Thursday, December 29, 2011

O Lovely: 15 Spectacular tricks to teach your body.......

O Lovely: 15 Spectacular tricks to teach your body.......: 1.) If you've got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear. When the nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the t...

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

700 Layers Of Human Brain in 47 Seconds --- Amazing


Perhaps not for everyone however this is a facinating video. It's hard to imagine how the allure of anatomy served thinly sliced could ever cease to be enchanting somehow for myself. The clip, while brief, comprises 700 images of a cryosectioned human brain. Each snapshot corresponds to a single, horizontal brain slice, beginning at the top of the skull and moving downward in the direction of the neck, each slice progressing a mere .174-millimeters at a time. Taken individually, no one slice is particularly striking; but upon seeing the folds of brain matter contort, vanish, and materialize in such rapid succession, the compulsion to share it became too strong to resist.
For those of you who might like to see these sections as stills:
BrainMaps.org: http://brainmaps.org/index.php?action=viewslides&datid=81
It also reminded me of the project at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC. There are currently efforts to repeat this project with higher resolution images but only with parts of the body instead of an entire cadaver.

Visible Human Project:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_Human_Project

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Out of this World Fishing!


What lurked in the depths, now is going to haunt your boat.

Be careful what you hook up. Aside from picking some vicious industrial garbage, you can bring to the surface some strange and unmentionable things. Most fishermen will happily brag about an extraordinary big fish (and we'll show plenty of those in this article). But sometimes the catch is so bizarre, that they'd rather try to forget it over a drink or two.




"Larger than life" (but hopefully still real) catches

We all know that the size of our largest catch is only limited to how wide we can stretch our arms, and how gullible your friends are. A picture would usually prove your story, if you don't mind occasional "this is Photoshop... I can tell by the pixels" comments:


(a whale shark, not that big either)
















Catfish the size of a small car? Well, almost.

"The World's Largest Catfish" catch happened in Thailand:
(more info - that is a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish)


(photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin)



This is, by the way, officially the largest freshwater fish ever caught...

Here are more record catfish catches:
(images credit: euro-som.de)


This one was caught in France: 106kg, 2.5 meters


Spain: 101kg


Germany: 83kg, 2.2 meters


Kazakhstan: 130kg, 2.6 meters


"Fish in Distress" Needs Saving

According to this source an eight-inch basketball was stuck in a catfish' mouth - the 50-pound fish could not swim or dive, so Wichita resident Bill Driver used a knife to poke the hole in the ball and deflate it:


(photos credit: Michael Pearce, Wichita Eagle, 2004)

This fish is also asking for trouble:



More fish misadventures:




The Cutest of the Bunch

Aww! Look at this friendly whale! -



Here is a baby stingray that you'll remember for the rest of your week, guaranteed:


(original unknown)


(photo by Jeffrey N. Goldsmith)

White Eye Morel Eel:


(image credit: Frances Tan)

Another "alien" on Earth: pretty endearing sea dragon (a Triops) -


(image credit: Steve Jurvetson)



The Blue Dragon - pelagic sea slug:


(original unknown)

The cutest of them all: an Axolotl - a freshwater salamander:





The one with the biggest "cuteness factor" is the albino - white, almost transparent Axolotl. They are priceless creatures (made to be worshiped by Japanese schoolgirls)


Most Vicious of the Bunch

We all know this is "fish-eats-fish" world -







Sharks... awesome creatures:



The "flying sharks" pictorial is something not to be missed - see it here:


(image credit: National Geographic)


Goliath Tiger Fish:

Want to catch the wickedest-looking fish, and snap pictures that are going to be forwarded by scared grandmas all over the internet?

Go to the Congo River (or Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa) and try to catch a Goliath Tiger Fish (aka African tigerfish or giant tigerfish), or Hydrocynus Goliath. Just make sure not to go swimming in these waters, as this kind of fish indeed is known to attack humans (the only freshwater fish in Africa that would do so) -






(images source)

This company will set up a fishing expedition for you.
There is plenty of toothy fish in these waters:




The Ugliest of the Bunch

These live mostly at significant depths, so it's highly unlikely that they will be fished out. But if you do, then - don't make a false move in your boat:





This giant grouper is not really ugly, but rather imposing with its 5-foot size:


(image credit: Frances Tan)





Going Deeper - See the spell-binding gallery of "creatures of the abyss


(image credit: Edith Widder)


(image credit: David Shale)

Here is a really ugly monk-fish (which a lot of people consider a delicacy!) -


(image credit: Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources)

Hope this aquarium has thick glass:


(art installation by Damien Hirst)


Speaking of ugly catches, you might have seen already the infamous "Mr. Blobby":


(image credit: K. Parkinson, NORFANZ)

"A Fathead (genus Psychrolutes) trawled during the NORFANZ expedition at a depth between 1013 m and 1340 m, on the Norfolk Ridge, north-west of New Zealand, June 2003"




Fish Tales

This fish was given the opportunity to speak out (as part of 1945 research). Must be some hair-raising tales, judging by how scared it looks.


(image credit: National Geographic)

or you can interview them underwater -


(image credit: National Geographic)