March 2012
55 posts
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"That’s one of the things about freeways: They... →
Fantastic interview with John Norquist in Next American City about how freeways hurt cities and what can be done to improve the situation. I’ve been saying this same stuff for years. Probably my favorite bit, naturally about San Francisco:
A robust street grid, with lots of connections, will distribute traffic much better than a few large freeways. […] For example, when the...
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Crystals may be possible in time as well as space →
Alexandra Witze, writing in ScienceNews:
In two new papers, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Frank Wilczek lays out the mathematics of how an object moving in its lowest energy state could experience a sort of structure in time. Such a “time crystal” would be the temporal equivalent of an everyday crystal, in which atoms occupy positions that repeat periodically in space.
MOTHERFUCKING TIME...
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Scientists Claim Brain Memory Code Cracked →
ScienceDaily:
Despite a century of research, memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.
In an article in the March 8 issue of the journal PLoS...
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Wikipedia: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go... →
However, two years later, when Seuss was challenged by political columnist Art Buchwald for never having written a political book, Seuss took a copy of the book and crossed out “Marvin K. Mooney” and wrote in “Richard M. Nixon.” Buchwald was so delighted that with Seuss’s consent he printed the text as his column for July 30, 1974. Nixon resigned ten days later on...
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A gay jock takes off the mask →
Heartwarming piece in the Ottawa Citizen about a teenage hockey player who came out. Don’t miss his daily Youtube videos that documented the process.
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The Spanking Machine: A Resilient Myth in Popular... →
C. Farrell put together a piece for his site World Corporal Punishment Research on the concept of a spanking machine through time. I don’t really need to say any more than that.
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A Child's Reaction to a Gay Couple →
It’s a talking point so overused it’s almost a trope by this point. “How will I explain this to my children?” Obviously that’s a question parents have to answer for themselves. Unless they don’t explain anything and let the children work things out for themselves. What would that look like? It might look a little something like this classic video, where a...
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Male Fruit Flies, Spurned by Females, Turn to... →
Benedict Carey, New York Times:
Fruit flies apparently self-medicate just like many humans do, drowning their sorrows or frustrations for some of the same reasons, scientists reported Thursday. Male flies subjected to what amounted to a long tease — in a glass tube, not a dance club — preferred food spiked with alcohol far more than male flies that were able to mate.
The study, posted...
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Apple and the Time Machine
This is what Mike Daisey had to say for himself when confronted by Rob Schmitz of Marketplace about his aforelinked fabrications.
“Look. I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard. But I stand behind the work,” Daisey said. “My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism. And it’s not journalism. It’s theater.”
I...
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$100 to Fly Through the Airport →
So here’s the latest thing really rustling my jimmies, courtesy of Scott McCartney of The Wall Street Journal:
The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out expedited screening at big airports called “Precheck.” It has special lanes for background-checked travelers, who can keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and walk...
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Retraction →
This American Life:
Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in “Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory,” Mike Daisey’s story about visiting Foxconn, an Apple supplier factory in China.
The episode itself isn’t available yet, but it should be available this...
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Romney, rivals court Southern support ahead of... →
David Espo, AP:
In the Deep South, one of the most conservative regions of the country, Romney and his Republican rivals polished their credentials with attacks on President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy and the nation’s use of energy. “The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is,” said Rick Santorum.
Hahahahahahaha.
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After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops... →
Owned.
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Rebekah Brooks arrest: phone-hacking scandal isn't... →
Robert Marquand, Christian Science Monitor:
The re-arrest of Rebekah Brooks this morning suggests little official let-up in a British tabloid phone-hacking scandal that captured the world’s attention last July and threatens to drag Prime Minister David Cameron into questions about his ties to Ms. Brooks and other journalists.
Yes, that’s right. Re-arrest. Really good run-down of the...
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The Colbert Report (8/3/12): Don Fleming, Elvis... →
Don Fleming, Elvis Costello, and Emmylou Harris stopped by The Colbert Report last week to talk about Alan Lomax and American folk music. The three and Colbert also performed “Good Old Mountain Dew” and “Goodnight, Irene.” Highly recommended.
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Lists of Note: The Fake Books of Charles Dickens →
Lists of Note time:
When Charles Dickens moved into Tavistock House in 1851, he decided to fill two spaces in his new study with bookcases containing fake books, the witty titles of which he had invented.
Included are such classics as “Downeaster’s Complete Calculator” and “King Henry the Eighth’s Evidences of Christianity. 5 vols.” What the heck, dude.
