Friday Time Wasters
Some from you, some from me.From Jason Price (www.talkstrategy.com) comes a link about a Brazilian apartment building:
Each floor in the 11-story building can revolve independently 360 degrees to the left or to the right.
Insane, and here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6728324.
From future Nobel Prize Winner Brian Pilnick comes a link to a story about a new cave discovery in Venezuela. How big is this cave? Well, take a look at picture:
http://tinyurl.com/m3w8v.
See those little things that look like toys on the ground? They kind of look like toy helicopters. Well, those are real helicopters.
It was found in the slopes of Aprada tepui in southern Venezuela, one of the most inaccessible and unexplored regions of the world. The area, known as the Venezuelan Guayana, is one of the most biologically rich, geologically ancient and unspoiled parts of the world.
Here's a link to the full story:
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060221_ghost_cave.html.
From Frank Regan, a fascinating story over at Wired about a substance called "Aerogel."
Aerogel is the lightest solid known to science. It's also one of the most insulating materials on Earth, the most porous, and it's nearly transparent. Those last two properties made it an ideal choice for catching flecks of comet and interstellar dust on the recently-returned Stardust mission launched by NASA and JPL.
Fascinating, and here's the link:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70268-0.html?tw=rss.index.
From MSNBC, a story about a fossil that is changing how we think about the evolution of mammals:
WASHINGTON - For years, the mammals living in the era of dinosaurs have been thought of as tiny shrewlike creatures scurrying through the underbrush. Now the discovery of a furry aquatic creature with seallike teeth and a flat tail like a beaver has demolished that image.
Some 164 million years ago, the newly discovered mammal was swimming in lakes in what is now northern China, eating fish and living with dinosaurs.
I swear, paleontology sounds like a pretty exciting scientific discipline to be in right now. Here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11522136/.
From Robot Wisdom Weblog, a link to a real treasure trove of scanned pages from the early days of comics. It's absolutely amazing, and the accompanying blog is very interesting as well.
http://www.barnaclepress.com/.
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