Happy Mother’s Day!

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I’m posting a day early from my schedule to wish all the moms out there a happy Mother’s Day! Being a mom isn’t easy (I know, I’ve watched mine deal with my family!) and you all deserve a day to celebrate you! So I hope your families all pamper you as you deserve as they tell you how much they love you.

You HAVE to do the Silly Walk

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The Blood Countess was right… sort of.

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Did you hear? A new study is showing that Swapping Young Blood for Old Reverses Aging. Essentially, scientists injected the blood of younger mice into elderly mice, and found that many age-related infirmities were reversed. Scientists have high hopes that this discovery could be used on humans to similar effect, especially when it comes to Alzheimer’s and heart enlargement.

We’ll have to recruit vampire cats to kill all the vampire mice that are sure to be bred through this program.

This is awesome, but didn’t someone already discover this? Ah yes, the Blood Countess. She was the most prolific female serial killer in history, and she bathed in the blood of virgins to keep herself young. Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed and four collaborators were convicted for the murder and torture of 80 different girls, but accusations ran as high as 650.

…Okay, so the staying young and even the bathing in virgin blood thing were never actually proven, but still. Does this sound like a coincidence to you? ;)

Video

Interspecies Love

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When a National Geographic photographer is confronted with a leopard seal, the seal reveals a heartwarming look at nature.

Vegas, Baby!

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Well, I’m back from Vegas! …And I totally forgot I didn’t have any ready for my blog. DOH.

But I had a really good time and saw lots of cool things. However, I did come to one conclusion: if you aren’t drunk or gambling, Vegas wasn’t designed for you. My boyfriend and I are neither, and we discovered how sore feet can get trying to hoof it through Vegas to see all the cool stuff to see. There is a lot.

For example:

mirage volcano eruption vegas

An erupting fountain. (The Mirage)

Bellagio Fountain Vegas

Dancing fountains. (This may look cool, but it’s nothing compared to watching the whole show.) (The Bellagio)

Rome Vegas Caesar's Palace statue fountain

Rome, inside Vegas! (Caesar’s Palace)

Shark Vegas Mandalay Bay Aquarium

A SHARK. (Mandalay Bay Aquarium, and possibly my favorite part of our vacation)

Luxor Vegas elevator art

It even looked cool inside the elevators! (The Luxor)

I’m pretty sure Vegas’s collective motto is “Go big or go home.” We also saw a couple really cool shows (Tournament of Kings and Penn & Teller). I also tried slot machines for the first time. I even came out 2 cents ahead!

A few Vegas tips:
Everyone is trying to sell you something. EVERYONE.
Taxis aren’t THAT overpriced, and your feet will thank you for it.
Food is expensive everywhere, so you might as well do the all-day buffet.

AFK

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Just a quick life update and heads up – I’m about to go on holiday, so my twitter and blog (etc) will be quiet. I will post when I get back and respond to any correspondences then!

A Practical Dog Trick

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If only all dogs were this well trained.

I For One Welcome Our Vegetal Overlords

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Bionic Plants: Turning Plants Into Energy Producing Factories
First we turn plants into batteries. Before you know it, they’ll go all super-species on us and take over.

Seriously though, this article is pretty awesome. IFLS does the usual layman breakdown (although it’s a tad more technical than many of her others.)

TL;DR? They’ve figured out how to turn plants into energy-producing units. There were some fancy science-problems stopping them from doing this before, but they’re figuring it all out and it could be feasible as an energy source. It’s still in early stages, but to me, this sounds a lot more sustainable than most of the stuff we’ve got going on right now. More plants: yay!

happy flower battery

The plants will be so happy to serve us… until they’re not. :o

Crafty Crow Pieces Puzzle

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Sit back, and watch this impressively intelligent crow as he solves a puzzle.

The Earth Is Awsome: Earthquake Lights

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Scientists find records of rare ‘earthquake lights’

So this is awesome. Apparently, under certain conditions, bright lights herald the coming of earthquakes.

Certain types of earthquakes in certain areas can set off blazes of light seconds — sometimes days — before the actual quake. These can manifest as floating balls of light, bluish columns shooting up out of the earth and even reverse lightning, reaching up into the sky from the ground.

Now this phenomenon is extremely rare, so it shouldn’t be depended upon as a warning sign. ;) The article lists the conditions required for earthquake lights to appear, and lists a bunch of recorded incidents where these lights were witnessed.

Unsurprisingly, these lights have been responsible for a few “UFO” sightings.

UFO clouds

Not UFOs.

To me, this is just more evidence of how vast, complicated, and utterly amazing our world is. We really have very little understanding of the world around us, although our knowledge grows every day.
It makes you wonder about the rest of the UFO sightings too. I’m a skeptic when it comes to alien life (especially visiting Earth), but it’s not something I rule out. But our minds like to come up with some explanation – sometimes any explanation – to explain those things we don’t understand.