Magic Bus in Yarn: Knitter 'yardbombs' anything!

If you are into knitting, then you have to read this story that I found in the British Newspaper, The Telegraph, today.

Streaker interrupts Williams sisters' match in Australia!

MELBOURNE, Australia - A streaker dashed on court while Venus and Serena Williams played doubles today at the Australian Open, prancing around before being arrested.  

This is a wild banana, an ancestor of today's bananas

This photograph shows seed-packed fruit of Musa balbisiana, one of the ancestors of the edible bananas.
The banana may be one of the first crops to be domesticated by man. They may have evolved along with the earliest settled agriculture and may therefore be some tens of thousands of years old.
Banana is now one of the most popular of all fruits.
Although it is viewed as only a dessert or an addition to breakfast cereal in most developed countries, it is actually a very important agricultural product. After rice, wheat and milk, it is the fourth most valuable food. In export, it ranks fourth among all agricultural commodities and is the most significant of all fruits, with world trade totaling $2.5 billion annually.
Yet, only 10% of the annual global output of 86 million tons enters international commerce. Much of the remaining harvest is consumed by poor subsistence farmers in tropical Africa, America and Asia.
http://www.apsnet.org/educa...

Meet Greedy Pig-of-the Year: former Merrill Lynch CEO

My nomination for Greedy Pig-of-the-Year for 2008 goes out to scumbag John Thain, former CEO for Merill Lynch.

Talking Points Memo (TPM) web site features a good article on his misdeeds this morning.

Prepare to get pissed off! Click here to read about rampant greed.

Caylee Anthony's Grandfather taken to Psych Hospital

It looks like the saga of his murdered granddaughter was too much for George Anthony, as family members contacted police to find him yesterday after fears he was going to kill himself. He was found in a motel room a few counties away from where the Anthony's live.

I've always suspected the grandparents knew more than they were saying. I still recall that early phone conversation where Cindy Anthony said the car smelled like a dead person.

George made comments to the same effect, at first. But as time went by they both changed their story. My guess is that they decided that they didn't want to lose a daughter too, and agreed to lie to the authorities about what they really knew.

But George, an ex-cop, has a conscience, and it's what I believe drove him to consider suicide. Holding a terrible secret like that will eventually take it's toll. I have a feeling, before this whole mess goes to court, that George and Cindy are going to get in trouble for lying about what they know their daughter did.

AP file photo

Mono-wheel mode of travel has some interesting history

  

(Left) Swiss engineer Mr. Gerdes astride/inside his one-wheel motorcycle, 1931. (Right) The Mono-Wheel is popular for travel between remote Russian villages.

See Chinese Military in modern times enjoying mono-wheels, presumably for balance training, but maybe simply... for fun?

Some outlandish mono-wheel concepts from 1925 "Science & Invention" and "The Electrical Experimenter" in 1918.

all images from darkroastedblend.com where you can find a complete pictorial and written history on mono-wheels in their archives. Enjoy!

Critics of Global Trade don't get a lot of media time

Media Matters Action Network reported today that "scant space is given to critics" of Global trade.

Personally, I've always been against the whole concept of "free trade" or global trading. History has shown us that the whole concept has turned into a drain on the American economy. We've lost too many jobs over the years to trade agreements that only benefit corporate interests.

Academics, interest groups, businesspeople, and workers have been engaged in a vigorous debate over the impact of free trade on job loss, income inequality, wage stagnation, working conditions, human rights, environmental degradation, corporate profits, public health, transparency, democracy, national sovereignty, and freedom itself.

For more details on this subject read this and see what you think.

Fighting stopped, Gaza's smuggling tunnels reopen

Supplies flow again, possibly threatening cease-fire with Israel

Beneath the semi-desert scrub of olive groves and cactus trees traversing Egypt's border with Gaza lies a warren of crudely dug tunnels that may determine whether the cease-fires ending the 22-day war between Israel and Hamas will last.

Click here to read the whole story in the Chicago Tribune.

Palestinians hold white flags as a signal for Israeli troops after leaving their house near the area where Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants exchange fire outside Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.

(AP Photo/AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Life under a microscope: It's a small world after all

Golden wonder: Using fibre optics, this image shows the wing scales of a sunset moth

This surreal looking image shows the micro-flow pattern in a thinning soap film.

Purple haze: This fluorescent image shows a magnified mangrove fern leaf.

images from dailymail.com

An early pictorial history of cars that fly...sort of

  

In the early 1900s some rather crazy-looking armored vehicles were used by the military; here is a "Sizaire-Berwick Wind Wagon" from 1905.

French engineer Marcel Leyat made plenty of "Helica" propeller-powered cars between 1913 and 1926 (30 were built, two still exist today). Some models had an open, unprotected propeller, good for shredding everything that might stand in their way. Other models gained a wooden protective shroud, which made them sort-of road-worthy (at least in France.

This 1932 model was pretty ugly, but boasted a maximum speed of 80 mph!

image credit: modernmechanix.com)

 

(image credit: Aerofiles)    "Taylor AeroCar III" (1965)