in.sight

Feb 6 / 12:56pm

Antikythera computer from 2000 years ago more complex than first imagined

The findings, published in Nature, are probably best described as "mind blowing." Devices with this level of complexity were not seen again for almost 1,500 years, and the Antikythera mechanism's compactness actually bests the later designs. Probably built around 150 B.C., the Antikythera mechanism can perform a number of functions just by turning a crank on the side.

via io9.com

Been following the Antikythera phenomenon for most of my life...since I gained interest around age 11. It is so amazing that people overlook simple - yet mind-blowing - discoveries such as this.
Don't you understand? We had advanced computers and calculating mechanisms 1500 years before ANYTHING ELSE of its kind was seen. And this device was seemingly mass-produced. The encroaching hordes of religious warriors and dogmatic belief systems have set us back thousands of years.

Filed under // science technology wtf

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Jan 2 / 1:56pm

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Missile-throwing chimp plots attacks on tourists - How did I miss this story?

A chimp that deliberately fashions discs of concrete to later hurl at zoo visitors is being hailed as definitive proof that the apes plan for future events.
Although similar claims have previously been made about chimps using tools to collect food, what sets Santino – a 30-year-old chimp from Furuvik zoo in Sweden – apart, is that his behaviour, and therefore his apparent state of mind, when collecting the ammunition seems markedly different from when he launches his attacks.
"The chimp has without exception been calm during gathering or manufacture of the ammunition, in contrast to the typically aroused state [when he throws the rocks]," says Mathias Osvath of the University of Lund, also in Sweden.

So, we are not the only beings that create and stockpile weapons for battle. As Jane Goodall states in Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos, "Sadly, also like us, they [chimps] have a dark side: they are aggressively territorial, and may perform acts of extreme brutality and even wage a kind of primative war." Perhaps the chimpanzees will help us "tone down" the primate races so that another species may rise in our place.

via New Scientist

Filed under // animals behavior science war

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Oct 14 / 10:27pm

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World's first omnivorous spider

Researchers in Central America have discovered a spider that dines on plants. B. kiplingi evades dangerous ants to feast on the tips of the acacia plant.

Picture of spiders

In Mexico and Costa Rica, the researchers logged 72 hours of spider observation, noting more than 150 instances of vegetarian snacking. Beltian bodies made up more than 90% of the spiders' meals in Mexico. The Costa Rican spiders weren't as strict, dining 60% on Beltian bodies and the rest on acacia nectar, ant larvae, and other insects. In both places, the spiders were adept at evading the aggressive ants whose food they swiped. They're so agile that the ants "just can never catch them," Meehan says.

via ScienceMag

Filed under // cool food photo science

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Jan 1 / 4:39pm

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