WEIRD NEWS

How The Human Face Might Look In 100,000 Years

2013-06-09T08:48:00.002-07:00

100,000 years:Human face will have large forehead and saucer like eyes

A typical man and woman PHOTOS:COURTESY

-Adapted from Daily Mail

Just as the human face has evolved considerably since stone age times so it is expected to keep changing in the future.

Today the human brain is three times the size of our primate ancestors. As our brains grew so did our heads get bigger, our skulls expanded and our features became flatter.

Now with the advent of wearable technology, such as Google Glass, how will our heads and faces evolve in 20,000 years, 60,000 years and even 100,000 years from now?

According to Daily Mail, this was the question posed by artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm from MyVoucherCodes.co.uk when he quizzed Dr Alan Kwan, who holds a PhD in computational genomics from Washington University.

Based on their discussions Lamm has created a stunning series of images which display one possible evolution for the human race over the next 100,000 years.

Dr Kwan believes that key to our future evolution will be man ‘wresting control’ of the human form from natural evolution and adapting human biology to suit our needs.

As genetic engineering becomes the norm, ‘the fate of the human face will be increasingly determined by human tastes’ writes Dr Kwan, while fore heads will continue to expand as our brains continue to grow larger.

As man achieves total mastery over human morphological genetics, the human face will become heavily biased towards features that humans find fundamentally appealing: strong, regal lines, straight nose, intense eyes, and placement of facial features that adhere to the golden ratio and left/right perfect symmetry.

Dr Kwan believes eyes will grow 'unnervingly large' as the human race colonizes the solar system and people start living in the dimmer environments of colonies further away from the sun.

Eyes will also develop in other ways - that would seem startling from our viewpoint today - with new features including eye-shine enhance low-light vision and even a sideways blink from re-constituted plica semilunaris to help protect our eyes from cosmic rays.

Skin will also become more pigmented to help alleviate the damage by harmful UV radiation outside of the earth’s protective ozone.

Dr Kwan also predicts that people will have thicker eyelids and a more pronounced superciliary arch (the smooth, frontal bone of the skull under the brow), to deal with the effects of low gravity.

World’s Tiniest Chameleons Found in Madagascar

2012-02-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

Researchers have recently discovered four new chameleon species, which rank among the world’s tiniest reptiles. Adults of the smallest species are just over an inch from snout to tail.

The four new species belong to the genus Brookesia, also known as the leaf chameleons, which live in remote rainforests in northern Madagascar. The genus is already known to contain some very small species, with members typically resembling juvenile versions of larger species.

As small as these guys are, a super-tiny dwarf gecko found in the British Virgin Islands might be just a tad more wee.

Since the chameleons all look extremely similar, researchers used genetic analysis to determine that they belonged to separate species.

Brookesia species tend to live within a very small range. Half the members of this genus are found in only a single location and the smallest of the newly found species — Brookesia micra — lives only on a small island called Nosy Hara. Extreme miniaturization of this sort is common in island populations. Known as island dwarfism, it may occur due to limited resources and pressure to reproduce faster.

“The extreme miniaturization of these dwarf reptiles might be accompanied by numerous specializations of the body plan, and this constitutes a promising field for future research,” said herpetologist Frank Glaw, lead author of the study, in a press release. “But most urgent is to focus conservation efforts on these and other microendemic species in Madagascar which are heavily threatened by deforestation.

Pig with two snouts 'eats twice as much as its brothers and sisters'

2011-05-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

A greedy little piglet from northern China is making the most of eating double

the amount of her brothers and sisters – because she has two snouts.

This little piggy was born with the deformity of having two functioning mouths.

Its owner, farmer Bai Xuejin said: 'We knew something was different because her head was so large we had to help when her mother gave birth.

'I've been raising pigs for 15 years and I've never seen anything like this before.'

The squealer could not suckle its mother because of its unique facial figure, so Mr Xuejin had to raise it by hand until it was old enough to eat solid food.

'Both mouths function normally and so she eats and drinks through both of them which means she gets through a lot more food than her brothers and sisters,' he added.

Mr Xuejin, from Zhangjia in the Jilin province, is planning on saving her from the chop and putting her on show at his farm because people are fascinated by her.

He said: 'She is too special to end up on a plate.'

Camel swallows woman in pedicure mishap

2011-05-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Camels are well known for their voracious appetites - but this takes the biscuit

(along with the vet who was feeding it to him).

You'd think the fact that this camel appears to be eating a female vet would be weird enough for this picture.

But apparently, according to the agency who supplied this image, it shows the animal 'getting ready for a pedicure' in the United Arab Emirates.

Now - we all know camels, the 'Ships of the Desert' - are an important part of people's lifestyles in the Middle East. But a pedicure?! Really?

Don't even ask why the vet needs to climb into the camel's mouth to give it a pedicure - last time we checked, that was for nails.

As an afterthought - it must be pretty smelly in there.

This weird picture actually comes from a photo competition to mark the World Veterinary Year, used to highlight the important role vets play in the lives of people and animals across the world.

The vet being eaten by a camel came top of the 2,500 global entries, and we can see why.

It's certainly better than second place (not shown here), entitled 'Gorilla holding hands with vet'. Boring. Give us

Fashion inspired by animals and insects

2011-04-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

FASHION designers look to all kinds of things when drawing inspiration for their next collection, and some designers looked to animals and organisms for ideas.

From birds to insects to sea creatures, designers get creative with their fashion collections.

View some of the nature-inspired fashion here.

Bride Wears Dress Made With 99,999 Pearls

2011-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Peng Yu aged 58, runs a pearl company in Beihai, southern China’s Guangxi Province. He has applied to the British World Guinness Office for a very romantic and special world record for the dress made with the most pearls.

Although the people at Guinness have probably seen just about everything, considering the wedding gown not only took a year to complete but was also decorated with 99,999 pearls indicates that Peng might have a very good chance of winning!

The number nine is no accident to those who might wonder, why not 100,000 pearls? The way the number nine is pronounced in Chinese is the very same as the words, “long-term” or “forever.”

Peng’s first wife died years ago and his new bride, Yang Pingzhi, was overwhelmed with her groom’s love and generosity.

“Two years ago, when Yang agreed to marry me, I started to think what surprise I should give her?”

A Hong Kong designer created the dazzling gown, and Peng bought 99,999 light water pearls to adorn its body and edges. The pearls were sewn on, one by one, with the help of seven friends of the bride, a task which took one year alone to complete.

The wedding gown weighs nine kilos (about 18 pounds).

If finances ever get tight for the couple, the pearls on the dress might offer some economic solace, one at a time.

Happy pearls!

Man Washes Hair for First Time in 26 years

2011-04-18T02:04:00.001-07:00

80 year-old Mr. Luo lives in the little village of Chong Qing city in China. Wildly enough, he hasn’t washed or cut his hair or beard for more than 26 years.

His hair grew to 2 meters long and his beard was 1.5 meters.For the first time in 26 years, he decided to give himself a new look for a local animal sports event.

All the townspeople lined up to give him a hand. After many failed attempts using regular shampoo, they spent a total of 5 hours and 3 packs of laundry detergent to wash him clean.
In the end, Mr. Luo was a very happy man.

Two-Headed Tortoise Born In China

2011-04-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

A double-headed tortoise weighing only 17g (6 ounces) was recently found in Wuwei, Anhui Province, China.

Chinese scientists were shocked to discover a rare Mediterranean spur-thighed, two-headed tortoise among a shipment of baby tortoises ordered from a local farm where a worker was said to have bought it from a fisherman some two months ago.

They are currently studying this creature that is in good health and is being cared for by the scientists conducting the research.

Initially worried that the tiny mutant reptile would not survive, their fears have been allayed by the fact that in comparison to its siblings, which are all developing at a steady and very normal rate of growth at their home at the Water World Aquatic Farm in the town of Anhui in eastern China, this little baby is thriving and eating twice as much!

“We got it two weeks ago and it’s growing fast, probably because it can eat twice as fast as the others. It’s very rare to see a turtle with two heads, and we plan to keep it and raise it carefully for future research,” said Jimmy Hu, a Water World spokesman.

Is that old axiom about two heads being better than one really true?

Only time and possibly turtles will tell.

Two-Headed Tortoise Born In China

2011-04-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

A double-headed tortoise weighing only 17g (6 ounces) was recently found in Wuwei, Anhui Province, China.

They are currently studying this creature that is in good health and is being cared for by the scientists conducting the research.

Is that old axiom about two heads being better than one really true?

Only time and possibly turtles will tell.

Two Headed Turtle

2011-04-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

This unusual golden coin turtle, found in China, appears to be doing just fine.

A businessman from the city of Qingdao says he bought the reptile at an animal market last year.

The turtle’s two heads cooperate well and can even eat at the same time. Its owner says the reptile eats more than one-headed turtles do and has grown over the past year.

The creature most likely developed its unusual anatomy while still in the egg. Its embryo began to split in two, the process that gives rise to identical twins, but then failed to fully separate.

While uncommon, abnormalities caused by incompletely split embryos occur in many animal species, including fish, snakes, rats, cows, even humans, where the phenomenon leads to what are known as Siamese, or conjoined, twins.

Farmer dyes sheep orange to stop them being stolen

2011-04-17T22:36:00.003-07:00

The sheep’s strange colour makes them less prone to being stolen, apparently

John Heard put his 250 blackface ewes through a harmless dye to make them stand out and so less likely to be pinched.

‘It produces strange-looking sheep but it has done the trick and I haven’t lost one this year,’ said Mr Heard, who says 200 of his sheep have been stolen in the past few years.

'It works because they are so easy to distinguish making it easier for me and my neighbours to keep a wary eye out for them.'

Sheep-rustling has become a big problem, with ewes worth about £140 each.

The non-toxic dye eventually wears off the animals, who have been getting glances from bemused onlookers at their home on north Dartmoor, Devon.