Nature’s Balancing Act the Idol Rock

The 50-acre expanse of Brimham Moor in North Yorkshire, England is home to a number of curious rock formations shaped by tens of thousands of years of erosion, but the most impressive of all is Idol Rock, a 200-ton monolith balancing on a tiny pyramidal base.

SEE ALSO: Incredible Rock Sculptures Made Without Any Glue 

The 15-foot high Idol Rock looks like it’s about to crumble, but it never does. Weighing an estimated 200 tons, the giant rock formation has been performing its amazing balancing act for as long as anyone can remember, defying the laws of physics and leaving the visitors of Brimham Moor scratching their heads in awe. Also known as The Druids Idol or The Druid’s Writing Desk, this unique attraction sits on a tiny lump of rock only one foot in circumference. Photos of it have been circulating on the internet for years, with many claiming it is just the result of Photoshop manipulation, but the Idol of Brimham is very real, an example of Mother Nature’s artistic talent.

SEE ALSO: Rock Balancing Philippines

The whole of Brimham Moor is considered one of the United Kingdom’s strangest environments. During the Victorian era, the dozens of curiously-shaped rocks had everyone thinking it was a place created by the Druids, and it was only in the 20th century that people finally realized it was just the result of 18,000 of years of constant erosion. “For Brimham, could it be transported to Salisbury Plain, would reduce Stonehenge itself to a poor and pygmy miniature,” someone once said about this magical place.

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Scientist Create Sensor as Sensitive as Real Skin

While prosthetic limbs continue to improve, tactile feedback is one feature that many are keen to incorporate into the prosthetics but it remains a very difficult technology to develop. But now scientists have developed a new device so packed with sensors it is about as sensitive as human skin. Just as Moore’s Law continues to benefit the integrated circuit, packing ever more sensors into a smaller area will allow such devices to one day be built into everything we touch.

Some areas of our skin, like the lips and fingertips, are more sensitive to the touch because of a greater density of receptors that translate mechanical force into neuronal signals. The sensory device built by scientists at Georgia Tech is a new kind of transistor that converts mechanical force into electricity. The force bends nanoscale wires made of zinc oxide. When the wires bend back, zinc and oxide ions create an electrical potential that is converted to electrical current of a few millivolts. Converting mechanical energy to electrical energy is known as the piezoelectric effect.

SEE ALSO: Amazing Aerogel: Strong as Steel, Light as Air

To enhance the sensor’s sensitivity, the group of engineers led by materials science and engineering professor Zhong Lin Wang used nanoelectronics that allowed them to increase sensor density and spatial resolution by 15-fold, which translates to a two to three order of magnitude boost in sensitivity. The density, resolution and sensitivity of the sensor approximates that of a human finger.

A paper featuring the device was published recently in Science.

Wang and his colleagues join a field they call “piezotronics” in which mechanical force generates electricity. In 2009 the group created a new type of transistor that doesn’t require a voltage. Because they can generate their own electric current with mechanical force alone, the transistors have the potential to draw their energy from the world around us instead of a battery. Wind, sound waves, even blood flow for body implants, a device powered with piezotronics can be made even smaller without the need for a power source. Even smartphones could be recharged just by using them.

SEE ALSO: Meet the World's Youngest Apple IIGS Programmer

Wang thinks the array could eventually be used to enable prosthetics to transmit a realistic sense of touch. They also think it could be used to improve touchscreen devices, give robots a finer touch for handling objects, or could be placed under the skin of burn victims. By connecting to intact nerves beneath the damaged skin, the sensor could replace actual skin and return sensation to the burn victim.

With the many needs to sense our environment, possible applications for the artificial skin are endless. Still, commercial applications of this technology are rare – there is much work still to be done. As more piezotronic devices become mainstream, their uses will only be limited by the creativity of those using them.

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Job Site Wants Only Good Looking Candidates

BeautifulPeople.com — the controversial online dating site that allows only attractive people to join — is expanding its service on Monday for employers.

The company told Mashable it is readying a recruitment feature for employers wanting to hire "good-looking staff." The free service would give individuals and companies access to its 750,000 member base of "attractive" people. Only those who are voted to be beautiful by others on the site are allowed to stick around.

SEE ALSO: The Woman Who Claims She Is Too Pretty  To Work.

Employers will have a dedicated business profile and be able to pursue other members who are looking for a job. Members will also be able to look through job listings and apply directly to companies.

"An honest employer will tell you that it pays to hire good-looking staff," said Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, in a statement. "Attractive people tend to make a better first impression on clients, win more business and earn more."

SEE ALSO: Caño Cristales - The World's  Most Beautiful River

However, Hodge said the service should not just be for people looking for pictures of beautiful people and should be taken seriously: "This isn't an invitation for crackpots to come and ogle our beautiful members."

Although this sounds vain and even discriminatory, it's no secret that certain companies want to hire attractive candidates to represent the brand. For example, a salesperson applying for a job at a makeup counter may be a more desirable hire if she has clear skin than if she has severe acne.

At the same time, the news comes as clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has been back in the news and under fire for wanting only beautiful customers to buys its clothes. The CEO has long been vocal about its staffer requirement to be attractive.

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Mars Rat

A Mars rock that bears a passing resemblance to a rodent is scuttling across the Internet with gusto, even inspiring some fans to set up a Twitter account in its name.

UFO buffs spotted the purported "Mars rat" in a panoramic photo snapped in September 2012 by NASA's Curiosity rover. Zooming in on a portion of the image reveals what appears to be a rodent crouching between two rocks, its nose to the ground.

"It's a cute rodent on Mars. Note its lighter-color upper and lower eyelids, its nose and cheek areas, its ear, its front leg and stomach," Scott Waring wrote at UFO Sightings Daily back in December. "Looks similar to a squirrel camouflaged in the stones and sand by its colors."

SEE ALSO: Boriska Indigo Boy from Mars

In an update to that post, Waring raised the possibility that NASA flew the rat/squirrel to Mars secretly, as part of an experiment testing out the Red Planet's ability to support life as we know it.

"Why would they not tell us about it?" Waring wrote. "Because the squirrel would be expected to die eventually and that would get PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] to fight against them in a court of law."

The Mars rat has now gone viral, jumping from the pages of UFO Sightings Dailyto more mainstream publications such as Discovery News, Fox News and a host of other outlets (including, of course, SPACE.com).

SEE ALSO: Scientists uncover massive river on Mars

The rodent has even picked up its own Twitter account, @RealMarsRat. It had more than 700 followers as of Monday afternoon.

While some people seem to really believe that a squirrel is crawling around on the Red Planet (or was in September, anyway), the Mars rodent is actually an example of a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia.

Pareidolia refers to the tendency of the human brain to perceive animals or other familiar shapes in vague or random images. The phenomenon has fueled a great deal of excited speculation about the Red Planet over the years, most famously after some people saw a humanoid face on Mars in photos taken by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.

And just this March, UFO Sightings Daily reported that an apparent animal, perhaps a rat or a lizard, lurked in another one of Curiosity's photos.

SEE ALSO: China Prepares to Grow Vegetables on Mars and Moon

It's highly unlikely that a rat, squirrel, lizard or any other organism could survive on the cold, dry Martian surface today, researchers say, though some scientists think the Red Planet may still be able to support microbial life in select underground pockets.

Things were likely different in Mars' wetter and warmer past, however. Curiosity's observations led mission scientists to announce earlier this year that microbes could have survived on the Red Planet billions of years ago.

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Most Married Wowan "23 times"

Mrs Wolfe, 68, is included in the Guinness Book of World Records for the dubious honour of being wed more times than anyone else alive.

She has said that she is "addicted to the romance" of getting married.

Born Linda Lou Taylor, the American first married in 1957 aged 16, to a 31-year-old called George Scott.

SEE ALSO: Wang the Human Unicorn

The union lasted for seven years, the longest and happiest of any of her marriages.

Since then things have tended to go downhill.

Over the subsequent decades she married a one-eyed convict, a preacher, barmen, plumbers and musicians.

Two turned out to be homosexual, two were homeless and one beat her. Another put a padlock on her fridge.

One marriage lasted just 36 hours because "the love wasn't there".
But Linda, from Indiana, once married the same man, Jack Gourley, three times.

SEE ALSO: World's Oldest Living Conjoined Twins

She has had seven children by her different husbands and been a stepmother to many more.

Her last marriage, a decade ago, was a publicity stunt. It was to Glynn Wolfe, who in taking Linda as his bride meant he was the world's most married man, at 29 times. He died a year later aged 88.

Consequently she said that she was "on the lookout for number 24".
She told The Sun: "It's been years since I walked down the aisle. I miss it."

The serial bride, who now lives in a retirement home, said she had never cheated on a husband. She said if she had her life over again she would "never, ever" marry so many men.

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Israeli Scientist Develop Bionic Eye for People Born Blind

A tiny camera receives visual information from the environment and transmits signals to a bionic contact lens.

Israeli scientists have developed a technology that may enable people who are blind from birth to see, with the help of a bionic contact lens.

The new technology, developed by a team at Bar-Ilan University, has yet to receive approval for clinical trials, but its feasibility is currently being tested on seeing individuals, with the aid of a model simulating the bionic lens.

SEE ALSO: Terminator Eyes: Hi-Tech Contact Lenses Show Texts and Maps

The technology consists of a tiny camera that receives visual information from the environment and transmits signals to a bionic contact lens. The lens passes the signals via electrodes to the cornea and from there to sensory brain areas, generating a stimulus that simulates visual information.

“This technology is good news for humanity, especially in bringing sight to people blind from birth without requiring surgery or damaging other vital senses or organs,” says Prof. Zeev Zalevsky, head of Electrical Engineering and Nanophotonics at Bar-Ilan University, who headed the research team.

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Grace Hopper as ""Amazing Grace"

igIf you are reading this, thank this woman. Her name is Grace Hopper, and she is one of the most under appreciated computer scientists ever. You think Gates and Jobs were cool? THIS WOMAN WORKED ON COMPUTERS WHEN THEY TOOK UP ROOMS.

She invented the first compiler, which is a program that translates a computer language like Java or C++ into machine code, called assembly, that can be read by a processor. Every single program you use, every OS and server, was made possible by her first compiler.

SEE ALSO: Employee of the Century

A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer).

What's cooler? She was a United States Navy Rear Admiral. In fact, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC. Owing to the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace"

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Supermoon on June 23, 2013

Is biggest, closest full moon on June 23, 2013 a supermoon?

Yes, many will call the June 2013 full moon a supermoon. The upcoming full moon on June 23, 2013, will not only be the closest and largest full moon of the year. It’ll also present the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013.

SEE ALSO: 13 Must See Stargazing Events for 2013

This year’s closest and largest full moon will occur on June 23 at precisely 11:32 Universal Time. At United States’ time zones, that means the moon will turn full on June 23 at 7:32 a.m. EDT, 6:32 a.m. CDT, 5:32 a.m. MDT and 4:32 a.m. PDT. We astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon. The word perigee describes the moon’s closest point to Earth for a given month. Two years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many used a term we’d never heard before: supermoon. Last year, we heard this term again to describe the year’s closest full moon on May 6, 2012.

This year, we also hear the term supermoon referring to the year’s closest full moon on June 23, 2013. What does supermoon mean exactly? And how special is the June 23, 2013 supermoon?

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Iranian Fireman Donates His Organs After Dying Saving a Little Girl

"This Iranian Firefighter, Omid Abassi, saved a 7 years old girl by giving his oxygen mask to her, became brain dead then his body organs saved 4 other lives."

Funeral of fireman who sacrificed his life for a seven year old girl. High ranking Iranian officials, including Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Tehran’s Mayor, attended Omid Abbassi’s funeral , the fireman who lost his life while on duty to save the life of a seven year old girl and donated his organs to save more people after his death. 

SEE ALSO: "Poorest" President in the World Donates 90% of  Salary to Charity

They came to share the sorrow of his death with his family, friends and colleagues. Tehran Fire Department Spokesman told us what happened on that day and about Omid Abbasi:

The little girl who was saved was also at the funeral and thanked the fireman who died for her.

SEE ALSO: A 9 Year Old Donated All Her Birthday Money a Year Later, She Passed Away, Causing People to Donate $1.2 Million on Her Behalf.

Omid’s family talked about his character.

Officials say that there are around four thousand firefighters in Tehran. Around twenty two of them have lost their lives while on duty. The last fireman who lost his life while on duty was on Early January of this year. He also donated six of his organs after his death.

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Controversial Priest Wears Rocker Clothes, Rides a Chopper and References Rock Songs During Sermons

Adolfo Huerta Aleman, known to his parishioners as Father Gofo, is not your usual priest. He looks and dresses like a rocker, likes going to bars, loves pictures of naked women,smokes, swears, and tells jokes during his sermons. He’s probably not the only Catholic priest with odd hobbies, but unlike most, he’s open about them.

SEE ALSO:  7 Differences Pope Francis Has Made in One Appearance.

At one point in his life, Gofo wanted to enroll in the military. Then he thought about becoming a policeman, a firefighter or a teacher, but he ended up as a priest in the Mexican city of Satillo. He says his ultimate career choice was probably influenced by the values passed on to him by his religious family. But for him, entering the Church didn’t mean leaving everything he loved up to that point at the door. That included his love for rock culture, his passion for motorcycles or any of his vices. On the contrary, he decided to let his unique personality play a big role in his profession, as a way to reach those for whom conventional religion held no appeal. He continued dyeing the end of his black locks red, wore skull rings and bracelets in church, rode his chopper around town, and even referenced rock songs during Mass. Obviously, all that didn’t sit well with many of his conservative parishioners, but it got him closer to members of the community that would otherwise be inaccessible to the Catholic Church.

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Popeye’s Village in Real Life

Tucked away in the small European country of Malta is a place you’d probably never expect to find in the real world– Popeye’s Village. Also known as Sweethaven Village, it is an ideal family-vacation spot and one of Malta’s major tourist attractions. The fun park is modeled on the theme of the favorite children’s cartoon character, Popeye the Sailor Man. Interestingly, this village was the actual set used by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions to shoot the 1980 film Popeye, based on the comic strips by E. C. Segar.

SEE ALSO: Kawakami Gensai: The Real-Life Hitokiri Battousai

At Sweethaven, you can expect to see models of all the main characters of the popular children’s cartoon – Popeye the Sailor, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Swee’Pea and Wimpy. You can also go on joy rides and visit play houses, puppet shows, museums, and cinema sessions featuring the film Popeye and the construction of the set. You can even star in your own film, record it and take it home. But that’s not all, there are a host of other things to see and experience, like face painting, balloon modelling, storytelling, open-air barbeques, crafts and Wii games. There’s also a mini golf course and a free wine tasting for adults. The season-specific activities are a huge hit as well, these include water trampolines, play pools and boat rides during the summer, and a Christmas Parade along with Santa’s toy town in December.

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Island of Doll in Mexico

Known as “La Isla de la Munecas”, by the Spanish, The Island of the Dolls is perhaps the creepiest tourist attraction in Mexico. Located within an extensive network of canals, south of Mexico City, the island is a place of mystery and superstition.

Almost every tree growing on the island is decorated with old, mutilated dolls that give anyone the feeling that they’re constantly being watched. The story behind the Island of the Dolls began when a hermit by the name of Don Julian Santana moved here. Although he was married he chose to live the last 50 years of his life alone.

SEE ALSO: Akodessewa Fetish Market Largest Voodoo Market in the World.

Don Julian used to say he was haunted by the ghost of the little girl who had drowned in one of the canals around the island. Some say he used to fish the dolls from the water because he though they were real children, but the truth is he was collecting and placing them around his home as a shrine for the spirit that tormented him. At one point he even traded home grown fruit and vegetables for old dolls.

Ironically, in 2001 Don Julian Santana was found dead by his nephew, in the same canal that he said the little girl drowned in. Now his Island of the Dolls is one of the world’s weirdest tourist attractions. Some tourists who visited this place claim the dolls whisper and you must offer them a gift upon setting foot on the island, to appease their spirits.

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The Black Dragonfish

The scientists reported some spectacular findings yesterday, displaying ancient volcanic rocks and strange-looking creatures with big eyes collected from the deep sea.

Using a sophisticated side-beam sonar system covering a 10-mile swath of the ocean bottom, the geophysicists and geologists made the first detailed maps of the Musician Seamounts.

Besides seamounts, the Musician chain has a new class of volcano discovered only recently, the scientists said. The chain has elongated ridges two miles high, five miles across and up to 300 miles long.

SEE ALSO: Lamprey Fish

"You see some things like this on Venus and the moon," said Jason Morgan, with the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences at Kiel University. But until recently, he said, "People thought such features were unique to other planets."

Pan, who works with professor Rodey Batiza in the UH Department of Geology and Geophysics, said he believes the Musician Seamounts were formed at a hot spot in Earth's mantle. But he thinks the ridges are the result of impact between the hot spot and mid-ocean spreading center.

Ernst Flueh, chief scientist for the cruise, said the new type of volcano has been found in about 10 sites around the world. One of the big questions is whether the ridges were formed from a single eruption or a mixing of material from Earth's plate motions, he said.

SEE ALSO: The Blobfish

Seismic studies by the SONNE indicate much of the magma erupted at the surface and only a small fraction was deposited in the deeper crust, he said.

Morgan speculated that the magma oozed from from a feeder dike, or giant crack, and spread out on the surface, and the volcano was built by flows one on top of each other.

His father, geophysicist Jason Morgan of Princeton University, said seismic experiments and the aging of the rocks will help them determine the structure of the volcanoes.

The biologists also have some mysteries to unravel, particularly why many animals in the deep, dark sea have large eyes, said Peter Herring, marine biologist at the Southhampton Oceanographic Center in England.

SEE ALSO: The Sawfish

"It's paradoxical."

They also see and communicate by making their own light (bioluminescence) from pigments along their bodies, he said.

"We have a whole bunch of new species to compare with Atlantic ones," Herring said. "Some we've never seen before."

The biologists used special equipment to maintain dark, cold conditions for the animals when they brought them up from the sea, and took the creatures into a dark room for study.

Besides big eyes, the fish have very big teeth, Herring pointed out, explaining that because they don't get a meal often they must not miss one.

More UH scientists will be doing research on the SONNE in the future, he said. One of the world's most advanced research ships, it is supported by the German Ministry for Education, Research and Technology.

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Boy Genius Diagnosed with Autism has IQ Higher than Einstein

An autistic boy genius has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein after scoring an IQ of 170 and could be on his way to winning a Nobel Prize.

14-year-old Jacob Barnett of Indiana was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism when he was just two years old, and is now on his way to earning a master's degree in quantum physics.

SEE ALSO: 3 Random Strange Facts About Einstein 

Doctors had told Jacob's parents that he may never be able to tie his shoes or read as he spent years toiling around special education schools that couldn't cater to his needs.

"For a parent, it's terrifying to fly against the advice of the professionals," Kristine wrote in her memoir, "The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius." "But I knew in my heart that if Jake stayed in special ed, he would slip away."

That's when Kristine Barnett decided to take matters into her own hands and pulled him from school, and began focusing on what the boy could do and not what he couldn't, reported the New York Daily News.

SEE ALSO: 12 Year Old Schoolgirl who is Brainier than both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

"He would create maps all over our floor using Q-tips. They would be maps of places we've visited and he would memorize every street," Kristine told BBC. Once they visited a planetarium when he was 3-and-a-half, and he was able to answer every question asked by the instructor, including complicated physics theories, she claims.


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2013 Most Weird and Unbelievable Predictions

Many of us will become vegetarians and will be faced with earthquakes, famines and sinking. We will hear the announcements from the medical community about revolutionary methods of treatment and prevention of chronic and incurable diseases. NASA will enlighten us on the inhospitable surface of the Red Planet, while scientists at CERN will promise us a journey through time in ten years from now.

Betsey Lewis, writer, researcher of Earth mysteries and famous TV presenter in the U.S., gives us a glimpse of events that are predicted to take place in 2013.


SEE ALSO: Chinese Astrology Predictions for 2013 (Year of the Water Snake)

From Meat Eaters to Vegetarians

Many of us will change eating habits and become vegetarians. The surge in food prices such as milk, cereals and meat is the result of the prolonged drought that hit many regions of the world in 2012.

Mega Earthquakes

Strong earthquakes will hit Indonesia, California and Peru. In Indonesia the mega earthquake will cause tsunamis, and in various parts of the Earth there will be earthquakes and intensification of volcanic activity.

New Scandals in the Catholic Church

Another scandal will hurt the Catholic Church and will have to do with revelations of sexual abuse of children by priests that will come to light.

SEE ALSO: Predictions or Scientific Facts & Foreknowledge found in the Bible


Deaths of political leaders

The news is bad for Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, and George Bush senior, former U.S. president. Both leaders will leave their last breath in 2013, according to the predictions of Betsey Lewis.

UFO and Extreme Weather

This year we will see more UFO, weird cloud formations and unexplained phenomena in the sky. In addition, extreme weather events will affect many areas of the planet.

Corruption in Banks

Corruption scandals will continue to plague financial institutions and economic organizations.

NASA

The U.S. space agency NASA will make a grandiose statement about the planet Mars in March 2013.

SEE ALSO: 13 Must See Stargazing Events for 2013


CERN

Scientists at CERN will announce that a journey through time is possible and will take place within the next ten years.

Announcements about Treatment and Prevention of Cancer

Important announcements about the prevention and treatment of chronic and incurable diseases, mainly cancer, will take place in 2013.

Solar Event

An unusual solar event will be recorded in the Northern Hemisphere and will be at the center of the interest of the scientific community.

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New ‘Pirate’ Ant Discovered in the Philippines

Discovered by a team of German scientists while on a trip to the Philippines, Cardiocondyla pirata was found living under a rock—literally. PhD student Sabine Frohschammer from the University of Regensburg and her colleague Bernhard Seifert from Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Gorlitz were searching for Cardiocondyla ants in a shady streambed when she saw individuals that didn’t look like any other known species

“Due to the darkness of the rainforest and the translucent body parts of the tiny ants, they were nearly invisible,” Frohschammer said in a press release.

As she looked more closely, however, Frohschammer knew she had found something special. Some of the females she had gathered had unusual coloration around their eyes—dark patches that reminded Frohschammer of the eye patches worn by some pirates.


SEE ALSO: Honeypot Ant


A search of the research literature revealed that Frohschammer’s initial hunch was correct: Not only was this an entirely new species of ant, the coloration was unique as well. The researchers recently reported their find in the journal ZooKeys.

But unlike Captain Hook, these ants don’t live on a pirate ship. Instead, Frohschammer believes that the ants live their entire lives buried underground in almost complete darkness. Their eyes reflect their lives in the dark, as they contain an abnormally small number of light receptors.

If the pirate ants live in the dark and can’t see very well, this makes it unlikely that the eye patch is used either as a signal during mating or as a way for individuals to recognize other members of their species, Frohschammer noted in the study.


SEE ALSO: The Rare 'Skull' Caterpillar of Australia


Her current hypothesis is that the eye patch serves to confuse and distract predators. The dark stripe seems to divide the ant’s tiny, translucent head in two, which could make predators think that such a ridiculously small morsel isn’t worth their time. Frohschammer still isn’t sure what, if any, predators might be consuming them.

It wouldn’t be the first time a pirate tried to conceal buried treasure.

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Australia Giant Pink Slugs

What's bright pink, slimy and can grow to up to eight inches long? Why,Triboniophorus aff. graeffei, of course!

The brilliantly-pink variety of slug has only been spotted in one area -- the subalpine reaches of Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak that was once a volcano in northern New South Wales, Australia.


SEE ALSO: The Pink Lake of Western Australia


"On a good morning, you can walk around and see hundreds of them," National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Michael Murphy told the Australian Broadcasting Company. "But only in that one area."

The fluorescent invertebrates spend their days hiding, according to Murphy, and then climb trees at night to forage for food. The slugs' distinctive coloring may be meant as a form of camouflage, according to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

While locals have reported seeing the creatures for years, researchers have only recently confirmed that the slugs are unique to Mount Kaputar, explains The Sydney Morning Herald.


SEE ALSO: The Purple Sail or Velella Velella


The slugs are "relics" of a time when Australia was joined to much of the world as part of a vast supercontinent known as Gondwana, or Gondwanaland, Murphy told the ABC.

A volcanic eruption at Mount Kaputar about 17 million years ago created a rare haven for the ancient creatures, even as most of the habitat below them dried up, according to The Herald.

SEE ALSO:  Half-Animal Half-Plant Creature or Sea Slug Elysia 

In fact, the region is so environmentally sensitive that the NSW Scientific Committee is thinking about designating the area as a protected ''endangered ecological community," The Herald notes. The area is particularly susceptible to climate change and a few degrees of warming could spell disaster for the fragile mountain ecosystem.

''It's just one of those magical places,'' Murphy told The Herald.

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The Smallest Girl In The World

Five-year-old Charlotte Garside isn't even 27 inches tall -- barely the size of a typical newborn infant -- but she's no baby, according to her mother.

"We've been told she looks like a porcelain doll, a baby in a pram and people still call her baby Charlotte, which riles me something chronic, because she's not a baby, she's five years old," Emma Garside told Barcroft TV.

SEE ALSO: Wold's Smallest Baby Survives

Charlotte, who lives in the English town of Withernsea, was born with a rare form of Primordial Dwarfism. She weighs nine pounds, the same as a large newborn baby.

At birth, she registered just two pounds and was extremely fragile.

"I have said she looked like a skinned rabbit, her mother said. "She had a little pink hat on and was wrapped in bubble wrap up till her neck."

SEE ALSO: Wold's Smallest RFID Chip

Despite barely being the height of the cereal boxes on her kitchen counter, Charlotte lives as normal a life as possible. She goes horseback riding with her family and attends school.

"She is very inquisitive and the school have already told us she has a learning age of a three-year-old, which is higher than we thought," Emma Garside told the Daily Mail. "Of course, I was worried she could get hurt by the other children, but she has her own tutor look after her and she's not as fragile as you'd think."

Charlotte has been called the world's smallest girl, but that title is unofficial. Guinness World Records doesn't recognize that category, but the record keeping company has a sport for the world's smallest teenager.

That title is currently unclaimed, according to a Guinness spokeswoman, since the last record holder, Jhoti Amge of India, is now an adult.

SEE ALSO: Tiny Lizards Found in Madagascar

Standing 24.7 inches, Amge is shorter than Charlotte. The 5-year-old also towers over the world's shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal, who measures 21.5 inches tall.

It's unclear how big Charlotte will grow. Her mother just wants to do what's best for her.

"There are a lot of unknowns but Charlotte has a way of surprising you when you least expect it. We didn't know if she would live this long," she said, according to HuffPost UK. "We didn't know if she would be able to interact with people and there have been times when we thought we might lose her.

"But she keeps on thriving and I can't wait to see what the next year brings."

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Eric Ducharme a Guy who wants to be a Merman

Like any other 22-year-old Floridian, Eric Ducharme loves to swim, except when he dives into the water, he trades his swim trunks for a floppy tail.

Ducharme is a self-proclaimed merman, a mystical male counterpart to the mermaid. As the legend goes, these seductive sea creatures with the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, make themselves visible to ships during thunder storms and would lure the opposite sex into the water with their siren-like singing.

SEE ALSO:  A Woman Who Grew a New Ear on Her Arm

 His love for all things mermen began as a child when, according to his website, his grandparents took him to an underwater theater and a woman in a mermaid costume swam by blowing kisses to the audience; at age six, Ducharme's father hired two mermaids to swim up to a dock where the boy was eating his birthday cake. When he was 13, Ducharme created his company Mertailor, LLC and sold his own handcrafted tails made from garbage bags and various fabrics. Three years later, he put on his first show, swimming as the mermaid prince in the Weeki Wachee Springs Little Mermaid show. "Eric is obsessed with mermaids," says his mother Candy Ducharme. "We have our own passions. That's Eric's life."

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"It's taking me a really long time to kind of understand my place in life," Ducharme says of his obsession. Three times a week, he slips into his shiny handmade fin to swim Florida’s natural springs, an hour and a half drive from his home in Crystal River. He calls it "mermaiding" a time to escape the pressures of the real world. "When I put on a tail I feel transformed," says Ducharme, who can hold his breath for four minutes at a time. "I feel like I'm starting to enter into a different world when I hit the water."

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Supercomputer May Have Finally Unlocked a Way to Beat HIV

Finding an effective, safe HIV vaccine is still an ongoing struggle for scientists, but a new, supercomputer-aided discovery is offering a new hope. Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh were able to accurately map the four million atoms that make up the HIV capsid (a protein shell that contains the virus's genetic material), and this new knowledge may help find new ways to battle the virus and stop it from reproducing so rampantly. "The capsid is critically important for HIV replication," said senior author Peijun Zhang from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Knowing its structure in detail could lead us to new drugs that can treat or prevent the infection."

SEE ALSO: Scientists have cured a baby born with HIV for the first time.

At the heart of these findings is the University of Illinois' Blue Waters petascale supercomputer — it broke down the incredibly complex HIV capsid, which is made up of some 1,300 identical proteins arranged into pentagons and hexagons. While researchers knew generally how the proteins were arranged, they didn't know how the whole structure fit together or how many proteins made up the capsid. But Blue Waters was up to the task of running the many, many simulations needed to fully piece together the HIV capsid's structure. "This is a big structure, one of the biggest structures ever solved," said University of Illinois physics professor Klaus Schulten. "It was very clear that it would require a huge amount of simulation — the largest simulation ever published — involving 64 million atoms."

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With the HIV capsid now fully mapped, researchers hope the new knowledge will let them develop more beneficial vaccines and treatment options that take advantage of the capsid's vulnerabilities. "The capsid is very sensitive to mutation, so if we can disrupt those interfaces, we could interfere with capsid function," Dr. Zhang said. "The capsid has to remain intact to protect the HIV genome... but once inside it has to come apart to release its content so that the virus can replicate. Developing drugs that cause capsid dysfunction by preventing its assembly or disassembly might stop the virus from reproducing." Some of the more effective antiviral drugs already target the capsid — with this new information, the HIV virus could be more vulnerable than ever.

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400 Year Old Plant Revived by Scientist

University of Alberta researchers led by Dr Catherine La Farge have brought back to life 400 year old frozen mosses recovered from melting glaciers in the High Canadian Arctic.

The result, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overturns a long-held assumption that all of the plant remains exposed by retreating polar glaciers are dead. Previously, any new growth of plants close to the glacier margin was considered the result of rapid colonization by modern plants surrounding the glacier.

Dr La Farge’s team using radiocarbon dating confirmed that the plants, which ranged from 400 to 600 years old, were entombed during the Little Ice Age that happened between 1550 and 1850.

In the field, the scientists noticed that the subglacial populations were not only intact, but also in pristine condition – with some suggesting regrowth.

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They then selected 24 subglacial samples for culture experiments. Seven of these samples produced 11 cultures that successfully regenerated four species from the original parent material, including the turgid aulacomnium moss Aulacomnium turgidum and the moss Distichium capillaceum.

“The re-growth of these Little Ice Age bryophytes (such as mosses and liverworts) expands our understanding of glacier ecosystems as biological reservoirs that are becoming increasingly important with global ice retreat,” Dr La Farge said.

“We know that bryophytes can remain dormant for many years and then are reactivated, but nobody expected them to rejuvenate after nearly 400 years beneath a glacier.”

“These simple, efficient plants, which have been around for more than 400 million years, have evolved a unique biology for optimal resilience. Any bryophyte cell can reprogram itself to initiate the development of an entire new plant. This is equivalent to stem cells in faunal systems.”

Dr La Farge said: “the finding amplifies the critical role of bryophytes in polar environments and has implications for all permafrost regions of the globe.”

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“Bryophytes are extremophiles that can thrive where other plants do not, hence they play a vital role in the establishment, colonization and maintenance of polar ecosystems.”

“This discovery emphasizes the importance of research that helps us understand the natural world, given how little we still know about polar ecosystems – with applied spin-offs for understanding reclamation that we may never have anticipated.”

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Parasite Eats Man's Face

A flesh-eating parasite ate away at a man’s face and back while he was vacationing in South America with his fiancé, according to the Discovery Channel.

Adam Spencer, 23, from Veneta, Ore. Spencer had just proposed to his girlfriend Shalynn Pack when a strange scab began developing on his face as the pair crossed the Bolivian salt flats.

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He dismissed the wound as nothing serious; however, over time the scab began to grow and spread across the face. Soon pus began seeping from the sore, according to the Discovery Channel.

Spencer received antibiotics from a local doctor, and upon returning home to Oregon, he also sought out the advice of Dr. Stephan Ames of Thurston Medical Clinic in Springfield.

'”Adam came in with a wound on the right side of his face. It was firm, but soft and mushy on the inside,” Ames told the Discovery Channel. “I was concerned it was a staph infection, which can infect multiple organs and could cause him to die.”

Ames prescribed penicillin, but while tests found no evidence of a staph infection, the wound continued to grow.

“We didn't know when it was going to stop,” Pack told the Discovery Channel. “It was encroaching his eye. It was pretty frightening.”

SEE ALSO: Demon Doctor: Dr. Shiro Ishii of Japanese Imperial Army 

Spencer also began to have trouble swallowing when large white lumps began to grow in the back of his throat. Meanwhile, the sores spread to his back.

Spencer visited Dr. William Muth of the Samaritan Infectious Disease Clinic in Corvallis, Ore., who diagnosed him with Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis, caused by a single-cell parasite known as Leishmania.

The parasite had likely been transmitted by a small sandfly bite in the Amazon. It was feeding off Spencer’s immune cells, which were trying to fight off the disease.

Muth prescribed a 21-day treatment that finally drove out the parasite and healed the sores. Spencer is back to planning his upcoming wedding with Pack.

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2 in 1 Can of Coca Cola

Sharing a drink with someone when they can take a sip from the other side of your glass is reasonably acceptable. But that's just not possible with a canned beverage. You either agree to share their germs, or refuse to share at all. It's an age-old conundrum that Coca-Cola has finally solved with a two-in-one can that twists apart to make sharing easy.

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The cans were created in collaboration with Coke's ad agency in Singapore, Ogilvy & Mather, and were unfortunately only available in limited quantities. Hopefully the popularity of the campaign will encourage Coca-Cola to introduce these cans all over the world. Otherwise, it's back to using a hacksaw and a steady hand to share your canned sugar water with a friend. Or, you know, a glass.

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