Month: July 2006

Beard plans to swim in 2008 Olympics

p1.amanda.beard.si.jpgSince we just featured the amazingly sexy Ms. Amanda Beard as an eye candy highlight, it seems we would have an obligation to report that she is planning on swimming in the 2008 Olympics, according to this Sports Illustrated report. Plus, it gives us an excuse to run another picture of her.

Amanda Beard is aiming for her fourth Olympics. Beard made her debut at 14 at the 1996 Atlanta Games, collecting a total of two gold medals, four silver and one bronze. Now 24, Beard is training for Beijing in 2008.

. . .

Beard is swimming four times a week and cross-training on her mountain bike. She plans to “buckle down” in the fall, resuming her six-hour workouts.

You hear that, all you pansies? She’s going to be working out six hours a day. There’s a chance that’s why she’s so awesome.

[tags]Amanda Beard, Olympics, Swimming, dizzam[/tags]

Sahara desert once lush vegatative environment

(via LiveScience.com)

At the end of the last Ice Age, the Sahara Desert was just as dry and uninviting as it is today. But sandwiched between two periods of extreme dryness were a few millennia of plentiful rainfall and lush vegetation.

During these few thousand years, prehistoric humans left the congested Nile Valley and established settlements around rain pools, green valleys, and rivers.

The ancient climate shift and its effects are detailed in the July 21 issue of the journal Science.

. . .

“The climate change at [10,500 years ago] which turned most of the [3.8 million square mile] large Sahara into a savannah-type environment happened within a few hundred years only, certainly within less than 500 years,” said study team member Stefan Kroepelin of the University of Cologne in Germany.

. . .

A timeline of Sahara occupation [See Map]:

  • 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.
  • 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers.
  • 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.
  • 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

[tags]Sahara desert[/tags]

How sleep deprived are you?

(via LifeHacker)
British Airways has a page telling you that you need to get enough sleep (which we all know but don’t abide by) and tells you how to figure out if you are getting enough sleep. Since we all know that not sleeping enough makes you fat, this is the kind of thing you need to read to stay slim.

Time zone changes, internal body clock disruptions and irregular food and exercise patterns can all result in a sleep debt. Making difficult decisions is not easy if you are sleepy, jet lagged and not at your peak.

. . .

Work out how much sleep you owe your body and find out how to recover if your sleep account is in the red.

So go see how British Airways helps you stay healthier and start figuring out how to catch up on your sleep.

[tags]Sleep, British Airways[/tags]

New Atari 2600 cartridge released

(via boingboing)
atari-aclvl1.jpgThis isn’t an officially supported Atari company cartridge, but with the whole retro-gaming scene getting so popular, expect to see more of these in the future. The original release of the game A-VCS-tec Challenge was 55 signed, numbered, boxed cartridges. Those are long gone. But additional runs for those wanting their own non-limited edition cartridge are planned.

The game is a conceptually simple race for distant object, but with an Aztec them and really nice (for Atari 2600) graphics. Controls are simple, as would be expected for such a limited joystick as the 2600 had.  I still have a working Atari 2600 – perhaps I should try to buy myself a copy?
[tags]Atari 2600, Retro-gaming[/tags]

Dragonlance movie has Jack Bauer

I picked up this bit of news while scanning recent game posts over at Slashdot. Word from the Dragonlance movie site is Kiefer Sutherland will be doing the voice work for the Raistlin Majere character. Check out more of the cast at the Dragonlance movie site. To see what little information is available for the movie, hit the movie information page on that site.

An animated version of Dragons of Autumn Twlight is being produced for a worldwide commercial theatrical release.

. . .

Release Date

Autumn 2007 (northern hemisphere)

[tags]Dragonlance, Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland[/tags]

Kittens in a glass globe

It may not be as scary as Snakes on a Plane, but just seeing kittens in a glass globe seems spooky to me. This could be bigger than Bonsai Kittens! Original article from the January 1932 issue of Modern Mechanix.

blows_glass_around_cats_sml.jpg

TO WIN a bet, Dick Manley, California glass blower, performed an unprecedented glass blowing stunt. He placed three kittens in a glass tube and within three minutes fashioned it into a perfect 26-inch globe with the kittens inside and unharmed. A small hole admitted air.

[tags]Modern Mechanix, Glass bubble, Kittens in a glass globe[/tags]

NIST makes even more accurate atomic clock

(via Engadget)
Apparently, the possibility of being off 1 second every 70 million years was just too much for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  So NIST recently announced a new ultra-precise clock based on the oscillations of a mercury ion.  The new clock, tested and measured over the past 5+ years, should have an accuracy such that drift will be less than 1 second over 400 million years.  It will still take some time before this clock becomes the new standard, but the extra precision certainly suggests it will happen.

A prototype mercury optical clock was originally demonstrated at NIST in 2000. Over the last five years its absolute frequency has been measured repeatedly with respect to NIST-F1. The improved version of the mercury clock is the most accurate to date of any atomic clock, including a variety of experimental optical clocks using different atoms and designs.

. . .

“We finally have addressed the issue of systemic perturbations in the mercury clock. They can be controlled, and we know their uncertainties,” says NIST physicist Jim Bergquist, the principal investigator. “By measuring its frequency with respect to the primary standard, NIST-F1, we have been able to realize the most accurate absolute measurement of an optical frequency to date. And in the latest measurement, we have also established that the accuracy of the mercury-ion system is at a level superior to that of the best cesium clocks.”

And if you just want to learn more about atomic clocks and how they work, check out the NIST atomic clock page.

[tags]Atomic clock, Ultra-precision[/tags]

Wooden USB flash drives

(via MAKEzine blog)
usb-drivecraft.jpgTake a geeky gadget, put a pretty wrapper around it, ????, profit. In this case, ???? = get low-cost craftsmen to perform the work. These handsome USB keys are built by craftsmen in South African nation Sao Tome e Principe, on the Guinea Gulf along the equator. The project is currently working on getting large orders to keep the whole thing going.  These are really nice drive cases, and I’d love to see more of this kind of craft-work done with geeky stuff like this.
[tags]USB drive, Craft projects[/tags]