3 American Border Disputes You Probably Never Studied (8)
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Rob Lammle (9)
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mental_floss Blog (234)
1 day, 16 hours
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When America was being divvied up, surveyors and cartographers were as accurate as possible drawing the boundaries between these new regions. Unfortunately, mistakes were still made. And minor map mistakes led to years of fighting—sometimes in the courts, and sometimes on the field of battle. 1. The Toledo War: Ohio vs. Michigan The story of The Toledo War actually begins in 1787, when the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance. The Ordinance described the border ...
Roz Savage: First Woman to Row Solo From California to Hawaii (3)
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Chris Higgins (23)
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mental_floss Blog (234)
1 day, 16 hours
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Early on the morning of September 1, Roz Savage became the first woman to row, alone, from California to Hawaii. The voyage of 2,600 miles took her 99 days, 8 hours and 55 minutes. During the trip she was in surprisingly regular contact with the outside world, equipped with high-tech gear including a satellite phone, iPod loaded with audiobooks, water-proof speakers, video/still camera, and a solar panel rig to power everything (read more about the ...
Distilling 2.0: Bye-Bye Boiling, Hello Health Care (5)
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Dave Bullock (10)
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Wired Top Stories (1404)
1 day, 23 hours
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: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.comPASADENA, California – For all you moonshine makers who thought your hobby was just a guilty pleasure, a new spin on distilling may actually help save lives. Using ancient technology reduced to a microscopic scale, scientists at Caltech have created new tools to detect disease and purify water using tiny stills. The creation of the still around A.D. 500 was one of humanity's earliest, and still quite popular, technological advancements. Traditionally, a ...
The Gummy Bear experiment (6)
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Phillip Torrone (195)
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MAKE Magazine (791)
2 days, 14 hours
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Converting bond energy from a glucose molecule to heat / light energy... using a Gummy bear. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Science | Digg this!
Thinking People Eat Too Much: Intellectual Work Found To Induce Excessive Calorie Intake (1)
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ScienceDaily: Latest Science News (141)
2 days, 17 hours
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Scientists have demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in calorie intake. The details of this discovery could go some way to explaining the current obesity epidemic.
Adam Savage's RFID implant activates, orders him to change his story (17)
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Nilay Patel (520)
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Engadget (3442)
2 days, 17 hours
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Filed under: Misc. GadgetsIt's no secret that RFID isn't the most secure thing in the world, so we mostly took Adam Savage's story about Discovery telling the Mythbusters to back off an episode exposing the tech's flaws after a conference call with various cred card company lawyers as a bit of laughable corporate insecurity, but it looks like Adam got himself in a bit of trouble by sharing -- Discovery's now sending out a release ...
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Kichigai Mentat said:
Christ, now Discovery scares me.
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Pat said:
Amazing what fear can do to a grown man.
Movie Plot Threats in The Guardian (16)
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Bruce Schneier (52)
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Schneier on Security (287)
2 days, 23 hours
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We spend far more effort defending our countries against specific movie-plot threats, rather than the real, broad threats. In the US during the months after the 9/11 attacks, we feared terrorists with scuba gear, terrorists with crop dusters and terrorists contaminating our milk supply. Both the UK and the US fear terrorists with small bottles of liquid. Our imaginations run wild with vivid specific threats. Before long, we're envisioning an entire movie plot, without Bruce ...
Economists: selfish bastards (21)
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Cory Doctorow (2244)
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Boing Boing (4578)
3 days, 1 hour
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In the course of researching my next novel, I happened upon this old paper by Robert H. Frank, Thomas Gilovich, and Dennis T. Regan, "Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?" Its conclusions: Economics grad students are more likely to free ride than the general public. Economists are less generous than other academics in charitable giving. Economics undergrads are more likely to defect in prisoner's dilemma problems. Students are less likely to return found money after studying ...
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shanusmagnus said:
People aren't as ruthlessly self-interested (rational) as the math would indicate. Is this good or bad? What would a libertarian say?
Citibank Must Pay Back The $14 Million It Stole From Customers Over A Decade [Citibank] (6)
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Chris Walters (120)
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Consumerist (801)
3 days, 7 hours
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Between 1992 and 2003, Citibank operated an "automatic sweeping" program that would without notice remove positive balances from customers' credit card accounts—mainly those of the poor and the recently deceased—and pocket the money. Now it's paying back $14 million dollars to the affected customers, plus another $3.5 million in penalties to California, thanks to that state's Attorney General. From the Associated Press: Citigroup's "account sweeping program" automatically removed positive balances from customers' credit card accounts, ...
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EricaJoy said:
"In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool."
Petascale Climate Modeling Heats Up (1)
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ScienceDaily: Computers & Math News (6)
3 days, 8 hours
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Computer scientists are generating new "petascale" computer models depicting detailed climate dynamics, which will build the foundation for the next generation of complex climate models. The project offers a golden opportunity for climate simulation and prediction scientists to dramatically advance Earth system science and help to improve quality of life on the planet.
Teen Suicide Spike Was No Fluke (1)
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ScienceDaily: Latest Science News (141)
3 days, 9 hours
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After 10 years of steady decline, researchers say a recent spike in the teen suicide rate is not a fluke and new prevention strategies need to be developed. The teen suicide rate jumped 18 percent from 2003-2004. That's the largest one year change in 15 years. Now, the most recent stats available (2004-2005) show the numbers are still significantly higher, and experts are concerned this could be a new trend.
Future Dystopias Where The Liberals Have Won (28)
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Charlie Jane Anders (160)
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io9 (929)
3 days, 10 hours
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The Republican Party is gathering in St. Paul, to put forth its vision of the future. And over the next few days, you'll be hearing a lot about the horrendous futures that could take shape if gormless liberals were allowed to run the show. Which makes us wonder: what does science fiction, the literature of the future, have to say about liberal-run dystopias? And it turns out, there are plenty of horrendous futures blighted by ...
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Alexander Williams said:
Science Fiction really is the best warning sign.
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Jason Matthews said:
i can't believe there's not a single mention of Equilibrium. is that really a liberal dystopia? it feels like it should be. i think it would fit in the "political correctness conquers the universe" category.
Boston Cabbies Wicked Mad About Green Taxi Rule (2)
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Questions that are rarely asked (2)
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Tyler Cowen (243)
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Marginal Revolution (301)
3 days, 16 hours
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So if we could get people to exercise more, would they become more risk-loving, want less insurance, make more aggressive investments, and induce faster economic growth? Would this be a good thing?That's Robin Hanson, the basic empirical result is that physically weaker people are more risk-averse in a wide variety of settings.
Preaching to the choir is a waste of time (23)
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Matt (577)
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Signal vs. Noise (862)
3 days, 19 hours
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Activist, poet, and musician Saul Williams is catching gruff from fans for allowing Nike to use his song “List of Demands” in commercials. Williams wrote an open letter defending the use of the song. I received a lot of questions from some about why I would allow my song ‘List of Demands’ to be used in a Nike campaign. Ironically, half of the people now reading this post never heard of me until that commercial ...
Biological Backup (2)
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Duncan Shields (3)
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365 tomorrows (4)
4 days, 1 hour
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Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer The test drill had gone horribly wrong. The bipedal meat structure wasn’t breathing. Emergency! There were specific instructions tattooed on the outside of the biological’s skin for repair procedures. The yellow and black rectangles and hazard symbols on the shaved skull meant that no one except accredited programmed hardcases could operate on him there. There was no time. The sensors in my fingertips read the sound vibrations coming from ...
Infidelity Gene? Genetic Link To Relationship Difficulties Found (1)
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ScienceDaily: Latest Science News (141)
4 days, 15 hours
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Scientists have found a link between a specific gene and the way men bond to their partners. The results offer a better understanding of such problems as autism and social phobia.
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