there's always time to pump
I think I got most of the errors, let me know if I missed any. -steele
All posts by Ankylosaur
Friday, 28 February 2020

Seagulls favor food humans have handled

quote [ Herring gulls were presented with two identical food items -- one of which they had seen a human holding. The gulls pecked more often at the handled food, suggesting they use human actions when deciding what to eat. The University of Exeter study follows previous research which found that staring at seagulls makes them less likely to steal food.

"Our study shows that cues from humans may play an important part in the way gulls find food, and could partly explain why gulls have been successful in colonising urban areas." ]

Are you a good gull model?

[SFW] [food & drink] [+5 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@10:37amGMT] [6 comments]

Wednesday, 4 September 2019

Move over ESA observation satellite, SpaceX has no plans to move their satellite out of the way

quote [ On Monday, the European Space Agency was forced to move its observation satellite aside to make room for a SpaceX satellite in the Starlink constellation. When the ESA contacted Starlink about the increasingly close approach last Wednesday, the company reportedly said they had no plans to move their satellite out of the way.

Holger Krag, ESA: "What I want is an organised way of doing space traffic. It must be clear when you have such a situation who has to react. It cannot be when we have 10,000 satellites in space that there are operators writing the email what to do. This is not how I imagine modern spaceflight." ]

When reached for comment, Elon Musk accused the ESA of frotteurism.
[SFW] [science & technology] [+2]
[by Ankylosaur@9:45amGMT] [3 comments]

Saturday, 17 August 2019

Move over regular shorts, exoshorts are the hip, new way to reduce the metabolic rate of walking and running

quote [ A pair of fitted shorts may not look much like the high-tech robotic exoskeletons of Hollywood films. But this seemingly simple device, which tugs on the wearer’s legs with each step, probably represents the first exosuit capable of significantly assisting humans in both walking and running. ]

They went from exoleg-warmers in 2017 to exoshorts. Expect exospeedos next.

[SFW] [Virtual & Augmented Reality] [+2 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@5:47pmGMT] [12 comments]

Thursday, 8 August 2019

You Are Jeff Bezos

quote [ When you wake up this morning from unsettling dreams, you find yourself changed in your bed into a monstrous vermin.

You are Jeff Bezos.

Current Worth:$156,000,000,000 ]

Kafka meets Brewster's Millions by way of Zork.
[SFW] [games] [+10]
[by Ankylosaur@11:07pmGMT] [1 comment]

Tuesday, 6 August 2019

Arque: Artificial Biomimicry-Inspired Tail for Extending Innate Body Functions

quote [ In this work, we present Arque, an artificial biomimicry-inspired tail to allow us to alter our body momentum for assistive, and full body haptic feedback. In some situations, our bodies may lack the ability to support, or balance us when we are climbing high cliff, or lifting heavy objects.

Several previous work addressed the limitations of our bodies by augmenting our existing upper and lower limbs we accustomed to. However, unlike human body, several vertebrate animals rely on their tail passively for their mobility and balance. Thus, in this work, we aim to expand our innate body functions passively through biomimicry inspired tail. ]

...It's not a sex thing.

[SFW] [Virtual & Augmented Reality] [+6 Hot Pr0n]
[by Ankylosaur@2:13pmGMT] [5 comments]



Thursday, 18 July 2019

Roentgenizdat: The Strange Story of Soviet Music on the Bone

quote [ In the USSR during the cold war era, the music people could listen to was ruthlessly controlled by the State. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censor. Incredibly, they built their own recording machines and used an extraordinary means of copying forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll and banned Russian music to risk making their own records. ]

Bootleggers secretly cut forbidden music onto discarded x-rays.

[SFW] [music] [+2 laz0r]
[by Ankylosaur@11:04pmGMT] [1 comment]

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Are plants not conscious? Botanists take controversial stand against plant neurobiology

quote [ Frustrated by more than a decade of research which claims to reveal intentions, feelings and even consciousness in plants, more traditionally minded botanists have finally snapped. Plants, they protest, are emphatically not conscious. They argue that practitioners of "plant neurobiology” have become carried away with the admittedly impressive abilities of plants to sense and react to their environments.

Taiz: "They want to raise people's consciousness about plants as living organisms and reach them on an emotional level. I'm very sympathetic to the motivations, but it is clouding their objectivity. They have to be prepared for the fact that plants may not have consciousness" ]

But it's ok to eat figs, 'cause they don't have any feelings.

[SFW] [science & technology] [+4 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@10:35pmGMT] [1 comment]

3 reasons the American Revolution was a mistake

quote [ A world in which the American Revolution never happened would be better than the one we live in now, for three main reasons: Slavery would've been abolished earlier, American Indians would've faced rampant persecution but not the outright ethnic cleansing Andrew Jackson and other American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of government that makes policymaking easier and lessens the risk of democratic collapse. ]

You, you, you oughta know.

[SFW] [politics] [+4 Funsightful]
[by Ankylosaur@9:58pmGMT] [3 comments]

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

HUMAN-URINE-SALT ADDICTED MOUNTAIN GOATS TERRORIZE OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK

quote [ Hundreds of mountain goats in Olympic National Park, WA have become so addicted to the salt found in human urine and sweat that they are an aggressive menace to national park visitors, charging at hikers and trampling vegetation. They have a taste for salt and minerals in human urine, and sweat on clothes and backpacks, according to officials.

The solution to this problem? Airlift 375 of the non-native grumpy animals to more remote areas closer to their natural habitat [in the Cascades] where they will be less of a nuisance.

"Park officials urged walkers not to urinate along trails, to avoid turning paths into 'long, linear salt licks' and attracting goats." ]

It's like that Star Trek episode, only with goats.

[SFW] [environment & nature] [+6 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@1:18amGMT] [2 comments]

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Move over male marsonauts, sperm banks in space are the hot new way to colonize Mars

quote [ All-female astronaut crews could reproduce in space without the help of accompanying men, new research suggests.

The study found that frozen samples of sperm exposed to microgravity retained similar characteristics to sperm samples kept on the ground, raising hopes that a sperm bank could one day be set up in space to help populate new worlds.

This could prove interesting for female astronauts, amid reports that future missions to Mars may involve women-only space crews. ]

Bulky males are inefficient.
[SFW] [science & technology] [+2 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@8:28pmGMT] [4 comments]



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