Interesting Thing of the Day

From seals and sea lions to sheep, Calafate berries, and a picturesque train ride, Patagonia is home to a number of interesting things that didn't manage to find their way into other Interesting Thing of the Day articles.

In the near future, genetic engineering may be able to produce hypoallergenic cats and dogs. You can already get glow-in-the-dark fish.

Using technology similar to that developed for rapid prototyping machines, modified inkjet printers can now produce living human tissue.

New designs for urban mass-transit are far more than elevated trains. Some of them provide all the advantages of a taxi and a subway, with fast, individualized, point-to-point service.

The end of Daylight Saving Time for another year means (for most of us) an extra hour of sleep, and (for some) additional time for reflecting on change.

If you're very good at writing very bad fiction, you might consider entering contests that honor the memory of writers such as Bullwer-Lytton, Hemingway, and Faulkner.

The world's pretty much only religious satire magazine isn't afraid to rub people the wrong way, even residents of the town in Germany whose name they misspell in their title.

Chemical batteries aren't the only way to store large amounts of electricity. Reduce the friction enough, and a large, heavy, spinning wheel can serve the same purpose. It also lasts a lot longer than batteries.

The Canadian province of Alberta has vast oil reserves in the form of oil sands (also called tar sands), a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons and sand. Recovering and processing it can be a challenge, though.