27 September 2014

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

The world's fastest camera is capable of taking 4,000,000,000,000 pictures per second.

African vultures are being killed by poachers and are now as endangered as the rhinos.

The Guiness World Record for clapping hands belongs to Vanna White, hostess of Wheel of Fortune, who has accumulated approximately 3.5 million on-screen claps.

"Despite Legalization, Colorado Teenagers Stubbornly Refuse to Smoke More Pot."
...they are part of a general downward trend in Colorado that has continued despite the legalization of medical marijuana in 2001, the commercialization of medical marijuana in 2009 (when the industry took off after its legal status became more secure), and the legalization of recreational use (along with home cultivation and sharing among adults) at the end of 2012.
A supercut of careless or criminally negligent package deliveries by FedEx employees (I should note that the ones for our neighborhood are great).

A new online tracking device can monitor and record what websites you've visited.

The sad legacy of New Age fascination with the iconic Serpent Mound in Ohio (photo at right).

Video of immense smuggling tunnels between Mexico and the U.S.

"...tear gas is a chemical agent banned in warfare per the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which set forth agreements signed by nearly every nation in the world — including the United States. The catch, however, is that while it’s illegal in war, it’s legal in domestic riot control."

"Amazon’s profits for its entire existence [20 years] are still less than what ExxonMobil takes home every 2.5 weeks."

DNA used to track Michelle Obama's white ancestors - "The results showed that the two families were related. The DNA testing indicated that Melvinia’s owner’s son was the likely father of Melvinia’s biracial child, Dolphus Shields. (Dolphus Shields is the first lady’s great-great grandfather.)

Impressive stop-motion animation using carved foam.

A new major Mayan city has been discovered in the jungle of the Yucatan.

It’s illegal for drug companies to advertise their prescription drugs to consumers almost everywhere in the world. The only exceptions are the US and New Zealand.

"A Summerville High School student who says he was arrested and suspended after writing about killing a dinosaur using a gun in a class assignment has hired a lawyer... Investigators say the teacher contacted school officials after seeing the message containing the words "gun" and "take care of business," and police were then notified on Tuesday. Summerville police officials say Stone's book bag and locker were searched on Tuesday, and a gun was not found."

"At least 100,000 elephants have died in just the last three years. If this rate continues, African elephants could go extinct in a few decades."

Oceanic plankton have been found on the outside surface of the internatinal space station.

Jane Austen used straight pins to edit a manuscript (photo at left).
"With no calculated blank spaces and no obvious way of incorporating large revision or expansion she had to find other strategies – the three patches, small pieces of paper, each of which was filled closely and neatly with the new material, attached with straight pins to the precise spot where erased material was to be covered or where an insertion was required to expand the text."

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader explains the difference between ice cream,  frozen custard, gelato, sherbet, sorbet, and frozen yogurt.

An update on the unrest in Pakistan and the role of opposition leader Imran Kahn.

"A chef preparing a dish made from cobra flesh died when the snake's head he had severed 20 minutes earlier bit him on the hand."

The outfits for a Colombian women's cycling team have generated a storm of protest because of the use of flesh-colored fabric:


Video of the cyclists is available at The Telegraph.

4 comments:

  1. flagging above comment as spam

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed (and vaporized). But what puzzles me is how it managed to appear without passing through my mailbox. I think I'm set up to review every single comment written on the blog. I hope some spammer hasn't developed a workaround on that requirement.

      Delete
  2. The vulture link is missing -- points to the camera link.

    The "Big Picture Science" podcast (which I would recommend any time) discussed the Space Station claim a few weeks ago http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Is_It_True_

    The most interesting three, to me, are the fast camera, the tracking device, and the Myller video.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vulture link fixed (tx). I've learned from similar mistakes over the years (because I always collate the linkdump post quickly) to keep the references in a separate folder for a couple weeks in case I goofed up on formatting the links.

      Delete