Float on nothing – sulphur hexafluoride
Magnetic Levitation when cooled
December 1, 2009
Wonders of Science
November 27, 2009
November 17, 2009
November 14, 2009
Dettol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettol
Dettol is also commonly used in Queensland, Australia, to kill feral Cane Toads (Bufo marinus), also known as the Giant Neotropical Toad or Marine Toad. Toads may be sprayed with a solution of Dettol or dabbed with the liquid. The substance is rapidly absorbed through the toad’s skin causing sudden death as a result of toxic shock.
October 20, 2009
Rumored humanzees
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee
There have been occasional reports and rumors of humanzees throughout history. St. Peter Damian, in his 11th century De bono religiosi status et variorum animantium tropologia, tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife’s lover. One day the ape became “mad with jealousy” on seeing the count lying with his wife and it fatally attacked him. Damian claims he was told about this incident by Pope Alexander II and shown a creature named “Maimo”, which was supposed to be the offspring of the countess and the ape.
Chimpanzee self awareness
The test of mirror self-recognition is a highly stable trait in many chimpanzees, but may be subject to decline with age.
Gordon Gallup believes that in later life chimpanzees prefer to lose their ability to conceive of themselves.
“The price you pay for being aware of your own existence is having to confront the inevitability of your own individual demise.
“Death awareness is the price we pay for self awareness.”
Slobodan Milošević – vampire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87
Emblematic of Milošević’s detractors was Miroslav Milošević (no relation), a former member of OTPOR and self-described vampire hunter, arrested in 2007 after leading a group who told police that they had driven “a three-foot-long wooden stake into the ground and through the late president’s heart” to prevent him from “returning from the dead”.
October 9, 2009
Watu Simba
http://ty.rannosaur.us/10-incidents-of-cannibalism/
Today, Watu Simba (were-lion) stories are used to scare misbehaving children. But in the ’40s, the Watu Simba were young women who had been enslaved by East African witch doctors. They were forcefully addicted to drugs to make them compliant, forced to live in tight cages, and had their foot tendons reshaped to give them the gait of a stalking lion. The witch doctors would then send them out as assassins. The Watu Simba wore the skin of a lion and were outfitted with prosthetic claws while hunting. Most shockingly, they were primarily fed the meat of their victims. They killed approximately 300 people over the course of four years and continued to kill even after the witch doctors were captured and hanged.
