The Real Reason The World Isn't Ending in 2012

This is amusing, via eign co-founder pete:














[source unknown]

Building a Better Bee

Via the washington post a few months ago:

"With as many as one-third of honeybee colonies routinely dying off each year and the rest requiring extraordinary care, the quest for a better bee has become critical."

We've talked about bees a lot in the past and we're glad to see some people are trying to do something about the big problem.

"Marla Spivak, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, began breeding bees to fight back nearly 20 years ago. She froze pupae and waited to see which colonies would fastidiously remove the corpses from the hive. This hygienic trait, first observed in the 1940s when young were killed by disease, was effective in breaking the life cycle of the mite"

Thanks Marla!

[image via google images from... who knows where google finds these things.]

New Zealand Crows Master Archimedes Principal

According to stuff.co.nz, which cited the legit online science journal PLoS:

"A scientific test showing how a crow uses stones to raise the water level enough to get the treat floating on top.

Auckland University psychology researchers Dr Gavin Hunt, Professor Russell Gray and Dr Alex Taylor presented wild New Caledonian crows with a tall half-filled tube of water, which had a small piece of meat floating on the surface.

When given a collection of stones, each of the four birds – Pepe, Caesar, Mimic and Laura – quickly learned to drop them into the tube to raise the water level, allowing them to fish out the food."

I will never be "eating crow" again, that's for sure. They were always scary, but now they're just terrifying.

[image via google images. who knows where they got it from]

Hi, My Name is Whetney, and I'm a Douche!

We haven't really spent any time here at EIGN covering the financial crisis that has blanketed the planet the last 3 years. Which is ironic because it's way more likely to destroy society as we know it than el nino or the Large Hadron Collider. Besides, these guys and these guys do it so much better than we ever could.

But it's time to finally weigh in.Our trusty EIGN editor came across this story on the washington post this past weekend and sent it my way.

This man, seen below, Whetney Brockton, (aka Douchebag #1) is the personification of why our society is on the brink of collapse. This Princeton University student shouted at marching protesters passing through his yuppie university town that "We're the 1 percent." Someone finally admits to it...a drunk ivy league college kid no less. We assume he took the silver spoon out of his mouth long enough to shout "Get a Job!".

So now we know who to blame. Man up wall street, you have to hand it to this kid. He was outnumbered but he still had the balls to go out and scream it in peoples faces.

We're not sure how many laws we may be breaking right now... with the potential copyright violation of posting a screen cap of the washington post web site and, quite possibly, slandering one Princeton University student named Whetney Brockton, but we don't really care. That being said, if Whetney contacts us we will gladly remove edit this post provided he agrees to a rational discussion about how he's part of the rapid downfall of our society.

Robots invent their own language

"Australian scientists have invented a new breed of robots called Lingodroids, programmed to make, use, and share language. The bots can coin words to describe places they have been, places they want to go, and plans for getting there. “When they need a new word, they invent one.” (discover magazine)




are you freaking kidding me? robots that can coin their own language? we're doomed. (we say that a lot don't we?)

[image via google image search for "scary robot"]

Most Awesome Things of All Time - #95 - Having some time off to contemplate life, loss and ...

#95 in our ongoing project of the 100 most awesome things of all time...


#95 - Having some time off to contemplate life, loss and new beginnings.



(And trying to figure out what the fuck comes next)

Least Awesome Things of All Time: #94 - Watching Your Team Lose in the NLDS after tearing your Achilles

#94 in our ongoing project of the 100 least awesome things of all time...


#94 - Watching your team lose in the NLDS, from the ground, after tearing your Achilles.

What an epic collapse, both individually and as a team.

Robot Soccer Players

Tiny Robots playing soccer (poorly) are almost cute. But holy shit, check out the mother f*cker below. That's terrifying.

The group that runs the robot soccer games - RoboCup - was created "with the aim of, by 2050, creating a team of humanoid robots that can take on and beat the best human players." (bbc.co.uk)

2050!?! If I ever saw this thing on the field I'd run and it would win now.

[images via google images]