NASA finds a shrimp - in the Antarctic and 600 feet down - where no life has been found before!

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/science/article/780076--nasa-finds-a-shrimp-deep-below-antarctic-ice-where-nothing-should-live


See the little shrimp?

Here's the video, caught near McMurdo station (oh look, a Stargate Atlantis reference!)

And if it doesn't show here, it's at The Toronto Star. I love the guy going "the shrimp like thingie" on the video. Bwahahah! And the video is neat to watch!

Yup, made a brief tweet about it, which elicited a few "icks" of sorts, so now shall post here. Anyway, was brushing dog and this dog has fur. I mean, he could be mistakened for a woolly  mammoth (Sheltland Sheepdog). However, we found what grossly enough looked like a twisted toenail growing out of his *tail*. I mean, eeeeuuuuu. My brother said, oh, he broke off the other one a while ago so maybe it grew back, which seems to be the case. Anyway, after grumbling why couldn't he have grown this icky little horn thing out of his head as then it would be great for Halloween, I went off to the internet.

Today, I hit the jackpot. Sorta. It seems this is a cutaneous horn, which dogs get, cats get, etc. etc. and even people get 'em too. There are some rather er, um, fascinating photos on the web of people who have let big ones grow on them! Anyway, he'll probably have a vet visit soon so we'll deal with it then.

Anyway, this dog groomer's site - http://www.groomers.net/discusalbum/messages/89/18618.html?1158465213 - had a whole thread on them.

I'll stick the pictures of said 'mutation' under the cut for those who have a low squick tolerance to this kind of X-File-ish stuff ;)

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Wow, who would have thought?

Read this article on space junk floating around the planet at Wired . Here's an excerpt:

1. Spatula
While spreading some goo as a test of heat-shield repair materials, spacewalking astronaut Piers Sellers accidentally lost a spatula he had been using. The mishap took place during the space shuttle Discovery's 2006 STS-121 flight to the International Space Station, on a mission to test new safety techniques after the 2003 Columbia disaster. "That was my favorite spatch," Sellers reportedly said. "Don’t tell the other spatulas."

Whoa... so you could be sitting there in your yard, reading a book, when suddenly, a burning spatula comes down from the heavens, and poof, you're toast! ;)  No wait, that sounds like a sequel to Dead Like Me where the lead got nailed by a space station toilet seat...

Anyway, also read today that there are 18,000 pieces of clutter up there, orbiting the Earth, which was brougt up when that Russian ex-spy satellite clobbered a U.S. Iridium satellite. Guess they're both toast. More space clutter!

A Twitter recommendation: https://twitter.com/ZooBorns - all about newborn critters at zoos. It's nice to see something, well, nice! I mean, look at this little fella.

Ohmygod, it's going to kill me, it's going to make me live longer, or rots my brain or save my brain.

The latest on coffee is that it helps prevent Alzheimers, but now, the BBC article says... People who drink too much coffee could start seeing ghosts or hearing strange voices, UK research has suggested. So folks who guzzle 7 cups of the brew every day are three times more likely to see Caspar or hear the dog talking to them? But, hey, that's okay cuz "They also stress that experiencing hallucinations is not a definite sign of mental illness and that about 3% of people regularly hear voices." I wonder if they mean the people with those Bluetooth things stuck in their ears 24/7 ;)

But, ohmygosh, When under stress, the body releases a hormone called cortisol which is produced in greater quantities after consuming caffeine, the article says, and all those tv ads says cortisol puts on belly fat, so, coffee kills you when it makes you put on belly fat which then gives you a heart attack!

I love this contradictory stuff.

we all get junk email, right? The usual "You have won a gazillion dollars in Peru/the UK/Angola" etc. stuff but I got some neat holiday ones. (and my spam filters do seem to take out all those 'enlarge your member' spams, phew)

First, a boxing day sale! We don' thave that here in the States, but I know what it is, but sad to say I had to Google "Varadero" (which has, whoa, gorgeous beaches, but oh, is in Cuba) to know I should decline their great airfares ;)

Anyway, this is my fav!

"Hello, to meet the Woofiest Men..." [yes, they said woofiest, which got me thinking? do these guys howl? are they, er, uh, overly hirstute? what??] Wait, Wolverine got his own site??]  then I read further and for me to meet the "best hunks" [which then got me thinking, is cheese going to be sale this week? gah, cheese prices are so darned high]  I should visit certain links (which I won't repost here) but the words 'jerk' and 'lube' are in those urls and I'm like, hmm, this sounds like, oh, dear, porn! ;)

So, I'll just stick with my woofy dog, thank you ;)

It's bad enough Wall Street has ruined everyone's finances through greed and stupidity, and Stargate Atlantis got axed, but now.... NASA reports Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics. REST AT LINK ABOVE. It's a really interesting article.

But anyhoo, back to stuff we mere mortals can do something about. Yes, after eons of waiting (months?) fans can never get their grubby paws on Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long - on DVD. Yes, read TV Week.com's review of the DVD, and you can order it for the outlandish price ;) of $9.99 exclusively at Amazon. Since it's released on the 19th (this Friday), it's possibel I suppose to have it in your mitts before Xmas? And, for the local and sturdy folk, since the weather prediction is sleet, visit the Paley Center in NYC for an actual sing-a-long. Click on link for details :)

First, just read on a trade magazine that SciFi (aka Skiffy) is spinning off Ghost Hunters: The College Edition. Yes! We can now have a bunch of college students, who probably should be studying for future employment (unless of course, they're majoring in finance, and well, that market is toast). Sigh, just how many 'ghost hunting' shows do we need??

Oh, and ER may get extended to 22 episodes instead of 19 episodes for its final season.

Oh, oh, LiveJournal entry recommendation!  Check out forhttp://shaddyr.livejournal.com/221377.html for a fun action figure story featuring Sheppard and McKay visiting Bridge Studios!

Gah, the cat just chewed a hole in his butt again (anal glands). This has happened a few times before and if it doesn't heal up by the weekend, it's off to the vet to get pills he hates. But 9 times out of 10, it seems to heal okay on its own. Oh wait, was that too much information? The joys of a being a cat owner.. Also had to mow part of the lawn to get rid of the leaves, and noticed, oh, Zombie Bambi's remains are still on the log pile. Thinking of perhaps using the skull for a Halloween door decoration...

And finally signed up to do the New Jersey Creation Con (Cherry Hill, NJ, Nov 7-9) Stargate convention (David Nykl, Jason Momoa, Kavan Smith and others and I could so hope they sign up someone else like Joe or David, but probably not). Anyway, big chunk of change but figure, my last hurrah con-wise as I don't see doing much next year since I must replace the aging duct-taped car...

A woman in Tokyo, who was divorced by her husband without her knowledge,got totally pissed and then went and killed her husband, and the police arrested her! I mean, really? Why? You see, she didn't kill her actual husband, in fact, she killed an avatar in an online game and they arrested her (the guy who made that avatar complained to the cops, who busted her and took her 620 miles to another jail!). Aieee, weird. They're charging her with hacking or something. Wow, those online games are *tough*.

And then there's William Shatner's YouTube video ranting on about George Takei. Aieee....

Ohmygawd, you have to watch this video. Rodney McKay would just squee and die....


Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo

Visit http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/10/if-magnetic-fields-were-visibl.html?DCMP=ILC-rhts&nsref=ts17_pic for more details. And as the article says... If you're worried about the still unproven health effects of electromagnetic radiation from cell phones, Magnetic Movie might not be for you.

Okay, real, imagined? Take a stab at guessing what this is and then go below the cut to find the answer :)



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