Things You May Want to Know

City That Never Sleeps, Wake Up

2006-04-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

A very creative ad!

New Animal Resembling Furry Lobster Found

2006-03-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

A team of American-led divers has discovered a new crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers said Tuesday, AP reports:

A team of American-led divers found the animal in waters 2,300 meters
(7,540 feet) deep at a site 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) south of Easter Island
last year, according to Michel Segonzac of the French Institute for Sea
Exploration.
The animal is white and 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) long --
about the size of a salad plate.

Read it all.

H5N1 Bird Flu Infects Cats in Austria

2006-03-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in several cats in Austria, as world health experts prepared for a feared mutation of the disease capable of jumping from human to human. (Vienna -AFP)

Read More.

Related news:
BBC
USA Today

Once you think you saw it all...

2005-11-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

A male mother?

Is the movie of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger "Junior" coming to the life?

You can read the story of the first male pregnancy experiment here.

Amazing Stadium (in Sapporo)

2005-10-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

Sapporo stadium Seating capacity of 42,122, what's unique about this Stadium is that, it's an indoor stadium with the playing field out side, and when required, the field will move inside the stadium... and not only that, the field once inside it will rotate within its axis to ensure the spectators will get a all round view of the game being. You can see the technical details from here.

It looks like an UFO, isn't it?

Note: Sapporo is a commercial city in northern Japan on western Hokkaido

Biodiesel

2005-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

Since the environmental issues and limited fuel resources become an important problem todays life, researchers are looking alternatives for fossil fuels. Wired.com has interesting news about this subject from Charleston, West Virginia. According to the news Upshur County school buses are running on an alternative fuel, biodiesel.

Due to its low cost, diesel is a very common fuel in Europe. In US there is an increase interest in using diesel. Biodiesels, mainly a mixture of vegetable oil and diesel, are also very important according to its low emission rates.

There are some downsides though. Especially in cold weathers vegetable oil in the diesel may become thicker, and stop flowing. I hope researchers working on biodiesel can overcome this problem very soon.

Suicidal Rabbits

2005-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Laconism

2005-06-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt

Abraham Lincoln

Academic jobs...

2005-06-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Are you a graduate student and looking for a post-doc position, or are you looking for a faculty position? AcademicKeys.com is for you.

Interesting...

2005-06-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Interesting determinations about computers...

Five reasons to believe computers are female:

1.No one but their creator understands their internal logic
2.Even the smallest mistakes are immediately committed to memory
3.The native language used to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to anyone else
4.The message "bad command or file name" is about as informative as "If you don't know what is wrong, then I'm not going to tell you"
5.As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheque on accessories for it

Five reasons to believe computers are male:

1.They have a lot of data but are still clueless
2.A better model is right around the corner
3.They look attractive - until you take them home
4.Big power surges knock them out for the rest of the night
5.In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on

Directors vs. Writers

2005-06-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

After reading the book Dreamcatcher, I saw its movie too. It is interesting to watch a movie which is based on a book you have read.

One can see what parts directors cut from the original, what parts they added, etc. That's why I prefer reading the original before watching adapted version.

I think I understand why they had to edit the book; make it even more interesting to catch peoples' attention, or reduce time to 1-2 hours. I can understand that, but sometimes they lost control and the only thing in common with the book is the title.

I remember when I heard Sci-Fi channel was making the movie of my favorite series Earthsea . I was very excited. I had a chance to see what I imagined from other peoples' eyes.

I missed the first part, and when I read different comments (including Ursula K. Le Guin), I didn't get upset for missing it. She says "How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books", and continues;

The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense. My protagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. In the film, he's a petulant white kid.

You can read the rest of the story here .

Women in academia...

2005-06-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

There are interesting studies on graduate students...You should know this, this, this, and this.

Our brains need sleep

2005-06-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

Memory is one of the first skill we lose when we're tired. Try this , this , and this . This, and this may be also helpful.

Can peppermint be a solution to accidents?

2005-06-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

According to recent studies, smells around us affect how we react. Peppermint, lemon, or cinnabon smells can increase our concentration while fast food, or bread smells can make us careless. Camomile, jasmine, and lavender odors are also dangerous because they can make people sleep.

So next time shopping for car freshener stay away from lavender...

You can read the rest of the story here.

Are we really alone?

2005-06-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

People love talking about extraterrestrial lives, whether there are some or not. Even it's a science fiction, I think watching National Geographics' Planetary Investigation Lab. is still fun.