Spider vs. millipede documented with serial photos, with a reminder that millipedes have the ability to secrete hydrogen cyanide.
Wordsquared is a massive multiplayer online word game. It will take you a while to catch the leader, who currently has 155,000 points.
Videos and some transcripts of 32 famous calls by sports announcers.
A only-slightly-tongue-in-cheek observation that if you have no insurance and will require multiple CAT scans, it might be cheaper to buy your own CT scanner.
The iPhone "is now the Toy of Choice — akin to a treasured stuffed animal — for many 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds."
A new resistance factor is spreading rapidly in the microbial world and scaring the bejesus out of public health physicians.
Futility Closet has a card trick developed by Lewis Carroll that demonstrates a math curiosity rather than sleight-of-hand. (Hint: if you have difficulty arranging the deck by the method shown, just arrange it with four aces on top, then four twos, then four threes etc...)
The historical phenomenon of "sin-eaters" is briefly explained in a BBC article.
There's never an end of "best movie" lists. The Guardian offers a list of best horror, romance, crime, comedy, action, sci-fi and dramatic films.
It turns out that some placebos have active ingredients in them, which sort of screws up interpretation of the results.
The ancient Romans recycled glass in the 3rd and 4th centuries. (Addendum: an interesting anecdote offered by anon - "I was talking to a friend about the compartmentalization of knowledge and he told me an anecdote about two archeologists at a seminar. One was describing a new computer algorithm which automated the reconstruction of glass and pottery shards, but how he was having trouble getting useful results for a particularly difficult cargo of broken glass found on a Roman shipwreck. The other archeologist, upon hearing where the wreck was found told him that that town had been a center of glass recycling, and that the cargo couldn't be reconstructed, because it was broken to begin with.")
Deadspin explains that when football players have to pee, rather than leave the stadium they just pee into hand towels.
San Francisco has banned Happy Meals: "Under the ordinance, scheduled to take effect in December 2011, restaurants may include a toy with a meal if the food and drink combined contain fewer than 600 calories, and if less than 35% of the calories come from fat."
An odd photo from the ?WWII era, showing a woman or girl hanging from a headless statue. ?suicide, or murder of a wartime collaborator? (update: a hat tip to an anonymous reader for locating the thread at the source to discover "she was a teacher hung in the town square during the German occupation of Russia during WWII."
A TSA official put white powder into passengers' bags and then told them they were under arrest. WTF. This guy should be prosecuted rather than just fired.
The Gulf of Mexico was closed to fishing for a while because of the oil spill. Those who track fish populations say the number of fish has tripled after the fishing pressure was removed.
A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face prosecution for a hit-and-run accident, because prosecutors say it would jeopardize his job.
A gallery of pix related to Metropolis, which is currently airing on TCM.
Christchurch, New Zealand, recorded a significant fall in petty crime and antisocial behavior after the city began broadcasing Mozart in the streets.
A list of "intelligent YouTube channels."
A species of bush cricket has the largest ratio of testicle size to body size in the animal world.
A professor of nutrition was able to lose 27 pounds while eating a diet of Twinkies and other junk food, by limiting his caloric intake. The implications of this have been widely misconstrued in the popular media.
The "Miracle Fruit" alters the human body's ability to identify sour tastes. It's real.
It has been calculated that there are ten trillion stars for every human on earth.
The photo depicts stones that look like food: "Rare stones looked good enough to eat in a display at the International Rare Stone Festival in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, Thursday. Thousands of stones were on view. (Xinhua/ZUMA Press)."
Why, you dirty, low-down, rotten, blogger. Wordsquared is the worst thing that you have ever foisted upon us. Go to your room and don't come back 'till you are told! In the meantime, I'll be playing Wordsquared.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're done, bigjohn, remember that this blog also has a "flash games" section -
ReplyDeletehttp://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/search/label/flash%20games
Might be worth mentioning the date of publication for the "Lavender Panthers." (1973)
ReplyDeleteOops. I hadn't noticed that. Wikipedia says the group doesn't exist any more, so I've deleted that paragraph.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up, Ross.
I learn so much from your blog. Thanks for including a bit of the lighthearted (miracle fruit article) to counter the truly terrifying one on the antibiotic resistant bacteria.
ReplyDeleteJust an educated guess: the photo of the hanged woman dates from WWII in German-occupied Soviet Union (Ukraine?). She may be a partisan, executed and left hanging from a beheaded statue of Lenin. That appears to be a German soldier on guard in the lower right-hand corner.
ReplyDeleteRe: the Romans recycling glass. I was talking to a friend about the compartmentalization of knowledge and he told me an anecdote about two archeologists at a seminar. One was describing a new computer algorithm which automated the reconstruction of glass and pottery shards, but how he was having trouble getting useful results for a particularly difficult cargo of broken glass found on a Roman shipwreck. The other archeologist, upon hearing where the wreck was found told him that that town had been a center of glass recycling, and that the cargo couldn't be reconstructed, because it was broken to begin with.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, Anon. Added to the post. Tx.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the livejournal thread from which this was taken, she was a teacher hung in the town square during the German occupation of Russia during WWII.
ReplyDeletehttp://community.livejournal.com/adski_kafeteri/2046543.html?thread=8695631#t8695631
The calculation of the number of stars p.p is trivial if you know the number of stars in the universe is estimated at 10^22 to 10^24 (which puts a rather large error bar on the 10^13 estimate, btw).
ReplyDeleteI use the total number of stars quite frequently to explain to people how many atoms there are in a piece of something weighing roughly one gram. This is Avagadros number 10^23. i.e. there are 10 times more atoms in one grain of salt than stars in the universe.