Dog Performs Heimlich Maneuver, Saves Owner's Life Golden labrador Toby jumped on Debbie Parkhurst's chest repeatedly as she choked on a piece of apple which had become lodged in her throat. At first, she thought the two-year-old was playing but now she believes he knew exactly what he was doing.

Digitised version of Matteo Ricci's 1602 map of the world. Via

The Drachen Foundation has some stuff about kites. (I particularly liked the idea of miniature kites) more inside

The BBC is the future of your newspaper. Maybe.

For the one-time gangster who built it, it is nothing less than "the eighth wonder of the world".

A Little Love for the Lefties Tired of smudging when you write? Someone's finally come up with an answer for you! via.

And the winner is... The 2007 Pritzker Prize (architecture's Nobel) has been awarded to Richard Rogers -- a man of many talents. (*cough*) [WARNING -- Flash stretches from Oklahoma to South Pacific.]

Kwik-E-Marts made real As a tie-in with the upcoming Simpsons Movie, eleven 7-11 stores are going to rebrand themselves as Kwik-E-Marts, complete with KrustyOs and Buzz cola. No word on the availability of Duff Beer or how many people named Apu will be needed. via.

10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memory -thinking of the word "fox" may trigger thoughts of fox hunting, horseback riding, a sexy woman Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serial -areas of the brain marked as memory centers are also important for imagination Interesting stuff via linkfi

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera. The resulting "chimera" has 15 percent human cells and 85 percent animal cells. See also, Dr. Zanjani's previous work on the pig-human chimera.

Saturn. Come for the freaky human eye-like hurricane at the south pole, stay for the bizarre hexagon at the north.

The World of Beer: a Universal Language (small pictures, annoyingly with the gallery logo plastered over them). The related article. A history of beer. And a monkey.

1. Sasquatch are mammals. 2. Sasquatch fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the sasquatch is to flip out and kill people. Wait, getting my memes mixed up.

Which drugs are most harmful? According to this, heroin's worse than cocaine, which is worse than alcohol, which is worse than cannabis, which is worse than LSD. Some results you'd expect, and some surprises. (From The Lancet, free registration required.) more inside

The City of Hope is a shelter in Dubai for abused women and children of all nationalities – and one of the few shelters in the Middle East. Run by Sharla Musabih, an American married to a UAE national, the safe haven has come under increasing criticism and attack. Sharla sets the record straight.

An ancient theatre filters out low-frequency background noise. The wonderful acoustics for which the ancient Greek theatre of Epidaurus is renowned may come from exploiting complex acoustic physics, new research shows. The theatre, discovered under a layer of earth on the Peloponnese peninsula in 1881 and excavated, has the classic semicircular shape of a Greek amphitheatre, with 34 rows of stone seats (to which the Romans added a further 21). Its acoustics are extraordinary: a performer standing on the open-air stage can be heard in the back rows almost 60 metres away. Architects and archaeologists have long speculated about what makes the sound transmit so well. more inside

Celaphopodfilter: More Giant Killer Squid "On deck, a fisherman lurches forward as his rod dips seaward. Another fisherman is jerked against the rail, then another. It can only be the same bizarre denizen that has been turning up in large numbers throughout Southland waters: Dosidicus gigas, a.k.a. Humboldt, or jumbo, squid. It is a colossal cephalopod that reaches 7 feet long, can weigh more than 100 pounds, and jets through the water at speeds up to 25 mph." LA Times Article, registration required.

Seattle Meetup Anyone here in the Emerald City area want to meet up? more inside

CyberBullied Off Line Kathy Sierra, blogger of Creating Passionate Users, has been harassed and stalked online via posts to her and others' blogs to the point that she is too afraid to leave her house and attend the workshops she normally leads, much less lead her daily life.

Recycled tintype images - strange and lovely rearrangements of bits of very old photos. Seen at Ample Sanity more inside