In a breathtaking discovery, scientists working on a remote Indonesian island say they have uncovered the bones of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man rapidly colonized the rest of the planet.

LiveScience.com - Scientists Find Prehistoric Dwarf Skeleton

The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.

Scientists Say They’ve Found a Code Beyond Genetics in DNA - New York Times

Thirteen minute video of various Rube Goldberg machines from Japanese TV.

Incredible Machines - Google Video

Everyone who speaks a language, speaks it with an accent. A particular accent essentially reflects a person's linguistic background. When people listen to someone speak with a different accent from their own, they notice the difference, and they may even make certain biased social judgments about the speaker.

The speech accent archive is established to uniformly exhibit a large set of speech accents from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English all read the same English paragraph and are carefully recorded.1 The archive is constructed as a teaching tool and as a research tool. It is meant to be used by linguists as well as other people who simply wish to listen to and compare the accents of different english speakers.

This website allows users to compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of the speakers in order to determine which variables are key predictors of each accent. The speech accent archive demonstrates that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech.

All of the linguistic analyses of the accents are available for public scrutiny. We welcome comments on the accuracy of our transcriptions and analyses.

Pretty neat.

The Speech Accent Archive

Despite the host/location, a fascinating look at the physiology and science of word recognition. Damn fine read.

The Science of Word Recognition

This has everything..
Its multi-cultural,
its campy,
its creepy,
its got a singing robot,
and its about pi.

Keith Schofield / Pi

VIGO, Spain (25 Sep 2005) -- RESEARCH by marine scientists has shed startling new light on the secret sex life of the giant squid, one of the most mysterious monsters of the world's deepest oceans.The breakthrough came after a recent spate of strandings on the Atlantic coast of Spain when five of the huge invertebrates - one of them 12 metres long - were washed ashore in a single week on beaches on the Bay of Biscay.One of the two males washed ashore was found to have been accidentally inseminated - backing the findings of research in previous strandings.And scientists now believe the males had either accidentally inseminated themselves during "violent" lovemaking sessions with females or been inseminated by other males after "bumping" into them in the dark depths of the ocean.

CDNN :: Weird Sex: Giant Squid Do It Deeper

Please Note:This entry discusses the etymology and application of a selection of words that, to varying degrees, can be considered vulgar or offensive. As a necessity, this entails the use of said words, and it is strongly advised that, should you find such words distressing or inappropriate, you do not read on beyond this point.For the rest of you, there now follows an informative and hopefully educational entry on a potentially controversial topic - bad language...

BBC - h2g2 - The Origins and Common Usage of British Swear-words

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The debate over the existence of Sasquatch, a k a Bigfoot, an ape-like creature said to haunt the wilderness of western Canada, among other places, has entered the world of modern DNA testing.

Was it Sasquatch? DNA test will tell - Peculiar Postings - MSNBC.com

Pretty neat linguistic blog with lots of interesting bits.

languagehat.com