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NECPS Meeting and cookout at Black Jungle
Black Jungle is hosting the New England Carnivorous Plant Society's August Meeting on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 in Turners Falls, Massachusetts 01376
Free Drinks & Lunch, Greenhouse Open House
with Special 25%** Off Plant Sale & NECPS Membership Drive!
**25% discount for NECPS members, 10% for non members. http://www.blackjungle.com/necpscookout.html
Gladiator graveyard found
MSNBC - Dozens of headless skeletons excavated from a northern English construction site appear to be the remains of Roman gladiators, one of whom had bites from a lion, tiger, bear or other large animal, archaeologists said Monday.
Experts said new forensic evidence suggests the bones belong to the professional fighters, who were often killed while entertaining spectators.
Most of the skeletons were male and appeared stronger and taller than the average Roman, with signs of arm-muscle stress that suggest weapons training that began in the men's teenage years. ( Full Story )
Can people actually 'own' virtual land?
CNN - On April 15, four Second Life property owners filed a class-action suit against Linden Lab, the online world's creator, alleging the company misled players into thinking they owned their virtual lands. People pay real dollars to Linden Lab for access to virtual land.
The civil suit, which does not directly involve Arthur, was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Plaintiffs invoke consumer-protection laws in California, specifically, because Linden Lab is based in San Francisco.
The complaint says Second Life tried to lure people into the virtual world by promising it would be a unique place where residents actually owned their property. Then the virtual world unfairly changed its rules, the suit says. Linden Lab's rules now say the land is a service the company controls and can cancel. ( Full Story )
When Life Just Blows...FUKITOL!
Prehistoric UFO and alien drawings found
Paranormal Magazine - A group of anthropologists working with hill tribes in a remote area of India have made a startling discovery: Intricate prehistoric cave paintings depicting aliens and UFO type craft.
The images were found in the Hoshangabad district of the state of Madhya Pradesh only 70 kilometers from the local administrative centre of Raisen. The caves are hidden deep within dense jungle.
A clear image of what might be an alien or ET in a space suit can be seen in one cave painting along with a classical flying saucer shaped UFO that appears to be either beaming something down or beaming something up, in what might be an ancient UFO abduction scenario. A force-field or trail of some sort is seen at the rear of the UFO. (Full Story
'Crabzilla': The biggest crab ever seen in Britain... and it's still growing
MailOnline - With its enormous legs and lethal claws, this monster of the deep is already the biggest crab ever seen in Britain.
But astonishingly, the arthropod - which measures a staggering 10ft from claw to claw - is still growing, and could live until it is 100.
Nicknamed 'Crabzilla' after the fictional giant monster, the Japanese Spider Crab has a body the size of a basketball and its legs can straddle a car. They will eventually measure a massive 15ft.
Full Story )
Oldest footprints reveal when sea creatures took their first steps on land
MailOnline - The earliest footprints made by Earth's first four-legged creatures have been unearthed by scientists.
The fossilized tracks were left 395million years ago by several primitive animals up to eight feet long.
They are being hailed as a 'missing link' in one of evolution's most spectacular transitions - the shift from water to land. ( Full Story
8% of Your DNA Comes From a Virus
UTA News Center - About 8 percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to an article by University of Texas at Arlington biology professor Cédric Feschotte published in the Jan. 7, 2010 issue of Nature magazine.
The research showed that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus. Feschotte wrote on recent research led by Professor Keizo Tomonaga at Osaka University in Japan. Feschotte said this virally transmitted DNA may be a cause of mutation and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. ( Full Story )
Y2K all over again in 2010?
NETWORKWORLD - A decade after the Y2K crisis, date changes still pose technology problems, making some security software upgrades difficult and locking millions of bank ATM users out of their accounts.
Chips used in bank cards to identify account numbers could not read the year 2010 properly, making it impossible for ATMs and point of sale machines in Germany to read debit cards of 30 million people since New Year's Day, according to published reports. The workaround is to reprogram the machines so the chips don't have to deal with the number. How Hackers are Targeting Enterprise Users via Web 2.0 Browser Exploits: Download now
In Australia, point-of-sales machines skipped ahead to 2016 rather than 2010 at midnight Dec. 31, rendering them unusable by retailers, some of whom reported thousands of dollars in lost sales.
Meanwhile Symantec's network-access control (NAC) software that is supposed to check whether spam and virus definitions have been updated recently enough fails because of this 2010 problem, according to one of the company's security forums. ( Full Story )
People of Walmart
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
The Most Obvious Scientific Discoveries of 2009
FOXNews - In science, it's not enough to think it's so. Research must prove, with statistically significant and reproducible results, that what we suspect to be the case is actually true.
But some studies really take the cake in the no-duh department. Here are some findings from this year that should come as no surprise. ( Full Story )
Archaeology’s top 10 finds of 2009
MSNBC - Archaeology magazine’s top 10 discoveries of the year shed light on everything from the domestication of horses in Central Asia to the world's first zoo in Egypt. ( Full Story )
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