Two male squirrel monkeys were given gene therapy and now the normally color blind animals are able to distinguish between shades of red and green in color vision tests. In normal situations, female squirrel monkeys can see a full range of colors, but males cannot see red or green.
Is this the beginning of the end of monkey sexual discrimination? Only time will tell.
One of the most amazing things about plants is their ability to grow through all kinds of obstacles. When trees manage to do so, the spectacle is even more amazing because it is on such a grand scale. There are even more cool ones when you follow the link.
Recognizing the subtle differences between these similar titles can be confusing sometimes. Fortunately, this chart is here to help you understand which group you fit into.
We live in a very bizarre world with all kinds of forces playing against each other. Between electricity, wind, atmospheric pressure and plasmas, there are some very specific combinations that, when paired together just right, can create incredibly strange phenomena. Here are a few examples of what nature is capable of - many of these occurrences are so extraordinary they have yet to be explained.
Red Sprites
Red sprites are weak, but massive red flashes in the sky that appear above active thunder storms. While people claimed to have seen things that were probably red sprites in the past, the documentation of these phenomena are still relatively new – the first accidental images of red sprites were captured in 1989. Part of the reason we learned about them so late is that they only last for a few milliseconds. One thing that at least makes them a little easier to trace is the fact that sprites rarely occur alone; there are usually clusters of three or more together at once.
Because the phenomena are still so new to scientists, there is no official explanation for the cause of these flashes. However, evidence suggests they tend to occur in decaying portions of storms and are somehow created by the discharge of positive energy created by large cloud-to-ground lightning rays.
Blue jets are closely related to red sprites, as they are observed in many of the same storm settings. These phenomena are upward cones of bright blue light that appears to be coming out of the cloud above thunder storms. Similar to red sprites, they were not discovered until 1989.
Blue jets are not directly related to lightning like red sprites are and they are less common. They do seem to be more common in storms that involve hail. Scientists are still very unsure why blue jets occur, but they believe they are related to the collection or discharge of energy from lightning storms. The bright blue color is believed to be related to molecular nitrogen emissions when they collide with oxygen at a high speed.
St. Elmo’s fire is a eerie, but beautiful phenomenon where luminous blue plasma shoots from the extremities of an object. It was most commonly seen on ships in the olden days, which is why it was named for St. Erasmus, the patron saint of sailors. Anything with a point may be subject to St. Elmo’s fire, including cattle horns.
The “fire” occurs when a grounded object is inside of an atmospheric electric field, usually in a thunderstorm. What you see is actually plasma created by a discharge of energy on the point.
Fire whirls are created by two distinct factors, either a tornado that spins too close to a forest fire, or a whirling vortex of flame occurring in an area due to too much heat in a close proximity. The image above shows an artificially created fire whirl. Some whirls reach over a half a mile high.
These whirls are, not surprisingly, extraordinarily dangerous. In the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake in Japan, a fire whirl was created in a massive firestorm. The whirl alone killed 38,000 people who were packed into an open space in the Former Army Clothing Depot during the earthquake.
Fire whirls are created when a warm updraft converges with the wildfire. Most fire whirls are between 30 and 200 feet tall and under 10 feet wide. They generally last no more than a few minutes, but some have lasted as long as 20.
Waterspouts look like mini-tornados made of water and they are always located below a cloud and above a body of water. While they seem to suck up liquid from the water they are located above, they are actually made of water droplets formed by condensation.
While there are occasionally strong water spouts, most are weak and caused by the clash of atmospheric dynamics forming a vortex. In most cases, waterspouts are created while the cloud they are attached to is still developing.
In one month of 2001, colored rain fell on the Kerala region of India. Most of the rains were red, but some where yellow, green or black. Many compared the red rain to blood, making it quite a terrifying spectacle for anyone superstitious. There have been stories about red rain sightings in the area as early as 1896, but none were so long-lasting or vivid as the 2001 downpour.
A number of theories spread about the cause of the colored rain, including its relation to aliens, before an official report concluded that the colors were caused by algae spores sucked into the atmosphere by a waterspout. There are a number of these algae species in the region, which could explain why the stories were so constant for the last hundred years.
Scientists believe those pesky waterspouts are responsible for one of the most bizarre weather experiences in the world, the dropping of animals from the sky. Many different animals have rained from the sky, including frogs, birds, bats, worms and fish. Some animals actually survive the process, but most die in the fall. In some cases, the animals actually freeze to death while in the clouds and dropped to the ground in an ice casing.
Waterspouts seem like the most likely causes of these events because the high-speed winds can lift animals into the air and carry them for lengthy distances. One thing that still baffles scientists though is why each incident only involves one specific species of animal, where in most cases a waterspout seems to be likely to suck up multiple similarly-sized animals in one area.
While this bizarre weather event is a rare occurrence in most places, it is actually common in Honduras, where the residents celebrate the yearly Lluvia de Peces (Rain of Fish). An even weirder aspect of this occurrence is the fact that the fish that are rained down do not live in the area at all. National Geographic researchers predict they live in underground water sources, but there is still no proof for this theory.
Birds and bats, of course, would be subject to a completely different process than the fish and frogs. In their case, it is most likely that the storm overtook them while in flight. Naturally, there is a lot less mystery and contention when it comes to these occurrences.
There were many times between 1813 and 1952 when London was overtaken with a thick, black fog. What made these fogs different than everyday fog most of us are familiar with is that in most instances, it actually killed people. The first event lasted for a week and visibility became so poor that even the most knowledgeable Londoners could no longer find their way through the city. In a 1873 black fog, the death rates in London were said to raise by 40%.
However, the real killer was the fog of January 26, 1880. The fog carried a thick mix of factory pollutants and coal smog that was heavy in sulfur dioxide. It stayed for three days and it is estimated that up to 12,000 people died from the fog. There were more fogs in following years that killed people, but it wasn’t til the fog of 1952 that killed 4,000 people until England finally took a stand to start fighting the pollution that made the fogs so deadly.
These fantastic Super Mario fingernails almost look photoshopped, but they aren't. I have to admit though, the parts going back on the finger do look a bit uncomfortable -that's the true price of beauty awesomeness though.
Etsy user Tiny Tangerine, aka Kelly Burghardt, knits these adorable baby hats. My favorite is the cow hat. Craftzine has a great interview with her or you can just click on the link and look at her great gallery of work.
We’ve all seen company name changes like Cingular to AT&T and WWF to WWE. Sometimes these changes are funny, like how Radio Shack wants to become “The Shack.” Sometimes though, the company makes the change in an effort to distract customers from something really bad. Here’s a few examples of companies who want you to forget and one company that changed their name just in time to avoid scandal.
Blackwater to Xe
If you were hiding under a rock, you may have missed the whole scandal surrounding the government’s use of a private security company to help in the Iraq war. The company, Blackwater, found itself in some hot water after a September 2007 incident that left 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians dead. In February of 2009, the company tried to help escape their association with the incident by changing their name to Xe (pronounced zee). The name change has so far been completely ineffective, as the state department has decided to no longer work with the company and the company’s founder, Erik Prince, is now being accused of murder after two past employees swore that he eliminated people who were cooperating with a federal investigation of Blackwater. Source Image Via Markhillary [Flickr]
Philip Morris to Altria
Phillip Morris cigarettes may still be around, but the corporation (which owned Kraft foods at the time of their rebranding) is now called Altria. It seems no coincidence that the name change took place the same day, the company was cleared of charges related to a woman’s smoking-related death. Chairman Louis Camilleri claimed the name change “marks how far we have come and gives us a framework for how much further we aim to go… this is the right thing to do and the right time to do it." Unfortunately for Camilleri, it seems most people saw the name change as a pathetic measure to escape the company’s bad reputation. After all, this was the same company whose president swore to congress in 1994, "I believe nicotine is not addictive.” Source #1, #2
ValuJet to AirTran
The last thing an airline wants to be associated with is a plane crash, but that’s just what happened after ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in the Everglades in 1996. All 110 passengers died and, due to the location of the crash, collecting the remains proved to be a notable challenge. When investigation reports came out, it was revealed that ValuJet’s maintenance contractor, SabreTech, was responsible for the dangerous cargo conditions that led to the accident. SabreTech faced both criminal and civil charges for the incident and subsequently went out of business in 1999. As for ValuJet, they never faced charges, despite their poor safety record at the time. Not surprisingly, when ValuJet merged with AirTran in 1997, they chose to give up their name in favor of the untarnished AirTran name. Interestingly, this year AirTran was found to be the safest of 25 airlines in research performed by the Daily Beast. Source
WorldCom to MCI
In the early 2000s, WorldCom was caught inflating their reported revenues in order to keep stock prices artificially high. The fraud ended up totaling around $11 billion, which sent the company into bankruptcy by 2002. Under the bankruptcy plan, the company had to pay out $750 million to the Securities Exchange Commission, who would then distribute the money to bilked investors. At the time, it was the largest bankruptcy of its type on record (this title was recently taken by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy last year). In the year following the scandal, WorldCom acted swiftly to take attention away from the scandal by moving their headquarters from Clinton, Mississippi to Dulles, Virginia and by changing their name to MCI, a company they acquired in 1997. Source Image Via Mene Tekel [Flickr]
Andersen Consulting to Accenture
Accenture is the only company on the list who didn’t change their name after something bad happened –in fact, they were lucky enough to do it just before something happened. In 1988, Andersen Consulting broke its business relationship with the Andersen accounting group. Under their agreement, the company could keep their name, for a set period of time. In 2000, the company was required to change their name, so they ended up choosing Accenture, meaning an “accent on the future.” A whole lot of people critiqued the new name as a generic corporate word, and the company ended up spending $100 million on execution in what many people consider the worst rebranding attempt in corporate history. Funny enough though, the name ended up being better than the Andersen Consulting title, as the Andersen accounting group ended up going down in flames for their part in the Enron scandal. Source Image Via Mrkathika [Flickr] So Neatorama readers, now it's your turn. What's your least favorite corporate name change?
A new study shows that sleeping in separate beds can help your health and your relationship. Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep researcher, believes that by not sharing a bed with your partner you may be decreasing the risks of divorce, heart problems, stroke and suicidal behavior.
"Intimacy is important for emotional health. But good sleep is important for physical, emotional and mental health."
What do you guys think? Would you sleep away from your love so you can actually improve your sleep?
You've seen square watermelon and even heart shaped cucumbers, but Buddha pears? They are made with a cool plastic mold that is attached while they are still little. I'd love to say more about them, but I don't speak Spanish Portuguese, so I can't read the original site. Any of you Neatorama readers care to help translate?
The same genius who invented deep fried cookie dough, deep fried coke and other innovative fair foods is at it again. This time, Abel Gonzales Jr., is bringing you the ultimate in artery clogging death foods -deep fried butter. This one actually manages to put chicken fried bacon and bacon sandwiches using chicken for bread to shame.
So here’s what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.
Tasters seemed to like it, claiming it tastes like a hot roll with butter.
The little runt shown above was abandoned by her mother. Just in time, she was saved and placed in the care of a Rhodesian ridgeback wet nurse. Her new mother fell in love with her right away and now the two can be found cuddling all the time.
"Katjinga is the best mother you can imagine. She immediately fell in love with the piggy. Straight away she started to clean it like it was one of her own puppies," said owner Roland Adam.
Click on the link to see even more cute pics of the mom and baby together.
Flickr user Monstrosity creates these delightfully mean-looking, yet stylish vinyl purses. You can find them for sale in the Odakyu Department stores in Tokyo.
This poor little one has rolled over and can't get up. He looks like a poor little tortoise on his back. I hope his parents don't teach him to "roll over."
Oddee has a collection of some truly amazing ice sculptures, the most impressive of which is this massive ice castle in China. The other sculptures are also fascinating though. It always amazes me how much artistry is required to make one of these pieces when it will only melt away eventually anyway.
Do you have a special connection with bacon? Can you get it to pose for you in sexy positions? The Official Bacon Contest at Mr. Baconpants might be your chance to win all kinds of glorious bacon prizes. Categories include:
Most Creative: This is a photo that shows a creative way to use bacon. Think bacon AK-47 or Waken Bacon.
Funniest: This is a photo that incorporates bacon that will make us laugh. Think Lol Cats or Fail photos.
Sexiest: This is a photo of bacon that will make us drool for two reasons. Think bacon babes.
To enter, send your photo to jmosely@mrbaconpants.com and use "photo contest" as the subject line.
