Saturday, September 29, 2007

Demotivators Imitators


The Original is classic but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.




Thursday, September 27, 2007

Mission to Mars vs Mission to Baghdad


Alternatively, you could buy roughly 200 Hubble Space Telescopes or run the current one for about 2000 more years.

Burton MacKenzie: Instead of sending HUMANS to Mars 11 times, the USA sent them on a Mission to Iraq www.burtonmackenzie.com
If the original Mars estimate was accurate, that means that instead of going to Iraq, the USA could have funded somewhere between 5 and 11 independent human missions to Mars! By "independent", I mean Mars mission programs that start from the ground up, and do not leverage each other's technology, research, or manufacturing.



Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Velociraptor Problem


"This material is more vital than anything you've ever learned"

XKCD Velociraptors Problem

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Velociraptor had Feathers



Velociraptor was a feathered fiend - Times Online
Close analysis of a velociraptor forelimb unearthed in Mongolia in 1998 reveals that quill knobs were present on the fossilised bone. Quill knobs, which are found on many modern bird species, are where the flight or wing feathers are anchored to the bone by ligaments.

Hobbits Legit



Scientists Confirm 'Hobbit' Species Was Human - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com
A new study of a skeleton of a member of a race of three-foot-tall ‘hobbits’ who lived 12,000 years ago in Indonesia shows that they were a species of human—and that the evolutionary path to Homo sapiens has been tortuous indeed.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Oldest Hominids outside of Africa

The remains discovered in Dmanisi show some traits indicative of Homo habilis, and are two million years old.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Georgia clues to human origins
In many respects, the well-preserved fossils resemble Homo erectus, a species from the genus Homo that first appeared in Africa some two million years ago and quickly spread throughout Europe and much of Asia.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Future that Wasn't


Interesting set of prints from when my grandfather was a boy.

Paleo-Future: French Prints Show the Year 2000 (1910)
The National Library of France (BnF) has an amazing collection of prints from 1910 which depict life in the year 2000. They are credited to Villemard.
Here's a preview of a podcast: