Halloween Hangman [.swf]

Halloween is coming very soon. Here is a great game of Hangman with a very spooky twist. There is creepy music and a skeleton that talks to you!

Give the game a try!

Photo in the News: "Nonexistent" Flying Fox Discovered

Scientists are discovering new species of animals every day. Even some experienced biologists will be surprised when they come across an entirely new animal they thought did not exist.

This unusual species of flying fox was recently discovered in the Philippines not long after it was deemed not to exist.

Jake Esselstyn, a biologist with the University of Kansas, was among a team of researchers that found the animal, a type of fruit bat, last year while surveying forest life on the island of Mindoro (see Philippines map).

Read more about it on National Geographic.com - "Nonexistent" Flying Fox Discovered.

Photo in the News: Bizarre Object Found Circling Star

There are many different types of stars in the universe. Over time, they go through changes and life cycle, just like living things. They are born, they grow and they grow old. Some stars are far away from other stars and some are very close relatively. Scientists have recently discovered a pair of dying stars orbiting each other that exhibit some interesting behaviour.

An object recently detected orbiting a neutron star is among the strangest planet-mass bodies ever found, astronomers say.

Instead of circling around a normal star, the low-mass object --likely the "skeleton" of a smaller star-- orbits a rapidly spinning pulsar, or neutron star.

The neutron star spins hundreds of times a second --faster than a kitchen blender.

The odd mass, which was spotted on June 7 by NASA's Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellites, orbits the bigger star in a little under once an hour.

Read more about it at National Geographic.com - Bizarre Object Found Circling Star.

Baby Einstein Turns Kids Into Baby Homer Simpson

Here is a Wired.com article/blog post about Baby Einstein.

Videos marketed to parents as a learning tools for infants may actually stunt their babies' development, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In a survey of 1,000 parents, University of Washington pediatricians found that for every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as 'Brainy Baby' or 'Baby Einstein,' they knew six to eight fewer words than other children. Reading to children and telling them stories appeared far more beneficial than the videos, which are designed to engage a baby's attention, hop from scene to scene with minimal dialogue and include mesmerizing images, like a lava lamp. The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids under two shouldn't watch any TV at all.

The findings appear intuitive -- television is, broadly speaking, a passive medium, much less meaningful at a young age than interaction with a parent. And videos like Baby Einstein are about as meaningless as it gets.

Dimitri Christakis, the study's lead author, has elsewhere posited that the link between infant TV watching and subsequent attention disorders and behavioral problems has a biological basis: at a time when their brains are still in accelerated development, the babies are literally being rewired by TV.

Concerned parents should read the full post on Wired Science - Wired Blogs.

Story Machine Captures Sound, Images

July 23, 2007 - When it comes to writing, the pen and paper can take storytelling only so far.

Now a new technology allows kids - big and small - to embed sound into traditional drawings and create an interactive story-game. The Jabberstamp, invented by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not only just fun to play with, it can also allow children to capture and share intricate ideas before they have mastered the skill of writing narratives.

We can help them learn new things that are really complex by giving them new toys, said Hayes Raffle, a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant. Raffle developed the device with fellow Ph.D. candidate Cati Vaucelle and Cornell University researcher Ruibing Wang.

Want to learn more? Go to Discovery Channel :: News - Technology :: Story Machine Captures Sound, Images.

LiveLeak.com - Spectacular Video of A Meteor / Space Debris

Apparently a news chopper crew captured video of a meteor or some other debris from space while flying before the sun came up.

An awesome video of space debris breaking up in the atmosphere LIVE during Good Day Colorado around 6:15 a.m. Thursday, January 4, 2007.

SkyFOX pilot Rob Marshall and photojournalist Josh White captured the event at about 6:15 a.m. Mountain Standard Time while they were flying over Denver.

See this Spectacular Video of A Meteor at it's original source.

Teddy Ruxpin

20 years ago Teddy Ruxpin won the hearts of millions of children, parents, and grandparents. Today, the original animated storytelling bear is back to share his adventures, songs, and friends with a new generation of children.

Visit Teddy Ruxpin