Wild chinchillas tend to excrete their body wastes in personal piles called "middens". In the dry climate of the Atacama Desert in South America, these piles can be preserved for thousands of years. Scientists have discovered that they can use these preserved middens to gather information about rainfall in the distant past:

By measuring pellet size in middens deposited in modern times when rainfall records exist, the team determined the relationship between chinchilla pellet size and amount of rain.

They then used this relationship to estimate how much rain fell at points throughout the past 14,000 years, by measuring and radiocarbon dating the animals' poop.

The results show increases in rainfall at 11- to 13.8-thousand years ago, and again about one- to two-thousand years ago.

Link via Digg | Photo by Flickr user Arkangel used under Creative Commons license

Los Angeles-based sculptor Robert Therrien, among other projects, makes giant versions of ordinary household furniture. In a 2004 interview, in response to a question about his use of scale, Therrien wrote:

The artist’s point of view - from the small world - could be viewed as a large ges­ture pub­li­cally. The prac­tice is cre­at­ing some­thing both large and small.

Pub­li­cally, Table and Chairs is per­ceived as a big object, where it actu­ally orig­i­nated from a small detail-a corner bracket sup­port­ing the table leg. Instead of crawl­ing under­neath and pho­tograph­ing an actual table in order to see it, why not shrink your­self and take a normal snapshot?

Link via DudeCraft | Interview | Photo: Toxel

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Researchers at the Human-Robot Interaction Center of Saitama University in Japan have developed a wheelchair that tracks and follows ambulatory companions. Sensors gauge the distance and direction of a walking person's shoulders and moves the chair so that it keeps close. When sensors detect a crowded area, it moves behind the walking companion to avoid blocking the paths of other pedestrians. It's hoped that this design will help ease the workload of people providing care for wheelchair users.

via GearFuse | University Website

Researchers at MIT developed the Copenhagen Wheel -- an electric motor that they say can attach to almost any bicycle. The team says:

There is no external wiring or bulky battery packs, making it retrofittable into any bike. Inside the hub, we have arranged a motor, 3-speed internal hub gear, batteries, a torque sensor, GPRS and a sensor kit that monitors CO, NOx, noise (db), relative humidity and temperature. In the future, you will be able to spec out your wheel according to your riding habits and needs.

Users can also dock a smartphone to the Copenhagen Wheel to control how much assistance the electric motor provides.

Link via DVICE | Photo: MIT

Archaeologists working in Ethiopia have discovered grooves in animal bones indicating that they had been subjected to work with stone tools. If this conclusion is accurate, the earliest tool use by hominids dates back to 3.4 million years -- almost a million years before previous estimates:

Primordial butchers using sharp stones to fillet a carcass in ancient East Africa made the marks, the researchers said.

"It pushes back tool use almost a million years," said archaeologist Shannon McPherron at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who discovered the bones last year at Dikika, Ethiopia, about 300 miles from Addis Ababa.[...]

Until now, the oldest known stone tools dated to about 2.5 million years ago. Those implements, of which thousands were found in East Africa, are thought to be the work of an early human species. The older find announced Wednesday, however, would predate the evolution of the human family, known as the genus Homo, and raises new questions about the role of tools in spurring human evolution. They may have initiated a shift in pre-humans' diet, which in turn may have aided the development of larger brains.

Link via Discover | Photo: Dikika Research Project/PA

On Wednesday, the largest clock in the world began operating. It is mounted 400 meters into the sky on a skyscraper dominating the skyline of the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. Measuring 43 meters across, it's hoped that the enormous clock will draw additional Muslim pilgrims to visit the city:

Over 90 million pieces of coloured glass mosaic embellish the sides of the clock, which has four faces each bearing a large inscription of the name "Allah." It is visible from all corners of the city, the state news agency said.

The clock tower is the landmark feature of the seven-tower King Abdulaziz Endowment hotel complex, being built by the private Saudi Binladen Group, which will have the largest floor area of any building in the world when it is complete. Local media have said the clock tower project cost US$3 billion (NZ$4.2 billion).

The clock is positioned on a 601-metre tower, which will become the second tallest inhabited building in the world when it is completed in three months' time.

"Because it based in front of the holy mosque the whole Islamic world will refer to Mecca time instead of Greenwich. The Mecca clock will become a symbol to all Muslims," said Hashim Adnan, a resident of nearby Jeddah who frequently visits Mecca.

Link | Photo: AP

Harvard University graduate student Bill Rankin owns the site Radical Cartography. It's filled with unique and imaginative maps, such as the above world map plotting relative population by lines of longitude. Other maps include displays of an actual cartographic "axis of evil", US counties named after Presidents, and youth skater culture.

Link via Geekosystem | Rankin's Professional Website

Computer programmer Michael Yingling developed a search engine for archived Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. Here are some tips for using it:

Currently the search only looks for EXACT phrases (not case sensitive), so if you're looking for a comic with the words "balloon" and "airplane" you cannot enter them both, or it will search for "balloon airplane" together. Perhaps in the future I will fix this, but it's actually a lot more difficult than leaving it as-is.

There is one exception though! You can search for a DATE and it will find that specific comic, though it MUST be of the format MM/DD/YYYY. So 09/01/1986 will work, but "Sept 1st '86" and "9/1/86" wont - yet.

Link via reddit

The editors of Buzzfeed created nine sets of Google Map directions that show song lyrics, such as the above "Hotel California" by the Eagles. What song do you think would make for a good Google Maps song?

Link via Geekologie

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The above video was recently shot at Hietaniemi Beach in southern Finland. It shows dark storm clouds gathering so quickly that people on the beach start screaming in terror (1:04). The last twenty seconds are particularly impressive.

via Super Punch

Online map services like Mapquest can take you to the doorstep of a building, but what do you do if you need navigational help inside a building? A research team at the University of California at Berkeley responded to that need by creating a backpack-sized device that instantly creates 3D models of interior spaces:

Grad student Nicholas Corso dons a backpack brimming with lasers and cameras. As he hikes the hall, the lasers scan everything from floor to ceiling and the cameras capture a panorama.

"The idea," explains Professor Zakhor, "is that you wear a backpack, you walk inside the building. You're done. You push a button and out comes this model."

The model is textured (covered) with the photographs.

The team is also behind the technology that creates 3D views of major cities on Google Earth. So, why not fly into the buildings and not just around them? The outdoor version relies on GPS but you can't rely on GPS indoors. So, the team in the imaging lab combined a new breed of miniature laser with an inertial management unit (IMU) like the ones that guide missiles.

Video at the link.

Link via DVICE | Image: KGO-TV, Screenshot by DVICE

Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson were men on a mission. Their quest was to travel across the United States, fixing typos on public signs. The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing The World, One Correction At A Time is their book about the journey. NPR reports:

Some typos were uncorrectable — out of the team's reach, or, as Deck tells NPR's Tony Cox, requiring tools and materials that weren't included in his "typo correction kit."

Deck carried a variety of Sharpies, of which "the black Sharpie was the most important." Deck also carried Wite-Out, dry erase markers, chalk, crayons and pens.

Sometimes Deck and Herson couldn't get permission from the typo-maker to make an adjustment to the signage. "They would turn us down, or they'd be apathetic about it," says Deck.

"Or they'd say 'Oh, we'll fix that one later,' and we'd really have to take their word on that."

At the link, you can find an excerpt from their book.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129086941&sc=fb&cc=fp via The Agitator | Amazon Link | Photo: Benjamin D. Herson

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Make a guess, and then hit the jump to see if you're correct.

So, as I mentioned previously, JetBlue flight attendant Steve Slater had had enough after 28 years of rude passengers. So he got on the intercom, cussed out the woman who swore at him, and quit his job. After grabbing two beers, he opened the emergency slide to the jetliner to exit the plane. Slater then drove home and was having sex at the time that police arrived to arrest him.

He's become something of a working class hero, and Geekosystem has compiled eight tributes that artists and singers across the Internet have created to honor him. Pictured above is a PSA by artist

Link | Artist's Website

It all started when Jeremy Gelbart, one of the founders of Ultrinsic, made a bet with Steven Wolf, the other founder, that he would make an A in a college class. After they graduated, they decided to see if this scheme could work on a larger scale:

Ultrinsic, currently in beta form, allows students at 37 colleges to gamble on their grades in each of the classes they take. The student hands over money to Ultrinsic--as well as access to his or her official school records--as a wager that they will attain a certain grade. If they get it, Ultrinsic pays out on a sliding scale.

A pilot scheme in place at both Penn and NYU over the last academic year had some takers, including one guy who won $150, although the serious money is to be made by high schoolers as they head off to university. Then, if you bet $20 on getting a 4.0 GPA, then you'll walk away with $2,000 should you succeed. That, apparently, is what motivation looks like.

Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user banspy used under Creative Commons license