Archive | February, 2012

Mother and daughter both born on leap day

29 Feb

What are the odds? 1 in 2.1 million actually. I want to know how this story became news, did Birnbaum contact the media or vice versa?

Michelle Birnbaum with daughter Rose yesterday. Image NY Post: Chad Rachman

Jersey mom, daughter share Leap Day birthdays
DAVID K. LI  |  February 29, 2012  |  NYPOST.com

New Jersey mom Michelle Birnbaum celebrates her real birthday for only the eighth time today.

And the guest of honor at her party will be another very special birthday girl — her 4-year-old daughter, Rose, who remarkably beat the 2 million-to-1 odds and also was born on Feb. 29.

Birnbaum, 32, insisted that as delighted as she is to finally have a built-in party partner, she never planed to create two generations of Leap Year birthdays.

It just worked out that way.

She went into labor on Feb. 28, 2008, but Rose didn’t make her grand entrance for another 11 hours, as the calendar flipped to Feb. 29.

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Leap Day origins and history

28 Feb

Don’t you ever wonder we do some of the things we do? What follows is a nice long red about the origins of February 29, Leap Day.

Random image for February 29.



Leap Day a creation of tricky math and history
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience   |  www.csmonitor.com  |  February 29, 2012

Leap Day, February 29, comes but once every four years. Leap Day is an adjustment to the calendar to cover up the difference between the time it takes the Earth to circle the sun and the usual 365-day year.

There will never be another day like today — at least not until 2016. Today’s date (Feb. 29) pops up on the calendar only on leap years, once almost every four years.

It has taken millennia for our calendar, called the Gregorian calendar after the pope who modified it in 1582, to evolve to include this tweak — 97 leap years every 400 years. There are other alternatives, according to Yury Grabovsky, an associate professor in the department of mathematics at Temple University, who has studied the history and mathematics of the Gregorian calendar.

Leap year addresses a discrepancy between our 365-day calendar and the time it takes the Earth to circle the sun. The discrepancy: It takes 365.24219878 days for the planet to complete one trip, so over time, our calendar and the astronomical one fall out of step.

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Criminal on the run busted after posting on Sheriff’s Facebook page

27 Feb

Ha ha ha, this guy was “creep of the week” and could not resist commenting about it.

Image AL.com

Jefferson County rape suspect featured on Facebook page captured in Ohio
Carol Robinson | The Birmingham News | February 03, 2012

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Alabama – A Jefferson County man wanted on outstanding rape charge who taunted lawmen this week on a Facebook site is now in custody.

U.S. Marshals took Dustin McCombs into custody today in Ohio, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian.

The U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Task for in Birmingham shared information with their counterparts in Ohio who tracked down the fugitive.

McComb’s was featured on the Jefferson County Sheriff Department’s Facebook page as its “Creep of the Week” because of an outstanding forcible rape charge.

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Science can cloak objects from all angles

26 Feb

This is proof on a very small scale of something rather amazing. It will be interesting to see when this become widespread. 10 years? 20 years?

Microwaves can be seen being blocked and scattered without (l), and "reconstructed" (r) with the cloak. Image BBC.

Microwaves can be seen being blocked and scattered without (l), and “reconstructed” (r) with the cloak

 

Cloaking’ a 3-D object from all angles demonstrated
By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter | BBC News | 25 January 2012

Researchers have “cloaked” a three-dimensional object, making it invisible from all angles, for the first time.

However, the demonstration works only for waves in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

It uses a shell of what are known as plasmonic materials; they present a “photo negative” of the object being cloaked, effectively cancelling it out.

The idea, outlined in New Journal of Physics, could find first application in high-resolution microscopes.

Most of the high-profile invisibility cloaking efforts have focused on the engineering of “metamaterials” – modifying materials to have properties that cannot be found in nature.

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Sassy Tweets get Brit tourists deported

25 Feb

Yoiks, this seems a bit heavy handed but is concrete proof that much humor, irony, and sarcasm is lost on the internet.

Big brother is watching you and reading your Twitter feed.

British tourists imprisoned and deported from US… for Twitter jokes
http://rt.com/usa | 31 January, 2012

f the decomposed corpse of Marilyn Monroe is robbed from the grave, the terrorists have won.

Authorities in America take threats seriously, and when it comes to Hollywood royalty nearly 50 years past their expiration date, the feds don’t kid around. So when a would-be British tourist joked about digging up the body of famed Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe, US officials, to say the least, were not amused.

The attempts at humor were posted on the Twitter account of Leigh Van Bryan, 26, which somehow managed to make its way to the US Department of Homeland Security at the same time the British resident’s plane arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. When Van Bryan and his 24-year-old traveling companion arrived at LAX last week, feds were waiting for them.

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World’s hottest pepper Trinidad Moruga Scorpion gives ”a crack-like rush’

24 Feb

A pepper that gives a ‘crack like rush?’ EXTREME!

This image provided by New Mexico State University shows the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the new hottest pepper on the planet, as identified by NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute. Image Jim Duffy, AP

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion wins hottest pepper title
usatoday.com | 2/16/2012

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – There are super-hot chile varieties. And then there’s the sweat-inducing, tear-generating, mouth-on-fire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.

With a name like that, it’s not surprising that months of research by the experts at New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute have identified the variety as the new hottest pepper on the planet.

The golf ball-sized pepper scored the highest among a handful of chile breeds reputed to be among the hottest in the world. Its mean heat topped more than 1.2 million units on the Scoville heat scale, while fruits from some individual plants reached 2 million heat units.

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Woman Sent Drugs and Razors To Inmate In Bibles

23 Feb

Smuggling drugs and weapons in hollowed out bibles is stone cold evil genius.

Shareca Latoya Jones, 28, faces a number of charges following her attempt to mail two hollowed out bibles filled with cocaine, ecstasy, razors, and a cell phone to an inmate. (credit: Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office)

Image http://www.bustedmugshots.com

 

Cops: South Carolina Woman Sent Drugs, Razors To Inmate In Bibles
www.charlotte.cbslocal.com | November 23, 2011

LANCASTER, S.C. (CBS Charlotte) – South Carolina authorities say one woman tried to send drugs, razor knives and a cell phone to an inmate through two hollowed-out bibles.

Shareca Latoya Jones, 28, was arrested earlier this month following an investigation to find who sent the illegal package to an inmate at Lieber Correctional Facility in Ridgeville, S.C. Police say she sent 30 grams of cocaine, 30 ecstasy pills, razor knives, and a cell phone. Her arrest led to the seizure of almost $4,000 worth of drugs.

According to the initial police report, Lancaster County police discovered that the package, which was received Nov. 1, was sent out Oct. 25 from Kershaw, S.C., where Jones keeps residence. A post office clerk told police that the woman mailed books regularly to her incarcerated “husband” because he couldn’t receive them unless they were mailed to him. Jones would sign the mailing receipts under the name “Ashley Wilkerson.”

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Ants remember and pass on smell of foes

22 Feb

An insect having a memory is not so remarkable. However insects having a collective memory is quite remarkable.

Oecophylla smaragdina image from http://backofbeyondthent.blogspot.com

Ants remember their enemy’s scent
20 February 2012 | By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature

Ant colonies – one of nature’s most ancient and efficient societies – are able to form a “collective memory” of their enemies, say scientists.

When one ant fights with an intruder from another colony it retains that enemy’s odour: passing it on to the rest of the colony.

This enables any of its nest-mates to identify an ant from the offending colony.

The findings are reported in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

For many ant species, chemicals are key to functioning as a society. Insects identify their nest-mates by the specific “chemical signature” that coats the body of every member of that nest.

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Jailed woman has trail of fake pregnancies

21 Feb

Some crimes like armed robbery are easy to understand, quick and violent. Other crimes, like this one, are much more complicated.

This undated file photo provided by the Armstrong County Jail shows Amy Slanina. Richard Vest and his wife Rebecca, say Slanina pretended to be pregnant and persuaded them to fly from Idaho to Pennsylvania five days after Christmas to “adopt” a baby that didn't exist. Several others say Slanina has done similar scams on them. (AP Photo/Armstrong County Jail, File)

 

Woman jailed in Pa. has trail of fake pregnancies
By JOE MANDAK | www.ajc.com | February 20, 2012

PITTSBURGH — Barry and Rebecca Vest can’t conceive children — or of why a woman pretended to be pregnant and persuaded them to travel from Idaho to Pennsylvania five days after Christmas to adopt a baby that didn’t exist.

And what they really don’t understand is why that isn’t a crime.

The Vests claim to be the latest victims of a woman known to Pennsylvania authorities as 32-year-old Amy Slanina, who, according to court records and interviews, pretends to be pregnant so infertile couples or, in some cases, female friends or lovers will shower her with attention, affection and sometimes money, clothes, food and shelter.

Authorities list Slanina at 5-foot-4 and 175 pounds, and those who’ve met her said she could pass for being six or seven months’ pregnant.

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Dead birds fall on Maryland

20 Feb

Birds falling dead from the sky often has many explanations like lightning, fireworks causing panic, or alien death rays as suggested by the venerable Weekly World News. Whatever the cause it can NOT be a good thing.

Click images to embiggen.  Images Brad Bell and Weekly World News

This video is great, worth watching, no ads and full of local commentary.

Hundreds of dead birds on I-95 in Laurel
By Brad Bell, Jason Cherkis, Stephen Tschida | February 15, 2012 | www.wjla.com

Hundreds of birds just dropped from the sky and landed onto I-95 Wednesday, bringing afternoon rush hour traffic to a crawl.

They were common Starlings, and while there were a few in the grass and on the shoulders of the highway, the vast majority landed right on the northbound travel lanes in Laurel.

“We were just kind of curious about running them over and getting them stuck in your tires and all that nastiness,” says Tammy Johnson.

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Oldest thing on earth sea meadow, is dying

19 Feb

Great news-the oldest organism on earth has been discovered. Bad news, it is a threatened species.

Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass. Image www.impactlab.net

Ancient Seagrass Holds Secrets of the Oldest Living Organism On Earth
ScienceDaily | Feb. 7, 2012

It’s big, it’s old and it lives under the sea — and now an international research collaboration with The University of Western Australia’s Ocean’s Institute has confirmed that an ancient seagrass holds the secrets of the oldest living organism on Earth.

Ancient giant Posidonia oceanica reproduces asexually, generating clones of itself. A single organism — which has been found to span up to 15 kilometres in width and reach more than 6,000 metric tonnes in mass — may well be more than 100,000 years old.

“Clonal organisms have an extraordinary capacity to transmit only ‘highly competent’ genomes, through generations, with potentially no end,” said Director of UWA’s Oceans’ Institute Winthrop Professor Carlos Duarte.

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New NASA Time-lapse Video Shows Northern Lights

18 Feb

This is oh-so-lovely.

New NASA Time-lapse Video Shows Northern Lights
www.sciencenewsblog.com  |  February 10, 2012

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station recently filmed some spectacular night imagery of the United States and Canada. The video, comprised of hundreds of sequential still images, shows the electric glow of hundreds of cities with an impressive aurora borealis flickering on the northern horizon. The video. Take a look:

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