Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update

	November 20th, 2012 地 Posted 1 day ago by Koichi Mitsui to s a s u r a u 2 登戸。 Holiday fun with the Reindeer Cam Posted 1 day ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Looking for some holiday fun to wile away the hours until the family can track Santa’s progress Christmas Eve with a little help from NORAD? Then it’s time to check in with the Reindeer Cam, where kids can sneak a peek at Santa’s helpers as they get ready for the big night. Three times a day, Santa himself comes out to feed the reindeer at the times listed below, so set the alarm on the cell and give the kids a glimpse of something they probably won’t see unless they’re out of their beds on Christmas Eve. Everyday November 16th through December 24th. Find your time zone below:   PST (Pacific) – 8AM, 3PM & 6PM   MST (Mountain) – 9AM, 4PM & 7PM   CST (Central) – 10AM, 5PM & 8PM   EST (Eastern) – 11AM, 6PM & 9PM   GMT UTC – 4PM, 11PM, 2AM Full story at Reindeer Cam. Holiday fun. Team tracks nearly extinct elephant look-alike Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! Researchers are hoping to use GPS collars to monitor the movements of endangered tapirs living in the rainforests of Nicaragua. Embedded media -- click here to see it. “We’d like to figure out how and where they live and if they can co-exist with the agricultural community,” says Gerald Urquhart, an assistant professor at Michigan State University. “We hope the results of this project are that the tapirs can persist in the landscape and can be tolerated by the humans in that area. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. From icy water to steam via nano-particles [video] Posted about 23 hours ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! New technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam is so effective it even works with icy cold water. Embedded media -- click here to see it. “We’re going from heating water on the macro scale to heating it at the nanoscale,” says Naomi Halas of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University. “Our particles are very small—even smaller than a wavelength of light—which means they have an extremely small surface area to dissipate heat. This intense heating allows us to generate steam locally, right at the surface of the particle, and the idea of generating steam locally is really counterintuitive.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Got the right personality for a placebo? Posted about 23 hours ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! According to new neuroscience research, some personality traits might make you more likely to get pain relief from a placebo—a fake medicine. And, the University of Michigan researchers show it’s not just your mind telling you the sham drug is working or not. Your brain’s own natural painkiller chemicals may actually respond to the pain differently depending on your personality. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Fotolia How many unknown critters live in the ocean? Posted about 23 hours ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! There are about 226,000 described marine species in the world but two to three times as many that remain undescribed, research suggests. “The entire ocean contains less than 300,000 species described to date and that includes everything from dolphins to worms to single-celled algae,” says Gustav Paulay, invertebrate curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. “Because it’s so connected, there’s less diversity in the ocean than on land. There’s still a lot more to be discovered, but it’s a manageable number so we can go after it and really understand the magnitude of marine biodiversity.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Fotolia Lord of the Rings' Mount Doom about to blow Posted about 18 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 2 If you’re an avid fan of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series, you might be excited to know that New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu, the volcano that played Mount Doom in close-up scenes, may soon be getting a makeover. Hikers have been warned away from the area and scientists aren’t sure yet if the eruption will be mild or not. "We think that the temperature a few hundred meters beneath Crater Lake is about 800 Celsius [1,472 degrees Fahrenheit], but the lake itself is only about 20 C [68 F]," said volcanologist Steven Sherburn, in an alert bulletin released by GNS Science, a New Zealand geologic hazard monitoring organization. "This suggests the vent is partly blocked, which may be leading to a pressure buildup beneath Crater Lake." Movie promotions don’t get better than this. Full story at LiveScience. Natural blockbusters. Sent by Posterous. Change your email settings or unfollow. Other questions? We'd love to help.