Funk Publishing: Feeds » Blog of Funk

Blog of Funk (10 unread)

More Than Two Extinct Species Per Year In England

Posted: March 11th, 2010, 8:08am GMT by Dean

More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals. Natural England, the government’s agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen [...]
Into The Blood

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 12:14pm GMT by Dean

Almost always I feel peaceful after meditation. I’m more focused and aware as I get about my tasks. Sometimes, I feel like I’m cruising about on an invisible Segway; at other times, I get a rush of energy which requires managing. It’s often creative, but also, despite the ongoing and increased calm which meditation brings – [...]
Fire!

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 7:14pm GMT by Dean

It started with a bleep bleep bleep… Posted via email from Dean Whitbread
Fear

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 9:44am GMT by Dean

I’m told that I’m quite brave. Certainly I am socially unafraid. However, I did spend a week climbing Cornish sea cliffs once, which I loved, except I forgot to pull out the climbing gear, and being the last one up, I had to go back down the overhang I had just overcome, pull out the [...]
Met Office: 100 Studies Show Evidence of Man-Made Climate Change

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 8:06am GMT by Dean

It is an "increasingly remote possibility" that human activity is not the main cause of climate change, according to a major Met Office review of more than 100 scientific studies that track the observed changes in the Earth’s climate system. The research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate change against sceptics who [...]
Extinctions Moving Faster Than Evolution

Posted: March 8th, 2010, 9:05am GMT by Dean

For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world’s experts on biodiversity has warned. Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction [...]
Lost and Found

Posted: March 7th, 2010, 6:34pm GMT by Dean

I found this little scrap of paper while I’ve been going through the many boxes which filled when I started refurbishing my place back in September. I locked up memories, everything from the meaningless to the irreplaceable, in no particular order, mixing the important and unimportant according to size, just to get it out [...]
Metamaterials: The Next Photonics Revolution

Posted: March 7th, 2010, 10:08am GMT by Dean

Phil Saunders of SpaceChannel.org and Nikolay Zheludev of the University of Southampton, U.K., have graciously permitted OPN to reproduce this fascinating video, which is related to Zheludevs October OPN feature on metamaterial-induced transparency. It explores the science behind metamaterials-crystalline-like sub-wavelength arrangements of electromagnetic resonators that can exhibit exotic optical properties such as negative refraction and [...]
Dark Dangerous Asteroids Near Earth

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 3:56pm GMT by Dean

An infrared space telescope has spotted several very dark asteroids that have been lurking unseen near Earth’s orbit. Their obscurity and tilted orbits have kept them hidden from surveys designed to detect things that might hit our planet. Called the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the new NASA telescope launched on 14 December on [...]
Just Broke (4 Deaths)

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:58am GMT by Dean

Nice bloke Back of his throat Just broke Made him choke Dreadful scene Left his greens Chips, bacon, beans Aged 12, 14 Nice old git Stuck around a bit Sudden fit That was it Swallowed his tongue Collapsed his lung He wasn’t young Can’t have been fun Nice young man Suntan Chelsea fan Transit van Went back Sudden crack Caught him smack IKEA flat-pack Nice old dear Tad queer Front and rear Dodgy beer Overnight Drowned in shite Dog died of fright Awful sight