Odd News

[Denny]

Killer Silk: Making Silk Fibers That Kill Anthrax and Other Microbes in Minutes

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2012) — A simple, inexpensive dip-and-dry treatment can convert ordinary silk into a fabric that kills disease-causing bacteria -- even the armor-coated spores of microbes like anthrax -- in minutes, scientists are reporting in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. They describe a range of potential uses for this new killer silk, including make-shift curtains and other protective coatings that protect homes and other buildings in the event of a terrorist attack with anthrax.

[Denny]

Human fossils hint at new species

The remains of what may be a previously unknown human species have been identified in southern China.

The bones, which represent at least five individuals, have been dated to between 11,500 and 14,500 years ago.

But scientists are calling them simply the Red Deer Cave people, after one of the sites where they were unearthed.

[Denny]

Found at last: Earth's first companion asteroid

The first in a long-sought type of asteroid companion to Earth has now been discovered, a space rock that always dances in front of the planet along its orbital path, just beyond its reach.

The asteroid, called 2010 TK7, is nearly 1,000 feet across and currently leading the Earth by about 50 million miles.

The asteroid is the first in a category known as Earth's Trojans, a family of space rocks that could potentially be easier to reach than the moon, even though its member asteroids can be dozens of times more distant, researchers said. Such asteroids, which have long been suspected but not confirmed until now, could one day be valuable destinations for missions, especially loaded as they might be with elements rare on Earth's surface, they added.

[Denny]

A Guy, Who Makes A Living, Designing Corn Mazes

JANESVILLE, Wis. — At 22, Scott Skelly already has a national reputation in his field - corn.

The recent college graduate has been creating corn mazes since he was an enterprising 9-year-old who persuaded his dad to let him cut a few paths with dead ends in a cornfield on the family's 200-acre farm. His first maze attracted 500 paying visitors. Subsequent mazes grew more elaborate, and eventually sprouted the Internet business Corn Mazes America while Skelly still was in high school.

[dwest]

Only in Wisconsin could someone making a living in an amazingly corny business. Must be why the cows are so happy in Wisconsin.

[Denny]

'Now we understand what's required to explode a supernova' - NASA

Top space boffins say that the latest readings from an orbiting science instrument have unlocked the secrets of mighty "Type Ia" supernovae, events in which stars blow up with such violence that they destroy solar systems and outshine entire galaxies.

The new data come from NASA's Swift satellite, orbiting the Earth and sending back observations of short-wavelength radiation from Type Ia super-mega-explosions afar off in the deeps of space.

[Denny]

Man FLIES with Android-powered homemade bird wings

A Dutch bloke has taken to the air by flapping his arms, proving that humans can fly with the right technology, plenty of time and friends to help with the build.

Jarno Smeets flew using wings of his own design, built over the course of a year, and managed to spend a decent minute in the air – longer than the Wright Brothers managed – by flapping his arms like a nutter.

[Denny]

Rush of freedom for Elwha as dam comes down

After plugging this mighty mountain river for a century, and fueling decades of controversy, Elwha Dam is history.

"It's no longer there; there is nothing left of it," Don Laford, URS Corp. construction manager on the Elwha takedown job, said Monday.

[Nanohedron]

This is how we do it in Minnesota:

Firefighting in Drag

What they don't tell you in the article is that these guys - volunteers all - get dolled up every St. Paddy's for fundraising so their small town and surrounding area can even continue to have a fire department. If there hadn't been an actual fire, these guys wouldn't even have made the news. Just like every other year they haven't.

[Denny]

Beer and Bling in Iron Age Europe

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2012) — If you wanted to get ahead in Iron-Age Central Europe you would use a strategy that still works today -- dress to impress and throw parties with free alcohol.

Pre-Roman Celtic people practiced what archaeologist Bettina Arnold calls "competitive feasting," in which people vying for social and political status tried to outdo one another through power partying.

Artifacts recovered from two 2,600-year-old Celtic burial mounds in southwest Germany, including items for personal adornment and vessels for alcohol, offer a glimpse of how these people lived in a time before written records were kept.

[mutepointe]

And that would be different from now, how?

[dwest]

And that would be different from now, how?

Polyester?

[Denny]

Mute, a lot of science discoveries are just "proving" things that everyone has known for wonks...

[Denny]

Space probe in orbit above Mercury sees signs of polar ice

Space boffins reviewing data from a probe craft orbiting Mercury, innermost planet of the solar system, say they have seen signs of glaciers lurking within shadowed craters at the poles.

The revelations come from NASA's MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, which is only the second machine of humanity to visit the mysterious world (the first was Mariner 10 back in the '70s). MESSENGER has now been circling Mercury for a year, and has upset many applecarts in the world of planetology.

[Denny]

Man FLIES with Android-powered homemade bird wings

A Dutch bloke has taken to the air by flapping his arms, proving that humans can fly with the right technology, plenty of time and friends to help with the build.

Jarno Smeets flew using wings of his own design, built over the course of a year, and managed to spend a decent minute in the air – longer than the Wright Brothers managed – by flapping his arms like a nutter.

Dutch birdman admits flight was filmic fantasy

The "Flying Dutchman" who enthralled world+dog earlier this week with a video of him flying through the wild blue yonder by flapping homemade wings has admitted that the entire airborne affair was but a hoax.

And so was the name of the supposedly intrepid aviator: "Jarno Smeets" is in actuality a fictional character created by filmmaker and animator Floris Kaayk, who has now admitted on the Dutch TV show De wereld draait door that the flight was – to put it kindly – a filmic fantasy.