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The village where half the population are sex offenders. 30 July 2013Last updated at 19:15 ET By Linda Pressly BBC World Service, Florida Miracle Village lies deep in a sea of green. This is sugar cane country, south Florida. At the edge of the everglades, and over two miles from the nearest town, around 200 people live in the small, neat bungalows. More than 100 of them are registered sex offenders - people who were found guilty, and have usually served a prison sentence, for a sex crime. There is one woman, the rest are men. Others abused minors when they were in positions of power - there is a teacher here, a pastor, a sports coach. Under Florida's state law none of them can live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care centre, park or playground.

Miracle Village is two miles from the nearest town, Pahokee Continue reading the main story “Start Quote They're good people. End QuoteEdgar Walford The laws of Florida have made Miracle Village an attractive option. He saw the difficulties sex offenders faced when trying to find a place to live. Long-Held Myth About Cheetahs Busted. Jane J. Lee Like a finely tuned sports car, cheetahs are precision machines born to run. But for over 30 years, researchers believed the animals' blazing speed came at a cost—the danger of overheating on a hunt.

A 1973 study looking at captive cheetahs running on a treadmill found evidence that these sprinters abandoned hunts because they got too hot. That gave birth to the idea that the animals' hunting success rate was due to the fact that their motors ran a little too hot. About 40 to 50 percent of cheetah hunts end in a kill, which is on the lower end of success rates among African big cats. "It became a popular story that got applied to free-ranging cheetah," said Robyn Hetem, a biologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Parktown, South Africa. Not so fast, says a new study published July 23 in the journal Biology Letters. Hetem and colleagues saw this rise after controlling for factors including the duration of a hunt, activity levels during a hunt, and air temperature. Do you think I'm sexy? Why peacock tails are attractive. 25 July 2013Last updated at 02:06 ET By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News Lead researcher Jessica Yorzinski explains what the study revealed Scientists in the US have used eye-tracking cameras to work out exactly what peahens find alluring in a peacock's tail fan.

The male birds grow their trains of iridescent feathers during the mating, or lekking, season, fanning them out and rattling them to attract a mate. This team of biologists fitted peahens with eye-trackers to find out what they looked at during this display. Their results are reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The eye-tracking footage revealed how difficult it is to keep a peahen's attention, which helps explain why such a large and elaborately decorated tail fan evolved. It also gave clues about what a peahen looks for in this tail fan. Continue reading the main story Charles Darwin on sexual selection Charles R Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859 'Selective attention' “Start Quote.

Psychopathic criminals have empathy switch. Psychopaths do not lack empathy, rather they can switch it on at will, according to new research. Placed in a brain scanner, psychopathic criminals watched videos of one person hurting another and were asked to empathise with the individual in pain. Only when asked to imagine how the pain receiver felt did the area of the brain related to pain light up.

Scientists, reporting in Brain, say their research explains how psychopaths can be both callous and charming. The team proposes that with the right training, it could be possible to help psychopaths activate their "empathy switch", which could bring them a step closer to rehabilitation. Mirror neurons The ability to empathise with others - to put yourself in someone else's shoes - is crucial to social development in order to respond appropriately in everyday situations.

Criminals with psychopathy characteristically show a reduced ability to empathise with others, including their victims. 'Bleak prospect' "Our work shows it's not that simple. Luxury cruise fails surprise health inspection. Silver Shadow scored "less than satisfactory" 82 during surprise inspectionPastry chef said trolleys of food were stored in crew cabins to avoid inspectionCDC inspectors poured chlorine over discarded food to keep it from being re-usedShip owners were not fined; CDC has no authority to correct any of the issues (CNN) -- A surprise inspection by the Centers for Disease Control has resulted in a failing grade for one of the plushest cruise ships afloat.

According to a report by the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program, the cruise ship Silver Shadow was cited repeatedly for using an "organized effort" to remove 15 trolleys of food from the ship's galley to individual crew cabins to "avoid inspection. " The snap inspection of the Silver Shadow on June 17 in Skagway, Alaska, was conducted after an anonymous crew member sent still photographs to the CDC showing meat in crew cabin sinks and trays of food in the corridors in the hallways outside those cabins.

Cruise ship mishaps Cruise ship nightmares. Why do writers drink? Recent research suggests that Dylan Thomas might not, after all, have drunk himself to death. What his doctor in New York took to be delirium tremens and treated with morphine may have been bronchitis and pneumonia, which morphine injections only made worse – after the third of them, he went into a coma. Still, there's no doubt that Thomas had been drinking heavily in the days leading up to his admission to hospital – indeed for large periods of his life. The previous day he'd opened a bottle of Old Grand-Dad whiskey and offered a glass to the maid cleaning his hotel room. Then, after more drinks with his lover Elizabeth Reitell, he left his bed at 2am and went to a bar, telling her on his return that he had drunk 18 straight whiskies.

Thomas was prone to exaggeration. Thomas's death is the stuff of legend, and it's no surprise to hear that a TV film, with a script by Andrew Davies, is being made about it, to coincide with the centenary of the poet's birth next year. China bans new government buildings in corruption curb. 23 July 2013Last updated at 13:18 ET Luxurious building projects have fuelled public anger about extravagance and corruption China has banned the construction of government buildings for five years, according to state media. The move comes as part of a campaign by President Xi Jinping to show that the ruling Communist Party (CPC) is cracking down on corruption and waste. Glitzy new government buildings, sometimes in impoverished areas, have been a source of public outrage. The directive forbids luxury makeovers and expansions done under the guise of repair work, Xinhua news agency said. Continue reading the main story It may not look like a royal palace but this was apparently a state-owned drugs factory Officials at the Fuyang government building in Anhui province have been hit by corruption scandals Government buildings in Ordos were built to serve 1.5 million people but the city is largely empty Chandeliers.

Dolphins 'call each other by name' 22 July 2013Last updated at 19:02 ET By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service The research sheds new light on the intelligence of dolphins Scientists have found further evidence that dolphins call each other by "name". Research has revealed that the marine mammals use a unique whistle to identify each other. A team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland found that when the animals hear their own call played back to them, they respond. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Vincent Janik, from the university's Sea Mammal Research Unit, said: "(Dolphins) live in this three-dimensional environment, offshore without any kind of landmarks and they need to stay together as a group. "These animals live in an environment where they need a very efficient system to stay in touch. " Signature whistles It had been-long suspected that dolphins use distinctive whistles in much the same way that humans use names. Continue reading the main story. Deepak Chopra's EPIC Twitter Meltdown.

Humans aren't the only evil animals. If The Sun Went Out, How Long Could Life On Earth Survive? If you put a steamy cup of coffee in the refrigerator, it wouldn't immediately turn cold. Likewise, if the sun simply "turned off" (which is actually physically impossible), the Earth would stay warm—at least compared with the space surrounding it—for a few million years. But we surface dwellers would feel the chill much sooner than that. Within a week, the average global surface temperature would drop below 0°F. In a year, it would dip to –100°. The top layers of the oceans would freeze over, but in an apocalyptic irony, that ice would insulate the deep water below and prevent the oceans from freezing solid for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions of years after that, our planet would reach a stable –400°, the temperature at which the heat radiating from the planet's core would equal the heat that the Earth radiates into space, explains David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology.

Browser Tabs and Battery Life - Wired Science. I’m sure I heard something about battery life and browser tabs on the Tech News Today podcast. I just can’t find the exact episode (or maybe I saw it somewhere else). Anyway, in my imagination there is a story about reducing the power consumption for extra browser tabs. Yes, we all have too many browser tabs open (right now I have 25 open). But what does this do to the battery life on a laptop? Here is the plan. Here is a sample power plot from Logger Pro with an average power over one minute. Yes, sometimes you get a spike in the power plot. Oh, let me point out something stupid I did.

The Data Here is a plot of computer power vs. the number of open tabs. The data wasn’t as clean as I thought it would be, but this still gives a general model for the power per tab. Even with the terrible data, I think it’s safe to say that more tabs means more power. Battery Life So, what happens to your battery life as you open more tabs? This means that in terms of power, energy and time I can write: Children’s intellectual development: Bedtime stories. The 33 most beautiful abandoned places in the World. 1. Christ of the Abyss, San Fruttuoso, Italy Via: en.www.lensart.ru 2. Kolmanskop, Namib Desert Via: photography.nationalgeographic.com 3. Via: reddit.com 4. Via: photoree.com 5. Image by David Gray / Getty Images 6. Via: onebigphoto.com 7. Via: baldeaglebluff 8. Via: leiraenkai.deviantart.com 9. 10. 15th century monastery, Black Forest, Germany Via: abandonedography.com 11. Via: natureknights.net 12.

Via: panoramio.com 13. Via: theglobalpanorama.com 14. Via: www.fivelightsdown.co.uk 15. Via: commons.wikimedia.org 16. Via: nedhardy.com 17. Via: ruschili.35photo.ru 18. Source: i.imgur.com / via: reddit.com 19. 1984 Winter Olympics bobsleigh track in Sarajevo Source: flickr.com 20. 21. Source: lana-sator.livejournal.com / via: i.imgur.com 22. Source: logicalrealist / via: i.imgur.com 23. Source: flickr.com / via: i.imgur.com 24. Image by Dimitar Kilkoff / Getty Images 25. 26. Source: ebow.org 27. Source: ny.curbed.com 28. Source: alveart 29. Via: steampunkopera.files.wordpress.com. “Seeing” with the Ears. Can bats hear in colour? But there is a living to be made during the dark half of the day-night cycle, and it is now well known that bats have evolved the capacity to “see” without light, using their highly tuned ears rather than eyes (indeed the more specialised bats have all but completely lost their eyes).

Echoes of high pitched sounds are not quite as good as well focused light but, with suitable processing in the brain, they enable the bat to fly at high speed between stretched wires without getting injured, and to catch insects on the wing, all in total darkness. Toothed whales have evolved the same “echolocation” skill (especially highly developed in river dolphins swimming and hunting in murky water where seeing is almost impossible) and by two separate groups of cave-dwelling birds. I have long conjectured that the answer to the famous philosophical question, “What is it like to be a bat?”

Might be “Pretty much the same as to be a fast flying, visually hunting insectivorous bird such as a swallow.” Disney princesses waiting to kill unwitting passersby [3 pictures] 5 Stars: A Mosquito's Idea Of A Delicious Human : The Two-Way. Hide captionMany criteria — from blood type to body temperature — can play a role in affecting who attracts mosquitoes. abadonian/iStockphoto.com Many criteria — from blood type to body temperature — can play a role in affecting who attracts mosquitoes. If mosquitoes used Yelp, they might look for their next meal by searching nearby for a heavy-breathing human with Type O blood, sporting a red shirt and more than a smattering of skin bacteria.

Preferably either pregnant or holding a beer. That's some of what we take away from a post today on the Surprising Science blog from the Smithsonian. The post gives reasons behind some of those preferences, such as mosquitoes' reliance on sensing carbon dioxide to find their next target and a preference for people with higher body heat. And in May, NPR's Shots blog reported on research finding that mosquitoes "are more attracted to human odors when they're infected with the malaria parasite. " Shortlisted Buildings For World Architecture Festival. Thresher sharks stun prey with tail slaps. 10 July 2013Last updated at 17:42 ET By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News The scientists analysed the footage to confirm that the tail slaps would stun several prey at once Thresher sharks use their impressive tails to stun lots of prey at once with sharp overhead "tail slaps", scientists have confirmed.

The sharks' scythe-like tails make up half the length of their body, so it had long been suspected that the animals used them as hunting weapons. Footage of the predators using their tail to stun and kill sardines has finally confirmed this. The findings are reported in the journal Plos One. Dr Simon Oliver, founder of the Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project and a researcher based at University of Liverpool, filmed pelagic thresher sharks as they hunted off Pescador Island in the Philippines.

"It was a massively exciting moment for me to come across his behaviour," said Dr Oliver. 'Medieval war machine' Continue reading the main story Biggest, fastest, fiercest. 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we like to call a real, live, undead fucking zombie. So there. Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Think about it. Under every legal system in the world, all rights and responsibilities are terminated at death.

All it takes is someone with resources and a need for a mindless workforce of totally obedient slave labor. How long until somebody tries this? As seen in... What are they? How it can result in zombies: Scientists have already created a nano-cyborg, by fusing a tiny silicone chip to a virus. According to studies, within a decade they'll have nanobots that can crawl inside your brain and set up neural connections to replace damaged ones. Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Do the math, people. Some day there will be nanobots in your brain. The nanobots will be programmed to self-replicate, and the death of the host will mean the end of the nanobots.

Science has proven it. Customer Reviews: Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer. What Are The Least Essential Organs In The Human Body? 5 Shockingly Crazy Ideas Behind Huge Scientific Discoveries.