Most Acidic Acid

Acid is scary stuff; they gave one of the scariest movie monsters ever acid blood to make it scarier than just a simple killing machine (the Alien), so it’s pretty ingrained in our psyche that getting dissolved is bad. If the Aliens had been filled with fluoroantimonic acid, they not only would have probably fallen through the floor until they hit dirt, the vapors given off by their dying bodies would have killed everyone around them. It is 21019 times more powerful than sulphuric acid, and can even eat through glass. And it explodes when exposed to water. And when it is reacting, it gives off poisonous fumes that can kill everyone in a room.

3D Television

You may have wondered to yourself, “How do 3D glasses work?” With the current interest and development of 3D televisions and programs, many people are beginning to grow more curious about the technology behind it. This article will explain how the glasses allow you to see in 3D. And, with one exception, you won’t encounter any technical jargon. So, read on to get a clear and easy-to-understand explanation of how 3D glasses work.


Why You Need Glasses to Watch 3D-TV

3D-TV glasses work by presenting slightly different images to the left and right eye. The technology is known as alternate-frame sequencing. The images are not presented at the same time though. Instead, the left eye first gets an image then the right eye, then the left again, and so on.

When one eye receives an image, the other gets blocked by the 3D glasses. However, the blocked eye doesn’t notice because it happens too fast to see. It’s like trying to watch the wings of a humming bird. They move so fast, you can’t tell when they’re up or down. This alternating effect works together to present slightly different versions of the same image. The difference matches the way your eyes normally see objects in the real world.

Why 3D Glasses Need Batteries for 3D-TV

Some people have wondered why 3D glasses need batteries in order to work. It used to be common in earlier forms of 3D programs that red and blue lenses were used to present a 3D effect. The old type of 3D glasses did not need batteries. The reason modern 3D glasses need batteries is due to the newer technology.

To properly render a 3D presentation without the red and blue colors, the glasses must be sequenced to the images presented on the television. So, when the image for the left eye is shown, the glasses need to block the right eye from seeing it. The same is true for the next image which is made to be seen by the other eye.

In order to make sure each eye sees the correct image, the glasses receive a wireless signal from the television. It tells the glasses when to block one eye and open the other. Once again, it happens so quick that your eyes don’t notice they’re being blocked back and forth. The reason the glasses need the batteries is because they power the tiny wireless receiver inside the glasses. It’s the same reason your remote control needs batteries.

Will There Ever be a 3D-TV that Doesn’t Need Glasses?

The answer to that question is a resounding, “Yes!” Designs are already underway for 3D television sets that require no glasses at all. Toshiba is one of the companies leading the development. The technology is still crude and suffers from some limitations about how far away you need to sit from the TV. However, Toshiba is expecting to begin delivering properly working televisions by the year 2015.

Atomic Blast

Amazing Photos of an Atomic Blast (taken at 1/1000,000,000 of-a-second)

Harold Edgerton built a special lens 10 feet long for his camera which was set up in a bunker 7 miles from the source of the blast which was triggered Nevada - the bomb placed atop a steel gantry anchored to the desert floor by guide wires. The exposures are at 1/100,000,000ths of a second.


In a millisecond the blast expands; lightning caused by the force of the energy travels down the guide wires The desert floor was turned to glass.





In another millionth of a second, a planet of fire exists, silhouetting and dwarfing the Joshua Trees.

Dream facts

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious experiences in our lives but what do we actually know about dreams? Here are some interesting facts that you probably didn't know.

You Forget 90% of Your Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10 minutes, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream, he put pen to paper and began to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English's most famous poems: Kubla Khan.

Blind People also Dream

People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body's need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

Men and Women Dream Differently

Every human being dreams but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition, both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow.

You Can Experience an 0rgasm in Your Dream

You can not only have s e x as pleasurable as in your real life while dreaming, but also experience an o r g a s m as strong as a real one without any wet results. The sensations felt while lucid dreaming can be as pleasurable and strong as the sensations experienced in the real world.

We Only Dream of What We Know

Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts – did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces – they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

Not Everybody Dreams in Color

full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.

Dreams Prevent Psychosis

In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the student's brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage.

Animals Dream Too

Studies have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.

Body Paralysis

During REM sleep the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements which occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens.

Dream Incorporation

Our mind interprets the external stimuli that our senses are bombarded with when we are asleep and make them a part of our dreams. This means that sometimes in our dreams we hear a sound from reality and incorporate it in a way. For example you may be dreaming that you are in a concert while your brother is playing a guitar during your sleep.

Precognitive Dreams

Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from 63% to 98%.

If You Are Snoring, Then You Can Not be Dreaming

This fact is repeated all over the Internet, but there is no scientific evidence to support it.

Craziest Things To Fall From the Sky

 A rain of spiders in Argentina

In April 6, 2007, a rain of spiders falls from the sky in Salta Province, Argentina. Christian Oneto Gaona and his friends decided to take a trip to Salta Province during their Easter vacation. They started to hike into the San Bernardo Mountain and two hours later, they found the ground around them was blanketed with spiders of many colors, each about four inches across. They found more and more spiders along their way up the mountain. They looked up, and saw numerous spiders falling from the sky. Christian became probably the first person in the world who caught this weird rain on camera.

 A cow that fell from the sky in Japan

In 1997 a Japanese fishing trawler was rescued in the Sea of Japan. They claimed that a cow fell out of the sky, struck the boat, causing it to sink. The crew members were immediately put in jail. About 2 weeks later the Russian Air Force informed the Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had stolen a cow thinking they would have beef for some time. Of course the cow was not fond of its close surroundings and began to thrash about. To save the aircraft and themselves, at about 30,000 feet, the crew shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they were flying over the sea of Japan.

 A rain of blood in Colombia

In 2008 a red rain that was certified by a local bacteriologist to be blood fell on a small community of La Sierra, Chocó. A sample was collected and taken to the nearest town, Bagadó, where it was analyzed. The priest of the hamlet says it's a sign from God that people will have to change their sinful ways.

 A star jelly rain in Scotland

In 2009, a jelly rain fell in Scotland. Scientists commissioned by National Geographic carried out tests on, but they have so far failed to find any DNA in it. Theories for the origins of "star jelly" abound, one of the most plausible theories is that star jelly is regurgitated frog or toad ovaries, vomited by buzzards or herons as it is indigestible, others refer to the remnants of a meteor shower or even a fungus.

 A rain of worms falls from the sky in the USA

Jennings Police Department employee, Eleanor Beal was just crossing the street to go to work when something dropped from the sky. The sky wasn't falling. She says it was worms, large tangled clumps of them. Where they came from is a mystery, but some believe that a water spout spotted less than five miles away at that same time near Lacassine Bayou could have something to do with it.

 A multi-coloured snow that fell over Siberia

In the Omsk region, about 1,400 miles east of Moscow, smelly orange, yellow and green snow fell in 2007.

 A rain of fish in a desert town in Australia

Lajamanu sits on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometers from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliott and even further from the coast. But it's not the first time the remote community has been bombarded by fins from above. In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in this opportunity the freak phenomena happened not once, but twice in February 2010. "Hundreds and hundreds of small white fish had fallen alive from the sky everywhere", a witness said.

 A rain of money in Germany

In 2007 a German motorist saw money flying through the air in her rear view mirror. She pulled over and tried to collect all the notes, unsuccessfully. When police went with her to the scene they could not find any more cash. The money's origin is unknown.

 A starlings' rain in England

In the Somerset village of Coxley near Wells, over a hundred starlings dropped dead from the skies over Julie Knight's garden on March 2010.

 A fresh meat rain in USA

In March 9, 1876, a shower of meat fell near the house of Allen Crouch, who lived near Olympian Springs, covering a strip of ground about one hundred yards in length and fifty wide. The sky was perfectly clear at the time, and she said it fell like large snowflakes, the pieces as a general thing not being much larger. Two gentlemen, who tasted the meat, express the opinion that it was a either mutton or venison.

Lab LIFE

A team of scientists in the United States, including three researchers of Indian origin, has created life in the laboratory. In a profound — and some would say provocative — work, the 24-member team at the privately held J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created bacterial cells completely controlled by genes manufactured in the lab. The cells can multiply.

The construction of the first selfreplicating bacterial cells opens the way for making and manipulating life on a previously unattainable scale, calling into question some of the very basis of creation. Previously, scientists have manipulated DNA piecemeal to produce genetically engineered plants and animals. But the ability to artificially design an entire genome — the ‘book of life’ that controls an organism’s functions — puts a different spin on the meaning of terms such as creation, evolution and life.

JCVI, a not-for-profit genomic research organisation based in Rockville outside Washington DC and in San Diego, California, did not say when exactly its team synthesised the 1.08 million base pair chromosomes of a modified Mycoplasma mycoides, a parasite bacteria that lives in cattle and goats. But it said the synthetic cell, called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVIsyn1.0, “is the proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new selfreplicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome”. The most remarkable thing about the synthetic cell, a scientist explained, is that its “genome was brought to life through chemical synthesis, without using pieces of natural DNA”.

The implications of the breakthrough were not lost on institute founder J Craig Venter, the biologist-entrepreneur most famous for his role in sequencing one of the first human genomes. “We’ve been consumed by this research, but we have also been focused on addressing the societal implications of what we believe will be one of the most powerful technologies and industrial drivers for societal good. We look forward to continued dialogue about the important applications of this work to ensure that it is used for the benefit of all,” he said. The 24-member team includes three scientists of Indian origin — Sanjay Vashee, Radha Krishnakumar and Prashanth P Parmar.

The first synthetic cell did not come cheap or easy. The process of constructing and booting up the cell took nearly 15 years and cost upwards of $30 million, JCVI said. Man MAKES LIFE US geneticist Craig Venter and team create life form powered by manmade genes — a bacteria whose entire genome was made in the lab from 4 bottles of chemicals. It’s being dubbed one of the most important scientific achievements in history.


What It Promises

‘Designed’ algae that can eat up CO2 , bacteria to make bio-fuels and clean up toxic waste, new vaccines & foods.


The Fears

Could create bio-weapons, escaped artificial bugs could wreak havoc, man could ‘play God’ 3 Indians in the team: Sanjay Vashee, Radha Krishnakumar & Prashanth P Parmar Life in lab: Turning point in man-nature relationship.

Washington: Ethicists called the life in the laboratory breakthrough a “turning point in the relationship between man and nature” when humankind had generated life from scratch in a lab with the ability to pre-determine its properties. But J Craig Venter Institute scientists were careful to point out the positives in the breakthrough, maintaining it would “undoubtedly” lead to the development of many important applications and products including biofuels, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, clean water and food products. Institute founder J Craig Venter said he and the team at JCVI continue to work with bioethicists, outside policy groups, legislative members and staff, and the public to encourage discussion and understanding about the societal implications of their work and the field of synthetic genomics generally.

Biofuels

Last year's record high oil prices have renewed mainstream interest in alternatives to fossil fuels. Current products like corn-based ethanol, with its quick-burning consistency and negative effect on global food prices, might soon be seen as a hiccup in the story of sustainable, green fuels. A new generation of bio-fuels, as well as new approaches to established fuel sources, are making a cleaner, greener future seem like more than a mere pipe dream.

Jatropha

Jatropha is the new darling of the bio-diesel movement. The bush-like plant grows in semi-arid and rocky regions where agriculture is impossible. Its seeds contain large amounts of oil, which is extracted and converted into usable fuel. Jatropha has already been tested in airplanes. Air New Zealand was the first to complete a successful test flight using a jet-fuel/jatropha-fuel mixture in one engine.

Algae and Switchgrass

Algae is another promising bio-fuel source. It can produce 15 times more oil than corn has the ability to grow virtually anywhere – freshwater, salt water, even polluted or contaminated water.

Fat growing switchgrass isn't able to produce the amazing amount of oil that algae is, but the hearty plant that populates fields in Middle America is a readily available, non-food alternative to current corn and sugar-based fuels.

Used Cooking Oil

Recycling waste products as fuel is the dream of every environmentalist. Some mechanically savvy drivers have found a way to convert their diesel engines to run on vegetable oil. The process of preparing this fuel requires a little chemistry skill, but this is the best avenue for individuals who want greener cars but don't want to wait for the R&D process that the other fuels on this list will need to undergo before they hit the mainstream.

Corn, Sugarcane, and the Future

People might disagree that corn-based fuel is fading from importance. Farmers and venture capitalists who invested in the ethanol industry certainly don't want their product to be overtaken by these next-generation upstarts. Perhaps the answer lies in the husks and stalks of corn plants, which have sugars that can be converted into fuel by a process that is only a bit more complicated than the one currently used to make fuel from the kernels.

Brazil has invested in ethanol made from sugarcane. While there are questions about effects on food prices and destruction of rain forests to make way for cane fields, Brazil stands by its industry and points to the fact that cane fuel burns 90% cleaner than fossil fuels.

Camelina

Camelina is a feed crop that is being noticed by farmers who are intent on getting into the bio-fuel game. The plant is part of the mustard family. It is a hot topic in the industry right now because it is a nearly perfect candidate for crop rotation. It can easily be rotated with staple crops like wheat.

Palm Oil

Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are championing the use of palm oil as a bio-fuel because they can produce massive quantities (and thereby cash in). Palm oil is an edible oil from the palm fruit. As with sugarcane in Brazil, questions about farming practices and rain forest destruction have put palm oil fuel on the blacklist in some European countries.

Straw

Japan is striving to find a use for the waste that is generated from rice production. Rice straw has been used for a variety of things over the years (hats, woven baskets, sleeping mats), but never as a fuel. The country is racing with China and other major rice producers to develop this potentially lucrative energy source.

Major wheat producers are pushing similar ideas for wheat straw. The process for converting straws into fuel is a bit more daunting than converting other sources, but the economic potential is enough to warrant an attempt.

Waste

Garbage as fuel? Here's the catch: you could easily end up putting more pollution into the air. Energy companies have been getting quite creative, capturing landfill gases and converting them into natural gas.

Fat Trees

The word "tallow" is usually used to refer to the excess fat taken off meat products and used in cooking. But the tallow tree, an extremely fast growing tree, is potentially one of the best sources for natural plant oils. The oil is also used for medicinal purposes in Australia.

Using Microbes as a Refinery

Complicated refining processes have been the major drawback to most bio-fuels. Scientists have been studying a potentially earth-shattering idea: using microbes to naturally convert plant material into sugars that can be used to create ethanol. Potentially, this could make the discussion about which source is best irrelevant.

Strange genetic experiments

Nazi scientist created a twin-town

The steely hearted "Angel of Death", Josef Mengele, whose mission was to create a master race fit for the Third Reich, was the resident medic at Auschwitz from May 1943 until his flight in the face of the Red Army advance in January 1945. His task was to carry out experiments to discover by what method of genetic quirk twins were produced – and then to artificially increase the Aryan birthrate for his master, Adolf Hitler.

Historians claim Mengele's notorious experiments may have borne fruit. For years scientists have failed to discover why as many as one in five pregnancies in a small Brazilian town have resulted in twins – most of them blond haired and blue eyed. But residents of Candido Godoi now claim that Mengele made repeated visits there in the early 1960s, posing at first as a vet but then offering medical treatment to the women of the town. Shuttling between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, he managed to evade justice before his death in 1979, but his dreams of a Nazi master race appeared unfulfilled.

Scientists are developing spider-goats to produce sought materials

What do you get when you cross a spider with a goat? It sounds like it should be the start of a joke, but the spider goat project reflects just one of many disturbing genetic hybridisation projects. Genetic scientists have incorporated selected spider DNA into goat embryos to engineer a hybrid spider goat – and here's why…. Spiders can produce an amazing substance, highly desirable, more valuable than gold – that substance is spilder silk.

Nexia Biotechnologies in Quebec along with scientists at the U.S. Army's Soldier Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) in Natick, Mass, have taken the specialized silk producing gene from a spider and inserted it into a goat embryo. The result is a goat……that looks like a goat, acts like a goat, but produces milk which contains proteins which, when treated, produce a very close imitation of the valuable spider silk. A single goat only produces small amounts of the desired material, so an extremely large herd is required to acquire useful quantities.

Scientists create new life from a mouse that has been frozen for 16 years

Scientists have created clones of a mouse that had been dead and frozen for 16 years. It is the first time they have been able to clone a frozen animal. The Japanese researchers say their work will benefit mankind - and could be used to bring back extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth or sabre tooth tiger. Critics say it brings the world closer to the day when people try to clone long- dead relatives stored in cryopreservation clinics. It could even lead to a macabre new industry - in which people leave behind 'relics' of their bodies in freezers in the hope that they could one day be cloned. The latest experiment comes more than 11 years after British scientists stunned the world with Dolly the cloned sheep. Although scientists have since cloned a host of different animals, using genetic material from single cells, they have always used living cells.

Scientist are creating a modified mosquito to fight other mosqiutos

A genetically modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects.

It gives new impetus to one strategy for controlling the disease: introduce a transgenic mosquito carrying a gene that confers resistance to the malaria parasite into wild populations in the hope that they will take over. These mosquitoes had another gene inserted into them to make their eyes fluoresce, to distinguish them from the ordinary strain. The insect carries a gene that prevents infection by the malaria parasite. The researchers caution that their studies are still at an early stage, and that it could be 10 years or more before engineered insects are released into the environment. The approach exploits the fact that the health of infected mosquitoes is itself compromised by the parasite they spread. Insects that cannot be invaded by the parasite are therefore likely to be fitter and out-compete their disease-carrying counterparts.

Scientists demonstrate that girls are genetically predisposed to pink

We all know that women like pink and men prefer blue, but we have never really known why. Now it emerges that parents who dress their boys in blue and girls in pink may not just be following tradition but some deep-seated evolutionary instinct. Researchers have found that there could be sound historical reasons why women have developed a heightened appreciation of reds and pinks, while men are drawn to blue.

The scientists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who were led by Dr Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling, averaged people's overall preferences. The male favourite was a pale blue while the female favourite was a lilac shade of pink. The participants in the study were Chinese and British. The Chinese students showed a marked preference for red. As red symbolises luck and happiness in China, this indicates that cultural norms are also involved. In the study, which is published in the journal Current Biology, the scientists showed pairs of colours to 208 volunteers aged between 20 and 26, who had to select which they preferred by clicking with a computer mouse. Both groups showed similar sex-related preferences, with women liking blues and pinks while men liked mainly blues.

There is already evidence that human's ability to see in colour is likely to have evolved because of the usefulness of being able to distinguish red fruits from green backgrounds. The female role as gatherers while males hunted could have favoured a particular preference for reds and pinks, the scientists said. Dr Ling said the team was now seeking to investigate further the extent to which these preferences are innate. Her own favourite colour? "A very paleish pink," she said.

Scientists are trying to grow human eyeballs

A genetic switch that gives tadpoles three eyes could allow stem-cell scientists to eventually grow human eyeballs or at least create replacement parts needed for repair jobs. If scientists could grow eyeballs from stem cells in the lab, the process would be a boon to individuals with damage to cells within the eye, including retinal disorders.

Scientists had already established the amphibian genes that initiate and direct eye development, which they refer to as Eye Field Transcription Factors (EFTFs). How these genes get activated in the right location at a certain time during development had been cloaked in mystery. But in 2007, a new study suggested a nitrogen-bearing molecule sets off a series of steps that result in eye formation in frogs. When researchers injected a specific enzyme into frog embryos, the resulting tadpoles showed an extra eye. The mechanism probably also applies to humans and other animals with eyes. Dale and University of Warwick developmental biologist Elizabeth Jones, along with colleagues, discovered the eye-switch while investigating how "ectoenzyme" molecules located on the external surface of cells contributed to the development of locomotion in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). The biologists injected the molecules into frog embryos that comprised just eight cells.

One of the ectoenzymes triggered wonky eye development. When added to cells that would eventually form the head, the resulting tadpole sported three eyes instead of two. An even stranger sight resulted when they injected the ectoenzyme into other developing body cells. The molecule caused an additional "ectopic" eye, leading to tadpoles with a spare peeper growing out of the side, abdomen or even along the tail.

Dutch scientists create genetically engineered cows to produce fortified milk

A Dutch biotechnology company called Pharming has genetically engineered cows, outfitting females with a human gene that causes them to express high levels of the protein human lactoferrin in their milk. According to Pharming's website, the protein —which is naturally present in human tears, lung secretions, milk and other bodily fluids—fights against the bacteria that causes eye and lung infections, plays a key role in the immune system of infants and adults and improves intestinal microbial balance, promoting the health of the gastro-intestinal tract. "Since the protein has the ability to bind iron, is a natural anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral, is an antioxidant and also has immunomodulatory properties, large groups of people might benefit from orally administered lactoferrin," the company literature reads. Scientists have tested the toxicity of the protein—isolated from the cows' milk—on rats. They found that—even at the high level of 2,000 mg recombinant human lactoferrin per kg body weight—orally consumed human lactoferrin has no adverse effects to complement all the supposed benefits already mentioned.

Scientists are trying to create fastest trees

A tree that can reach 90 feet in six years and be grown as a row crop on fallow farmland could represent a major replacement for fossil fuels. Purdue University researchers are using genetic tools in an effort to design trees that readily and inexpensively can yield the substances needed to produce alternative transportation fuel. The scientists are focused on a compound in cell walls called lignin that contributes to plants' structural strength, but which hinders extraction of cellulose. Cellulose is the sugar-containing component needed to make the alternative fuel ethanol. With funding from the Department of Energy, Clint Chapple and Rick Meilan are using genetic tools to find ways to convert trees into ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuels.

Eggshell uses

1. Compost for Naturally Fertilized Soil
Eggshells quickly decompose in the compost pile and add valuable calcium and other minerals to the soil in the process.

2. Nontoxic Pest Control in the Garden
Scatter crushed eggshell around your plants and flowers to help deter plant-eating slugs, snails and cutworms without using eco-unfriendly pesticides. Also, deer hate the smell of eggs, so scattering eggshells around the flowerbed will help keep Bambi away from your begonias.

3. Less Bitter Coffee
Add an eggshell to the coffee in the filter, and your morning coffee will be less bitter. The spent coffee grounds, eggshell and bio-degradable filter are then conveniently ready for the compost pile.

4. Splendid Seedling Starters
Fill biodegradable eggshell halves with potting soil instead of using peat pots to start seedlings for the garden. And an egg carton on the windowsill is the perfect way to start a dozen tomato seedlings in shells before transplanting to the garden in the spring.

5. Eco-friendly Household Abrasive
Shake crushed eggshells and a little soapy water to scour hard-to-clean items like thermoses and vases. Crushed eggshells can also be used as a nontoxic abrasive on pots and pans.

6. Eggy, Crafty Projects
“Blow out” the inside of a raw egg and paint/decorate the hollow shell to make your Faberge eggs or other craft projects. Pieces of egg shell (plain or dyed) are also used in mosaic art projects.

7. Clever Jello and Chocolate Molds
Carefully fill “blown out” eggshells with jello or chocolate to make unique egg-shaped treats; peel away the eggshell mold before serving, or serve as is and let your guests discover the surprise inside.

8. Natural Drain Cleaner
Keep a couple of crushed eggshells in your kitchen sink strainer at all times. They trap additional solids and they gradually break up and help to naturally clean your pipes on their way down the drain.

9. Membrane Home Remedies
The super-thin membrane inside the eggshell has long been used as a home remedy for a wide range of ailments, from healing cuts to treating ingrown toenails.

10. Treat Skin Irritations
Dissolve an eggshell in a small jar of apple cider vinegar (takes about two days) and use the mixture to treat minor skin irritations and itchy skin.

11. Egg on Your Face
Pulverize dried egg shells with a mortar and pestle, then whisk the powder in with an egg white and use for a healthful, skin-tightening facial. Allow the face mask to dry before rinsing it off.

12. The Fuel of Tomorrow?
Just when your brain was totally fried by all my ingenious reuses for eggshells, researchers at Ohio State University recently discovered that eggshells might be the key to producing affordable hydrogen fuel. I’ve heard of walking on eggshells, but maybe some day we’ll be driving on them too.

Satellite Photos

Ancient Lost City of Angkor Wat

This NASA sattelite photo shows the ancient city of Angkor Wat emerging from the Cambodian rain forest. Visible are large structures, roads, moats, water supply and surrounding habitations and farms.

Manhattan just after the 9/11 Attacks

Lower Manhattan, Post 9/11 Attacks (9:15 AM)

Indonesia, Before and After the tsunami

The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of Dec. 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Credit:

BEFORE


AFTER

Three different typhoons at the same time

Three different typhoons were spinning over the western Pacific Ocean on August 7, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this image. It is predicted that Bopha and Saomai would continue on tracks that would take each into China, while Maria would move toward Japan.

Palm Island, a man-made island at Dubai

This satellite image was collected on July 16, 2004. The image shows this man-made island that lies off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf. The island is being built from 80 million cubic meters of land dredged from the approach channel to the Emirate's Jebel Ali Port. When complete, this resort will have approximately 1,200 single-family and 600 multi-family residences, an aquatic theme park, shopping centers, cinemas and more. Photo credit "Space Imaging Middle East".

Cruise Ship Capsized by a typhoon

A satellite photo in Google Earth shows a cruise ship which was capsized by a typhoon back in 2003. See photos and links to the location, and a ground-level photo of the ship shortly after it happened.

Oil spill along Lebanese coast

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite took this picture of the region on August 8, 2006. In this image, the oil slick appears as a slightly darker shade of blue on the ocean surface, and it is easier to see in the enlarged area around Beirut at lower right.

California fire creates huge smoke plume

Northwest of Los Angeles, the Day Fire was churning out a thick, snake-like plume of smoke on September 17, 2006. The human-caused fire started on September 4 in mixed brush and scattered timber in the Los Padres and Angeles National Forests and the Sespe Wilderness. As of September 18, the 60,589-acre fire was only about 15% contained.

Ash Cloud from active volcano in Peru

Ubinas is an active volcano in Peru. This image from the ISS captures an ash cloud 1 hour & 45 minutes after it was first observed on satellite imagery August 14, 2006. This photo looks like it could be from another planet.

The destruction of Porta Farm (Zimbabwe)

Human rights group Amnesty International released the first-ever satellite images of the effect of the Zimbabwean government's controversial Operation Murambatsvina, which left 700 000 people homeless last year, according to a United Nations report.

BEFORE (2002)


AFTER (2006)

Weird Inventions

Electromechanical teenager repellant

Howard Stapleton (Merthyr Tydfil, Wales) invented an electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults. The "Mosquito" ultrasonic teenage deterrent aims to solve the problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls, around shops and anywhere else they are causing problems, claiming to be "the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behaviour". He later used that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers.

Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force

The late George and Charlotte Blonsky (New York City and San Jose, California) invented a device (US Patent #3,216,423) to aid women in giving birth -- the woman is strapped onto a circular table, and the table is then rotated at high speed.

In their patent application, Blonsky and Blonsky explained the need: "In the case of a woman who has a fully developed muscular system and has had ample physical exertion all through the pregnancy, as is common with all more primitive peoples, nature provides all the necessary equipment and power to have a normal and quick delivery. This is not the case, however, with more civilised women, who often do not have the opportunity to develop the muscles needed in confinement."

Therefore, wrote Blonsky and Blonsky, they would provide "an apparatus which will assist the under-equipped woman by creating a gentle, evenly distributed, properly directed, precision-controlled force, that acts in unison with and supplements her own efforts". The Blonskys explained: "The foetus needs the application of considerable propelling force." They knew how to supply that propelling force.

The rest of their patent - eight very detailed pages altogether - specifies exactly how to do it. The design includes some 125 basic components, including bolts, brakes, wing nuts, a massive concrete floor slab, a vari-speed vertical gear motor, a speed reducer, more wing nuts, sheaves, stretchers, shafts, thigh members, a butt plate, aluminium ballast water boxes, more wing nuts, pillow clamps, a girdle member, and some additional wing nuts.

Anti-flatulence Underwear

Buck Weimer (Pueblo, Colorado) invented "Under-Ease", airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes bad-smelling gases before they escape. As the slogan says: "Wear them for the ones you love".

Dog-to-human language translation device

Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, invented Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device. The Bow-Lingual's a two-piece set—a wireless microphone that attaches to your dog's collar, and a walkie-talkie-looking handset with an LCD screen. Barks and yelps are transmitted to the handset, where their voiceprint is analyzed and placed into one of six emotional categories: happy, sad, on guard, frustrated, needy, or assertive. Once the appropriate emotional state is determined, the Bow-Lingual randomly selects a phrase belonging to that category and displays it on the screen. So if your pooch is determined to be on guard, maybe you'll get "Are you my friend or my enemy?" If aggressive, perhaps the sentiment will be "I'm dominant." You get the drift.

Alarm Clock that runs away from you

Gauri Nanda (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) invented "Clocky", an alarm clock that runs away and hides if you don't get out of bed on time. When the alarm sounds you can snooze one time. If you still don't wake up, Clocky will jump off of the bedside table, and wheel away, mindlessly bumping into objects until he finds a spot to rest. You'll have to get up and out of bed to silence his alarm. Clocky will find new spots everyday, kind of like a hide-and-seek game.

Artificial replacement testicles for dogs

Gregg A. Miller (Oak Grove, Missouri), invented "Neuticles", testicular implants for pets. Many caring pet owners hesitate or even to refuse to neuter their pets, soNeuticles eliminates 'neuter-hesitant' concerns - as a 'Neuticled' pet looks exactly the same after surgery. Neuticles are available for canines, felines, equine, bulls or any pet which is neutered. Neuticles should be implanted when the pet is neutered- but can be implanted years afterwards in most cases.

Self-perfuming Business Suit

Hyuk-ho Kwon of Kolon Company of Seoul, Korea, invented this suit. The suit is made with fabric soaked in a chemical that contains scented micro-capsules, which pop and release the odour when the wearer moves -- or gets bumped on a crowded subway train.

Washing machine for cats and dogs

The co-inventors of the Lavakan, Eduardo Segura and Andrés Diaz, decided in 1998 that their dogs deserved the same treatment that humans get from a shower massage. The side-loading automatic pet washing machine, is safer and less stressful for the animals than washing them by hand. It soaps, rinses and dries dogs and cats in less than half an hour. It has a series of conical nozzles that wash and massage beasts from every direction, while dirty and soapy waste is filtered through a hose at the bottom. Operators use the Lavakan's touch panel to choose the best wash cycle for the animal's size and dermatological needs. Pesticide soaps, for example, require an extended wait period to kill fleas and ticks.

Software that detects cats walking across the keyboard

Chris Niswander (Tucson, Arizona) invented PawSense. When cats walk or climb on your keyboard, they can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer. This can happen whether you are near the computer or have suddenly been called away from it. PawSense is a software utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard.

Automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower

Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong (Johannesburg, South Africa) invented an automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower, to provide a deterrent to carjackings. With a rising crime rate, carjackings became a serious concern in South Africa. The Blaster car modification functions as a liquified petroleum gas flamethrower; when a carjacking occurrs, the driver steps on an additional pedal next to accelerator and flames erupt from outer sides of both front doors, "neutralizing" the assailant. The inventor claims it is unlikely to kill but would "definitely blind" the assailant. In South Africa, it is legal to use lethal force in self-defense if in fear of ones life, and ownership of flamethrowers is unrestricted.