One year ago today, a devastating earthquake shook Haiti. An expedition from Conservation International went to Haiti in October to see how the forest ecosystem was affected. Amphibian Conservation Officer Dr. Robin Moore and Dr. Blair Hedges from Pennsylvania State University led the search for endangered species, particularly for the La Selle grass frog, which hadn't been seen since 1985.

Although they didn't find the "lost" frog in question, the week-long expedition did unearth 23 of Haiti's 49 known native frog species — six of which hadn't been seen in 19 years. Among the rediscoveries: the ventriloquial landfrog (Eleutherodactylus dolomedes), which was previously only known from a few specimens. As its name implies, this species can project its voice to sound as if it's coming from somewhere else, making it extremely difficult to locate. Moore and the other researchers spent hours trying to home in on one individual.

During the survey, individuals from 10 Critically Endangered species were collected for a captive breeding program at the Philadelphia Zoo. This captive population will preserve the species (and allow for possible reintroduction) if the wild populations are wiped out — an assured outcome if deforestation is allowed to continue.

"The biodiversity of Haiti, including its frogs, is approaching a mass extinction event caused by massive and nearly complete deforestation," said Dr. Blair Hedges. "Unless the global community comes up with a solution soon, we will lose many unique species forever."

At the Conservation International website, you can hear the sounds of the ventriloqual frog and the Macaya burrowing frog shown here, and see pictures of all the rediscovered amphibians. Link

(Image credit: © Robin Moore/iLCP)

You hear about new technical developments every day, but until you see them together, it's hard to imagine how far we've come in the last few years. Jetpacks, virtual reality, body scanners, personal submarines... all those things were in the realm of science fiction only a decade ago.

Since the 80s, virtual reality has been the holy grail of video gaming and entertainment.  It has often eluded the most brilliant minds who endeavored to develop it. However, two Russian brothers recently have cracked the VR code by simply putting prospective gamers inside a giant hamster ball. The ubiquitous VR headset is equipped with gyroscopes that measure the position of the gamer’s head and swivel the view of the game accordingly. Gamers enter the ball and, thanks to the wheels on which it is mounted, are able to walk indefinitely within the virtual world just as they could in the real one.

See a video of this game in action, and read about the other 8 developments at Geeks Are Sexy. Link

Mouser Williams collects sand from different parts of the world. He photographs his samples using a macro lens to get up close and personal, labeling their composition. This lovely sample is called Star Sand.

This sand, found only on a few beaches in southern Japan, is made up entirely of the calcified shells of tiny organisms only a few milimeters across. It is one of the more sought-after sands for sand collectors despite being readily available on eBay.

Link -via Jason Kottke

(Image credit: Flickr user Mouser Williams)

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Talk about unintended consequences! This video shows what would more likely happen to Endor at the end of Return of the Jedi if the normal laws of physics applied to the Star Wars universe. -via Boing Boing

The monster from the Sy-Fy movie has been enshrined in plush! This is a one-of-a-kind Sharktopus was hand-made by Suzannah Ashley. See more pictures at her website. Link -via Laughing Squid

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Scientists at Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium have developed a robot that looks like a cartoon elephant. Probo has fully articulate features and a flexible trunk that can display a variety of responses and emotions. It was designed as a therapy aid for autistic children. Probo is being tested now at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, where the team has reportedly achieved some remarkable results so far in interactions with autistic children. http://www.romaniantimes.at/news/Around_the_World/2011-01-09/12521/Robot_Elephant_Offers_Hope_to_Autistic_Kids to story. Link to robot website. -via Arbroath

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of the world's oldest winemaking facility. The winery was found in an Armenian cave near the village of Areni -the same cave where the oldest shoe ever was found last year. Carbon dating shows that the winery dates back 6,100 years!

In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges.

The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.

Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained.

The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Analysis of residue found malvidin, a plant pigment found in red wine. Read more about the discovery at National Geographic News. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Hans Barnard)

A study of lice genes is helping scientists to pinpoint the era in history when humans began to wear clothing. Really.

The key to the study by David Reed and colleagues, which appears in Molecular Biology And Evolution, is that there are two kinds of lice that hang around humans: the head lice that live on our scalp, and the body lice that live in our clothes. At one point in the past these two shared a common ancestor, Reed reasoned, and the body lice would have split off and become a separate group once they had human clothing in which to live.

The genomes of the two kinds of lice split somewhere between 83,000 and 170,000 years ago, which means that humans ran naked for hundreds of thousands of years without body hair or clothing. Clothing probably arose during an Ice Age, and eventually enabled humans to leave Africa to explore colder parts of the world. Link

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Street art made possible by snow, with just a few seconds of eerie animation, inspired by a drain grate. The artist is Cem Ulucan. -via Laughing Squid

Brian Westerfield approached a man in a Nampa, Idaho Walmart store who had just bought a smartphone. He grabbed the phone and fled.

He got away the first time but when the victim and police got together they came up with a plan to call the stolen phone and talk to the man who took it.

"The suspect didn't know that he was talking with the police," Sgt. Mike Wagoner said. "(They) dickered over the price for the phone and so when the suspect did show up the police obviously where there to meet him."

They arrested him after he tried to run he tripped and fell face first onto the ground.

It apparently didn't occur to Westerfield to wonder how the "buyer" got the phone number when he didn't yet know it himself. http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/113142469.html -via Gizmodo

Charm City Cakes was commissioned to create a wedding cake for two Ghostbusters fans. Really avid fans.

Obsessed on a level that we can understand (though with us it's Star Wars and/or Jaws).

They wanted to incorporate their shared love of the movie into their wedding cake. Their idea? To replicate the final scene of the movie, when the guys are battling the Stay Puft Marshmallow man from atop an NYC skyscraper, only with the bride and groom doing the proton pack zapping.Can we do that?

Um, YES? YES WE CAN.

Read how this awesome cake came together at the bakery's blog. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

Here are more pictures from the wedding. Link

Do you remember what stood at the site in New York City before the World Trade Center was built? It was the Hudson Terminal Building, a massive office building covering two city blocks. This century-old picture of the Hudson Terminal Building is part of a wonderful collection of pictures called Vintage New York at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

A collision eons ago between the earth and another celestial body throw vaporized rock into the atmosphere, some of which eventually became the moon. If this is true, you'd think that the earth and the moon would share the same basic materials, but there is more iron on the moon and more magnesium on earth.

Now researchers have an answer, and it's completely awesome. Magma rain would resolve the mystery, as rising rock vapor would see its magnesium oxide start to condense into droplets and fall back onto the planet's surface. The iron oxide inside the rock vapor wouldn't have condensed as easily, meaning far more of it got mixed into the disc that became the Moon.

Which evokes some interesting mental pictures resembling heavy metal album covers. Link -via Geekosystem

(Image credit: Fahad Sulehria)

We've had fun with facetious Amazon customer reviews for a number of odd products, like the TSA Security Checkpoint toy, the Three Wolf Moon Shirt, and the Table That Attaches to Your Steering Wheel (which has the world's greatest customer images). But the granddaddy of all customer-reviewed Amazon products is Tuscan Whole Milk, which we featured back in 2006.

One should not be intimidated by Tuscan Whole Milk. Nor should one prejudge, despite the fact that Tuscan is non-vintage and comes in such large containers. Do not be fooled: this is not a jug milk. I always find it important to taste milk using high-quality stemware -- this is milk deserving of something better than a Flintstones plastic tumbler. One should pour just a small dollop and swirl it in the glass -- note the coating and look for clots or discoloration. And the color -- it should be opaque, and very, very white. Now, immerse your nose in the glass and take a whiff. Tuscan transports you instantly to scenic hill towns in central Italy (is that Montepulciano I detect?) --- there is the loamy clay, the green grass of summer days, the towering cypress.

Of course, the attraction was the novelty of a mail-order vendor selling fresh milk -which they don't do anymore, but the product is available from "other sellers", starting at $48.09. And now there are 1,240 reviews! Don't miss the eight-stanza poem one reviewer left, along with five stars. http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/dp/B00032G1S0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top -Thanks, Joe Kooman!

TopTenz has a list of ten (of course) photojournalists whose names you might not know, but they brought us pictures you will always remember. Many of them risked their lives for those photographs -David Seymour, for example.

In 1933 he landed his first job as a freelance journalist and from there his career took off. He was able to capture moments during the Spanish Civil War as well as during unrest in Czechoslovakia. In 1939 he took photographs of Loyalist Spanish refugees who journeyed to Mexico. When WWII began, Seymour was in New York but enlisted in the army in 1940 where he worked as a photo interpreter in Europe. In 1942 his parents were killed by Nazis, which lead him to help UNICEF document the plight of refugees, especially children.

Even though he was well known for his war photographs of orphans, he later got into photographing celebrities. While covering the 1956 Suez War, Seymour and fellow photographer Jean Roy were killed by machine-gun fire.

Link