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Flexible Armor: Mysterious Seahorse Astounds Scientists The curious seahorse, a tiny fish that swims in a vertical position and looks a lot like a miniature horse, has astounded researchers by its ability to withstand crushing forces that would destroy nearly every other living creature. And it just may help the researchers borrow from the world of biology to solve some really tough problems in the world of engineering. The seahorse is the latest in a growing list of organisms in the relatively new field of biomimetics. If you are trying to solve an engineering problem, find something in nature that has already done it, then steal its secrets. Engineers at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, have been studying several animals to see how they protect themselves. Their goal is to develop a device that can grab an object, even something deep under the sea, while withstanding the forces of nature and the threats from predators. A monkey's tail would work, because a monkey can curl its tail around a branch and hang from a tree. In technical jingo, that tail is a "flexible prehensile" extension. The engineers looked at all sorts of critters, including a large fish that survives in the piranha-infested waters of Brazil's Amazon forest, and is protected by a layer of armor that is more than a match for the razor-sharp teeth of the piranha. But you can't pick up something with the body of a fish, so they turned elsewhere. "We started out looking at antlers, and horns, as defense, then we went on to the armadillo and turtle shells, as armor," materials science professor Joanna McKittrick of UCSD said in a telephone interview. But what they needed was a truly remarkable creature, and the seahorse stepped up to the plate. "The seahorse was a natural," Mckittrick said. The research, led by McKittrick and fellow materials science professor Marc A. Meyers, was published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, and it describes seahorses like this: "They have a head like a horse, a long tubular snout like an anteater, eyes that move independently like a chameleon, a brood pouch like a kangaroo, camouflage skin like a flounder, and a flexible prehensile tail like that of a monkey." That sounds like an animal designed by a committee that wasn't entirely sure what it wanted to do. But as the researchers subjected dead seahorses to forces powerful enough to compress their body to half their normal size, they found something extraordinary. That amount of compression, which would kill just about anything else, except a sponge, did no discernible damage to the seahorse. McKittrick said that when she saw the fish's ability to withstand that, she was "bamboozled." That's an engineering term for stunned, or astonished, or really surprised. The researchers found that the seahorse's vertebra, which runs the length of its body, is protected by a series of "bony plates" that slide past each other during compression. But Michael Porter, a doctoral student who conducted most of the lab work and is lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview that the finding was surprising because bone would be expected to crack, and then shatter under such compression. That's because bones are made mostly from minerals and are brittle. Minerals comprise 65 percent of a cow bone, for example, and that bone would shatter under severe compression. But the seahorse's bony plates are only about 40 percent mineral. The rest is organic compounds and water, so the plates eventually deform at compression beyond 50 percent, but they don't break. "We had expected the bony plates to break," Porter said. "But most of the load (from compression) was transferred to the tissue that connects the overlapping plates as they slide past each other." So presumably, a live seahorse that is caught in the jaws of crab should be able to go on with its life if it is compressed no more than 50 percent. It will likely find a piece of coral and wrap its remarkable tail around it and hang around for another day. And that's pretty much what the engineers would like to reproduce. They want to build a "gripping device" that can operate in hostile environments, like the ocean, while protecting itself from predators with some kind of armor that can withstand incredible forces. Such a device could be useful in applications ranging from unmanned bomb detonation to -- if they can make it small enough -- medical tools that could work inside the human body. "We think we can assemble something that's based on the seahorse," McKittrick said. "At least that's what we're trying to do. We haven't done it yet." Incidentally, the researchers didn't have to kill the seahorses for their experiments. The animals were on their way from Bali, Indonesia, to join the aquarium at nearby Scripps Institute of Oceanography when they "died, due to stress, during transport," the study notes. Of course, scientists and engineers have tried to borrow from nature for centuries. The Wright brothers, in their quest to build a flying machine, studied pigeons. Fortunately, they were smart enough to figure out that flapping wings is probably not the way to go. Today, however, researchers around the world are trying to mimic biological systems, and they have turned to some of nature's most ingenious designs. Scientists at Helsinki University, Finland, unraveled the mystery of how a water spider can walk on water. They produced a material that is so buoyant that a boat made from one pound of the stuff could carry 1,000 pounds. That's about five kitchen refrigerators. The spider's secret -- its superlight construction -- led to aerogels, made from plant cellulose and air, that are so light the researchers described them as "solid smoke." Scientists at Britain's West Chester University turned to whales and dolphins to improve the design of turbines. That work was led by a guy with an appropriate name: Frank Fish. Honest. Ohio State University scientists are caught up in cockroaches these days. This "biological and engineering marvel," as they described it, can run fast, turn abruptly, and react to an obstruction in its path faster than a nerve impulse can travel. Ideal model for all terrain vehicles in space, and on earth. Others are looking at caterpillars for soft robots, bats for better radar, squid for camouflaging, and on and on. It appears that nature, indeed, is still the best engineer on the planet.

Steve Jobs widow: How is Laurene Powell Jobs spending her wealth? Steve Jobs widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is emerging as a education philanthropist and immigration reform campaigner. Since her husband, Steve Jobs, passed on, Mrs. Powell Jobs has joined the push for passage of the Dream Act. For most of her 20-year marriage to Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs was content to be a behind-the-scenes philanthropist. But a desire to change US immigration laws is bringing her into the media spotlight - albeit in a carefully managed way. Ms. Powell Jobs has a net worth of about $11.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. Her husband, the Apple co-founder, wasn't a big philanthropist. And before his death, he did not join the "Giving Pledge," the organization started by Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates to encourage the world's wealthiest to donate at least half their wealth to charity. The site lists 114 people who have taken the pledge. Powell Jobs has not signed either. But she has been a quiet donor of her time and money to many causes, especially to education. In 1997, she started College Track, a non-profit organization that helps low-income students get into college, and graduate from college. The after-school program reaches kids starting the summer before high school and works with them throughout college. The program includes tutoring, extra-curricular activities and leadership classes. According to the website, 90 percent of the nearly 1,200 children who have participated in College Track programs have graduated from high school. It was through her work at College Track that Powell Jobs got on the track to immigration reform. Some of the students in California in the program came into the US at a young age illegally. Now, as high school graduates, they are ineligible for state or federal college assistance. And that has led Powell Jobs to take a more public and active stance on the immigration. “This continues to be a purgatory that they find themselves in,” Powell Jobs told The New York TImes recently. “It is one of these issues that seems discordant with what our country stands for.” When the DREAM Act – which would have offered a path to citizenship for children living in the US illegally – failed to pass Congress, Powell Jobs began to flex her political and economic muscle. Through her Emerson Collective (which invests in education start-ups and gives education grants), she commissioned a film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker (Waiting for 'Superman,' An Inconvenient Truth) Davis Guggenheim. She's shown the 30-minute film ("The Dream is Now") to key members of Congress and launched a web site where it can be viewed. Powell Jobs recently gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal, on the condition that the only topic she would discuss was immigration. "Her profile is rising only of necessity and passion to change the system," said Ron Conway, a start-up investor who is a friend. "I don't think she necessarily wants to be in Washington all the time. I think it is based on the necessity of the issue." Conway told The Wall Street Journal that he saw her as "a catalyst, not a lobbyist."

Why Are Google & NASA Getting a Quantum Computer? Think your computer is pretty fast? Think again. Compared with the newest quantum computer from D-Wave Systems of Burnaby, British Columbia, even the world's most powerful supercomputers are ploddingly slow, The New York Times reports. The ability of quantum computing to solve problems thousands of times faster than traditional computers is attracting attention from some of the world's largest and most powerful institutions. Search engine giant Google announced Thursday (May 16) it was teaming with NASA Ames Research Center and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to create the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, to be housed later this year at the NASA Ames facility in Moffett Field, Calif., northwest of San Jose. Their new computing system, dubbed D-Wave Two, is D-Wave's second quantum computer and the second to be installed in California. Lockheed Martin, the world's largest aerospace and defense company, purchased a D-Wave quantum computer in 2011 and installed it at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, according to Nature.com. Though D-Wave reportedly doesn't release any price information on its computers, the BBC states the D-Wave Two cost about $15 million and will be housed in a box the size of a garden shed that will cool the computer's quantum chip to temperatures approaching absolute zero. Lightning quick Quantum computers have been a twinkle in the eye of computer designers for years, and have only recently entered the development stage. Compared with the familiar desktop and laptop computers now available, they should be capable of making calculations several orders of magnitude faster. Conventional computers rely upon codes expressed as binary digits, or bits, with a value of either 0 or 1. A computer with a two-bit register therefore has a total of four (2 to the second power) different states: 00, 01, 10 or 11. A quantum computer, however, isn't limited to just two values in each bit. Each quantum bit, or qubit, can exist as a 0, a 1, or both a 0 and a 1 simultaneously, a state known as "superposition." Quantum computers achieve this tremendous feat by taking advantage of the strange nuances of quantum mechanics, the physics theory that describes a microscopic world in which a particle can exist in two different places at once, or spin in opposite directions at the same time. Testing the D-Wave Why would entities like Google and NASA — which already own countless high-powered computers — invest heavily in the relatively new field of quantum computing? Many skeptics wondered the same thing, and have challenged D-Wave to substantiate its claims that quantum computers are worth the price tag and the considerable hype the machines receive. To put its computers to the test, D-Wave brought in Catherine C. McGeoch, professor in technology and society at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She gave the D-Wave computer a few problems to solve involving optimization, The New York Times reported. Optimization problems, in simple terms, are comparable to figuring out the best route a traveling salesman should take to visit all his customers in a certain period of time, weighing in factors like traffic, weather and other variables. D-Wave aces the test McGeoch's results were striking: The D-Wave machine was 3,600 times as fast as a conventional computing system, according to the Times, proving the quantum computer's potential at solving large, complex optimization problems. "There could be a tipping point," McGeoch told the Times. "If the problems get big enough, conventional systems break down. In theory, you could solve a large number of optimization problems." Some researchers, however, doubt that quantum computers actually perform so well, and the practical potential of quantum computers is a hotly debated topic. "Every problem we have tested can still be solved faster on classical computers," Daniel Lidar, director of the USC computing center, told Nature. Myriad applications Google is interested in using the new D-Wave computer to solve problems involving machine learning, in which computers analyze information patterns to make accurate predictions of optimal outcomes in highly complex systems, such as global climate models. "If we want to cure diseases, we need better models of how they develop," Google officials said in a statement. "If we want to create effective environmental policies, we need better models of what's happening to our climate." The D-Wave Two machine that Google, NASA and USRA have agreed to share will operate on a 512-qubit register; the team has plans to upgrade the machine to 2,048 qubits when that capacity becomes available within a year or two, the Times reports.

Pirate Bay cofounder to run for European Parliament Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde is apparently tired of being accused of breaking the law, so now he wants to start making the law instead. TorrentFreak reports that Sunde is planning to run for the European Parliament next year as a candidate for Finland’s Pirate Party. Sunde is hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Swedish Pirate Party that now has two members as elected European members of Parliament. The Pirate Party cofounder tells TorrentFreak that he predictably plans to focus on intellectual property issues as a candidate and says that “non-commercial file sharing should of course become legal and protected, and must re-think copyright all together” since “copyright is not the thing that makes artists money, it’s only for their brokers and distributors.” Sunde had previously served an eight-month prison sentence after being convicted in 2009 of distributing copyrighted material through The Pirate Bay file-sharing website.

Google+ Hangouts A Googler takes to Google+ to say that texting via Hangouts is coming soon. But will it help Hangouts pull in a wider audience? The new Google+ Hangouts was introduced at Google I/O this week. This week at Google I/O, Google announced it's beefing up Google+ Hangouts by introducing a one-on-one chat feature, access to chat history, and a standalone app. But how about adding some real red meat, like say, SMS integration? Never fear, hardcore messaging carnivores -- it's on the way. So says Dori Storbeck, community manager for Google+ Hangouts & Chat, responding to a question on her Google+ page: ...SMS integration is coming soon -- it is one of our most requested features! No word on how soon we might be able to send texts from within the Hangouts app, but it would put Google in even more direct competition with Facebook, which has been aiming to replace conventional texting with its Messenger app and recently introduced Facebook Home and chatheads for Android. Hangouts has struggled to gain mainstream traction, though. It remains to be seen if adding SMS capability could be the kind of feature that opens the communications tool to a wider audience -- or if it's more like adding yet another headliner to a music festival in North Dakota in January: No matter how great the lineup, it's just further than most people are willing to go for something they can get closer to (Facebook?) Home.

New MacBook Air imminent? New MacBook Air models may be right around the corner -- if a reading of retailer tea leaves is correct. New MacBook Airs could be coming in weeks. Signs may point to a refresh of Apple's popular MacBook Air. Possibly next month. AppleInsider said Friday that at large online retailers like MacConnection, stock has vanished for the popular 13.3-inch Air with a 1.8GHz processor and 256GB solid-state drive. That said, Best Buy has stock, but it's the "only reseller on AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide that is currently advertising available inventory," according to the Apple-centric site. Dwindling inventory at authorized Apple outlets is usually an indication that a product refresh is imminent. And what, pray tell, will Apple deliver with the next Air? It's pretty much a given that Intel's next-gen Haswell chip -- with improved graphics -- will be on board. That processor will debut in early June, and Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference will follow soon thereafter. It's much less certain that Apple will adopt a Retina display for the MBA. Though the addition of a Retina display is seemingly a no-brainer, those displays still entail a lot of extra cost and can wreak havoc on battery life in thin designs. The thinnest MacBook with a Retina display is the 0.75-inch-thick 13.3-inch MacBook Pro. But it's thick by MBA standards -- partly to accommodate a large battery -- an indication of the challenge of getting these displays into the most svelte designs. High-resolution display technology is advancing rapidly, however, so Apple could surprise.

Gallo Micro SE: How can a speaker this small sound this good? Few "lifestyle" speakers tempt discerning audiophiles, but Anthony Gallo Acoustics' latest crop of mini models will challenge their expectations. Gallo Micro SEs, with table stands (Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET) The Anthony Gallo Acoustics Micro SE speaker ($239) is a tiny steel sphere, just 4 inches in diameter -- that's the size of an orange. It's an audiophile quality performer, capable of delivering high-resolution sound and a big, downright spacious stereo image. In fact, the imaging of the Micro SE and the slightly larger A'Diva SE reminds me of the wide-open, boxless sound I get with large, flat-panel speakers. Since these Gallos have just one full-range driver, they don't need a crossover network to direct high frequencies to the tweeter and bass to the woofer, and that's one of the reasons Gallos don't sound like conventional box speakers. The A'Diva SE sells for $329. Both Gallo speakers use the same 3-inch driver, which features a flat aluminum honeycomb sandwich diaphragm, developed by Anthony Gallo. Rather than use the usual plastic or wood construction, Gallo's "cabinets" are black or white finished steel spheres, and both models are also available in gleaming stainless steel. The speakers' binding posts accept banana plugs or stripped, bare wires. Gallo Micro SE, on floor stand Of course, with speakers as small as these, you'll need a subwoofer, so I paired them with a Gallo TR-1D ($599), Gallo Classico CL-S 12 ($999), and my old PSB SubSonic 5. Perfectly smooth bass integration between the subs and sats was easy to achieve. All of the listening tests were conducted with my NAD 3020 and Emotiva Mini-X integrated amplifiers, and an Onkyo TX-SR805 AV receiver. You can park Micro SEs or A'Diva SEs on any flat surface and use the rubber "O" ring that's packed in the box to keep them in place so they don't roll around, or buy Gallo's wall-mount brackets, table stands, or the matching floor stands. I started listening to the Gallos on my desktop where their imaging focus and specificity were awesome; thanks to their spherical enclosures the Gallos don't have the diffraction/reflection problems common to box speakers. The Gallos reveal soft-to-loud dynamics with rare precision, and their low-level resolution is quite good. Using a 3-inch driver the bass wasn't deep or punchy, though bass definition was superb, so I didn't use a sub for the desktop sessions, but I'd guess most folks will. Relocating the Micro SEs to my hi-fi to rock out with the White Stripes' "Under Great White Northern Lights" concert CD was a different trip. Jack White's guitar onslaught wasn't the least bit inhibited by the Micro SEs, but they were ably assisted by the TR-1D sub. Meg White's drums -- especially her big bass drum -- made a strong impression on my eardrums. The bass was nice and tight, no boom or bloat down there. Switching over to the big Classico CL-S 12 sub made the room shake a bit more, without losing definition or finesse. Stereo home theater trials again defied my expectations; the little speakers virtually disappeared as sound sources. When I watched "Hitchcock" with Anthony Hopkins starring as the famed director, I immediately forgot all about the Gallos. That's a good sign, as the best speakers don't call attention to themselves. The "phantom" center channel's dialogue sounded natural. Jazz singer Patricia Barber's phenomenal "Modern Cool" high-resolution audio Blu-ray blew my mind. Barber's vocals and the band's solos popped out of the mix with startling realism. Percussion instruments' detailing and air are excellent. Looking across the room at these incredibly tiny speakers it was hard to believe they could sound this good. What's better, the Micro SE or the A'Diva SE? I can't say there's much of a difference between the two -- the A'Diva SE is a little more fleshed out and fuller sounding, but you can make up most of that difference with the sub. The A'Diva SE's biggest advantage is its more open quality; it "disappears" more than the Micro SE. The Anthony Gallo Acoustics' Micro SE and A'Diva SE are, pound for pound, the best sounding miniature speakers I've heard to date. They redefine the performance standard for very small speakers.

Toshiba Satellite U845T review: Great battery life and a slim body for only $799 The good: The Toshiba Satellite U845T is thin, with a decent brushed-aluminum body, a 128GB SSD, and better performance and battery life than the competition. The bad: The keyboard has squeezed-down keys, a small spacebar, and some flex under heavy typing. The low screen resolution feels dated in a midsize laptop. The bottom line: While it's not going to dazzle anyone, the Toshiba Satellite U845T is a great example of exactly how much laptop $799 should buy in 2013. There's a reasonable chance you'll end up hearing about the Toshiba Satellite U845T on a semiregular basis from us. That's because, at $799 for a 14-inch laptop that's ultrabook-thin, with a touch screen, Intel Core i5 processor, and 128GB solid-state drive, it's about as middle-of-the-road as laptops get. For the moment, that makes the U845T the perfect example of a midsize, midprice laptop, and thanks to a sharp aluminum design and lack of any overly annoying or deal-killing flaws, it may end up being our default laptop recommendation for a lot of readers. This is an especially important comparison when we look at Atom-powered touch-screen laptop-tablet hybrids. Those systems usually have small screens, slow performance, and compromised designs, but can cost just as much when you include the optional keyboard docks and other accessories. A handful of Core i5 touch-screen laptops are available for about $100 less, usually with bulkier, plastic bodies, and adding $100-$200 gets you into premium territory, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga. The U845T isn't perfect -- the keyboards on most Toshiba Satellite laptops are oddly squeezed, with especially small spacebars, and only one of the three USB ports is of the current 3.0 variety. But it's right in that midprice sweet spot, so if you're looking for a decent all-around laptop for under $800, this is a great place to start. Editors' note: The second specs chart in this review has been corrected from its original version to show that the Toshiba Satellite U845t does not include built-in Bluetooth. We apologize for the earlier error. Price as reviewed $799 Processor 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U Memory 6GB, 1,600MHz DDR3 Hard drive 128GB SSD Graphics Intel HD4000 Operating system Windows 8 Dimensions (WD) 9.1x13.5 inches Height 0.8 inch Screen size (diagonal) 14 inches System weight / Weight with AC adapter 3.6 pounds / 4.2 pounds Category MidsizeDesign and features If you think of a typical laptop design on the "nicer" side of the fence -- as opposed to the plastic, budget side -- you'll probably picture something that looks and feels a lot like the Toshiba Satellite U845T. Despite the midsize 14-inch screen, it's thin (0.8 inch), light (3.6 pounds), and solidly built. Spend more, and you can shave off some size and weight, but these 14- and 15-inch ultrabooks no matter what are sort of skirting the definition of everyday portability with their larger screens, as least compared with 13-inch models. The brushed aluminum on the lid and keyboard tray is upscale without standing out. If you took the mirror-finish Toshiba logo off of the back of the lid, this could be a laptop from any number of PC makers. Open the lid, and the interior is minimalist, with only a couple of indicator lights and a backlit power button to accompany the touch pad and keyboard (OK, and a bunch of Intel, Energy Star, and EPEAT stickers). The backlit keyboard has black keys set against a gray keyboard tray. Like other Toshiba Satellite laptops, the actual island-style keys are more rectangular than round, but the end effect is that each key is slightly squashed, giving the keyboard a cramped feel. Many Toshiba laptops have unusually short spacebars, as is the case here, which can interfere with some typing styles. Add a small but noticeable amount of flex in the center of the keyboard, and you get a keyboard that's usable, but not my favorite part of this laptop. The large clickpad-style touch pad fares better. With no separate left and right mouse buttons, there's more room for multitouch gestures, and two-finger scrolling is reasonably smooth. The 14-inch display is one of the few lower-end components here. The 1,366x768-pixel native resolution is on the low side for a midsize laptop, and henceforth we'll likely see this resolution in fewer and fewer laptops, outside of the least expensive budget systems. Interestingly, while the U845T has a touch screen (and a perfectly responsive one at that), this is one of the only touch-screen laptops without an edge-to-edge glass overlay over the entire inside surface of the lid. Toshiba Satellite U845T Average for category [midsize] Video HDMI VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort Audio Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Data 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, SD card reader 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, SD card reader Networking Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Optical drive None DVD burnerConnections, performance, and battery The U845T continues its streak as a perfectly average laptop, with a perfectly average collection of ports and connections. There's only one video output, HDMI in this case, and also only one USB 3.0 port (it has two USB 2.0 ports), but I always like getting a built-in Ethernet jack and separate audio-in and -out jacks. Note that the single USB 3.0 port is of the sleep-and-charge variety, which means it can use the laptop's battery to charge devices such as a phone, even when the laptop is asleep or powered off. While this Satellite U845T is a fixed-configuration $799 laptop, Toshiba does offer another model, also for $799, that swaps out the 128GB SSD for a standard 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. If you need a lot of storage space, that might be a good idea, but I'd stick with the SSD for its advantages in speed, power consumption, weight, and heat.

Motorcycle with airplane engine makes a roaring racket The Red Baron motorcycle is an unholy combination of bike mechanics and airplane mechanics, creating a demon of a ride. Louder than a Harley. When motorcycle enthusiasts say "loud pipes save lives," I don't think are imagining the Red Baron, an insane two-wheel machine powered by an actual aircraft engine. It's a beast. A monster. A crazed marriage of sky and land. It's also incredibly loud. German tinkerer Frank Ohle spent 18 months bringing the Red Baron from concept to reality. It's not like you can just pull the engine out of a regular bike and pop in an aircraft engine. Just about every part of the motorcycle had to be customized to make room for the Rotec Radial R3600, a 150-horsepower, nine-cylinder engine. The Rotec R3600 is more commonly used as a replacement engine for World War I-era airplanes. It was even placed into a Sopwith Camel, a vintage biplane first introduced in 1917. One place you wouldn't expect to see an R3600 is revving down the highway with a rider on its back. The only thing we don't really know is why Ohle created the Red Baron. His Facebook page proves he's into unusual motorcycles, so at least it makes sense that he would want this one-of-a-kind hellion chopper. The engine makes an almighty noise when it's running. Video evidence shows that Ohle really did manage to make the motorcycle work just fine. There's even an impressive plume of smoke when he starts it up. See the bike in action below. The video may be in German, but you can crank up the volume to get an inkling of what this crazy transportation device sounds like. http://youtu.be/hirsRnytTkU

Birth of anteater has Conn. zoo staff puzzled Armani, a giant anteater, and her baby, Archie, a male, clinging to her back, at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center at the center in Greenwich, Friday, May 10, 2013. GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — An anteater has given birth at a Connecticut conservation center, prompting officials there to wonder how the mother conceived. Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center tell the Greenwich Time they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun. They feared that male, Alf, would kill another baby in the pen. That left the mother Armani, and the young female, Alice, in the enclosure. But little Archie was born in April anyway. Marcella Leone, founder and director of the conservation center, suspects this might be a rare case of delayed implantation, when fertilized eggs remain dormant in the uterus for a period of time.

Former Marijuana Smuggler Seeks Employment The job market is tough right now. Even experts like this guy are having a hard time finding a job. And I’m sure being a convicted felon isn’t helping.

3 Million Dollars Behind 3M Bulletproof Glass Posted on January 9, 2013 | Leave a comment Bulletproof glass manufacturer 3M Security Glass placed this advertisement at a bus stop. There’s apparently $3 million in cash inside there, behind their bulletproof glass. If you can break it, it’s yours.

It’s Possible To Die From A Broken Heart Doctors have noticed years ago that when 2 people have been in a close relationship and one of them dies, the loss can be so intensely traumatic for the surviving partner, that the emotional pain manifests itself in physical form on the body. According to recent studies, it’s possible to die from heart failure after an intense emotional event such as a death, divorve or traumatic break-up. It’s called Stress Cardiomyopathy. It happens when intense emotional events cause adrenaline levels in the body to rise to such high levels for days on end that the heart begins to die. Stress hormones are so high that they begin to “stun” the heart into failure. The occurrence was often misdiagnosed as a heart attack. Researchers found that, even though symptoms are similar, they are slightly different conditions. Because of the massive amounts of continuous adrenaline, or epinephrine, from emotional events the body can experience chest pain, fluid in the lungs, shortness of breath and even heart failure.

Breaking Up Is Like Cocaine Withdrawal For a study recently published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers scanned the brains of people who had recently been dumped. They found the areas of the brain that were activated were the same as in those who are withdrawing from cocaine. Breaking up can be painful, we all know. But now researchers are showing that heartbreak produces many of the same physical symptoms as cocaine withdrawal. The study used MRIs to record the brain activity of 15 university-aged women and men who had recently been dumped by their long-term partners and who described themselves as still being “absolutely and very intensely in love.” The participants’ brains were scanned as they looked at images of their lost loves. Then each was shown a “neutral” image of a casual acquaintance for comparison purposes. Researchers found that looking at photos of former partners stimulated several key areas of participants’ brains much more than viewing pictures of “neutral” people. (A similar effect can be observed when images of crack cocaine are shown to crack cocaine addicts. Even just the image or the thought of crack releases dopamine in the addict’s brain.) Specifically, the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex (related to intense addiction to cocaine and cigarettes) were activated, as were the ventral tegmental area (related to feelings of romantic love), and the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate (related to physical pain). Study author and clinical professor of neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dr. Lucy Brown says romantic love can offer the same high as cocaine, and create similar feeling of withdrawal when the reward is withdrawn. But she notes that while romantic love and cocaine can be addictive, it’s natural to get addicted to love. “An interesting perspective is that romantic love is the natural, original addiction. Nature gave us this addiction, and in a sense we need it. It protects us,” she told CTV’s Canada AM Monday from New York. She also notes that while breaking an addiction to a romantic love is hard, it can be done. “You have to let the unconscious processes in your brain help you to heal. Time will change things,” she said. “And we can take a lesson from people who are recovering from cocaine addition and go to support groups: talk to people who are supportive, people who are sympathetic and understand. Talk about it. Think about what was good about the relationship and what was bad about it. And know that nature has given you these symptoms the next time.”

Weird Cakes

Toothpick Sculpture This amazing toothpick sculpture took over 35 years to build and was made from over 100,000 toothpicks.

Pillows For Men And Women

Kiddie Tazer

SheWee Urinary Aid Shewee is a molded plastic funnel which can slip comfortably into the zipper of your pants to allow you to urinate privately and easily in a standing position. 28-year-old inventor Samantha Fountain developed her idea initially as part of her degree at university, the idea having come to her while backpacking around Europe. Sam hopes Shewee will become as indispensable as the penknife or first aid kit for women on the go. “It struck me how much easier it was for a guy to go to the toilet in a place where there were no facilities or nowhere to squat behind.’

Video Game Addiction Video game addiction and other Internet-related compulsive disorders are a sign of depression and anxiety. Addiction to video games and the Internet is gaining legitimacy as a psychological disorder and will be acknowledged for the first time in the updated edition of the American Psychological Association diagnostic manual, DSM-5. Teen video game addiction requires careful intervention from parents. Experts say video games can be just as addicting as street drugs and it’s not uncommon for kids to become violent when their ‘drug’ is taken away. “There definitely is a link between violent game use and aggressive behavior,” says Dr. Kimberly Young, a psychologist and founder of the Center for Online and Internet Addiction in Bradford, Pennsylvania.”Kids will throw things, they’ll hit their parents, they’ll start becoming violent at school. “It affects the same pleasure centers in the brain that make people want to come back,” said Dr. Michael Fraser, a clinical psychologist and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. “If you look at alcoholism and Internet addiction, it’s the exact same pattern of behavior,” agreed Dr. Young. “Kids can become physically and verbally abusive,” said Fraser. “Most parents have trouble imagining this—that their 12-year-old boy would push his mother when she tries to unplug the game.” Games like ‘Call of Duty’ are open-ended, unlike arcade games of the past, which may make them even more addictive. Video game and Internet addiction usually point to other mental problems including anxiety, depression and trouble forming healthy relationships, said Fraser. His patients, mostly boys in high school and college, use games as means of escape from social anxiety. “When we use the term ‘video game addiction’ the problem does not really lay in the video games, any more than the problem for an alcoholic lies in a can of beer,” Fraser said. “Many people can have one can of beer, and that’s it. But others may have a biological predisposition towards addictive behavior in general. When you see a heavy drinker going into a bar, you know what they’re going in there for. But when a kid goes into the library or their room and sits at a laptop, it’s not always apparent that they’re going to do something detrimental.” At an addiction treatment center in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, teenagers and young adults begin detox by admitting they are powerless over their addiction. But these addicts aren’t hooked on heroin or crack cocaine. They are going cold turkey to break their dependence on video games. Keith Bakker, director of Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants created the new program in response to a growing problem among young men and boys. “The more we looked at it, the more we saw gaming addiction was taking over the lives of these kids.” Detox for video game addiction may sound like a stretch, but addiction experts say the concept makes sense. “I was surprised we didn’t think of it here in America,” says Dr. Young.”I’ve had so many parents call me over the last year or two, particularly about the role-playing games online. I see it getting worse as the opportunity to play grows – for example, cell phone gaming.” While most people associate addiction with substance abuse, such as drugs or alcohol, doctors recognize addictive behaviors as well: The person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him going. If the person does not get more of the substance or behavior, he becomes irritable and miserable. Young says compulsive gaming meets these criteria, and she has seen severe withdrawal symptoms in game addicts. “They become angry, violent, or depressed. If parents take away the computer, their child sits in the corner and cries, refuses to eat, sleep, or do anything.” Like drugs, gambling releases dopamine. Video gaming is in the same category. But there’s more to addiction than brain chemistry. Even with alcohol, it’s not just physical. There’s a psychological component to the addiction, knowing I can escape or feel good about my life. The person is trying to change the way they feel by taking something outside of themselves. The cocaine addict learns, “I don’t like the way I feel, so I take a line of cocaine to feel beter.” For gamers, it’s the fantasy world that makes them feel better. The lure of a fantasy world is especially pertinent to online role-playing games. These are games in which a player assumes the role of a fictional character and interacts with other players in a virtual world. As Young puts it, an intelligent child who is unpopular at school can become dominant in the game and the virtual life becomes more appealing than real life. Video game addiction can ruin lives. Children who play four to five hours per day have no time for socializing, doing homework, or playing sports, he says. “That takes away from normal social development. You end up with a 21-year-old with the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old. He’s never learned to talk to girls. He’s never learned to play a sport. In older addicts, compulsive gaming can jeopardize jobs or relationships. Howard, a 33-year-old project manager who asked to be identified only by his first name, started playing World of Warcraft about six months ago. He plays for three to four hours almost every day (more on weekends) often putting off meals or sleep. His fiance says he’s addicted. Video game addicts tend to become isolated, dropping out of their social networks and giving up other hobbies. “It’s about somebody who has completely withdrawn from other activities,” Young says. “One mother called me when her son dropped out of baseball. He used to love baseball, so that’s when she knew there was a problem.” Treatment for video game addiction is similar to detox for other addictions, with one important difference. Computers have become an important part of everyday life, as well as many jobs, so compulsive gamers can’t just look the other way when they see a PC. “It’s like a food addiction,” Young explains. “You have to learn to live with food.”

Hugging and Cuddling Are a Simple Yet Effective Treatment For Stress and Depression Medical studies have shown that hugs and cuddling are important for your mental health. They kill depression, relieve anxiety and strengthen the immune system. Hugs are healing. Cuddling is medicine. The heart rate slows, blood pressure stabilizes, and the immune system improves. Virginia Satir, American author and psychotherapist wrote that we need four hugs a day for survival, eight hugs a day for maintenance, twelve hugs a day for growth. Hugging increases oxytocin, especially in women. Recent studies have shown a link between oxytocin and the ability to achieve orgasm, social behavior, pair bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone.” A lack of oxytocin has been associated with maladaptive social traits such as depression, anxiety, aggressive behavior and drug use. Hugging and cuddling have been proven to not only increase levels of the healing hormone oxytocin but also decrease the levels of cortisol, the fight or flight stress hormone.

Indoor Clouds Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde creates real clouds indoors:

Cancer Research Shows That Processed Meat Is Unfit For Human Consumption The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) published a detailed review of over 7,000 clinical studies, examining the link between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the world of health and nutrition: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives. Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh. Unfortunately, sodium nitrite also results in the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the human body. And this leads to a sharp increase in cancer risk for those who eat them. Past studies on red and processed meat’s potential health effects have been chalked up to “well, people who eat a lot of that stuff lead unhealthy lifestyles to begin with.” Same thinking goes for vegetarians, who are known to live longer than meat-eaters, but who also generally lead healthier lifestyles. But now, a new observational study examined specifically the effect of processed meat on health, and shows that not only is it the sort of person who eats a lot of processed meat that has the negative health risks, but the processed meat itself. The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine and conducted by researchers from the University of Zurich, shows an association between processed meat and higher risks of dying from heart disease and cancer. The results are based on an analysis of 448,568 men and women between ages 35 and 69, who did not have cancer and who had not suffered a stroke or heart attack when they entered the study. Researchers gathered information on their diets, exercise, body mass index and smoking status. The participants came from 10 countries. A 2005 University of Hawaii study found that processed meats increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67 percent. Another study revealed that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 50 percent. These are alarming numbers. Note that these cancer risks do not come from eating fresh, non-processed meats. They only appear in people who regularly consume processed meat products containing sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite appears predominantly in red meat products (you won’t find it in chicken or fish products). Here’s a short list of food items to check carefully for sodium nitrite and monosodium glutamate (MSG), another dangerous additive: Bacon Beef jerky Sausage Hot dogs Sandwich meat Frozen pizza with meat Canned soups with meat Frozen meals with meat Ravioli and meat pasta foods Kid’s meals containing red meat Sandwich meat used at popular restaurants Nearly all red meats sold at public schools, restaurants, hospitals, hotels and theme parks If sodium nitrite is so dangerous to humans, why do the FDA and USDA continue to allow this cancer-causing chemical to be used? The answer, of course, is that food industry interests now dominate the actions by U.S. government regulators. The USDA, for example, tried to ban sodium nitrite in the late 1970′s but was overridden by the meat industry. It insisted the chemical was safe and accused the USDA of trying to “ban bacon.” Today, the corporations that dominate American food and agricultural interests hold tremendous influence over the FDA and USDA. Consumers are offered no real protection from dangerous chemicals intentionally added to foods, medicines and personal care products. You can protect yourself and your family from the dangers of processed meats by following a few simple rules: -Always read ingredient labels. -Don’t buy anything made with sodium nitrite or monosodium glutamate. -Don’t eat red meats served by restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels or other institutions. -And finally, eat more fresh produce with every meal. There is evidence that natural vitamin C found in citrus fruits and exotic berries (like camu camu) helps prevent the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines, protecting you from the devastating health effects of sodium nitrite in processed meats. The best defense, of course, is to avoid eating processed meats altogether.