Blood moon due on August 28

Put it in your diary...

clipped from www.smh.com.au THE eastern states are in the box seat to see a rare full "blood moon" eclipse on August 28, with astronomers tipping that most people in NSW should have a clear view. The moon will appear a vibrant red as Earth's shadow passes over it. Nick Lomb, curator of astronomy at Sydney Observatory, said lunar eclipses occurred at least twice a year, but the chance to see one in its entirety from the eastern states was rare. The moon will rise in the east at 5.22pm. At 6.51pm the eclipse will begin, with Earth's shadow starting to block light travelling from the sun to the moon's surface. The moon, which will have red wavelengths from Earth's atmosphere scattered across its surface, will be fully eclipsed from 7.52pm until 9.23pm.

If it makes it bigger, it's on

Clearly the way to get men to use more condoms is to turn the condom into a tool that makes their dicks bigger.

Great solution to HIV/AIDS in Africa; "What cultural taboo?".

clipped from www.smh.com.au British condom maker Futura Medical Plc said on Thursday that results of a study showed its new condom helped men have firmer and bigger erections, as well as a longer-lasting sexual experience. Shares in the company, which specialises in sexual healthcare and pain relief, rose 14.5 per cent to 59.25 pence on hopes the condom, which will be marketed by Durex condom-maker SSL International, could go on sale next year. Futura said the study of 108 healthy couples showed its CSD500 condom helped men to get a firmer erection compared with a standard condom, increased penis size and made the sexual experience last longer, delivering statistically significant results. The condom has a small amount of gel in its peak that dilates the arteries and increases blood flow to the penis. Global consumption of condoms is around 14 billion per year, of which half are branded condoms that are actually sold, with the rest being condoms distributed to promote safer sex and in developing countries Global Warning Climate Change Environment Lifestyle Green Carbon Sink Earth Australia

Robots to be folk dance historians

When they build a dancebot that can get drunk enough to get out on the dance floor — those Japanese scientist will have a market in Australia.

clipped from www.smh.com.au A HUMAN-SIZED robot shows off its newly learned dance steps. Scientists in Japan who taught the robot to imitate the steps of a dancer say it could be used to record the movements of traditional dances being lost as their performers die off. To demonstrate the prancing dancebot's prowess the team programmed the 1.5 metre tall, 58 kilogram machine to imitate the graceful sways and whirls of the aizu bandaisan, a Japanese folk routine. To prove its accuracy, the robot can perform alongside a human dancer. And despite its Terminator appearance, the robot is remarkably lifelike. Shin'ichiro Nakaoka and his colleagues at Tokyo University taught the dancebot - named HRP-2 or Promet - using video capture techniques to record human dance movements. The New Scientist said these were converted into a sequence of robotic limb movements.

I found a dancebot, from my Video Bar to the left and up, that pulls exactly the same dance moves as me, it's eerie.



How cool is that? You can see it planning its next move. I'll bet this groover pulls the chicks.

New Theory - Periodic Mass Extinctions

The following new theory implies that biodiversity has a built in resilience to keep coming back from cyclical mass extinctions.

clipped from sciencenow.sciencemag.org Deadly wobble. The solar system's rollercoaster-like path around the galaxy periodically makes it vulnerable to lethal radiation from intergalactic space. Researchers may have uncovered the reason why Earth's biodiversity mysteriously plummets periodically. They have found that a rollercoaster-like wobble in the sun's orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy regularly moves Earth closer to a source of dangerous intergalactic cosmic rays. Over the last 500 million years or so, the number of species on Earth has tended to dip regularly about every 62 million years. The last time this happened, about 55 million years ago--or about 10 million years after the great K-T extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs--biodiversity sank by about 10%; around 115 million years ago, it dropped by a similar amount. So far, evolutionary biologists have only been able to establish that the phenomenon seems cyclical, but they haven't isolated a cause.

Drink beer to fight prostate cancer.

Xanthohumol. It's an ingredient in beer that thwarts prostate cancer, however you have to quaff 17 pints for a medically effective dose.

That's good news for the 1 in 11 men who are currently expected to develop prostate cancer during their lifetime in Australia. A not low incidence, but now your doctor can offer you some hope; get an at-risk of prostate cancer diagnosis and head straight down the pub for some preventative therapy. No more do you have to sit around at home worrying about contracting prostate cancer, summon up some dutch courage, get out there and fight the good fight? The more immersed in the treatment regimen you become the treatment you will realise you made the right choice.

An overlooked part of any cure is support, and there is nothing like being surrounded by your mates, shouting you through your convalescence, to know that you will pull though. A happy side effect is that you will be too drunk to worry about cirrhosis of the liver, but if you want to play it safe you can supplement the last few glasses of amber medicine with pizza. There is a flavenoid in the tomato paste that also protects againt prostate cancer, or order double. :::[Study by Fred Stevens of Oregon State University's College of Pharmacy]

For those who suspect their livers may already be in an advanced state of disrepair, scientists believe it is feasible to make pills containing concentrated doses of xanthohumol. Or even better, to bump up the concentration of the flavenoid in hops:

Scientists in Germany have already brewed up a beer containing 10 times as much xanthohumol as found with traditional recipes, according to Stevens.

"It tastes good," Stevens said of the beer, a microbrew with sales limited to within Germany. "It has a bit of a fresh taste."

So, cheers, here's to your very good health. And mine.

Learn more: :::[Wikipedia/hops plant]

Medicinal use

The medically active ingredients in Hops are humulene and lupulene.

Dried female buds have a high methylbutenol content, which has a mild sedative effect on the central nervous system; it is used in the treatment for insomnia, stress and anxiety. If one has trouble getting sleep, hop tea before going to bed may help, though a quantity of beer has similar results.

Hops' antibacterial qualities also stimulate gastric juice production.

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Kiwi classics

"Nobody in Rugby should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
Jono Gibbs - Chiefs

This is just one of the quotable quotes to come out of this last rugby Super 14 season from across the dutch, er, I mean ditch :::[Not PC] Ok one or two more and I'll hand you over to Not PC:

"I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes."
Rodney So'ialo - Hurricanes - on University

"I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
Tana Umaga

"I never comment on referees and I'm not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat."
Ewan McKenzie

Murray Deaker: "Have you ever thought of writing your autobiography?"
Tana Umaga: "On what?"

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