Did you know Trivia - There is a joke currently going around Russia - which has Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev waking up in the Kremlin in 2023 with a vicious hangover. Putin to Medvedev: "Which of us is president and which of us is prime minister today?" "I don't remember," Medvedev replies. "I could be prime minister today." "Then go fetch some beer," Putin says. The point being that it is really Putin who is still in charge and it is all a big sham - maybe some part of the humor is lost in the translation ???? |
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Monday 10 March, 2008 09:01 AM |
Did you know Trivia - Researchers at Durham University, England believe that student under achievement can be due to poor working memory rather than low intelligence. The researchers have developed a checklist -- the Working Memory Rating Scale -- as well as tools to help teachers identify and help children who may have this problem, which researchers said is probably genetically based. "From the various large-scale studies we have done, we believe the only way children with poor working memory can go on to achieving academic success is by teaching them how to learn despite their small capacity to store information mentally," lead researcher Dr. Tracy Alloway of Durham University said in a statement. |
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Monday 10 March, 2008 05:12 AM |
Did you know Trivia - More than 4,000 robots are currently deployed on the ground in Iraq, and at October 2006, there were over 400,000 flight hours clocked up by unmanned aircraft. At the moment, there is always a human in the loop to decide on the use of lethal force. However, this is may change with the US giving priority to autonomous weapons - robots that will make the decisions on where, when, how and who to kill. |
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Monday 10 March, 2008 01:11 AM |
Did you know Trivia - Democracy the Russian way saw elections where more than 109 million Russian citizens were eligible to vote.. There were 96,000 polling stations across the country's 11 time zones. The Central Election Commission said turnout two hours before the last polls closed was over 64 percent, similar to the last presidential election in 2004. Vladimir Putin, barred by the Constitution from serving three consecutive terms as president stepped down. The new president, Dmitry Medvedev has said he would propose making Putin his prime minister - an offer Putin has said he will accept. Medvedev hailed high voter turnout of 67 per cent on Sunday as a 'mandate of confidence,' Elections should be so easy ..... |
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Sunday 9 March, 2008 09:10 PM |
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Did you know Trivia - AUSTINTOWN, Ohio — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is quoted as saying "I'm not interested in just talking," she also said "I'm interested in action.". Now that's no way for a politician to behave - any successful person in public life will tell you that lots of talk and little action is the best way. Maybe thats why she's in trouble. Now Obama on the other hand..... |
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Sunday 9 March, 2008 05:09 PM |
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RESTAURANTS charging inflated prices for wine could be doing their customers a favour. A study has found that people who pay more for a product do enjoy it more.
The researchers discovered that people given two identical red wines to drink said they got much more pleasure from the one they were told had cost more. Brain scans confirmed that their pleasure centres were activated far more by the higher-priced wine ....click the link to read more |
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Tuesday 15 January, 2008 11:10 AM |
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SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean scientists have cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays, an achievement that could help develop cures for human genetic diseases, the Science and Technology Ministry said. Three Turkish Angora cats were born in January and February through cloning with a gene that produces a red fluorescent protein that makes them glow in dark. One died at birth, but the two others survived, the ministry said.
The ministry claimed it was the first time cats with modified genes have been cloned. ...click the link to read more |
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Sunday 16 December, 2007 03:06 PM |
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There are 25 levels, see how high you can get. Very interesting in that the answer forms the url for the page that has the next question on it. The only way to know if you are right or not is if you get to the correct page.
Give you engineering mind a mental workout. ....click the link to read more |
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Saturday 15 December, 2007 03:02 PM |
If Santa Claus were real then he would have some pretty awesome capabilities. In fact I'm pretty sure we can expand this out a little with a bit of imagination. I'm sure he's just scratching the surface. |
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Thursday 6 December, 2007 07:02 AM |
There is a lot of debate in Texas as to whether students in their schools should be taught evolution or intelligent design, or a misture of both. It is taken very seriously, in fact their Education Agency's director of Science has quit (or was fred, it's not entirely clear) over expressing views about the teaching of evolution in schools. Christine Castillo Comer forwarded an email discussing evolution and creationism where apparently she had to remain neutral on the subject.
So, are humans, and all living creatures on this planet, the result of brilliant engineering, or is it just a matter of trial and error? And which should be taught in our schools? |
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Monday 3 December, 2007 11:17 PM |
Forget nuclear power stations and tidal barrages, there’s an exciting new solution to global carbon emissions which involves turning carbon dioxide into bicarbonate of soda. ....click the link to read more |
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Saturday 1 December, 2007 05:08 AM |
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This is just a silly cartoon but the science behind it is probably correct (just on a rediculously tiny scale). Turns out that the Earth may in fact be slowing down (very slowly mind you). ....click the links to read more |
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Monday 26 November, 2007 05:03 PM |
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The dream of developing a computer with a keen sense of humour has edged closer to reality.
A mathematical model to reveal the science of laughter has been engineered and it not only explains where jokes came from in the first place but suggests that humour is inevitable because it is a kind of error detection mechanism to keep the most complex known machine - the human brain - working efficiently. In short, we laugh at our mistakes to improve performance. ....click the link to read more |
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Sunday 25 November, 2007 05:05 PM |
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Like most people, you have probably been frustrated at some point or another by that elusive fly that you could just not swat. There have been many attempts over the years to come up with means of alleviating us from this conundrum but none have been that effective.
With a little understanding of their behaviour you can devise a simple strategy for catching flies. I haven't actually spent much time studying the habits of flies so I can't tell how accurate this is but it is now on my list of things to observe over the next few days. ....click the link to read more |
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Sunday 25 November, 2007 03:02 AM |
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Welcome to the hilarious and often deeply disturbing world of business viral videos Think those stories about hysterical company bosses yelling motivational words across huge conference halls are made up? Missing the sharp tongue of the Apprentice's Katie Hopkins? Want to know how not to apply for a job on Wall Street? Or simply wondering which footage gets the best shot of Sir Richard Branson's grimace after that publicity stunt went wrong?
We bring you rapping accountants and Bernanke-bashing, boardroom sniping and a motivational song about a bank merger.
There's even some educational items among the chart in case the boss wants to know why your morning has been spent on YouTube. .....Click the link to read more |
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Monday 19 November, 2007 11:10 AM |
What can I say. You'd really hate to be the one responsible for this. A new Airbus 340-600 decided to go for a little bit of a spin during technical tests at a French Airport.
The picture says it all really. |
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Sunday 18 November, 2007 01:10 PM |
At some stage or another in your engineering lives you have probably had to test a theory. And you've probably gone about it in a logical and methodical manner. Where's the fun in that? Wouldn't it be a lot more fun to investigate reversing death, or, the look of eugh, or, can you sleep with your eyes open, or, is it possible to make a 2 headed dog, or any of these other weird experiments.
I don't know about you but I reckon I'd have a lot more to talk about down at the pub if I spent my days testing out some of these things. |
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Saturday 17 November, 2007 11:05 PM |
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Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey , some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license. Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennesse ....click the link to read more
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Saturday 17 November, 2007 03:03 PM |
Artificial intelligence has for decades been the Holy Grail of the engineering and computing research community and the AI dream recently took a huge leap forward with the announcement that its sister research arm, Artificial Stupidity , is now a genuine reality.
....click the link to read more
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Saturday 17 November, 2007 11:04 AM |
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What relevance this might have to engineering is a moot point - however we never let small issues like that get in the way of a good story - so read on - IT was already known that men find curvy women more attractive and that they live longer. Now research suggests that women with an hourglass figure are brighter and have cleverer children, too. However it should be noted that curves are often a result of food and more than 90 percent of the nations food budget is spent by a women. This is despite the fact that often the star cooks are men whilst most of the countries food is cooked and served by woman. Several parts of the female anatomy are curved and over 90% of North American women wear a bra , many without ever asking why. Women give various reasons for wearing a bra. Some women with large breasts need it and want it - yet some women suffering from fibrocystic breast disease can get tremendous relief from breast pain by going without bras. So the bottom line is that when it comes to measuring intelligence, there are a number of different methods, the most famous of which is perhaps the IQ, or 'Intelligence Quotient' test. |
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Wednesday 14 November, 2007 05:09 AM |
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