Invisibility One Step Closer?

Only a very small step mind you, as Japanese professor Yutaka Tamaru of Mie University unveils his newest creation, a transparent goldfish. Apparently the hapless creature was developed to make it easier for Japanese school students to study, so they wouldn’t have to cut them open, which has a certain irony considering some Japanese culinary practices… The skin and scales have no pigment so the heart, brain, eyes and other organs can clearly be seen. Since there’s no need for this animal to go under the knife it’s whole life cycle can be closely monitored and the good news for this specimen is that it is expected to live for around 20 years. Incidentally, this isn’t the first see-through animal developed in Japan and transparent frogs are apparently going to go on sale in the next few months.

Infants Get Learning Lag from Watching TV

Infants who spend a lot of time in front of the TV may set themselves up for difficulties in learning later on in life, a new scientific research shows. It would appear that even babies under 1 or 2 years of age are capable of “zoning out” in front of the screen, and that this type of behavior may translate into less time spent with their parents, and, possibly, difficulties paying attention and learning when they grow a little older. The investigation was ordered and paid for by the LENA Foundation.

“We’ve known that television exposure during infancy is associated with language delays and attentional problems, but so far it has remained unclear why,” shared for LiveScience University of Washington School of Medicine professor of pediatrics Dimitri Christakis, who was also the lead researcher on the new study. Read more

Google Lively

Did you ever get into Second Life? Basically, you could consider it a game, but for a lot of people, it’s more than just that. As an example, it’s enough to say that, a few months ago, I read an article about a real world company involved in the real estate business… in Second Life! So, we have real estate brokers arriving at the office, starting the computer, getting into Second Life, and then doing what one real estate broker usually does – selling properties, virtual ones, to be more precise, and earning money, but real money, this time. Now, you are probably wondering what’s the link between all this and Hitsgarden, aren’t you? I’ll get to it right away…

My friends, it’s all about Google! No, it’s not about Google Docs, Google Mail, Blogger or another service/application currently developed by the Californian IT giant that we are all familiar with. For now, this is still a pet in Google’s backyard, but they have decided to show it to the world, although they claim this is only 20 percent done, for now. What is it? Google Lively, of course! Read more