Oct/090
Benin Empire
In one of the knowledge trips that today's information world let us do from our couches I found this eye-catching flag. It belongs to the Benin Empire, a pre-colonial African empire in the area of what we currently call Nigeria. Benin is also a today's country, which lies very close to the old Empire's location, but which should not be confused with.
The Empire and city under this name was, as my recently visited Uganda, a British protectorate, but after the slaying of eight British representatives, the city was conquered and burned in 1897 by a British force.
Oct/090
Yes to Europe
Based on 37% of the votes, Brian Cowen, Prime Minister equivalent in Ireland, has made public this morning that YES is the answer of Ireland to the Lisbon treaty. This leaves only Poland and Czech Republic as the remaining European countries to go through a referendum in this matter.
While Poland has said that will ratify the document as long as Ireland did, Czech Republic president, Vlacav Klaus, has managed to restart the legal process against the treaty which we all thought it was concluded. If this process reaches June next year we could face an old history again: the British conservative party, which will probably win next elections, may try again to delay the treaty.
Oct/090
Wikiloc
If you like using you legs to walk or cycle you will love Wikiloc, a very comprehensive and easy to use catalogue of trails all over the world.
With more than 3 years on the Internet the website hosts more than 100.000 routes and it's been awarded by National Geographic.
Oct/090
Ig Nobel Prize
For those of you not aware of this version of the Nobel Prize they are a parody of the original prize to 10 achievements that "first make you laugh, and then make you think". These priczs have been always immersed on a sea of controversy since 1991, with very different opinions from the scientific community.
The ceremony is celebrated around October each year and these are this year's results:
- VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
- PEACE PRIZE: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
- ECONOMICS PRIZE: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks, for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa — and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.
- CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for creating diamonds from liquid — specifically from tequila.
- MEDICINE PRIZE: Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California, USA, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than sixty (60) years.
- PHYSICS PRIZE: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over.
- LITERATURE PRIZE: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means "Driving License".
- PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.
- MATHEMATICS PRIZE: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000).
- BIOLOGY PRIZE: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.
Oct/090
High speed pictures
Tutsplus has published a striking set of pictures taken at a fairly high shutter speed.
Via: Foto Microsiervos
Image: frenchy5370
Sep/092
Controversy pictured
A very informative collection of magazine covers that somehow caused sales, disgrace, apologises or even unemployment.
Sep/090
Permanent Space Post: a step closer
As you most likely know already, our moon does not have a atmosphere as Earth's, which, among other things, holds the precious oxygen that we breath and use to grow food or create water. Lack of oxygen has been one of the main limiting factors to create a permanent space post in our celestial body as is not only essential for our own survival but also it makes possible to burn the rocket fuel used in the space aircraft.
Scientist from NASA have just tested components of a oxygen generator that will produce the element from the silicon dioxide and metal oxides contained in the lunar soil to make sure it works in lunar gravity environment (about 6 times weaker than the one in Earth). For this they have used "Vomit Comet", a fixed wing plane specially designed to briefly provide a micro gravity environment.
Sep/091
“United” Nations
Adam Thinks goes back to business to show us what happens in the House of United Nations when things go off the record.
Via Adam Thinks
Sep/091
Before and After
A small but shocking collection of how boxers look before and after the fight.
Via Zoomdoogle
