The Pearlfish, The Oyster, And The Starfish Anus
At last! An article that finally covers everything you ever wanted to know about the sounds that fish make, making homes in oysters, and burrowing inside the anus of a starfish! Here’s how pearlfish call to each other from inside the bodies of other living animals: Rather famously, pearlfish (family: Carapidae) species from the the genera Carapus and Encheliophis make their homes in the living bodies of invertebrate hosts, including sea cucumbers and starfish. Once inside, some of the creepier species even feed off their host’s genitals. But how, exactly, do they get in? […] “Oh”, I hear you say, “they go in through the mouth?” Well, not quite. They go in through the cloaca, which is in all intents and purposes, an anus, through which sea cucumbers and starfish breathe. Once inside, a pearlfish will hang out in a unique breathing organ called the ‘respiratory tree’ all day, very occasionally poking their own anuses outside to relieve themselves into the open ocean. You know you’re intrigued to learn...
Fundamentalist Mormons At War
Mormon Fundamentalists: A reasonably long but disturbing and well-worth-reading account of inner fighting, ostracism, and threatening behaviour enacted on behalf of the now-jailed leader of a group of fundamentalist Mormons, Warren Jeffs. In recent years, this enclave has been ripped apart by a modern holy war, led by a divisive spiritual leader who ended up on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and is now in prison. The majority of Short Creek residents remain loyal to him and his sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS. But they are losing ground to apostates — those who either walked away from the church or were pushed out — who are starting to build their own community. To the FLDS, they are nothing less than an existential threat. The article includes quite harrowing details of the lengths to which the fundamentalist religious group go to in order to spy on people they consider outsiders, as well as details of the power that Jeffs and his supporters wield. One of the last sentences gives you a taste: [Jinjer] won’t leave their dogs — Buddy, Boots, and Rebel — outside for long; she’s convinced they’ll be...
ColdZyme
I just saw an advert on television for Boots promoting ColdZyme, the spray that fights off the common cold. Somehow. When all other attempts to ward it off have failed for decades. My skeptisense tingled. I searched online… Pop along to Coldzyme: a result of real science being left out in the cold for a look at ColdZyme and its apparent ability to perform a feat no medicine can perform (not “no other medicine” because it claims not to be a medicine for probably legal reasons (remember kids, always treat your illnesses and afflictions with things worded to get around legalities to stick it to the man)). The article takes a look at the science behind ColdZyme (so it’s not a terribly long read, obviously) and finds its claims lacking, as I’m sure you’ve already surmised, you not being a moron and all that. What is this breakthrough, miracle product that will powerfully break down viruses? Well, an enzyme called trypsin. An enzyme that merrily and plentifully kicks about in your digestive system, breaking down proteins. An enzyme which, for the purposes of this product, is inexplicabl[y] being derived from cod (which has meant that I have had to resist the urge to refer to it as somewhat fishy.) An enzyme which should be stored at temperatures of between -20 and -80 degrees Celsius, to prevent autolysis. Now, I’ve seen some fancy medicine packaging in my time, but never a simple mouth spray bottle that can manage such storage feats. So, if trypsin really is present in this product, then it seems fairly likely that it’s going to be inactive, unless the manufacturers have found a way of warping room temperature. Okay. The “fishy” pun has been taken but I think I can still use the word “codswallop” to feast upon a free boost of the smugness hormone in my body, right? Take that cold virus! Tissue box photo courtesy of David...
Materials In High Radiation Environments
If you’ve got any interest in future spacecraft design – real design, not the stuff of fantasy and science fiction – then Icarus Interstellar is a great source of information. As an example of the sort of thing you can expect to read why not take a look at this article on Materials in High Radiation Environments which explains the sort of building materials and shielding you’d need with near-future fusion drive systems: The use of controlled defects is the other important aspect of radiation resistance, since radiation can actually “cure” defects in certain types of materials (radiation hardening phenomena and radiation annealing effects). If we choose materials that can only be manufactured with a large number of defects in the first place, the basic properties of the material are known and the design can be done. Radiation then interacts with these defects and, if the materials are well chosen, these interactions can actually reduce the influence of the defects, increasing, rather than decreasing, the strength of the materials. […] If we instead started from perfect materials, the radiation would introduce defects that break down this perfection, making the materials weaker. The defects would be random, and might lead to catastrophic failure. By controlling the flaws in our materials and in designing for them, we have controlled and reliable properties: reliable mid range materials, rather than unreliable high strength...
HP 9845 Games
An article looking at some of the computer games that were available for the HP 9845 from the 1970s into the 1980s. 9845 Games It would have been a real surprise if the at the time outstanding capabilities of the 9845 desktop series would not have inspired a complete series of computer games dedicated to those systems. Even Hewlett-Packard itself contributed a tape, the so-called Computer Games Library, for the 9845A and 9845B series with a selection of 14 popular games like Gomoku, Hangman, Life, Star Trek or Nim. Most games were character based, but some use graphics for action-type animations. Special binary programs written in assembler provided the required speed. Even a couple of games were developed for the 9845C color system, like HPs Gravity game which is part of the 9845C...
UK National Grid Power Status
If you ever want to see how much power is being generated by coal, nuclear, gas, and wind in the United Kingdom, or see the gigawatt demand throughout the day, and you want that information presented on retro dials and in line graphs – and, let’s face it, who doesn’t? – then the place to go is U.K. National Grid Status. The data it uses comes from a series of web services here provided by...
Recent From Retro
-
The Women Of Kilobaud Computing Sep 26, 2016 -
-
-
-
-
Recent From Entertainment
-
Dance Music Triple Nov 19, 2016 -
-
-
-
-
Recent Comments