The annals of science describe thousands of noble experiments monitoring the effects of drugs, from alcohol to Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis extract), on animals including monkeys, dolphins, pigeons and spiders. But the biggest and most controversial animal drug experiment involved a three-tonne bull Asian elephant named Tusko.
Today is the 10th anniversary of Bill Hick’s death. For those that don’t know, Bill was a most excellent comedien who spoke the truth. Here’s a tribute site that someone on SA made. Go check it out and listen to some of the audio clips.
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Two new species of dinosaur, one a quick-moving meat-eater and the other a giant plant-eater, have been discovered in Antarctica, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Feb. 24, 2004—Flipping a coin may not be the fairest way to settle disputes. About a decade ago, statistician Persi Diaconis started to wonder if the outcome of a coin flip really is just a matter of chance. He had Harvard University engineers build him a mechanical coin flipper. Diaconis, now at Stanford University, found that if a coin is launched exactly the same way, it lands exactly the same way.
WASHINGTON (CNN)—A South Carolina psychiatrist said Wednesday he will immediately start recruiting patients after winning approval to conduct the first study testing MDMA—better known as ecstasy—as a therapeutic tool.
Humphry Osmond, the psychiatrist who coined the word “psychedelic” for the drugs to which he introduced the writer and essayist Aldous Huxley, died on Feb. 6 at his home in Appleton, Wis. He was 86.
Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month.
Some scientists believed on 13 January that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours.
WASHINGTON (AP)—After three years of watching Senate Democrats block his judicial nominees, President Bush trumped them for the second time this year by installing Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on the federal appeals court.
This was on the front page of CNN.com. The turntable is moving on up the chain of accepted musical instruments!!
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP)—DJ Chi bobs his head to the hip-hop rhythm, one hand skipping over the vinyl record, the other on the mixer. Possum, Raydar, Moses and the other DJs in the room listen to his beat.
This is a “turntable technique” class at Berklee College of Music, perhaps the first of its kind in the country. DJ Chi is Yoon J. Suh, 21, one of eight students at the prestigious institution who spend two hours every Thursday manipulating old-fashioned records to scratch out “scribbles” and “stabs.”
(SPACE.com)—Black holes will eat just about anything, and now astronomers have confirmed that stars are on their menus.
Observations from three space-based X-ray telescopes over about a decade provide the first solid evidence of a star being torn apart and partly swallowed by a black hole.
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(CNN)—Eager to get their hands on Microsoft’s secrets, a frenzy of Internet file sharing followed the leak of source code for the popular Windows NT and Windows 2000 software.
The chunks of code—riddled with hidden notes and profanity—were posted on numerous file-sharing networks Friday. And message boards buzzed with anti-Microsoft comments, including “I hope they hack the hell out of it” and “I’m so glad I have a Mac.”
PASADENA, California (AP)—In a discovery that offers a rare glimpse back to when the universe was just 750 million years old, a team of astrophysicists said Sunday they have detected a tiny galaxy that is the farthest known object from Earth.
“We are confident it is the most distant known object,” California Institute of Technology astronomer Richard Ellis said of the galaxy, which lies roughly 13 billion light-years from Earth.
BRISTOL, Rhode Island (AP)—A student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.
The application for the $250 award requires an essay on “why you are proud of your white heritage” and a recent picture to “confirm whiteness.”
“Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants,” says the application, issued by the university’s College Republicans.
Four Nigerian men were charged with plucking out the eyes of a 13-year-old schoolboy for use in witchcraft, the state news agency reported today.
They face charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to grievous bodily harm and permanent disfigurement for the attack on the boy, who was taken to hospital in the north-eastern state of Bauchi.