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First cases of touch-emotion synaesthesia discovered, pic of lightning bolts rising out of a volcano tops Big Picture year-end list, hackers aid illegal logging in Brazil, the periodical table of awesome things...

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• First cases of touch-emotion synaesthesia discovered
  Just when we got our heads wrapped around synaesthetes, like Rain Man, here come the tactile-emotion synaesthetes, who might experience denim as depression, corduroy as confusion, and sand as heavenly. 
• Big Picture: The year 2008 in photographs
  The Boston Globe‘s supersized photo gallery launches a three-part, year-end series today, covering everything from the cosmos to international conflict. Topping the list, a jaw-dropper of lightning bolts in a dust cloud appearing to rise out of Chile’s Chaiten volcano.
• Hackers ‘aid’ Amazon logging scam
  Hi-tech criminals have penetrated a computer system that monitors logging in Brazil in order to issue fake permits to loggers; an estimated 1.7m cubic metres of timber have been logged illegally as a result.
• The Periodic Table of Awesoments
  Awesominers — those who study awesome things — have identified 118 fundamental “awesoments” that compose all good things. In their spin on the periodic table, the fundamental relationships between Doritos, black holes, and robots has finally been revealed. (via kottke)
• New genes suggest obesity is in your head, not your gut
  Results from a recent obesity study of over 90,000 people indicate that many of the genes known to affect body mass influence brain function rather than metabolic processes.

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