Travel Photo of the Week

Borobudur Temple, Java

Processed Foods Hijack Your Appetite

That's the conclusion of Stephen J. Simpson (academic director of the University of Sydney's Charles  Perkins Centre) and David Raubenheimer (Leonard P. Ullman chair in nutritional ecology and nutrition theme leader at the Charles Perkins Centre) in their new paper in Nature.

Their work shows that as the balance of natural to processed foods we consume has tilted more towards processed food containing more fat and sugar, our brains have been hijacked to consume more of them. From the paper.....

"As long as the animal eats the foods that it evolved to consume, this balance is maintained. The trouble comes when it eats a diet with a disproportionate quantity of a particular macronutrient, either because of a lack of appropriate foods in the environment or because its appetite control systems have been fooled or subverted. This is now happening in humans, as we live in a foodscape scarcely recognizable to our forebears."

"Many processed food products are protein-poor but are engineered to taste like protein. Many people therefore eat far too much fat and carbohydrate in their attempt to ingest enough protein. In this way, engineered foods subvert the appetite control systems that should be helping to balance the consumption of macronutrients."

Maybe we should eat to live, instead of live to eat.

The Honey Hunters Of Nepal

An amazing set of images from photographer Andrew Newey.

Rejoice Moog Synthesizer Fans! It's Really True!

When Moog Music announced that the synthesizer Genome Project had created a replica of Keith Emerson's famous Moog Modular system on April 1st of this year, we all thought that it was just another of their little jokes. After all, the past two April Fool's Day offerings were complete frauds. But we were punked again. They weren't fooling this time. From the horse's mouth....

"Moog Music unveils one of its largest engineering undertakings, the new Emerson Moog Modular System. On the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Moog Modular, the first voltage controlled synthesizer, Moog Music is proud to honor Keith Emerson and his seminal collaboration with Bob Moog. Today, for the first time at Moogfest 2014, Moog Music reveals its three year effort faithfully recreating the iconic Emerson Moog Modular."

"In the intervening 50 years since the advent of the first Moog synthesizer, people have steadily come to appreciate the power and flexibility of the early Moog modular systems. Now in 2014, 60 years after Bob Moog started his electronic musical instrument company, with great respect for the tradition, design, and craftsmanship of the original Moog modular systems, Moog Music proudly announces the recreation of arguably the most famous synthesizer in history--Keith Emerson’s Moog Modular System."

It's really true. It's really here. It's really expensive.

Fun Time! Boomer, The Robotic Dinosaur!

Only a prototype, Boomer is set for production later this year.

Cardboard Cities

Photographer Andy Rudak and model maker Luke Aan de Wiel created an amazing set of street scenes in miniature from cardboard. Each scene contains a single wild animal figure.

"I knew I wanted the shots to portray a scene of serenity and create an almost dreamlike scenario. No movement, merely a feeling of calm stillness....without the people there the city falls silent, its just you, the buildings and the animal," Rudak told Smithsonian. "The fact that the animal didn’t really belong in the habitat was to aid the feeling of being in a dream."

255 Square Mile Iceberg Drifts Away From Antarctic Glacier

I'm sure all those folks who think that global warming is a liberal myth still won't be convinced by this massive iceberg that is now headed into the open ocean. They'll probably delude themselves into thinking that it's just liberal Hollywood lending a hand with special effects.

But this is a problem whose time has arrived. Large chunks of slowly melting ice scattered throughout the ocean is going to be one huge maritime disaster. Below is a short video to get you up to speed.

Travel Photo of the Week

Ragusa Ibla, Italy

The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World From Scratch

A couple of years ago I profiled Marcin Jakubowski who was developing a group of modular machines that would allow you to rebuild civilization after a disaster. Now comes the instruction book from Lewis Dartnell.

"The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World From Scratch" shows us that human knowledge is collective and distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries. It has becoming vast and increasingly specialized. and most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us.

From the book....

"Maybe it was a viral pandemic, or an asteroid strike, or perhaps nuclear war. Whatever the cause, the world as we know it has ended and you and the other survivors must start again. What key knowledge would you need to start rebuilding civilisation from scratch?"

"Once you’ve scavenged what you can, how do you begin producing the essentials? How do you grow food, generate power, prepare medicines, or get metal out of rocks? Could you avert another Dark Ages or take shortcuts to accelerate redevelopment?"

Living in the modern world, we have become disconnected from the basic processes that support our lives, as well as the beautiful fundamentals of science that enable you to relearn things for yourself."

Seems like a good time to read this, doesn't it?

Man Compares His New $50 3D Printed Hand To His Old $42,000 Prosthetic

Jose Delgado Jr. was born without a left hand. He had been using a $42,000 prosthetic hand for over a year when he met up with Jeremy Simon of 3DUniverse.org. Jeremy 3D printed Jose a Cyborg Beast hand.

Let's see what Jose thinks of his new $50 replacement.