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An international team of scientists have been able to replicate how a wombat produces square poo—and it could change the way geometric products are manufactured in future. Research published today in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal Soft Matter, expands on the discovery that wombat poo forms its distinctive shape within the wombat's intestines, not at the point of exit as previously thought. They have now discovered that the slow passage of the feces and differing stiffness within the last 17 percent of the intestines produces the square shape—before exiting via its round anus. This discovery is not only applicable...

It has come to my attention that #hastagdiplomacy is being actively ridiculed and parodied by right wing, knuckle dragging, Busheois TEA Party neanderthals. Well, this time the joke's on them.

Vladimir Putin, tired of being labeled as a "bully" by media left and right, held a press conference in the Kremlin earlier today, offering a completely new angle to his case for the seizure of the Crimean Peninsula and the possible invasion of Ukraine: the presence of a Tea Party element at the Maidan in Kiev. Vladimir Putin, tired of being labeled as a "bully" by media left and right, held a press conference in the Kremlin earlier today, offering a completely new angle to his case for the seizure of the Crimean Peninsula and the possible invasion of Ukraine:...

In June, Staples will become among the first major retailers to offer a 3D printer. It will also be among the first to offer an affodable one, with 3D Systems’ Cube 3D printer being sold for $1,299, the company announced on Friday. Although $1,299 may seem expensive, there was a time when the cheapest dot matrix or impact printers cost more than that. The price will inevitably come down. The Cube 3D Printer works with both Windows and Mac OS X. It comes with 25 templates with more available online.

I wish to go into partnership with you. -I will provide no capital or funding. -You will put up all of the capital. -You will provide all of the labor. -I will tell you what you can sell, make, how to build, who you can hire and fire and how you conduct business. -Each year you will give me one half of your profit. You must pay me twelve percent of what you pay your employees (for administration and rule making). Next year you must provide health insurance for your employees. If you decide to sell, you must pay me...

A robot that can solve the Rubik's Cube in just over ten seconds has been developed by scientists. The android - called Ruby - first scans the initial status of the scrambled cube before setting to work. She is able to both survey and solve the iconic puzzle in 10.18 seconds. Developed by six engineering and science students at Swinburne University Of Technology in Melbourne, Ruby was built from scratch as their final year project. Professor Chris Pilgrim, of Swinburne University, said: 'Ruby works by scanning each face of a scrambled cube through a webcam. 'It then uses a software...

The world's largest neutrino telescope – made from a giant cube of ice at the South Pole – aimed at detecting subatomic particles traveling near the speed of light has been completed, researchers announced today (Dec. 20). http://www.livescience.com/environment/south-pole-neutrino-observatory-construction-finished-101220.html

You know those guys who can solve a Rubik's cube in a matter of seconds? Well, Graham Parker is definitely not one of them. After 26 years of trying, Parker finally managed to solve the Rubik's cube that confounded him. Now, you may be thinking that he only occasionally picked up the puzzle, slowing his progress—but the reality is that he obsessed over it day after day, night after night. 'I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it,' the 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, said. 'It has driven me mad over the years – it felt...

October 6, 2008 If you’re one of those people who shows-off at parties by solving a Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes, the Rubik’s Mirror Blocks Puzzle might just stop you in your tracks. Also known as Hidetoshi Takeji's Bump Cube, the puzzle challenges its user based on geometry rather than by matching color sequences. To solve the Bump Cube you must order 27 blocks of nine different sizes into a neat and tidy cube. Unlike the original Rubik’s Cube, you can’t just pull the stickers off this one and pretend you’re a genius (or pull the entire thing apart...

New mathematical attack works against a broad range cryptographic functions.Unless you're a dyed in the wool cryptographic geek you probably didn't know that there was a Crypto conference, or even a chain of worldwide crypto conferences that take place each year. Fortunately, for the most of us that aren't crypto geeks there are a handful of very highly skilled people who are; they can take the highly theoretical and complex mathematical proofs and arguments that make up most of modern cryptographic and cryptanalytic research and put it into plain language. Probably the best known is Bruce Schneier, who is a...

Here I sit. I sit in my computer room. My son, who is home from college after ace'ing his first semester final examinations...sits with me. We are discussing historical tidbits. World War II is the current subject.. We discuss certain aspects of the War in the Pacific in late 1944. I have Winamp playing selected numbers from Roger & Hammerstein's "South Pacific". My son holds in his hand one of my posssesions. A Rubic's Cube. I have owned this puzzle for a number of years. It has been sitting on my computer desk for many a month in a completley...

See this thread first. The man who invented the "cube" Admits that he feels like a rube A box with a hole that steals your soul and reduces your status to "noob"

Apple "may have a clunker" with the iPod nano, according to ZDNet's Dan Farber, who cites a recent report by John Paczkowski of Good Morning Silicon Valley. According to Paczkowski, the iPod nano is "fast becoming Apple's next Cube." Farber and Paczkowski cite a delicate display as the possible Achilles' Heel of the iPod nano. Many reports indicate the screen is, at best, easy to scratch. Other sources -- including a Web site dedicated to the "flawed" iPod nano -- claim the Nano's screen cracks easily. "Jobs, the perfectionist of product design and quality, must be apoplectic," writes Farber. "Replacing...

ST. HELENS, Ore. - So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn't been passing any state secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act. So she was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland. "I was shaking in my shoes," Cox said of the September phone call. "My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I'm closed even for a day...

<p>Dan Knights has about 150 pounds and a few gazillion brain cells on his Rubik's Cube, but it's not always clear who has the upper hand in the relationship.</p> <p>Like some kind of time-traveling ambassador from 1982, the 24-year-old takes his cube everywhere, whether he's visiting a friend or his favorite cafe or just walking down the sidewalk near his North Beach home.</p>

  Polyhedra are beautiful 3-D geometrical figures that have fascinated philosophers, mathematicians and artists for millennia.On this site are more than eighty paper models available for free.   Platonic Solids  Dodecahedron  Cube and Tetrahedron  Octahedron  Icosahedron   Archimedean Solids  Cuboctahedron  Icosidodecahedron  Truncated Tetrahedron  Truncated Octahedron  Truncated Cube  Truncated Icosahedron (soccer ball)  Truncated dodecahedron  Rhombicuboctahedron  Truncated Cuboctahedron  Rhombicosidodecahedron  Truncated Icosidodecahedron  Snub Cube  Snub DodecahedronKepler-Poinsot Polyhedra Great Stellated Dodecahedron  Small Stellated Dodecahedron Great Icosahedron Great DodecahedronOther Uniform Polyhedra  TetrahemihexahedronOctahemioctahedronCubohemioctahedron Small RhombihexahedronSmall Cubicuboctahedron Small Dodecicosidodecahedron Small RhombidodecahedronSmall Dodecahemiododecahedron Small Ditrigonal IcosidodecahedronSmall Snub Icosicosidodecahedron Small IcosihemidodecahedronCompounds Stella Octangula Compound of Cube and Octahedron...