Party Like It's 2012
Photos of New Year's Eve celebrations around the world: http://www.life.com/gallery/53581/new-years-around-the-world?iid=home|themanyfacesof#index/0
Moon Shot
NASA's twin spacecraft, launched in September, should be in position around the moon by New Year's Day, ready to give us the most detailed information we'll have about any celestial object, including our own planet: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20898-probes-launch-to-study-moons-interior.html
Standing the World on Its Head
How to create your own camera obscura (video): http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/camera-obscura/camera-obscura-video?source=fophotoleft1
What's Your EQ? ... What IS EQ?
A quiz that might help you determine whether you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur ~ and shares some interesting statistics and facts along the way (from Northwestern Mutual Life). N.B., Don't click where it says to. The quiz is just below that, on the same page: http://diydollars.com/self-employment-news/whats-your-eq-determine-your-entrepreneurial-quotient/
Remember Your Omega 3s
U.S. researchers have found preliminary but compelling evidence that diet can influence one's chances of developing Alzheimer's. Among those studied, people with high levels of vitamins ~ specifically B, C, D, and E ~ and omega 3 in their
blood had a larger brain volume than those with
high levels of trans fat: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16344228
Knitly News
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| Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy |
Good and Clean
A list of some of the most interesting ~ and promising ~ clean-technology developments of the last year (story and videos): http://www.care2.com/causes/top-6-clean-tech-innovations-of-2011-slideshow.html
Switching Gears
Not only does the Prius X Parlee bike, or PXP, read your mind (with the help of a special helmet and app), but it remembers where on your route you shifted gears: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Tech/2011/1101/The-Prius-of-bicycles-switches-gears-by-reading-your-mind
Hot Foods
Even though it's sponsored by (*shiver*) Monsanto, this column predicting the top food trends of 2012 is interesting and probably pretty right-on: http://www.foodnutritionscience.com/
Fashemon
We should be together/Like the walls and ceiling/Like a door and doorknob/Like the hat on your nob ~ so sang the charming little Shirley Temple many moons ago. While those pairings seem fairly obvious, here's one that doesn't but still makes sense, in a useless-and-yet-vaguely-entertaining kind of way: http://pokexfashion.tumblr.com/
An A for IQ
Between 1955 and 1972, Norway increased the amount of time its children spent in school from seven to nine years. This coincided with an increase in their average IQ. Coincidence?: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16320306
Meet Anthony Knivet
English sailor, pirate, shipwreck victim, slave, slave trader, tribal guest, and autobiographer, Anthony Knivet (1591-1649) was among the first to describe pre-colonial Brazil: http://www.economist.com/node/21541711
Listen to Your Mütter
Welcome to Philadelphia's Mütter Museum, home to preserved fetuses, dried skin, and other fascinations, including part of Einstein's brain. Be sure to check out the "Guess What's on the Curator's Desk" and "Mütter Minute" videos (plus, at the online store, you can get an umlaut button and a replica of Dr. Koop's bow tie)!: http://www.collegeofphysicians.org/mutter-museum/
Beethoven's ear
Ludwig van Beethoven's compositions have always been divided into three periods. Now researchers at the University of Amsterdam have shown that those periods coincide with the deterioration of his hearing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16283109
Next Wave in Christmas Cards
British marine scientist Dr. Richard Kirby used his photos of plankton, starfish larva, and other oceanic creatures to create a unique and beautiful Christmas card: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077363/Christmas-card-tiny-sea-creatures.html
Less Water, Water All Around
New satellite data show just how much less groundwater there is in many areas around the world, especially California, India, the Middle East, and China: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337097/title/Groundwater_dropping_globally
Deus as Machina
Just the Facts
Another rant against standardized testing ~ valid, but the real issue (IMHO) is the "teaching to the test" it engenders: http://www.utne.com/Mind-Body/Graduating-From-Standardized-Tests-Secondary-Education-Reform.aspx
Crop Tops
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The Ones to Watch
Forbes's list of "30 Under 30" includes Ronan Farrow, the only biological child of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, now a humanitarian activist: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2011/12/19/the-30-under-30/
It's a Stalled World After All
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| David Gray, Reuters |
Ten years ago, a Thai company started building WonderLand, a kind of Disneyland, in a village about 20 miles from Beijing. The deal fell apart, and the hulls of the buildings were left to rust and decay ~ and provide photographers with bizarre, ghostly images: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/travelnews/2011/12/pictures/111222-china-fake-disneyland-disney-world-travel/
Like a Rolling Stone
One question answered begets another, just as puzzling. Some of Stonehenge's stones, weighing 3 to 5 tons, came from 160 miles (257 kilometers) away: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/12/111222-stonehenge-bluestones-wales-match-glacier-ixer-ancient-science/
Light Up the Holidays
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| A tram in Milan |
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| Macy's |
The 99%'s (average) 2.5%
Hey! Here's a holiday gift idea! Let the folks over at 23andMe (https://www.23andme.com/ancestry/ ) test your DNA for the Neanderthal gene. FYI, the average carried by modern humans is 2.5%: http://io9.com/5869800/new-dna-test-will-reveal-if-youre-part-neanderthal
In a Galaxy Far, Far Away
NASA scientists are looking at a galaxy as it was 12.9 billion light years ago, almost at what we think was the beginning of time. Even though it's 100 times less massive than our Milky Way, it's creating about 30 times as many stars every year: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-392&cid=release_2010-392&msource=11392&tr=y&auid=10061865
Superb Secret Santas
Some true Samaritans have been going into stores like Kmart and paying off the layaway bills of total strangers. To borrow a line from Tiny Tim, God bless them, every one: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LAYAWAY_SANTAS?SITE=MIBAX&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Stress? What Stress? :P
A few ideas/reminders that may help make the season calmer and more enjoyable for everyone: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-reznick-phd/7-holiday-stress-busters-_b_1136420.html
Dear Country
A few years ago, VICE founder Shane Smith managed to get into North Korea and even film bits of it. Herewith, The VICE Guide to North Korea (video): http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3
Cloud vs. Black Hole
A distant battle with a predetermined end will take place, probably in the year 2013, when a giant gas cloud spirals ever closer to the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy ~ and we'll be there to watch the decimation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16178112
Stealing Banksy
Yes, it's true!: A hotel group in Australia is putting up a $15,000 Banksy somewhere in its hotels and challenging guests to steal it. Whoever succeeds in snatching it without getting caught gets to keep it: http://www.artserieshotels.com.au/stealbanksy/
Trashy Cruise
What could be more exciting, more adventurous, more romantic than a cruise to the lovely, the fascinating, the inspirational ocean garbage patch, now featuring debris from Japan's tsunami?: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/travelnews/2011/12/111215-tsunami-debris-field-travel-science/
Occupy Dickens
The Occupy movement is alive, to begin with, and its message has been melded with Charles Dickens's in a new Christmas Carol. Makes absolute sense, when you think about it: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-occupy-christmas-carol-20111217,0,2712360.story
Angel in Disguise
Imagine Peace
Harvard professor Steven Pinker has written a new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, in which he argues that, far from what we may believe after viewing the evening news, we are actually living in a very peaceful era (video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HYATuH18iA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HYATuH18iA
Influential as the Dickens
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a
far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. ~ from A Tale of Two Cities
A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House. Was there ever an author more prolific, more influential, more esteemed than Charles Dickens? With his 200th birthday in plain sight (Feb. 7, 2012), the BBC lists "Six Things He Gave the Modern World": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16184487
A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House. Was there ever an author more prolific, more influential, more esteemed than Charles Dickens? With his 200th birthday in plain sight (Feb. 7, 2012), the BBC lists "Six Things He Gave the Modern World": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16184487
The More Things Change ...
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| Predicted percentage of ecological landscape
being driven toward changes in plant species by 2100. NASA/JPL-Caltech |
"Our study introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological implications of a few degrees of global warming," said study leader Jon Bergengren. "While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it's the ecological consequences that matter most." http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-387&cid=release_2011-387&msource=11387&tr=y&auid=10010673
Before Steve Jobs ...
... before Bill Gates, there was Robert Noyce, who turned 84 on Dec. 12. Who is he? Just the co-inventor of the humble microchip, among other things, and mentor to many of Silicon Valley's finest (ignore the typos and grammatical errors): http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2011/1212/Robert-Noyce-Why-Steve-Jobs-idolized-Noyce
How To Pack a ひるごはん
In the competitive world that is Japan, moms are taking classes on how to pack an artistic lunch for their progeny. Be the first on your block to construct stars' faces out of rice and seaweed (it only takes two hours): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16069217
'You're a Rat.' 'Why, thank you!'
And we thought we were the only ones with empathy and a moral code. Rats will free a trapped rat and even leave food for him/her: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336819/title/He%E2%80%99s_no_rat%2C_he%E2%80%99s_my_brother
Time for Bed
Envious of those who can get by on four hours' sleep? Just tinker with your ABCC9 gene, and you can join that vivacious group (but seriously now, do you really want to?): http://www.hindustantimes.com/Lifestyle/Wellness/Why-even-4-hours-of-sleep-is-enough/Article1-774229.aspx
No Longer Left Behind
More research has been done recently on left-handedness, and the results are fascinating. New theories as to why 10% of the population is left-handed and 1% is mixed-handed confirm some traditional theories but dispel others. One interesting fact ~ Six of our last twelve presidents, including Barack Obama and George H. W. Bush, have been lefties: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204083204577080562692452538-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNzEwNDcyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email
And Justice for All
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Young Talent
Meet the winners of this year's Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, headed by 17-year-old Angela Zhang, who came up with a nanosystem for the treatment of cancer stem cells: http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/competition/2011_winners.htm#2
App, App, Baby!
BBC's review of some great websites and apps (video): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9658183.stm
Sugar ... Ah, Honey, Honey
One cup of Honey Smacks, Golden Crisp, or Wheaties Fuel has more sugar in it than a Twinkie, according to a list by the Environmental Working Group. Check out the rest of the tested cereals: http://breakingnews.ewg.org/report/sugar_in_childrens_cereals/more_sugar/
Total Lunar Eclipse Dec. 10
... and we on the West Coast will get the best view! It all starts at 4:45 a.m. and ends at around 8 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 10: http://www.space.com/13874-total-lunar-eclipse-dec-10-preview.html
Beijing is No. 1
And you thought L.A. was bad: Beijing is suffering through its third day of some of the worst smog ever (video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15549889
Last Supper, New Threat
Da Vinci's masterpiece is well protected from theft and outdoor air pollution, but a new threat has surfaced, and it has to do with you and me: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336675/title/Saving_the_Last_Supper
The Hottest Hot Chocolate
It IS that season! The results of a taste test of 15 hot chocolate brands reveal the very best: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/the-best-hot-chocolate_n_1126386.html
Beneath the Ice
It took ships, planes, satellites, and dog-drawn sleds, but scientists have put together an updated, very detailed map of the rock bed under all that ice and snow in the Antarctic (story, video, and animation):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15735625
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15735625
A Model Model Train
The Miniatur Wunderland, in Hamburg, Germany, has more than 800 trains crossing countries like Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, the United States, and of course Germany, for the edification of the Wunderland's over 200,000 inhabitants (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpI_wNTRqV0
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