It was in 1929 that Guy Lombardo and his band took the stage at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on New Year’s Eve. Their performance that night was being broadcast on the radio, before midnight Eastern-time on CBS, then after on NBC radio. 

At midnight, as a transition between the broadcasts, the song they chose to play was an old Scottish folk song Lombardo had first heard … Read More → "Why we sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve"

Scientists studying a glacier in Northern Canada this summer stumbled across a message in a bottle that had been left near the glacier back in 1959. Written by a young geologist named Paul Walker, the message asked the reader to measure the distance between the bottle’s location and the nearby glacier, and send that information to Walker and his colleague Albert P. Crary. Unfortunately neither Crary … Read More → "Scientists discover 54-year-old message in a bottle near Canadian glacier"

Instead of having to wait for one of the limited number of available donor kidneys, patients in need of a transplant may eventually be able to have a new kidney custom-grown for them. That possibility recently took one step closer to reality, as scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland successfully grew a “mini-kidney” from stem cells.

The researchers created a proprietary new protocol, that prompts stem cells in a petri dish to self-organize into … Read More → "“Mini-kidney” grown from stem cells"

Buffalo, NY resident Michael Thomasson has been awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of video games in the recently-released Guinness World Records 2014 Gamer’s Edition. Tomasson broke the 2010 record of 8,616 games held by Richard Lecce with a new record of 10,607 video games, and according to the Associated Press, he estimates his collection is worth between $700,000 and $800,000.
via Read More → "Man wins a Guinness World Record for largest video game collection with 10,607 games"

The eyes are more than windows to the soul, thanks to technologies that can reveal reflected faces in pupils of photographs. Dr. Rob Jenkins of the University of York’s Department of Psychology published a study that showed how pupils in photographs of faces can be “mined” for hidden information.

The study simulated crime … Read More → "Pupil reflections in photographs could help investigators solve crimes"

Now that winter is upon them Wisconsin has discovered yet another use for their beloved dairy product- they’re using cheese brine instead of salt to thaw the icy roads.

Salt tends to bounce off the icy surface, and gets knocked away even more by drivers, but a waste product from the cheese making process called cheese brine helps the salt stick to the ice, and together they melt the ice … Read More → "Wisconsin is using cheese to thaw icy roads"

Western Australia’s beachgoers are a bit more informed as to the whereabouts of the region’s shark population this summer, thanks to a scientific initiative that has fitted transmitters to more than 300 sharks of various types. The transmitters are picked up by underwater receivers, and when a tagged shark comes within a kilometer of the shore, a tweet appears in the Surf Life Saving Western Australia twitter feed (@SLSWA).

The tweet … Read More → "Hundreds of radio-tagged sharks tweet warnings at Australian swimmers"

“Because the servant he was sending to market was illiterate, Michelangelo illustrated the shopping lists — a herring, tortelli, two fennel soups, four anchovies and ‘a small quarter of a rough wine’ — with rushed (and all the more exquisite for it) caricatures in pen and ink.” – Steve Duin, The Oregonian
via Laughing Squid

< … Read More → "Michaelangelo’s illustrated grocery list"

Last Wednesday in Paris, a 75 year-old man received an artificial heart. That in itself might not be newsworthy, as such devices have been in use since the early 80s. In this case, however, the gadget in question was the first Carmat bioprosthetic artificial heart to ever be implanted in a human. According to its inventor, cardiac surgeon Alain Carpentier, it’s the world’s first self-regulating artificial heart.

When Carpentier uses the term “self-regulating,” … Read More → "Carmat self-regulating artificial heart implanted in first human subject"

… Read More → "3D printer that draws pictures in jello shooters"