One ton rodents and pregnant teen Dinosaurs – crazy world it was!

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 1:41 pm By Desh Kapoor

A One tonne rodent and pregnant dinosaur teens.... well circa 1-200 million BC was a strange time huh! The fossilised skull of the largest rodent ever recorded has been described by scientists for the first time. The remains of the one-tonne beast, found in Uruguay, indicate that it would have been as big as a bull. It is thought that the three-metre-long herbivore would have roamed estuaries and forests 2-4 million years ago. The mammal, which is more than 15 times heavier than the largest living rodent, is described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Adolescent Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus and the plant-eater Tenontosaurus bones have been found to indicate sexual maturity. I wonder if the new generation can get some lessons in abstinence from a Tyrannosaurus? Maybe not! 😉 Adolescent pregnancy isn't a modern invention, it occurred in dinosaurs millions of years ago. Medullary bone, a type of tissue present in modern birds when they are developing eggs, has been found in three dinosaur fossils, researchers report in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The dinosaurs were aged 8, 10 and 18, indicating they reached sexual maturity earlier than previously thought. Read more

US Library of Congress Archives on Flickr

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 1:26 pm By Desh Kapoor

The US Library of COngress is sharing its archives on FLickr. Go check it out... Read more

25 different styles of blogging..

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 6:22 am By Desh Kapoor

I think this is a fairly interesting and a VERY insightful deck on the different Styles of blogging and when and how thye can/should be used! Read more

Indian start-up converting Inorganic Waste into Liquid Fuel and Gas!

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 6:04 am By Desh Kapoor

Is this the ultimate solution for Waste Management and World Fuel crisis?? These two guys from Mumbai have been able to create a process to convert all kinds of inorganic waste into liquid fuel and gas! And it has people really excited! T Raghavendra Rao, director, Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Projects (STEPS) filed for a global patent last year for his technique of converting waste — think plastic, sewage, slaughterhouse waste, hospital waste, petroleum byproducts — into liquid fuel and gas. And it’s easy on the environment, for the process does not emit heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming. Rao, a former oil industry expert, thinks ‘waste is wonderful, it’s a resource.’ “Mumbai’s waste generated daily should be recycled daily too,’’ Rao emphasised. “We aim to come to the market with a globally acceptable system to recycle plastic, electronic and organic waste in 24 hours.’’ Read more

Why men and women are attracted to longer legs

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 5:49 am By Desh Kapoor

Men, it is said, like long-legged women. Well, it is the other way around as well! Tall men and women are considered attractive - and those with 5% longer legs, for both, men and women, are considered most attractive Research involving more than 200 men and women revealed that people whose legs are 5% longer than average are considered the most attractive, regardless of their gender. Studies into sexual attraction have already shown that taller people are generally perceived as being more physically appealing to the opposite sex, but until now little was known about the effect a person's leg length had on their overall attractiveness. Well, it may just be that longer legs are indicators of a healthy individual, specially so in case of the women! Read more

Source of anti-matter found now

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 5:42 am By Desh Kapoor

Scientists have been talking of antimatter for a long time. All elementary particles, such as protons and electrons, have antimatter counterparts with the same mass but the opposite charge. For instance, the antimatter opposite of an electron, known as a positron, is positively charged. When Antimatter comes in contact with matter, it annihilates it. The source of this anti-matter was always a quirky question for the scientists. Now they have an answer: The researchers calculate that a relatively ordinary star getting torn apart by a black hole or neutron star orbiting around it — a so-called "low mass X-ray binary" — could spew on the order of one hundred thousand billion billion billion billion positrons (a 1 followed by 41 zeroes) per second. These could account for a great deal of the antimatter that scientists have inferred, reducing or potentially eliminating the need for exotic explanations such as ones involving dark matter. Read more

Real Bad Traffic Jam!

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 5:33 am By Desh Kapoor

I am not sure where this thing is - but it does look fairly bad! 😉 Read more

US Presidential candidate, Huckabee: I used to fry squirrel in a popcorn popper!

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 5:30 am By Desh Kapoor

I am a vegetarian, but I do not believe that the non-vegetarians rot in hell. Yes, killing animals is cruel.. but each to his/her own. However, killing animal and eating is one thing.. but to take some small harmless thing like squirrel and fry it like popcorn is quite another. And then to boast of it! Well, he could well be the next US President! Read more

Your body within the first 60 minutes of drinking Coke

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 5:13 am By Desh Kapoor

We all know drinking Coke is pretty bad for the body! But how bad?? Here is what happens to your body within an HOUR of drinking a Coke can: First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake, and the only reason you don’t vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor. Read more

Monitoring Scandal: Bush cronies make money while investors get looted TWICE-over!

Last updated on: January 17, 2008 at 4:36 am By Desh Kapoor

Just in.... after so many other scandals.. here is another scandal that involves the thoroughly corrupt Bush Administration! See the process below in a Drishtikone presentation.... What is happening is this: The lucrative arrangements are known as "monitorships," unusual contracts in which an outsider comes into a troubled company with vast power to expose corruption and change business practices. The deals allow scandal-plagued companies to avoid criminal charges -- and they give prosecutors a way to ensure businesses keep their promises and clean up abuses. But legal experts and lawmakers are expressing growing concern about inconsistency and secrecy surrounding the appointments. Read more