May 2012
42 posts
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Why We Pay More for Walkable Neighborhoods →
‘Ili: Could it possibly be because cars are fucking expensive?????
Colin: Nope, cars are free just like rent and McDonald’s.
‘Ili: “Super size me.” ::that’s how SUVs were invented::
Colin: “No no like literally. I want to be super sized. Huge.”
‘Ili: “The SUV comes filled with fries.”
‘Ili: “SOLD”
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BBC News mistakes Halo UNSC logo for UN →
Tom Phillips, Eurogamer:
The blooper occured in the background of last Thursday’s One O’Clock News, in which presenter Sophie Raworth discussed the real-life United Nations.
But the logo shown on-sceen was for the UNSC - Halo’s fictitious United Nations Space Command.
The story has a screenshot and a video. This absolutely happened.
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Cracking The Egg Sprinkler Mystery →
If you spin a hard-boiled egg in a pool of milk, the milk will wick up the sides of the egg and spray off at the egg’s equator. Engineer Tadd Truscott, of Brigham Young University, along with Ken Langley and others, launched an investigation to figure out why this happens — complete with a custom-built spinning apparatus, billiard balls and high speed video cameras.
SCIENCE
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Asshole of the Week: David Pickup →
Steven DuBois for the Associated Press:
David Pickup, a Los Angeles-area counselor who specializes in reparative therapy, said he has helped many clients “maximize their heterosexual potential,” when they have come to him because they believe there is a cause-and-effect reason, such as sexual abuse, for their same-sex attraction.
“It’s a very tough, very emotional...
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Microsoft readies NUads: They watch you watching... →
Declan McCullagh, CNET:
“The innovation that we’re seeing is absolutely incredible,” [Lyn] Watts said. Kinect, he said, can allow advertisers to “go after that holy grail” — the living room.
Kinect’s unique capabilities to record and compile detailed biometric data raise some novel privacy issues. Kinect’s microphone array can record audio within...
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North Is Not Always Pointing Up – Orientation of... →
Calvin Chan:
In Japan, maps in public places such as train station and street, are oriented to the direction you are physically facing it, instead of always pointing North at the upper edge of the map.
I did not know this! Chan discusses some of technological consequences of this. He includes an iPhone Maps screenshot (mockup?) that is particularly sad.
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Archaeologists Discover Lost Language →
ScienceDaily:
Evidence for a forgotten ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire, has been found by archaeologists working in Turkey.
Researchers working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tušhan, believe that the language may have been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the border of...
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The Loneliest Whale in the World →
Nicola Twilley, writing for Good:
According to a 2004 New York Times article on the subject, this particular baleen whale has apparently been tracked by NOAA since 1992, using a “classified array of hydrophones employed by the Navy to monitor enemy submarines.” It sings at 52 Hertz, which is roughly the same frequency as the lowest note on a tuba, and much higher than its fellow...
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Justice Breyer's D.C. home hit by burglary →
Bill Mears, CNN:
The Supreme Court confirms the 73-year-old justice’s Washington home was burglarized earlier this month. It follows a February incident in which Breyer, his wife and a guest were robbed in his Caribbean vacation home by a machete-wielding intruder.
I hadn’t heard about the machete incident until now. Poor guy.
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Iran threatens to sue Google for not labeling... →
Another one for the “Iran Is Crazy” files, courtesy of Josh Levs of CNN:
On state-run Press TV, the Iranian regime warns it may take legal action against Google for not labeling the Persian Gulf.
…
“Toying with modern technologies in political issues is among the new measures by the enemies against Iran, (and) in this regard, Google has been treated as a plaything,”...
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Politics →
Laurie Kellman writing for the Associated Press on some silly shit happening in Congress right now:
The House voted 222-205 to reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act for five years, as the Senate already had done. But big differences remain: Obama, other Democrats and a long list of advocacy groups say the House bill doesn’t go far enough to protect abused immigrants, Native...
