Interesting reading…
The Ten Best Post-Apocalyptic Survival Vehicles - “We asked you what you think the best post-apocalyptic vehicle would be, assuming you could fuel it up and were unable to stay in one place due to the lack of other resources…”
The 9 Most Baffling Theme Parks From Around the World - “The Amusement Park is the pinnacle of cultural achievement: technology and resources dedicated purely to people having fun. And we can all agree that history wasn’t complete until Walt Disney allowed humanity to experience “The Happiest Place on Earth!” (for a nominal fee). Now societies throughout the world have their own wondrous amusement parks. And like Disney did for us, their parks reflect their culture’s stories, passions and traditions…”
Georgia-Led Team Wins Cash for Space Rock Tracking Plan - “The small Foresight spacecraft designed by engineers in Georgia and California won first place on Tuesday in the Planetary Society’s Apophis Mission Design Competition, which challenged contenders to come up with a cost-effective way of launching a watch dog-like probe to Asteroid 99942 Apophis…”
Six Steps to Speeding up Trains in the U.S. - “It’s stunning to see how fast trains travel in European countries, not the ICE, the TGV, or the AVE, but the normal intercity trains. Currently, a trip on an intercity Corail train from Paris Gare de Lyon to Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne is an hour faster than by car. The 420 km trip can be done in three hours, an average speed of 140 km/hour, or roughly 86 mph…”
Gotcha, CAPTCHA! Gmail bot detector system cracked - “The Gmail CAPTCHA has been cracked—albeit not easily—raising new concerns about spammers’ ability to abuse Google’s e-mail services. Websense Security Labs pointed out the security breach late last week, noting that spammers have a lot to gain by being able to use bots to automatically sign up for new accounts…”
Introducing Ubuntu Mobile - full Internet, no compromise - “Ubuntu Mobile is an Ubuntu edition that targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices. Ubuntu Mobile, based on the world’s most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, are redefining what can be done in mobile computing…”
Cocaine’s brain effect revealed - “Brain scans have revealed a possible biological basis for cocaine addiction which may explain why some get hooked, while others can use the drug socially…”
Apple holds big plans for iphone university on college campuses - “The concepts discussed at the gathering were similar to those that exist with today’s iTunes University programs where students can download to their iPods or computers lectures and associated materials to bolster their education. But unlike the primarily software-driven iTunes effort, “iPhone U” would let participating students download class presentations directly to their handsets over WiFi rather than require a transfer from a host computer…”
The life and times of America’s greatest hoaxer - “If Abel Raises Cain is a little thin at points—we never learn exactly how Abel was able to make a living for so long as a not-for-profit hoaxer, nor where the funding for his more elaborate ruses came from—it’s also an invigorating and often hysterical look at a gifted comic and the nation of dupes he continues to use as his medium…”
Fertile wives find single men sexy - “In a study looking at the ever-interesting (and ever-mysterious) question of why women are attracted to certain men, researchers found that sexual interest shifts with a partnered woman’s menstrual cycle. When fertile, women in relationships are most attracted to single men; when infertile their attraction shifts to coupled men…”
A quick intro to garbage collection - “I’ve been reading about garbage collection algorithms to potentially create a better one for Factor, so I thought I’d share the basics of what I’ve learned so far. Garbage collection, by the way, is the automatic reclamation of unreferenced heap-allocated memory. This means you can malloc without worrying about free, since the runtime system does it all for you…”
Supercomputer unleashes virtual 9.0 megaquake in Pacific Northwest - “On January 26, 1700, at about 9 p.m. local time, the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the ocean in the Pacific Northwest suddenly moved, slipping some 60 feet eastward beneath the North American plate in a monster quake of approximately magnitude 9, setting in motion large tsunamis that struck the coast of North America and traveled to the shores of Japan. Since then, the earth beneath the region – which includes the cities of Vancouver, Seattle and Portland — has been relatively quiet. But scientists believe that earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 8, so-called “megathrust events,” occur along this fault on average every 400 to 500 years…”
How Good People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib - “Zimbardo conducted a now-famous experiment at Stanford University in 1971, involving students who posed as prisoners and guards. Five days into the experiment, Zimbardo halted the study when the student guards began abusing the prisoners, forcing them to strip naked and simulate sex acts…”
Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency - “A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday…”
“If Abel Raises Cain is a little thin at points—we never learn exactly how Abel was able to make a living for so long as a not-for-profit hoaxer, nor where the funding for his more elaborate ruses came from…”
I saw this film at the San Francisco Film Festival, and Abel and his daughter spoke afterwards. Abel produced a film in the ’70s that made a fair amount of money. For funding the hoaxes, he said one night he found himself sitting next to a gentleman on the subway who turned out to be the wealthy founder of Reader’s Digest magazine. The two became friends, and he funded several of Able’s more elaborate ruses. Very fun movie.