March 2012
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WatchSpace Girl! Episodes 1-2
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Everything you wanted to know about Python (but... →
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Find out your trip duration based on current... →
Should I take public transit or a taxi to the airport? What’s the fastest way to get to my appointment on time: local streets or the expressway? Oftentimes, the answer to these questions depends on the current traffic conditions. Now using both live and historic traffic data, Google Maps enables you to once again see the estimated length of time your journey might take. In areas where the...
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“In Germany, a court has ruled that German police are allowed to racially profile...”
– Conan O’Brien
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“It’s sure easier to stay on a healthy diet now that chocolate, red wine,...”
– Stan Kegel
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Oldie: Satan
One bright, beautiful Sunday morning, everyone in the tiny Midwest town got up early and went to the local church. Before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from an evil incarnate. Soon everyone was...
Smart windows keep heat out – but let light in →
unexpectedtech:
Sweltering at your desk as the sun beats down? Don’t worry, smart windows that change how much heat they let in will soon be able to keep you nice and cool.
“We have are developing a coating that comprises a thin layer of nanocrystals that transmit visible light and can reject near infrared light,” Delia Milliron, deputy director of the Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab,...
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Plastic Heals itself, could make Gadgets... →
unexpectedtech:
You just got a brand-new tablet. It’s fast, it’s sleek, and—oops—it’s broken. You dropped it and its plastic shell has cracked. Or maybe you got lucky and there’s only a gigantic, ugly gash in its side.
We’ve all been there, experiencing the woe of a broken gadget case. But we might not have to worry about it for too much longer. New research has led to the creation of plastic...
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Here Be Monsters. By Michael Finkel →
They did it for the simplest of reasons: adventure. Three friends, on a drunken dare, set out in a dinghy for a nearby island. But when the gas ran out and they drifted into barren waters, their biggest threat wasn’t the water or the ocean—it was each other
A crewman on a commercial tuna-fishing boat was the first to spot it: something shiny and metallic in the water off the ship’s...
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A Tiny Pacific Island Is Now Powered By Coconuts →
unexpectedtech:
The head of the New Zealand islands of Tokelau just announced a new energy policy: They will be completely powered by sunlight and coconut oil. Fortunately Tokelau is rich in both resources. If successful, the three small atolls supporting about 1,500 people will be among the first regions to switch their entire energy system to renewable sources.
“I have been pushing the...
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Google’s Driverless Cars Can Now Fetch Food. By...
In late 2010, John Markoff of The New York Times broke the story that Google had developed cars that could drive themselves. Now, two years later, the company has taken this innovation to a new level, teaching the cars to do something really useful: Navigating a fast food restaurant drive-through.
The company said in a post on Google Plus that the robotic cars have “now safely...
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Is it better than a book? By Thomas J. Fitzgerald
Bringing Up an E-Reader
David Maxwell for The New York Times
Xander Peeples, left, and Matthew Stokedale using iPads in their second-grade class.
David Maxwell for The New York Times. Julianna Huth working with both an iPad and a wireless keyboard.
Julianna Huth, a second grader at Green Primary School, in Green, Ohio, is a convert to the digital word. The 8-year-old uses both...
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Humour: Keyboard for Retired Guys
Note: there is yet no known use for the “Music” button.
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WatchTALKS
Regina Dugan: From mach-20 glider to humming bird drone
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects — a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet...
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Watch
TALKS
Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy
What’s the key to using alternative energy, like solar and wind? Storage — so we can have power on tap even when the sun’s not out and the wind’s not blowing. In this accessible, inspiring talk, Donald Sadoway takes to the blackboard to show us the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy....
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Watch
TALKS
Billy Collins: Everyday moments, caught in time
Combining dry wit with artistic depth, Billy Collins shares a project in which several of his poems were turned into delightful animated films in a collaboration with Sundance Channel. Five of them are included in this wonderfully entertaining and moving talk — and don’t miss the hilarious final poem!
A two-term U.S. Poet...
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Mapping the human cost of Syria's uprising. By...
The Syria Tracker website uses automated data mining and crowdsourced human intelligence to estimate the death toll in Syria’s bloody conflict
Editorial: Seeing through the fog of war
WHAT could be the most accurate estimate yet of the death toll in Syria’s bloody uprising has been compiled by a team of volunteers working in the US and Syria, including the stricken city of...
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Neutrinos send wireless message through the Earth....
Read more…
JUST as neutrinos lose their faster-than-light status (see “Superfast neutrino claim takes a beating”), these subatomic particles have found a new role in a communication system that could send messages directly through the Earth.
A team at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, has used a beam of the particles to transmit the word “neutrino” to a...
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Aral Sea Disaster Will Be Repeated in Mali. By...
Niger river dams could displace 1.5 million
SEEN from space, it is a vast green and blue smudge on the edge of the Sahara desert. Close up, it is a watery wilderness of lakes and flooded forests and grasslands, home to 1.5 million fishers, cattle grazers and farmers, and millions of birds wintering from Europe.
But the inner Niger delta in northern Mali, one of the world’s largest...
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“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel...”
– Thomas Edison, inventor (1847-1931)
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Vanity Check: as of "Sat Mar 24 21:12:30 IST...
visitors from all Canadian provinces and territories:
163. Nunavut, Canada First visit from Nunavut!March 24, 2012162. Macao First visit from Macao!March 23, 2012162. Northwest Territories, Canada First visit from Northwest Territories!March 22, 2012161. Zimbabwe First visit from Zimbabwe!March 22, 2012161. Senegal First visit from Senegal!March 21, 2012161. Delaware, United States First visit...
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Sexy stamps →
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Humour: the efficiency expert
An efficiency expert concluded his lecture with a note of caution. “You need to be careful about trying these techniques at home.” “Why?” asked somebody from the audience. “I watched my wife’s routine at dinner for years,” the expert explained. “She made lots of trips between the refrigerator, stove, table and cabinets, often carrying a single item...
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World Bank Pick Rapped at Dartmouth. By J. David...
Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and President Obama’s pick to head the World Bank, appeared in a student stage production in Dartmouth last year.
President Obama’s pick to be the next leader of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has a hidden talent: he raps.
During a videotaped show last March, Dr. Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, appeared midway through a live stage...
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Coin Toss: Results Are Biased Based on the...
Photos.com
People have been tossing coins to settle arguments for as long as coins have existed (or arguments, whichever came later). The Greeks did it, the Romans did it — hell, the British still flip a coin to decide an election when there’s a draw.
Getty And if that fails, British law states that it’s down to a jousting contest.
Coin tossing is used in numerous contexts...
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Humour: Swing Set
The proud father brought home a backyard swing set for his children and immediately started to assemble it with all the neighbourhood children anxiously waiting to play on it. After several hours of reading the directions, attempting to fit bolt A into slot B, etc., he finally gave up and called upon an old handyman working in a neighbouring yard. The old-timer came over, threw the directions...
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“There are three kinds of men:
The ones that learn by reading.
The few who...”
– Will Rogers
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“There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.”
– Will Rogers
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Less Talk, More Peace: Israel Government to invest... →
lesstalkmorepeace:
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office director-general Harel Locker on Tuesday announced that the government will invest NIS 5 billion for the advancement of the Israeli-Arab sector. The funds will be primarily earmarked towards improving education, transportation and employment, he said in an…
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Tesla Motors Model S. By Jon Gertner
Why Tesla Motors Is Betting On The Model S
Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors isn’t just an electric car company—it’s perhaps the greatest test of Silicon Valley’s innovation model. And now is do-or-die time, when everything is riding on a new $50,000 sedan.
PHOTO BY JOAO CANZIANI
When Tesla Motors moved into its new Palo Alto headquarters in 2010, CEO Elon Musk raised a...
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Make An iPhone, Android App Without Knowing A Line...
JamPot’s new AppBuilder asks a series of questions and spits out a genuine, though limited-function, app. It could blow the market wide open.
With JamPot’s AppBuilder, you can build a genuine iPhone or Android app in mere minutes for free—according to the company’s own website. The young company, savvy to the ever-shifting smartphone market, says it will soon support...
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How One Second Could Cost Amazon $1.6 Billion In...
Research on U.S. Net habits suggests that if this sentence takes longer than a second to load, many citizens will have clicked elsewhere already. If you’ve got the patience (or are European) read on for more shocking data on not dawdling.
The data comes from an infographic compiled by OnlineGraduatePrograms.com, with the specific goal of finding out about tolerance of slow webpage...
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Vanity Alert 6
Thanks to you, this blog got visitors from all 51 USA states and 11 out of 13 Canadian regions:
United States1,104 StateUnique VisitorsLast New Visitor
2.1.California2073 hours ago 2.2.New York1177 hours ago 2.3.Texas60March 9, 2012 2.4.Florida563 hours ago 2.5.Pennsylvania5336 minutes ago 2.6.New Jersey504 hours ago 2.7.Michigan41March 4, 2012 2.8.Illinois40March 13, 2012 ...
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In event honoring Palestinian refugees, EU foreign... →
Lieberman: Ashton’s comparison of Toulouse attack to Gaza deaths ‘inappropriate’
Police officers and firefighters gather at the site of a shooting in Toulouse, southwestern France, Monday, March 19, 2012.
Photo by: AP
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Non PC Humour: Discoveries
Man discovered weapons, invented hunting. Woman discovered hunting, invented furs. Man discovered colors, invented painting. Woman discovered painting, invented make-up. Man discovered speech, invented conversation. Woman discovered conversation, invented gossip. Man discovered agriculture, invented food. Woman discovered food, invented diet. Man discovered friendship, invented love. Woman...
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Palestinians as 'super victims'. By Manfred...
Propaganda War Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Photo: EPA
Turning Palestinians into victims a case of emotional appeals triumphing over facts
Last week the IDF responded with bombings on Gaza targets to the rockets shot from there on southern Israel. It took little time for some foreign media to equate the Palestinian aggressor with the Israeli aggressed. It took only slightly...
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Peace to the Middle East: If you really want to... →
bintfalastiniya:
why don’t you actually do something, rather than sit there and pity the Palestinians or just claim you support Palestine. I appreciate your support, but unfortunately it won’t make Palestine free.
I understand you might not be able to actually go to Gaza and help out, but you could give money and…
Also, don’t forget to throw away your computer (it probably has an...
