Aurora Borealis in the distance on this beautiful night over Europe

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Link: Aurora Borealis in the distance on this beautiful night over Europe
Aurora Borealis in the distance on this beautiful night over ... on Twitpic

Aurora Borealis in the distance on this beautiful night over Europe. The Strait of Dover is pretty clear as is Paris, the City of Lights. A little fog over the western part of England and London. It is incredible to see the lights of the cities and small towns against the backdrop of deep space.

This awesome photo was taken by astronaut

Douglas H. Wheelock @Astro_Wheels  

Thinking like an octopus | Harvard Gazette

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Link: Thinking like an octopus | Harvard Gazette

If you were an octopus, would you view the world from eight different points of view? Nine?

The answer may depend on how many brains an octopus has, or, to say it another way, whether the robust bunches of neurons in its coiling, writhing, incredibly handy arms bestow on each of them something akin to a brain. Is an octopus a creature ruled by a single consciousness centered in its large brain, or, by dint of its nerve-infused legs, a collaborative, cooperative, but distributed mind?

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Paper airplane touches the edge of space, glides back safely

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Link: Paper airplane touches the edge of space, glides back safely | ITworld

Think you built some pretty cool paper airplanes as a kid?

Did you and your grew-up-to-be-engineer buddies build elaborate models and R/C boats and erector-set creations that stunned the other boys until they discovered girls and first-person-shooters and started calling you a geek?

Cower in awe before Brits Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines , who built a one-wing glider from paper, lofted it to the edge of space at 90,000 feet with a helium balloon, and posted sound and video recordings from the plane as it glided safely back to the ground.