World's Largest Yacht

This is the brand new Eclipse - the largest custom yacht ever built. Eclipse is 557 feet long, displaces 13,000 tons and is reported to have cost $425million. It is armor plated, has a missile defense system, twin helicopters and an on-board submarine that doubles as an escape pod. Eclipse was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Sixes Are Blue And Ten Is Always Yellow

When I was a child my aunt Eleanor would amuse us by doing complex arithmetic like long division in her head without the aid of pencil or paper or calculator. She assigned colours to numbers. "Sixes are blue and ten is always yellow..." she would say and then come up with the correct answer every time. This ability is known as synesthesia.

From Science Daily: "For years, synesthesia was dismissed as the product of someone's overactive imagination. But in the past decade, researchers have documented hundreds of cases of otherwise normal people ... Who have these extraordinary blended senses."

Scientists are now trying to unlock the secrets of synesthesia by using magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) of people's brains.

Big TV Going The Way Of Big Newspapers

The Internet trumps TV, radio and the papers.

"The traditional TV industry--cable companies, networks, and broadcasters--is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago: In denial."

"...eventually the cable-satellite-airwave monopoly over TV content in local markets will be circumvented by simple, global Internet distribution. You won't have 5 channels, or 50 channels, or 500 channels. You'll have millions of channels."

Red Wine: Is There Anything It Can't Do?

From Science Daily, the benefits of red wine, and especially the red wine compound resveratrol:

"The breadth of benefits is remarkable – cancer prevention, protection of the heart and brain from damage, reducing age-related diseases such as inflammation, reversing diabetes and obesity, and many more..."

'...current scientific research is starting to explain reports from the last 200 years that drinking red wine improves health. "It is a cliché that 'nature is a treasure trove of compounds,' but studies with resveratrol show that this is correct!"

Class: Find Your Backsides With Both Hands Please. If You Can

From Science Daily:

"A study of patients and members of the public has shown that most lack even basic knowledge of human anatomy. The research found that people were generally incapable of identifying the location of major organs, even if they were currently receiving relevant treatment."

Might there be a correlation here with the fact that many people cannot find themselves on a map?

I thought biology and geography were still subjects taught in the schools.

Recession? Heard Of It

Courtesy of Chart of the Day:

Recession? Never Heard Of It

Via kottke.org: Luxury retailer Hermes has announced it will breed its own crocodiles in order to keep up with demand for its trademark croc-skin handbags.

What If There Was No Government?

"While the anarchy in Somalia conjures up images of everyone living a Mad Max kind of life, the economy, and some living standards, have actually improved since the government disappeared in 1991. Sure, there are more bandits and warlords, but there have always been bandits and warlords. What has been missing is a central government that, as is often the case in Africa, takes more than it gives. With the government gone, all manner of economic activity got going without the usual official interference."

Why Smoking Increases Heart Disease And Strokes

"Researchers at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona have discovered ... that nicotine in cigarettes promotes insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition that raises blood sugar levels higher than normal. People with pre-diabetes are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease."

Where Auto Safety Technology Comes From

Modern cars are chock-full of safety devices like multiple air bags, impact absorbers, anti-lock brakes, electronic stability controls and so on. The pioneer in all of this safety technology has always been Mercedes-Benz. The rule of thumb is if a new safety device appears on a Mercedes-Benz, it will be standard equipment in even the cheapest of cars within a few years.

Via Wired, here is a glimpse of where Mercedes-Benz safety technology is going and what we could see standard in cars in the not do distant future.

Internet Access Is A Human Right In France

France's highest court has ruled that access to the internet is a fundamental human right. The landmark decision came as the country's Constitutional Council struck down what was set to be one of the world's toughest laws against illegal downloading.

"Although the Constitutional Council agreed that theft of copyright material was a crime, it rendered the law unenforceable by saying that only a court had the authority to switch off a person's web connection."

Charging Batteries Out Of Thin Air

Via KurzweilAI:

"A device that can harvest up to 50 milliwatts of power from ambient radio frequencies for recharging a cell phone is being developed by Nokia researchers."

This reminds me of the something-for-nothing nature of the germanium crystal radios I had as a kid.

Men's Education Is Quickly Falling Behind

People who are concerned about gender equity should take a look at what is happening in the academy.

University of Michigan economist Mark Perry, using Department of Education data prepared this useful - and startling - chart at left.

Perry shows that men are now on the wrong side of the degree gap at every stage of education. US Education Department projections though 2017 show a worsening picture for men with every passing year.

Here are Perry's figures for the class of 2009:

Associate’s degrees: 167 women for every 100 men.
Bachelor’s degrees: 142 women for every 100 men.
Master’s degrees: 159 women for every 100 men.
Professional degrees: 104 women for every 100 men.
Doctoral degrees: 107 women for every 100 men.
Degrees at all levels: 148 women for every 100 men.

If there is a crisis in the academy, ... it is not that women Ph.D.s are being shortchanged in math and science hiring and tenure committees, for that is not true. It is that men are quickly becoming the second sex in American education.

Semi-submersible Smuggling

Most of the cocaine smuggled from south to north America is now arriving in semi-submersible boats. Smugglers are building about 75 of these boats a year and sending them on one-way trips. Authorities are concerned about how this technology is developing. The boats are getting more technically sophisticated and stealthy and could be of interest to terrorists.

Can You Hear Me Now?

"Not if you've pumped up the volume on your MP3 player. In noisy places, everyone is turning up the tunes, and they could be drowning out their own hearing. A new study tells how loud is too loud."

No Life On Mars - In The Bible

Last month we learned that the process used for searching for signs of life on Mars might be destroying the very thing it was looking for.

Cue the conspiracy theorists:

"Have attempts to explore Mars been secretly scuppered by religious scientists keen to keep planet Earth “special”? Have they been hiding their sabotage under a veil of incompetence? Or is it that scientists really can be astonishingly incompetent without any outside help?"

I prefer the latter. After all, 50 percent of even rocket scientists are below average.

Last Pontiac Is A Toyota

From Jalopnik: According to the 2010 GM Product Guide, the 2010 Pontiac Vibe (a re-badged Toyota Matrix) is the only 2010 model from the doomed brand and is, therefore, the last Pontiac. The Japanese victory is complete.

The Colour Of A Guilt Trip

Green.

George Will in the Washington Post:

"In the history of developed democracies with literate publics served by mass media, there is no precedent for today's media enlistment in the crusade to promote global warming "awareness." Concerning this, journalism, which fancies itself skeptical and nonconforming, is neither."

"The incessant hectoring by the media-political complex's "consciousness-raising" campaign has provoked a comic riposte in the form of "The Goode Family," an animated ABC entertainment program at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesdays. Cartoons seem, alas, to be the most effective means of seizing a mass audience's attention. Still, the program is welcome evidence of the bursting of what has been called "the green bubble."

Combine George Will's "media-political" complex with Bjorn Lomborg's climate-industrial complex and you begin to understand why the green bubble has to burst.

Settled Science Unsettled Is Unsettling Scientists II

A month ago I posted news that the so-called conveyor belt model of Atlantic Ocean currents that has been taught in Universities world-wide for 50 years is all wet. So much for settled science.

Today we learn scientists have discovered that something else we had accepted as a basic truth for a very long time is not true at all.

"One of the “basic truths” we all learned is that Earth’s atmosphere is “protected” from the solar wind by its magnetic field, unlike Mars which has lost most of its atmosphere due to the solar wind. But when some space scientists compared notes recently, they discovered something startling:

“We said, ‘Oh my goodness — what we’ve been telling people about the magnetic shield is not correct.’”

And so what we thought to be true about our atmosphere, isn’t. More unsettling science from Watts Up With That.

Follow the link to the main article, but don't miss the comments at Watts.

FOX Dominates TV News

Earlier this week CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld said “seven months after Barack Obama’s victory, CNN’s ratings have gone down the drain”.

At the same time that CNN is tanking, another network has begun to dominate the news ratings: Fox. In a speech in Washington yesterday, senior journalist Charles Krauthamer talks about why Fox has displaced CNN atop the ratings:

"I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism. What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality."

June Frosts In Canada

In Manitoba, the frost [this June] is the worst in memory for its frequency and area covered, said Derwyn Hammond, the province's senior agronomy specialist for the Canola Council.

Here in St. John's we've had a beautiful spring - that's unusual enough - but tonight there is a risk of frost here too. And as I write this it is 5C.

Brrr.

Kaguya Mission Ends Today

Last Saturday we looked at stunning HD video from the moon via Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter. Today Kaguya will finally collide with the moon.

Birds Not Descended From Dinosaurs?

"Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs."

"The conclusions add to other evolving evidence that may finally force many paleontologists to reconsider their long-held belief that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs, OSU researchers say."

Boosting IQ?

"After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people." Could using drugs to speed up brain networks increase IQ?

R. Crumb Tackles Genesis

R. Crumb created Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and "Keep On Truckin". He wanted to do an illustrated satire on the story of Adam and Eve but a friend talked him into doing the whole book of Genesis.

Crumb said he found Genesis just too bizarre for satire, so he decided to do it straight.

The new book is excerpted in The New Yorker (sub) and you can see Crumb's famous style at work in this lo-res scan. Via Boing Boing.

Modern PR: Getting It Out On The Interwebs

In this excerpt from his book Online Marketing Inside Out, Brandon Eley explains what makes up a 21st century press release.

This Is Not Good Enough

Newfoundland & Labrador owns one of only five express tissue processor machines in Canada. From The Star:

"One of the most advanced biopsy testing systems in the world, allowing patients to have a tissue biopsy in the morning, get their pathology results in the afternoon and, if they have cancer, to immediately start a treatment plan with their surgeon. The machine, which costs about $300,000 and can process up to 120 biopsy samples per hour, analyzes breast tissue for cancer and provides doctors with ... "information on the architecture of the tumour."

The machine has sat unused in a basement in St. John's for two years.

World's Largest Model Railway

I used to think it would be a brilliant idea to have a model railway running from the kitchen counter into the TV room. Perfect for delivering beers and snacks. The question of who would be in the kitchen loading up the train never really came up. Which is why the great idea never, well, got up any steam.

But I still love the idea of model railways. Today via email, a link to a video of the world's largest model railway. Miniatur Wunderland is a tourist attraction in Hamburg. It sprawls over 4000 square meters. It has nine kilometers of track and 700 trains. There are 2800 buildings and bridges, 4000 automobiles and 160-thousand miniature people doing, er, all sorts of things. And the whole project is still only about half finished. Very cool.

Ultimate USB: Heinz Beanzawave

How about a tiny USB powered microwave designed specifically for heating packets of Heinz baked beans? It's called the Heinz Beanzawave. Is it for real? According to Gizmodo it is.

From the Comments: "They need to add a methane-capture-fuel-cell-cushion... to make the power cycle complete."

Update: Beanzawave spelling corrected.

A Young Prodigy

Via Slashdot: Moshe Kai Cavalin has graduated from East Los Angeles Community College with a degree in astrophysics. He is 11 years old.

CNN Ratings Tanking

Via Jack's Newswatch:

"CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld tells the Huffington Post (huh, why would a CNN man go there to post?) that “seven months after Barack Obama’s victory, CNN’s ratings have gone down the drain”

From the Comments:

"No one watches CNN for the same reason no one watches CBC. People don’t like to be treated to propaganda. Fox is hardly right wing. Greta, Shep Smith, Major Garret are all Liberals. Orielly tends to be a bit to the right of them but hardly a right winger. Glen Beck is most certainly conservative. If you look at their panels there is always representation from both sides of the aisle. Juxtapose that against CNN or the CBC. You simply will not find anyone remotely right of center. "

Hockey Homicide (1945)

Apropos of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Walt Disney's 1945 Cartoon classic "Hockey Homicide" starring Goofy and all his brothers and cousins. This wouldn't make it past the censors today. Talk about slapstick.

The Eco-Warriors Of The MSM?

The third annual International Conference on Climate Change took place in Washington last week. But there is an excellent chance you didn't hear about it. Why? Because the focus of the conference was to present climate scientists and economists who refute fashionable climate alarmism. So the mainstream media didn't show up.

"At the conference, the Cato Institute’s Patrick Michaels suggested that the success of alarmism had a lot to do with the absence of fact-checking in the media. But while that may be true, it seems as much due to the fact that many in the media regard themselves as eco-warriors. As such, they never let the facts stand in the way of a good, scary environmental story."

Photographing East Germany

From Spiegel Online: "They wanted to clean up the basement but found a treasure trove of photos instead. After Berlin teacher Manfred Beier died, his sons stumbled across 60,000 pictures. Their father, it turns out, created one of the best documentations of life in East Germany, and the first days of the West."

Be sure to click on the photo gallery.

Arguing Vs. Fighting: Fight!

I have always believed that arguing and fighting were not the same thing. Yet, lots of times when I thought I was just arguing, my interlocutors were furiously yelling fighting words at me because of my arguments.

I believe Jason Kottke and I could have some great arguments. He believes we should teach kids how to argue: "I had long equated arguing with fighting, but in rhetoric they are very different things. An argument is good; a fight is not. Whereas the goal of a fight is to dominate your opponent, in an argument you succeed when you bring your audience over to your side."

I just wish they would stop yelling at me all at once so I can finish my, er, argument.

Perpetuum Jazzile

Brilliant a capella choral singing from Slovenia's Perpetuum Jazzile. More about the group here.

Unseen Hitler

Never-before-seen colour Hitler photos are revealed at the LIFE archives.

America’s Best Selling Car

The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.

Pictures From Bay Bulls

Pictures this afternoon from Bay Bulls Harbour just south of St. John's. The assymetrical and huge heavy lift ship MV Jumbo Javelin, and a local tour boat keeping station with an itinerant iceberg. People are seeing humpback whales in the area too.

Depressed? Channel Your Inner Caveman

"He doesn't care for the term "caveman therapy." But Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Kansas, has turned to our hunter-gatherer ancestors for clues about how to best combat major depressive disorder."

Elephants Bothering You? Get Some Bees

Or even some empty beehives.

Capitialism And Global Warmism - All The Way To The Bank

Another piece of the global warmist puzzle snaps into place via SDA:

"Fear of climate change, in fact, has been the biggest boon in insurance industry history. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the insurance industry has no interest in minimizing future risks to the public, in climate change or in any other field. To the contrary, the more that risks exist and the more that the insurance industry can charge to insure against those risks, the larger the potential market for insurance industry products."

In the comments: "[Environmentalists], anti-capitalists to the core, are willing dupes of the richest group of capitalists on Earth!"

More evidence of the Climate-Industrial Complex.