-- thinkgeek.com's delicious chocolate zombie bunny! I've been waiting to buy one, but I don't think they're becoming available anytime soon... =(

SEE HERE

-- This is great! haha

"In work recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics, a UTS research team supervised by Professor Guoxiu Wang has developed reproducible test results and nanostructural samples of graphene paper, a material with the potential to revolutionise the automotive, aviation, electrical and optical industries.

Graphene paper (GP) is a material that can be processed, reshaped and reformed from its original raw material state - graphite. Researchers at UTS have successfully milled the raw graphite by purifying and filtering it with chemicals to reshape and reform it into nano-structured configurations which are then processed into sheets as thin as paper.

These graphene nanosheet stacks consist of monolayer hexagonal carbon lattices and are placed in perfectly arranged laminar structures which give them exceptional thermal, electrical and mechanical properties.

Using a synthesised method and heat treatment, the UTS research team has produced material with extraordinary bending, rigidity and hardness mechanical properties. Compared to steel, the prepared GP is six times lighter, five to six times lower density, two times harder with 10 times higher tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity.

Lead researcher Ali Reza Ranjbartoreh said, "No one else has used a similar production and heat testing method to find and carry out such exceptional mechanical properties for graphene paper. We are definitely well ahead of other research societies."

"The exceptional mechanical properties of synthesised GP render it a promising material for commercial and engineering applications.

"Not only is it lighter, stronger, harder and more flexible than steel it is also a recyclable and sustainable manufacturable product that is eco-friendly and cost effective in its use."

Mr Ranjbartoreh said the results promise great benefits for the use of graphene paper in the automotive and aviation industries, allowing the development of lighter and stronger cars and planes that use less fuel, generate less pollution, are cheaper to run and ecologically sustainable..."

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-- Whoa! Apparently the tiger and dogs have grown up together and are great friends. And no, one of the dogs is not trying to hump the tiger there at some point. It's fixed female.

-- And this is why I stopped peeing in the Amazon River.

"If you dive into a pool and open your eyes, the underwater realm shimmers and blurs. Likewise, most fish plopped onto the deck of a ship take in a similarly warped world view. Animals' eyes are typically optimized for either air or water, but now scientists have discovered that one species of chiton, a type of algae-eating mollusk, may use simple, rocklike lenses to see equally well by land or by sea.

Chitons are also called "coat of mail shells" because they sport eight separate back plates, giving them the appearance of an armored knight. Hundreds of tiny eyes dot the surface of these plates, but scientists know very little about how the animals actually see. When biologist Daniel Speiser began studying chiton vision at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, even the material that formed the animals' eyes was a mystery.

So Speiser and his colleagues sliced off the eyes' lenses and performed x-ray analysis to determine their chemical composition and structure. They found that the lenses were made of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate sometimes used in jewelry and the same mineral that makes up chiton shells. Although other animals, such as trilobites, have sported eyes of rock, chitons can lay claim to the first aragonite lenses ever discovered.

Speiser and his team next tested how well these eyes worked. They placed a small black disc into the animals' field of view or dimmed the background from white to a uniform shade of gray that more diffusely blocked the same amount of light as the disc. The chitons clamped their shells tight when shown a 3-centimeter-diameter circle, roughly equivalent to a human seeing an object 20 times larger than the moon. They were unperturbed, however, when the researchers instead dimmed the light. The findings, reported online today in Current Biology, suggest that chitons can distinguish between approaching predators and the general dimming of light that might be caused by a passing cloud..."

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-- Ueli Steck climbs a 13,025 foot mountain in the Swiss Alps in 2 hours and 47 minutes. He holds that peak’s current fastest climb record.

"For this weeks Pin-Up of the Week we celebrate the life of Pin-Up Icon Bettie Page. As one of the World’s most photographed women, Bettie left her mark on a society by doing things her way and not conforming to the typical roles of women. With her erotic, daring photographs she caught the attention of fans and foes, captured the imagination of men and women. Much ahead of her time Bettie exploded onto the scene with her playful exuberant smile, mysterious bright eyes, exotic black hair, sexual confidence and her “not the good girl next door” appeal. She opened the eyes of a country that was craving her arrival! With a genuine desire to live life without limits, Bettie unexpectedly became the guilty pleasure of America. Residing in a barracks, tucked away in dresser drawers, hung on work benchs, pinned to vanities or framed on wall, Bettie Page puts the pin-up era on the map and in our lives!

With locks as dark as midnight and a smile as bright as day, Bettie Page was much more than a beautiful pinup model, she was simply the best. A legend as much today as during her modeling days, every facet of Bettie’s life and personality captures the interest and devotion of the thousands of fans that followed her career until the day of her mysterious disappearance. Bettie’s numerous contradictions undoubtedly added to her charismatic personality. Nice and naughty, shy and daring, simple and exotic, Bettie shone with a freshness never before seen in the modeling industry. Without elaborate props, costumes, or set-dressings, Bettie produced some of the most beautiful shots to ever grace the covers of hundreds of magazines. Bettie’s smoothly tanned skin, deep blue eyes and coal-black hair with her trademark bangs, were enough inspiration to spark the imagination of even the least experienced photographers. Her “girl next door” look and innocent smile only complemented that explosive combination of features..."

-- Who doesn't love a pin-up girl?! ;P

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"WASHINGTON – The Obama administration plans to give the Libyan opposition $25 million in non-lethal assistance in the first direct U.S. aid to the rebels after weeks of assessing their capabilities and intentions, officials said Wednesday.

Amid a debate over whether to offer the rebels broader assistance, including cash and possibly weapons and ammunition, the administration has informed Congress that President Barack Obama intends to use his so-called drawdown authority to give the opposition, led by the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, up to $25 million in surplus American goods to help protect civilians in rebel-held areas threatened by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recommended that Obama authorize the assistance, said the aid would go to support the council and "our efforts to protect civilians and the civilian populated areas that are under threat of attack from their own government in Libya." She said the aid "will be drawn down from items already in government stocks that correspond with the needs that we have heard from the Transitional National Council."

Congress was notified in writing of the plan late last week and was briefed in greater detail on Tuesday by Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, officials said.

Initially, the administration had proposed supplying the rebels with vehicles and portable fuel storage tanks but those items were dropped from the list of potential aid on Wednesday after concerns were expressed that those could be converted into offensive military assets, the officials said..."

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-- A voyeuristic documentation of the high-fashion photography shoot. Nirvana instrumental version. Lovely girls and lovely shots!

"New Jersey Transit will rehire a man who was fired after burning a Quran. The ACLU of New Jersey brought a suit on behalf of Derek Fenton, who was fired for burning a Quran last year on the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

According to settlement papers released by the ACLU, Fenton will get back his $86,110-a-year position, receive backpay at a rate of $331.20 per day since he was fired and he'll receive $25,000 for "Mr. Fenton's pain and suffering." The settlement also states that Fenton will not have to "disavow or recant that conduct" and will not have to undergo any "sensitivity training."

"Our government cannot pick and choose whose free speech rights are protected, based on whether or not they approve of the content of our statements or actions," Fenton said in a statement. "This is the very essence of the First Amendment."

The Newark Star-Ledger reports that Fenton was fired after he attended a protest at the site of the planned Islamic center in lower Manhattan, tore three pages from the Quran and set them on fire..."

-- "Dude, you HAVE no Koran."

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"Inked on the chest of a Pico Rivera gang member was the detailed scene of a liquor store slaying that had stumped an L.A. County sheriff's investigator for more than four years. It leads to a jailhouse confession from Anthony Garcia — and a first-degree murder conviction.

The process was routine. L.A. County Sheriff's homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through snapshots of tattooed gang members.

Then one caught his attention.

Inked on the pudgy chest of a young Pico Rivera gangster who had been picked up and released on a minor offense was the scene of a 2004 liquor store slaying that had stumped Lloyd for more than four years.

Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.

As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias "Chopper" was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene.

Lloyd's discovery of the tattoo in 2008 launched a bizarre investigation that soon led to Anthony Garcia's arrest for the shooting. Then sheriff's detectives, posing as gang members, began talking to Garcia, 25, in his holding cell. They got a confession that this week led to a first-degree murder conviction in a killing investigators had once all but given up hope of solving..."

READ HERE