Sunday melodies...

3 things, please check it out...

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And a 4th thing if you made it this far. :)

10 mall massacres with robots, freaks and monsters

Black Friday! Even its name conjures visions of a horrifying battle for survival in the most hostile environment known to humanity — the overcrowded shopping mall. But it could be worse. Science fiction has given us several stories of death and destruction in malls. Just to console you as you battle crowds today, here's our rundown of the 10 deadliest fictional mall massacres of all time.

10 futuristic laptop designs

Technology grows too fast and to keep ourselves synchronized with the modern trends, we must take into account every progress whether that may be of past or of the future. Compiled below is a list of the most futuristic concept laptop designs, some of which have won achievement awards while the rest are just too cool to know about.

Bioluminescent vegetation from another world

"To see yourself on an alien planet, you need go no farther than Cornwall, England. That’s where lighting designer Bruce Munro has placed his outdoor installation, “Field of Light.” Thousands of fiber optic cables topped with acrylic orbs illuminate the countryside, giving the impression that the field is populated with bioluminescent vegetation from another world."

While you're at it, why not check out my song -FIELD OF LIGHT- which I recorded a couple years back... ;o)

The Ancient and Modern Diversity of Bats

Bats are the only mammals that can fly. Scientists have therefore been eager to learn how they evolved from their terrestrial ancestors. Until recently, however, even the oldest fossil bats still looked essentially like modern bats. New fossils have revealed a species that is helping to connect the dots between bats and their nonflying forebears. Findings from genetics and developmental biology have further illuminated bat origins, elucidating their place in the mammal family tree and the process by which the bat wing may have evolved.

Watched Underwater by a Robotic Tuna

When you think of autonomous, unmanned spy vehicles, you probably imagine the telltale shape of a small aircraft overhead, and the suspicious sound of whirring propellers. Spy vehicles, however, aren't just for the sky anymore. The U.S. Navy has funded the development of an autonomous, unmanned vehicle shaped like a fish and capable of covering up to three times the distance of a typical UAV using the same battery. It's called GhostSwimmer, and it'll be entering

Researchers Make New Electronics -- With A Twist

They've made electronics that can bend. They've made electronics that can stretch. And now, they've reached the ultimate goal -- electronics that can be subjected to any complex deformation, including twisting.

It's confirmed: Matter is merely vacuum fluctuations

Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.

Amazing mechanical elephant

This amazing mechanical design was made out of transmission parts, electrical conduits, plumbing pipes and 20-gauge cold rolled steel. It is 36" x 36" x 18" and weighs about 85 pounds.

-SEE IT IN ACTION-

How evolution can affect an entire group

Worker ants of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your fertility. The highly specialized worker castes in ants represent the pinnacle of social organization in the insect world. As in any society, however, ant colonies are filled with internal strife and conflict. So what binds them together? More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin had an idea and now he's been proven right. -ARTICLE CONTINUED-

Bob the Builder goes nuclear

I wish Vanadium Corp. of America had actually produced this stunning nuclear-powered road-maker in the early 1960s.

Just imagine the thrill of terraforming America's beautiful but useless rural hills into productive ribbons of concrete at the touch of a single button. Sadly, they probably feared the arrival of mass-produced personal aircars before this magnificent eco-mangler could be rushed into production.

Unearthed in the Plan 59 archives

VIA: -RETRO THING-

The world’s most super-designed data center

This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.

And it is real. It is a newly opened high-security data center run by one of Sweden’s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below the bedrock of Stockholm city, sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches).

-CONTINUED-

RED Scarlet/Epic

RED’s Scarlet/Epic is a modular, build-it-yourself camera system which allows you to shoot video from 3K @ 120FPS to 28K @ 30FPS and stills from 4.9 MP to a whopping 261 MP.

VIA: -THE AWESOMER-

5 ways that 'Sandman' changed the world

This week saw the 20th anniversary of the release of the first issue of The Sandman, Neil Gaiman's now-classic fantasy series that rewrote the rules of mainstream comics more than once in its' 75-issue run. Without Sandman, we may never have seen comics like Fables, Y: The Last Man or The Invisibles... but on the other hand, we probably wouldn't have had to suffer through the CGI Beowulf movie, either. To celebrate Morpheus' 20th birthday, we look at five ways in which entertainment is different because of comics' favorite dream god.

Ubercool "Mexican walking fish" nearing extinction

We're saddened to learn that the alien-looking Axolotl salamander (Ambystoma mexicanum), aka Mexican walking fish or Mexican water monster, is seriously threatened with extinction because of habitat destruction and water pollution.

Eyeball of doom!!!

Spooky Daddy’s -EYEBALL OF DOOM- is a bit too soft for world domination, but we do want one for our office; there’s nothing quite like 3′ wide, all-seeing eye to brighten up your day.

Food chain friends...

It’s never too early to get your kids used to the idea that it’s a dog eat dog world out there … and FAO Schwarz (who knows how *hard* retail stores have it these days …) can help. Behold the "Food Chain Friends":

Food Chain Friends are from Daro, a small green planet much like Earth was 200 million years ago. Daro teems with wildlife, and its exceptionally social and gracious species flourish in a complex - but oddly, very friendly - ecosystem. They’re friends. They eat each other. It’s a complicated relationship!

-LINK-

VIA: -NEATORAMA-

Physicists use "BlackMax" to search for extra dimensions

A team of theoretical and experimental physicists, with participants from Case Western Reserve University, have designed a new black hole simulator called BlackMax to search for evidence that extra dimensions might exist in the universe. -READ MORE-

Specter in the Veil?

Is that a ghostly specter in the night sky? Actually that’s part of The Veil Nebula, recorded through filters that show emissions from hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in greenish hues.

APOD has more details (and of course, larger photos): Link

VIA: -NEATORAMA-

Cool "Atomic Punk" car design

-CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL GALLERY-

Tiny skeletons examine behavior and evolution

“Farmer presents herself the conjurer of, rather than the maker, of these ‘creatures’ examining their behavior and evolution. ‘A bid to reignite childlike curiosity has witnessed the emergence of a species of miniature skeletal creatures resembling the human form’. The new works will continue to investigate this fictional world where the behavior of these fairies becomes increasing sinister as they mutate, mimic and torture the insects around them.”

Celebrating 100 posts!

Celebrating the centennial post here at 'The Black Hole's Ledge', why not take The Caveman Challenge? Find your place on our 'caveman-o-meter' by completing the seven evolutionary challenges. Each challenge allows you to move along the evolutionary scale from ape to man.

Shamed by you English?

A couple of hilarious parody advertisements I scanned from Alan Moore's old 1963 comic series. Including, Are you Shamed by you English? & Must I lose My Mind?

Monster Ghost

I can’t even count the number of times a giant monster crony who obeys my every command could have been useful to me. Free “Peeping Skeleton Hands” too? Sign me up!

Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Flies Into Space

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a sprit of brotherhood”, states Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Sixty years after its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 10 December 1948, the Declaration is ready to take a journey into space: destination the International Space Station, and more specifically, ESA’s Columbus laboratory.

-FULL ARTICLE-

Gold nanostar shape of the future

Rods, cones, cubes and spheres – move aside. Tiny gold stars, smaller than a billionth of a meter, may hold the promise for new approaches to medical diagnoses or testing for environmental contaminants. While nanoparticles have been the rage across a wide spectrum of sciences, a new study by Duke University bioengineers indicates that of all the shapes studied to date, stars may shine above all the rest for certain applications.

Another one from -PHYSORG-

Following the leader is a real drag

From the Tour de France to NASCAR, competitors and fans know that speed is only part of the equation. Strategy -- and the ability to use elements like aerodynamic drafting, which makes it easier to follow closely behind a leader than to be out in front -- is also critical. But in some cases, drafting happens in reverse: It's the leader of a pack who experiences reduced drag, while the followers encounter more resistance -- and have to expend more energy to keep up.

More at -PHYSORG-

Man in the Dark

Click image to play...

Ten things you don't know about Black Holes

Ah, black holes. The ultimate shiver-inducer of the cosmos, out-jawing sharks, out-ooking spiders, out-scaring… um, something scary. But we’re fascinated by ‘em, have no doubt — even if we don’t understand a whole lot about them.

Read it all at -DISCOVER MAGAZINE-

Internet collaboration still in infancy: Wikipedia founder

"What we haven't seen yet in video is large-scale collaborative projects."

Off the top of his head Wales suggested a 90-minute collaborative web video created by interviewing people from all around the world, giving their views on the war in Iraq.

He joked: "This isn't going to be that popular, frankly, a 90-minute movie with people talking about Iraq -- it's going to have a small audience. This can't be produced in the old-fashioned way. It's totally possible now.

"That's just one dumb idea of mine, right? Imagine what we could get if we could get 100,000 people thinking about collaborative video efforts to create documentary films, or comedy, or art, or who knows what.

"So, I think we've still got a long way to go."

Continued at: -PHYSORG-