B-15A Iceberg's Close Encounter Monitored By Envisat

My step-sister is currently working at McMurdo Station and has provided me with photos of her experience. In her recent e-mails she points out the current issue with B-15A. However, she failed to point out the impact this is having on the wildlife there.

"Since then B-15A has found its way to McMurdo Sound, where its presence has blocked ocean currents and led to a build-up of sea ice. This has led to turn to resupply difficulties for the United States and New Zealand scientific stations in the vicinity and the starvation of numerous local penguins unable to forage the local sea."[link]

all her photo's

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - Washington, D.C.: Bush administration comments on WMDs

"Statements by the Bush administration before and after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs:"[link] via Seattle Post-Intelligencer

NASA: comparing the iceberg to Long Island

NASA has an interesting animation comparing the iceberg to Long Island. If you watch the animation for several minutes, you will see the iceberg photos merge into an animation illustrating its movement from November until last week. I recommend you send this on to your staff as I'm sure they would be interested in viewing it. [link]

"It just shot up and then it went down"

"levels by at least 3 feet in a geologically sensitive Virginia well some 9,600 miles away from the epicenter, researchers say" [link]

News Anchor Gets Attacked By Small Reptile

This is a repost of one of my favorite clips of 2004. We just got this in and it extends the scene about 30 seconds. Hilarious

[link]via Big-boys.com

Nextel Commerical

Oh Baby, Baby! A video showing some classic dance moves. [link]

A Skier Doesnt Clear Jump

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

LiTraCon Bricks/Lamp

LiTraCon Bricks,

LiTraCon Lamp,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

My love for concrete art has grown considerably over the years more so since I created and installed concrete countertops in my house. Anyway, LiTracon has developed a new concrete brick that utilizing optical fibers that transmist light through the entire block. Needless to say my mind is overflowing with ideas to create.

Eruption from Black Hole

Eruption from Black Hole,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

This still from an animation depict an eruption caused by a supermassive black hole. Gas and dust seen in a reddish-brown disk are being pulled around by the enormous gravity of the supermassive black hole, which is buried in the center of a large elliptical galaxy. (Illustration: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart) www.sciencedaily.com

Restless Legs Syndrome In Children Linked To Family History, Iron Deficiency

Dr. Suresh Kotagal M.D., chair of Mayo Clinic pediatric neurology and sleep specialist has found a link between Iron Deficiency and Restless Legs syndrome in children. Interestingly enough, my mother suffers from this ailgment as an adult and in my most recent blood cultures my iron levels have been higher then average and I have no signs of this sleeping disorder. I wonder if there is any correlation. [link]:

'When we look at kids who have decreased attention span, over one-third of them will have sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome,' he says. 'We can say that it goes to further affirm the fact that inattentiveness is multifactorial -- due to depression, anxiety, stressors in the child's life, obstruction of breathing passageways, sleep apnea or restless legs. We need to look at all of these possibilities.'

VERBA.chromogenic.net: CameraMail

What does one camera plus several postal workers get you? A website by Kyle Van Horn swhowcasing the behind the scene action of your mail.

"On the 22nd of December 2004, Kyle Van Horn taped a disposable camera to a piece of black foamcore and inscribed upon it the following message: 'ATTENTION POSTAL WORKERS! Please help us with our project. As this camera travels across the country we want photos of all whom it encounters. Please take a photo before you pass it along. Thank you!"

[link] thanks to verba.chromogenic.net

Wacky Warning Label Contest Winners

theDailyWow contributor DigitalAyahuasca points out: "There are many cases of warning labels saving lives," said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy in New York. "It's much better to be very cautious ... than to be afraid of being made fun of by a tort reform group."

The Wacky Warning Label Contest is in its eighth year.
[link]: "'Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally"

Really neat tool for exploring relationships in the blogosphere

John Battelle is a visionary with the idea of creating a tool much like the one used by Amazon, Yahoo and the like to group music artists together based on listener likes to that of Blogs. This revolutionary concept would help track point of origin conversations/posts as well as the life cycle as the blog grows. Stretching this further, all podcasts can have a similar tool/interface to expose people to similar casts. Right now he (John) is looking for people to help. He has contacted several key players doing similar type groupings and they are willing to help. If anyone knows a technical resource that can help the begining phase, I'm sure there is a venture capitalist willing to fund the concept.[Link]: "John Battelle's Searchblog: Blog Plasma."

Boing Boing: Googling unsecured webcams

This is both very cool and very scary. Use this search string below with Google, and you will find dozens (hundreds?) of unsecured webcam feeds (most seem to be security cams).

inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="

[link] Thanks Xen, BoingBoing

Yahoo! News - Women Duck, Avoid Decapitation After Crash

"'They had poor traction, they were going down a 7 percent grade,' Brouwer said. 'When they skidded underneath the trailer, basically everything above the dash was shaved off. As they were about to hit, they both ducked down and laid flat on the seats.'"

[link] Thanks, Digital Ayausca for the find

Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

As a resident of Idaho I have mixed feelings concerning the wolves. The species has not been in the area since the 30's and the wild life impact of re-introcudition is to early to measure. With this new introduction, farmers were unable to protect their livestock or families if a pack attacked without serious legally issues and heavy fines. Just recently they have allowed the ranchers to protect their lively hoods by establishing proof action was deemed neccesary.

The first year 14 gray wolves caught in Canada were taken to Yellowstone in cages and fed road kill in the early days before they gradually were allowed to roam. The next year about 50 were taken to Idaho.

[link] via Reuters.com

The Tropical Dome

The Tropical Dome,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

Contributor digitalayahuasca points us to the newest attraction to hit Berlin. A canned tropical island complete with Rain forests, laggons and all the action on an Island retreat. This is one way to beat those winter blues and maintain that year round sun tan.

Detail of Destruction

Sat photos detailing the before and after effects of the tsunami.
[link] via washingtonpost.com thanks digi

HL2 shot

HL2,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

As most of you know, I like to plan things out. So here is a sneak preview of this years Halloween costume.

Duct Tape/Money Wallet

Duct Tape Wallet,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

It seems the infamous money wallet has reappeared. I dug up another wallet a neighborhood friend showcased called the duct tape wallet. I'm sure I have some duct tape around.. Pictures to come!

[link] thanks BoingBoing

Tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean move as much as 98 feet

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The massive earthquake that devastated parts of Asia permanently moved the tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean as much as 98 feet, slightly shifting islands near Sumatra an unknown distance, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.[link]

Eye of the Tiger

One crazy Brit trains to be the best in some of the most extreme circumstances.[link]

Helix Nebula

Helix Nebula,
originally uploaded by es0teric.

The top composite image is a view of the colorful Helix Nebula taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The object is so large that both telescopes were needed to capture a complete view. The Helix resembles a simple doughnut as seen from Earth. But looks can be deceiving. The bottom illustration shows how the Helix would appear if viewed from the side. In this illustration, the Helix consists of two gaseous disks nearly perpendicular to each other. The Helix is a planetary nebula, the glowing gaseous envelope expelled by a dying, sun-like star. The illustration was taken from a three-dimensional model of the Helix. A team of astronomers constructed the model, based on observations from several ground- and space-based observatories, including the Hubble telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Credits for the image and illustration: NASA, ESA, C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and M. Meixner, P. McCullough, and G. Bacon (Space Telescope Science Institute)

To Help Your Mind, Take Steps To Help Your Heart, Study Says

Being predisposed genetically to both heart disease and hypertention, cholesterol has always been a concern of mine in regards to how they restrict blood flow to organs as well as the brain. ScienceDaily.com has recently published an article discussing the effect heart realted aligments have on the brain.

"Having risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol does damage to small blood vessels in the brain and can cause death of brain cells over time,' says lead author Kenneth Langa, M.D., Ph.D. 'In addition, the Alzheimer's disease process itself can affect the walls of blood vessels in the brain, making strokes more likely. Strokes can cause dementia through the death of large areas of brain tissue, or through the build-up of damage from multiple small strokes cased by athero-sclerosis in small arteries in the brain or the larger carotid arteries in the neck.'" [link]:

Brain Region Identified That Controls Collecting Behavior

The abnormal need/desire to collect things not survival based has recently been linked to the right mesial prefrontal cortex. Why this is interesting to me? Well, this area of the brain also controls the monetary reward outcomes as well as error detection to control inhibition. It would seem to me that the error deteciton has been flawed and the inhibition not checked for the certain collecting behavior.

"A pretty clear finding jumped out at us: damage to a part of the frontal lobes of the cortex, particularly on the right side, was shared by the individuals with abnormal behavior," Anderson said. "Our study shows that when this particular part of the prefrontal cortex is injured, the very primitive collecting urge loses its guidance

[link]

"She used up all my darned bandwidth!"

11 year old Dylan Verdi makes video blogger of the year on ABC. [link](thanks Xeni, BoingBoing!)

To do Monday before I get my stuff done

Reminder to all going to the office tomorrow, before you get your stuff done watch this short video for tips on how not to get things done.[link] thanks BoingBoing

What's hot/not in the T-shirt world

Preshrunk, a blog catering to all things that cover your torso sprung from an IM session late 2004 to cover the in's and da oust of t-shirts. I too have had many discussions with friends concerning t-shirts on IM. Here's one of the several shirts loved last year.

[link] thanks boingboing