It is claimed that 13 ancient crystal skulls have been found with mysterious properties.
The Mitchell-Hedges family loaned the skull to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for extensive study in 1970. Art restorer Frank Dorland oversaw the testing at the Santa Clara, California, computer equipment manufacturer, a leading facility for crystal research. The HP examinations yielded some startling results.
Researchers found that the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. Modern crystal sculptors always take into account the axis, or orientation of the crystal's molecular symmetry, because if they carve "against the grain," the piece is bound to shatter -- even with the use of lasers and other high-tech cutting methods.
To compound the strangeness, HP could find no microscopic scratches on the crystal which would indicate it had been carved with metal instruments. Dorland's best hypothesis for the skull's construction is that it was roughly hewn out with diamonds, and then the detail work was meticulously done with a gentle solution of silicon sand and water. The exhausting job -- assuming it could possibly be done in this way -- would have required man-hours adding up to 300 years to complete.
Note: 5/08, crystal skulls find themselves in the lates Indiana Jones movie!
Simply put, the eyeglass lens is a tool you use to focus light appropriately on your retina. For example, a lens that is concave, or curves inward, is used to correct nearsightedness, while a lens that is convex, or curves outward, is used to correct farsightedness.
Nearsightedness causes nearby objects to appear clear, while objects farther away look blurry. Farsightedness is where far away objects appear clear and objects up close appear blurry.
To correct astigmatism, which is caused by distortions in the shape of the cornea, a cylinder shaped lens is frequently used.
"The pain of having less is much stronger than the joy of having more." Workers who discover they're earning more for the same work may be happy, but those who earn less can quickly feel slighted, killing motivation and often the quality of their output.
A new study (2/08) suggests that sadness leads to shopping.
According to the study that will be published in the June 2008 number of Psychological Science, sadness leads to ego-centrist thinking. In other words, a sad person tends to transform into a shopaholic, willing to spend extra money on the same item than neutral-emotion people would buy for a lot less.
“It is the combination of sadness and self-focus that drives the effect, and it turns out that sadness leads to an increase in self-focus,” said Cynthia Cryder, co-author to the study, AFP quotes. “What we think is going on is that sad and self-focused people are feeling pretty bad about themselves and have a decreased valuation, and one way to do this is by acquiring material goods.”
Oh yeah, it also says this therapy does not work. If you’re sad and feel like shopping, don’t!
French Bulldogs aren't known as big barkers, which is part of why they work so well in apartments. They "talk" more with snorts, grumbles, and yawns than with nonstop yapping.
Labrador Retrievers are the breed used most often as guide dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired. Guide dog schools love them for their intelligence, steady temperament, and eagerness to work, and Lab and Golden Retriever crosses are also common.
A German Shepherd's nose has about 225 million scent receptors, compared with roughly 5 million in a human. That huge difference is why they excel at tracking and detection work.
Siberian cats have a triple coat with a guard layer, a middle layer, and a dense undercoat, which works like built-in winter gear against Russian winters.
The Diary of Merer, discovered in 2013, is the oldest known inscribed papyrus. It records an official's work transporting limestone blocks for the Great Pyramid.
Hero of Alexandria described the aeolipile, a spinning steam-powered device, in the first century AD, but it was treated as a curiosity rather than a machine for work.
Italian inventor Antonio Meucci developed an early telephone-like device decades before Bell, and in 2002 the US House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing his work.
Guglielmo Marconi is usually credited with inventing the radio, but a 1943 US Supreme Court decision invalidated key parts of his patent, recognizing earlier work by others including Nikola Tesla.
A theremin has two antennas. Moving one hand near the vertical antenna changes the pitch, and moving the other near the loop antenna changes the volume.
Most of the world's electricity is still made by steam turbines, since coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants all work by boiling water to spin a turbine.