Saturday, 21 April 2012

Cool wind

Queen of Sheba sent me a link to a mesmerizing wind map. I took a screenshot to illustrate this post, but do have a look at the site as the moving map is really cool.


The artists who created the map have many other interesting visuals on their website.

Thank you, Queen of Sheba. As you said, we love a bit of weather here on What Time!

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Happy birthday

We had a post for the people celebrating their birthdays in April, but there are so many opportunities for some eye-candy and a bit of banter today, that I decided to have a special post for our dear Tumbleweed.


Imagine a cake:


Now imagine all these guys popping out of it:








Happy birthday, Tumbleweed! Drink and be merry, but remember:


I won't mention the other girl having her birthday party today...

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Useful venom

Our friend Phuket Tom sent me some amazing videos of a deadly creature, the cone shell snail.

The first two videos show the cone snail in action:





In this third video, scientists explain the effects of the hundreds of different compounds that go into the venom of each type of cone snail, how they could be used as bio-weapons, but most importantly, how they can be used to develop new drugs to help control or alleviate the symptoms of many conditions.



Dr. Baldomero Olivera is a good friend of Tom's:

"The gentleman in the longest video about the lab in Utah is a good friend of mine, Dr. Toto Olivera. A few years ago he was named U.S. Scientist of the Year (I believe by Harvard University) for his studies of cone shell toxins and their possible use in human medicine - one of his discoveries is now in use and while more powerful than morphine has none of the side effects of that drug. In his research he has visited me here on Phuket several times, looking for additional species of deepwater cones in order to analyze their toxins."


Thank you very much for these videos, Tom. I find this research fascinating, tapping into Mother Nature's resources to produce drugs to help mankind...