More on Outer Space..

As always, National Geographic as published another awesome map of man’s exploration of our solar system and beyond.

The life of the International Space Station

A nice animated construction timeline of the ISS

This little piggy went to the crayon. This little piggy went to the train brake.

PIG 05049 is a new book by Christien Meindertsma, which documents the 185 end products that utilize some portion of each pig

PIG 05049 is a communications design developed in three years of research to track all the products made from a single pig. 
05049 was an actual pig, raised and slaughtered on a commercial farm in the Netherlands. Rotterdam designer Christien Meindertsma was shocked to discover that she could document 185 products contributed to by the animal. 
Meindertsma’s design includes the publication of her book, PIG 05049, which charts and pictures each of the products supported by the animal.  The surprise is in the fact that elements of production contributed to by pig farming include not only predictable foodstuffs – pork chops and bacon – but far less expected non-food items: ammunition, train brakes, automobile paint, soap and washing powder, bone china, cigarettes.

The caption on the page above reads:

Fatty acids derived from pork bone fat are used as a hardening agent in crayons and also gives them their distinctive smell.

Crayons smell like pig bone fat. Crayons will never smell the same again.

Say it ain’t so…

It looks as if the lastest victim of climate change isn’t an endangered species of aquatic tree frog living in the Amazonian rainforest, but something very near and dear to my heart (no offense to the endangered species of aquatic tree frog living in the Amazonian rainforest).

IF THE sinking Maldives aren’t enough to galvanise action on climate change, could losing a classic beer do it? Climatologist Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and colleagues say that the quality of Saaz hops – the delicate variety used to make pilsner lager – has been decreasing in recent years. They say the culprit is climate change in the form of increased air temperature.

Hans Rosling: Moving Data

Global health professor at Sweden’s Karolinksa Institute, Hans Rosling’s work focuses on debunking myths surrounding the developing world. The presentation of his data is what sets him apart from peers in his field

more about “Hans Rosling: Moving Data“, posted with vodpod

Wave, from the inside out

Acetabular Fracture

So it’s been roughly 11 weeks since my last post, but I swear I have a good reason: I got my ass handed to me at Moonlight Basin just after the new year and I’ve got the scar and x-rays to prove it.

So, ahh, where can I get some sulfur hexafluoride?

Testing Your Approximate Number Sense

A test administered by scientists at M.I.T. to measure childrens’ approximate number sense; one that humans share with rodents, pigeons and monkeys.

Dr. Halberda, who happens to be Dr. Feigenson’s spouse, relishes the work’s philosophical implications. “What’s interesting and surprising in our results is that the same system we spend years trying to acquire in school, and that we use to send a man to the moon, and that has inspired the likes of Plato, Einstein and Stephen Hawking, has something in common with what a rat is doing when it’s out hunting for food,” he said. “I find that deeply moving.”

This might be one of the most truly interesting websites I have come across recently. In particular, the ‘A Radioactive River Runs Through It’ post shed some light on a few things I wasn’t exactly aware of. For example, I was unaware of the fact that they are trying to put a rail line across the country that will be carrying nuclear waste.

Both are considered very important to national security and therefore must be controlled. The river, of course, has its dams and levees and navigational locks, courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, but it also has a proto-nervous and proto-immune systems constantly monitoring any abnormal levels of natural activities, which if detected, will be taken care of by a cadre of engineers. The rails will no doubt have its own security barriers, a surveillance system and a disaster management protocol...The Romantic and the Pastoral landscape replaced by an anxious terrain in constant threat of a sonic blast.

In all honesty, are these dickheads getting their ideas from 24?

5 things I didn’t know when I woke up this morning:

1. They’re making a Wham! movie. [The Guardian]
2. 33% of the world’s smokers live in China and 3 million people start smoking each year. 90% of China’s smokers are men and the average man smokes 20 cigarettes each day. [National Geographic]
3. Zurich is the top city for expats. [Financial Times]
4. Traffic in La Paz, Bolivia is so dangerous that its mayor started a program to have youths dressed as zebras help people across the city’s busiest intersections. [Monocle]
5. Brain surgeons don’t hold their cell phones up to their ears. [NY Times]

Amazing video of magnetic fields that fill the air in a NASA laboratory