noknok

Finally, some competition to Mxit (MTN noknok), it has a long way to go to catch up, but it looks promising ;) . There was much press hype about meep from Vodacom, but there doesn't seem to be anything available?

noknok

Finally, some competition to Mxit (MTN noknok), it has a long way to go to catch up, but it looks promising ;) . There was much press hype about meep from Vodacom, but there doesn't seem to be anything available?

How-To Recover password under Ubuntu -- Ubuntu Geek

How-To Recover password under Ubuntu -- Ubuntu Geek: "If you forgot you password for your ubuntu system you can recover using the following steps Turn your computer on. Press ESC at the grub prompt. Press e for edit. Highlight the line that begins kernel ………, press e Go to the very end of the line, add rw init=/bin/bash press enter, then press b to boot your system. Your system will boot up to a passwordless root shell. Type in passwd username Set your password. Type in reboot"

How-To Recover password under Ubuntu -- Ubuntu Geek

How-To Recover password under Ubuntu -- Ubuntu Geek: "If you forgot you password for your ubuntu system you can recover using the following steps Turn your computer on. Press ESC at the grub prompt. Press e for edit. Highlight the line that begins kernel ………, press e Go to the very end of the line, add rw init=/bin/bash press enter, then press b to boot your system. Your system will boot up to a passwordless root shell. Type in passwd username Set your password. Type in reboot"

If you have Google Earth, you can download the masjids kmz file!

My new fav series on TV...Ultimate Survival

My new fav series on TV...Ultimate Survival

iMac, iPod...

iMac, iPod...

YouTube - Danny's fully automated Lego Rubik's cube solver

YouTube - Danny's fully automated Lego Rubik's cube solver

Quotes for Software Engineers

"Python: executable pseudocode. Perl: executable line noise."

Quotes for Software Engineers

"Python: executable pseudocode. Perl: executable line noise."

Interesting stats and visualisation thereof

Interesting stats and visualisation thereof

500kV

500kV

Water as fuel?

Water as fuel?

MapMyRide.com | Add cycling Route to Blog

MapMyRide.com | Add cycling Route to Blog: " "

MapMyRide.com | Add cycling Route to Blog

MapMyRide.com | Add cycling Route to Blog: " "

Intro to Python, by Google

Intro to Python, by Google

The original treadmill vid used in MTN's advert

The original treadmill vid used in MTN's advert

Microsfts Table PC

Microsfts Table PC

The most amazing Battle at Kruger

The most amazing Battle at Kruger

How To Be A Successful Evil Overlord

I've been considering a change of career and have always been intrigued by the thought of ruling the world. However, there doesn't seem to be a very great success rate in the industry so I looked around on the Internet for courses to help me get started and found this:

How To Be A Successful Evil Overlord

How To Be A Successful Evil Overlord

I've been considering a change of career and have always been intrigued by the thought of ruling the world. However, there doesn't seem to be a very great success rate in the industry so I looked around on the Internet for courses to help me get started and found this:

How To Be A Successful Evil Overlord

Wireless power, finally!

This is exciting stuff, the final frontier in my opinion, wireless power is about to become a reality, see:
Wireless power could have cellphone users beaming - tech - 07 June 2007 - New Scientist Tech

Wireless power, finally!

This is exciting stuff, the final frontier in my opinion, wireless power is about to become a reality, see:
Wireless power could have cellphone users beaming - tech - 07 June 2007 - New Scientist Tech

What do Shabir Shaik and Paris Hilton have in common?

Shaik taken to hospital

Paris Hilton out of jail

If they were'nt as famous, they might just have got away with it!

What do Shabir Shaik and Paris Hilton have in common?

Shaik taken to hospital

Paris Hilton out of jail

If they were'nt as famous, they might just have got away with it!

Imagineering in Wonderland

Attending a lecture titled: 'Imagineering in Wonderland, a Nuclear world around us, are Electrons really blue?' by Dr Kelvin Kemm."

Learned a few things:

• South Africa was one of the 1st Nuclear countries because of our Uranium resources.
• Palindaba is going to deplete it's uranium from weapons grade to 19.5% fuel grade.
• Global warming is just another one of those "keep control by instilling fear" tactics, i.e. bird flu has had its turn.
• Refreshed my interest in the Quantum nature of electrons and Heisenburgs uncertainty principle. Quantum electron pairs will choose opposite spins instantaneously, even though separated by space.

Questions in my head:

• What happens if an electro-magnetic waves' frequency is increased to a point that it approaches infinity?
• Can an electro-magnetic wave fold in on itself? Would this result in a particle?
  

Imagineering in Wonderland

Attending a lecture titled: 'Imagineering in Wonderland, a Nuclear world around us, are Electrons really blue?' by Dr Kelvin Kemm."

Learned a few things:

• South Africa was one of the 1st Nuclear countries because of our Uranium resources.
• Palindaba is going to deplete it's uranium from weapons grade to 19.5% fuel grade.
• Global warming is just another one of those "keep control by instilling fear" tactics, i.e. bird flu has had its turn.
• Refreshed my interest in the Quantum nature of electrons and Heisenburgs uncertainty principle. Quantum electron pairs will choose opposite spins instantaneously, even though separated by space.

Questions in my head:

• What happens if an electro-magnetic waves' frequency is increased to a point that it approaches infinity?
• Can an electro-magnetic wave fold in on itself? Would this result in a particle?
  

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
[In regione caecorum rex est luscus.]

Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia (III, IV, 96)
Dutch author, philosopher, & scholar (1466 - 1536)

Yes, the camera does rule the west..

Dajaal has just one eye doesn't he?

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
[In regione caecorum rex est luscus.]

Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia (III, IV, 96)
Dutch author, philosopher, & scholar (1466 - 1536)

Yes, the camera does rule the west..

Dajaal has just one eye doesn't he?

'60 die' as Afghan boat sinks - CNN.com

It's quite interesting to note how much of this article centers around the tragic drowning of 60 people and how much of it reminds the reader that the Taliban are bad people. I would feel offended if I were american, that CNN has the impression that my IQ cannot be more than 30.

Read between the lines people, somebody did something terrible here and once again, the Afghans have had to pay the price.

'60 die' as Afghan boat sinks - CNN.com

It's quite interesting to note how much of this article centers around the tragic drowning of 60 people and how much of it reminds the reader that the Taliban are bad people. I would feel offended if I were american, that CNN has the impression that my IQ cannot be more than 30.

Read between the lines people, somebody did something terrible here and once again, the Afghans have had to pay the price.

RIP SMS

The Internet has a new arsenal against the telecoms world; Web 2.0.

With a combination of twitter and either:

Widsets with the twitter widget

or

a Gtalk account with a mobile IM client like mxit

one can send free sms's from a mobile!

All you need to do is use the IM client/ widsets widget to send a direct twitter to a friend and he will receive the message as an SMS, thanks to twitter!

RIP SMS

The Internet has a new arsenal against the telecoms world; Web 2.0.

With a combination of twitter and either:

Widsets with the twitter widget

or

a Gtalk account with a mobile IM client like mxit

one can send free sms's from a mobile!

All you need to do is use the IM client/ widsets widget to send a direct twitter to a friend and he will receive the message as an SMS, thanks to twitter!

Matrix Spoof

Via: VideoSift

Matrix Spoof

Via: VideoSift

Google Co-op - Islamic Search Engine

Another cool, useful tool by Google. Personalized search engines allow you to define the topic being searched as well as the sites indexed.

I present to you my 1st two search engines, the Islamic Search Engine:



, the Famous Search Engine of Food and Recipes:



, the Telecommunications Search Engine:



and now the Mobile Device User Agent Profile (UAProf) Search Engine:


The actual searches can be found on the right hand side panel under the usual Google search widget.

Google Co-op - Islamic Search Engine

Another cool, useful tool by Google. Personalized search engines allow you to define the topic being searched as well as the sites indexed.

I present to you my 1st two search engines, the Islamic Search Engine:



, the Famous Search Engine of Food and Recipes:



, the Telecommunications Search Engine:



and now the Mobile Device User Agent Profile (UAProf) Search Engine:


The actual searches can be found on the right hand side panel under the usual Google search widget.

Linux evolves for mobile phones

Ubuntu on a mobile! I can't wait....

"The Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project aims to create the open source platform for initial release in October 2007.

The operating system will be developed by members of the Ubuntu community, along with staff from chip giant Intel.

Its development was prompted by the growth of power hungry portable devices that place new demands on software.

"It is clear that new types of device - small, handheld, graphical tablets which are Internet-enabled - are going to change the way we communicate and collaborate," said Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman.

"These devices place new demands on open-source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness."

Mobile firms such as Nokia are already using open source technologies in some of its products...."

Linux evolves for mobile phones

Ubuntu on a mobile! I can't wait....

"The Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project aims to create the open source platform for initial release in October 2007.

The operating system will be developed by members of the Ubuntu community, along with staff from chip giant Intel.

Its development was prompted by the growth of power hungry portable devices that place new demands on software.

"It is clear that new types of device - small, handheld, graphical tablets which are Internet-enabled - are going to change the way we communicate and collaborate," said Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman.

"These devices place new demands on open-source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness."

Mobile firms such as Nokia are already using open source technologies in some of its products...."

Israel 'routinely tortures prisoners' - Independent Online Edition > Middle East

They do?

Israel 'routinely tortures prisoners' - Independent Online Edition > Middle East

They do?

Check out the tits on this:

Check out the tits on this:

FICA Sucks

After painfully submitting proof of residential address docs for FICA to Standard Bank thrice already, I just received notice that my account is not FICA compliant. AAAArrrrghhh!!!

To make matters worse, I receive utility bills either via email or to my postal address because I don't trust the post-box at my house, like most South Africans.

THEY (Standard Bank/FICA) don't accept pdf documents as proof of residence! How backward can you be??? Its just ridiculous in this day and age. They want the "original" documents. I would change banks if I didn't know already that the other banks suck as much.

FICA Sucks

After painfully submitting proof of residential address docs for FICA to Standard Bank thrice already, I just received notice that my account is not FICA compliant. AAAArrrrghhh!!!

To make matters worse, I receive utility bills either via email or to my postal address because I don't trust the post-box at my house, like most South Africans.

THEY (Standard Bank/FICA) don't accept pdf documents as proof of residence! How backward can you be??? Its just ridiculous in this day and age. They want the "original" documents. I would change banks if I didn't know already that the other banks suck as much.

So what exactly is north shore?

So what exactly is north shore?

The Maelstrom trail at Logwood Bike Haven

This is an old pic of what is now known as the Diadora Dropoff at Logwood. Trust me, it looks much scarier from the top!

The Maelstrom trail at Logwood Bike Haven

This is an old pic of what is now known as the Diadora Dropoff at Logwood. Trust me, it looks much scarier from the top!

www.howmuslimspray.com - How Muslims Pray and What They Say

This is a pretty cool guide for kids as well as non-Muslims that are curious about what it is that is done during the 5 daily prayers.

www.howmuslimspray.com - How Muslims Pray and What They Say

This is a pretty cool guide for kids as well as non-Muslims that are curious about what it is that is done during the 5 daily prayers.

The universe is a string-net liquid - fundamentals - 15 March 2007 - New Scientist

I love theories that bind the universe, especially if they bring maxwell to the equation!

The universe is a string-net liquid - fundamentals - 15 March 2007 - New Scientist

I love theories that bind the universe, especially if they bring maxwell to the equation!

Quote of the day....

"To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it." GK Chesterton

Quote of the day....

"To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it." GK Chesterton

Google Trends: fring

Yep, the voip wave cometh!

Google Trends: fring

Yep, the voip wave cometh!

Regarding wearing trowsers above the ankles..

I think that the hadith below clearly shows that it's all about the persons intention, if you're wearing your trouser/robe below your ankle out of pride then it's wrong, otherwise it's fine.

Narrated Abdullah bin Umar: That Allah's Apostle said, "Allah will not look on the Day of Judgment at him who drags his robe (behind him) out of pride." Abu Bakr said "One side of my robe slacks down unless I get very cautious about it." Allah's Apostle said, "But you do not do that with a pride." Shaih Bukhari (5:57:17)

Regarding wearing trowsers above the ankles..

I think that the hadith below clearly shows that it's all about the persons intention, if you're wearing your trouser/robe below your ankle out of pride then it's wrong, otherwise it's fine.

Narrated Abdullah bin Umar: That Allah's Apostle said, "Allah will not look on the Day of Judgment at him who drags his robe (behind him) out of pride." Abu Bakr said "One side of my robe slacks down unless I get very cautious about it." Allah's Apostle said, "But you do not do that with a pride." Shaih Bukhari (5:57:17)

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israeli army 'used human shields'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israeli army 'used human shields'

Israeli army 'used human shields'

An Israeli human rights group has accused Israel's army of using two young Palestinians as human shields during a recent raid in the West Bank. The B'Tselem group said it had testimony from a 15-year-old boy, his 24-year-old cousin and also an 11-year-old boy. They said soldiers had forced them at gunpoint to enter houses ahead of the troops during the raid in Nablus.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israeli army 'used human shields'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israeli army 'used human shields'

Israeli army 'used human shields'

An Israeli human rights group has accused Israel's army of using two young Palestinians as human shields during a recent raid in the West Bank. The B'Tselem group said it had testimony from a 15-year-old boy, his 24-year-old cousin and also an 11-year-old boy. They said soldiers had forced them at gunpoint to enter houses ahead of the troops during the raid in Nablus.

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

You won't believe your eyes: The mysteries of sight revealed

Did you know that certain women see colours that no one else can? Or that some children have developed specialised underwater vision? Simon Ings peers into the world of sight

Published: 07 March 2007

HOW MANY COLOURS ARE IN A RAINBOW?

Human colour vision is a relatively recent acquisition. It is, at most, 63 million years old, and it may be a lot younger. On a genetic level, it is a mess: misalignments and redundancies in the genes that code for our "red" and "green" colour perceptions account for 95 per cent of all variations in human colour vision, and it is quite usual for up to nine genes to cluster together in an attempt to code for these colours. This is why the perception of colours - especially blues and greens - varies so much between individuals.

Humans perceive colour through three types of colour-sensitive cell, called cones, but some have four types. Equipped with four receptors instead of three, Mrs M - an English social worker, and the first known human "tetrachromat" - sees rare subtleties of colour. Looking at a rainbow, she can see 10 distinct colours. Most of us only see five. She was the first to be discovered as having this ability, in 1993, and a study in 2004 found that two out of 80 subjects were tetrachromats.

WHY YOUR EYES NEVER STAY STILL

If our eyes did not move - if they simply "drank in" the view before them - we would go blind. Our retinas can only process contrast, and soon become exhausted looking at the same thing for too long. They must tremble constantly in order to bring still objects into view.

THE SIGHTS WE ALL MISS

Human vision captures only two degrees of the world with any clarity, so we tend to miss things that happen outside our focus of attention - and the more we concentrate, the more extreme our "attention blindness" becomes. This makes us easy prey for psychologists such as Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, whose notorious experiment of 1999 asked its viewers to score a three-a-side, 90-second basketball game. Afterwards, the viewers were told to relax, put down their score cards and watch the video again. Only then did the game's most remarkable feature come to light: the invasion of the court, a few seconds in, by a 7ft-tall pantomime gorilla.

A VISION OF THE FUTURE

Our eyes stay several steps ahead of us, whatever we happen to be doing. When negotiating a turn in the road, for example, a driver's eye will provide motor information to his or her arms almost a second before he or she makes any movement. By then, the eyes will already be looking elsewhere. Visually at least, we operate in the world not as it is, but as it existed half a second ago. This raises a not insignificant question: how does the eye know where to direct its gaze next?

THE CURE FOR BLINDNESS

The concept of a bionic eye is nothing new. In the 1970s, bio-engineer Paul Bach-y-Rita, now at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison, was turning different parts of the body into eyes. His prototypes were vests containing hundreds of mechanical vibrators. Pixelated images from a low-resolution video camera, worn on a pair of glasses, were translated into mechanical vibrations against the skin of the chest or back. Bach-y-Rita's volunteers were able to recognise faces using the system. Proof that they could see came when Paul threw balled-up papers at them: they ducked.

SEEING BENEATH THE SEA

Because light behaves differently in water and air, land-adapted human vision is lousy in water. Someone, however, forgot to tell the Moken - gypsies who ply the Burmese archipelago and Thailand's western coast. Moken children, who spend days diving for clams and sea cucumbers, can see twice as much fine detail underwater as European children. While the pupils of the latter expand underwater, in response to the dimness of the light, Moken pupils shrink to their smallest possible diameter, improving acuity underwater. Mokens also use the lenses of their eyes more, squishing them to the limit of human performance.

HOW RETINAS WORK

A rod cell is the commonest form of light-sensitive cell in the human eye. When it is exposed to light, it expands like a Slinky toy to twice its length. In the dark, it contracts again. Rods behave like muscle cells, and muscle fibres expand and contract in response to electrical stimulation. The retinal rod, too, is responding to an electrical signal - one that comes from a biochemical reaction to light.

The working retina is a glorified Pin Art machine. On 16 November 1880, in the German town of Bruchsal, a young felon was beheaded by guillotine. A short while later, in a gloomy room, its windows screened with red and yellow glass, Wilhelm Kühne, professor of physiology at Heidelberg, dissected the dead boy's eyes. Ten minutes later, he showed colleagues a sharp pattern on the surface of the left retina. This, Kühne said, was an optogram: a dying vision, preserved as a chemical pattern on the retina.

WHY ANIMALS HAVE NO WHITES IN THEIR EYES

Few animals risk making a feature of their eyes. The "whites" of most vertebrates' eyes are dark, concealing the direction of their gaze. Only a social animal - a parrot, say, or a human - would make its eyes noticeable. Our bright whites enable us to use gaze-direction to convey emotion. A downward gaze indicates sadness; looking down and away suggests shame; looking away is a sign of frustration or disgust. The lateral rectus eye muscle is labelled "amatoris" in early anatomies because lovers use it to flirt.

HOW MOLES CAN 'SEE' UNDERGROUND

The nose of the star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata, has evolved into a mobile fleshy organ only about one centimetre across. Its nerves - five times as many as run through the human hand - are arranged across the nose's 22 "fingers", so that the mole's nose is most sensitive at its centre. The whole distribution of nerve endings bears a more than passing resemblance to the retina of a mammalian eye.

WHEN EYES SWITCH OFF

Although our eyes can move smoothly when tracking a target, they more usually snap from position to position to capture a selection of "stills". To avoid disorientation, our optic nerves fall silent while our eyes are moving between stills. This leaves us blind for about 10 per cent of our waking lives.

THE CRYING GAME

Crying is difficult to fake. Even actors have to generate some feeling before they cry. The Israeli evolutionary biologist Amotz Zahavi proposed that you can infer the honesty of a social signal by measuring the cost of the expression. Harvard's Marc Hauser, applying this principle to the eye, regards tears as the human equivalent of a dog rolling belly-up to show submission. "Unlike all of the other emotional expressions, tearing is the only one that leaves a physical trace," he says. "It blurs one's vision, therefore it's costly."

WORLD'S BIGGEST EYE

Arguably, the largest eye in nature is currently lying on a slab at the Te Papa museum in Auckland, New Zealand. It belongs to a colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Identified in 1925, the colossal squid evaded capture for years until, this February, the trawler San Aspiring snagged an adult male on a fishing line. It is about 39 feet long. To be the biggest ever measured, the squid's eye will have to beat the previous record, set by a giant squid, found alive and stranded in Newfoundland in 1878. It had eyes 40cm across - wider than my computer screen.

MORE THAN A MYTH

About a week into a baby's development in the womb, a single eye socket appears in the middle of its forehead. Soon, it splits into two. The Cyclops - the one-eyed giant of mythology - has inspired many explanations, but the most likely is also the saddest. Very rarely, a developing child's brain fails to divide into two, and the central eye socket doesn't divide. This happens a handful of times each year.

WE'RE ALL LOSING OUR FOCUS

In 1996, about 60 per cent of American 23- to 34-year-olds were short-sighted, compared with only about 20 per cent of people over the age of 65. In Asia, things are worse. The Singapore National Eye Centre estimates that more than 80 per cent of the country's 18-year-old men are myopic. In the developed world, severe myopia is the leading cause of blindness. Evidence suggests that children grow more short-sighted in term-time than during the holidays.

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

You won't believe your eyes: The mysteries of sight revealed

Did you know that certain women see colours that no one else can? Or that some children have developed specialised underwater vision? Simon Ings peers into the world of sight

Published: 07 March 2007

HOW MANY COLOURS ARE IN A RAINBOW?

Human colour vision is a relatively recent acquisition. It is, at most, 63 million years old, and it may be a lot younger. On a genetic level, it is a mess: misalignments and redundancies in the genes that code for our "red" and "green" colour perceptions account for 95 per cent of all variations in human colour vision, and it is quite usual for up to nine genes to cluster together in an attempt to code for these colours. This is why the perception of colours - especially blues and greens - varies so much between individuals.

Humans perceive colour through three types of colour-sensitive cell, called cones, but some have four types. Equipped with four receptors instead of three, Mrs M - an English social worker, and the first known human "tetrachromat" - sees rare subtleties of colour. Looking at a rainbow, she can see 10 distinct colours. Most of us only see five. She was the first to be discovered as having this ability, in 1993, and a study in 2004 found that two out of 80 subjects were tetrachromats.

WHY YOUR EYES NEVER STAY STILL

If our eyes did not move - if they simply "drank in" the view before them - we would go blind. Our retinas can only process contrast, and soon become exhausted looking at the same thing for too long. They must tremble constantly in order to bring still objects into view.

THE SIGHTS WE ALL MISS

Human vision captures only two degrees of the world with any clarity, so we tend to miss things that happen outside our focus of attention - and the more we concentrate, the more extreme our "attention blindness" becomes. This makes us easy prey for psychologists such as Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, whose notorious experiment of 1999 asked its viewers to score a three-a-side, 90-second basketball game. Afterwards, the viewers were told to relax, put down their score cards and watch the video again. Only then did the game's most remarkable feature come to light: the invasion of the court, a few seconds in, by a 7ft-tall pantomime gorilla.

A VISION OF THE FUTURE

Our eyes stay several steps ahead of us, whatever we happen to be doing. When negotiating a turn in the road, for example, a driver's eye will provide motor information to his or her arms almost a second before he or she makes any movement. By then, the eyes will already be looking elsewhere. Visually at least, we operate in the world not as it is, but as it existed half a second ago. This raises a not insignificant question: how does the eye know where to direct its gaze next?

THE CURE FOR BLINDNESS

The concept of a bionic eye is nothing new. In the 1970s, bio-engineer Paul Bach-y-Rita, now at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison, was turning different parts of the body into eyes. His prototypes were vests containing hundreds of mechanical vibrators. Pixelated images from a low-resolution video camera, worn on a pair of glasses, were translated into mechanical vibrations against the skin of the chest or back. Bach-y-Rita's volunteers were able to recognise faces using the system. Proof that they could see came when Paul threw balled-up papers at them: they ducked.

SEEING BENEATH THE SEA

Because light behaves differently in water and air, land-adapted human vision is lousy in water. Someone, however, forgot to tell the Moken - gypsies who ply the Burmese archipelago and Thailand's western coast. Moken children, who spend days diving for clams and sea cucumbers, can see twice as much fine detail underwater as European children. While the pupils of the latter expand underwater, in response to the dimness of the light, Moken pupils shrink to their smallest possible diameter, improving acuity underwater. Mokens also use the lenses of their eyes more, squishing them to the limit of human performance.

HOW RETINAS WORK

A rod cell is the commonest form of light-sensitive cell in the human eye. When it is exposed to light, it expands like a Slinky toy to twice its length. In the dark, it contracts again. Rods behave like muscle cells, and muscle fibres expand and contract in response to electrical stimulation. The retinal rod, too, is responding to an electrical signal - one that comes from a biochemical reaction to light.

The working retina is a glorified Pin Art machine. On 16 November 1880, in the German town of Bruchsal, a young felon was beheaded by guillotine. A short while later, in a gloomy room, its windows screened with red and yellow glass, Wilhelm Kühne, professor of physiology at Heidelberg, dissected the dead boy's eyes. Ten minutes later, he showed colleagues a sharp pattern on the surface of the left retina. This, Kühne said, was an optogram: a dying vision, preserved as a chemical pattern on the retina.

WHY ANIMALS HAVE NO WHITES IN THEIR EYES

Few animals risk making a feature of their eyes. The "whites" of most vertebrates' eyes are dark, concealing the direction of their gaze. Only a social animal - a parrot, say, or a human - would make its eyes noticeable. Our bright whites enable us to use gaze-direction to convey emotion. A downward gaze indicates sadness; looking down and away suggests shame; looking away is a sign of frustration or disgust. The lateral rectus eye muscle is labelled "amatoris" in early anatomies because lovers use it to flirt.

HOW MOLES CAN 'SEE' UNDERGROUND

The nose of the star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata, has evolved into a mobile fleshy organ only about one centimetre across. Its nerves - five times as many as run through the human hand - are arranged across the nose's 22 "fingers", so that the mole's nose is most sensitive at its centre. The whole distribution of nerve endings bears a more than passing resemblance to the retina of a mammalian eye.

WHEN EYES SWITCH OFF

Although our eyes can move smoothly when tracking a target, they more usually snap from position to position to capture a selection of "stills". To avoid disorientation, our optic nerves fall silent while our eyes are moving between stills. This leaves us blind for about 10 per cent of our waking lives.

THE CRYING GAME

Crying is difficult to fake. Even actors have to generate some feeling before they cry. The Israeli evolutionary biologist Amotz Zahavi proposed that you can infer the honesty of a social signal by measuring the cost of the expression. Harvard's Marc Hauser, applying this principle to the eye, regards tears as the human equivalent of a dog rolling belly-up to show submission. "Unlike all of the other emotional expressions, tearing is the only one that leaves a physical trace," he says. "It blurs one's vision, therefore it's costly."

WORLD'S BIGGEST EYE

Arguably, the largest eye in nature is currently lying on a slab at the Te Papa museum in Auckland, New Zealand. It belongs to a colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Identified in 1925, the colossal squid evaded capture for years until, this February, the trawler San Aspiring snagged an adult male on a fishing line. It is about 39 feet long. To be the biggest ever measured, the squid's eye will have to beat the previous record, set by a giant squid, found alive and stranded in Newfoundland in 1878. It had eyes 40cm across - wider than my computer screen.

MORE THAN A MYTH

About a week into a baby's development in the womb, a single eye socket appears in the middle of its forehead. Soon, it splits into two. The Cyclops - the one-eyed giant of mythology - has inspired many explanations, but the most likely is also the saddest. Very rarely, a developing child's brain fails to divide into two, and the central eye socket doesn't divide. This happens a handful of times each year.

WE'RE ALL LOSING OUR FOCUS

In 1996, about 60 per cent of American 23- to 34-year-olds were short-sighted, compared with only about 20 per cent of people over the age of 65. In Asia, things are worse. The Singapore National Eye Centre estimates that more than 80 per cent of the country's 18-year-old men are myopic. In the developed world, severe myopia is the leading cause of blindness. Evidence suggests that children grow more short-sighted in term-time than during the holidays.

Gain-assisted superluminal light propagation : Abstract : Nature

Gain-assisted superluminal light propagation : Abstract : Nature

Gain-assisted superluminal light propagation : Abstract : Nature

Gain-assisted superluminal light propagation : Abstract : Nature

Why Does E=mc2? | Cosmic Variance

Why Does E=mc2? | Cosmic Variance

Dictionary of Difficult Words - je ne sais quoi

Dictionary of Difficult Words - je ne sais quoi: "je ne sais quoi
'I do not know what'; indescribable attractive attribute or quality; 'a certain something'."

Why Does E=mc2? | Cosmic Variance

Why Does E=mc2? | Cosmic Variance

Installing and setting up Eclipse with Sun's Java

Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - Installing and setting up Eclipse with Sun's Java

Installing and setting up Eclipse with Sun's Java

Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - Installing and setting up Eclipse with Sun's Java

Global Rich List

Sometimes we loose perspective when it comes to how much we earn. The
Global Rich List will give you an idea of what the rest of the world earns. Makes you think twice when you know how fortunate you really are, thank God.

Global Rich List

Sometimes we loose perspective when it comes to how much we earn. The
Global Rich List will give you an idea of what the rest of the world earns. Makes you think twice when you know how fortunate you really are, thank God.

'UK fears US will attack Iran': World: News: News24

'UK fears US will attack Iran': World: News: News24

*sigh*, surprise, surprise...

It would be the next (il)logical step now wouldn't it?

'UK fears US will attack Iran': World: News: News24

'UK fears US will attack Iran': World: News: News24

*sigh*, surprise, surprise...

It would be the next (il)logical step now wouldn't it?

Quote of the day

"Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.
- Jerry Seinfeld"

Medieval Islamic tiling reveals mathematical savvy - fundamentals - 22 February 2007 - New Scientist Environment

Medieval Islamic tiling reveals mathematical savvy - fundamentals - 22 February 2007 - New Scientist Environment

Quote of the day

"Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.
- Jerry Seinfeld"

Medieval Islamic tiling reveals mathematical savvy - fundamentals - 22 February 2007 - New Scientist Environment

Medieval Islamic tiling reveals mathematical savvy - fundamentals - 22 February 2007 - New Scientist Environment

This is what your greed for oil means to Iraqi's

This is a report of a sickening incident in Iraq. Makes you wonder what other atrocities go by un-reported. And all this so that Bush and co. can wallow in more oil. Shame on those of you that support this war with your taxes or even your silence. All of this in the name of stupid patriotism.

May that family be blessed with Jannah and may those guilty pay for their sins in this life and the next.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The Prophet sent Mu'adh to Yemen and said, "Be afraid, from the curse of the oppressed as there is no screen between his invocation and Allah." Shaih

This is what your greed for oil means to Iraqi's

This is a report of a sickening incident in Iraq. Makes you wonder what other atrocities go by un-reported. And all this so that Bush and co. can wallow in more oil. Shame on those of you that support this war with your taxes or even your silence. All of this in the name of stupid patriotism.

May that family be blessed with Jannah and may those guilty pay for their sins in this life and the next.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: The Prophet sent Mu'adh to Yemen and said, "Be afraid, from the curse of the oppressed as there is no screen between his invocation and Allah." Shaih

Visited Countries

Visited Countries

What the Quraan says about dieting

O you who believe! do not forbid (yourselves) the good things which Allah has made lawful for you and do not exceed the limits; surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.
Islamicnet.com: Translation of the Quran in English

In summary, moderation!

What the Quraan says about dieting

O you who believe! do not forbid (yourselves) the good things which Allah has made lawful for you and do not exceed the limits; surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.
Islamicnet.com: Translation of the Quran in English

In summary, moderation!

Sounds familiar?

Sounds familiar?

Yay or Nay?

After a recent accident and the more importantly the subsequent dealings with my insurance company and trying to find a decent panel beater, I decided that what I and probably many other South Africans need is a website where one can find information about service providers in South Africa. I was also curious about low budget hosting sites and domain name registration etc. so I put up yayornay . Ok, so the name is quite lame, but it's been quite a learning experience using the Xoop cms.

Yay or Nay?

After a recent accident and the more importantly the subsequent dealings with my insurance company and trying to find a decent panel beater, I decided that what I and probably many other South Africans need is a website where one can find information about service providers in South Africa. I was also curious about low budget hosting sites and domain name registration etc. so I put up yayornay . Ok, so the name is quite lame, but it's been quite a learning experience using the Xoop cms.