A Florida teen took his love of snakes a little too far last weekend when the venomous water moccasin he kept in a pillowcase on his bed escaped and bit him on the lip.
Austin Hatfield, 18, is recovering from extreme swelling at a Tampa hospital, still too sick to talk to officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who want to know more about his capturing snakes without a permit.
Hatfield caught the pit viper – also known as a cottonmouth – last week and kept it in his room, bragging to friend he had kissed the serpent.
“He kisses it right on the head. Right on the mouth. He’s not afraid of death,” said Hatfield’s best friend, Jason Belcher.
That all changed over the weekend when the snake escaped from its pillowcase, slithered across Hatfield’s stomach and onto the floor, reported the Tampa Tribune. It struck when Hatfield tried to recapture it. (Read more from “Teen Bitten by Water Moccasin He Kept on His Bed” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-23 01:17:312015-04-23 01:17:31Teen Bitten by Water Moccasin He Kept on His Bed
By Steve Tobak. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was a Galactic Empire, a beady-eyed Emperor and his heavy-breathing sidekick, Darth Vader. Ever since, we’ve identified the corporate villains we love to hate. We had AT&T (T) in the 70s, IBM (IBM) in the 80s, and the evil empire of the 90s was of course Microsoft (MSFT)and Bill “The Conqueror” Gates.
Today we have Google (GOOGL). Don’t let the geeky façade, whimsical multicolored logo and “don’t be evil” mantra fool you. Google may very well be the most sinister threat and wicked incarnation of them all.
In an interview with the Atlantic almost five years ago, the search empire’s dark lord himself, Eric Schmidt, said, “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.” He said, “I would argue that implanting things in your brain is beyond the creepy line – at least for the moment until the technology gets better.”
Then things got even creepier when Schmidt said, “We don’t need you to type at all because we know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less guess what you’re thinking about.” Then he paused and asked, “Is that over the line?”
Clearly, this creepy virtual line of Google’s is not just a moving target but a highly subjective one. How do they know when they’ve crossed it? Perhaps the more appropriate question to ask is how many lines does Google have to cross before its executives realize – before we realize – that they’re doing evil? (Read more from “Why Google Is the New Evil Empire” HERE)
Google Will Let You See Everything You’ve Ever Searched
By Julian Hattem. Google is famous for keeping discreet tabs on how people browse the Internet in order to market ads back to them and point them toward the websites, videos and services they want.
Now, it’s possible for the average Web user to get a slice of some of that information.
Over the weekend, an unofficial Google blog highlighted a new feature that the Internet giant had quietly rolled out to let people download their entire Google search histories.
To find everything they’ve ever searched for, users should go to Google Web History, click the gear icon and click “Download.” (Read more from this story HERE)
Google Lobbying Spending Reached New High in Early 2015
By Diane Bartz. Google Inc , already one of Washington’s biggest spenders, set a company record for its lobbying activity in the first quarter of 2015 when it spent $5.5 million, according to a government database.
Google ranked ninth in terms of total lobbying spending in 2014 at $16.8 million, behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($124 million) and the National Association of Realtors ($55 million), according to the Center for Responsive Politics . . .
The $5.5 million Google spent in the first three months of 2015 is the most since the company began lobbying in 2007, according to the government database. Its ranking for this quarter’s spending could not be immediately determined.
Google’s growing investment in lobbying highlights the tech firm’s expanding presence in Washington as it fights antitrust battles at home and abroad, and grows its business into new areas such as broadband connectivity and self-driving cars. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-22 03:54:272015-04-22 03:54:27Why Google Is the New Evil Empire [+video]
De-extinction, or the idea of bringing extinct species back from the dead, has come a long way over the quarter century since Jurassic Park was first published. It has now matured into a quasi-serious science and has even been the subject of its own TEDx conference.
Of course, no-one is talking about bringing back dinosaurs – their DNA is lost for good – but some scientists are proposing to resurrect a range of other, more-recently extinct species such as the passenger pigeon and the gastric-brooding frog, both lost within living memory.
There are quite a few animals that have become extinct relatively recently that are potential candidates for de-extinction. They include the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a large marsupial carnivore wiped out by sheep ranchers a century ago, the Pyrenean ibex which was hunted for sport until the last one fell dead in 2000, and the Steller’s sea cow, a gentle giant annihilated by hungry sailors in the 18th century.
Perhaps the most emblematic of them all is the woolly mammoth. There are few animals that better represent the lost world of the Pleistocene than these huge, shaggy relatives of the modern elephant. Woolly mammoths roamed the vast grassy steppe of Eurasia and North America for hundreds of millennia. The very last individuals were an isolated population of pygmy woolly mammoths that lived on Wrangel Island off northern Russia about 4,500 years ago.
There is no shortage of woolly mammoth tissue, some of it remarkably well preserved in the permafrost of Siberia and some scientists are confident that they can extract its DNA to bring the species back to life, either as clones or as a kind of mammoth-elephant hybrid. (Read more from “Race to Modify the DNA of Endangered Animals and Resurrect Extinct Ones” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-21 03:37:322015-04-21 03:37:32Race to Modify the DNA of Endangered Animals and Resurrect Extinct Ones [+video]
There’s going to be one less car on the road able to make the jumps a cop’s got to make in order to snag the bad guy (well, at least if that bad guy’s Boss Hogg).
An NYPD officer who owns a replica of the General Lee car made famous by The Dukes of Hazard television series drove it to work a couple of times, according to a police source.
A CBS2 viewer spotted the vehicle in a lot authorized for police officers, snapped a photo, and sent it to the station.
CBS2 reported that the NYPD took action:
A [NYPD] spokesman said, “due to the fact that its presence at the NYPD facility may be considered offensive and/or inappropriate, the registered owner is being instructed that the car should not be parked on NYPD property.”
(Read more from “The NYPD Banned One of the ‘Good Ole Boys’ in Blue from Driving His ‘Racist’ Car to Work” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-20 03:38:262015-04-20 03:38:26The NYPD Banned One of the ‘Good Ole Boys’ in Blue from Driving His ‘Racist’ Car to Work
It is the unexplained buzzing noise that has fed suspicions of an alien invasion or UFO activity in the skies.
But the mystery of a bizarre drone that has plagued millions of people around the world could finally be solved, scientists believe.
‘The Hum’ – as it is known – can be heard by some more than others and has been blamed for pushing people to the brink of madness with sleepless nights and a constant ringing in the ears.
Some thought it was the fault of gas pipes or power lines, but experts now believe the elusive buzzing is down to “ocean waves”.
Researchers say currents in the sea cause the Earth to vibrate subtly as they shift across its surface, creating “microseismic” activity that elicits a “ring”. (Read more from “Mystery of Earth’s ‘Hum’ Heard by Millions SOLVED by Researchers” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-18 03:28:142015-04-18 03:28:14Mystery of Earth’s ‘Hum’ Heard by Millions SOLVED by Researchers
In a bizarre twist to a violent kidnapping, a Renton [Iowa] couple was stunned to learn the child they were babysitting had been abducted.
“It’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” said John Truong moments after police took custody of the 2-year-old boy. “It’s like something out of a movie.”
Authorities issued an Amber Alert Tuesday night after learning the toddler and his mother had been kidnapped from their home in Des Moines. Tuong and his wife didn’t know about the alert until early the next morning.
“I’m eating my breakfast, I’m checking my Facebook, all of a sudden I see this Amber Alert for this child,” recounted Tuong. “And it looks like this child in my bed, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God! What’s going on?’ ”
He called police, who arrived to find the boy safe and sound. Tuong then explained to detectives how the boy he had never seen before ended up at his house. (Read more from “Couple Shocked to Learn They Were Babysitting a Kidnapped Child” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-18 03:27:522015-04-18 03:27:52Couple Shocked to Learn They Were Babysitting a Kidnapped Child
A protein which ‘turbo-charges’ the immune system so that it can fight off any cancer or virus has been discovered by scientists.
In a breakthrough described as a ‘game-changer’ for cancer treatment, researchers at Imperial College found a previously unknown molecule which boosts the body’s ability to fight off chronic illnesses.
Scientists at Imperial College London, who led the study, are now developing a gene therapy based on the protein and hope to begin human trials in three years.
“This is exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt, from the Section of Immunobiology in the Department of Medicine at Imperial, who led the study.
“It could be a game-changer for treating a number of different cancers and viruses.” (Read more from “Scientists Find Key to ‘Turbo-Charging’ Immune System to Kill All Cancers” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-17 02:01:302015-04-17 02:01:30Scientists Find Key to ‘Turbo-Charging’ Immune System to Kill All Cancers
It is likely the first person who will live to be 1,000 years old is already alive today.
This is according to a growing regiment of researchers who believe a biological revolution enabling humans to experience everlasting youthfulness is just around the corner.
At the epicentre of the research is Aubrey de Grey — a Cambridge gerontologist and co-founder or the California-based Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation.
“The first thing I want to do is get rid of the use of this word immortality, because it’s enormously damaging, it is not just wrong, it is damaging,” he told Motherboard.
“It means zero risk of death from any cause — whereas I just work on one particular cause of death, namely ageing.” (Read more from “Researchers Believe a Biological Revolution Enabling Humans to Experience Everlasting Youthfulness Is Coming” HERE)
Decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after a robot sent in to a damaged reactor to locate melted fuel stalled hours into its mission and had to be abandoned.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the robot stopped moving on Friday during its first inspection of the containment vessel inside reactor No 1, one of the three reactors that suffered meltdown after the plant was struck by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Tepco, which recently conceded that the technology for robots to retrieve the nuclear fuel had yet to be developed, said on Monday it would cut the cables to the stranded robot and postpone a similar inspection using a separate device.
Developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, the robot was supposed to be able to function for about 10 hours even when exposed to radiation at levels that would cause ordinary electronic devices to malfunction.
The “transformer” robot, which can alter its shape depending on its surroundings, was sent in to photograph the inside of the reactor containment vessel and record temperatures and radiation levels. (Read more from “Fukushima Robot Stranded After Stalling Inside Reactor” HERE)
Orthorexia nervosa, the ‘health food eating disorder’, gets its name from the Greek word ortho, meaning straight, proper or correct.
This exaggerated focus on food can be seen today in some people who follow lifestyle movements such as ‘raw’, ‘clean’ and ‘paleo’.
American doctor Steven Bratman coined the term ‘orthorexia nervosa’ in 1997 some time after his experience in a commune in upstate New York.
It was there he developed an unhealthy obsession with eating ‘proper’ food.
‘All I could think about was food,’ he said. ‘But even when I became aware that my scrabbling in the dirt after raw vegetables and wild plants had become an obsession, I found it terribly difficult to free myself. (Read more from “Why Raw Food and Paleo Dieting May Be the New Eating Disorder” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-13 01:26:272015-04-13 01:26:27Why Raw Food and Paleo Dieting May Be the New Eating Disorder
