http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/ http://www.redorbit.com/media/themes/redorbit/images/logo_160x80.gif http://www.redorbit.com/ 160 80 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112468395/the-mystery-of-the-blue-balls/ 2012-02-04 05:03:41 January 30 article by Steve Morris of the Guardian, began falling in the backyard of 61-year-old Bournemouth, Dorset resident Steve Hornsby the previous Thursday. According to Morris' account of Hornsby's description of the event, the sky "turned dark, then yellow, then blue balls began dropping out of the sky" at about 4:10pm local time. Hornsby said he was walking to his garage when what he believed was an ordinary storm hit, but once it past, he discovered the tiny, transparent, blue-colored marble-shaped objects spread throughout his lawn. "I rushed to stand by the wall out of the way and it was all over very quickly. I had seen the hail come down and it looked like rock salt. But then I spotted something on the lawn and it looked like broken glass," he told Morris. "But then I put my foot on it and it disappeared and I thought it was strange. Then I looked around and there were lots of others. They were definitely not there before the storm." "They were almost impossible to pick up, they were very jelly-like. I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar. They had an exterior shell with a soft inside. They only landed in our garden in an area of a couple of hundred square meters," Hornsby added. "It is the most peculiar thing I have ever seen – there must be about 20 complete spheres. They don't smell and they don't float… I've never seen anything like it." The next day, Morris followed up on the phenomenon with a second article, in which he mentioned some possible theories behind the tiny blue objects. Some, he said, believed they may have been dropped from an airplane, while others believed they may have been marine animal eggs. There were some who speculated that they could be "the bodily secretions of angels while others began to prepare for an alien invasion," the Guardian reporter said. Finally, on Friday, an answer to the puzzle was discovered. In a third article on the story, Morris revealed that Bournemouth University scientists discovered that the blue balls were "almost certainly sodium polyacrylate or waterlock, an absorbent polymer" used in diapers and by gardeners in order to keep soil moist. "It is still not clear how the substance came to be in the garden but it may be that a heavy hailstorm that seemed to make the balls appear had quickly saturated the sodium polyacrylate crystals, and so caused them to rapidly increase in size," he continued. So at least this portion of the mystery remains unsolved. For now. --- On the Net:

• Bournemouth University

]]> 0 January 30 article by Steve Morris of the Guardian, began falling in the backyard of 61-year-old Bournemouth, Dorset resident Steve Hornsby the previous Thursday. According to Morris' account of Hornsby's description of the event, the sky "turned dark, then yellow, then blue balls began dropping out of the sky" at about 4:10pm local time. Hornsby said he was walking to his garage when what he believed was an ordinary storm hit, but once it past, he discovered the tiny, transparent, blue-colored marble-shaped objects spread throughout his lawn. "I rushed to stand by the wall out of the way and it was all over very quickly. I had seen the hail come down and it looked like rock salt. But then I spotted something on the lawn and it looked like broken glass," he told Morris. "But then I put my foot on it and it disappeared and I thought it was strange. Then I looked around and there were lots of others. They were definitely not there before the storm." "They were almost impossible to pick up, they were very jelly-like. I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar. They had an exterior shell with a soft inside. They only landed in our garden in an area of a couple of hundred square meters," Hornsby added. "It is the most peculiar thing I have ever seen – there must be about 20 complete spheres. They don't smell and they don't float… I've never seen anything like it." The next day, Morris followed up on the phenomenon with a second article, in which he mentioned some possible theories behind the tiny blue objects. Some, he said, believed they may have been dropped from an airplane, while others believed they may have been marine animal eggs. There were some who speculated that they could be "the bodily secretions of angels while others began to prepare for an alien invasion," the Guardian reporter said. Finally, on Friday, an answer to the puzzle was discovered. In a third article on the story, Morris revealed that Bournemouth University scientists discovered that the blue balls were "almost certainly sodium polyacrylate or waterlock, an absorbent polymer" used in diapers and by gardeners in order to keep soil moist. "It is still not clear how the substance came to be in the garden but it may be that a heavy hailstorm that seemed to make the balls appear had quickly saturated the sodium polyacrylate crystals, and so caused them to rapidly increase in size," he continued. So at least this portion of the mystery remains unsolved. For now. --- On the Net:

• Bournemouth University

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1112467001/brain-capacity-limits-exponential-online-data-growth/ 2012-02-02 07:34:52 Study of internet file sizes shows that information growth is self-limited by the human mind Scientists have found that the capacity of the human brain to process and record information - and not economic constraints - may constitute the dominant limiting factor for the overall growth of globally stored information. These findings have just been published in an article in EPJ B¹ by Claudius Gros and colleagues from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. The authors first looked at the distribution of 633 public internet files by plotting the number of videos, audio and image files against the size of the files. They gathered files which were produced by humans or intended for human use with the spider file search engine Findfiles.net. They chose to focus on files which are hosted on domains pointing from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the open web directory dmoz. Assuming that economic costs for data production are proportional to the amount of data produced, these costs should be driving the generation of information exponentially. However, the authors found that, in fact, economic costs were not the limiting factors for data production. The absence of exponential tails for the graph representing the number of files indicates this conclusion. They found that underlying neurophysiological processes influence the brain’s ability to handle information. For example, when a person produces an image and attributes a subjective value to it, for example, a given resolution, he or she is influenced by his or her perception of the quality of that image. Their perception of the amount of information gained when increasing the resolution of a low-quality image is substantially higher than when increasing the resolution of a high-quality photo by the same degree. This relation is known as the Weber-Fechner law. The authors observed that file-size distributions obey this Weber-Fechner law. This means that the total amount of information cannot grow faster than our ability to digest or handle it. References 1. Gros C., Kaczor G., Marković D., (2012) Neuropsychological constraints to human data production on a global scale, European Physical Journal B (EPJ B) 85: 28, DOI 10.1140/epjb/e2011-20581-3 (http://www.springerlink.com/content/00227p270r74943m/) --- On the Net:

• Springer
• European Physical Journal B

]]> 0 Study of internet file sizes shows that information growth is self-limited by the human mind Scientists have found that the capacity of the human brain to process and record information - and not economic constraints - may constitute the dominant limiting factor for the overall growth of globally stored information. These findings have just been published in an article in EPJ B¹ by Claudius Gros and colleagues from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. The authors first looked at the distribution of 633 public internet files by plotting the number of videos, audio and image files against the size of the files. They gathered files which were produced by humans or intended for human use with the spider file search engine Findfiles.net. They chose to focus on files which are hosted on domains pointing from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the open web directory dmoz. Assuming that economic costs for data production are proportional to the amount of data produced, these costs should be driving the generation of information exponentially. However, the authors found that, in fact, economic costs were not the limiting factors for data production. The absence of exponential tails for the graph representing the number of files indicates this conclusion. They found that underlying neurophysiological processes influence the brain’s ability to handle information. For example, when a person produces an image and attributes a subjective value to it, for example, a given resolution, he or she is influenced by his or her perception of the quality of that image. Their perception of the amount of information gained when increasing the resolution of a low-quality image is substantially higher than when increasing the resolution of a high-quality photo by the same degree. This relation is known as the Weber-Fechner law. The authors observed that file-size distributions obey this Weber-Fechner law. This means that the total amount of information cannot grow faster than our ability to digest or handle it. References 1. Gros C., Kaczor G., Marković D., (2012) Neuropsychological constraints to human data production on a global scale, European Physical Journal B (EPJ B) 85: 28, DOI 10.1140/epjb/e2011-20581-3 (http://www.springerlink.com/content/00227p270r74943m/) --- On the Net:

• Springer
• European Physical Journal B

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1112459669/man-works-one-day-after-shooting-nail-into-brain/ 2012-01-21 05:21:18 0 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112459111/researchers-discover-ancient-tulip-like-creature-in-the-canadian-rockies/ 2012-01-20 07:49:18 LiveScience in a statement. “Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today, but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms,” she said. “Our description is based on more than 1,100 fossil specimens from a new Burgess Shale locality that has been nicknamed the Tulip Beds,” O’Brien added. The Tulip Beds -- located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia -- were first discovered in 1983 by the Royal Ontario Museum. They are found high up on Mount Stephen, overlooking the town of Field. The beds represent rock layers with exceptional preservation of mostly soft-bodied organisms. The Burgess Shale is protected under the larger Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage site and is managed by Parks Canada. It preserves fossil evidence of some of the earliest complex animals that lived in the oceans of our planet 500 million years ago. The research was partially funded by University of Toronto fellowships to O’Brien and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awarded to professor Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, coauthor of the study. The study findings were published Monday (Jan. 18) in the online science journal PLoS ONE. --- Image Caption: In this reconstruction of Siphusauctum gregarium, the animals are shown in life position, standing upright in the water column. (Illustration by Marianne Collins) --- On the Net:

• University of Toronto
• Royal Ontario Museum
• PLoS ONE

]]> 0 LiveScience in a statement. “Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today, but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms,” she said. “Our description is based on more than 1,100 fossil specimens from a new Burgess Shale locality that has been nicknamed the Tulip Beds,” O’Brien added. The Tulip Beds -- located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia -- were first discovered in 1983 by the Royal Ontario Museum. They are found high up on Mount Stephen, overlooking the town of Field. The beds represent rock layers with exceptional preservation of mostly soft-bodied organisms. The Burgess Shale is protected under the larger Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage site and is managed by Parks Canada. It preserves fossil evidence of some of the earliest complex animals that lived in the oceans of our planet 500 million years ago. The research was partially funded by University of Toronto fellowships to O’Brien and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awarded to professor Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, coauthor of the study. The study findings were published Monday (Jan. 18) in the online science journal PLoS ONE. --- Image Caption: In this reconstruction of Siphusauctum gregarium, the animals are shown in life position, standing upright in the water column. (Illustration by Marianne Collins) --- On the Net:

• University of Toronto
• Royal Ontario Museum
• PLoS ONE

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1112458773/dung-beetles-dance-to-provide-crucial-navigation-cues/ 2012-01-19 13:41:58

Lund University

PLoS ONE Article

]]> 0

Lund University

PLoS ONE Article

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112448234/steve-jobs-action-hero/ 2012-01-17 09:15:13

Inicons Website

]]> 0

Inicons Website

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112455232/bootylicious-beyonce-has-new-species-of-fly-named-after-her/ 2012-01-13 09:04:56 Image Caption: Scaptia beyonceae. Credit: Bryan Lessard, CSIRO [ More Images ] --- On the Net:

• CSIRO
• International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature
• Australian Journal of Entomology

]]> 0 Image Caption: Scaptia beyonceae. Credit: Bryan Lessard, CSIRO [ More Images ] --- On the Net:

• CSIRO
• International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature
• Australian Journal of Entomology

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112452251/scientists-find-evidence-of-pre-historic-lost-world-beneath-lake-huron/ 2012-01-10 06:21:37

University of Michigan

]]> 0

University of Michigan

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1112448976/trash-and-tombs-went-hand-in-hand-in-ancient-pompeii/ 2012-01-04 11:02:03 [ Watch the Video ] Cemeteries in ancient Pompeii were “mixed-use developments” with a variety of purposes that included serving as an appropriate site to toss out the trash. That’s according to findings from University of Cincinnati research at Pompeii to be presented Jan. 7, 2012, at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America by UC doctoral student Allison Emmerson. She has worked on site as part of UC’s Pompeii Archaeological Research Project. NEW RESEARCH COUNTERS LONG-HELD ASSUMPTIONS Emmerson’s research counters long-held assumptions about how and why tombs around Pompeii have been found piled high with ancient trash deposits in and around the structures, including butchered and charred animal bones, dog and equine bones, broken pottery and broken architectural material. These garbage materials in cemeteries were found within and alongside tomb structures, even those of one story which were preserved nearly as they existed in AD 79 because of the thick, hardened coating of ash and lapilli (small stones) that covered and preserved them due to the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The 19th century excavators at Pompeii assumed that the excavated tombs filled with ancient refuse and garbage (as well as covered in graffiti) must have fallen into decline and disrepair almost two decades prior to the AD 79 catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius. They (and later excavators) theorized  that Pompeii’s tombs were covered in garbage due, in part, to a powerful AD 62 earthquake at Pompeii and that the tombs were abandoned and neglected after the earthquake as the city must have been in decline and inhabitants focused on more pragmatic concerns.. It was a theory, according to Emmerson, that was likely adopted because the 19th century researchers working at Pompeii (as well as later excavators) would have found it unthinkable that cemeteries were places appropriate for tossing out the trash. However, recent scholarship of the last 15 years or so has proven that Pompeii had rebounded after the earthquake of AD 62 and was in a period of rejuvenation by AD 79 as an important city in one of the wealthiest regions of the Roman Empire. “Which,” according to UC’s Emmerson, “Left the question of why so much trash was found in the cemeteries. These were not abandoned locales as of AD 79 . People had not abandoned the maintenance of their burial spaces and structures any more than they had abandoned public spaces.” THE ANCIENTS HELD A CASUAL VIEW OF TRASH COLLECTION As Emmerson began excavations at Pompeii in 2009, as part of a long-term team of UC faculty and students working there, she noted the placement of Pompeii’s tombs – located not in secluded park-like areas set off by a fence (as are our cemeteries today) but prominently placed along well-used, high-traffic roads and thoroughfares of the time. She also noted what we would consider an extremely “casual” treatment of trash and waste. “For instance,” she explained, “I excavated a room in a house where the cistern (for storing drinking water and water for washing) was placed between two waste pits. Both waste pits were found completely packed with trash in the form of broken household pottery, animal bones and other food waste, like grape seeds and olive pits.” In addition, researchers have commonly found that garbage was casually deposited on the floor of homes, in the streets and alleys outside of homes (sometimes at significant layered depths) and at the urban edge, along city walls (in large quantities over time). In fact, there is no evidence that Pompeii had any centrally managed system for garbage disposal, and so, it’s likely people lived in very close proximity to their refuse as an accepted part of life. And Pompeii’s cemeteries and tombs were simply another place for trash – as were almost any part of a home’s interior or exterior as well as alleys, streets and major roadways. Tombs and cemeteries were certainly considered appropriate for the placement of “advertisements” of the time, everything from political “vote for me” material, promotions for sporting events or boasts of sexual conquest. “In general, when a Roman was confronted with death, he or she was more concerned with memory than with the afterlife. Individuals wanted to be remembered, and the way to do that was a big tomb in a high-traffic area. In other words, these tombs and cemeteries were never meant to be places for quiet contemplation. Tombs were display – very much a part of everyday life, definitely not set apart, clean or quiet. They were part of the ‘down and dirty’ in life.” When it comes to why so much trash is found at tombs at Pompeii, Emmerson added that her research findings contrast with the theories of early excavators at Pompeii because those first excavators couldn’t conceive of trash placed at tombs as just a normal part of everyday life since it was so foreign to their (and our own) value systems. It seems, she said, so disrespectful by modern standards; however, evidence within the walls of Pompeii shows that the people lived close to their waste, and we can’t be sure that trash in tombs would have been seen as a problem. “And frankly,” she added, “The early excavators at Pompeii just weren’t that interested in the trash and what it might tell us about daily life and cultural attitudes.” ADDITIONAL NOTE In her presentation, “Repopulating an ‘Abandoned’ Suburb: The Case of Pompeii’s Tombs,” Emmerson’s discussion of trash found at tombs is just one aspect of her larger dissertation, which examines how tombs at Pompeii serve as indicators and barometers of the larger culture of the time. FUNDING Emmerson’s research was supported by the Semple Classics Fund at UC, a bequest of Louise Taft Semple. --- On the Net:

• University of Cincinnati
• See a complete list of UC research to be presented at the 2012 Archaeological Institute of America annual meeting

]]> 0 [ Watch the Video ] Cemeteries in ancient Pompeii were “mixed-use developments” with a variety of purposes that included serving as an appropriate site to toss out the trash. That’s according to findings from University of Cincinnati research at Pompeii to be presented Jan. 7, 2012, at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America by UC doctoral student Allison Emmerson. She has worked on site as part of UC’s Pompeii Archaeological Research Project. NEW RESEARCH COUNTERS LONG-HELD ASSUMPTIONS Emmerson’s research counters long-held assumptions about how and why tombs around Pompeii have been found piled high with ancient trash deposits in and around the structures, including butchered and charred animal bones, dog and equine bones, broken pottery and broken architectural material. These garbage materials in cemeteries were found within and alongside tomb structures, even those of one story which were preserved nearly as they existed in AD 79 because of the thick, hardened coating of ash and lapilli (small stones) that covered and preserved them due to the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The 19th century excavators at Pompeii assumed that the excavated tombs filled with ancient refuse and garbage (as well as covered in graffiti) must have fallen into decline and disrepair almost two decades prior to the AD 79 catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius. They (and later excavators) theorized  that Pompeii’s tombs were covered in garbage due, in part, to a powerful AD 62 earthquake at Pompeii and that the tombs were abandoned and neglected after the earthquake as the city must have been in decline and inhabitants focused on more pragmatic concerns.. It was a theory, according to Emmerson, that was likely adopted because the 19th century researchers working at Pompeii (as well as later excavators) would have found it unthinkable that cemeteries were places appropriate for tossing out the trash. However, recent scholarship of the last 15 years or so has proven that Pompeii had rebounded after the earthquake of AD 62 and was in a period of rejuvenation by AD 79 as an important city in one of the wealthiest regions of the Roman Empire. “Which,” according to UC’s Emmerson, “Left the question of why so much trash was found in the cemeteries. These were not abandoned locales as of AD 79 . People had not abandoned the maintenance of their burial spaces and structures any more than they had abandoned public spaces.” THE ANCIENTS HELD A CASUAL VIEW OF TRASH COLLECTION As Emmerson began excavations at Pompeii in 2009, as part of a long-term team of UC faculty and students working there, she noted the placement of Pompeii’s tombs – located not in secluded park-like areas set off by a fence (as are our cemeteries today) but prominently placed along well-used, high-traffic roads and thoroughfares of the time. She also noted what we would consider an extremely “casual” treatment of trash and waste. “For instance,” she explained, “I excavated a room in a house where the cistern (for storing drinking water and water for washing) was placed between two waste pits. Both waste pits were found completely packed with trash in the form of broken household pottery, animal bones and other food waste, like grape seeds and olive pits.” In addition, researchers have commonly found that garbage was casually deposited on the floor of homes, in the streets and alleys outside of homes (sometimes at significant layered depths) and at the urban edge, along city walls (in large quantities over time). In fact, there is no evidence that Pompeii had any centrally managed system for garbage disposal, and so, it’s likely people lived in very close proximity to their refuse as an accepted part of life. And Pompeii’s cemeteries and tombs were simply another place for trash – as were almost any part of a home’s interior or exterior as well as alleys, streets and major roadways. Tombs and cemeteries were certainly considered appropriate for the placement of “advertisements” of the time, everything from political “vote for me” material, promotions for sporting events or boasts of sexual conquest. “In general, when a Roman was confronted with death, he or she was more concerned with memory than with the afterlife. Individuals wanted to be remembered, and the way to do that was a big tomb in a high-traffic area. In other words, these tombs and cemeteries were never meant to be places for quiet contemplation. Tombs were display – very much a part of everyday life, definitely not set apart, clean or quiet. They were part of the ‘down and dirty’ in life.” When it comes to why so much trash is found at tombs at Pompeii, Emmerson added that her research findings contrast with the theories of early excavators at Pompeii because those first excavators couldn’t conceive of trash placed at tombs as just a normal part of everyday life since it was so foreign to their (and our own) value systems. It seems, she said, so disrespectful by modern standards; however, evidence within the walls of Pompeii shows that the people lived close to their waste, and we can’t be sure that trash in tombs would have been seen as a problem. “And frankly,” she added, “The early excavators at Pompeii just weren’t that interested in the trash and what it might tell us about daily life and cultural attitudes.” ADDITIONAL NOTE In her presentation, “Repopulating an ‘Abandoned’ Suburb: The Case of Pompeii’s Tombs,” Emmerson’s discussion of trash found at tombs is just one aspect of her larger dissertation, which examines how tombs at Pompeii serve as indicators and barometers of the larger culture of the time. FUNDING Emmerson’s research was supported by the Semple Classics Fund at UC, a bequest of Louise Taft Semple. --- On the Net:

• University of Cincinnati
• See a complete list of UC research to be presented at the 2012 Archaeological Institute of America annual meeting

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/1112444335/study-of-hallstatt-skulls-causes-evolutionary-headache/ 2011-12-21 09:16:39

University of Manchester

Evolution

Image Courtesy tepic / Shutterstock

]]> 0

University of Manchester

Evolution

Image Courtesy tepic / Shutterstock

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112442642/%e2%80%98whatever%e2%80%99-named-most-annoying-word%e2%80%a6again/ 2011-12-19 07:46:41

Marist Poll

]]> 0

Marist Poll

]]> http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112441123/botanists-answer-mystery-of-glowing-buttercups/ 2011-12-15 09:41:34 Image Caption: Buttercup under chin. Photo credit: Silvia Vignolini --- On the Net:

• Interface
• University of Cambridge

]]> 0 Image Caption: Buttercup under chin. Photo credit: Silvia Vignolini --- On the Net:

• Interface
• University of Cambridge

]]>