April 1, 2012
You may hear from heaven almost any time
Arthur C. Clark- 1974, predicting the Internet
Back in 1974, Arthur C. Clark imagined that we would be talking to each other via computers, and even purchasing theater reservations. How absurd!
republicanism: nature or nurture?
The Republican Brain is Chris Mooney's second book investigating the reasons for the beliefs of conservative Americans, following 2005's The Republican War on Science. He asks why identified Republicans reject the scientific consensus on important issues, seemingly against their education achievement, finding an answer in brain structures.
See you at the party, Richter
The newly released trailer for Total Recall (2012) shows a Quaid quite conspicously not getting his ass to Mars. It could all have been different, as many versions of Total Recall 2 have been in the works over the years. Meanwhile is the Robocop remake anything but total recall? And has the American action movie gone kablooey?
Boo to Woo
Maintaining a culture where people feel scared to talk about how they feel or what they think about science (or, perhaps worse, are alienated from interacting with the scientific community so they talk amongst themselves) really isn’t going to do anyone any favours.
Via Not Exactly Rocket Science.
The War Against Youth
The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that.
“The time of giving short measure in weighing”
“Kipper und Wipper”: Rogue Traders, Rogue Princes, Rogue Bishops and the German Financial Meltdown of 1621-23
MapsTD = Tower Defense + Google Maps
Mix tower defense games and Google Maps and you get MapsTD.
All my own work
'I'd like 11 and a half tons of resin, please': the artisans behind the artists
Taxing Circuses.
The Dodgers tax. 'The group that paid an astronomical sum for the' The Dodgers baseball 'team will seek big money for broadcast rights. That cost will end up on your pay-TV bill, even if you don't watch sports. But how long can TV services expect the millions of' Americans 'who aren't sports aficionados to pay a premium for channels they don't watch? The demands from sports networks are outsize versions of the increases obtained by other channels; together, they've driven up the average monthly cable bill from $40 to nearly $80 over the last decade. That's far faster than the rate of inflation. This trend seems impossible to sustain.' [more inside]
Back to the electric future
DeLorean goes electric: Due to hit the market in early 2013, the company says the DMC-EV will cost $90,000 (£57,000) and is aiming for a first production run of 300 vehicles.
"The one institution that can never say no to anybody is jail."
"If you think health care in America is bad, you should look at mental health care," says Steve Leifman, who works as a special advisor on criminal justice and mental health for the Florida Supreme Co " Fifty years ago, the U.S. had nearly 600,000 state hospital beds for people suffering from mental illness. Today, because of federal and state funding cuts, that number has dwindled to 40,000. When the government began closing state-run hospitals in the 1980s, people suffering from mental illness had nowhere to go. Without proper treatment and care, many ended up in the last place anyone wants to be." Of course, it's not just a problem confined to the US.
“Digitize Her!”
Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, where man fought machines—and machines won. Bio-Dreads — monstrous creations that hunt down human survivors... and digitize them!In 1987, before he created Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski was a writer for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, a live-action sci-fi show for kids. 24 episodes were produced. Straczynski wrote or co-wrote 14 of them, including multi-episode plot arcs. A line of interactive toys brought the battle into kids’ living rooms, and Captain Power was also one of the very first shows on television to feature computer animation in every episode. But in an attempt to appeal to both children and the adults who watched with them, the campy show included some concepts and scenes critics deemed too violent for children and lasted only a single season in syndication. The full run of the show has now been uploaded to Youtube. [more inside]
19th Century Maps Drawn By Children
The David Rumsey Map Collection presents 19th-century maps, drawn by children. Relics of an approach to the teaching of geography through the copying of existing maps and atlases, many of these maps are stunning in their detail and elegance--though not always in their accuracy. Also, I'll be damned if one of the teachers mentioned didn't create something that looks an awful lot like an infographic. [Via]
Five feet high and twisting.
Drawception
Draw Something meets the telephone game: Drawception.
Gullible. Dictionary. You know the rest.
April Fools' Day On The Web is a list of websites running April Fools' gags. The list is updated througout the day as more sites are submitted by anyone who comes across them. [more inside]
Google & NASCAR introduce autonomous race car
Google partners with NASCAR to introduce an autonomous racing car. # 10^100, of course.
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