Links Dump
drorzel | April 28, 2009
Gallery: Flickr users make accidental maps - tech - 27 April 2009 - New Scientist
"Billions of photos have now been uploaded to the internet, and many are tagged with text descriptions. Some are even geotagged â stamped with the latitude and longitude coordinates at which the image was taken. David Crandall and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, analysed the data attached to 35 million photographs uploaded to the Flickr website to create accurate global and city maps and identify popular snapping sites."
(tags: science social-science pictures internet maps)
A House Not…
drorzel | April 27, 2009
Acephalous: Concerning the inherent superiority of printed text to irresponsible online drivel.
"Is it absolutely necessary for the image gracing the cover of the most recent issue of the official mouthpiece of my professional organization to depict something that, when seen on my desk by a colleague from another department, compelled her to ask where a viper fish would even get a detachable penis to whack off against a shrimp-wielding toucan? Do other departments not laugh at us enough already?"
(tags: blogs academia silly art humanities acephalous)
Intimate Homicide | Mother Jones
"I'll…
drorzel | April 26, 2009
LiveLeak.com - Smart Mutt
How to get your tennis ball out of the pool without swimming.
(tags: silly video animals dog)
drorzel | April 25, 2009
ROCKET SCIENCE « Pundit Kitchen: Lol News and Lol Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and more
"It really is that hard, but the results kick ass."
(tags: science astronomy space silly pictures internet)
http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/physics-faq.txt
"This document (a simple ASCII file) contains answers to some more or less frequently asked questions from theoretical physics. Currently, the FAQ contains 148 topics, grouped into 20 chapters, and filling over 10000 lines of text (about half a megabyte), corresponding to a book of about 200 pages. Starting in 2004, the…
drorzel | April 24, 2009
A lot of ignorance neednât stop you from offering contradictory theories § Unqualified Offerings
"I have no particular opinion on why there is a gender gap in certain fields of science. I have a lot of skepticism for various theories offered, but I have no theory of my own. And it isnât just because itâs a hot potato issue where it would be easy to put a foot in my mouth. I really, honestly, find many explanations wanting."
(tags: science blogs education academia gender diversity unqualified-offerings)
Learning Curves: Please Learn How to Write a Survey
"Let's say the book features "…
drorzel | April 23, 2009
Michael Bay And Shia LeBeouf Spitball Transformers 2 Ideas | Film | A.V. Club
"Michael Bay: Okay, so boom goes the sphinx. Boom goes the pyramid. Boom! Boom! Boom! Go the HondaCivicstrons we positioned all around the entrance to the tomb. And then, whhhhhhhhiiiiiiirrrrr, click, clack, crunch, sweepy spin thwaaaack! Here comes Beefy, our hero, ready to kick some ass. Zot! Crunchy noise, crunchy noise, Taco Bell product placement, claaaaaaaang claaaaaaaaaaang, and we're done! "
(tags: blogs stupid movies avclub)
â¦My heartâs in Accra » An elegy (of sorts) for Geocities
"Gregorio Espadas…
drorzel | April 22, 2009
Particulate pollution cuts carbon dioxide, model shows - physicsworld.com
"Falling levels of aerosol pollution could make it much harder to curb the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. That is the conclusion of climate researchers in the UK and Switzerland, who have found that pollution in the form of aerosol particles gives a dramatic boost to plantsâ photosynthesis. "
(tags: science physics environment news biology chemistry optics)
Venus Day 2009: 10 Things You Can Do To Help Rid The Atmosphere Of Noxious, Flesh-Burning Sulfuric Acid | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"Could…
drorzel | April 21, 2009
Pop Quiz - Advanced Placement - Education Life - Interactive Quiz - A.P. Economics - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com
I got 14/18, which isn't all that bad if you consider that I never took economics at any level.
(tags: economics business quiz)
Think Progress » TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress To Hold Impeachment Hearings Against Judge Jay Bybee
"ThinkProgress is sending a petition to the members of the House Judiciary Committee â where impeachment articles are drawn â imploring them to act now to remove Bybee from public office. Please join our efforts!
Jay Bybee has neither the legal nor…
drorzel | April 20, 2009
The Washington Monthly
"[S]trange to say, in 2007 the median family income in New York City was $52,871. Maybe New York takes in floods of new residents every year, and so many of them die of starvation that the median income is actually below the level needed to survive. Maybe over half of the families in New York are zombies. Or maybe -- just maybe -- over half the families in New York live well below the [$75,000] this "Goldman vet" thinks you just can't live on."
(tags: blogs politics economics stupid class-war business)
Working with Light : Photo Synthesis
"Managing light is the most…
drorzel | April 19, 2009
Amazon.com: From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time: Sean Carroll: Books
Sure, it looks like a really good book about physics. But where's the talking dog?
(tags: science physics books)
Built on Facts : Testing 123
"In the physical sciences and physics especially, science follows an infinite loop procedure. I'll label them 1 and 2, though it's really a chicken-and-egg thing. This is the way physics works, simplified:
1. The experimental results produce data which suggest ways old theories could be refined, replaced, or strengthened.
2. The new theoretical…
drorzel | April 18, 2009
Star Formation: The Game | DISCOVER Magazine
Play the Hand of God and place supernovae to produce star-forming regions in a cloud of gas. My best score is just over 2000.
(tags: science astronomy games internet)
Questions for Steven Chu - The Science Guy - The Green Issue - Interview - NYTimes.com
"Was anyone in your family impressed when you won the Nobel Prize in Physics?
Probably, but who knows? I called my mother up when they announced the Nobel Prize, waiting until 7 in the morning. She said, âThatâs nice â and when are you going to see me next?â"
(tags: science physics energy…
drorzel | April 17, 2009
slacktivist: T.F.: By the rivers of Babylon
"That's a change from the view of apocalyptic types from older times. They used to fear people like Napoleon -- those who sought to conquer the world through force, riding forth on literal, flesh-and-blood white horses, intent on empire. But to premillennial dispensationalists, would-be imperialists get a pass. They're obviously not "peacemakers," so there's no need to worry that they might be the Antichrist. This is another example of how the PMD view that the Antichrist will be a wolf in sheep's clothing leads them to be suspicious of all sheep…
drorzel | April 17, 2009
North Of The Border Case File #135: Canadian Bacon  | DVD | A.V. Club
"Just as Ned Flanders likes Woody Allen movies except for âthat nervous fella thatâs always in them,â I like Michael Moore movies and kind of hate Michael Moore himself. "
(tags: culture movies review avclub world)
Solar power sats get real; and more on the Verne gun â KarlSchroeder.com
"Solaren corporation has signed a deal with Pacific Gas & Electric to orbit a 200 megawatt solar power satellite by 2016. I mention this not because the news is amazing (it was inevitable, really) but because their plan gives me…
drorzel | April 16, 2009
Bristol Palin and two kinds of virginity | TPMCafe
"Prior to the Palin blow-up, the evangelical wing and the traditional upper crust WASP wing of the party had a pretty basic agreement about the value of pure white virgin daughters. Having a few of these hanging around on podiums made politicians look good, and preserving the myth of the pure white virgin was of the utmost importance. Everyone thought they agreed on this topic. But Bristol Palin had to go have a baby, and the difference of opinion on what to do about girls who don't live by the standards of purity became harder to deny."
(…
drorzel | April 15, 2009
EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect
"If you indeed instituted the calls to flatten out the federal tax distribution, the influence of state and local taxes would leave you with an incredibly regressive tax structure, not a slightly less progressive tax structure. Which is something to keep in mind next time you read a Wall Street Journal columnist attacking the soak-the-rich qualities of the federal income tax system."
(tags: blogs politics economics class-war ezra-klein)
Levitation and diamagnetism, or: LEAVE EARNSHAW ALONE!!! « Skulls in the Stars
"Itâs hard to tell if the author…
drorzel | April 13, 2009
EDSBS » Archive » CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS COVERS THE NATIONAL TITLE GAME
"Like the tyrant who conjured a territory whole from the aether, so have we on this field two imaginary kingdoms wrenched forth from geographic oblivion. Florida, were it not for the intervention of a few real estate scamsters in the â20, the discovery of insecticide, air-conditioning, and the generous slathering of federal pork upon the stateâs snake-infested swampwaste, would have descended into a kind of Sun Belt Lord of the Flies scenario, I think. I must also admit this may have happened despite all the best…
drorzel | April 12, 2009
Backreaction: Women in Physics
"I was invited to the upcoming APS meeting in Denver to speak in a session on "Women and Minorities in Gravity: Science and Career Paths." And since I have somewhat of a bad conscience for never having been at never any APS meeting, not to mention never having been of any use for The Issue, I thought I should go. Now that the meeting is coming closer, I wonder what I know about women and minorities in physics (not sure what "in gravity" is supposed to mean). And their career paths. Or absence thereof."
(tags: science blogs academia gender diversity…
drorzel | April 11, 2009
When the Martian Winds Blow... : Starts With A Bang
"Opportunity is headed towards Endeavour Crater (above), and this power boost may shorten its trip by months. This would be the largest crater ever explored by a rover on Mars, and we may yet get to see it, all because of a gust of wind!"
(tags: science astronomy blogs space planets)
Woody Harrelson claims he mistook photographer for zombie - CNN.com
""I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland,' in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character," Harrelson said in a statement issued Friday…
drorzel | April 10, 2009
How hostage negotiations work. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine
"What, exactly, does a hostage negotiator do?
Wear down the captors. Negotiating strategies vary depending on the demands, the time of day, the hostage-taker's sanity, and a million other factors. (For example, you might want to send in a SWAT team right away if nightfall is approaching or if the person starts randomly killing hostages.) But in general, the negotiator's job is to run down the clock. That gives the hostage-taker time to calm down, and it gives cops time to figure out the best way to make a "tactical entry…
drorzel | April 9, 2009
Why was Jesus crucified? - By Larry Hurtado - Slate Magazine
"A central statement in traditional Christian creeds is that Jesus was crucified "under Pontius Pilate." But the majority of Christians have only the vaguest sense what the phrase represents, and most non-Christians probably can't imagine why it's such an integral part of Christian faith. "
(tags: culture religion humanities history slate)
Color + Design Blog / All 120 Crayon Names, Color Codes and Fun Facts by COLOURlovers
"According to a Yale University study, the scent of Crayola crayons is among the 20 most recognizable to…