's national and even global historical events that we all generally learn about, but smaller locales also have their own histories that tend to be taught only to the people that live there. Today, we want to hear your favorite stories from your area's local history.

Tell us in the comments about a piece of local history from your city, town, or region. Be sure to tell us what happened, when it happened, and how it's remembered today — as well as any monuments, commemorative events, pictures or illustrations, or alternate versions of events that co-exist with the official version of the tale.

The Dark and Twisted History of the Children's Friend Society

2015-01-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

The Children's Friend Society is among the most misleadingly-named charities in history. Supported by wealthy Londoners in the 1800s, the group promised to "do something" about the appalling abundance of vagrant children in England. And they did do something: the children disappeared. What came next was horrifying.

The Vagrant Child Problem

In 1830, Captain Edward Pelham Brenton founded The Children's Friend Society, a group that he believed would help relieve the terrible suffering of the vagrant children of England. He was right that children needed help. Homelessness and hunger were rampant. Something needed to be done, and in his travels, he had seen the opportunities that life in the colonies could bring to young people. Across the oceans were decent jobs and cheap lodgings. But in England, labor was worth nearly nothing and the life of laborers not worth much more. Abandoned or orphaned children begged and stole.

Brenton's wrote a book, The Bible and the Spade, which outlined the moral influences that he thought needed to be brought into these children's lives. It became the guiding principle of his Children's Friend Society.

The society was popular among the London elite and in do-gooder circles.Two years into its tenure, The Children's Friend Society had taken in a large group of vagrant children. The children were loaded onto boats, never to see their homes again.

One boat was sent to the Swan River Colony in Australia. The colony had been founded in 1829, only a year before the society itself. By 1830, word came back that nearly all the ships that attempted to make the passage were damaged, if not wrecked, the colony was in shambles, the colonists were starving, and the land was impossible to cultivate. By 1832, when the children were sent, things had improved. The colonists weren't starving, but they were exhausted because making the land suitable for agriculture required back-breaking labor. That was what the children were for.

The other boatload of children went to Cape Town, in Africa. There, the children were able to work while pushing out the Dutch - who had previously had control of the colony - and engaging in border wars with the Xhosa tribe, who were also being pushed out by settlers. The voyages were considered so successful that, the next year, two more boatloads of children went out to Canada.

The Child Labor Tradition

Brenton's boats were far from the first to export child labor. In fact, his society was part of a two-hundred-year tradition. Jamestown was founded in Virginia in 1608. In 1615, when labor was short, Britain sent convicts to make up for the shortage. Then, in 1619, 1620, and 1622, vagrant children were shipped off instead of convicts. The year-long pause in the shipping in 1621 came because of public outcry, and a massacre of 350 Jamestown colonists.

By 1645, "spiriting" away poor children - some street kids, some not - had become a tradition. As had the tradition of giving syrupy names to the groups behind it. The Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England sent 200 kids from Bristol to the Americas as cheap labor.

But not everyone was won over by nice names. The mass kidnappings had finally prompted an outcry from English citizens, and so, in 1645, Parliament passed a law against forced emigration of children.

While the practice was no longer legal, it continued, despite efforts to register emigrants leaving on the ships. Reports of hundreds of children being kidnapped and shipped over to the Americas surfaced sporadically in the next few centuries. Scottish children seemed particularly targeted. In Aberdeen, in the mid-1700s, multiple public officials and business people were caught up in a forced emigration scandal, though it only led to a civil trial. American independence and a US population that had begun to expand stopped the flow of children to the Americas, but other colonies still needed labor. Again, societies started by exporting convicts, and moved to exporting children.

The End of the Orphan Trains

The 1800s made the forcible emigration of children popular. Most organizations that engaged in the practice were a strange mix of benevolent and malevolent. Ragged Schools - famous for providing free education to the poor and starting the concept of public education - received grants to send children to Australia. Poor Law Guardians, meant to see to the needs of those in debt or out of work, were legally allowed to send children to the West Indies. Orphan trains crossed the United States, essentially giving orphan children to whoever wanted them.

And then there were the Home Children. Annie Macpherson was a Quaker who could not abide the poverty she saw in the East End of London. She opened up a Home of Industry - a refitted cholera hospital - for 200 young street children. But there were always more children. Macpherson came to believe that emigration was the only option.

She personally accompanied parties of children to specially-built institutions in South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The institutions sometimes did their best to find the children loving, safe homes. And sometimes they did not. Children were often used as cheap, expendable farm labor. They were told their parents were dead, and that they had nothing to go back to. The child migration program continued well into the 1940s. During its course, it transported over 100,000 children.

Captain Brenton, of the Children's Friend Society, died in disgrace. His methods were reckless enough to bring down society's ire within his lifetime. But 100 of his "children" attended his funeral, and that was an image that endured. These societies managed to maintain themselves because they mixed some good in with a great social wrong. As long as no one was willing to build the children homes, and no one wanted to see them on the street, nobody cared too much about where they went.

10 Grossest Bug Parts, Ranked

2015-01-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

All insects possess the same fundamental body plan: A head, a thorax, and an abdomen. It is a testament to nature's twisted creativity that some of the grossest body parts in the animal kingdom can be found bursting, curling, and wiggling from these segments. Here are the 10 most repulsive insect body parts of all.

10. Trap-Jaw Mandibles (Trap-Jaw Ants)

Mandibles are pretty gross. And the grossest of all belong to the trap-jaw ant. This tiny little insect can snap its mandibles closed somewhere in the range of 35 to 64 meters per second (~78–145 miles per hour). In 2006, researchers at UC Berkeley used high-speed videography to determine that a trap-jaw's mandibles can accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, and exert a force powerful enough to send its body soaring through the air in a defensive maneuver known as an "escape jump" (seen above). The average duration of a trap-jaw clamp is just 0.13 milliseconds, making it among the fastest predatory strikes in the animal kingdom.

9. Over-/Under-Water Eyes (Whirligig Beetles)

At first glance, members of the Gyrinidae family of water beetles (aka "whirligig beetles") appear to have four compound eyes. In fact, these insects– which inhabit the surfaces of ponds and streams – have two eyes, each of which is split into overwater and underwater parts. Last year, researchers led by Vladimir Katanaev of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Protein Research analyzed the micro- and nano-structure of the split eyes of two genera of whirligig beetle and found the surfaces of the over- and under-eye sections to be very different from one another:

...corneae of the overwater ommatidia are covered with maze-like nanostructures, while the corneal surface of the underwater eyes is smooth. We further show that the overwater nanostructures possess no anti-wetting, but the anti-reflective properties with the spectral preference in the range of 450–600 nm. These findings illustrate the adaptation of the corneal nanocoating of the two halves of an insect's eye to two different environments.

8. Donal Trump Wig (Asp Caterpillars)

Lots of caterpillars are covered in spiky, spiny, colorful, and otherwise intimidating body parts, but my favorite form of predator deterrence belongs to the asp caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis), aka "the southern flannel moth." Not only is the asp caterpillar regarded as the most highly venomous caterpillar in North America, its furry coat bears an uncanny resemblance to Donald Trump's wig. But M. opercularis' mane is actually comprised of sharp spines. "The spines are connected to venom gland cells, and function like little hypodermic needles," writes Wired's Gwen Pearson. "The pain from injected venom is said to be intense, and lasts at least 12 hours." (Photo Credit: Phil Torres)

7. Butt-Fireworks (Planthopper Nymphs)

Upwards of 12,500 species of insects are classified as planthoppers (infraorder Fulgoromorpha). Many of them (MANY) look like they're shooting roman candles out of their butts. The sparklers, it turns out, are made up of wax, which nymphs are hypothesized to extrude for a variety of reasons.

6. Blood-Slurping Bendy Straw (Mosquitoes)

If the blood-draining kit of a mosquito strikes you as a bland addition to a list of gross insect parts, you obviously aren't familiar with the freakishly flexible mouthparts of Anopheles gambiaea, a major vector of malaria in West Africa.What looks like a single blood-sucking apparatus actually comprises six distinct mouthparts: A pair of mandibles, a pair of maxillae, a saliva-injecting hypopharynx and a bloodmeal-siphoning labrum. This video, captured by researchers in 2012, shows what happens when a mosquito taps into one of its host's blood vessels. (Fascinating/awful/terrifying fact: Mosquitos infected with malaria-inducing parasites spend more time probing for blood vessels than their uninfected counterparts.)

5. Alien Jaws (Dragonfly Nymph)

Actually, the grabby-grab mouthparts found on dragonfly nymphs aren't jaws at all. What you see here is a "labial mask," which the dragonfly nymph uses in concert with its anus (!) to acquire food. Here's Gwen Pearson, entomologist and Wired's resident bug expert:

The ability of a dragonfly nymph to successfully snatch and grab food is directly related to its anus. The mouth-grabber (labium) is hydraulically activated. The dragonfly draws water in through the anus, clenches, then compresses its abdominal and thoracic muscles against the water-filled rectal chamber. This raises the internal body cavity pressure, and pushes the labium out –in a strike that takes 10 to 30 milliseconds.

4. Leg Gears (Planthopper Nymphs, Again)

Many planthoppers possess small bumps on their trochanters – the points on their undersides where their two hind legs connect to their bodies. Recently, researchers Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton from the University of Cambridge observed that these bumps actually comprise the teeth of a high-speed, one-directional gear system (Photo Credit: Burrows et al.):

"This is to our knowledge the first time that proper, engaging, counter-rotating gears have been seen in the animal kingdom," says Sutton. Crocodiles have cog-like teeth in their heart valves, and the wheel bug and cog-wheel turtle have teeth on their shells. But none of these structures actually act like gears. "You never see one cog-wheel turtle sidle up next to another, engage their shells, and spin in opposite directions."

Planthoppers appear to lose the bumps when they become adults; Burrows and Sutton hypothesize that planthopper nymphs use them like training wheels – only, instead of learning to balance on a bike, nymphs use their gears to learn how to better balance the propulsive forces of their rear legs.

3. Rupturing, Wing-Mounted Baby Sacs (Giant Water Bugs)

A family of insects known colloquially as "giant water bugs," Belostomatinae are notable for their size, their flood-fleeing tendencies, and their eggs, which are typically laid on the wings of males and carried there until they hatch. Some of the eggs on the back of this water bug have hatched and guys I'm sorry but that's all I can really say about this because looking at this photo is making me physically uncomfortable. Seriously. The person beside me at the cafe I'm working at just made this face and left. (Photo Credit: Alex Wild)

2. Pheromone-Laced Party Horns (Moths)

Coremata (from the Greek for "feather duster") are the eversible, tubular organs found in the abdomens of some species of male moths. A type of "sex scale," coremata are covered in pheromone-releasing glands that are useful for picking up lady moths. Pairs hilariously well with party horn noises:

1. Head-Ball... Peduncle... Things (Brazilian Treehopper)

Photo Credit: Patrick Landmann

Another treehopper! This one is the Brazilian treehopper Bocydium globulare. The fuzzy balls projecting from the top of this insect's head-stalk aren't eyes (for that, see stalk-eyed flies), but teeny-tiny spheres of chitin. What those spheres of chitin do, however, is unclear. Here's Jerry Coyne v ia Why Evolution Is True:

A first guess is that it's a sexually-selected trait, but those are often limited to males, and these creatures (and the ones below) show the ornaments in both sexes. [Art Historian Martin Kemp, an expert on visualization in art and science] hypothesizes-and this seems quite reasonable-that "the hollow globes, like the remarkable excrescences exhibited by other treehoppers, probably deter predators." It would be hard to grab, much less chow down on, a beast with all those spines and excrescences.
Note, though, that the ornament sports many bristles. If these are sensory bristles, and not just deterrents to predation or irritating spines, then the ornament may have an unknown tactile function.

13 Mindful Ways To Make An Introvert Feel Loved

2015-01-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Introverts know this face.

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It’s the I’m-at-a-party-and-everyone-is-talking-and-having-fun-but-I’m-slowly-dying-inside look.

If someone special in your life happens to be of that quieter breed, there are conscientious and empathetic ways to bring them into the fold.

1. After an introvert stops talking, wait 3 seconds before you chime in.

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“Since introverts spend more time processing their thoughts internally, people tend to talk over them even when they have more to say,” introvert expert and Quiet Influence author Jennifer Kahnweiler, PhD., told BuzzFeed Life. Allow for a pause after they finish talking in case they have other ideas.

2. During an important talk, paraphrase some of their ideas to show that you’re listening.

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It’s important for introverts to feel heard. If you’re having a big discussion, express some of the things they’ve said in your own words, according to Kahnweiler. This shows that you are really paying attention.

3. Try to be more comfortable with silence.

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Seriously. If you feel like silence means that you are not fun enough or that you have nothing to contribute, reevaluate how you approach silence. Quiet time can be perfectly fine and dandy.

4. Say “I’m just thinking out loud here…” if you like to talk out your ideas.

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“When extroverts start thinking out loud, some introverts admit that their heads start to spin,” Kahnweiler says. Since introverts tend to share fully formed thoughts, it can be frustrating when someone (usually an extrovert) verbalizes every single thing on their mind. Prepare them for your think-fest before you start going down the rabbit hole and they can choose to tune you out.

5. Text them to figure out plans.

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“Texting gives introverts a chance to control how and when they respond,” Kahnweiler says. Calling on the phone may interrupt their thinking and throw them off.

6. Interrupting an introvert can feel like a stab to the heart.

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Since introverts put extra thought into what they are going to say, cutting off their ideas can feel like a physical wound. If you interrupt them, acknowledge that you cut them off and give them time to continue.

7. Start a conversation while you’re walking or driving.

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“There’s less eye contact, which can feel less confrontational,” says Kahnweiler. For some people, this will make it easier to open up.

8. Acknowledge their feelings—especially if you are about to do something you know they won’t like.

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Picture this: An introvert is talking to you about something they are really excited about, but you’re about to be late to dinner. What would be the best way to interrupt them without making them shut down? Try something like: “I know you don’t like to be interrupted, but I just wanted to let you know that we’re running late,” Kahnweiler explains. Acknowledge them before you make your point.

9. Write each other emails.

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Introverts tend to be really strong writers, according to Kahnweiler. If they are not sure how to talk about something with you, ask them if they would be interested in writing it out.

10. Talk with them one-on-one and then bring their ideas into a bigger group.

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If you’re having a nice conversation with an introvert, take note of what they talk at length about. Later, if you’re in a larger group with them, mention something that they had told you earlier. Since they had time to process their feelings on that topic, they might be more likely to share. Plus, you’re introducing them into the conversation rather than putting them in the stressful situation of deciding whether or not to chime in.

11. Make it easy for them to leave the party early.

FOX / Via guycodeblog.mtv.com

“Introverts tend to have limited social energy,” Introverts In Love author Sophia Dembling told BuzzFeed Life. If you notice an introvert shutting down, make an excuse about the time or say you’re feeling tired and guests should head out. An introvert will appreciate not always being the one who asks if it’s time to leave.

12. Ask specific questions.

FOX / Via glee.wikia.com

Since introverts don’t tend to be information dumpers, they might dive more readily into a conversation if there’s a jumping off point, according to Dembling. Ask them if there’s something that happened today that made them happy or if they had an interesting thought or observation that they’d like to share.

13. Balance out your activities with quiet time.

Jersey Films / Via hellogiggles.com

If you’re planning to go out to a loud restaurant or a club, try to do an energy-saving activity earlier in the day. Long drives, hiking, going to the movies, and reading are great ways to spend time together that aren’t a big energy suck, according to Dembling.

And show an introvert that you’ll be by their side.

giphy.com

Every step of the way.

This Woman Can Sing Multiple Notes At Once And It’s Pretty Mindblowing

2015-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

This is German singer Anne-Maria Hefele, who has filmed herself demonstrating some polyphonic overtone singing techniques, where you sing multiple notes at once.

“Overtone singing is a voice technique where one person sings two notes at the same time,” Hefele explained. She’s been practicing the technique for almost 10 years.

This Optical Illusion Tricks

2015-01-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

Created by Mary Coffelt and her colleagues at the Barrow Neurological Institute, this version ofAkiyoshi Kitaoka's "Bulge" illusion uses strategically placed white and purple M&Ms to warp your perception of a checkerboard built from legos of the same color. (Hit the jump to see a video of the Bulge illusion in action.)

[SciAm bwo Boing Boing]

The Horrifying Bizare Story Chicago Tylenol Murders of the 1982

2015-01-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

In 1982, six adults and one 12-year-old girl died of cyanide poisoning in Chicago after taking capsules of Extra Strength Tylenol. The person responsible has never been found. Here's how this terrifying crime changed the pharmaceutical industry.

I opened them up and looked inside. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. However, as I was pouring them out of the bottles, I could tell there was a strong smell of almonds.
— Investigator Nick Pishos, Cook County medical examiner's office

Imagine a time before tamper-proof seals, when pills were sold with just a cotton ball tucked beneath the lid. Whoever tainted the Tylenol in 1982 needed only to get ahold of a bottle, poison the capsules within, and sneak them back onto the shelves. And whoever bought the bottle would be none the wiser. The police determined that the perpetrator had done exactly this, because the pills came from different plants, and had been purchased at different Chicago stores.

The effects were devastating. The first victim was 12-year-old Mary Kellerman, who died September 29, 1982 after her parents gave her a Tylenol to help ease the symptoms of her cold. Next was 27-year-old postal worker Adam Janus, followed soon after by his 25-year-old brother Stanley and Stanley's 19-year-old wife, Theresa, whose grief-induced pain tragically led them to take Tylenol from the bottle that had killed Adam.

While investigators were puzzling over these deaths, more people succumbed to the poison.Mary McFarland was 31; her brother told the Associated Press that "she went in the back room and took I don't know how many Tylenol — at least one, obviously — and within minutes she was on the floor." Next came Paula Prince, a 35-year-old flight attendant whose fatal purchase was captured on Walgreens cameras, and Mary Reiner, 27, who had just given birth to her fourth child one week before.

Confusion reigned. In a retrospective compiled 20 years after the murders, no-nonsense public health nurse Helen Jensen told Chicago Magazine that she remembered grabbing a bottle of Tylenol at the Janus house: "I said, 'This is the cause.' And of course nobody would believe me. And I stamped my feet. They said, 'Oh, no — it couldn't be. It couldn't be.'"

Turns out Jensen was right. The victims had all taken Tylenol shortly before their deaths. Incredibly, the pills were "laced with potassium cyanide at a level toxic enough to provide thousands of fatal doses." Thousands of fatal doses, all inserted into capsules which were then carefully, deliberately left for a consumer who happened to have a headache, or a sore back, or a cold, and had no way of knowing they were buying into someone's sickeningly random game of Russian roulette. Who would do such a thing?

Terrifyingly, the culprit was never caught, though a few compelling suspects emerged; one was the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, who grew up near Chicago (he was cleared). Another was James W. Lewis, who became the prime suspect after writing a letter to Tylenol manufacturers Johnson & Johnson "demanding $1 million dollars for an end to the poisonings." (He was apprehended and spent 13 years in prison for extortion, but was never charged with the Tylenol murders).

Chicago police and Johnson & Johnson, naturally, responded swiftly to this PR disaster in the making.

Time recalls:

The deaths set off a nationwide panic, as stores rushed to remove Tylenol from their shelves and worried consumers overwhelmed hospitals and poison control hotlines. Chicago police went through the streets with loudspeakers, warning residents of the dangers of taking Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson, the drug's manufacturer, spent millions of dollars recalling the pills from stores.

The crime, still an open investigation, goaded the pharmaceutical industry into improving packaging for medicines. The "Tylenol terrorist" remains at large, and no motive was ever established. Some say it was the first act of domestic terrorism. Incredibly, the Tylenol murders inspired over 270 copycat tampering acts. As Crime Library recounts,

As a direct consequence of the Tylenol murders, Congress approved in May 1983 a new "Tylenol Bill" that made the malicious tampering of consumer products a federal offense. In 1989, the FDA set national requirements for all over the counter products to be tamper-resistant. [Author and crisis-management expert] Steven Fink summed up the feeling of the nation when he stated that, "whatever innocence we still had in the summer of 1982 was quickly shattered by the fall."

Red Mercury Exist or not???

2015-01-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

Three men have been cleared of trying to procure the raw ingredients for a "dirty bomb" which the prosecution claimed could have devastated a British city if it fell into the hands of terrorists. But mystery surrounds the material at the centre of the plot. So what exactly is red mercury?

If real, a red mercury bomb might cause radioactive devastation

The most bizarre aspect of the trial of Abdurahman Kanyare and his two co-defendants was the fact that no-one in the court could be certain whether the terrifying substance on which the entire prosecution case was based actually existed.
The prosecutor, Mark Ellison, admitted the police had no idea if there even was such a thing as red mercury - supposedly the main ingredient for a "dirty bomb" which could have devastated London.
But he told the jury at the outset: "The Crown's position is that whether red mercury does or does not exist is irrelevant."
He warned the jury not to get "hung up" on whether red mercury actually existed at all.
Mr Ellison said the fact was that the three defendants had hit upon a meaning for it as a substance which was highly dangerous and expensive, and they pursued it.
Urban myth
The indictment accused them of "conspiring together and with persons unknown to possess and article, namely a highly dangerous mercury-based substance, in circumstances which gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that it was to be possessed for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."
It emerged during the trial at the Old Bailey that red mercury was something of an urban myth, a substance which was either radioactive or toxic or neither, depending on who you spoke to.
Indeed some of the conversations between undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood and the prospective buyers were bordering on the farcical.
At one meeting in a shopping arcade in Edgware, north London both sides kept asking what it was that they thought the other side was there to buy or sell.
Mahmood kept repeating, probably for the sake of his covert recordings: "Now let's just make it clear what exactly it is you want to buy."
Kanyare replied: "You know what we're here for."
When he gave evidence Kanyare said he believed red mercury was a liquid which could be used to wash soiled money.
Summing up, The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, said: "He (Kanyare) told you that Muslim people from the Middle East are usually on the lookout for red mercury as a medicine, I thought he said for impotency but the other barristers thought he said it was for long life. Whatever it was, he said it was a faith medicine."

Kanyare testified that he had absolutely no interest in procuring a radioactive or toxic substance and would have had no means of testing it anyway.
Internet search
The trial heard that when detectives checked Dominick Martins' computer after his arrest they found evidence that he had been scouring the internet trying to find out about red mercury.
He was particularly interested by an article, by Dr Anne Marie Helmenstine, which was posted on the About.com website.
The article aired the various theories about what red mercury is without confirming whether or not it really existed at all.
The five main theories are:

That red mercury is a reference to cinnabar, a naturally-occurring mercuric sulphide. The red pigment derived from cinnabar is known as vermillion.

That it is a reference to the alpha crystalline form of mercury iodide, which changes to a yellow colour at very high temperatures.

That it is simply referring to any mercury compound originating from the former Soviet Union. The 'red' tag would simply be a legacy of the Cold War era.

That it is a ballotechnic mercury compound which just happens to be red in colour. Ballotechnics are substances which react very energetically when subjected to shock compression at high pressure. They include mercury antimony oxide which, according to some reports, is a cherry red semi-liquid produced in Russian nuclear reactors. This theory contends that it is so explosive that a fusion reaction - a nuclear explosion - can be triggered even without fissionable material such as uranium.

That it is a military codeword for a new nuclear material, probably manufactured in Russia.Interestingly Dr Helmenstine mentioned rumours of prices of up to $300,000 being charged on the black market for a kilogram of red mercury.
But is there any way of knowing if red mercury really did exist?
No bigger than a baseball
In the early 1990s, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, several articles were published claiming that a pure fusion device had been invented.
It reportedly weighed around 10 pounds and was no bigger than a baseball.
If such a device existed, and was capable of triggering a nuclear explosion, the threat to the world - especially the western world - would be catastrophic.
But no such bomb has been discovered and nobody - not even Osama bin Laden from his mountain base in Afghanistan or Pakistan - has even threatened to use one.
So is red mercury just a hoax?
Let us hope so.

Take A Crazy Eagle Tour Of London

2015-01-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

In celebration of its endeavors to secure imperiled species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up an astounding voyage through London by strapping a Gopro cam to the again of an Eagle. The result is an extremely noteworthy winged animals eye-perspective of the city's most famous points of interest.

The eagle flew by many of the capital's landmarks, including St Paul's Cathedral, City Hall, Tower Bridge, and the Olympic Park.

GM Hutton crashed his Hispano Suiza engined Minerva at Aspendale(Victoria)

2015-01-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

GM Hutton crashed his Hispano Suiza engined Minerva at Aspendale(Victoria) on 15th March 1924 -- but a Minerva isnt a Fiat, this car retained its distinctive Minerva radiator, its aero engine was Hispano Suiza not Fiat or Stutz, and the car was soon sold to NSW where in 1925 Don Harkness exceeded 100mph in it at Gerringong Beach. I cant find any other car closer in style than that to "an S76 which crashed in Australia in 1924"(or 1923,1925,1926...).

Doctor’s Reply to Companies Requiring a Medical Note for Sick Days is Absolutely Perfect

2014-12-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

This doctor is fed up with patients coming to him strictly to receive a written medical note, and for good reason… [via]

330 Pound Skateboarder Pulling Some Impressive Tricks

2014-11-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

This guy is a big middle finger to physics.

Angry Gamer Ruins Thanksgiving

2014-11-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

This angry gamer doesn't believe in god and won't say Grace before Thanksgiving dinner. Watch what happens next...

Simple Ideas That Are Simply Genius

2014-11-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Cup, which squeezes teabags

Portable Fireplace
Guard is freshly painted nails
Stool for proteins
Support for reading in the bathroom
French fries holder for car
Drinking bowl for dogs
Spray coating layer dish edible gold
Stickers, allows you to instantly find the thing that they are stuck with the help of mobile application
Pillow for those who like to sleep under her arm podsunuv
Means mounting to pan for easy pouring from her liquid products
Cup fondue
Up Piano
Device for pouring of heavy cans
SLR reading glasses lying
Nightlight rainbow
Raft for snacks and drinks with remote control
"Mixer" for alcoholic beverages
Superplastilin
This material can take any form, and after drying adheres to any surface.
Steel tablet for cooling
are absolutely inert and capable of coolant.
Balls for heating
They heat themselves and are able to heat the liquid in which they were placed.
Magnetic egg, forming a nest of paper clips
A device for sorting candy by color
Acquire these and many other fun products,

Deep Frying a Turkey Epic Fail Video

2014-11-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

Another guy attempts to deep fry a turkey on thanksgiving and fails.

Amazing Company Brings Kids Drawings to Real Life (25 Pics)

2014-11-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

A Company Called Budsies Takes Makes Real Life Toys Out of Childrens’ Drawings

Largest Ever Science Project Is Being Build – Nuclear Fusion Reactor

2014-11-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

The world’s most powerful countries are collaborating on the ITER project (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France. The $50 billion facility will heat gas to 150 million degrees in an attempt to create a nuclear fusion reaction when it becomes fully operational in 2027.

Concept Car from VW Looks Futuristic and Out of a Game

2014-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Volkswagen’s GTI Roadster Concept debuted in Gran Turismo 6, but a real working model of the car was unveiled this week at the LA Auto Show. It goes from 0-60mph (96km/h) in just 3.5 seconds and has a top speed of 192mph (309km/h). Click here to view the first image in this week’s funny school pictures gallery. Continue reading for a viral video of the first real Apple Store in London.