June 19, 2008
Not much puzzle, but lotsa farting!
I love Scotch too! (Unrelated, but true)
Evidence of water ice on mars.
copyrite more like copyrong
"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. [Full pdf here.] [via]
[more inside]
Replicating the Milgram Experiment
The Milgram Experiment Today? "Students commonly assume that, even if Milgram’s famous experiment sheds important light on the power of situation today, were his experiment precisely reproduced today, it would not generate comparable results. To oversimplify the argument behind that claim: The power of white lab coats just ain’t what it used to be. Of course, that assertion has been difficult to challenge given that the option of replicating the Milgram experiment has been presumptively unavailable — indeed, it has been the paradigmatic example of why psychology experiments must be reviewed by institutional review boards ('IRBs'). Who would even attempt to challenge that presumption? The answer: Jerry Burger, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University. With some slight modifications, Burger manage to obtain permission to replicate Milgram’s experiment — and the results may surprise you." [Via MindHacks]
Studio Scavenging
"I've switched from building my own installations to painting ones I've found".
NewArt Tv interviews artist Cindy Tower at one of her many makeshift studios in the industrial ruins of East St. Louis, where she's covertly creating paintings as part of her Workplace Series. "We need to find a way to sell more paintings so I can hire you full time", she tells her bodyguard, Edgar. Until then, most days she makes do with a dummy. [more inside]
Mark Langford's KR2S
I love nicely done home-built aircraft. I discovered Mark Langford's website over a year ago but forgot to bookmark it. Thankfully, I recently found it again.
His dedication (obsession?) is obvious. I can't get over how many parts he custom built for his plane. He suffered an engine failure in his Corvair engine at one point, and I loved how he took the engine apart afterward and gave a full rundown about what happened.
Paddling with Polar Bears
In 1930, Eric Sevareid and Walter Port embarked on a wild adventure when they launched a canoe at Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River and paddled over 2200 miles north to Hudson Bay. Sevareid later documented their story in the book Canoeing with the Cree. The book has since served as inspiration for young adventurers. Two such men, Colton Witte and Sean Bloomfield, departed on their own trek on April 28, 2008. The pair made it to Hudson Bay on June 17, 2008, in only 49 days. They aren’t the only ones to follow in Sevareid’s and Port’s footsteps – Scott Miller and Todd Foster made the same journey in 2005.
KABOOM!
Jonathan Golob at Dear Science.org has a series of posts up about nuclear power. Topics include: The physics behind nuclear power, the inner workings of a reactor, nuclear radiation, nuclear waste, the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and the future of nuclear power.
Also in a truncated podcast form. [more inside]
Blue Collar Babies
Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.
Zoomii.
Telecom Amnesty Bill Tomorrow
The warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty will be voted on tomorrow in Congress. The bill pushed through by Democratic Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer is looking likely to pass. [more inside]
Infinite Oregano
If geeks talked about cookbooks the way they talk about RPG books, the results would not be pretty.
The most important thing you know
An old professor of mine used to ask graduating students, "What is the single most important true proposition or fact (not theory) that you learned in university?" This question has been aimed at many fields, and social scientists have long and famously struggled to find good answers, while scientists have had a large number of options, and those who study the humanities wonder if they can even answer similar questions. What is your most important (or interesting) fact?
Oh oh oh.
Ray Romano sings. SLYT. I'm sorry. That is all.
They don't make them like they used to.
I have to believe in the YES. The YES can cure everything.
NYC in Black and White (mostly)
New York City in (mostly) black and white. A huge collection of photos starting in the 1880s—some beautiful, all fascinating. Previously.
How much more clear can this guy make it that he does NOT want to smell your finger?
Sorry I Missed Your Party. Pictures of other people's parties from Flickr, with commentary. (Some images NSFW.) (Via.)
How to write a song and other mysteries
Andrew Bird dishes on recording in the Wilco Loft. Roseanne Cash discusses the songwriting process, and follows up a bit later. Darrell Brown talks about everything, and Suzanne Vega laments being a two-hit wonder. They are all part of the wonderful Measure for Measure blog from the New York Times.
It takes a country
CBC Filter: I guess parenting in Canada ain't what it used to be. The Senate wants to make spanking your children illegal and a Quebec judge quashes a dad's grounding of his 12-year-old daughter.
Searchme - Visual Search Engine
Searchme is a search engine that displays results as images of web pages.
Your favorite band ...
Calling your personal online radio station the best of everything seems designed to provoke controversy. But in this case it's just one "mature consumer" taking a stand against big media and youth oriented marketing. Be sure to read the about page. [more inside]
The Smithsonian on Flickr
The Smithsonian has a Flickr page as part of the Flickr Commons program. So far there are 6 sets, Portraits of Scientists and Inventors, Portraits of Artists, American Celebrations, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, People and the Post and Smithsonian's First Photographer, featuring the work of Thomas William Smillie. [via The New Yorker's Book Bench]
New Kiribati
New Kiribati "...will future climate change refugees become a new caste of service sector workers inhabiting a sort of Floating Hotel & Duty Free Mall ... ?" Small island states are on the front line.
This is how we do it.
"We like to play gladiator. You know what I mean? Let two gangs beat each other up without weapons, and the winner gets to deal on the corner. Or, we grab a bunch of muggers, or maybe two crews who steal cars, and tell them, “Okay, you all fight each other — the one still standing gets to avoid jail.” I know: it sounds awful, but believe me, this really works."
Cops tell Freakonomics "the things that cops do to keep the peace that no one wants to know about.”"
Cops tell Freakonomics "the things that cops do to keep the peace that no one wants to know about.”"
Boring men?
Magical Photography
Break-dancers Floating in Space French photographer Denis Darzacq is back with a new collection called Hyper. You may remember his previous collection called La Chute.
people take pictures of each other
Goodbye, Netflix Profiles?
In a world where one company single-handedly created the online DVD rental industry, what happens when they turn against their own customers? Netflix has announced the cancellation of its Profiles feature. This means no more separate rental queues for different people in a household. Since the announcement, it took less than 24 hours for SaveNetflixProfiles.com to launch, bloggers are furious, and the real hardcore fans are absolutely livid. Who will triumph, and who will break?
Learn the game that adults play in private--and use it against them!
Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! A "board game" where you gather a gang of girls in the roaring 20s and taunt, fib, & flirt your way to high school domination! [more inside]
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