Sea Shanties were work songs sung on ships during the age of sail. They were used to keep rhythm during work and make it more pleasant. Because these songs were used to accomplish a goal, rather then for pure entertainment, the lyrics and melody were not very sophisticated. Still, the songs were usually meaningful and told of a sailor’s life, which included backbreaking labor, abuse from captain and crew, alcohol, and longing for girls and dry land.
The 49-year-old flew on a plane to more than 8,200ft (2,500m), ignited jets on a wing on his back, and jumped out.
Mr Rossy had hoped to reach speeds of 125mph.
It felt "great, really great", said Mr Rossy: "I only have one word, thank you, to all the people who did it with me."
But after inserting a portion of the adult-size liver in the little girl, Dr Shun discovered it was too big and was placing pressure on her blood vessels which could have been fatal.
Having heard about the use of ping-pong balls in operations overseas, he decided to test their suitability in transplant surgery.
"I rang my wife and asked her to go to Big W and buy me some ping-pong balls," he said.
Unaware she has a foreign object inside her body, little Mackenzie is now running around like every toddler her age.
Her parents Letice Darswell and Guy Argaet are thrilled their daughter is well after she was so seriously ill from birth.
A LiveJournal site (in Russian) has a collection of pictures of intricately-detailed miniature war scenes, originally found on a Japanese site. If you can translate any information on this for me, I'd appreciate it! Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
Update 3-2-09: I found the artist! His name is Mark Hogancamp, and you'll find links to his works here. (Thanks, valr!)
NIST’s conducts its nanosoccer competitions and demonstrations in conjunction with RoboCup, an international organization dedicated to using the game of soccer as a testing ground for the robotics technologies of the future. NIST’s goal in coordinating competitions between the world’s smallest robots—known as nanobots (nanoscale robots)—is to show the feasibility and accessibility of technologies for fabricating MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS), tiny mechanical devices built onto semiconductor chips and measured in micrometers (millionth of a meter).
Even after controlling for variables such as race, income and education levels, a state's dominant personality turns out to be strongly linked to certain outcomes. Amiable states, like Minnesota, tend to be lower in crime. Dutiful states -- an eclectic bunch that includes New Mexico, North Carolina and Utah -- produce a disproportionate share of mathematicians. States that rank high in openness to new ideas are quite creative, as measured by per-capita patent production. But they're also high-crime and a bit aloof. Apparently, Californians don't much like socializing, the research suggests.
