Drekar

Viking ship is a collective term for ships used during the Viking Age (793–1066) in Northern Europe. Scandinavian tradition of shipbuilding during the Viking Age was characterized by slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. They might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern, for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources.
Viking ships were known for being able to navigate rivers and shoals which other navy's ships could not negotiate. They were also able to handle rough seas, such as the North Atlantic Ocean. They ranged in the Baltic Sea and far from the Scandinavian home areas, to Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, the Mediterranean, and Africa.
The ships are normally divided into classes based on size and function.

Jetman Yves Rossy back in the skies

The Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy has made his first return to the skies after his failed attempt to fly from Africa to Europe last year.
The former pilot completed two loops above Lake Geneva in Switzerland before making a safe landing. Last year he had to be rescued from the sea after ditching half way between Morocco and Gibraltar.

Video

Scientists Overclock People's Brains

arshadk writes with this excerpt from the BBC about researchers at Oxford University who found that inducing a small current in a subject's parietal lobe boosted their capacity for numerical learning: "The current could not be felt, and had no measurable effect on other brain functions. As it was turned on, the volunteers tried to learn a puzzle which involved substituting numbers for symbols. Those given the current from right to left across the parietal lobe did significantly better when given, compared to those who were given no electrical stimulation. The direction of the current was important — those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old. The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted. There was no wider effect on general maths ability in either group, just on the ability to complete the puzzles learned as the current was applied."

Samhain

Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. Samhain description as "Celtic New Year" was popularised in 18th century literature.
Samhain is celebrated as a religious festival by some neopagans.

Food porn

Food porn is a provocative term variously applied to a spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media, foods boasting a high fat and calorie content, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex. "Food porn" specifically refers to food photography and styling that presents food glamorously or provocatively, as in glamour photography or pornographic photography.