ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 719
August 7, 2015
Alcohol Guidelines Ignore How People Drink – That’s Why They’re Not Heeded
Photo credit:
Blackcurrant cordial? Jenn Vargas, CC BY-SA
As part of the government’s strategy to cut the human and economic cost of alcohol misuse, it currently recommends that men and women shouldn’t regularly drink more than three to four and two to three units a day respectively. In theory, such guidelines help people make informed decisions about their health, but researchers have questioned their effectiveness.
August 2, 2015
Mass Inhalation Of Laughing Gas In London To Protest Crack Down On Legal Highs
Photo credit:
Protesters raise balloons filled with laughing gas. Aamna Mohdin/IFLScience
Illegal raves were popping up across post-industrial parts of London and Manchester in the late 1980s. These raves, where numbers sometimes swelled to tens of thousands, could go on for days. It was a hedonistic mix of thumping electronic music with an eclectic group of strangers swinging their hips and jaws.
The Conservative government responded accordingly – they shut it down.
Awesome Time-Lapse Shows Five Weeks Of Stormy Weather In Just Five Minutes
Photo credit:
Thunderstorm in the countryside, get your umbrella out. Jeff Boyce/Vimeo.
A storm’s a-brewin’ and it looks like it’ll last for five weeks.
Or for five minutes, as you can see below in the excellent time-lapse video filmed by Jeff Boyce of Negative Tilt Photography.
Boyce traveled across 15 states in America and Manitoba, Canada, for five weeks between May and June this year, chasing storms. Being a kick-ass photographer, he snapped over 70,000 high-resolution photos of the tumultuous weather to create this epic video.
NASA Hubble Telescope Sees A Storm In Lagoon Nebula
Photo credit:
A storm’s brewing in Sagittarius. NASA, ESA, J. Trauger/Jet Propulson Laboratory.
Stunning images of nebulae are a poster staple in the space-enthusiast’s home.
These colorful clouds of hot gas and dust are often named based on their appearance, such as the Ring Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, and the Cat’s Eye Nebula.
Google Will Provide An Entire Country With Internet Using Balloons
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The latest balloon from the Google Loon project, the Nighthawk.
The Sri Lankan government has announced plans this week to partner with Google to better distribute Internet throughout the country using balloons.
For some time now, the U.S. company has been developing and working on prototype balloons that can transmit high-speed Internet across an entire country.
You Can Now Build Your Very Own Powerful Telescope At Home
Photo credit:
Designer James Parr assembling the 3D-printed telescope. Science Magazine.
If you’ve been astounded by the recent images from NASA’s New Horizons flyby of Pluto but can’t wait for the next super-sharp image to wing its way to NASA, there’s some good news for you.
Using a 3D printer, you can now build your own powerful telescope at home. It may not be able to snap the famous dwarf planet, but you should be capable of collecting a pretty impressive montage of closer objects.
Northern Irish Man Becomes First To Receive World’s Smallest Heart Pump
Photo credit:
decade3d - anatomy online/Shutterstock
A Northern Ireland man is the first recipient of an artificial heart pump the size of a golf ball.
Harold Chivers, a 63-year-old man from Bangor, County Down, is the first person in the world to get the Miniaturized Ventricular Assist Device (MVAD) implanted.
The MVAD sits at the base of the heart, helping to pump blood around the organ. The device costs about £80,000, and is smaller than its precursors. Particular settings allow for the MVAD to adjust to the patient’s lifestyle and routines.
August 1, 2015
Watch Bill Nye Read Out Some Of The Hilarious Mean Tweets Sent To Him
Photo credit:
YouTube
The internet can be a scary, scary place. But of all the people in the world, you'd think Bill Nye would get the least hate. I mean, who could ever hate Bill Nye the science guy? But you'd be wrong. Check out this hilarious video of Bill Nye reading out some of the mean Tweets that have been sent to him.
Also: there's currently a project being funded on Kickstarter for a documentary about Bill's life. Go donate here.
July 31, 2015
South Korean Tech Company Announces World’s First Braille Smartwatch
Photo credit:
World's first Braille smartwatch. Dot.
A start-up tech company recently announced that it is developing the world’s first Braille smartwatch.
Based in South Korea, Dot wants to develop affordable technology for the visually impaired.
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