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The Week in Geek: Potpourri edition

Close your eyes and imagine the tectonic plates shifting.

Close your eyes and imagine the tectonic plates shifting. Seismometers in California even "heard" it.

Speaking of Japan and earthquakes, Japanese engineers have designed an "airbag" for houses to isolate them from seismic activity. Be sure to watch the video to the end for a whole lotta shaking goin' on.

PIGS IN SPACE! Take your Angry Birds addiction to a whole new level...or should I say orbit?

Competitive paper airplane throwing is apparently a thing and this guy is really good at it.


MIT has a certification program for piracy, not in the hacking sense, but in the swashbuckling sense. Bonus: the science of pirates. I'm totally going back to school for this.

Astronomers hope to learn more about supernovae by studying hydrodynamics.

The search for extra-solar planets may not be limited to stars. Planets have been found around neutron stars and now potentially around pulsars, where nuclear fusion is long over.

Stunning photo of a dust devil on Mars.

Great interview with a submariner who is one of only two people to see the bottom of the ocean at the Mariana Trench.

Jurassic fossil captures unlucky moment for prehistoric fish and pterosaur.

Forensic anthropologists at LSU have done facial reconstructions of two sailors who died aboard the USS Monitor, the Navy's first ironclad warship, during the Civil War.

This week in spider silk: (1) scientists at Iowa State found spider silk conducts heat as well as some metals and (2) on the other side of the world, a Japanese scientist used spider silk to string a violin that can actually be played.

In the future, your heart could run the pacemaker that runs your heart.

Wine geeks, this one's for you! Local microbial yeast is better than imported industrial yeast in Sicilian vineyards.

What's the connection between your eyes and your nose? Seeing helps you smell.

Researchers find beards do not directly improve men's fighting ability.

TGIF (Thank geek it's Friday).