Leech Convicts Australian Robber

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal, Crime & Law, Odd News on October 20, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Police found a leech at the scene of a robbery in Tasmania eight years ago. They took a sample of the blood the leech had consumed. In 2008, Peter Alec Cannon was arrested on an unrelated drug charge. The DNA from his blood matched the blood from the leech!

Cannon would probably have got away with the crime had he not been charged with drug offences late last year, and asked to give a DNA sample – which matched that from the crime scene.

Detective Inspector Mick Johnston, who was involved in the police investigation from the start, said Cannon’s conviction validated the use of DNA technology.

“It’s a testament to DNA evidence and the legislation that allows us to keep such evidence in relation to unsolved crimes – this is a fantastic result,” he said.

Link -via Boing Boing

(image credit: BBC)

 
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BuckyBalls Magnetic Toys are 216 rare earth magnet balls that can be shaped and molded into virtually any shape.

Tear 'em apart and snap 'em back together in unlimited ways for hours of fun! Watch the video for a quick demo of what BuckyBalls can do.

Remember to get two for twice the fun! Link
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The Blood Lamp

Posted by Miss Cellania in Home & Garden on September 27, 2009 at 8:04 am

The Blood Lamp only works once, and you need to add of a drop of your blood to activate it! The idea is to stop and think about how badly you need light before you use it. Designer Mike Thompson created the lamp in order to draw attention to how much energy we waste. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

 
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Blood Energy Drink

Posted by John Farrier in Food & Drinks on September 26, 2009 at 9:52 pm


Photo: Urban Collector

Calm down, it’s not actually blood. It’s just an energy drink made to look like blood, and it’s served in an IV bag:

The fruit punch flavor packs 4 hours of energy along with iron, protein, and electrolytes. Not only does Blood Energy Potion have a similar nutritional makeup to real blood, but it has the same color, look, and consistency of blood. Get real blood nutrients without that real blood taste! The re-sealable transfusion bag style pouch provides the convenient delivery of fluids for vampires and humans alike! Contains no real blood, just synthetic!

See? There’s nothing at all abnormal about this product.

Link via Nerd Approved

 
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Man Has Donated 40 Gallons of Blood

Posted by Alex in Medicine on September 8, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Al Fischer, an 75-year-old New York man has reached a very commendable milestone: he has donated 40 gallons of blood over 58 years!

The print shop operator from Massapequa, affectionately known as Albee, has been donating blood every year since 1951, when Harry S. Truman was in the White House – 11 presidents ago.

So far, Fischer has given 319 pints of blood and he will do it again Tuesday in Woodbury, bringing his lifetime donation to a total of 40 gallons.

"I’m too cheap to give money, so I give blood," Fischer, 75, said jokingly.

Fischer is estimated to have helped almost 1,000 people who needed blood transfusion. Newsday has the story: Link (Photo: Howard Schnapp)

 
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Crickets From Hell: Armor-Topped, Blood Squirting, Vomit Covered and Really Fat Crickets

Posted by Queuebot in Animal on August 2, 2009 at 1:46 pm

The armoured ground cricket of southern Africa are fat and flightless, two things that make them prime targets in the food-scarce African landscape.

Predation should’ve killed off these crickets, but evolution has equipped them with an amazing arsenal of self defense mechanisms, including vomiting and squirting blood in every direction.

Entomologist Bill Bateman of the University of Pretoria said:



“If [the attack] is from above the blood wells out and coats your hand. If grabbed by forceps from the side, by a leg, they lean towards it and crouch down, then there is a slight cracking sound and the blood jets right along the line of attack.”

“The blood is pale green and rather acrid smelling. I couldn’t bring myself to actually taste it fresh but it leaves an acidy, tobacco-like taste on your fingers if you do not wash it off,” he says.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.

 
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Scientists Extract Dino Blood from Ancient Bones

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on May 13, 2009 at 4:16 pm

Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and colleagues apparently have never watched Jurassic Park. Why else would she extract dino "blood" from ancient bones?

A dinosaur bone buried for 80 million years has yielded a mix of proteins and microstructures resembling cells. The finding is important because it should resolve doubts about a previous report that also claimed to have extracted dino tissue from fossils.

… Schweitzer took a look at the pristine leg bone of a plant-eating hadrosaur that had been encased in sandstone for 80 million years. She and colleagues exhaustively tested the sample, sequencing the proteins they found with a new and better mass spectrometer and sending samples to two other labs for verification.

Now they report recovering not just collagen – which conveys little evolutionary information because it is the same in almost all animals – but also haemoglobin, elastin and laminin, as well as cell-like structures resembling blood and bone cells. The proteins should reveal more about dinosaur evolution because they vary much more between species.

This can’t possibly end well: Link

 
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Sour Candy Body Fluids

Posted by Miss Cellania in Food & Drinks on April 24, 2009 at 9:17 am


Imagine the reaction when people see you taking a sip from a urine specimen container! Formula P and Blood Sample are sour candy liquids packaged in specimen bottles. Guess which one is lemon and which is cherry. Link -via Unique Daily

 
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Lowest Blood Oxygen Levels Ever Recorded

Posted by Miss Cellania in Medicine on January 8, 2009 at 11:53 pm

Medical researchers went to Mount Everest and took samples of their own blood while near the peak. What they found was shocking!

An average person at sea level has about 13-14 kilopascals (kPa) of oxygen in their bloodstream, University College of London medical researcher Dan Martin says. When his intensive care patients drop to around 8 kPa he gets very worried, and a normal person with 6 kPa of oxygen faces almost certain death. Imagine his shock, then, when he and three colleagues on the top of Mount Everest measured their own blood oxygen level to be between 2.5 and 4 kPa, the lowest ever measured in live people.

Martin and his colleagues -all experienced climbers- also took muscle biopsies while on the mountain. They hope their findings may lead to knowledge that will help patients in intensive care, where sudden oxygen drops can lead to death. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Pavel Novak)

 
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Cuddly Toys of Death

Posted by Jill Harness in Animal, Arts & Crafts on December 30, 2008 at 10:21 pm

If you’re sick of all the cute, sweet plushies out there, then these great toys are for you. They’re by artist Patricia Waller who has a ton of other awesome designs as well. These specific toys belong to her “Accident” series and the “How to kill your first love” series. I love the teddy bear myself.

Link Via Craftzine

 
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Cell Phone Hack Analyzes Blood

Posted by Miss Cellania in Gadget, Medicine on December 21, 2008 at 6:53 am

A modified cell phone could allow doctors to analyze blood samples for HIV, malaria, and other diseases in remote villages where costly lab equipment and the power to run them are unavailable! The device is called a LUCAS imager (Lensfree Ultrawide-field Cell-monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging).

UCLA researcher Dr. Aydogan Ozcan images thousands of blood cells instantly by placing them on an off-the-shelf camera sensor and lighting them with a filtered-light source (coherent light, for you science buffs). The filtered light exposes distinctive qualities of the cells, which are then interpreted by Ozcan’s custom software. By analyzing the cell types present in a much larger sample, a more accurate diagnosis can be made in a matter of minutes. No more sending blood away to a lab and waiting days or weeks for the results.

Ozcan is seeking a manufacture so these devices can be mass-produced. Link -Thanks, Dave Bullock!

 
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Cute Yet Bloodthirsty Japanese Mascot Wants You to Donate Blood

Posted by Alex in Medicine, Pictures on November 25, 2008 at 3:04 am

That’s Kokoron-chan, a Japanese mascot to inspire people to donate blood. Leave it to the Japanese to spice up a blood donation drive with a cute (and bloodthirsty) mascot that looks a lot like the Kool-Aid Man.

Pink Tentacle has more of Japan’s blood mascots: Link

 
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