-- This document is an Arabic manual for Egyptian protesters circulated via email and in hard copy prior to the protests on Friday January 28, 2010. For background on the document and English translations of selected portions, see The Atlantic’s article Egyptian Activists’ Action Plan: Translated. via Public Intelligence.

READ HERE

“The people of Cairo are now waiting to learn the toll from the battle of Tahrir Square on Wednesday. The clashes, which broke out barely an hour after the government allowed Internet connections to resume, have added a new twist to the drama that has gripped the Arab world's largest country: Has the army been on the side of the government after all?

Since military tanks moved in across Egypt on Jan. 28, the army has largely held the support of the anti-government demonstrators and the city's residents. "The whole military is supporting the revolution," said Taher Mohamed, a lawyer, as he headed into Tuesday's so-called march of millions. The sentiment was widespread: the army is neutral; it represents the people; it has refused to fire on demonstrators. Protesters hoping to see President Hosni Mubarak fall paused to shake hands with soldiers or cheer them from the tops of tanks. (See TIME's exclusive pictures of the turmoil in Egypt.)

But on Wednesday, busloads of Mubarak supporters armed with sticks and machetes as well as a small army of men on horseback were able to get through Cairo's many military and civilian checkpoints, advancing into Tahrir Square seemingly without hindrance from the military. All of this occurred on a day when pedestrians and drivers had to weave their way through practically impenetrable army roadblocks all around downtown Cairo…”

-- That's what I've been afraid of since their apparent declaration of neutrality. There's too many unknowns. Hopefully this revolution does not turn in to a civil war.

READ HERE

-- Open Source Ecology — a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters who believe that “everyone in the world should have access to the technologies they need to escape poverty” — are hard at work on piecing together The Global Village Construction Set: “A set of the 40 different machines that it takes to create a small civilization with modern-day comforts.”

So far only one machine — a Compressed-Earth Brick Press — has been made available for purchase, but other machines will be following shortly.

Learn about the GVCS and how you can participate at OpenEcology.org. via The Daily What.

SEE HERE

-- Excellent and very real short film. Watch it.

“Swimming is supposed to give you a healthy glow, but these swimmers weren't quite sure what was going on when they took a late-night dip and turned a fluorescent shade of blue.

'It was like we were playing with radioactive paint,' said photographer Phil Hart who snapped the bizarre sight as his friends emerged from a lake in the dark of night.

The light is created by a chemical reaction called bioluminescence, which happens when a naturally-occuring micro-organism in the water is disturbed.

Phil, 34, put his camera on a very slow shutter speed and threw sand and stones into the water to cause the reaction and capture as much of the blue haze as possible.

These images are particularly stunning because the concentration of the micro-organism 'Noctiluca Scintillans' was abnormally high when he took the photos at Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia.

Phil said: 'To be there watching this bioluminescence is spellbinding and to see it like this is very rare.

'I am a program director with an organisation that has been running canoeing camps on the Gippsland Lakes for 50 years. Nobody can remember the bioluminescence ever being as bright as this…”

READ HERE

-- HOLY!!!

READ HERE

-- Finally got around to watching this... lol

"It is the largest and most complex star forming region in the entire galactic neighborhood. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy orbiting our Milky Way galaxy, the region's spidery appearance is responsible for its popular name, the Tarantula nebula. This tarantula, however, is about 1,000 light-years across. Were it placed at the distance of Milky Way's Orion Nebula, only 1,500 light-years distant and the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, it would appear to cover about 30 degrees (60 full moons) on the sky. Intriguing details of the nebula are visible in the above image shown in scientific colors. The spindly arms of the Tarantula nebula surround NGC 2070, a star cluster that contains some of the brightest, most massive stars known, visible in blue on the right. Since massive stars live fast and die young, it is not so surprising that the cosmic Tarantula also lies near the site of the closest recent supernova."

SEE HERE

-- Although they need a couple of people on the roof at all times, just to keep everything balanced.

SEE HERE

“The 100 dogs were shot dead over two days after an expected post-Olympics boon in dogsledding business at an adventure company didn't pan out. Most died instantly, but others suffered — like the one that ran away with its "face blown off and an eye hanging out."

The gruesome event was described in documents awarding compensation to a worker, who claimed post-traumatic stress disorder for having to shoot the dogs after bookings dropped sharply for a tour operator following the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"He had to chase her down and finish her off," Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said of the wounded down that was run down and slain.

Moriarty said the slaughter left her sickened and said it is the worst investigation she's ever done. Both the British Columbia SPCA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the slaughter.

Moriarty said all the other dogs would have seen the incident in which the one dog did not die instantly from the single gunshot to the head and ran away from the worker…”

READ HERE

-- You will love it. Watch now.