What Hath Science Wrought? Beetles Mind Controlled By Humans

The video says it all, scientists are with the aid of technology able to control the actions of beetles. The beetle carries a wireless microsystem, which includes a micro processor, a radio receiver, battery, and six electrodes implanted in the creatures brain and flight muscles.

Using a lap top computer and a wireless transmitter, scientists are able to tell the beetle which direction to fly in, as well as when they want it to land and take off.

This opens quite a bit of possibilities for man, which the video notes could be used for animal research, search and rescue, and of course war fare. It sounds like a pretty crazy system, and it's incredibly disturbing to think that a bug flying around could be a US government spy, but it's still a hell of a technological development, and great to see something so out there taking place during Bonus Time.

Why Didn't I Think Of This?

This amazing graph shows which trains people most commonly "miss connections" on.

If you don't know what the Craigslist missed connections section is you're really missing out on your Bonus Time. Not only are these a hilarious read, they're also a great way to have some fun if you can think of a hilarious enough e-mail to send one of the suckers on there.

For those of you not in the know, the Craigslist missed connections section is a personals section on Craigslist where people can post if they feel they had a special bond with someone on the subway, but didn't have the balls to act on it. Did you think that blond actually was checking you out, was the dude staring at your tits the whole ride really trying to say, "hey, I bet we both love poetry and Italian food!" this is where you go to find that out.

But CL hasn't made the Bonus Blog just because they exist (although browsing their personals is a great way to laugh your ass off during Bonus Time), it's because a Brooklyn illustrator and publisher has taken the personals to the next level.

According to this article, Sophie Blackall saw the section as a limitless opportunity to create art. She is now creating prints based on some of her favorites from the site, which she says she was prone to browsing for an upwards of 2 hours at a time on most days.

That is so freakin' awesome, and very Bonus Time. Taking what would otherwise be a boring, menial activity used only really to pass time (aka waste it) and turning it not only into art, but art that is potentially profitable over a long period of time, that's pretty awesome. Good for you Sophie, and to the chick who was kinda brushing against me yesterday with her bag on the train, I know what you were trying to say baby, but you can't cage this bird, he's gotta fly.

2003 Was Waaaaay Too Long Ago

Another Bonus Time year's worth of fun facts for the faithful out there. This time we're gonna focus on 2003. Again this is a facebook repost, and if you're not a fan of us on facebook yet click on the fucking thing on the right.

2003
International Year of Freshwater

January 18 – The Canberra Bushfires in Canberra, Australia kill 4 people

March 13 – The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy.

April 14 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.

June 22 – The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska.

July 6 – The 70-meter Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message Cosmic Call 2 to 5 stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri, HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris, that will arrive at these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044, 2044 and 2049 respectively

August 28 – Bank robber Brian Douglas Wells is killed when a time bomb around his neck explodes, allegedly in an act of betrayal by his co-conspirators.

September 3 – The Hubble Space Telescope starts Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

October 15 – The 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash kills 11 after one of its ferries slams into a pier.

November 23 – A total solar eclipse is seen over Antarctica.

December 25 – Beagle 2 is scheduled to land on Mars, but nothing is heard from the lander.

Shitloads of New Species Discovered in 2008

Fangs? Alright, it's a start.

I'm only going to briefly touch on this, but 2008 was a hell of a year for discovering new species. Last year 163 new species were found in South East Asia's Mekong region alone. The discoveries ranged from fanged frogs, to leopard geckos, to new types of wild banana plants. And most of them are found no where else on Earth, at least so far.

The mainstream belief is that the fanged frog evolved to defend itself against Glenn Beck's insane attacks, but the rest of the species have been evolving over the last 8,000 years or so, as climate changes took place in the region to separate certain creatures from one another, and creating this immense range of diversity.

Here is a link to the article, they've also got a video on their homepage, but NG is weird about letting you embed their new videos so good luck finding it yourself.

Moon Maybe Has Water

Photo from Bonus Times trip to the Moon.

First I'd just like to say yes, Bonus Time has been on the moon. That is one of the pictures from our trip there, and yes it was amazing.

Secondly, it looks like there might actually be water on the moon, as opposed to the commonly accepted theory that the moon was made entirely out of cheese.

Scientists aren't 100% sure about this yet (and they way they're planning to figure it out is fucking awesome, but more on that later) but at the very least the ingredients to make water appear to be scattered across the moons surface.

According to this article the only question now is whether or not this is actual water they're finding, or hydroxyl (which can be bound with hydrogen to make water). The big problem that's in the way is that these molecules are bound to other molecules all across the surface of the moon, and because of that there's simply not a lot of them. It is possible however that with a little effort this could become a renewable source of water on the moon which would, "reduce the payloads that would need to be taken into space to maintain a future lunar outpost."

Moon Base One online.

Now how scientists determine whether or not these are actual water molecules, or hydroxyl is pretty awesome. Their plan? Smashing a probe into the moon.

I'm serious, that's what they're gonna do.

Sometimes scientists really seem to get shit right, and wanton destruction always gets a thumbs up here at Bonus Time. Their plan is to send a plume of the moon's surface into space so that they can study it in better light, and that's a hell of a way to go about it.

Anyway all of this is just dripping with Bonus Time awesomeness, I call having the first moon pool party. You all heard me call it, I have witnesses.

US Troops Finally Able to Enjoy Bonus Time

Rough Riders > All Other Riders (And Ridas)

Good news for the troops over in Iraq coming out of Washington this week. And no it's not some asshole celebrity who's going over there to cheer them up. No according to this article, 4,000 troops will be pulled out of Iraq in this coming month alone. After that President Obama has said that he plans to have all US combat troops out by August 31st 2010.

You do have to be careful with your wording there though, as after all combat troops are removed, the United States will still have some 35,000-50,000 troops remaining in Iraq. So while we're not completely withdrawing, it still likely relieves some of the stress on our over worked troops, while still keeping the career guys in the saddle.

The reason behind the troop withdrawal is a drop in violence in Iraq overall. According to experts, violence in Iraq has dropped some 85% over the last 2 years. This is also coupled with the continued build of U.S. trust in Iraqi security forces in the nation as they continue to grow.

Pretty good news for the guys over there. Over the last few years I've noticed a ton of stories about how our troops are getting screwed into more and more tours of duty, being cornered into serving more time then they'd ever signed up for. Good to see that these guys get to go home, and enjoy time with their families. They'll need the rest for now, because when the Super Earthicans come, we will all have to be ready to fight.

Bonus Time for a Jet!

Did you really think the word "Jet" being in the title would not equal a Jet Jaguar picture?

This article was pretty funny I have to say. A jet that was lost more than 50 years ago off the coast of California was recovered recently by "aircraft archeologists." Let me just take a minute here to laugh about that. Aircraft archeologists, that's great! I was so set to write a regular article (as if there is one of those around here) and then I read that and lost it.

I don't know who to give the thumbs up to here, the wreckage for being discovered after 50 years in the briney deep, or the people who found it for having such a ridiculous job title. Yah know what, I give up. I mean honestly is that just me?

Oh I also liked the part where they said the aircraft they recovered had been presumed lost at sea for all of these years. It's been 50 years, it WAS lost at sea that's pretty cut and dry.

Still I'll take any excuse to use a Jet Jaguar picture, and good for all of the clowns involved in this project. If you can make money doing this shit then good for you, viva Bonus Time!

Score One for Mankind!

This whale is thanking it's Human overlords for the free water.

By this point it's pretty much common knowledge that humanity is one of the worst things to ever happen to this planet, outside of gigantic meteors and mosquitoes That's why this article was something of a breath of fresh air.

According to the article it's been accepted that around 50,000 years ago mankind showed up in Australia. It's also been accepted that around that time a shit load of animals disappeared. Scientists up until this point had blamed the disappearances on humanity, however new finds are disproving that, and there's actually some pretty ridiculous reasoning behind it.

Scientists had only been looking for fossils of creatures that died out 50,000 years ago. It was only recently that a team decided to extend their search to include fossils from 120,000 years ago, and then 90,000 years ago. What they found were 12 large species 120,000 years ago, 8 90,000 years ago and then only 4 species 55,000 years ago -- still quite some time before humanity even arrived.

Pretty cool finds by the Aussies, although realistically this could be some kind of feel good mind control garbage from Super Earth. As the Bonus Time faithful I'm sure are aware, we still can not trust that Australia isn't under complete control of the tyrant rival Earth. Still it's nice to move one into the win column for us, good job everyone.

Shout outs!

First and foremost I'd like to give a shout out to reader Claire. She's been a Bonus Time enthusiast since the beginning, and she gave us a really awesome shout out on her blog found at www.clairedickinson.com. Check it out sometime, she's a hell of a poet and has a great perspective on life.

Secondly I wanted to shout out the Monty Burns for mayor movement that a couple of the Bonus time faithful have been working on. NBC has recognized them here, and they've got their own website over here. At Bonus Time we try to do our best to stay out of the political end of things, but Ol' Burnsie seems like a better alternative then some of the clowns running for Mayor in the city. If we take Bloomberg back it's just more tax payer dollars spent on midday shoe shopping excursions, and New York's had enough of that as it is.

We're going to be having a contest next week, the contest is going to directly involve people beginning to comment on the Bonus Time articles that we're posting up each day, so get your thinking caps on and maybe you can win a prize.

We're also going to have Water Bear week within the next couple of weeks, so get ready to find out a little more info on the creepy little guy that takes up our banner space up top.

Aside from that enjoy your weekends, as posts during that time will be sporadic at best.