Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Medical School has just recently completed a study on sleep deprivation. The study concludes that not getting enough sleep more than doubles the chances of death from a variety of health related causes. Surprisingly, the same is true of getting too much sleep. So don’t go using this as an excuse to sleep in every day. Cause that will kill you too.
Personally I’m a big fan of sleep. But of course, like most people I don’t get enough of it. The optimal amount of sleep according to the study, is 7 hours. In my life I usually get between 5 and 6 hours. Which according to the study, means I am twice as likely to die. So I guess if you stop seeing posts on here, you can assume that my lack of sleep has finally killed me.
Ok, I admit it. I love history and archeology fascinates me. Reconstructing the past is can be so interesting. So when I read this article I was pretty interested.
It seems that archaeologists have found the quarry where the stones for Herod’s temple were cut. If you don’t know any of the history of the temple in Jerusalem, you won’t have any idea what I’m talking about. The original temple in Jerusalem was built by Solomon and was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonian empire. It was rebuilt in 515 BC after control of Israel passed to the Persian empire.
Herod was a proxy ruler of Israel for the Roman Senate from 73 BC – 4 BC. Since Herod wasn’t Jewish, he was viewed by many Jews as a conquerer and oppressor. And the truth is, he wasn’t all that kind to his subjects. But in an effort to increase his popularity, he started a massive renovation of the Temple. That renovation was completed in 19 BC. Consequently, the temple became known as Herod’s Temple.
I found this amazing article about the abandoned skyscrapers in Bangkok Thailand. During the early 90s many Asian economies grew at a rapid rate. But in 1997, many of these nations had a serious financial crisis. Overnight stock markets crashed, currencies were devalued, and prime real estate became worthless. Though nearly all of the Asian markets felt the effects, Thailand was one of the hardest hit.
With it’s currency suddenly devalued, thriving businesses went bankrupt with no warning. When this happened to developers, many of the massive projects they were working on were simply abandoned. The city of Bangkok which had been growing at a fantastic rate, suddenly didn’t need any new office buildings or skyscrapers. So the skyscrapers were just abandoned, becoming “ghost buildings.”
Check out this video to see some of the many projects left partially finished and rusting away.
This video has no real point whatsoever, but I thought I would post it anyway. It’s nothing but a bunch of mice and what I believe are rats surfing. Have fun.
Paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum of Natural History have conclusively identified Quill knobs on velociraptor bones. Proving that velociraptors had feathers. Scintists have suspected that raptors had feathers for some time, but have never been able to prove it. Now with the discovery of quill knobs they know for sure.
So I guess the old Jurassic park movies will start to look even more dated. I remember how scary the raptors were in that movie. Trying to picture them with feathers just doesn’t quite cut it. Instead of the dangerous lizard look, we get the big ostrich look. Probably still just as dangerous, but it doesn’t quite have that same instinctive fear that the big lizard does. LOL
Dark Roasted Blend has a great post about Japanese vending machines. In Japan you can buy nearly anything from vending machines. Batteries, sodas, groceries, even beer and cigarettes. Pretty much, if it is possible for a machine to dispense it, Japan has a vending machine capable of selling it.
This is something I noticed when I was in Japan. It seemed like there were vending machines on every corner. And many of them sold things like beer and cigarettes that are prohibited to minors. It seems that the machines are not required to enforce age limits on the purchase of controlled substances.
A group of artists from Sao Paulo Brazil have taken to the streets to paint the storm drains with cool looking art. Everything from monsters reaching out of the drains to get you, to video players receiving tapes.
I think this is a great idea. Storm drains are never nice to look at, but once they are painted like this, they are actually pretty amazing.
Check out the entire collection at 6Emia.com
And the Flickr Group: 6EMEIA
Well, using the same techniques that were used in the pig experiments, a company has modified fish to glow. The original purpose of the modification was to help detect pollutants in water supplies, but now a company is selling the modified fish as pets. They are only available in the US, but if you live in the US and want a glowing neon fish in your fish bowl, you can buy them now.
DeputyDog has a great post about the kawazu loop bridge. The Kawazu Loop Bridge is a two storied spiral bridge along National Route 414 in Japan. The Kawazu bridge is one of the only bridges in the world with a double loop.
After looking at the pictures here, check out the original article for more photos.
