http://realideal.com/forum/ Portal J Repository » Recent Posts en Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:04:41 +0000 http://realideal.com/forum/topic/966#post-1114 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:45:40 +0000 admin 1114@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> The video shows Russian Navy Commandos on a Somalian pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker...<br /> <br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TruV3sxS9Zw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TruV3sxS9Zw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> All explanations are in Russian with a single exception of when a wounded pirate says something in English and the Russian soldier says "Why do you lie to me? - this is not a fishing boat". All conversations between the commandos are in Russian. If you don't understand Russian, the pictures speak for themselves.<br /> <br /> The soldiers freed their compatriots and the tanker.<br /> <br /> The Russian Navy Commandos moved the pirates back to their own (pirate) ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives and then they left the ship and decommissioned it with all remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it.<br /> <br /> Without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. That is, they used the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. Typically, pirates were hanged.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/947#post-1113 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:50:04 +0000 boise 1113@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>i must try this out.. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/960#post-1112 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:47:12 +0000 boise 1112@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>holy shit,that is a lot of mouths too feed. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/964#post-1111 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:19:28 +0000 boise 1111@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>wow,wow.. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/965#post-1110 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:31:53 +0000 admin 1110@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> What you're looking at here are two incredible examples of a phenomenon known as <i>fano flow</i>, which show non-newtonian fluids appearing to defy the laws of physics...<br /> <br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aY7xiGQ-7iw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aY7xiGQ-7iw?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> What these fluids are defying are the forces of gravity. Both of the fluids in the video have been treated with a water-soluble chemical compound known as polyethylene oxide (PEO). PEO is a polymer, meaning it's made up of a bunch of identical molecules that fit together to form a much larger molecule, sort of like metal links fitting together to form a chain.<br /> <br /> In the so-named ''tubeless'' syphon, a fluid can be made to flow up through an unsupported liquid column above the free surface of the liquid. One way to achieve this is by slowly withdrawing and raising a syringe from a pool of the liquid below.<br /> <br /> In the so-named ''open channel'' syphon, after initially commencing the flow of an elastic fluid from say a beaker, the fluid will continue to flow up the side and over the lip of the beaker for sometime despite the level of its free surface having fallen considerably below the top of the beaker. In this way the slightest spill will cause the beaker to partially empty in what is commonly referred to as a ''self-syphoning'' effect.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/964#post-1109 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:34:08 +0000 admin 1109@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> RFID chips can beam data wirelessly. The guys at Mythbusters wanted to make an episode about how trackable and hackable RFID chips were. Sounds amazing! Everyone would've learned more about the technology that's invisibly invading our lives. But, nope. Credit Card companies banned 'em.<br /> <br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hq7kBhts9a8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hq7kBhts9a8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> Specifically, it looks like the lawyers of Visa, American Express, Discover and all the other bigwig debt slurpin' credit card companies got in immediate contact with Discovery and told 'em if Savage and crew did the episode, the credit card companies would pull its advertisements and commercials from Discovery. Discovery caved and the RFID episode was axed.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/963#post-1108 Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:08:23 +0000 admin 1108@http://realideal.com/forum/ <div><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-1.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 1 - That FICA guy wont be your buddy" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/></div><div><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In the first season of "Friends," Rachel Green looks at her first paycheck as a waitress and asks, "Who's this FICA guy, and why is he getting all my money?"</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That's one hard lesson about Social Security. Another is that when it's time to claim, you can't depend on the Social Security Administration to be your personal adviser.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In an effort to save time and cut costs, Social Security employees generally don't give case-specific advice. So that means you are on your own to make the most important financial decision of a lifetime. You have to read the rules and do the research yourself.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">William Meyer, whose website, Social Security Solutions, gives Social Security advice for a fee, says you also can't depend on Social Security to follow instructions you give them electronically. If you have a request that is not the most common choice, you'll need to go to the Social Security office and make the request in person, he says.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Read on to brush up on Social Security benefits that are not commonly known.</p><div style="text-align: left;"><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">300 ways to claim the goodies</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-2.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 2 - 300 ways to claim the goodies" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">There are more than 300 ways a married couple can decide to take their Social Security benefits, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. You can't ask Social Security to list them all, so what's the right choice?</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Munnell says it's hard to beat waiting until you're 70 to begin benefits because the monthly payment is 76 percent higher than it would be if you had started to take benefits at 62 and 32 percent higher than it would be if you claimed at age 66.</p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /><br /></span><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Betting against death</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-3.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 3 - Betting against death" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">On the other hand, some people advocate drawing Social Security benefits at the first opportunity.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Doug Carey, who founded the financial planning software firm WealthTrace, says Social Security doesn't see itself as an odds maker, but it does require you to bet on your longevity. He offers this chart as proof. It graphs the break-even point for a person who earned the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $70,000 per year for 35 years. If this person waits until 70 to claim Social Security and lives until at least age 90, he'll accumulate almost $162,000 more in benefits than he would if he had claimed at 62. But there's a possibility of losing the bet and getting nothing.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Retired law professor and Social Security expert Merton Bernstein says the longevity bet odds are bad, so claim early. "You never know when the bell will ring. I subscribe to the Woody Allen principal: 'Take the money and run.'"</p><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A reward for delaying divorce</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-4.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 4 - A reward for delaying divorce" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">If you're not happy in your marriage after nine and a half years, hold off before hiring a divorce attorney.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Stay married for at least 10 years," says San Francisco-based Bank of America personal banker Raphael Gilbert.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Why? That's what it takes to stake a claim to your ex-spouse's Social Security benefits. If you terminate the marriage after nine years and 11 months, you're out of luck.</p><p class="clear" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">If you make it for 10 years, you can collect a Social Security benefit based on up to half of your ex's earnings or on the basis of your own earnings -- whichever is higher.</p><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Bigger reward if ex has 'departed'</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-5.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 5 - Bigger reward if ex has departed" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">And we have another dirty little secret for you. If you haven't remarried, chances are your ex-spouse is worth more to you dead than alive -- especially if he or she was a high earner. Once an ex-spouse passes away, you'll be treated just like a widow or widower. If you are at least 60, you'll be able to collect your late-spouse's benefit and allow your own benefit to grow unclaimed until you reach age 70, when you can switch if your own is higher, according to Carol Thomas, who worked for the Social Security Administration for 28 years and answers questions about Social Security at RetirementCommunity.com.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Assuming your ex will dwell on Planet Earth to a ripe old age, the longer your ex-spouse delays claiming Social Security, the better it is for you. So, if you get a chance, encourage your ex to work until age 70. Then, when it's all over, you'll get to claim half of his or her maximum Social Security. Or once you and your ex-spouse reach full retirement age -- usually 66 -- you can claim half your ex's benefit and let your own grow untouched until you're 70, says Thomas. Consider it payback.</p><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">More flexibility for widows and widowers</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-6.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 6 - More flexibility for widows and widowers" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Social Security does a good job of explaining widow and widower benefits, but Ken Luck, a spokesman for TIAA-CREF Financial Services, says it doesn't clearly spell out a key difference between widow/widower benefits and spousal benefits. A widow/widower can begin benefits based on his or her own earnings record and later switch to survivors benefits or begin with survivors benefits and later switch to benefits based on his or her own record -- even if the surviving spouse is filing before full retirement age. You can't do that with spousal benefits.</p><p class="clear" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In other words, a widow can begin drawing the full amount of her late husband's Social Security when she is as young as 60. Then she can choose to leave her own Social Security alone, allowing it to grow in value until her full retirement age -- or even age 70. This works for widowers, too.</p><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">SSDI Step 1: Hire help</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-7.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 7 - SSDI Step 1 Hire help" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When you apply for disability insurance, Social Security doesn't tell you that your first step ought to be hire a lawyer or other expert adviser. Allsup, a private firm that advises people about how to get SSDI, says Social Security doesn't even make it clear that an applicant can have representation from the very beginning of the application process. As a result, lots of people don't get help until they've been initially denied, and that slows down the process unnecessarily, according to Allsup spokeswoman Mary Jung.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Jung also warns SSDI applicants to be accurate and precise on the application. Small mistakes can make a big difference. Minimizing how much exertion was required to perform the person's job is a common mistake that frequently results in denial of a claim.</p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h5 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">35 Years is the Magic Number</h5><img alt="text" align="left" src="http://www.brimg.net/images/secrets-ss-wont-tell-you-8.jpg" width="260" height="200" title="Slide 8 - 35 years is the magic number" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Social Security website offers an explanation of how your benefits are calculated, but it's a little hard to follow. You can find a simpler explanation at myretirementpaycheck.org, a website sponsored by the National Endowment for Financial Education.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Your Social Security payment is figured using a complex calculation based on a 35-year average of your covered wages. Each year's wages are adjusted for inflation before being averaged. If you worked longer than 35 years, the government will use the highest 35 years. If you worked for less than 35 years, they'll average in zeros for the years you are lacking. You don't have to be a math genius to figure out the impact of that -- it drags down your average. If you can avoid zeros by working a couple of years longer, you'll increase your Social Security payment.</p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/962#post-1107 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:35:10 +0000 admin 1107@http://realideal.com/forum/ <div style="text-align: center;"><div class="imgwrap abovewrap" title="Technologies that we've lost - and the quest to find them again" style="margin-top: -13px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 640px; height: 360px; z-index: 0; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px; height: 360px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"/><img src="http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2012/02/bigpic_39c554f14daca9569ad8348d4a9ec5a3.jpg" width="640" height="360" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "/></div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Greek fire. Damascus steel. These are two technological innovations whose secrets are said to be lost to time. Even the original schematics for the Apollo missions have disappeared into the mists of history, forever hidden inside hopelessly obsolete computers. How do we lose technologies that were once so important? Some say that they aren't really lost, and are working on rediscovering them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Certainly, the specific techniques and materials required to construct some of the famed inventions of the ancient world (and the late 1960s) can be lost. And it's definitely true that people can forget how some ancient invention works for hundreds, even thousand of years. But the history of technology is very much the history of ideas, and as you'll see, ideas are pretty much indestructible - even in the face of truly terrible record keeping.</p><h4 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Fiery Savior of the Byzantines</h4><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">It's useful to think of the famous examples of lost technology in terms of a few distinct categories. First, let's consider the most famous lost technology of them all, the ancient Byzantine incendiary weapon Greek fire, a unique chemical formula that produced inexhaustible flames. This terrible weapon was a closely guarded military secret of the Eastern Roman Empire, and its fearsome effectiveness in battle arguably extended the life of the empire by over 500 years.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The first mention of Greek fire in combat comes from the early 9th century historian Theophanes, who in his&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Chronography</em>&nbsp;tells of its use against invading Arab forces about 150 years before. At the time, the once mighty Byzantine Empire was falling to the invaders, with enemy navies besieging the capital of Constantinople for five years. According to Theophanes, the desperate emperor Konstantinos IV was approached by a Greek architect - and, presumably, chemist - named Kallinikos, who had fled his home in Syria to escape the invading Arab armies. Kallinikos showed the Byzantine armies how create Greek fire, which was put to use in a naval battle around 678 CE.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">As Theophanes tells it, the Eastern Roman forces found themselves overwhelmed by the vast Arab fleet under the command of Khalif of Syria. But the Byzantine ships piped their Greek fire through the newly attached siphons out onto the water, where it burned and consumed everything in its path. The enemy found that nothing could extinguish the flames of this strange fire, except sand, vinegar, or urine, preferably old. The Arab navy was crushed, and the imperial capital of Constantinople survived its brush with destruction. Greek fire would save the empire from Syrian invaders once again in 717, and the Empire - and perhaps all of Europe along with it - was once again secure.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">While the basics of the story are probably true, the Phoenician architect Kallinikos probably didn't invent Greek fire, and it's entirely possible that he didn't even exist. Greek fire was more likely the product of many people with knowledge of chemistry working over decades, perhaps even centuries to refine it into the perfect formula. There's evidence of chemical-based incendiary weapons going all the way back to the 9th century BCE, and plenty of other ancient powers had chemical weapons along the same lines. But the Byzantine version was easily the most fearsome of all, and the one whose secrets of production were the most jealously guarded.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/02/a792c9b98f22fb974669320a84b00fde.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/02/medium_a792c9b98f22fb974669320a84b00fde.jpg" width="300" class="image_1 v10_medium" alt="Technologies that we've lost - and the quest to find them again" title="Technologies that we've lost - and the quest to find them again" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/></a></p><h4 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Best Kept Secret of All Time</h4><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Part of the reason that Greek fire has passed into legend is that it was a great mystery even in its own time. Although the Greek fire deployed by the Byzantines in later centuries probably was not precisely the same thing as the original formula attributed to Kallinikos, Greek fire was always a devastating weapon that could turn the tide of any naval battle. This gave Constantinople a terrific advantage over any foe, and there's no question that every other great power coveted Greek fire and yearned to know its secrets.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">And yet, for over five hundred years, nobody ever learned its secrets, until even the original keepers of the knowledge died out. What's more, Greek fire never even fell into enemy hands. In 814 the Bulgar nomads captured thirty-six siphons and enough Greek fire to devastate an enemy force. And yet all the evidence suggests this captured fire lay unused because the Bulgars couldn't even figure out how to make it work.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Indeed, a formula for Greek fire was actually published around the late 13th century in the rather awesomely named&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Book of Fires for the Burning of Enemies</em>, and yet even then nobody could figure out the precise trick needed to unlock the full force of Greek fire. Writing in<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Technology and Culture</em>, historian Alex Roland explains just why Greek fire remained so perfectly mysterious:</p><blockquote style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 4px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); color: rgb(81, 100, 120); line-height: 22px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Greek fire was not just an incendiary. It was a weapon system, composed of dromon, tube, caldron, and liquid. To steal the secret it was necessary to steal all the components. But people with knowledge of the components were never in the same place at the same time. Shipwrights built the dromons at shipyards in Constantinople and other ports. Smiths who installed the caldrons and perhaps the siphons worked in different parts of those same shipyards. Most probably the workers in bronze who made the siphons were different from the ironworkers who made the caldrons. None was in touch with the chemists in the main arsenal of Constantinople who brewed the liquid. It is possible that none of these artisans ever met the siphonators who were trained to work this weapon system at sea. The Byzantines compartmentalized knowledge of their system so that no one likely to fall into enemy hands would carry more than a fraction of the secret.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The traditional accounts say that the complete secret was known only to two families, that of the ruling imperial dynasty and a second, otherwise unknown family referred to as Lampros. Such monopolies of knowledge were common in Constantinople, and it likely protected the knowledge of Greek fire from ever reaching wider circulation, but it also had a major vulnerability - if anything happened to the transmission of the secret from one generation to the next, Greek fire would be lost forever.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Much like its western counterpart, the Eastern Roman Empire was notorious for the short reigns, violent deaths, and constant overthrows of its emperors, and the these constantly interrupted successions meant the knowledge of Greek fire was lost by 1204, if not long before. The mysterious Lampros family also likely perished in these constant intrigues and rebellions.</p><h4 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Eternal Flame Of Greek Fire</h4><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Whether Greek fire is still a lost technology or not is, to some extent, a matter of interpretation. Certainly, the precise formula, materials used, and methods used to unleash Greek fire are lost, and it's unlikely they will ever be recovered. But the fact is, historians and scientists know enough about Greek fire to make some pretty shrewd guesses about what Greek fire was, and the chances are that one of the many attempts to recreate it have more or less stumbled on the secret. And anyway, the underlying technology of Greek fire has been reinvented many times since Kallinikos.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Let's back up a moment. The ancient accounts all seem to agree on a few crucial points. The fire burned on water - some claimed the water actually ignited it - and it was only those old standbys of vinegar, sand, or urine that could put it out. There's general agreement that Greek fire was a liquid of some sort, and that when it was released it created a loud noise and some smoke. Assuming those descriptions are all accurate - and there's nothing generally consistent ancient accounts for us to feel confident on that score - then we've already narrowed down the possibilities as to what Greek fire could be, at least in terms of its primary ingredients.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">To have all those qualities, Greek fire almost certainly used crude oil, which could be found in wells all around the Byzantine-controlled Black Sea. Other chemicals were likely mixed in with the petroleum to give Greek fire its unique characteristics, and of course that still leaves the crucial matters of its production and handling that helped to make the weapon so baffling to Constantinople's enemies. Those are important details, to be sure, and if ever there was a technology that we could call lost, then Greek fire is as good a choice as any.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But it's only the very specific details of Greek fire that are lost - we long ago rediscovered how to make a devastating, petroleum-based fire that will burn on water. That would be napalm, and for better or worse it does its job just as well and in much the same way as Greek fire did.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 200px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 200px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/02/a44e06c2c906c870dd994139578821e3.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); display: block; height: 200px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.io9.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif?rev=20120202_2); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/02/medium_a44e06c2c906c870dd994139578821e3.jpg" width="300" height="200" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div><p></p><h4 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 19px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The Elusive Damascus Steel</h4><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Greek fire is the clearest example of what we could call a lost technology, but it's hardly the only one. For 2,000 years, the finest steel in the world was known as Damascus steel, which were known for their distinctive patterns, extreme toughness, and ability to be honed to the sharpest of edges. The legends that sprang up around Damascus steel claimed it cut a strand of silk in half as it fell to the ground and even cut through other swords without losing its sharpness. These stories outstripped the steel's actual abilities, but not by much.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The exact method of producing Damascus steel was a trade secret among Middle Eastern swordsmiths, although we're fairly sure the steel was made from ore deposits originating in India and Sri Lanka. These deposits likely began to run out in the early 1700s, bringing an unceremonious end to a metalworking tradition that dated back twenty centuries. Exactly&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">why</em>the knowledge of how to make Damascus steel disappeared so completely and totally is difficult to determine, but researchers have suggested the unique properties were the result of very precise trace impurities of elements like tungsten or vanadium in those specific ores, and there was no point trying to make Damascus steel with anything else.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">If that's the case, then Damascus steel is a good example of a second big category of forms of lost technology, which are those that rely on materials that are no longer available. An other example, funnily enough, might be the Stradivarius violins, the perfect harmonics of which have been attributed not just to the master craftsmanship of Antonio Stradivari and his two sons, but also to the wood they were made from. Researchers Lloyd Burckle and Henri D. Grissimo-Mayer&nbsp;<a href="http://web.utk.edu/~grissino/downloads/burckle%20grissino%202003.pdf" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">argued in 2003</a>&nbsp;that the wood was unusually dense because it grew during&nbsp;<a href="http://io9.com/5880600/volcanoes-caused-a-little-ice-age-in-europe-500-years-ago-say-scientists" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">the Little Ice Age</a>, a centuries-long period of unusual cold in Europe in particular. That's one possible explanation for the perfection of these violins -&nbsp;<a href="http://io9.com/5862912/ct-scanners-can-perfectly-recreate-the-legendary-stradivarius-violins" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">modern reproduction attempts</a>&nbsp;may reveal more.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Returning to Damascus steel, this is another case where, like Greek fire, the underlying technology is already broadly understood, and arguably better understood now than it was by its makers. Indeed, one theory to explain the unusual toughness of this steel is&nbsp;<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061116-nanotech-swords.html" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">the presence of tiny nanowires and carbon nanotubes</a>&nbsp;that formed inside the swords, which would have added tremendous strength to the swords but likely would not have been a well understood phenomenon hundreds of years ago. The particular combination of source material and steel-working technique has been lost in time, but we now know how to make steel that matches and indeed far exceeds its Damascus predecessor. Under those circumstances, it's again a matter of opinion whether we're really looking at a lost technology.</p></div> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/961#post-1106 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:41:14 +0000 boise 1106@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>now that is a helpful tip. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/961#post-1105 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:45:17 +0000 admin 1105@http://realideal.com/forum/ <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">These were my stove burner/grates.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-bAzkZErdjP8/ThIKMNeeRqI/AAAAAAAAEuU/7lqAEuGMfwM/s1600-h/DSCN4215%25255B7%25255D.jpg" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img alt="grease, dirt, stove grate, stove burner" border="0" height="480" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-UJ8CwSlV834/ThIKMmhGUZI/AAAAAAAAEuY/Jrg_pOJ5qjA/DSCN4215_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" title="grease, dirt, stove grate, stove burner" width="640" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: inline; "/></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Yep.&nbsp; They were so bad that I am almost embarrassed to put a watermark on this photo.&nbsp;&nbsp; You cook... oil and grease spatter... they get heated and reheated and then pretty soon you have a disgusting coating that will not. scrub. off. ever.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">What to do...?&nbsp; Stop. Scrubbing.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Remember ammonia?&nbsp; Basic ammonia? &nbsp;&nbsp;Take about 1/4 cup of ammonia and seal it up with one of the burners in a large ziploc bag.&nbsp; You only need a little amonia in the bag.&nbsp; You are not trying to soak the burner… you just want to seal it up with the ammonia fumes.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-PiJj6tD5WW0/ThIKNNNJa2I/AAAAAAAAEuc/riswrA03_2o/s1600-h/DSCN4220%25255B8%25255D.jpg" style="color: rgb(172, 88, 111); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img alt="DSCN4220" border="0" height="480" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-XofByy-8fWM/ThIKN6-fB9I/AAAAAAAAEug/pr7WAx0cd0k/DSCN4220_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" title="DSCN4220" width="640" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: inline; "/></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I leave it outside on a cookie sheet overnight.&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: xx-small; ">&nbsp;(You can leave it inside, but I move it outside just in case the bag springs a leak or something.&nbsp; Stinky.)&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">It is the</span><em style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;fumes</em><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;from the ammonia that dissolves all of the grease and hardened oil. You don't need to soak it, it just needs to be sealed up with the ammonia fumes.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When it’s done sitting, it should wipe clean with a sponge.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-M1ZphUkiVeE/ThIKOBNeNEI/AAAAAAAAEuk/u7naW2WUGRM/s1600-h/DSCN4217%25255B6%25255D.jpg" style="color: rgb(172, 88, 111); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img alt="clean " border="0" height="480" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8TkxFvV7JZM/ThIKO-5tVzI/AAAAAAAAEuo/8EagGt3XmX0/DSCN4217_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" title="clean " width="640" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: inline; "/></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">See how amazing?&nbsp; It’s the same burner. &nbsp;Easy peasy, no more greasy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-1LlRwdueaNI/ThIKPP1d6SI/AAAAAAAAEus/w1yPtyNVJVE/s1600-h/DSCN4219%25255B8%25255D.jpg" style="color: rgb(172, 88, 111); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img alt="cleaning stove burners, grates" border="0" height="640" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Y3LSeDCFzYo/ThIKP35xUSI/AAAAAAAAEuw/-0Ixxrd06vk/DSCN4219_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" title="cleaning stove burners, grates" width="480" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: inline; "/></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Why buy expensive cleaners and/or use a lot of elbow grease?&nbsp; Cheap ammonia and 12 hours = totally clean.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">This will work in a stove as well...a flat pan filled on the bottom and leave overnight(perhaps a bit longer in certain cases) and bingo! Wipes clean for me every time!</span>&nbsp;<br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">You. Are. Welcome.</span><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">*****Updated: Never, EVER mix ammonia with anything that has bleach in it. &nbsp;It creates toxic fumes. &nbsp;(In general, I suggest you don't play chemist and try to mix ammonia with anything, period.)*****</span> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/951#post-1104 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:11:41 +0000 boise 1104@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>well I am game for it,I just hope that i can find the flax seed oil. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/960#post-1103 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:09:18 +0000 admin 1103@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <center><img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/7/2012/01/a9fc347b37434171d59399cfd5966ec8.jpg"/></center><br /> <br /> Above is a picture of a female Burmese python caught in 2009 by a ranger in the Everglades National Park. All those sacs are embryonic pythons—59 potential hungry baby pythons in all.<br /> <br /> Looking at that, it's not surprising that a new report found the python infestation in the Everglades, caused by lazy pet owners releasing their snakes there, has decimated nearly all of the most common animals: A recent count found 99 percent of raccoons and 88 percent of bobcats had vanished, along with practically all the rabbits and foxes. You try feeding 59 babies on a python's salary.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/955#post-1102 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:24:30 +0000 boise 1102@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>how cool is that. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/959#post-1101 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:36:06 +0000 admin 1101@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <i>Italianamerican</i> is a 1974 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. Martin Scorsese's parents, Catherine and Charles Scorsese, feature in this homemade documentary acting as themselves. The Scorseses talk about their experiences as Italian immigrants in New York among other things, while having dinner at their flat on Elizabeth Street. <br /> <br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/E25D10788F24A6F0?hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/E25D10788F24A6F0?hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allownetworking="internal" saveembedtags="true" enablehref="false" enablejsurl="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></embed> </object></center><br /> <br /> Scorsese's mother also instructs how to cook her meatballs, a recipe later featured in the credits of the film. Among the subjects discussed in the film are family, religion, their origins, Italian ancestors, life in Italy after the war, the hardships of poor Sicilian immigrants in America striving to make ends meet.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/958#post-1100 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:47:07 +0000 admin 1100@http://realideal.com/forum/ <div style="text-align: center;"><div class="imgwrap abovewrap" title="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" style="margin-top: -13px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 640px; height: 360px; z-index: 0; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px; height: 360px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"/><img src="http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/83d27e181beb580990fc185c15252f03.jpg" width="640" height="360" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "/></div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We all know ants are incredibly capable creatures. They live in vast, interconnected colonies, can lift several times their own body weight, and coordinate their activity with incredible precision.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But many of the things that make ants impressive would also make them formidable foes. Perhaps it's time we took a look at some of these strengths in greater detail. Remember: it's important to know your enemy - erm, I mean your new insect overlords.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">10) Ants are as old as the dinosaurs</strong><br />In 2006, Scientists from Harvard and Florida State University collaborated to conduct&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/312/5770/101.abstract" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">a massive genetic analysis</a>&nbsp;on ants from 19 out of 20 known subfamilies. Their findings suggested that ants first arose in the mid-Cretaceous period — about 110—130 million years ago. And yes, that means:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/8c7b87ab5ddb429859ceb703c01c30f6.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_8c7b87ab5ddb429859ceb703c01c30f6.jpg" width="300" class="image_1 v10_medium" alt="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" title="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/></a><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">9) Ants have already survived a mass extinction event</strong><br />The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (still commonly referred to as the Cretaceous-Tertiary — or "K-T" — extinction event) is thought to have occurred approximately 65 million years ago following an absolutely massive impact event. Widely regarded as the downfall of the dinosaurs (and, incidentally, the rise of mammals), the years following the KT-extinction event are actually believed to have been a time of incredibly rapid speciation and worldwide expansion for ants, marking what researchers&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_H%C3%B6lldobler" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Bert Hölldobler</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Wilson" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Edward O. Wilson</a>&nbsp;— authors of the Pulitzer-prize winning book&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759?tag=gmgamzn-20" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">The Ants</a></em>&nbsp;— call "<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/21/7411.full" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">a rise to ecological dominance.</a>" [Illustration by Don Davis&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/undergrad/classes/spring2011/Hubbard_206/Lectures4/Apr19.htm" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">via</a>]</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">8) Ants have conquered almost the entire globe</strong><br />The success of the ants all those millions of years ago continues to this day. In an article published in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/97/26/14028.full" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">a 2000 issue of&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">PNAS</em></a>, entomologist&nbsp;<a href="http://entomology.si.edu/StaffPages/schultz.htm" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Ted Schultz</a>&nbsp;calls the rise of the ants "arguably the greatest success story in the history of terrestrial metazoa" ( i.e. pretty much any multicellular animal on Earth — and yes, that includes humans), and rightfully so.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">With the exception of Antarctica, the Arctic, and a handful of islands, just about every piece of land on Earth harbors at least one native ant species; the ones that don't host&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">invasive</em>&nbsp;species. Take the Hawaiian islands, for instance — not one of their more than 50 established ant species is believed to be native to the archipelago.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/e1c7ee8d921a6ed1320a297722368dc0.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_e1c7ee8d921a6ed1320a297722368dc0.jpg" width="300" class="image_2 v10_medium" alt="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" title="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/></a><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">7) One group of ants conquered six continents</strong><br />Take the Argentine ant,&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Linepithema humile</em>, for example. In 2000, biologists Andrew Suarez and his colleagues at UC Davis<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/3/1095" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">reconstructed the invasion history of the&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">L. humile</em></a>. The team revealed that in the last century alone, the species has become established in at least 15 countries throughout the world — including a number of isolated, oceanic islands (including Hawaii) — spanning six continents. Shown here is the world distribution of the Argentine ant. [figure&nbsp;<a href="http://www.calacademy.org/science/citizen_science/ants/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">via</a>]</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">6) The total ant population makes our 7 billion look weak</strong><br />In their Pulitzer-prize winning book&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759?tag=gmgamzn-20" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">The Ants</a></em>, researchers&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_H%C3%B6lldobler" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Bert Hölldobler</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Wilson" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Edward O. Wilson</a>&nbsp;estimate that there are upwards of 10,000,000,000,000,000 individual ants alive on Earth at any given time.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/de11c7227139846500ba4b25933007b1.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_de11c7227139846500ba4b25933007b1.jpg" width="300" class="image_3 v10_medium" alt="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" title="10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Ants" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/></a><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">5) Some ants are quite large</strong><br />Of course, even at numbers exceeding 10,000 trillion, ants are small, right? Well, that depends entirely on what you consider small. The largest ant ever discovered was actually a fossilized specimen belonging to<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomyrma" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Titanomyrma giganteum</a></em>, was about 2.4&nbsp;inches long and had a wingspan of almost six inches. Granted,&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">T. giganteum</em>isn't around anymore, and many ants are less than a millimeter long — but there are still species like the African driver ant,&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Dorylus wilverthi</em>, that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/73880/description/Giant_ants_once_roamed_Wyoming" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">exceed two inches in length</a>. Does that sound small to you?</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">4) Ants have a hive mind</strong><br />Truth be told, it doesn't matter if it sounds small to you or not. When 50-million of them come together to form a single, eerily coordinated superorganism (and yes — large, self-organized ant colonies&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/use/publications/JLD/221.pdf" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">are commonly referred to as "superorganisms"</a>) you can bet your ass you'll think it looks a lot bigger than a single, 2-inch ant.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 260px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 260px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/f9ac978a30a1fe9dc02f64badd8dc523.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); display: block; height: 260px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.io9.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif?rev=20120131_5); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_f9ac978a30a1fe9dc02f64badd8dc523.jpg" width="300" height="260" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">3) In some regions of the world, ants can account for over a quarter of the animal biomass</strong><br />But a 50-million ant superorganism, believe it or not, doesn't even&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">begin</em>&nbsp;to capture the true extent of the global ant presence. We're talking about worldwide ant domination, after all — so how much of the Earth's biomass do ants really account for? [Ant attack&nbsp;<a href="http://www.freshbrainz.com/2009_03_01_archive.html" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">via</a>]<p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/97/26/14028.full" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">an article published in 2000 in<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em></a>, entomologist&nbsp;<a href="http://entomology.si.edu/StaffPages/schultz.htm" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">Ted R. Schultz</a>&nbsp;writes that on average, ants "monopolize 15—20% of the terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions where ants are especially abundant, they monopolize 25% or more."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Granted, it would be misleading to say that ants have the largest biomass of any individual species on Earth (ants are actually a taxonomic&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Family</em>&nbsp;that comprises over 20,000 known species) — but that's not to say they couldn't potentially set aside their interspecies differences. After all:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">2) Ants cooperate with other species</strong><br />There are over 200 known species of so-called fungus growing ants. Scientists had long assumed that fungi cultivated by these ants were simply passed on between generations&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">within</em>&nbsp;individual species. But in a study conducted in 2000,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.uni-konstanz.de/FuF/Bio/neuroetho/index/Adams%20et%20al.%202000a.pdf" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">researchers at the University of Texas at Austin</a>discovered that the ants' cultivars are occasionally transferred&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">between</em>&nbsp;species, as well.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Interspecies cooperation would be one of the biggest hurdles along the path to establishing a global ant empire — but if fungus-growing ants can get along, perhaps other species could as well.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Then again, maybe cooperation&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">wouldn't</em>&nbsp;be necessary, because:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 219px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 219px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/d998e2fd3fe0c6467e199d117540a20f.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); display: block; height: 219px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.io9.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif?rev=20120131_5); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_d998e2fd3fe0c6467e199d117540a20f.jpg" width="300" height="219" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">1) Ants practice slavery</strong><br />Many species of ants are&nbsp;<a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/cj1arl0gqb2amw7h/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">known to raid neighboring colonies and steal eggs or larvae in a practice known as "dulosis"</a>. The forcibly acquired young are then either eaten or put to work.<p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Species that practice dulosis are called, quite simply, "<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927014.1990.9525415" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">slave-making ants</a>," and they rely on this practice to support their colonies. In fact, some species of ants are thought to be<a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&amp;pid=S1519-69842005000300008&amp;lng=en&amp;nrm=iso" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); ">incapable of feeding themselves in the absence of slave labor</a>&nbsp;—&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">to pillage and enslave is all they know</strong>.</em></p></div> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/957#post-1099 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:26:25 +0000 admin 1099@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> Fred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on <i>Saturday Night Live</i>, and is the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch series <i>Portlandia</i>.<br /> <br /> <center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="640" height="380" id="viddler_jackmichaelson_190"><param name="movie" value="//www.viddler.com/simple/d2926dcc/"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="allowFullScreen"value="true"/><param name="flashVars" value="f=1&openURL=50190450&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=0&hd=0"/><embed src="//www.viddler.com/simple/d2926dcc/" width="640" height="380" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" allowNetworking="internal" name="viddler_jackmichaelson_190" flashVars="f=1&openURL=50190450&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=1&hd=0"></embed></object></center></font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/956#post-1098 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:48:40 +0000 admin 1098@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <br /> CHEETOS<br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RxWpU2IIzXI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RxWpU2IIzXI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> <br /> SKITTLES<br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/4482070C0ED97EA4?hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/4482070C0ED97EA4?hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allownetworking="internal" saveembedtags="true" enablehref="false" enablejsurl="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></embed> </object></center><br /> <br /> <br /> SNICKERS<br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/D90D3FE84F674419?hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/D90D3FE84F674419?hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allownetworking="internal" saveembedtags="true" enablehref="false" enablejsurl="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></embed> </object></center></font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/955#post-1097 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:51:08 +0000 admin 1097@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> What you're seeing here is a hibernating dormouse filmed by Dave Williams of the <i>Surrey Wildlife Trust Mammal Project</i>. Despite his log-sawing, this slumbering little guy isn't in any trouble — he's just an unusually stentorian sleeper.<br /> <br /> <center><object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DlS3w1GGE8g?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DlS3w1GGE8g?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> Dormice hibernate in the winter in nests that they make hidden away on the ground. In Britain the dormouse may spend up to a third of its life in hibernation. Dormice usually enter hibernation at the time of the first frost, when nearly all food is gone. Dormice rely upon fat reserves gathered in the summer and autumn, and during hibernation they lose about a quarter of their body weight They wake up in the springtime (minus one-quarter of their fatty body mass) to mate.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/954#post-1096 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:40:42 +0000 admin 1096@http://realideal.com/forum/ <div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/a2efffc0d9d9f941b4c6f7f438a666a0.jpg" alt="NDM-1: The Bacterial Gene That's Resistant to 15 Different Antibiotics"/>&nbsp;<br /></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Standing as the most densely populated city in the world, New Delhi has plenty of public health issues to deal with on a constant basis. But now health officials have some very urgent matters to deal with:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-super-resistant-bacteria-that-has-india-hell-scared/251731/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(54, 151, 179); ">new strains of super-bacteria</a>, the most destructive of which contain the gene dubbed NDM-1 and are resistant to 15 widely used antibiotics.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">According to the Atlantic, these super-resistant bacteria have been showing up not only in puddles around New Delhi's but the water supply. 13 percent of these germs have the NDM-1 gene. Patients have been showing up at hospitals infected with the NDM-1 bug, and doctors have been able to do little to treat them. In the worst case scenarios for bacterial infections, a group of antibiotics called carbapenems are generally used. These NDM-1 bacteria are virtually impervious.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Because there's no prescription law for anti-biotics in India, misuse has been widespread. The rich use them when they're not needed , while the poor use whatever they can get, in whatever quantity they can get (which generally means they're not taking them for a proper length of time. As a result, bacteria have been able to get stronger and more potent by surviving and adapting.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">And while living conditions and the state of health care in India are facilitating the spread of these bacteria, political and corporate motivations are preventing the implementation of any sort of fix to the problem. Officials and political figures, aside from organizing advisory committees, have been denying the severity of the problem, claiming that outsiders are conspiring against their tourism industry. And pharmaceutical companies don't see the financial benefit of developing drugs for non-western countries.</p><blockquote style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 4px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">There are few new drugs in development to treat the microbes that NDM-1 plagues. In Western hospitals, "gram-positive" bacteria, which are structurally vulnerable to antibiotics and disinfectants, tend to dominate. In hospitals in India and other tropical countries "gram-negative" bacteria, which are encased in tough outer membranes that can repel antibiotics and antiseptics, are more common. With most drug industry research and development focused on Western markets, "places like India will just have to wait for new drugs for gram-negatives" while the death toll from untreatable infections inevitably rises, says Public Health Foundation of India's Ramanan Laxminarayan.</p></blockquote></div> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/953#post-1095 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:32:44 +0000 admin 1095@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="imgwrap abovewrap" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: -13px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; width: 640px; height: 360px; z-index: 0; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; top: -36px; width: 640px; height: 431px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"/><img src="http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/bigpic_c7e8b4f6e7c13f881213259971ce1e53.jpg" width="640" height="431" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "/></div></div></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Many an expedition has gone out into the Great Unknown seeking Adventure. And who knows? They may even have found it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Many expeditions are lost entirely, or all of their members died. And since nobody came back, there's no telling how their adventure turned out, or what they found. So these real-life stories are crying out for a novelist to make them better, by adding zombies or strange forgoten realms to the mix. Here are 10 real-life journeys that would make terrific science fiction or fantasy books.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><strong style="font-family: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">10. Henry Every</strong><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">This list is full of tragedy and so it should start out with a person who ends up happy. Or should it? Henry Every was a notorious pirate, in the decidedly uncomedic and unromantic sense of the word. Inside one year of piracy, Every ruled the seas around The Cape of Good Hope, with a pirate fleet of as many as five boats. His biggest catch was the Gang-i-Sawai, part of the Grand Mogul of India's convoy. Every's ship fought for half a day, before the other vessel surrendered. Henry's crew then came aboard and did various horrible things to the passengers, including torturing them for information about where the loot stashes around the ship were. In the end, Every and his crew sailed away with 600,000 pounds worth of for-real, gold-and-silver treasure. They bribed governors and tried to barter for pardons, and a few were caught and hanged. In the end, despite a huge bounty put on their heads, Every and many of his crew disappeared. Some say they set up their own country somewhere. Some say they lived as fake aristocrats. Some say Every died, penniless, a year later. Whatever their actual fate, what we have is a sociopath with a lot of ill-gotten gold.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">This could set the stage for a morality play, in which the Devil comes to get his due, or a dark, fantastical drama in which Every tries to bribe his way into heaven, or standard cursed gold fantasy fare.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_7ebf2395638b1a271f65261de7503988.jpg" width="300" class="image_1 v10_medium" alt="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/><br /><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">9. Lawrence Oates</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">If you thought 'Keep Calm and Carry On,' was the best example of Brits stiffening their upper lips, you have never heard Lawrence Oates' last recorded words. He was part of Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated race to the South Pole. They found that Roald Amundsen's team made it there first, and on the way back encountered one difficulty after another. The team and their dogs died off one by one, until at last four men were in a tent, in a blizzard, with dwindling resources. Oates had weakened severely, and recognized that his weakened state was holding up the other men in their attempt to reach a supply station. They refused to leave him, so he decided to leave them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Seeing the blizzard outside, he got up from his sleeping bag, didn't bother with his boots, since his feet were too frost-bitten to be able to put them on without pain, and walked out of the tent with the words, "I am just going outside, and may be some time." I will have a few choice words about the Scott expedition further down, but even I have to recognize that, if there were an award for dying nonchalantly, Oates would have won it twice. Once for the words he uttered when he left the tent, and once for the fact that his body was never found. No doubt he felt it would have been 'carrying on about it too much,' to have his body turn up months after the fact. Fantasy is too florid for this guy. He had to have walked into a crack in reality and disappeared into some other realm. He was suited for that. I think, no matter what weirdness the universe threw at him, he would have considered it 'a bother' to get riled up about it, and would have just cooled his way around spacetime, exploring things and being casually heroic.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">8. Ninth Legion</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">The 4,000 men in the legion were raised near Pompeii to fight for Rome. The Ninth Legion was a well-disciplined and well-traveled group that went up from Pompeii, that fought across Europe, and that ended up in Scotland, where it disappeared in 109 AD. Although the Ninth Legion had been continuously in records from 65 BC, suddenly all mention of it vanished. This legion's story has been imagined many times, but usually, it's little more than the Picts wiping out most of the men while the last survivor finds love with a comely Scottish woman who displays remarkably little body hair during the love scenes.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">This story cries out for an alien abduction, a time warp, a wormhole which leads to New Rome being established on an alien world, or any other type of crazy science fiction spin. I'd even take them being exposed to some early form of asteroid, mutating, going subterranean, and running an underground empire that lasts to this day. Just not another comely Scottish love story, please.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_e33ac5b8f1c6987b0dfa5cd9c2c23b87.jpg" width="300" class="image_2 v10_medium" alt="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">7. Roald Amundsen</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">I'm putting Roald Amundsen at seven and Lawrence Oates at nine because there just have to be some lists, somewhere, in which the guy who actually made it to the South Pole outranks the guys who didn't make it to the South Pole. Amundsen's team was the first to make it to the South Pole. He is constantly overshadowed by Scott's team because a tragic death often is more interesting than actual achievement. (I suspect that he's also overshadowed because if you're able to read this language, you share a cultural link to a nation that has an interest in Scott over Amundsen.)</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">But if you want a tragic story, try this one on for size. Amundsen made it back from the South Pole. He spent his life hearing complaints that it wasn't fair that he didn't let Scott know that he was racing him to the Pole (and you can bet that if he had let Scott know, 'the competition drove Scott to his death,' would have been the story of the day). In June of 1928, a team of different explorers went missing near the North Pole. Amundsen could have shrugged and gone back to his tea. Those guys were his competition, after all. Instead he grabbed a plane and flew off to find them and bring them back safely. He wasn't seen again. Since then, debris thought to be from his voyage has been found in the area. A map with a mark showing where the missing team was meant to have been. A single board. Nothing more. A novel should be written about Roald, maybe, flying off to somewhere where they could appreciate his achievement. Valhalla, maybe?</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">6. Felix Moncla and Robert Wilson</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">In 1953, Lieutenants Moncla and Wilson were sent off in a F-89-C Scorpion to chase after an unknown aircraft come down from the Canadian border. They were over Lake Michigan. Wilson was the radar operator, and tried to track the UFO, but was unable to. Radar operators at Truax Air Force Base near Madison, Wisconsin tried to guide the Scorpion to the flying object. The two dots on the radar screen merged, and both faded away. Other planes were dispatched, but no trace could be found of anything. The Air Force's statement was that Moncla got vertigo and crashed, and that the plane he was after was a Canadian Air Force plane. Canada denied that any plane of theirs was in the area. What really happened, whether it's in the sky or under Lake Michigan, is up to the novelist.</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: -webkit-auto; clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 169px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 169px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/95b9c55cfcaf651f8776ebb3cccc9c8c.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(121, 18, 101); display: block; height: 169px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.io9.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif?rev=20120131_5); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_95b9c55cfcaf651f8776ebb3cccc9c8c.jpg" width="300" height="169" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div><br /><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">5. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry</strong><p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Well, this one just flat-out writes itself. He's the author of&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">The Little Prince</em>, a story about an intergalactic traveler who mysteriously appears and disappears into the stars. The entire point of this book is that the world depends almost entirely on how you choose to look at it. And on July 31, 1944, the flying ace took off on a spy mission for the Allies and was never seen again. They claim to have found the wreckage of his plane, sixty years later, but even if that is the plane, they don't know why it went down, nor why there was no attempt at communication before it did. And of course there's no body. What happened? Look at the stars, figure out if they're bells or tears, and decide what you believe. Then write it down.</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: -webkit-auto; clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_39de2675cd5dfb6d200d604aaa800bb7.jpg" width="300" class="image_4 v10_medium" alt="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">4. Glenn Miller</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">This, being one of the more modern disappearances, deserves a more modern, science fictional approach. Glenn Miller was a band leader and jazz musician. His most famous recordings, like&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">In the Mood</em>,<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Chattanooga Choo-Choo</em>, and&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Pennsylvania 6-5000</em>, have been heard by people in every generation, if only in the trailers for movies of a certain time period. And that time period was drawing to a close at the end of World War II, when Glenn Miller was flying, along with a few other people, in a plane from England to the recently liberated France to entertain the troops. He never arrived in France.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">There were many rumors. One was that Allied planes, unloading their bombs at a certain area accidentally caused so much air disruption that they crashed Miller's plane. Another tale claims he died in a French brothel and the military made it look like a mysterious plane crash to cover it up. Whatever it was, his plane was never found. This would be an excellent time-travel novel, with Miller kept in an era that needed him, brightening spirits, righting wrongs, and fighting Nazis. Alternately, he could flash around time to every era, seeing the differences in the way society worked over time, and bringing the best (or worst) of the wartime spirit to each time period he visited.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">3. Sir John Franklin</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">In 1845 Europeans were still looking for ways around that pesky continent known as North America. Looking for The North West Passage, Sir John Franklin lead a crew of 128 men off through the Arctic. The first bodies were found in 1854. Over the next century and a half, other relics from the expedition were found, but the final indication of what happened to the crew wasn't discovered until the 1980s, when actual preserved bodies were found frozen in the ice. The largest intact find was a group of bodies beside a sled loaded with curtain rods, button polish, handkerchiefs, and a writing desk.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">The most widely-held theory is that the lead that had been used to solder the cans of food on the expedition leached lead into the food supply. Lead poisoning causes hallucinations. That might explain the miscellany on the sled. Another theory holds that the distilled water supply they used had been contaminated by some hallucinogen. Either way, the men were not in their right mind when they loaded up a sled with button polish, and so they were seeing something. The intersection of madness, a harsh environment, and the fact that most of the wreckage and crew were never recovered could be turned into a humdinger of a fantasy novel. What if, in their delirium, they were seeing things that other people couldn't? What if they saw things that were manifestations of their personal truth, or their secret religious convictions? There are a dozen ways this novel could go.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_ba4a76691443815d8c5bdb5b1cde9ee5.jpg" width="300" class="image_5 v10_medium" alt="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/><br /><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">2. Theodosia Burr Alston</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Here's a great American mystery in which pirates and curses intersect, but not quite in the traditional way. Pirates may have kidnapped Theodosia, but she was the one to bring the curse. She was the daughter of Aaron Burr, the man who shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel. While being the Vice President. Dueling, by the way, was a crime in New York, the state both Hamilton and Burr were in at the time. Burr was charged, but fled the state, and eventually returned to Washington DC to finish his term as VP. Now that's the stuff that riles up a ghost. Theodosia was the apple of her father's eye, and by all accounts something of an intellectual prodigy, learning many languages by age twelve. She was married to James Alston, but still very much acted as her father's agent and in his interests.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">In 1812 she boarded&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">The Patriot</em>, a steamer going from South Carolina to New York. The boat, and everyone on it, disappeared. The curse angle is set out quite clearly. The pirate angle? Well, the theory was that Theodosia became the mistress of a pirate captain (you know the loose morals of those intellectual prodigies), whose ship also disappeared into the blue. That's how amazing this story is. It has a person on a ship that disappears going on to board another ship . . . that also disappears. Actually, forget pirates and curses. This is some&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Inception</em>-grade stuff.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/medium_1a6ef6a709c11fa628f373e54b7cd5aa.jpg" width="300" class="image_6 v10_medium" alt="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" title="10 Real-Life Lost Voyages That Would Make Amazing Science Fiction Novels" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: left; max-width: 300px; "/><br /><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">1. Percy Fawcett</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">In 1925, Colonel Percy Fawcett, who had explored extensively in South America, went off into the Brazilian jungle to find The Lost City of Z. He didn't know exactly where it was, but he was sure, after studying old records and listening to legends, that it was in there somewhere. He was so sure that he took his son, Jack, along to help look for it. At the last outpost that maintained contact with the western world, he wrote a letter to his wife telling her they were moving into new territory. They didn't come back.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Over the ensuing decades, people have searched for the lost city, for Fawcett, and for both. Some claimed to have found them. There have been sightings of Fawcett, and some of his possessions were recovered from several different local tribes, which fueled rumors that he had been killed by them or had gotten amnesia and joined them. In 1996 an expedition went out to find Fawcett's remains, only to encounter a group of locals who weren't interested in people exploring near them. The expedition was held for weeks until they were let go, minus tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. One archaeologist, Michael Heckenberger, claimed to have found the remains of the city. Three other scientists, using Google Earth, claimed that they found the city somewhere else. A reporter, David Grann, travelled into Brazil and found a person who claimed to be the last person to see Fawcett. The person told him a simple tale about Fawcett: He went over the hill and never came back.</p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/636#post-1094 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:57:27 +0000 admin 1094@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> After being viewed MILLIONS of times on the internet, the man behind the popular Honey Badger video is finally revealed<br /> <br /> <center><br /> <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/1A7901E5E45BC271?hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/1A7901E5E45BC271?hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allownetworking="internal" saveembedtags="true" enablehref="false" enablejsurl="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></embed> </object></center></font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/952#post-1093 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:14:03 +0000 admin 1093@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <center><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/53910ac1d8d879991c2e0567278fd19a.jpg" width=660/></center><br /> <br /> We use polyurethane to make just about everything—garden hoses, furniture, the entirety of my local 99-cent store. It's easy to produce, durable, and dirt cheap. What it isn't is recyclable—there isn't a single natural process that breaks it down. That is until a newly-discovered Amazonian fungus takes a bite.<br /> <br /> Pestalotiopsis microspora (not shown) is a resident of the Ecuadorian rainforest and was discovered by a group of student researchers led by molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel as part of Yale's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory. It's the first fungus species to be able to survive exclusively on polyurethane and, more importantly, able to do so in anaerobic conditions—the same conditions found in the bottom of landfills. This makes the fungus a prime candidate for bioremediation projects that could finally provide an alternative to just burying the plastic and hoping for the best.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/951#post-1092 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:58:36 +0000 admin 1092@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <center><img src="http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/70da7b0cbe7ddffc1b36077e85ece976.jpg"/></center><br /> <br /> The classic cast-iron skillet ranks high on the list of must-have kitchen tools, and is an excellent alternative to non-stick chemical-bond cookware that contaminates the food you eat with Teflon particulates or similar (e.g. <a href="http://realideal.com/forum/topic/48#post-60" target="0">Dupont Teflon: It's in Your Blood)</a>. The catch to cast iron: You've got to know how to properly season it to reap the benefits.<br /> <br /> Luckily it's not a terribly difficult task, and weblog Apartment Therapy's kitchen tips section offers up a simple step-by-step for seasoning your cast iron. As Wikipedia puts it, "Seasoning is used to protect bare cast iron from rust and to create a non-stick surface." The post points out that "the pan has years of its own seasoning ahead of it until it reaches that perfect deep black finish," but until then, using a seasoning technique like this one will get you started on the right track.<br /> <br /> More than a few people suggest using flax seed oil to get the ultimate in non-stick, rust-protective seasoning and gorgeous shine.<br /> <br /> The trouble with flax seed oil is that it can be pretty expensive, and difficult to come by, especially if you don't have a health or gourmet food store in your vicinity. If you do, however, Instructables user noahw claims it's the best way to season your cookware, and he has the shine to prove it. After doing some research into the topic, we turned up a number of people who agree, including an article in February 2011's issue of Cooks Illustrated and this Sheryl Canter piece that inspired it. To use this method, you'll need a few ounces of flax seed oil, a 500 degree oven, and a few hours to rub down the cookware with the oil, bake it in the oven. The process of seasoning is the same as using any other oil: Give your cookware a light coating on all sides with the oil, bake it in a hot oven for a half-hour, remove the cookware, re-coat it with oil, return it to the oven, and repeat the process several times (noahw suggests 4-7 times.) The use of flax seed oil reportedly offers additional protection and shine.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/950#post-1091 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:41:17 +0000 admin 1091@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We've all met a person who is&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">always right</em>, and we know how annoying they can be because they're often wrong. There's little that's more annoying than arguing with somebody who is clearly mistaken but won't admit it. The problem is, sometimes we're the ones in the wrong and we don't realize it. Everyone has the capacity to become stubborn and unyielding, but you can also notice when that happens and stop. Here's what you can do to recognize and admit fault when it is your own.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.2; ">Find the Common Denominator</span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2011/09/0800-idea-clinging.jpg" class="image_1 right v10_medium" alt="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" title="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 40px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: right; max-width: 300px; "/>When an argument arises, it generally isn't pleasant—especially when people are disagreeing with what you believe is right. But if they are correct and you are not, you're going to see these arguments resurface again and again in different forms. You'll continue to believe you're correct, but others will try new things to change your mind. If you notice you're repeatedly making the same argument again and again, you're the common denominator in this situation.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">If you make the discovery that the problem is consistently revolving around you, it's time to consider that you may be wrong. Look at why you're making the argument you're making and try to look at it objectively. Does it make sense, or are you just holding on to it because you don't want to let go of&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">your</em>&nbsp;idea? When we&nbsp;<a href="http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">become emotionally invested in an idea we have a very hard time letting it go</a>&nbsp;even if the idea is terrible. Every time you have an argument, the best thing you can do is look at&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">why</em>&nbsp;that argument happened. You might not discover the reason initially, but if you make a habit of considering why you might be at fault (in addition to considering the other possibilities), you'll be more likely to see when you are actually the one who is wrong.</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Look at a Situation's Potential Outcomes</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2012/01/1200-goat.jpg" class="image_2 right v10_medium" alt="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" title="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 40px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: right; max-width: 300px; "/>Right and wrong are a matter of opinion, or a product of hindsight. They really don't exist outside of our opinion of the current moment or as an analysis of the past. When you're considering what's right, you sometime have to look more towards the desired outcome rather than your personal beliefs. For example, your own convictions may lead you towards the argument that it's always wrong to kill a living creature. But let's say the death of one goat could prevent a small village from starving. Would it be wrong in that case? Some might argue it is still wrong because it can't sustain a village who will ultimately starve, and others will argue that it is right because it will preserve more life.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">This is not the sort of situation you're likely to come upon in your daily life, but it illustrates the point: your beliefs are just your opinions no matter what, but the outcome is where people tend to settle on what's right and wrong. If you're engaging in an argument and you're simply arguing what you believe, think about where your beliefs will lead. Do you like the outcome? Will your way lead to a better result, or will you simply uphold your ethics but create a poor result? Any of the possible outcomes you imagine may not coincide with the beliefs that you hold. Be sure to consider this when asserting that you are in the right.</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.2; ">Don't Try to Change Someone Else's Behavior</span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2012/01/1200-screaming-kid.jpg" class="image_3 right v10_medium" alt="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" title="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 40px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: right; max-width: 300px; "/>If you're trying to change someone else's behavior, there's a big chance you're wrong. This is hard to accept because often times people will behave poorly, or at least not according to the way you feel they should conduct themselves. That said, while you can encourage people to change you are most likely taking the wrong approach by trying to change them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">As discussed in the previous section, consider the outcome. What do&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">you</em>&nbsp;want to gain by changing their behavior? If your answer is "I want them to stop being mean" or "stop stealing my parking spot at work" or anything that's still about&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">them</em>, you are not looking deeply enough. In the first example, what you really want is to be surrounded by people who appreciate you, so figure out a way that&nbsp;<em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">you</em>can achieve that goal because you have control of it. You can choose to surround yourself with good people and spend less time with the mean ones. In the second example, you want to be able to park close to the door. Obviously you do want to ask the person who is stealing your parking spot to stop because they may just be unaware. But if the problem persists and they won't change, you need to consider alternatives. Talk to the person who assigns the parking spots and find out if you can get another reserved spot for the person. If you prefer a more vindictive path, find out the building's towing policy. The point is to concentrate on things you can do to change your behavior rather than insisting that the person is wrong. They may be wrong, but so are you if you're trying to force them to adhere to your beliefs. Nobody wins in that situation.</p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; "></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 21px; line-height: 1.2; ">Consult the Facts</span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2012/01/1200-green-newspaper.jpg" class="image_4 right v10_medium" alt="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" title="How to Know When You're Wrong (and What You Can Do About It)" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 40px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px !important; float: right; max-width: 300px; "/>One an idea enters our minds it can be difficult to let it go. Not only do we&nbsp;<a href="http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/23/confirmation-bias/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">seek out evidence that supports our existing beliefs</a>, rather than making an attempt at objectivity, but we will&nbsp;<a href="http://lifehacker.com/5822265/why-you-think-youre-never-wrong-and-what-to-do-about-it" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">defend that information even if we know it's incorrect</a>.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lingering-lies" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">Scientific American points to a study</a>&nbsp;that demonstrated this phenomenon:</p><blockquote style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 10px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 4px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Psychologists asked college stu­dents to read an account of an ac­cident involving a busload of elderly passengers. The students were then told that, actually, those on the bus were not elderly. For some students, the information ended there. Others were told the bus had in fact been transporting a college hockey team. And still others were warned about what psychologists call the continued influence of misinformation-that people tend to have a hard time ig­noring what they first heard, even if they know it is wrong-and that they should be extra vigilant about getting the story straight.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The important thing to remember is this: when someone tells you that you are wrong, you need to override your defense instinct and consider what they are saying. While there will be many times in your life when you'll be told that you're wrong when you are, in fact, right, that won't always be the case. When someone makes you feel defensive, this is one of the most important times to consider what they are saying. You don't have to agree, and you might just discover that you really are correct after all, but being a little more self-aware can go a long way in avoiding a drawn-out, stubborn argument.</p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/949#post-1090 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:09:44 +0000 admin 1090@http://realideal.com/forum/ T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; ">he check engine light is one of the most frustrating and confusing facets of owning a vehicle. It's just a light with no information telling you what the problem is. It's a cry from a baby with no explanation. But you can do a few things yourself before heading into the shop for costly repairs.</span><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Unless your car starts smoking or stalls completely head over to an auto parts store and have them run a diagnostic to find the cause of the check engine light. Call ahead and make sure they can handle your make and model, since some cars have special computers. Once you're at the store, they'll come out and plug a small computer underneath your dashboard and read back a code stating what happened to the car.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">According&nbsp;<a href="https://static.carmd.com:444/CMSResources/file/pdf/CarMD_VehicleHealthIndexDebutPR_042711.pdf" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">study conducted by CarMD</a>, five common malfunctions cause the check engine light to come on, and several of them are simple to fix yourself. Let's take a look at the most common issues.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">One: Replace Oxygen Sensor</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div id="obj_5873" class="videoContainer video_300" style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; width: 300px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8_CvimZdG3k?wmode=Opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" type="text/html" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="300" height="200" scrolling="no" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; "></iframe></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">An oxygen sensor is a part that monitors the unburned oxygen from the exhaust. It helps monitor how much fuel is burned. A faulty sensor means it's not providing the right data to the computer and causes a decrease in gas mileage. Most cars have between two and four oxygen sensors and the code you get from the scanner will tell you which one needs replacing.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What causes it:</b>&nbsp;Over time, the sensor gets covered in oil ash and it reduces the sensors ability to change the oxygen and fuel mixture. A faulty sensor not only reduces gas mileage, it also increase emissions.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What you should do:</b>&nbsp;Not replacing a broken oxygen sensor can eventually lead to a busted catalytic convertor which can cost upwards of $2,000. Taking your car into a shop will cost you around $200 depending on the car. However, an oxygen sensor is easy to replace on many cars and is usually detailed in the owner's manual. If you know where the sensor is, you only have to unclip the old sensor and replace it with a new one. Regardless of how you approach it, you should get this fixed right away.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Two: Loose or Faulty Gas Cap</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 225px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 225px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/51cb20d6ae85c4aaf6868b108a2b18e7.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); display: block; height: 225px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/medium_51cb20d6ae85c4aaf6868b108a2b18e7.jpg" width="300" height="225" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div>You wouldn't think a gas cap would be that important, but it is. When it's loose or cracked, fuel vapors leak out and can throw the whole fuel system off. This causes a reduction in gas mileage and increases emissions.<p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What causes it:</b>&nbsp;If you get an error pointing to the gas cap it means fuel vapors are leaking out of your cap. This means the cap is either cracked or just wasn't tightened well enough.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What you should do:</b>&nbsp;If your car isn't feeling jerky or strange when the check engine light comes on the first you should check is the gas cap. Pull over, retighten it, and take a look at the cap to see if it has any cracks in it. Continue driving and see if the check engine light turns off. Alternately, you can purchase a gas cap for about $3 at an auto parts store. All you need to do is take the old one off and screw on the new one. If you've already made it to the store, you might as well just replace it. While not car-threatening, it's good to take care of this right away to improve gas mileage.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i style="font-size: 12px; ">Photo by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazytales562/2207289807/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">Chris Chan</a></i>.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Three: Replace Catalytic Convertor</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div class="lyteboxContainer left editorial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; position: relative; z-index: 1000; width: 300px; height: 161px; "><div class="lyteboxLink" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px; height: 161px; text-indent: -1000em; position: absolute; "><a href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/60396d26b9bd446012a231a8c12c03d9.jpg" class="noHrefOverride" rel="lytebox" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); display: block; height: 161px; text-indent: -100em; width: 300px; background-image: url(http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/base.v10/img/lytebox/blank.gif); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Full size</a></div><img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/medium_60396d26b9bd446012a231a8c12c03d9.jpg" width="300" height="161" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; "/></div>The catalytic convertor works to reduce exhaust gases. It converts carbon monoxide and other harmful materials into harmless compounds. If your catalytic convertor is failing, you'll notice a decrease in gas mileage or your car won't go any faster when you push the gas.<p></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What causes it:</b>&nbsp;Catalytic convertors shouldn't fail if you're keeping up on regular maintenance. The main cause of failure is related to other items on this list, including a broken oxygen sensor or deteriorated spark plugs (we'll get to those in a second). When it fails, it stops converting carbon monoxide into less harmful emissions.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What you should do:</b>&nbsp;If your catalytic convertor fails completely, you eventually won't be able to keep the car running. Your gas mileage will also be terrible, so you should try and fix it as soon as you can. Unfortunately, the average replacement cost is around $2,000 and you can't do it yourself unless you're an experienced mechanic.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><i style="font-size: 12px; ">Photo by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/noricum/172776264/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">noricum</a></i>.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Four: Replace Mass Airflow Sensor</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div id="obj_7704" class="videoContainer video_300" style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; width: 300px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xM05yyxGng8?wmode=Opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" type="text/html" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="300" height="200" scrolling="no" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; "></iframe></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The mass airflow sensor tells the car's computer to add the proper amount of fuel based on the air coming through to the engine. A faulty one can increase emissions, cause the car to stall, and decrease gas mileage.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What causes it:</b>&nbsp;Most mass airflow sensors fail because of a improperly installed (or never replaced) air filter. You should replace the air filter at least once a year to help prevent the airflow sensor from failing.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What you should do:</b>&nbsp;Theoretically you can drive for a few weeks or even months with a broken MAF sensor. You will notice a decrease in gas mileage and over time the car will eventually start stalling a lot. At a shop, the replacement cost is between $200-$300 depending on the car, but that's usually the cost of parts because the labor is relatively simple. It's not terribly difficult to do on your own, but the process is quick enough you may want to let a mechanic handle the project in case the sensor doesn't end up being the issue.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Five: Replace Spark Plugs and Wires</h3><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><div id="obj_5330" class="videoContainer video_300" style="margin-top: 20px; margin-right: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; width: 300px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R85RuA4siJ4?wmode=Opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" type="text/html" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="300" height="200" scrolling="no" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; "></iframe></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The spark plug seals the combustion chamber and provides a gab for a spark to jump across and initiates combustion in your engine. When the plugs are failing, the spark plugs misfire. You'll feel a little jolt in your car's acceleration when this happens.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What causes it:</b>&nbsp;Most spark plugs in cars from before 1996 should be replaced every 25,000-30,000 miles. Newer ones can last up to 100,000 miles. Still, plugs fail over time and there's not much you can do about it.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>What you should do:</b>&nbsp;Get them replaced right away. It's easy and cheap and your car will run better for it. If your spark plugs fail and you've made your way to the auto parts store, you can replace them easily following the video above. Since this is part of your vehicles regular maintenance, the spark plugs are usually easily accessible from the hood of the car. It's simple enough that I've seen people doing this in the auto parts parking lot on several occasions.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Plenty of other possibilities for a check engine light are out there, but the above five are the most common.</p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/948#post-1089 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:01:43 +0000 admin 1089@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> <center><img src="http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/e89f094db12a1b8078f15c9a94edc2ff.jpg"/></center><br /> <br /> Online meeting services run the gamut from expensive, feature-filled, and designed for businesses to individual solutions made for people who work on remote teams, or just want an easy way to collaborate with a few coworkers of a vendor without spending a ton of money on an enterprise product. Last week, we polled for which services people used to share screens, work on documents, or even conference face to face with colleagues. Then we took a look at the top five online meeting services and put them to a vote. Now it's time to highlight the winner.<br /> <br /> <b>Google+ Hangouts</b> took the top prize by a wide margin with 47% of the votes cast, thanks to the fact that it's completely free, and its recently added document collaboration and screen sharing. In second place was free troubleshooting and online meeting tool <b>TeamViewer</b> with 22% of the vote. Right on its heels in third was the pricey but feature-packed Cisco <b>WebEx</b> with just under 12% of the vote. In fourth place with 10% of the vote was <b>Join.Me</b>, and bringing up the rear in fifth place was <b>GoToMeeting</b>, with just over 9% of the vote.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/947#post-1088 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:45:01 +0000 admin 1088@http://realideal.com/forum/ <img class="editorial above" width="300" title="Regrow Scallions in a Cup of Water" alt="Regrow Scallions in a Cup of Water" src="http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2012/01/f3faf3a8a62957fd14aa8258713cc574.jpg" style="margin-top: -2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 20px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; position: relative; z-index: 2; line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "/><div class="alternates modfont" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; font-family: proxima-nova-condensed-1, proxima-nova-condensed-2, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; width: 320px; height: 18px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div class="post-body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">If you like to cook with&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scallion" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(113, 150, 2); ">scallions</a>&nbsp;(aka green onions or green shallots) did you know you can keep the white root ends from purchased scallions in a glass of water and they will regrow almost indefinitely?</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Household weblog Homemade Serenity shares how scallion ends can regrow in in a glass of water. Just put the root ends in a glass of water and put that glass in a sunny window. After a few days you should be able to begin harvesting the green ends of the scallions. Make sure you change the water every so often and cut what you need with scissors before cooking.</p></div> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/943#post-1087 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:45:48 +0000 boise 1087@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>I like the video,will watch again for sure. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/946#post-1086 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:46:02 +0000 admin 1086@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> Gooding was born in New York City, the son of Shirley Gooding, a singer with the <i>Sweethearts</i>, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of soul group <i>The Main Ingredient</i>. His performance in the film <i>Jerry Maguire</i> (1996) earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and his "Show Me the Money" line in the film became a nationwide catch phrase.<br /> <br /> <center><object width='640' height='441' classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000' id='ep'><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='allowscriptaccess' value='always' /><param name='movie' value='http://i.cdn.turner.com/v5cache/TBS/cvp/teamcoco_drupal_embed.swf?context=teamcoco_embed_offsite&videoId=24001' /><param name='bgcolor' 'value='#000000' /><embed src='http://i.cdn.turner.com/v5cache/TBS/cvp/teamcoco_drupal_embed.swf?context=teamcoco_embed_offsite&videoId=24001' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' bgcolor='#000000' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' width='640' height='441'></embed></object></center></font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/945#post-1085 Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:09:38 +0000 admin 1085@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness<br /> <br /> <b>"First, do no harm."</b><br /> That's the numero uno credo of physicians around the world, and a reminder that medical intervention can sometimes do more harm than good. The human body has a remarkable ability to function as its own pharmacy and even its own emergency room. Sometimes, wise doctors know, we need to step aside and let the body conduct its own repairs.<br /> <br /> Several of the conditions listed here can be difficult to endure, and perhaps the future of medicine will save us the pain and speed the healing. Until then, always consult your doctor but don't be surprised if you are told that time is the balm that will heal all of these wounds.<br /> <br /> <b>Broken Rib</b><br /> For years, physicians would wrap a patient's chest tightly in bandages to immobilize a rib fracture—until it was understood that the practice led to increased instances of pneumonia. Bandaging a torso inhibits deep breathing, which can lead to respiratory infection. Your upper body's muscles and skeleton adequately form a de facto cast of their own. Unfortunately, all you can do for a broken rib is try not to laugh or cough too much; the force of either is very painful and can even re-fracture a healing break.<br /> <br /> <b>Food Poisoning</b><br /> So you thought the deli's tuna salad was supposed to be brown, and now you can't be more than eight feet from a toilet. A wave of vomiting and three or four hours of diarrhea is not the best way to spend an afternoon, but it's the best way to clear your body of the bacteria you've ingested. "The more you try to stop it, the more trouble you're going to get into," warns Dr. Thom Horowitz, chairman of family medicine at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. "Your body is trying to clean itself out. Our rule is, 'The first couple of hours of diarrhea are your friend.'" When you're finally ready to eat again, find a new deli. And a new friend.<br /> <br /> <b>Conjunctival Bleed</b><br /> This condition sounds and looks far worse than it is. When tiny blood vessels burst in the eye, blood gets trapped beneath the eye's clear surface (the conjunctiva), leaving red splotches in the white part (the sclera). Your doctor may want to check your blood pressure and discuss blood-thinning medications, but a conjunctival bleed can occur with no apparent cause—and there's no treatment necessary. The blood will disappear, absorbed into your eye, within two weeks.<br /> <br /> <b>Hematospermia</b><br /> hey say one of the few times a man pays full attention is when he's talking about himself. Another is when blood is coming out of his penis. Traces of blood in the semen, known as hematospermia, seems nightmarish but is typically the harmless result of blood vessels breaking in the testicle or along the urethra. The condition often follows sexual exploits that are a bit too, er, vigorous. "It happens when someone's into indoor sports," Horowitz adds dryly. "Men almost always panic when they see that but it's not associated with any bad diseases. Unless it keeps bleeding, get a good night's sleep. And be a little more gentle next time."<br /> <br /> <b>Coughing</b><br /> A cough that results from an upper respiratory infection is one of the body's protective mechanisms; expelling air prevents secretions from getting into the lungs. Though very annoying to the patient (and to others in their vicinity), coughing can and should last the six or so weeks it takes to completely clear the infection. Says Horowitz, "As long as a person is not having fevers or bringing up large amounts of colorful phlegm—or getting exhausted because they can't get any rest—it is actually counterproductive to stop a cough."<br /> <br /> <b>Sheared-off Nail</b><br /> Having a fingernail or toenail torn off can be torturous, there's no question about it. But once the nail comes sliding off its bed, there's little to do other than cover the area and wait for it to start growing back from the cuticle. If there's blood under a nail and the patient is desperate to save it, a doctor can sometimes drill a small hole to drain the blood.<br /> <br /> <b>Fractured Skull</b><br /> When you break an arm or a leg, the fractured bone needs to be immobilized (with a splint, cast and/or sling) so that it can heal in its proper position. When the dome of bone around your brain is cracked, though, only rarely will movement cause the fissure to open or worsen. Short of a second blow to the head, the fracture most likely will stay aligned and heal on its own. "There can be a problem if the fracture is out of place, putting pressure on a nerve, or if there's bleeding underneath it," Horowitz says. "The issue is not whether the skull is broken but whether it's out of alignment."<br /> <br /> <b>Ruptured Eardrum</b><br /> The eardrum is a thin membrane that can be breached by loud noise, air pressure (e.g., on an airplane or while scuba diving), infection, or by having a friend stick a pencil in there. A perforation of the membrane is like a tear in fabric, but the hole will usually close on its own as the delicate tissue grows back. One of the worst things you can do for a ruptured eardrum is to use ear drops, because the ear needs to remain dry and free of infection to repair itself. When a rupture worsens or won't heal, a doctor may patch it in a simple office or outpatient procedure.<br /> <br /> <b>Missing Recommended Sleep</b><br /> "People get very concerned if they're not getting eight hours of sleep because they see the commercials on TV and the propaganda," asserts Horowitz. "Getting people into a coma for a full eight or nine hours has turned into a multimillion-dollar business." It's an oppositional view in the age of Ambien and Lunesta, but people vary tremendously in the amount of sleep they require. When assessing your own requirements, separate the concepts of sleep and of rest. Are you functioning properly in the daytime? Are you alert and clear-headed, or were you fired for napping in a board meeting? As long as you regularly feel rested and healthy, there's not a pressing need to spend a third of your life in your pajamas.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/944#post-1084 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:57:07 +0000 admin 1084@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> Adam Winrich is a sophisticated, high-energy whip cracking performer at Old West events and Renaissance Faires. Adam is also a skilled whip maker.<br /> <br /> <center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="640" height="378" id="viddler_jackmichaelson_189"><param name="movie" value="//www.viddler.com/simple/e22433a7/"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="allowFullScreen"value="true"/><param name="flashVars" value="f=1&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=0&hd=0"/><embed src="//www.viddler.com/simple/e22433a7/" width="640" height="378" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" allowNetworking="internal" name="viddler_jackmichaelson_189" flashVars="f=1&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=1&hd=0"></embed></object> <br /> <br /> <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/8E0491F938FD74BB?hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/8E0491F938FD74BB?hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allownetworking="internal" saveembedtags="true" enablehref="false" enablejsurl="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></embed> </object></center></font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/943#post-1083 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:18:23 +0000 admin 1083@http://realideal.com/forum/ <font face=arial size=3><br /> Ross L. Beck, author of <i>The Gartley Trading Method: New Techniques to Profit From the Market's Most Powerful Formation</i> shows the evolution of the Gartley Pattern over time and how it replaces most of today's overused technical analysis methods.<br /> <br /> <center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="640" height="374" id="viddler_jackmichaelson_188"><param name="movie" value="//www.viddler.com/simple/3a2a77f8/"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="allowFullScreen"value="true"/><param name="flashVars" value="f=1&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=0&hd=0"/><embed src="//www.viddler.com/simple/3a2a77f8/" width="640" height="374" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" allowNetworking="internal" name="viddler_jackmichaelson_188" flashVars="f=1&autoplay=f&loop=0&nologo=1&hd=0"></embed></object></center><br /> <br /> In 1935, legendary trader H.M. Gartley described a unique trade set up that he called "One of the Best Trading Opportunities". 75 years later, this opportunity continues to create profit potential for traders willing to learn about this pattern.</font> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/936#post-1082 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:42:02 +0000 boise 1082@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>cool. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/940#post-1081 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:35:28 +0000 boise 1081@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>holy shit,man. </p> http://realideal.com/forum/topic/942#post-1080 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:31:37 +0000 boise 1080@http://realideal.com/forum/ <p>this is cool. </p>