Man powers his home from local stream with DIY micro-hydro plant. A man named Manfred Mornhinweg found the modern world too "noisy and hectic", so he decided to build himself a house on a quiet 40 hectare piece of land in Chile.
Part of his project involved building a micro-hydro plant to generate electricity for his dream home, and he documented the DIY adventure on his (very old-school) website. I found it interesting, and though that you might enjoy it too. Unfortunately, there's no single photo that gives an overview of the whole micro-hydro plant, but this generic drawing gives a good idea of the concept: United States Department of Energy/Public Domain. Dogs First Domesticated in Europe over 18,000 Years Ago, mtDNA Study Shows. Scientists have analyzed the complete mitochondrial genomes of 18 prehistoric wolf- and dog-like animals to show that more than 18,000 years ago, dogs first became best friends of human in Europe.
Two wolves. Image credit: Monty Sloan. “We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs, ancient European wolves were directly related to them,” said Prof Robert Wayne from the University of California Los Angeles, senior author of the genetic study published in the journal Science. “This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.” In a previous study, Prof Wayne’s team compared the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds from the Middle East, East Asia and Europe, two ancient dog breeds and the boxer dog breed. America's Mood Map: Find Which State Matches Your Personality.
For a country that features the word United so prominently in its name, the U.S. is a pretty fractious place.
We splinter along fault lines of income, education, religion, race, hyphenated origin, age and politics. Then too there's temperament. We're coarse or courtly, traditionalist or rebel, amped up or laid-back. And it's no secret that a lot of that seems to be determined by — or at least associated with — where we live. Now a multinational team of researchers led by psychologist and American expat Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in the U.K. has sought to draw the regional lines more clearly, literally mapping the American mood, with state-by-state ratings of personality and temperament. 1 = Strongly Disagree 7 = Strongly Agree.
Tree Species Distribution Maps for North America. Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center <div id="pg-header">JavaScript disabled</div><br />It appears that you have JavaScript(JS) disabled.
Several items on this site require JS to work correctly. </p><p> Background Maps of the ranges of tree species in North America compiled by Elbert Little, of the U.S. The maps are available in ArcView® shapefile format. NOTE ABOUT SCIENTIFIC NAMES: We are aware that the scientific names of some taxa have changed since these atlases were published. References Critchfield, W.B., and Little, E.L., Jr., 1966, Geographic distribution of the pines of the world: U.S. Little, E.L., Jr., 1971, Atlas of United States trees, volume 1, conifers and important hardwoods: U.S. Little, E.L., Jr., 1976, Atlas of United States trees, volume 3, minor Western hardwoods: U.S. Deadly Leopard Seal Tries to Feed Live Penguins to Photographer (Video) "Bloody Hell!
That's the biggest leopard seal I've ever seen! " Leopard seals are pretty scary predators, especially if you're a penguin. But they can be friendly to other leopard seals, which is something that photographer Paul Nicklen learned during one of his trips to Antarctica. He was taking underwater photos when a leopard seal started feeding him penguins, starting with live ones, which were released close to him (to see if he would catch them), and ending with half-chewed dead ones.
Scientists Develop Affordable Solar Panels That Work In The Dark. It's about damn time, don't you think?
Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced Wednesday that they have been able to confirm a new high-efficiency solar cell design that utilizes nearly the entire solar spectrum. Translation: They figured out a way to make solar panels generate electricity in the dark. CleanTechnica says , In earlier trials, the researchers used different alloys that achieved full spectrum responses but involved very high production costs. Boy with brain cancer 'cured' after secretly fed medical marijuana by father. By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 14:16 GMT, 4 May 2011 A desperate father whose son was suffering from a life-threatening brain tumour has revealed he gave him cannabis oil to ease his pain.
And he has now apparently made a full recovery. Cash Hyde, known as Cashy, was a perfectly healthy baby when he was born in June 2008 but became sick shortly before his second birthday. At first he was misdiagnosed with glandular fever before his parents Mike and Kalli, from Missoula in Montana, were given the devastating news he had a serious brain tumour. The little boy had to have arduous chemotherapy treatment to reduce the growth, which had drastic side effects including seizures and a blood infection. Scroll down for video Mike Hyde with his son Cash who was diagnosed with a severe brain tumour.