A rare image of a flying peacock
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
What Causes Hiccups
Hiccups are classified into three categories: normal, protracted or persistent, and intractable. Protracted are those hiccups that last over 48 hours, but not more than one month. Intractable hiccups continue for more than one month. If hiccups occur for less than 48 hours, they are considered ‘normal’.
In regards to the function of hiccuping, it was once thought that this act was just a twitch of the diaphragm (the muscle that separates the thorax from the abdominal cavity and is the main muscle involved in breathing). It has since been shown to be a much more complex process. It starts with a sudden, strong contraction of all muscles involved in inspiration. This is followed almost immediately by the glottis, or vocal cords, closing shut. This clamping of the chords is what causes the infamous ‘hic’ sound. The top of the mouth and back of the tongue then move up, making an occasional associated burp, as the diaphragm then contracts forcefully. The heart will also tend to slow down during this process. This is thought to be caused by the stimulation of the Vagus nerve, which slows a person’s heart rate.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
A Soviet Surgeon Has to Remove His Own Appendix
In 1961, Rogozov was stationed at a newly constructed Russian base in Antarctica. The 12 men inside were cut off from the outside world by the polar winter by March of that year. In April, the 27-year-old Rogozov began to feel ill, very ill. His symptoms were classic: he had acute appendicitis. "He knew that if he was to survive he had to undergo an operation," the British Medical Journal recounted. "But he was in the frontier conditions of a newly founded Antarctic colony on the brink of the polar night. Transportation was impossible. Flying was out of the question, because of the snowstorms. And there was one further problem: he was the only physician on the base."
Dog Promoted To Sergeant
The Brain Fact
The Norwegian Army Has Knighted A Penguin.
Colonel-in-Chief Sir Nils Olav is a King Penguin living in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland. He is the mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Royal Guard. Nils was visited by soldiers from the Norwegian Royal Guard on the 15 August 2008 and awarded a knighthood.The honour was approved by the king of Norway, King Harald V. During the ceremony a crowd of several hundred people joined the 130 guardsmen at the zoo to hear a citation from King Harald the Fifth of Norway read out, which described Nils as a penguin "in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood".The name 'Nils Olav' has also been given to two other King Penguins who preceded the current Nils Olav as the King's Guard's mascot.
Printer System Used To Produce Skin
Researchers are using a mechanism similar to ink-jet printer to develop skin-printing system whose products could be used for treating wounds.
Standard ink-jet printer's technology has inspired US scientists to use almost a similar system in the production of damaged or burned skin.
During the process, first the scientists take a sample of skin from the patient, then separate, and replicate the cells in large quantities. After that, they put the produced cells on a cartridge in the printer to form and print skin sheets.
"We started out by taking a typical desktop ink-jet cartridge. Instead of ink we use cells, which are placed in the cartridge," said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
The project is in pre-clinical phases and Wake Forest is going to receive approximately $50 million fund from the US Defense Department to develop operational human skin producing system.
The technique involves a portable bioprinter that could be carried to wounded soldiers on the battlefield, where it would scan the injury, take cells from the patient and print a section of compatible skin.
Another technique uses a three-dimensional printer combining donor cells, biofriendly gel and other materials to build cartilage.
Scientists from Wake Forest, Cornell University and the Medical University of South Carolina presented the findings at an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington.
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Lincoln Pocket Watch SECRET
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History announced it has found a “secret” message engraved in President Abraham Lincoln’s watch by a watchmaker who was repairing it in 1861 when news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Washington, D.C.
In an interview with The New York Times April 30, 1906, 84-year-old Jonathan Dillon recalled that he was working for M.W. Galt and Co. on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, where he was repairing Lincoln’s watch. The owner of the shop announced that the first shot of the Civil War had been fired. Dillon reported that he unscrewed the dial of the watch, and with a sharp instrument wrote on the metal beneath: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.” He then signed and dated the inscription and closed the dial. Dillon told The New York Times in 1906 that to his knowledge, no one ever saw the inscription.
Bryan Williams .. The Biggest Lost
Florida lighting Strike
Waterspouts can vary in size from a few feet to more than
a mile in height, and from a few feet to hundreds of feet wide.
These water twisters can move anywhere from 2 to 80 miles an hour. Winds within the waterspout can spiral around at 60-120 miles an hour.
Waterspouts, like their land counterparts, can pick up and transport some interesting objects. They have sent showers of tadpoles in New York, and even toads in France. One in Providence, Rhode Island, rained fish down on the people, who promptly collected and sold them!
The City Built Into The Rocks
Setenil de las Bodegas is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Spain. Named after its once flourishing wineries - bodegas - Setenil de las Bodegas (which means Setenil of the Wine Cellars) is unique among the pueblos blancos , white villages, of Andalucia and particularly famous for its dwellings built into the rock overhangs. The town extends along the course of the Rio Trejo with some houses being built into the rock walls of the gorge itself, created by enlarging natural caves or overhangs and adding an external wall.
Modern Setenil evolved from a fortified Moorish town that occupied a bluff overlooking a sharp bend in the Rio Trejo northwest of Ronda. The castle dates from at least the Almohad period in the 12th century. However, evidence of other nearby cave-dwelling societies, such as those at the Cueva de la Pileta west of Ronda, where habitation has been tracked back more than 25,000 years suggests that Setenil was occupied much much earlier. It was a spectacular defense place at the Arab age, which resisted several times the attacks of the Christian troops, before being conquered by the Catholic Monarchs in 1488.
Eddie Van With Drums And Guitar
Last Person Who Known Hitler Personally
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
2012 Land Rover DC100 Sport Concept
The DC100 Sport features a wraparound aero screen and cut-down side windows, and is painted in a special yellow inspired by the vibrant ochre hues found in Africa. On the interior, the seats are trimmed in leather with a lightweight, breathable mesh insert in a bold Tribal Tech pattern. The same pattern is repeated on the floor of the DC100 Sport where floor mats are made of Ombrae, a sculptural medium used in art installations and modern architecture.
The DC100 Sport is powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with hybrid compatibility mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission with Intelligent Stop/Start and a transfer case.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
"Virgin Birth" Seen in Wild Snakes
Virgin birth" among animals may not be a rare, last-resort, save-the-species stopgap after all.
For the first time, animal mothers, specifically pit vipers, have been discovered spawning fatherless offspring in the wild. More to the point, the snakes did so even when perfectly good males were around.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Whales and dolphins are ‘best buddies’
These friends were noticed the first time off the northwest coast of Kauai. 8 bottle nose dolphins met up with a pair humpback whales. Since then these friends have been noticed worldwide, displaying their playful acts.
This game involves the dolphins approaching the whales when they appear to surf the pressure wave. The dolphin comes to lie across the whale’s rostrum when it comes out to breathe. The dolphins tries to maintain its balance when the whale lifts the dolphin and then the dolphin slides down the whale’s back, playfully tickling the whale.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Paralyzed Rats Walk Again
Wearing a robotic harness, paralyzed rats have been made to walk again, according to a new study—albeit with an oddly upright, humanlike gait and while stimulated by judicious j
olts of electricity and chemicals.
It's the first time severely injured spinal cords have been reawakened, say researchers, who add that the technique might hold some promise for disabled people.
The treadmill exercise exploited reflexes that make walking in some ways passive, explained neuroscientist Naomi Kleitman of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
It's the first time severely injured spinal cords have been reawakened, say researchers, who add that the technique might hold some promise for disabled people.
The treadmill exercise exploited reflexes that make walking in some ways passive, explained neuroscientist Naomi Kleitman of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
The Man Who Eats Everything
Michel Lotito has a stomach lining which is twice as thick as normal, and it is a rare condition that most doctors are not sure how it occurs. This man can eat metal, glass, as well as toxic and poisonous materi
al!
He also consumes mineral oil and drinks tons of water. His gastric
juices, or digestive acids, are unusually powerful, which is the only
explanation on how he can digest metallic feasts. He entered the
Guinness book of records after eating an airplane! It took him TWO YEARS
to finish it (from 1978 to 1980).
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
What's Ambergris?
Sperm whales eject an intestinal slurry called ambergris into the ocean, where the substance hardens as it bobs along. Eventually it gets collected along shores—most often as sheer happenstance, as in the case of eight-year-old Charlie Naysmith in the U.K. a few days ago.
Walking along the beach in Dorset with his dad, the boy found what looked to be a very odd rock. He and his dad used Google to help identify it as ambergris. Weighing more than a pound, it is said to be worth up to U.S. $63,000.
The value of ambergris lies in its role in the fragrance industry. High-end perfumes from houses such as Chanel and Lanvin take advantage of the ability of ambergris to fix scent to human skin.
The smell of ambergris itself varies from piece to piece, ranging from earthy to musky to sweet. If a perfume house's "nose"—the person responsible for choosing scents—likes the aroma, the ambergris can be worth thousands an ounce.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Odd Sea Creature
Black Dragonfish
Female black dragonfish—such as this newfound specimen of the Idiacanthus genus—are "fierce predators" of small fish. But "interestingly, male dragonfish lack teeth and a functional gut, and are thought to live only long enough to breed,"
Photograph courtesy NIWA
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Arsenic-Life Discovery Debunked
California's Mono Lake harbors strange limestone formations and even stranger bacteria.
It was hailed in 2010 as the most "alien" life-form yet: bacteria that reportedly, and unprecedentedly, had rewritten the recipe for DNA. And the secret ingredient was arsenic.
But now two new studies seem to have administered a final dose of poison to the already controversial finding.
Researchers led by then NASA astrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon had found the organism, dubbed GFAJ-1, in arsenic-rich sediments of California's Mono Lake. They later reported in the journal Science that the bacterium thrived in arsenic-rich, phosphorus-poor lab conditions.
The team concluded that GFAJ-1 must be incorporating arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorous, which is essential for the DNA of all other known organisms.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
The model better known as Skullboy
Canadian tattoo enthusiast Rick "Rico" Genest famously became an inspiration for fashion designer Thierry Mugler's collection in 2011. You probably recognize him, of course, from Lady Gaga's Born This Way video.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Electronically Bees
Tiny, back-mounted radio trackers monitor the bees' comings and goings.To learn more about a bizarre, zombie-like behavior recently discovered in honeybees, researchers are now tagging the "zombees" with tiny radio trackers.
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Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Giant Crocodile Breaks Size Record
Lolong beats previous record-holder by more than two feet.
Lolong has hit the big time—at 20.24 feet (6.17 meters) long, the saltwater crocodile is officially the largest in captivity, the Guinness World Records announced recently.
Suspected of attacking several people and killing two, the giant reptile was captured alive in the Philippines' Bunawan township (map) last September.
-------------------------
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
Yosof A. Mohammed
Yosof_90@yahoo.com
http://UNB-facts.blogspot.com
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