Archaelogists announced today that they believe they have uncovered the site of King Richard III's grave, inside a long-lost friary buried beneath the Leicester City Council offices.
The hunt for King Richard III's grave is heating up, with archaeologists announcing today (Sept. 5) that they have located the church where the king was buried in 1485.
"The discoveries so far leave us in no doubt that we are on the site of Leicester's Franciscan Friary, meaning we have crossed the first significant hurdle of the investigation," Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the dig, said in a statement.
The dig is located in a parking lot in Leicester, England, which covered the church believed to house the body of King Richard III since 1485. The church was lost to history and only recently tracked down by Buckley's team. Link
Is there anything cooler than super-secret spy tech? Maybe, but you can bet that it's even more super-secret than your clearance allows. These, however, are gadgets we know exist, and they're used by people who would tell you all about it, but then they'd have to kill you.
Spies gather information by watching, listening, and waiting. Eavesdropping is what spies do best. Is it any wonder, then, that three of these clever devices are for espionage? And in case things get messy, sometimes an agent needs a way to take out a target that's less direct than an abduction or assassination.
From The Great Seal Bug to anti-tank canine soldiers, check out Tecca's collection of amazing spy tricks, tactics, and trappings: Link
In what has to be one of the worst proposal gimmicks ever, 30-year-old Alexey Bykov of Russia hired a movie director, stuntmen, make-up artists, and a script writer to stage a scene in which he dies in a car crash.... so he could propose.
"I wanted her to realise how empty her life would be without me and how life would have no meaning without me.
His girlfriend, Irena Kolokov, arrived at the scene of the "accident" and was, of course, devastated.
"We'd arranged to meet at a certain place but when I arrived there were mangled cars everywhere, ambulances, smoke, and carnage," said Miss Kolokov.
"Then when I saw Alexy covered in blood lying in the road a paramedic told me he was dead and I just broke down in tears."
It was then that Bykov leapt to his feet and proposed. Remarkably, Kolokov accepted. Link -via The Daily What
Finally, a catchy, simple tune to help the non-physicists among us understand string theory. Michael Wilson, aka Coma Niddy, breaks down what has to be the most complicated, labyrinthine theory in the history of science with easy-to-remeber verses like:
Everything is made of atoms Atoms are made of a bunch of things Like Protons, neutrons, Electrons, and quarks And those may be made of tiny strings Depending on the how the strings vibrate Will determine how the particles behave Just like how you pluck the strings of the Bass It affects the note it plays
A new study of vision differences between genders suggests that, whether mena and women have a different worldview or not, they definitely see the world differently.
Guys' eyes are more sensitive to small details and moving objects, while women are more perceptive to color changes, according to a new vision study that suggests men and women actually do see things differently. [...] They found that the guys required a slightly longer wavelength of a color to experience the same shade as women and the men were less able to tell the difference between hues. [And], compared with the women, the male volunteers were better able to identify the more rapidly changing images made up of thinner bars, the researchers said.
How the tests were conducted and more interesting results on LiveScience.
Ambergris used to be used in all sorts of things: perfume, magic potions, cigarettes. It's even rumored to be an aphrodisiac, albeit an expensive one. That's because ambergris is only produced in the intestinal tracts of whales, and getting your hands on it can be difficult. But one lucky(?) kid stumbled across a small fortune's worth of the stuff recently:
Charlie Naysmith, 8, was strolling with his dad along the beach in New Zealand when he stumbled on what he thought was a funny-looking rock. The rock was quite compelling, thanks to its surprisingly light weight and faint waxy texture, so young Charlie decided to take it home. As it turns out, the weird rock was actually not a rock at all, but an incredibly rare substance called ambergris, which is, essentially, a very valuable piece of whale poop. Charlie's 1.3-pound piece of ambergris is estimated to be worth somewhere around $65,000.
All about Charlie's find and the history of ambergris at The Week.
In what seems like the perfect solution to everything (or an episode of What Could Possibly Go Wrong?!), a pair of prototypes hint at a future in which robots eat bugs for fuel. Forget charging batteries or docking in your very own R2D2 -- these autonomous, self-feeding droids could easily run along happily without us. The secret lies in two developments, both of which mimic the Venus flytrap's prey-catching method:
Recreating this method means finding materials that can not only detect the presence of an insect but also close on it quickly. At Seoul National University in South Korea, Seung-Won Kim and colleagues have done this using shape memory materials. These switch between two stable shapes when subjected to force, heat or an electric current.
The team used two different materials - a clamshell-shaped piece of carbon fibre that acts as the leaves, connected by a shape-memory metal spring. The weight of an insect on the spring makes it contract sharply, pulling the leaves together and enveloping the prey. Opening the trap once more is just a matter of applying a current to the spring.
Mohsen Shahinpoor at the University of Maine in Orono took a different approach. His robot flytrap uses artificial muscles made of polymer membranes coated with gold electrodes. A current travelling through the membrane makes it bend in one direction - and when the polarity is reversed it moves the other way.
Bending the material also produces a voltage, which Shahinpoor has utilised to create sensors. When a bug lands, the tiny voltage it generates triggers a larger power source to apply opposite charges to the leaves, making them attract one another and closing the trap (Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/6/4/046004).
"We should be able to benefit enormously from these flytrap technologies," says Ioannis Ieropoulos of the Bristol Robotics Lab in the UK. He and colleagues previously developed Ecobot, a robot that can digest insects, food scraps and sewage to power itself. Ecobot uses bacteria to break down a fly's exoskeleton in a reaction that liberates electrons into a circuit, generating electricity.
It's an interesting premise, the bug-eating robot. I'd personally never thought of feeding a machine anything other than electricity (or sunlight for the solar-powered variety).
If you built a robot, which fuel source would you design it to run on?
Here's a disturbing trend: Between 1996 and 2010 the number of teenagers aged 13-19 having elective cosmetic surgery has increased by 548% - from around 14,000 procedures to 76,841 last year, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The vast majority of these surgeries are rhinoplasty, followed by octoplasty (ear-pinning, typically), breast augmentation, asymmetry correction and reduction, and liposuction.
Why would so many kids go under the knife? Almost without exception, the surgeries are performed in response to teasing, bullying and low self-esteem. The ASPS says that teens "tend to have plastic surgery to fit in with peers, to look similar," by "improv[ing] physical characteristics they feel are awkward or flawed, that if left uncorrected, may affect them well into adulthood." Thirteen-year-old Nicolette Taylor (shown above) had a nose job after kids at school teased her; the "Hey, big nose," comments followed her to Facebook before her parents stepped in and opted to have Nicolette's nose reconstructed. She's not alone, either -- ABC reports that at least 90,000 such surgeries were performed last year “to avoid being bullied.”
Of course, a teenager can't just walk into a doctor's office and request a consult. Richard D'Amico, president of the ASPS, speaking with U.S. News and World Report, says that for anyone under age 18, a parent or guardian must be present and the prospective patient must have the maturity to understand the procedure, be able to express that "the desire for surgery does not reflect what a parent, friend, or boyfriend desires" and have realistic expectations. Even so, it becomes obvious when looking at the numbers that often surgery is a knee-jerk response to what most adults would consider the norms of teenage interaction. And it seems to skip over that "it builds character" thing that previous generations admired so strongly before plastic surgery was so widespread and available. Succinctly, Sheri Reed of The Stir asks, "[Plastic surgery], in no way, attempts to deal with the emotional matters behind a bully's behavior, nor does it teach the teen who hates herself the important life lesson of resilience."
How do parents justify plastic surgery for their children? There are no laws governing the minimum age for cosmetic procedures. Standard policy requires that a patient reaches a point of growth maturity beforehand, which is determined by monitoring changes in shoe size or height. There are two types of procedures: corrective and cosmetic. In the first camp, you have surgeries to repair deviated septa, cleft palates, under- and over-bites and any malformation or physical impairment that affects the quality of life. One teenager in the news recently will be having a series of procedures to correct her severe underbite; while kids do tease her about her protruding jaw, Samantha Weichhan's orthodontists Drs. Jerry Blum and Margo Brilliant argue that the process is not cosmetic. "It’s kind of like if you have somebody that one leg is 4 inches shorter than the other leg, and they say to straighten it out is an aesthetic thing. No, it’s not an aesthetic thing. Yeah, you will look better if you’re standing straight on both legs, but point is, it’s a functional problem.” But those aren't the worrying procedures.
In Nicolette Taylor's case, whose nose operates just fine, getting cosmetic surgery to change the way she looks in response to some posts on a Facebook wall (which, incidentally, are not supposed to be opened by 13-year-olds according to Facebook's Terms of Service), the reasoning becomes a little hazier. Rob Taylor, Nicolette's father, explains it this way to ABC: "You send them to a good school. You’d buy them shoes. You’d get them braces, which we did. It’s that kind of thing.” The parents of Kaitlyn Clemmons, who gave their 18-year-old daughter breast augmentation surgery as a Christmas gift, see the pain of the procedure as something akin to the pain after a trip to the gym. "Everything comes with a price," her stepfather says. Tracy Carp, who had breast augmentation at 17 with her parents' consent and recently underwent a second procedure to reshape a "slight bump" on her nose, says that "a little bit of cosmetic work" has helped his daughter "feel much better about herself . . . and healthier."
What price hotness? A new nose or sleeker profile aren't free, even if the surgery is performed pro bono or paid for by insurance. The ASPS urges teenagers and their parents to remember that "plastic surgery is real surgery, with great benefits, but also carries some risks." In 2008, Pennsylvania courts awarded $20 million to a family of an 18-year-old girl who died from what was "likely a pulmonary embolism after liposuction." The same year, 18-year-old Stephanie Kuleba of Florida died of malignant hyperthermia, a rare reaction to anesthesia, after undergoing cosmetic breast surgery. “This is something that can happen in any surgery, on any part of the body, in any setting,” D’Amico said. Other risks? MRSA infection, a deadly strain of staph, which killed more US patients in 2008 than AIDS. Unskilled or shady surgeons, like the man who gave Priscilla Presley injections of "industrial, low-grade silicone" after convincing her that it was a miracle fix for wrinkles. And then there are always the kids who will tease you for having a nose job or breast implants.
Given all the factors that accompany an elective procedure, would you consent to or support plastic surgery for your own kids if they were being teased about their physical appearance?
Since its debut in 1979, the Happy Meal has been a staple of childhood. It's not been without its problems, though, as nutrition-conscious parents and health-promoting legislation have worked to keep McDonald's kids' meals within acceptable caloric standards. From the 600-calorie hamburger debut to Tuesday's First Lady-approved changes (and a little toy trivia for good measure), check out the bumpy history of the Happy Meal on The Week. Link
This funny short, written and directed by Casey Donahue, is a template for every couple's arguments, ever. I don't know if there's anything missing (there are no doors to slam, so I guess that's just implied), but I do know that saying "I am always right" is the fastest way to start this thing on loop. So maybe don't do that. You always do that.
Gross. This gallery of images and video feature artwork made from sweat, urine, spit, frozen blood and... well, just about anything that comes out of or off of your body. From paintings to sculptures to uber-macabre book bindings, thre's a bit of weirdness here for every branch of creativity. If you think you can stomach it, view the gallery on Flavorwire. Link
Leilah Poulain's mom isn't super-handy with Facebook. In an attempt to showcase her daughter's painting of a penguin (above), she mistakenly uploaded the file to a public folder meant for entrants to a contest. The winner of that contest would have their artwork showcased in the Saatchi Gallery, a world-famous contemporary art gallery.
‘A year later I’d forgotten about it, and then I got an email saying Leilah was a Saatchi winner,’ said Rebekah.
I called them and said, “Thank you, but I don’t know what you’re on about”.
Apparently there were 1,700 applicants – but Leilah wasn’t actually one of them. Not on purpose.
‘It was quite funny really. I told my brother, who’s a graphic designer, and he couldn’t believe it. He said he’d love to exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery.’
Yesterday, Leilah’s painting was hanging on the wall of a gallery which features work from the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
Rebekah added: ‘It seems it all happened because I’m such an idiot. I didn’t know what I was doing when I uploaded Leilah’s picture.
‘When I told her the picture was going to be in a gallery, she thought it was brilliant.
‘Leilah said, “Does this mean I’m a famous artist?”. She wants to go to see it in London now.’
Is there such a thing as "too smart" or perhaps too smart for your own good? Bruce G. Charlton states a common observation that "high IQ types are lacking in ‘common sense’ – and especially when it comes to dealing with other human beings."
This is a statement that could easily be exemplified by Rick Rosner. Despite a high IQ and a firm grasp on a litany of subjects, including writing, Rick's life has had some strange twists and turns that are the combined result of his skewed sensibilities, and his desire to be famous.
Rick's exploits, and the fact that he got a 44/48 on the Hoeflin Test are legendary. He's also been said to have an IQ that rises each time he takes the test. Here's his story.
Genius Prefers High School Rosner liked high school a lot. After graduating with a (then) IQ score of 170 in 1978, he later successfully fooled school officials by repeating the twelfth grade four times. From 1979 to 1987, he returned as a valid senior four times using false IDs, prosthetics and makeup. On why he did this, he says:
High school's attractive to me, not necessarily because you have a good time, but because it's clear why you are miserable. As opposed to real life - post-high-school life- you can be miserable and not have a clear idea what makes you miserable. Dissatisfactions are more vague, more amorphous. (High school's) an abridged version of real life, and its abridgment adds clarity, and that clarity is comforting.
It's also interesting to note that he got away with one of his fake IDs using the alias Gilligan Rich Rosner. Gilligan.
Who Wants To Be A Genius?
The event that catapulted Rick's life into the spotlight happened on a show that was simultaneously spotlight and knowledge heavy. This show asked viewers if anyone in the crowd would perchance want to have a lot of money.
After numerous tries to get on the show, Rick was finally in the hot seat. He was sailing along on the questions and felt really good until a relatively easy-level question messed him up. He guessed according to his logic, and lost. He then sued the producers after sending three detailed letters to them explaining his case.
The question was: "What capital city is located at the highest altitude above sea level?" and the choices were:
A. Mexico City B. Quito C. Bogotá D. Kathmandu
The reasons Rosner lays out in those letters are spot-on critiques of the semantics of the question and its relative difficulty compared to all other questions asked at that level, but he never got anywhere with his suit. A sample of his correspondence: "I’m sorry to keep sending you letters. I’m not a grievance-oriented person, but a little research led me to a surprising amount of information indicating that it is an unacceptably-flawed question."
15 Minutes Late?
I do think Mr. Rosner has a strong love affair going with the celebrity dance. Aside from his appearances (often in the nude) on cable TV shows like The Man Show, Jimmy Kimmel and Crank Yankers, he's also appeared on a show called Obsessed, and took jobs guaranteed to draw attention to himself. Clearly this is someone eager for the 15 minutes of fame he thinks he deserves, but I also see a real human being, one who is acting naturally to the stimuli. He also got steamed at Domino's when they featured him in this commercial, somehow managing to spell his last name wrong in the graphics (Rossner).
Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) created a show where he interviewed subjects through an "interrotron", a "self-designed camera that allows the interview subject to see" Morris' face transposed into the cameraface focused on them. First Person is one of the best interview shows I've ever seen, as it tends to elicit more truth than can be seen in other shows. Errol Morris on Rick Rosner:
I imagine he is a pretty complicated character who doesn't understand himself that well. He's in the grip of all this stuff that he cannot control.
The journey he has taken, along with all the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and other stories of Mr. Rosner can be seen in six parts on You Tube, starting here. Notice how Morris strings the facts into a collection, much like a weaver manipulates the strings.
