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8 Strangest Genetic Scientific Experiments

Published on 11/17/2009 under Weird Science - by Gracie Murano - 193,552 views

Nazi scientist created a twin-town

The steely hearted "Angel of Death", Josef Mengele, whose mission was to create a master race fit for the Third Reich, was the resident medic at Auschwitz from May 1943 until his flight in the face of the Red Army advance in January 1945. His task was to carry out experiments to discover by what method of genetic quirk twins were produced – and then to artificially increase the Aryan birthrate for his master, Adolf Hitler.

Historians claim Mengele's notorious experiments may have borne fruit. For years scientists have failed to discover why as many as one in five pregnancies in a small Brazilian town have resulted in twins – most of them blond haired and blue eyed. But residents of Candido Godoi now claim that Mengele made repeated visits there in the early 1960s, posing at first as a vet but then offering medical treatment to the women of the town. Shuttling between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, he managed to evade justice before his death in 1979, but his dreams of a Nazi master race appeared unfulfilled.

(Link)

Scientists are developing spider-goats to produce sought materials

What do you get when you cross a spider with a goat? It sounds like it should be the start of a joke, but the spider goat project reflects just one of many disturbing genetic hybridisation projects. Genetic scientists have incorporated selected spider DNA into goat embryos to engineer a hybrid spider goat – and here's why…. Spiders can produce an amazing substance, highly desirable, more valuable than gold – that substance is spilder silk.

Nexia Biotechnologies in Quebec along with scientists at the U.S. Army's Soldier Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) in Natick, Mass, have taken the specialized silk producing gene from a spider and inserted it into a goat embryo. The result is a goat……that looks like a goat, acts like a goat, but produces milk which contains proteins which, when treated, produce a very close imitation of the valuable spider silk. A single goat only produces small amounts of the desired material, so an extremely large herd is required to acquire useful quantities. (Link 1 | Link 2)

Scientists create new life from a mouse that has been frozen for 16 years

Scientists have created clones of a mouse that had been dead and frozen for 16 years. It is the first time they have been able to clone a frozen animal. The Japanese researchers say their work will benefit mankind - and could be used to bring back extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth or sabre tooth tiger. Critics say it brings the world closer to the day when people try to clone long- dead relatives stored in cryopreservation clinics. It could even lead to a macabre new industry - in which people leave behind 'relics' of their bodies in freezers in the hope that they could one day be cloned. The latest experiment comes more than 11 years after British scientists stunned the world with Dolly the cloned sheep. Although scientists have since cloned a host of different animals, using genetic material from single cells, they have always used living cells. (Link)

Scientist are creating a modified mosquito to fight other mosqiutos

A genetically modified (GM) strain of malaria-resistant mosquito has been created that is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects.

It gives new impetus to one strategy for controlling the disease: introduce a transgenic mosquito carrying a gene that confers resistance to the malaria parasite into wild populations in the hope that they will take over. These mosquitoes had another gene inserted into them to make their eyes fluoresce, to distinguish them from the ordinary strain. The insect carries a gene that prevents infection by the malaria parasite. The researchers caution that their studies are still at an early stage, and that it could be 10 years or more before engineered insects are released into the environment. The approach exploits the fact that the health of infected mosquitoes is itself compromised by the parasite they spread. Insects that cannot be invaded by the parasite are therefore likely to be fitter and out-compete their disease-carrying counterparts. (Link)

Scientists demonstrate that girls are genetically predisposed to pink

We all know that women like pink and men prefer blue, but we have never really known why. Now it emerges that parents who dress their boys in blue and girls in pink may not just be following tradition but some deep-seated evolutionary instinct. Researchers have found that there could be sound historical reasons why women have developed a heightened appreciation of reds and pinks, while men are drawn to blue.

The scientists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who were led by Dr Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling, averaged people's overall preferences. The male favourite was a pale blue while the female favourite was a lilac shade of pink. The participants in the study were Chinese and British. The Chinese students showed a marked preference for red. As red symbolises luck and happiness in China, this indicates that cultural norms are also involved. In the study, which is published in the journal Current Biology, the scientists showed pairs of colours to 208 volunteers aged between 20 and 26, who had to select which they preferred by clicking with a computer mouse. Both groups showed similar sex-related preferences, with women liking blues and pinks while men liked mainly blues.

There is already evidence that human's ability to see in colour is likely to have evolved because of the usefulness of being able to distinguish red fruits from green backgrounds. The female role as gatherers while males hunted could have favoured a particular preference for reds and pinks, the scientists said. Dr Ling said the team was now seeking to investigate further the extent to which these preferences are innate. Her own favourite colour? “A very paleish pink,” she said. (Link)

Scientists are trying to grow human eyeballs

A genetic switch that gives tadpoles three eyes could allow stem-cell scientists to eventually grow human eyeballs or at least create replacement parts needed for repair jobs. If scientists could grow eyeballs from stem cells in the lab, the process would be a boon to individuals with damage to cells within the eye, including retinal disorders.

Scientists had already established the amphibian genes that initiate and direct eye development, which they refer to as Eye Field Transcription Factors (EFTFs). How these genes get activated in the right location at a certain time during development had been cloaked in mystery. But in 2007, a new study suggested a nitrogen-bearing molecule sets off a series of steps that result in eye formation in frogs. When researchers injected a specific enzyme into frog embryos, the resulting tadpoles showed an extra eye. The mechanism probably also applies to humans and other animals with eyes. Dale and University of Warwick developmental biologist Elizabeth Jones, along with colleagues, discovered the eye-switch while investigating how "ectoenzyme" molecules located on the external surface of cells contributed to the development of locomotion in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). The biologists injected the molecules into frog embryos that comprised just eight cells.

One of the ectoenzymes triggered wonky eye development. When added to cells that would eventually form the head, the resulting tadpole sported three eyes instead of two. An even stranger sight resulted when they injected the ectoenzyme into other developing body cells. The molecule caused an additional "ectopic" eye, leading to tadpoles with a spare peeper growing out of the side, abdomen or even along the tail. (Link)

Dutch scientists create genetically engineered cows to produce fortified milk

A Dutch biotechnology company called Pharming has genetically engineered cows, outfitting females with a human gene that causes them to express high levels of the protein human lactoferrin in their milk. According to Pharming's website, the protein —which is naturally present in human tears, lung secretions, milk and other bodily fluids—fights against the bacteria that causes eye and lung infections, plays a key role in the immune system of infants and adults and improves intestinal microbial balance, promoting the health of the gastro-intestinal tract. “Since the protein has the ability to bind iron, is a natural anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral, is an antioxidant and also has immunomodulatory properties, large groups of people might benefit from orally administered lactoferrin,” the company literature reads. Scientists have tested the toxicity of the protein—isolated from the cows' milk—on rats. They found that—even at the high level of 2,000 mg recombinant human lactoferrin per kg body weight—orally consumed human lactoferrin has no adverse effects to complement all the supposed benefits already mentioned. (Link)

Scientists are trying to create fastest trees

A tree that can reach 90 feet in six years and be grown as a row crop on fallow farmland could represent a major replacement for fossil fuels. Purdue University researchers are using genetic tools in an effort to design trees that readily and inexpensively can yield the substances needed to produce alternative transportation fuel. The scientists are focused on a compound in cell walls called lignin that contributes to plants' structural strength, but which hinders extraction of cellulose. Cellulose is the sugar-containing component needed to make the alternative fuel ethanol. With funding from the Department of Energy, Clint Chapple and Rick Meilan are using genetic tools to find ways to convert trees into ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuels. (Link)

Is Facebook Shutting Down: Rumor or Truth

Rumors Are Flying that Facebook Will Be Shutting Down March 15 This Comes After Report was Put Out by Weekly World News

Jennifer Moore, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jan 9, 2011 "Contribute content like this. Start Here."

www.associatedcontent.com/article/6200074/is_facebook_shutting_down_rumor_or.html?cat=15 Despite what many are hearing about Facebook shutting down March 15, it simply is not true it is an Internet hoax. Rumors are flying that Facebook will be shutting down March 15 this comes after report was put out by

 weekly world news. In the report it claims Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg "wants his old life back that managing Facebook has become too stressful and users will no longer be able to access that are Facebook accounts March 15."

Weekly world news is known to start rumors in the past that were not true. One of the rumors that had been started was Michelle Obama being pregnant which is definitely not true. Facebook has too many users to consider the possibility that Facebook would shut down March 15.

Facebook has over 500 million users that would be devastated if the website shut down. Teenagers to adults use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family who live far away and who want to make new friends. Goldman Sachs recently invested $500 million to Facebook, which leads many to think why in the world would Facebook shutdown March 15. Facebook has become the most popular social network on the Internet.

There was an opinion piece posted on CNN a couple of days ago with the title "Facebook Hype Will Fade" by Douglas Rushkoff. Once the story was published, that is when all the hype about Facebook shutting down March 15 began. In this story, he is noted as saying that the investment made by Goldman Sachs would be the end" for Facebook. Maybe this little statement is what triggered Internet users to believe Facebook the world's leading social network to shut down March 15.

To answer the question is Facebook shutting down March 15? The answer is no, it is a rumor that was started and users can continue to keep in touch with friends and family.

Sources:

CNN

gue mau bergila dulu ya..huhuhu

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10 Movie Characters That Turned Out To Be Real People

Published on 7/26/2010 under Strange People - by Gracie Murano - 323,267 views

Lucy (50 First Dates) - Michelle Philpots

Every day, Michelle Philpots wakes up next to a man who has to convince her they are married. When she expresses doubt, he takes out a photo album and shows her pictures of their wedding 13 years ago. Only then does amnesiac Mrs Philpots accept she is talking to her husband, Ian, and that everything he has told her is true. The 47-year-old's condition was caused by brain injuries sustained in two road accidents. She can recall everything up to 1994 but since then everything that happens on one day is forgotten the next. Her case echoes 50 First Dates, the 2004 movie in which Adam Sandler tries to woo Drew Barrymore, who has no day-to-day memory following a car crash.

(Link)

Zorro (The Mask of Zorro) - Joaquin Murrieta

Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a nobleman and master living in the Spanish colonial era of California. He is a black-clad masked outlaw who defends the people of the land against tyrannical officials and other villains. Joaquin Murrieta, also called the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a semi-legendary figure in California during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. He was either an infamous bandit or a Mexican patriot, depending on one's point of view. Murrieta was partly the inspiration for the fictional character of Zorro. His name has, for some political activists, symbolized resistance against Anglo-American economic and cultural domination in California. In fact, a character with his name appears in The Mask of Zorro. In the film, after Joaquin's death, his (fictional) brother, Alejandro (Antonio Banderas), becomes the new Zorro and later kills Captain Love in revenge. (Link)

Viktor Navorski (The Terminal) - Mehran Nasseri

“The Terminal” is a moving tale, where Tom Hanks plays the victim of the modern world. That a man could spend months stuck in diplomatic limbo living in an airport may seem far-fetched, but in fact, the movie is inspired by a real-life character who lived at terminal one of Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. The living urban legend is Mehran Nasseri, known as “Sir Alfred” to those who work at the airport. Stranded without papers, Nasseri was a stateless refugee from Iran, unwanted by any nation. Having claimed to have one British parent, he decided to settle in the UK in 1986, but en route to there in 1988, his briefcase containing his papers was stolen in Paris. Despite this setback, he boarded the plane for London but was promptly returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration. He was initially arrested by the French, but then released as his entry to the airport was legal and he had no country of origin to be returned to. A red plastic bench beside a luggage store was his home for no less than 18 years. Director Steven Spielberg may have moved the airport to New York for his movie and made Hank's character East European, but there's no doubt who the movie is based on. Nasseri's life at the airport ended in July 2006 when he was hospitalized and his sitting place dismantled. (Link 1 | Link 2)

Hanna Schmitz (The Reader) - Ilse Koch

Kate Winslet's character in The Reader was based on one of the Third Reich's most notorious war criminals. The life of Ilse Koch, a concentration camp guard nicknamed "The Bitch of Buchenwald," was strikingly similar to that of Hanna Schmitz, the role played by Winslet in the Oscar-tipped film. Like Schmitz, Koch came from a poor background. She married Karl Koch, a close friend of Adolf Hitler, in 1936, and accompanied him when he was made commandant of Buchenwald camp the following year. As a supervisor of the camp's female guards, she whipped and beat prisoners. Witnesses said she forced prisoners to rape one another and was eventually disciplined by Nazi chiefs for her brutality. As Schmitz does in the film, Koch killed herself after being sentenced to life in prison for her crimes perpetrated in a concentration camp. Before her suicide, Koch had been reunited with her illegitimate son, who had only recently discovered his mother's identity and crimes. He wrote poems and sent them to her in prison. In the film, Schmitz is effectively reunited with Michael Berg, a former lover who is shocked to see her in the dock when he attends a war crimes trial. After she is sentenced, he sends her taped books to listen to in prison. Also, Ilse was accused of having affairs with prisoners, while Hanna was suspected by her camp inmates of selecting female prisoners to have sex with. (Link)

Raymond Babbitt (Rain Man) - Kim Peek

Kim Peek is the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie Rain Man. His life was thrust into the spotlight after meeting screenwriter Barry Morrow, who used Peek as the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning character, Raymond Babbitt. Although inspired by Peek, he was portrayed as having autism. After the 1988 film became a hit, Peek spent the next 21 years demonstrating his mental abilities to more than 64 million people around the world. Peek, who was able to retain nearly 98% of what read, heard, and watched (the average person holds on to about 45%), could read and memorize books as a 16-month-old and had committed as many as 9,000 books to memory. (Link 1 | Link 2)

Norman Bates (Psycho) - Ed Gein

Norman Bates is a psychologically disturbed hotel owner who has delusions that his dead mother, whose body he keeps in the cellar, wants to kill hotel guests. He develops a dual personality and dresses like her when he commits his murders. The film's screenplay by Joseph Stefano was adapted from a novel of the same name by author Robert Bloch. Remarkably, Bloch's 1959 novel was based on legendary real-life, Plainfield, Wisconsin psychotic serial killer Edward Gein, who was arrested in 1957 for committing two murders and digging up the corpses of countless other women who reminded him of his dead mother. He skinned the bodies to make lamp shades, socks and a "woman suit" in hopes of becoming a woman. He was found to be insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution. (Link 1 | Link 2)

Laurel Hedare (Catwoman) - Heather Bird

There is a theory that says the character of the movie's villain (Laurel Hedare, played by Sharon Stone) was based on real-life anti-aging advocate/entrepreneur Heather Bird . At the time that the "Catwoman" movie was being developed by French director Pitof, Heather Bird was making headlines in Europe by introducing a revolutionary new anti-ageing cream. The fictional Laurel Hedare's revolutionary new anti-ageing cream is the central plot element of the "Catwoman" movie. Note that prior to filming, the screenplay referred to the cosmetics company central to the film's story as "Avenal Beauty." "Avenal" could be a play on the word "Aves," the scientific and Latin word for "birds," a subtle reference to Heather Bird's name. When the film was actually made, the name of the company was changed to "Hedare Beauty." The real-life Heather Bird is not an evil villainess. But she does have many traits in common with Sharon Stone's character, aside from their promotion of cutting edge anti-ageing technologies. Both are beautiful blonde women. Both are from Salt Lake City. Heather Bird was born and raised in Salt Lake City. Laurel Hedare lived in and had the company headquarters in Salt Lake at least at some point in the planning stages of the "Catwoman" movie. (Link)

Rocky Balboa (Rocky) - Chuck Wepner

Chuck Wepner, a battling, bruising club fighter who had never made it big time, but in 1975 he had his shot in a fight with world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. It wasn't at all regarded as a serious battle. But as the fight progressed, this miracle unfolded. In the ninth round, Wepner landed a punch to Ali's chest and Ali was knocked down. Wepner went to his corner and said to his manager, "Hey, I knocked him down." "Yeah," Wepner's manager replied, "but he looks really pissed off now...". People went absolutely crazy. Wepner was finally knocked out in the 15th and final round, almost lasting the distance. Young actor Sylvester Stallone watched the fight at home on television and was inspired to write the script for Rocky, based on Wepner's gutsy challenge. (Link)

Emily Rose (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) - Anneliese Michel

In the movie, a priest is on trial for the death of a young woman named Emily Rose, upon whom he had performed an exorcism. The film was inspired by Anneliese Michel, a 16-year-old German girl who, in 1968, began displaying symptoms of demonic possession. For years, she suffered paralysis, self-abuse, starvation and demonic visions until 1975, when two priests performed exorcisms of what was believed to be several demons over 10 months. During that time, Anneliese barely ate, and she died of starvation in July 1976. Her parents and the priests were tried and found guilty of manslaughter. They were sentenced to six months in jail. (Link)

Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski or Krusty the Clown (The Simpsons)– Jim Allen from Rusty Nails

Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski, better known by his stage name, "Krusty the Clown," is the cynical, burnt out, addiction-riddled smoking clown host of Bart and Lisa's favorite TV show, The Krusty the Clown Show. The character of Krusty was partially inspired by real-life clown "Rusty Nails" whom Simpsons creator Matt Groening watched as a child while growing up in Portland, Oregon. Jim Allen (b. 1928 or 1929) portrayed the clown character Rusty Nails. His program on KPTV was the second-longest running children's program in Portland, second only to Ramblin' Rod Anders.

Basically most of the characters from The Simpsons were inspired in Groening's family and acquaintances. (Link 1 | Link 2)

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8 Inspirational Older People

Published on 3/26/2009 under Strange People - by Gracie Murano - 163,989 views
TAGS: Inspiring Elderly

Olive Riley (108-year-old): World's Oldest Blogger

Believed to have been the world's oldest blogger, australian woman Olive Riley began her blog The Life of Riley in February 2007 at the age of 107 and made her final post on 26 June 2008 from a nursing home in Woy Woy, New South Wales, complaining of a cough about two weeks before she died at the age of 108. She had posted over 70 entries, as well as several video posts on YouTube. Her blog (or "blob" as she called it) was inspired by her experience with documentary filmmaker Michael Rubbo who, in 2005, made a documentary about her titled All About Olive.
NOTE: our reader Eric wrote us to explain an even older blogger was discovered after Olive's death.

Buster Martin (102-year-old): UK's Oldest Employee and Marathon Runner

Pierre Jean "Buster" Martin claims to be the United Kingdom's oldest employee at the age of 102. Martin works for a well-known plumbing company in southeast London as a van cleaner, and notably refused to take a day off on the day he celebrated his 100th birthday. But he is also a marathon runner. After walking the 10 km (6 miles) distance of the Great Capital Run in 2 hours 22 minutes and the Roding Valley Half Marathon in 5 hours 13 minutes, Martin was entered for the 2008 London Marathon. According to press reports, he walked the 26 mile course in approximately 10 hours.

If the claims about his age are true, he could be the oldest recorded marathon participant in the world. However, officials of the Guinness World Records organization said that they did not consider Martin eligible for the record because he had never provided proof is his age.

Winifred Pristell (70-year-old): Holds two World Records in Powerlifting

Meet Winifred Pristell, 70 years old. This great-grandma they call "Heavy Metal" is a competitive weightlifter with two world records and aspirations for more. Winifred first took up the sport in her late 40’s due to her struggles with her weight. When she turned 60 she started to lift competitively in powerlifting meets. At 68, she set world records for her age in the bench press at 176.2 pounds and 270 pounds in the deadlift.

Even though she has been struggling lately with arthritis and joint issues, at 70 Winifred still works out three days a week.

Jennifer Figge (56-year-old): First Woman to Swim the Atlantic

56-year-old Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month. Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean --a dream she'd had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on Jan. 12, battling waves of up to 30 feet (9 meters) and strong winds. She had originally planned to swim the Bahamas, but inclement weather forced her to veer 1,000 miles (1,610 kms) off course to Trinidad.

The Great Omani (92-year-old): World's Oldest Escapologist

Ron Cunningham, who died in 2007 at the age of 92, was an escapologist and end-of the-pier artist specializing in feats such as eating light bulbs and removing a straitjacket while hanging upside down with his trousers on fire.

To impress audiences he put himself in great danger during many of his stunts using fire, water and glass at his local pub the Bedford Tavern in Brighton. It was here where he performed his last stunt in 2005. This was the escape out of handcuffs with both arms on fire with lighter fluid. He died in Brighton, East Sussex after a whisky and a cigar at his home on October 15, 2007. His last request was for a trapdoor in the hearse at his funeral. He wrote a short poem, which was read at the occasion: “They lay the Great Omani in his box / They have done it up with nails not locks / But at his funeral do not despair / Chances are he won't be there.”

Arthur Winston (100-year-old): Worked for 72 years at the same company and only took one day off

A Los Angeles Metro employee for 72 years, Arthur Winston (1906 - 2006) was known for being honored as the "Employee of the Century" because he was never late to work and only took one day off during his entire career, that being for his wife's funeral in 1988. He retired at age 100.

Bernie Marks (78-year-old): Oldest Man to have a Bar Mitzvah

It took Holocaust survivor Bernie Marks over 60 years to realize his father's and grandfathers' dreams, but he finally honored them - and Jews worldwide - by having a bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony that marks the symbolic passage to manhood.

When he was 13, he was living in a Polish ghetto under Nazi rule. Later, his family was sent to Auschwitz where he last saw his mother and brother. Marks and his father were sent to a labor camp until they were liberated by US forces in 1945. So now, 66 years later, in a strong, melodic voice that moved some at Sacramento Congregation B'nai Israel to tears, Marks chanted the Hebrew passages with his daughters and grandchildren looking on.

Brownie Mary (70-year-old): Medical Cannabis Activist

Popularly known as "Brownie Mary", Mary Jane Rathbun (1923 - 1999) was an American hospital volunteer who became internationally known as a medical cannabis activist. Brownie Mary was famous for baking and distributing "Alice B. Toklas brownies" and volunteering in the AIDS ward of San Francisco General Hospital. She was active in efforts to legalize cannabis use for people with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and other diseases. In 1992, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared August 25 "Brownie Mary Day."

"My kids [people with AIDS and cancer] need this and I'm ready to go to jail for my principles... I'm not going to cut any deals with them. If I go to jail, I go to jail," she once said.

She was named a "Living Saint" in 1994 at the San Francisco Saints Alive Benefit. In 1997 the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence dubbed her "Saint Brownie Fucking Mary" at Mary's request as she was a lifelong atheist. Mary was also included in the Sisters' Nuns of the Above AIDS Memorial Quilt for her work with and advocating for people with AIDS. Brownie Mary died of a heart attack at a Laguna Honda nursing home for the poor at age 77.