Like they need any more reason to eat us.

Experts at the Loch Lomond Sea Life Centre in Balloch, Dunbartonshire, Scotland have decided that they want to pipe Christmas music into their shark enclosure and gauge the dozens of nurse sharks', black-tip reef sharks', and ray species' reactions. Focusing on pop holiday songs, — from Bing Crosby's White Christmas to Last Christmas by Wham! — the sharks' response is displayed through their body language. Signs of irritation or aggression can include making sharp turns, lowering their fin tips and swimming faster. Oh, and eating people.
Let's see how you react. Listen to samples of the two songs mentioned above. Do you now want to eat people?

Story via The Scotsman.

Tom Hanks may need another bad hairdo.

Image by Glynnis Ritchie via FlickrThe Times has an article about the discovery of nearly invisible sketches on the back of Leonardo DaVinci's painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (at left). And it only took them 3 sentences before mentioning Dan Brown.
The sketches were discovered when the painting was removed from a wall in the Louve for restoration. Faint gray marks on the back of the wood that the work was mounted on resembled a skull and horse, but were thought to be stains. When analyzed with an IR camera the sketches of a skull and horse were clearly visible and a third sketch, a possible draft of the baby Jebus that appears in the painting on the obverse.
Because the style of the sketches closely matches other known drawings of DaVinci's it is believed that they were created by the master himself. Other art historians think they may be from one of DaVinci's many followers, practicing in DaVinci's style.

read more »

Pew pew pew — or should that be ρεω ρεω ρεω?

Rioters in Greece have been going at it for a couple weeks now. Set off by the police killing of a 15-year-old boy, protesters have thrown rocks, bricks, eggs, small explosives and now they're throwing photons. According to the Daily Mail UK, recently the demonstrators have been using green lasers to temporarily blind the police. There isn't a lot of details on the lasers themselves, but they're probably slightly more than your average pointer. I'd imagine that they're fairly useful in resisting a small group of police. As long as they keep them below a certain mW threshold, the lasers only temporarily blind and don't cause permanent damage (like a brick could). A handheld laser won't break windows but still slows down the authorities.

Photo from Reuters via Daily Mail UK.

Deck The Harblz

more lolcats

5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 1! Happy New Year!

As occasionally warranted, this year will magically be 1 second longer, according to Live Science. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service will be adding the new second on the last day of this year at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time — 6:59:59pm EST. So enjoy your shiny new second!

Mike hog.

This article on Boston.com goes out as a warning to my friends Randix and Xander on what to avoid next time they go out to karaoke. When the song's over, let someone else go — you can always sign-up for a later song.

Leolith

In addition to optics and theme parks, I've always had an affinity for ancient civilizations, especially the Egyptians. It's a life goal of mine to visit the pyramids at Giza, so I was intrigued by this article from the UK's Daily Mail about the Great Sphinx. A new historical study suggests that the famous pharaoh's head on a lion's body may not be the original design.
Some Egyptologists are arguing that the original statue was that of a giant lion and was only later adapted and carved down to the human head it is now. Earlier ruins that the pyramids may have been built over and water erosion to the stones surrounding the sphinx suggest that the original lion monument could be 2000 years older than previously though, dating from between the 6th and 5th millennium BCE, which would be a millennium or so before the accepted beginning date of the Egyptian civilization.
I think that it's very plausible. Not only comparing the size of the current head to the body, but also the penchant for us humans to build and improve upon older designs makes a story like this quite possible.

read more »

Still too heavy for the average shark.

From Laser Focus World comes an article about Northrop Grumman's FIRESTRIKE™ laser system. Before the FIRESTRIKE™, weaponized lasers were usually chemical based and required big tanks of poisonous gas or liquids. While solid-state lasers don't have the need for dangerous chemicals, they're typically low power and used as a pointer for larger lasers or to shine in enemies' eyes. With the new solid-state, ruggedized FIRESTRIKE™, a (relatively) compact 400lb module can deliver up to 15kW per unit, with the ability to daisy-chain up to 8 of them together to increase the output to a full 100kW.
Listed with a beam quality of 1.5 times the diffraction limit, it's amazing to think of the amount of design (optical and electrical) that went into something like this. Currently, the system is specified at around a 20% electro-optical efficiency, meaning that an 8 module system at 100kW output would weigh 1.6 tons and require 0.5 megawatts of electricity (which means a bolt of lighting could power a 242 megawatt laser pulse!) A half megawatt is within the range of military vehicles, so laser tanks could be on their way.
Put these in battle alongside the ABL, airplane-based laser systems, and we will be that much closer to epic laser wars. Of course these will be real lasers that you can't see zipping though space in pretty red and green colors.

read more »