They just put some Strads through a CT scanner, and they discovered that the wood is oddly uniform.
Specifically, the wood was exceptionally uniform in its density, and very dense, and this was because the wood was grown in the little Ice age, when the wood grew very slowly in all seasons.
Well, we now have yet another theory.
There were crumbs in the trenches that Phoenix dug, and they appear to have melted.
Cool.
This is kind of neat. Let’s hope that it’s a female tree, and thus can bear fruit.
Researchers confirm age of “Methuselah” tree
Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:00pm EDT
By Ari RabinovitchJERUSALEM, June 12 (Reuters) – Israeli researchers who grew a sapling from a date seed found at the ancient fortress Masada said on Thursday the seed was about 2,000 years old and may help restore a species of biblical trees.
Carbon dating confirmed that the seed — named Methuselah after the oldest person in the bible — was the oldest ever brought back to life, Sarah Sallon, a researcher at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, reported in the journal Science.
The seed came from the Judean date palm, a species that once flourished in the Jordan River Valley and has been extinct for centuries, Sallon said. It was one of a group discovered at Masada, a winter palace overlooking the Dead Sea built by King Herod in the 1st century BC.
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I dinna smoke it no more, too many pee tests, but it’s laughable when the Office of National Drug Control Policy claims that this means that the increase in potency makes it more dangerous. Of course, people who actually study THC say that there is no additional danger involved, and that the most dangerous thing about pot is the smoking, which like all smoking is bad for you.
It’s up from last year’s 8.75% THC to 9.6%.
Also (H/T Talkleft) we have studies indicating that THC may have anticancer properties and may repair damaged brain cells and help with anxiety and depression.
More potency is good news, except for the whole “binging on ice cream sammiches” thing.
Wicked cool.
Very funny…if you have the math.
Math majors cannot dance.
The basic concept is that combustion is an electron exchange of matter in a cold plazma state, and if you can interfere with the plasma, you can shut down combustion.
Cool stuff.
Really, I mean it. It’s the new black. It’s the blackest black ever created, absorbing more than 99.9% of all light, and more than 30 times blacker than the standard used by U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as a standard.
It’s made of carbon nanotubes, and has a reflective index of 0.045%.
At least it is when you are marine biologist Trey Snow, and you are tracking Great White Sharks in a kayak. (this is a real picture)
Truth be told, I think that Mitt Romney’s day was worse.
Pirate attacks are up 14 up worldwide, this means that we should see a significant decrease in global warming.
What, you think that there is no correlation?
How about this, straight off the website of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:
There you have it, proof.
At least that’s what a scientists at the University of Auckland, New Zealand have determined that, with rats at least, moderate alcohol consumption improves cognitive performance.
Given my behavior at Chabad-Lubovich* Simchat Torah† services a few days back, this would imply that I have a significant IQ bump for the next few days…or maybe not…the light boozers beat the tea-totaling rats, but they both beat the heavy boozers.
*An Orthodox Jewish outreach group.
†It celebrates the fact that we have finished Torah readings for the year, and we start back at the beginning. It’s traditional to consume mass quantities at this event.
Though personally, my taste runs to asteroid 68410 (Nichols)
Asteroid renamed for ‘Star Trek’ actor
NEW YORK (AP) — A piece of outer space named for George Takei is in kind of a rough neighborhood for somebody who steers a starship: an asteroid belt.An asteroid between Mars and Jupiter has been renamed 7307 Takei in honor of the actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series and movies.
“I am now a heavenly body,” Takei, 70, said Tuesday, laughing. “I found out about it yesterday. … I was blown away. It came out of the clear, blue sky — just like an asteroid.”
…
The Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta has been launched.
It’s the first mission to renedez vous with more than one body, and an ambitious application of ion drive technology.
For more on the tech, see here
Bluefin Tuna stocks are seriously threatened, “The EU must keep the ban agreed today in place indefinitely until independent scientific evidence demonstrates that sustainable fishing is possible.”
Fishing grounds all over the world are under serious pressure.
A meteorite crashes to earth, strange fumes incapacitate people who come near.
It sounds an awful lot like those awful 1950s movies, doesn’t it?
A genetic study the Eastern Pacific Gray Whale population has indicated that the pre whaling population was 5x what was previously thought, indicating that the recovery is 5x as anemic as was previously though.
More significantly, it means that the Eastern Gray Whales population of 20,000, Western Gray Whale population is in the few hundred range, is still well below the carrying capacity of their habitat, and that the increasing number of malnourished whales found are an indication of another problem threating their food supply.
The most likely culprit is global warming.
There are currently very non-military applications for the scramjet propulsion that the Chinese are working on.
The only one that comes to mind would be an “Orient Experss” type high speed transport, is a very long way away, if ever.
This is about creating a credible threat to a CVBG that might interfere in an invasion of Taiwan.
Why else would Russia plan to establish a Moonbase?
I came across The Valley of the Whales, a fascinating sight in Egypt that appears to be a treasure trove of fossils of whale origins.
Among other things, they have found a complete skeleton of Basilosaurus.
Definately a “wow” in my book.
The fact is that what happened on 911 was as the result of airplane impacts, and the whacked out demolition theories serve only to distract from the incompetence of this administration, and to remove the question of LIHOP from the public sphere.
