The building housing reactor 4 (left) appears severely damaged – despite the reactor itself being shut down Over the days of the Fukushima crisis, attention has switched from reactor building 1 to 3, to 2, back to 3 – and now, to 4. This is a surprise. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 were shut down at the time of Friday’s earthquake, with some or all of their fuel rods extracted and left in... 

Believe it or not, these ads actually found their way into newspapers all over the world: Braille dictionary for sale. Must see to appreciate. FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000.00 or best offer. No longer needed. Got married last weekend. Wife knows everything. Help wanted, singer for rock band. Must be female or male. For sale, Hope... 

Although Hugh’s relationship with all his bunnies in this world could be called a love triangle, it seems that the world’s most famous playboy Hugh Hefner (84) was not spared the consequences. Jealousy is one of them. Probably because of last week’s announcement engagement Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris (24), Hugh’s former darling Isabella James this week to the public has... 

How much it cost was a relatively used car? Some $ 4,000. And a new car  – about 11,000 units of equal value? Ok, and how the Toyota RAV4 – about 20,000 euro. Ok, most expensive and most decent probably would be a Mercedes. However, would you believe us if we told you that it’s made a bike that costs 60,000 USD straight? Well, there, and it’s called Chrome Hearts x Cervelo bike … Made in... 

As horror-flick titles go, Night of the Living Chaos and Rosemary’s Nonlinearity aren’t the catchiest. But filmmakers know that chaos — the mathematical kind — is scary. Now scientists know it too. sciencenewsFilmmakers use chaotic, unpredictable sounds to evoke particular emotions, say researchers who have assessed screams and other outbursts from more than 100 movies. The new findings, reported... 

A massive search for a prime suspect in the mystery of the missing heritability has come up empty. Known as copy-number variations, or CNVs, these extra or missing sequences of the genome have been linked to some rare diseases. Researchers thought they might play a role in common diseases, too. But a comparison of 19,000 genomes found few links to breast cancer, diabetes and six other major killers. Copy-number... 

A new analysis shows that a deadly mud volcano in Indonesia may not have been a natural disaster after all. The research lends weight to the controversial theory that the volcano was caused by humans. Villagers near Sidoarjo noticed a mud volcano beginning to erupt at 5 a.m. local time May 29, 2006. It was about 500 feet from a local gas-exploration well. Every day since then, the Lusi mud volcano... 

Nine species of giant, exotic snakes will face new import and transportation restrictions if regulations under consideration by the Interior Department are enacted. The snakes would be listed as “injurious species” under the Lacey Act, a law first established in 1900 that gives the Interior Department the ability to restrict some aspects of commercial distribution of potentially harmful plants... 

SEATTLE — It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant. Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making... 

Scientists have unearthed a completely new species of spider hiding in sand dunes on the Israel-Jordan border. With a legspan that stretches 5.5 inches, the spider, called Cerbalus aravensis, is the biggest of its type in the Middle East. “It is rare to find a new species of spider — at least around this part of the world — which is so big,” said biologist Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa-Oranim... 

An artist from Pittsburgh named Cliff Maynard, that’s also a tattoo artist, is making portraits by using marijuana joint ends. The portraits are of famous people like Bob Marley, Snoop Dog and John Lennon, to mention a few.  Read More »

Luke Jerram makes the deadliest art in the world. His subjects have caused pain and suffering for hundreds of millions of people throughout history. They are infectious, they are resilient, and they are everywhere. THE DEADLY ARTIST – LUKE JERRAM - Born in Stroud, England and now living in Bristol UK with his wife Shelina and two children Maya and Nico (Bellic?) - Diagnosed with dichromatic... 

May 19, 2009—Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” found in Germany that’s created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins. In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link... 

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly... 

North America’s cradle of civilization can be traced 3,800 years back to the lower Illinois River valley. It’s there that archaeologists have found evidence of the continent’s first so-called agricultural complex — a set of different crops, rather than a single domesticated plant species. A rough biological analogue of an agricultural complex is a multicellular animal: It represents... 

The brains of patients who’ve received double hand transplants can recreate lost neurological control systems, according to new brain data from a French surgical team. The doctors extensively analyzed two patients, of the six total who had the surgery, for evidence of how they learn to reuse their hands. It’s well-known that after a limb has been amputated, a body’s nervous system... 

The Department of Energy’s $3.5 billion laser, designed to simulate the energy of a nuclear explosion, is ready to fire up all of its 192 beams, AP reported Tuesday. After more than a decade, that included several delays and cost overruns (it was initially supposed to cost $700 million), the world’s most powerful laser has been certified by the DOE and is ready to begin experiments, some... 

A newly-reconstructed deformed fossil skull suggests that our human ancestors probably cared for deformed offspring for years. The skull indicates that the human to which it belonged about 530,000 years ago would have been severely handicapped — and yet survived at least five years and possibly several years longer. That suggests that the child’s parents must have provided the child with care,... 

Electric cars have been getting a lot of buzz lately, but a more immediately viable transportation fuel of the future could be liquid derived from coal. Scientists have devised a new way to transform coal into gas for your car using far less energy than the current process. The advance makes scaling up the environmentally unfriendly fuel more economical than greener alternatives. If oil prices rise... 

For those of you disappointed to learn that cow tipping is just an urban legend, take heart: you can tell tall tales about how you once demagnetized a cow. Satellite images of cattle and deer herds suggest that low-frequency magnetic fields disrupt the tendency of four-legged animals to align their bodies with geomagnetic fields. When herds stand next to power lines, which emit a mild electromagnetic...