The Knoblog

Turn Off Your Gag Reflex by Squeezing Your Left Thumb [Body Hacks]

2011-11-10T17:51:00.000+02:00

Turn Off Your Gag Reflex by Squeezing Your Left Thumb [Body Hacks]:

If you have a particularly strong gag reflex, this popular dentist's trick can help distract your brain and save you the discomfort (and embarrassment) in seconds. More »

Free online music service for SA to fight piracy

2011-11-10T13:38:00.000+02:00

Free online music service for SA to fight piracy: Playlist Central allows South Africans to listen to their choice of music, free of charge

Video: Kinect Provides the Seeing Eye in a Robotic Guide Dog for the Blind

2011-11-10T13:15:00.000+02:00

Video: Kinect Provides the Seeing Eye in a Robotic Guide Dog for the Blind:

Japanese company NSK has pulled off the mother of all Kinect hacks, and all they had to do was build a fully functioning robotic dog around Microsoft’s gaming peripheral. With help from Tokyo-based University of Electro-Communications, NSK has built a robotic guide dog for the visually impaired that uses a Kinect to evaluate and understand its environment and help its owner safely navigate.

The wheeled canine is activated when the user puts pressure on its handle, letting it know the user is ready to go. The robo-dog then speaks to the user in a computerized female voice, giving the user details about the environment and potential obstacles and commands on how to negotiate them. The robo-dog glides on its wheels on flat surfaces, but it can also climb up and down stairs and other obstacles if it needs to.

Future iterations will include voice commands (from user to robotic pooch) and GPS for better navigation. In the meantime, the laboratory prototype is still pretty impressive, if a bit loud.

[Discovery News]

Can humans hibernate? Your hibernation pod is ready

2011-11-10T12:20:00.000+02:00

Your hibernation pod is ready [Biology]:

Imagine going to sleep for months at a time and then waking up just in time to land on Mars. Hibernation is second nature to bears and other mammals...but there's no reason humans can't do it too.

Exactly how hibernation works and why only certain animals do it remain great mysteries for biologists, but the last few years have seen some huge strides in our understanding of this phenomenon. One fact has become increasingly clear: natural human hibernation isn't just a possibility, it's a reality. We just need to figure out how to trigger hibernation states when and where we want to.

What exactly is hibernation?

Hibernation is just the best known of a bunch of different metabolic processes that allow organisms to enter a dormant state. What sets hibernation apart is the precise changes that go on in the animal's body during its dormancy period. Animals use the late summer and autumn months to build up lots of surplus body fat, which it can then slowly burn off during the winter.

During the hibernation period, animals drop their heart rate to as little as 5% of normal. This in turn causes their body temperature to also substantially decrease. Internal temperatures in the hibernating ground squirrels can drop to just below freezing, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Animals spend days or weeks slowly burning off their stored fat, effectively suspending all other biological processes until spring arrives, although animals do occasionally wake up for brief periods during their hibernation cycle.

A crucial concept here is torpor, which is also known as temporary hibernation. It features a lot of the same basic physiological processes as hibernation - reduced metabolism followed by a drop in body temperature and oxygen consumption - but animals switch in and out of torpor on a daily cycle, making it essentially a more extreme version of the sleep cycle. There's some thought that torpor and hibernation exist on a spectrum with each other, but there's still too much that we don't know for us to say for sure.

Which animals hibernate?

As a general rule, mammals are the ones who hibernate, while other types of animals use different ways to survive extreme conditions. Reptiles, for instance, undergo a similar process known as brumation, where they alter their metabolic processes so that they can survive on just water and without any food for as much as eight months of the year. The opposite of these processes is probably aestivation, which is where certain organisms - typically invertebrates - become dormant to avoid hot summer conditions.

That said, there are plenty of exceptions to these basic categories. One of the most important recent discoveries regarding animal hibernation concerns the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, a primate species found on the island of Madagascar. First described in 2004 by researchers at Phillips University, this is the first known primate and the first tropical animal to have a hibernation cycle. Writing that year for National Geographic, James Owen describes the little primate's unusual approach to hibernation:

The fat-tail dwarf lemur gorges on fruit, flowers, and insects during a short rainy season between December and February. As its body weight increases by around 40 percent, the lemur's tail swells massively with stored fat reserves. The animal, which usually weighs five ounces (150 grams), then goes into a torpor, marked by reduced activity and appetite...The "fat-tail" was found to take to holes in tree trunks during prolonged periods of drought, when trees shed their leaves and food becomes scarce...The team revealed that the fat-tail's body temperature varied to an extent previously unknown in mammals. Daily fluctuations ranged almost 20 degrees Celsius (nearly 40 degrees Fahrenheit), with temperatures recorded from as low as 9.3 degrees Celsius (48.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to well over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The fat-tailed dwarf lemur is just one of a long list of hibernating mammals, including rodents, bats, hedgehogs, anteaters, echidnas, and various marsupials. The only known bird to hibernate is the North American Common Poorwill - many other birds go through torpor states, but this is the only one that actually hibernates for extended periods. That's pretty much the complete list of hibernating animals, although I can't help but think I'm forgetting something...

What about bears?

Oh, right, of course. It's a point of contention in the scientific community whether the world's most famous hibernators actually hibernate. While they certainly go to sleep for extended periods during the winter, bears don't actually see much of a drop in their body temperature - a typical decrease is from 99 degrees Fahrenheit to 88, which is nothing compared to other hibernating mammals. Their metabolic processes also remain relatively close to normal. As such, experts are split over whether this technically even counts as hibernation...or is in fact a particularly sophisticated advanced form of the phenomenon that gets the same basic results as the more extreme version utilized by smaller animals.

For their part, the good folks at the North American Bear Center offer an awesomely straightforward overview of why that debate is silly:

When people defined hibernation simply in terms of temperature reduction, bears were not considered hibernators. However, when biologists discovered the many metabolic changes that let black and grizzly bears hibernate up to 7 ½ months without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating, they realized that body temperature was only a small part of hibernation. They redefined mammalian hibernation as a specialized, seasonal reduction in metabolism concurrent with scarce food and cold weather...People have called black and grizzly bear hibernation torpor, winter sleep, dormancy, and carnivorean lethargy. The leading physiologists now simply call it hibernation.

The big takeaway here is that what constitutes hibernation really is a matter of definition, and that's important as we consider whether humans can hibernate. If you stick to a strict definition built around the massive body temperature reduction seen in small animals, then hibernation is definitely beyond the abilities of humans...but you'd have to exclude bears as well, and that seems a bit ridiculous. But more on that in a moment. First, let's look back at the origins of hibernation.

How did hibernation evolve?

The origins of hibernation are probably tied up in the origins of warm-bloodedness, or endothermy - of course, no one's really sure how that evolved either. Zoologist Fritz Geiser of Australia's University of New England tackled the subject back in 1998, he found that the inability to change core temperature and hibernate - known as homeothermy - is actually a more recent innovation than being able to enter torpor. That's backed up by the fact that mammals with a more ancient evolutionary history tend to be able to hibernate, while more recent species can't.

Exactly why some species evolved their current proclivity towards hibernation and other species didn't is still a matter of debate. One possible explanation is that it's determined by body size, as most mammals and birds that either hibernate or enter torpor on a regular basis are small animals with varied diets, and so the argument goes that these animals needed to take extreme measures to survive wintry conditions and sharply reduced food supplies.

There's of course also a genetic component to hibernation, but this also remains difficult to understand. The genes of hibernating animals are expressed differently when they're dormant as opposed to when they're awake. For instance, a gene called PDK-4 becomes more active during squirrel hibernation, controlling their cardiac function and allowing them to sleep for extended periods. Most of these "hibernation genes" are highly conserved in species that don't hibernate - humans also possess the PDK-4 gene, for instance. Taken together, the evolutionary profiles of hibernation suggests that we humans may well still carry the genetic mechanisms needed to hibernate.

Can humans hibernate?

The answer, remarkable as it might seem, is an unequivocal "yes." In fact, until relatively recently the idea of humans sleeping through most of the winter wasn't even seen as uncommon. There are stories of peasants effectively hibernating as late as the 19th century in both frigid Siberia and the comparatively temperate French countryside. From what we can tell, this wasn't strictly hibernation - the peasants' core temperatures didn't drop, and they still woke up once a day or so to eat a small biscuit before going back to bed. Still, they changed their lifestyles to use just a fraction of their normal energy requirements, which is essentially what hibernation is.

And there are even more dramatic individual examples. Consider the case of the then 35-year-old Japanese man Mitsuka Uchikoshi, who in 2006 spent over three weeks unconscious on the freezing Rokko Mountain before making a full recovery. Writing for Discover in 2007, Alex Stone recounts the remarkable story:

He had no detectable pulse or respiration, and his body temperature was 71 degrees Fahrenheit, 27 hatch marks shy of normal. While returning alone from a party on the mountain, Uchikoshi had stumbled and hit his head; he spent the next 24 days sprawled unconscious in the frigid air, without food or water. But when he arrived at Kobe City General Hospital, something remarkable occurred: He woke up. To the astonishment of the doctors who treated him for severe hypothermia and blood loss, Uchikoshi made a full recovery without a trace of brain damage.

Assuming the story isn't some elaborate hoax - and there's been no suggestion so far that it is - this is the most dramatic evidence yet that humans are capable of hibernating in exactly the same way that smaller mammals can. Of course, we lack the natural ability to go into hibernation, and it although Uchikoshi recovered from his ordeal, it's hardly the same thing as bears who wake up exactly the same as when they started sleeping, as he had to be treated for multiple organ failure and severe blood loss. Still, if the mechanism for human hibernation exists at all, then there's the chance that we can make it work for us.

But how can humans hibernate?

As a species, we lack the very basic knowledge of how to hibernate that is second nature to other animals, but it seems that humans both pursue behaviors that mimic actual hibernation and, under the most extreme of circumstances, can actually enter a hibernation state. Exactly why Uchikoshi and other examples of human hibernation were able to enter this state is not even remotely understood. As suggested earlier, the genetic mechanisms of hibernation may be very ancient, and it's entirely possible that we still carry the basic ability to hibernate in our DNA. But what activates this otherwise forgotten ability?

We reported on one possibility last year that was advanced by Dr. Mark Roth, a researcher at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He compared these human hibernation cases to the worms and nematodes in his lab. These organisms perish when frozen, but can be revived without any ill effects if they are deprived of oxygen before freezing. Roth explained:

"There are many examples in the scientific literature of humans who appear frozen to death. They have no heartbeat and are clinically dead. But they can be reanimated. We wondered if what was happening with the organisms in my laboratory was also happening in people like the toddler and the Japanese mountain climber. Before they got cold did they somehow manage to decrease their oxygen consumption? Is that what protected them? Our work in nematodes and yeast suggests that this may be the case, and it may bring us a step closer to understanding what happens to people who appear to freeze to death but can be reanimated."

For now, the oxygen deprivation hypothesis is probably the best explanation we've got as to how people can enter stasis for so long with no permanent damage (though admittedly plenty of problems in the short-term). We're still only working from a few cases here, but the fact that anyone can survive in what is essentially stasis for over three weeks suggests humans are capable of some pretty extraordinary feats, and something unexpected must serve as the trigger for this otherwise unknown ability. Oxygen deprivation is as good an explanation as any I can see, though obviously that's far from conclusive.

Could hibernation be the best way to achieve suspended animation?

There's a lot of reasons why we might want to be able to hibernate. The most obvious, and the one seen most often in science fiction, is to be able to endure long journeys in space to other planets, even other star systems. Medically, being able to put humans in stasis for extended periods and halt any oncoming diseases could save countless lives. Basically, hibernation means a naturally occurring alternative to external methods of suspended animation, like the much mooted but still mostly hypothetical field of cryonics.

We're a long way from knowing exactly how humans could hibernate in the first place, let alone how to make them do it artificially, but we're making serious progress elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks discovered how to make Arctic ground squirrels start hibernating and wake up at will. They seized upon the fact that the molecule adenosine slows down neural activity in the brain, as researcher Kelly Drew explains:

We devised an experiment in which non-hibernating arctic ground squirrels were given a substance that stimulated adenosine receptors in their brains. We expected the substance to induce hibernation. We also gave a substance similar to caffeine to arouse hibernating ground squirrels."

The researchers generally had no problem controlling the squirrels' hibernation state, though only about a third of squirrels could be returned to torpor after being woken up at the beginning of the hibernation season. There appears to be a seasonal component to when animals are most able to hibernate, but the exact nature of that relationship is not yet well understood.

What do bears have to teach us about hibernation?

It's probably not surprising that bears are the animals researchers are most interested in when it comes to human hibernation - after all, they're the hibernators most similar to us, at least in terms of body size (though those dwarf fat-tailed lemurs are the most closely related hibernators, since they're also primates). Back in February, we covered a study by researchers, also at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who looked to black bears to see what lessons could be learned about human hibernation. Professor Brian Barnes, the director of the Institute of Arctic Biology, explained all the amazing things hibernating bears can do:

"When black bears emerge from hibernation, it has been shown that they have not suffered the losses in muscle and bone mass that would be expected to occur in humans. If we could discover the genetic and molecular basis for this protection, and for the mechanisms that underlie the reduction in metabolic demand, we could derive new therapies and medicines to prevent osteoporosis, disuse atrophy of muscle, or even place injured people in a type of suspended or reduced animation until they can be delivered to advanced medical care - extending the golden hour to a golden day or a golden week."

The idea that humans could go to sleep for weeks at a time and awake without any health problems or loss in bone or muscle mass is an amazing, seemingly impossible thought - but if bears can do it, there's very little reason to think that we couldn't do it to. Recent years have provided us with both cutting-edge new research and dramatic real-life examples of the hidden human ability to hibernate. With any luck, the next few years will see us start to work out and unlock the exact mechanisms that control our dormant ability for...well, dormancy.

Image Credits

Top image from Alien.

Fat-tailed dwarf lemur by Petra Lahann on Wikimedia

Hibernating bat by Magne Flåten on Wikimedia

Hibernating bear via the North American Bear Center

Sleeping peasants by Gerard Dubois

Arctic ground squirrel by Ianaré Sévi on Wikimedia

Is Being Happy the Key to Life?

2011-11-10T08:37:00.000+02:00

Is Being Happy the Key to Life?:

Don't Say You're "Experienced" on Your Resume (and Other Words to Banish) [Resumes]

2011-11-10T08:36:00.000+02:00

Don't Say You're "Experienced" on Your Resume (and Other Words to Banish) [Resumes]:

If you want your resume to be more effective and less generic, make sure every word on it counts. Forbes recommends striking common phrases like saying you're "experienced in [something]"; instead, show where your experience lies. More »

SEM Microscopy: 32 Visions Of A Miniature World

2011-11-09T20:49:00.000+02:00

SEM Microscopy: 32 Visions Of A Miniature World: [ By Marc in Environment & Nature & Technology & Futurism. ]

Scanning Electron Microscopy allows scientists to enter a miniature world full of fantastic creatures and otherworldly objects. When viewed on such an incredibly small scale, the most mundane objects and textures become an alien wonderland.

(Images via hhmi, stopcancerblog, thenewsonline, katoque)

Cancer cells are a terrifying prospect, and though on the surface they appear just as alien as anything else viewed with an SEM microscope, it’s impossible to tell the danger they represent from images alone.

(Images via theschoolmarm, cynical-c, dartmouth, flatrock)

The face and of a mosquito, the hooked claw of a microscopic beast, and the bisected tongue of a hummingbird all look like aliens from a high-budget film. These close-up portraits are proof that real life can be stranger than fiction.

(Images via salemstate, safa)

The bane of sinuses across the world, pollen doesn’t look so frightening up close.

(Images via mun, funlock, chem, rentokil)

Microscopic creatures are frighteningly alien. Lurking on a level below our awareness, many of these organisms’ lives are entirely dependent on the detritus from larger organisms.

(Images via physicsforum, randommization, morrisonworldnews, izismile)

It is difficult to imagine anything more alien in outer space than what is already present on the planet we call home. Try not to think about the millions of creatures that live entirely off of dead skin cells, or it may be difficult to fall asleep tonight.

(Images via melodymaker, umn, wikipedia, startwithaseed, howstuffworks)

Normal materials take on a beautiful quality when viewed with scanning electron microscopes. A nylon stocking becomes a giant web, pollen appears as spiky balls, and the surface of a strawberry looks like an alien landscape.

(Images via waiting-for-october, crawlerscrawler, trashitects, chemoton, onelargeprawn)

Insect heads are terrifying prospects when viewed in detail. With sharp mandibles and multifaceted eyes, insects are far from attractive.

(Images via astrographics, designyoutrust, scienceline, sciencephoto)

Extraterrestrials are overrated when one gets used to seeing scanning electron images. One can see creepy crawlies covered in tiny hairs, with hook-like claws and dangling antenna. SEM images definitely make one glad that these creatures are below our everyday awareness.

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At World’s End: 13 More Post-Apocalyptic Visions

The world will end some day, but will anyone be left to observe the final sunset? Here are 13 more visions of what a post-apocalyptic world might be like.
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New Tech Meets Old World: Paintings in Ultra High-Res

An Italian project called Haltadefinizione gives us an unprecedented, practically microscopic look at renowned works of art including Leonardo's Last Supper.
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Don Kenn: Sticking It To The Art World

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[ By Marc in Environment & Nature & Technology & Futurism. ]

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How to Make (and Sustain) a Good First Impression Every Time [Social Gps]

2011-11-09T20:42:00.000+02:00

How to Make (and Sustain) a Good First Impression Every Time [Social Gps]:

In a perfect world, friendships, relationships, and business contacts would all develop naturally and blossom exactly how you'd like, but that's not the world we live in. In reality, we're all busy people, and relationships take work—work that sometimes slips our mind. Rather than leave it all to chance, here are a few things that can help you leave a great first impression, and form that into a lasting relationship. More »

Man with schizophrenia has out-of-body experience in lab, gains knowledge, controls his psychosis [Neuroscience]

2011-11-09T11:41:00.000+02:00

Man with schizophrenia has out-of-body experience in lab, gains knowledge, controls his psychosis [Neuroscience]:

RM had his first out-of-body experience at the age of 16. Now, at the age of 55, he has had more than he can count. They usually happen just before he falls asleep; for ten minutes, he feels like he is floating above his body, looking down on himself. If the same thing happens when he's awake, it's a far less tranquil story. The sense of displacement is stronger – his real body feels like a marionette, while he feels like a puppeteer. His feelings of elevation soon change into religious delusions, in which he imagines himself talking to angels and demons. Psychotic episodes follow. After four or five days, RM is hospitalised.

This has happened between 15 to 20 times, ever since RM was first diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 23. He hears voices, and he suffers from hallucinations and delusions. Despite these problems, he managed to hold down a job as a reporter until 2002 and more recently, he has been working in restaurants and volunteering as an archivist. Then, about a year ago, he took part in a study that seems to have changed his life.

For around a decade, RM has taken part in several studies designed by Sohee Park, a neuroscientist from Vanderbilt University who works on schizophrenia. "He's a very interesting guy," says Park. "He has very deep insight into his condition."

Park's student Katharine Thakkar was testing the idea that people experience psychotic experiences because they have a weak sense of self. It's an idea that others have suggested before but it seems like something that would be hard to test with experiments. But not so: over the last decade, psychologists have shown that our sense of self is far from the fixed, permanent feeling that we assume it is. Instead, it is disarmingly pliable. You can tweak it. You can study it. Our brain continuously constructs our sense of self using information from our eyes, skin and joints. By tweaking that information using simple illusions, scientists have warped and displaced our sense of self in the lab.

The most famous of these – the rubber-hand illusion – debuted as a party trick at a Halloween bash. Princeton scientists stroked a rubber hand in time with someone's real hand, which was hidden out of sight. A few seconds later, the volunteer genuinely felt that they owned the rubber hand. Since then, scientists like Henrik Ehrsson have taken the illusion to new extremes, convincing people that they have gained a third arm, jumped into a mannequin or left their own bodies. But the rubber hand illusion is still proving useful.

Thakkar performed the trick on 24 people with schizophrenia, including RM, and asked them to describe their experiences on a questionnaire. Their answers revealed that they experienced the illusion more strongly that 21 people of a similar age and background, but who didn't have schizophrenia.

Not taking their word for it, Thakkar tested for other signs that people had bought into the illusion: a feeling that their fingers had moved, and a drop in the temperature of their real hand. She found both, and to a stronger extent in people with schizophrenia than in those without. The results suggest that schizophrenia is accompanied by a weaker or more flexible sense of body ownership than usual. Indeed, Thakkar found that people who experienced the most severe hallucinations (and some delusions) also felt the rubber-hand illusion most strongly.

But even among the group with schizophrenia, RM stuck out. The synchronous stroking didn't just convince him that he had a rubber hand – it brought about one of his full-on out-of-body experiences. He felt that he and Thakkar were both levitating a foot off the floor: back to the ceiling, turning in a circle, and watching themselves on their chairs. The effect lasted for a few minutes, before they landed again. Others have duplicated this effect in the lab, but with more complicated set-ups involving cameras and virtual reality headsets. The rubber hand illusion shouldn't do anything quite that dramatic.

RM was worried that a psychotic episode was on the horizon, but Park's team had no idea about his history and he didn't mention it. "We were so excited when it happened the first time, and he's very helpful," says Park. When they asked him to come back and repeat the experiment, he agreed. He wanted to know more too.

When he returned, Thakkar duplicated the same experience and this time, RM actually found the experience to be quite pleasant and wanted the feeling to come back. That was when he told the scientists about his history. "We got really worried, because we'd just induced these twice!" recalls Park. But she didn't need to worry.

After the experiment, RM wanted to know more, so Thakkar plied him with information and journal articles about out-of-body experiences. He learned that the phenomenon had a name. He learned that scientists could willingly duplicate the effect in a lab. He learned that they had identified parts of the brain that are associated with the experiences. The information was revelatory. "He gained a psychological cause for this apparently supernatural phenomenon," says Park, "and he has used this knowledge to control his symptoms." Since then, RM hasn't had a psychotic episode.

This approach almost certainly won't work for everyone – bear in mind that RM is high-functioning and self-aware. He is very eloquent and has an IQ of 120. Park notes that similar explanations might also help other people with unusual experiences like out-of-body effects, since these could exacerbate the other symptoms of schizophrenia. "If it feels supernatural, that just feeds into the delusions," she says.

The study has broader implications for helping people with schizophrenia. Activities that promote a stronger sense of body awareness, such as yoga, dance or playing a musical instrument, might help to alleviate some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

But for RM, it seems that learning more about his condition was enough. A year on, his diagnosis is unchanged, he still gets out-of-body experiences, and he still hears voices. But gone are the days when his experiences would require a stay in a hospital. He is now hoping to establish himself as a freelance writer, and he's even had a paper on religion accepted in a peer-reviewed academic journal. For him, knowledge has proven to be a potent treatment. "We check up with him regularly and he's been doing really well," says Park.

Reference: Thakkar, Nichols, McIntosh & Park. 2011. Disturbances in body ownership in schizophrenia: evidence from the rubber hand illusion and case study of a spontaneous out-of-body experience.

This post originally appeared on Not Exactly Rocket Science.

86th Birthday Rage

2011-11-07T09:13:00.001+02:00

86th Birthday Rage:

The webcomic Kukuburi is a surreal adventure through a candy-colored wonderland [Webcomics]

2011-11-05T22:49:00.000+02:00

The webcomic Kukuburi is a surreal adventure through a candy-colored wonderland [Webcomics]:

Courier Nadia steps through an ordinary gate and finds herself in an extraordinary world populated by flying battleship whales and bizarre creatures in dashing chapeaux. But this cotton candy land is threatened by a skeletal adversary and Nadia's own nightmares.

Nadia is a motor scooter courier, living an ordinary life of package delivery and ducking her boss. But one day, she steps through a gate and finds herself in a place where the sky is pink, land floats by in disconnected islands, and her pet chameleon can speak with a stodgy British accent. Before she has a chance to immerse herself in the wonders of this surreal universe, she's confronted with her adversary, a skeleton in crimson sunglasses and a cheesy suit, who challenges her to a game of mystical Battleship. It quickly becomes clear that the dreamland is entrenched in a war between the nightmare forces of HIM and the mysterious HER. Nadia might be able to bring balance to the land, but she can also feed the nightmares from her own memories.

Kukuburi has the makings of a grand epic adventure, but it's the charm of creator Ramón Pérez's visual creations that make this comic stand out. Each character is filled with vibrancy and life, making for scenes that are both silly (a chameleon in a fez and an octopus in a bowler hat both smoking bubble pipes) and exciting (pretty much any scene featuring Reggie the Firefly). Every scene change is an opportunity to experience a strange new corner of Pérez's brain.

Kukuburi has been on hiatus for well over a year, but as of this week, it is back on the air. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to go even deeper down the comic's rabbit hole.

[Kukuburi]

The secret of ancient Viking navigation was transparent crystals [Archaeology]

2011-11-03T12:44:00.000+02:00

The secret of ancient Viking navigation was transparent crystals [Archaeology]:

Before the invention of modern navigational equipment, ancient sailors crossed the seas largely through their knowledge of the positions of the Sun and stars. So how did Vikings cross from Europe to America in the often foggy, cloudy northern Atlantic?

There's no real way that Vikings could have crossed such tremendous distances - they were probably second only to the Polynesians as far as ancient navigators go - without being able to consistently rely on knowing where the Sun and stars were. Viking legends speak of a "sunstone" that allowed their sailors to figure out celestial positions even in deep fog. However, archaeologists have long struggled to find proof of any such device...until now.

Researchers at the University of Rennes in France have put together all the experimental and theoretical evidence they could muster, and they're pretty sure they know exactly what this sunstone was. It was, in fact, a transparent calcite crystal known as Iceland spar. It's found all over its namesake country, and Vikings could have used it to depolarize light, which means the crystal is able to split light along different axes.

How is that useful for navigation? Well, Viking sailors simply had to place a dot on the top of the crystal and then look up at it from below. The incoming light would hit the dot and seemingly duplicate it. That optical effect, amazingly enough, was all ancient navigators needed to locate the Sun, even when it was completely hidden from view.

Lead researcher Guy Ropars explains:

"Then you rotate the crystal until the two points have exactly the same intensity or darkness. At that angle, the upward-facing surface indicates the direction of the Sun. A precision of a few degrees can be reached even under dark twilight conditions...Vikings would have been able to determine with precision the direction of the hidden Sun."

The human eye is well-suited to using this compass, since it can make extreme fine distinctions about the relative brightness of the two dots. The fact that the crystal was found all over Iceland makes it likely that the Vikings did indeed use the crystal, and there's also some proof that later navigators made use of it as well. A British shipwreck dating back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I had an Iceland spar on board.

The researchers suspect that, in the early days of compasses, sailors still found the crystals more trustworthy than the new invention...and with good reason:

"We have verified ... that even only one of the cannons excavated from the ship is able to perturb a magnetic compass orientation by 90 degrees. So, to avoid navigation errors when the Sun is hidden, the use of an optical compass could be crucial even at this epoch, more than four centuries after the Viking time."

Via Proceedings of the Royal Society. Top image by infomatique on Flickr. Sunstone image by Guy Ropars.

Zero Punctuation reviews Batman: Arkham City

2011-11-03T10:01:00.000+02:00

Batman: Arkham City:

This week, Zero Punctuation returns to the black tights of everyone's favorite caped crusader.

A simple test to determine if someone's been dead for more than 12 hours [Forensics]

2011-11-03T09:07:00.000+02:00

A simple test to determine if someone's been dead for more than 12 hours [Forensics]:

Want to know a simple observation that helps forensic scientists figure out A.) how long a body has been dead; and B.) if it's been tampered with? Serial killers: Please don't read the section below.

There are plenty of times when I weigh the fact that some stories are potentially hazardous with the fact that they're also quite interesting. This is one of those occasions. I can only comfort myself with the assumption that dedicated killers have probably already gleaned this information online. (And If they haven't, I would appreciate it if they cleared their browser history now.)

Sure, CSI is all lasers and interactive computer technology, but there are some simple things you can discover about a body literally poking around. For example, a corpse's paleness. It look like all the blood has drained away from the skin. Actually, all the blood has drained away from the top of the body. Corpses have pale faces because they are generally on their backs when and after they die. With the heart no longer circulating the blood, gravity causes the blood to pool in the body parts closest to the ground, reddening them.

The blood starts off as liquid, but after about twelve hours, it begins to congeal and forms permanent red and purple marks. This is called livor mortis — or post-mortem lividity — and they're responsible for the simplest test that can be used to determine the age of a dead body. If, when poking those marks, the area pales, the blood hasn't congealed and the body has been dead less than twelve hours. If the marks don't discolor, it's been over half a day since the person died.

So a dead body's back and thighs should be darkly marked, right? Again, that's not the case. When live flesh is pressed against an object, it pales too, because the blood is pushed out of the area. (This pallor is occasionally used to make sure that a finger used for fingerprint identification is living or dead.) Once the pressure is taken away, it darkens with a new rush of blood.

But a dead person never moves their body away from the pressure. The blood is kept out of those parts of the body pressed to the ground — that section of the body is pale while the blood congeals around it. If a person has been flipped on their stomach some time after they died, the pale marks, surrounded by congealed blood, would still mark how they originally lay. Indeed, if you're yearning to be the most handsome corpse around, be sure to die standing up.

Via Discovery.

How Much Does the Internet Weigh? [Video]

2011-11-02T15:23:00.000+02:00

How Much Does the Internet Weigh? [Video]:

Did you know that the Internet (apparently) weighs about 50 grams? I didn’t!

[vsauce]

Related posts:

Turn Your iPhone Into a Game Controller With Joypad

2011-11-02T13:40:00.000+02:00

Turn Your iPhone Into a Game Controller With Joypad:

Gaming on the desktop computer has always been a big deal for the seasoned gamers, yet a royal headache for normal human beings. “W” is forward, you say? And “D” is right? What was “reload” again? Where’s the jump button?

Luckily for you, one company heard your cries. They also noticed that you have an iPhone. Their name is Hazelmade, and their solution is to turn your iPhone into a game controller using Joypad.

Getting Started

Hazelmade caters for an otherwise untapped market between two very prominent other markets. Beyond the hardcore gamers that use keyboards for their gaming, and the hardcore gamers who buy expensive gaming controllers to play with, remains the human beings that don’t want to use the keyboard to play, nor do they want to buy controllers for their passing interest in games.

Joypad's UI

There are a number of apps in the App Store today that allow you to control your computer with your iPhone, but they’re either geared towards moving your cursor around or reproducing your keyboard. Neither moves us forward in this field.

What Joypad offers is a fantastic solution that sits between these two extremes. For free, you can download an app for both your computer and iPhone to play your games safely in the knowledge that you’re not going to forget what key does what, and without the remorse of purchasing an expensive controller for this fleeting fancy.

The Basics

For the games that support Joypad, all you need to do is fire it up and get playing — it’s really very easy. Joypad also comes with preconfigured controllers for retro consoles, so that you can use them with a video game emulator that you have installed on your computer.

Disclaimer: The legal ramifications of video game emulators are a bit hazy, as some are considered against the law. We don’t encourage illegal gaming habits here at AppStorm. If you are going to emulate games on your computer, it’s important that you understand the rules and regulations of doing so, so that you stay on the right side of the law.

Different Joypad Controller Styles

By default, the app comes with controller configurations for the consoles Sega Genesis (or Megadrive, for European readers), Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), Nintendo 64 (N64), Gameboy Advance (GBA), Arcade games (MAME), amongst other existing desktop games like Minecraft and Portal2.

Put simply, “all those games you used to play, plus a couple newer ones.”

Joypad skins match classic consoles

While the app is free to download and use for both your iPhone and your computer, Hazelmade does offer some nostalgia of their own for a small fee. For 99 cents you can download app skins for all the aforementioned consoles, to make your gaming experience that little bit closer to the original.

Performance

In all my testing, I noticed no slowdown between button pressing and in-game response. It’s just like using the real controller — almost.

One of the biggest downfalls of this app is through no fault of its own, but the medium itself. While the touch screen experience on an iPhone is gorgeous, it does assume that you’re looking at the screen. When you look away, you’re just sliding your fingers around on a piece of glass. While it’s much easier to use Joypad than it sounds, there can (and will) be occasional moments when a Goomba will get the better of you, robbing you of your Fire Flower as you repeatedly press the dead-zone next to “jump” on your iPhone screen.

Not that I’m sore, or anything.

There’s also the configuration process you have to go through if you happen to use any non-standard keyboard configurations. All emulation apps map keys on your keyboard to what buttons would have been available on that particular console. Joypad adds itself into the fray after that configuration process is complete, so you have to then map those keys back to the buttons the console would have had, again. It’s a daisy-chain of button configurations that, if done incorrectly, will have you back in the configuration panes scratching your head as to why your Left arrow moves Player 2 right.

Nevertheless, if you stick with the default configurations, or take your time on the configuration process, you should be absolutely fine.

Joypad works with iPad too

It’s not just games on the desktop computer that can take advantage of Joypad, either. Select iPad games also make use of the app, opening doors to yet more gaming possibilities in the future.

Conclusion

I was a big gamer in my school days. Nowadays I have very little time to invest in games, coupled with no interest to go down the whole WASD/mouse route (I don’t even have a mouse). What Joypad brings is a gaming experience my wife and I can enjoy in front of my MacBook Pro’s screen with our iPhones with no investment required. Hook up your Mac to an Apple TV and buy a couple of those nostalgic skins and you’ll be hitting your head against “?” blocks like it’s 1990.

If you play computer games, or ever played console games, you owe it to yourself to download this free app, and experience those classic moments all over again.

How to Be Your Own Therapist and Solve the More Manageable Problems in Your Life [Video]

2011-11-02T12:29:00.000+02:00

How to Be Your Own Therapist and Solve the More Manageable Problems in Your Life [Video]:

Therapy is no doubt a helpful tool when you have problems to overcome, and one of the primary strategies therapists use to uncover and solve your issues involves identifying common behavioral patterns. But you don't always need a therapist to recognize and correct an unhealthy pattern in your life. Here's a primer for how you can solve the problems that don't require professional help. More »

BMW 3 Series gets 'full-color' heads-up display

2011-11-01T18:57:00.000+02:00

BMW 3 Series gets 'full-color' heads-up display:

If you've been hankering for some HUD action in your next auto, you'll have one more choice come next spring: the all-new 2012 BMW 3 Series. The launch will mark the first time a heads-up display has made it into Bavaria's volume seller, after debuting as an optional extra eons ago on its 5 Series. Since then, HUDs of limited hues have permeated München's high-end, splaying speed and navigation directions in the line of sight of road-going elites everywhere. However, this iteration is "full-color," which besides pleasing ROY G. BIV fans, makes it "more intuitive," as the company reasons it'll aid drivers in recognizing crucial alerts faster. That, or we're really just a generation away from über cool AR wizardry and movies on our windscreens. Of course, no word on when the 3's brethren will get the technicolor treatment, but we're betting it won't be long, given that's the dash of a 6 Series you see above. PR, per usual, is after the break.

Continue reading BMW 3 Series gets 'full-color' heads-up display

BMW 3 Series gets 'full-color' heads-up display originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smashing Magazine's Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2011

2011-11-01T15:10:00.001+02:00

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2011:

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration. This post features 30 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for November 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,

You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

Real Artists Ship

"A tribute to Steve Jobs, from the crew at Busy Building Things." Designed by Andrew Power from Canada.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

The Hush

"Take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." Designed by Jason Krieger from USA.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November Nostalgia

"November Nostalgia has a bit of the old mixed with the new." Designed by Colin Whitehurst from Philippines.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

November Rain

"It rains around here in november…." Designed by Inerseshen Creative Media from USA.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

The Most Productive Month

"Working hard or hardly working? What will your work stats look like in November?" Designed by Photo Stats from Sweden.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Gunpowder Treason

"I doubt this piece needs any description at all, but here it goes. Because I’m a V for Vendetta fan, I decided to make a wallpaper out of the classic quote combined with the V for Vendetta “logo”. Of course this quote referenced to a historical event, which should never be forgot." Designed by Yentl from Belgium.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×960, 1366×768, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1280×960, 1366×768, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Soul Candle

"When we do not visit the dead, they come to visit us." Designed by Pilo Francia from Philippines.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1440

Without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1440

Disco Ball

Preview

With calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

A Clearing In The Foggy Forest

"A clearing in the foggy forest could be your salvation or your downfall. Be careful!" Designed by Alberto Varela from Basque Country.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Pink November

"A face can manifest especially in a texture." Designed by Niki Virág from Hungary.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Winter Is Coming

"I always like to use the macro feature of my camera to capture all the nature’s changes. Winter is coming and the first molecules of snow appeared on the autumn leaves… Isn’t it amazing?" Designed by Tatiana Anagnostaki from Greece.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

November Love

This November Love desktop wallpaper is designed by Medianovak from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Rainy Day

"A picture from Budapest (Hungary), a city full of history in which I spent two lovely days." Designed by Simona Gosu from Romania.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×720, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1280×720, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Late Atumn

"The late arrival of Autumn." Designed by Maria Castello Solbes from Spain.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Autumn Hair

"The colour of Autumn." Designed by John Rubio from Australia.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Little Mademoiselle P

"Black-and-white drawing of a little girl." Designed by Jelena Tšekulajeva from Estonia.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Grey

"It’s November. Again. And we can’t believe that another year has gone by." Designed by Lotum from Germany.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 960×960, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 960×960, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Frozen Kingdom

"Cold, cold November somewhere in Frozen Kingdom…" Designed by Frozen Kingdom from Estonia.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Hunting

"Sometimes you hunt a bear, sometimes a bear hunts you." Designed by Cheloveche.ru from Russia.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Flying

Preview

With calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Cool November

"This big oak tree is standing in the middle of a big corn field, near the trail where I jog every other day. I always wanted to include into on of my creations, and finally, with Smashing Magazine’s wallpaper contest, it finally found its place in my November’s wallpaper. This year, autumn was very warm, and I hope this photo taken on a warm october day, will keep you warm through a cool and cold november that is coming up…" Designed by Uros Opaka from Slovenia.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Without calendar: 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

November 1st

"The 1st day of November was the first day of the Algerian revolution. It started in 1954 and lasted more than 7 years." Designed by Houssem Teghri from Algeria.

Preview

With calendar: 1280×720, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

Without calendar: 1280×720, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

Thanks Gathering

"November is a month for reflecting on the past year and beginning to look ahead to the coming year. During this time, we come together as friends and family to give thanks for the good things we have received and to band together in preparation for whatever may come next." Designed by Danielle Camorlinga from USA.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Autumn

Preview

With calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Constellations

"As a young girl my father showed me the constellations in the night sky. These are the November constellations as they will appear from the northern hemisphere placed in a landscape I dreamed of. See their names in the non-calendar version. Look at the night sky and find them!" Designed by Christina Balanou from Greece.

Preview

With calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1920×1200

November Turkey

Preview

With calendar: 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Without calendar: 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Undas

"”Undas” (Day of the Dead) is a significant holiday in the Philippines. A tradition derived from the “Dia de los Muertos” of Spain and Mexico. Families visit their deceased relatives in the cemeteries. They clean the tombs and decorate it with candles and flowers." Designed by Bored Astronauts from Philippines.

Preview

With calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Join In Next Month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

A big thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

What’s Your Favourite?

What’s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below!

(il) (vf)

io9’s 10 Scariest Movies Of All Time

2011-11-01T14:58:00.000+02:00

io9’s 50 Scariest Movies Of All Time: The Top 10

Bastion Narrator Invades Other Games [Video]

2011-11-01T09:02:00.001+02:00

Bastion Narrator Invades Other Games [Video]:

Little man hits a brick with its hand. Sure it hurts, but his heart hurts more.

[Source: Dorkly]

Related posts:

New award celebrates video games as culture

2011-11-01T08:43:00.000+02:00

New award celebrates video games as culture:

Minecraft isn’t just a game, it’s a work of art — and that’s official.

That’s the verdict of judges at the UK’s GameCity event, which aims to celebrate video games in a cultural context. Though the festival, organized by Nottingham Trent University, has been running for five years, this is the first time it has held an awards ceremony.

The prize was not simply for the “best game” chosen by gaming industry experts as with most such ceremonies. Instead a secret expert panel chose a shortlist, and then a jury of non-gamers of a variety of cultural backgrounds were asked to decide which was the most “interesting, exciting and excellent.”

The panel included politician Tom Watson (who was something of a ringer, being a keen gamer when he’s not interrogating Rupert Murdoch), musicians Dave Rowntree and You Me at Six, actress Frances Barber, financial journalist James Crabtree, and comedian and author Charlie Higson.

The short list was:

Kinect-based rhythm and music “experience” Child of Eden;
puzzle game ilomilol;
noir-ish puzzler LIMBO;
cube construction sandbox Minecraft;
adult version of child classic Pokemon Black;
spatial awareness destroyer Portal 2;
old-school adventurer Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Announcing the winner, judges panel chair Jude Kelly said “Minecraft is the ultimate zeitgeist game that appeals on so many levels. The creative possibilities of this ever-expanding game are limited only by ones imagination.”

Ironically Minecraft won despite not having officially been released yet. Four million downloads in, it’s still technically in beta edition, with a formal release scheduled for next month.

Minecraft is somewhere between a true sandbox “open” game and a more traditional competitive game. The free edition simply allows players to build their own worlds using blocks of different materials. The paid version introduces a survival mode, where players must evade attacks from mobs during nighttime, while building resources are limited and players can only access a certain number of tools at any one time.

Related posts:

The Knoblog

Turn Off Your Gag Reflex by Squeezing Your Left Thumb [Body Hacks]

Free online music service for SA to fight piracy

Video: Kinect Provides the Seeing Eye in a Robotic Guide Dog for the Blind

Can humans hibernate? Your hibernation pod is ready

What exactly is hibernation?

Which animals hibernate?

What about bears?

How did hibernation evolve?

Can humans hibernate?

But how can humans hibernate?

Could hibernation be the best way to achieve suspended animation?

What do bears have to teach us about hibernation?

Further Reading

Image Credits

Is Being Happy the Key to Life?

Don't Say You're "Experienced" on Your Resume (and Other Words to Banish) [Resumes]

SEM Microscopy: 32 Visions Of A Miniature World

(Images via hhmi, stopcancerblog, thenewsonline, katoque)

(Images via theschoolmarm, cynical-c, dartmouth, flatrock)

(Images via salemstate, safa)

(Images via mun, funlock, chem, rentokil)

(Images via physicsforum, randommization, morrisonworldnews, izismile)

(Images via melodymaker, umn, wikipedia, startwithaseed, howstuffworks)

(Images via waiting-for-october, crawlerscrawler, trashitects, chemoton, onelargeprawn)

(Images via astrographics, designyoutrust, scienceline, sciencephoto)

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Man with schizophrenia has out-of-body experience in lab, gains knowledge, controls his psychosis [Neuroscience]

86th Birthday Rage

The webcomic Kukuburi is a surreal adventure through a candy-colored wonderland [Webcomics]

The secret of ancient Viking navigation was transparent crystals [Archaeology]

Zero Punctuation reviews Batman: Arkham City

A simple test to determine if someone's been dead for more than 12 hours [Forensics]

How Much Does the Internet Weigh? [Video]

Turn Your iPhone Into a Game Controller With Joypad

Getting Started

The Basics

Performance

Conclusion

How to Be Your Own Therapist and Solve the More Manageable Problems in Your Life [Video]

BMW 3 Series gets 'full-color' heads-up display

Smashing Magazine's Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2011

Real Artists Ship

Design For Good

Coffee

Autumn Impression

The Hush

November Nostalgia

November Rain

The Most Productive Month

Gunpowder Treason

Soul Candle

Disco Ball

A Clearing In The Foggy Forest

Pink November

Winter Is Coming

November Love

Rainy Day

Late Atumn

Autumn Hair

Little Mademoiselle P

Grey

Frozen Kingdom

Hunting

Flying

Cool November

November 1st

Thanks Gathering

Autumn

Constellations

November Turkey

Undas

Join In Next Month!

What’s Your Favourite?

io9’s 10 Scariest Movies Of All Time

Bastion Narrator Invades Other Games [Video]