Curious
Times No. 303
July
7, 2005
FRANKENSTEIN’S DOG
The march of the mad scientists continues with new technology
which has allowed American scientists to bring back to life dogs
which have been clinically dead for up to three hours. The zombie
dogs are an experiment of Pittsburgh’s Safar Centre for Resuscitation
Research, where the clinic has perfected a technique in which
they drain the blood of a dog, fill it with an ice-cold saline
solution, keep the animal in a state of suspended animation for
several hours, and then replace the blood and revive the dog with
an electric shock. The animals are considered clinically dead
with no breathing, heartbeat, or brain activity during the entire
test, but the animals have been successfully revived with no apparent
damage. The scientists plan to test this technique on humans within
a year with hopes that the procedure can save the lives of people
who have suffered huge blood loss in accidents or from stabbings
and gunshot wounds. “The results are stunning. I think in
10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment
of those using this technology,” said a US battlefield doctor.
(news.com.au)
EAT
IT
Ever since that slice of toast with the image of the Virgin Mary
burned into it was sold on eBay last November for the obscene
sum of $28,000 the interent auction site has become a virtual
clearing house for celebrity-emblazoned toast. Go there now and
you can bid for toast related to Elvis Presley, Yoda, Brad Pitt
and Angelina Jolie, and, of course, at least a dozen entries for
Michael Jackson toast. My favourite, however, is one piece of
toast up for auction with the caption “A Piece of Toast With
Nothing On It.”
YOU’RE
WORTH ABOUT 10 BUCKS
An investigation by a British newspaper has found that you can
buy the banking details and credit card information of hundreds
of thousands of people for about $10 each from call center workers
in India. An undercover reporter from The
Sun was easily able to find an IT worker in Delhi who sold
him the credit card numbers and bank account passwords of 1,000
UK banking customers. The call centre worker told the journalist
that he could sell him the account details of about 200,000 customers
per month.
THE SCIENCE GEEK’S VIRTUAL ART GALLERY
If you like cool art from weird sources check out the bizarre
winners of the “2005 Art of Science Exhibition” at princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery.
These are the results of a contest designed by Princeton University
which asked scientists to submit images captured during their
research experiments. The result is a strange collection of images
including photos of nebulas, cyrstal formations, virus /cell interactions
and microscopic pieces of dust.
KITTEN SMACKDOWN!
And if your brain isn’t wired to understand strange images
from the world of science, head over to kittenwar.com and vote
for which kitten you think is cutest. You can handle that, can’t
ya?
KING FOR A DAY
If you’re Canadian get your mouse finger over to www.gopetition.com
where you can sign an online petition to have every Canadian’s
birthday be their very own statutory holiday. “The concept
is a fairly simple one,” says the website, “everyone
has a birthday - what better way to celebrate than to give that
person the day off on that most special of days?” Throw your
two cents in at www.gopetition.com/online/6655.html.
And if you’re not Canadian, go there and start your own petition
for an equivalent holiday in your country...
THE HAPPIEST DAY OF THE YEAR
After creating the highly scientific formula for finding the most
depressing day of the year (January 24) and the best day of the
year to make a new start in life (May19), psychologist Dr. Cliff
Arnall of the University of Cardiff in the UK has announced that
last Friday, June 23, was officially “The Happiest Day of
the Year.” His formula, O + (N x S) + Cpm divided by T +
He, takes into consideration six factors: O (being outdoors and
outdoor activity); N (nature); S (social interaction); Cpm (childhood
summers and positive memories); T (temperature); and He (holidays
and looking forward to time off.) (sky.com)
HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?
Germany’s
first every Sauna Endurance Competition ended in a mere four minutes
and 52 seconds as champion Andreas Kramp endured scorching heat
of up to 110 Celsius (230 Fahrenheit) to take the victory. Of
course, Finns everywhere are scoffing as the actual world record
sits at an insane 12 minutes set by Leo Pusa at last year’s
international championship in held in Heinola, Finland. (Yahoo
News)
FRESH
VICTIMS FOR BORED TEEN PRANKSTERS
Within a year robot security guards will be patrolling Japan’s
offices, shopping malls and banks thanks to the completion of
a prototype called “Guardrobo D1,” a 109-cm tall robot
which will walk along preprogrammed security routes keeping an
eye out for intruders or other security breaches. The robots will
be in radio contact with human guards and be able to capture video
footage of any crimes taking place. (Yahoo
News)
BRING
YOUR OWN CONDOM
The mayor of South Taranaki District, New Zealand, is asking voters
to approve changing the name of their town to Taranaki South,
as they would like to put an end to their community being known
as STD.
“I READ IT ON THE INTERNET SO IT MUST BE TRUE” FACT
OF THE WEEK
The heaviest human brain ever recorded weighed 5 lb. 1.1 oz. (2.3
kg.)
Copyright
2005 by Andreas Ohrt
