Can Ants Count? : NPR

Can Ants Count? : NPR:

"It turns out that all the ants had walked the same number of steps, but because their gaits had been changed (the stilty ants, like Monty Python creatures, walked with giant steps; the stumpy ants walked in baby steps) they went exactly the distances you'd predict if their brains counted the number of steps out to the food and then reversed direction and counted the same number of steps back. In other words, all the ants counted the same number of steps back!

Does that mean ants have something like pedometers that do something like counting?

Says professor James Gould of Princeton, commenting on the experiment: 'These animals are fooled exactly the way you'd expect if they were counting steps.'"

The Roving Runner: Running in the Dark - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

The Roving Runner: Running in the Dark - Well Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Of all the physical changes in New York City over recent decades, few are as dramatic as the transformation of the lower Hudson. Once lined with rotting piers and a crumbling elevated highway, the shoreline is now home to Hudson River Park, a five-mile strip of parkland from the Battery to 59th Street.

The park is only about halfway done, with each section opening as it’s completed, so this year’s construction site is next year’s oasis. (To see what the Greenwich Village section looked like in the mid-1990s, go to the two-minute point in this Alanis Morissette video. Ms. Morissette, by the way, ran two marathons this fall, the Bizz Johnson Trail Marathon in Susanville, Calif., and then New York three weeks later.)"

SSRN-Ultimate 100M World Records through Extreme-Value Theory by John H. J. Einmahl, Sander Smeets

SSRN-Ultimate 100M World Records through Extreme-Value Theory by John H. J. Einmahl, Sander Smeets:

"Using the thus obtained estimate for the extreme-value index, the right endpoint of the speed distribution is estimated. The corresponding time can be interpreted as the estimated ultimate world record: the best possible time that could be run in the near future. We find 9.51 seconds for the 100m men and 10.33 seconds for the women.

"

Real-life rolling stones creep across Death Valley in California - Telegraph

Real-life rolling stones creep across Death Valley in California - Telegraph:

"The rocks...move unaided in bizarre straight line patterns across the ultra-flat surface of the valley.

Scientists believe the pebbly phenomenon is caused by a melting-pot of specific weather conditions.

Studies suggest a combination of 90mph winds, ice formations at night and thin layers of wet clay on the surface of the desert all combine to push them along"

Turning history into art | Charlottesville Daily Progress

Turning history into art | Charlottesville Daily Progress:

"The tulip poplar was considered to be an original tree to Monticello, although the base of the tree was hollow so dating could not be done. Over the years, arborists worked to preserve the tree by cabling it to other large trees.

But once it was determined the tree had to come down, Monticello officials decided to preserve what they could of it. They kept part of the tree to be displayed at a later time and gave the rest of it out to be used to make various items."

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics - tech - 12 November 2009 - New Scientist

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics - tech - 12 November 2009 - New Scientist:

"A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.

Realising that display size is increasingly a constraint in mobile devices, Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in Seattle, hit on the idea of projecting images into the eye from a contact lens."

WOW!!!

YouTube - Feisty Play Mars BYU vs. New Mexico Womens Soccer

WOW. Sad that anyone could "lose it" like this.
YouTube - Feisty Play Mars BYU vs. New Mexico Womens Soccer: "BYU advances in MWC tournament despite multiple dirty plays from New Mexico's Elizabeth Lambert.
BYU advances in MWC tournament despite multiple dirty plays from New Mexico's Elizabeth Lambert."