Silenced Majority Portal

Chinese Fossil Turkey / Turkeys Used to Be Smart

Feathered dinosaur fossils find has Chinese scientists all aflutter | Science | The Guardian

David Disalvo - Brainspin – How Smart was Your Thanksgiving Dinner Before it Became Dinner? - True/Slant

The New Blue

Observatory - By Happy Accident, Chemists Produce a New Blue - NYTimes.com

In the intense heat, almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the ingredients formed a crystal structure in which the manganese ions absorbed red and green wavelengths of light and reflected only blue.

When cooled, the manganese-containing oxide remained in this alternate structure. The other ingredients — white yttrium oxide and pale yellow indium oxide — are also required to stabilize the blue crystal. 

layman's translation - a cheaper more vibrant blue

(By coincidence, I read about this just after my "microwave praline" FAIL)

Dr. Mengele & the Brazilian Town of Twins / Boys From Brazil

Wonder if the "Boys From Brazil" movie was referencing this phenomena of frequent twins here - more than 1000% higher than in other places? That movie had the little Hitlers and in this video, a guy thinks Dr. Joseph Mengele had something to do with the incredible twinning in this town.

India Has More Honors Kids Than America Has Kids (& other Techie facts)

(Thanks to Alan Castle, Seattle)

Sony played this video at an executive conference this year. 

Babies Cry With the Accent of Their Mother Tongues

Newborn Babies May Cry in their Mother Tongues - US News and World Report

Researchers discovered that French and German babies (60 were recorded) cry with the same "prosody" or melody used by their parents' language by the second day of life.  French babies ended with an upward lilt at the end of their cry that was typical of French; German babies started off with an intense cry but it dropped at the end, more similar to the emphasis German adults put on a sentence.  (original study from Current Biology)

Isabella Rosellini's Green Porno

She has topped her performance in "Blue Velvet" and "Wild at Heart"     (Thanks to Rick in Miami)

 

This was a Sundance series that can be seen at YouTube now - sex lives of various bugs - great!

Latest H1N1 Advice

If you wake up looking like this, don't go to work. (from Slugbug's uncle, who has a medical background) 

Disney's "Baby Einstein" Revealed as Scam - Plugged by W in his 2007 State of the Union Address

Baby Einstein videos and materials for babieswere touted as so effective that almost 1/3 of American babies between 6 months to two years had the videos. Now Disney is offering refunds to parents who bought the videos, and the American Pediatrics Association recommends that children under two years don't watch television in the first place. The other part of the scam is that it takes a baby, on average, 4x as long with the video to absorb what they can from an interaction with a human. 

Bush gave the originator of Baby Einstein a plug during his 2007 State of the Union Address. It might be interesting to "follow the money."

Crop Circle & Aliens Spotted by Cop

UFO alert: police officer sees aliens at crop circle - Telegraph - He claims they were all over six feet tall and blond - at first he thought they were wearing white coveralls.

Chamber of Commerce Punk'd by "Yes Men"

 

Their new film opened same night in New Orleans and Bhopal India. Both have been sites of impersonations by members of the 300 odd "Yes Men."