February 2012
5 posts
Builder Taunted Man With Cement Penises →
“A builder has been fined after subjecting a Bristol man to homophobic abuse and leaving cement penises on a wall outside his house.”
[Pink News, via @benjamincohen]
Jamie Oliver Finds Joy Division And New Order... →
“Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has apparently found rare Joy Division and New Order master tapes when digging up the basement of a new restaurant in Manchester.”
“The new restaurant, which is being built in a former branch of Midland bank, was being excavated when the tapes were found, alongside guns, gold and jewellery. The total value of the haul is £1.1 million”
[NME,...
January 2012
8 posts
December 2011
4 posts
Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on... →
“Though the software is installed on most modern Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut analyzed its workings, revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience - ostensibly so carriers and phone manufacturers can do quality control.”
[Wired]
The Apologies of Zuckerberg: A Retrospective →
“At this point, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pattern on privacy is clear. Launch new stuff that pushes the boundaries of what people consider comfortable. Apologize and assure users that they control their information, but rarely pull back entirely, and usually reintroduce similar features at a later date when people seem more ready for it.”
[All Things D, via Boing Boing]
November 2011
13 posts
Digital Retouching: Physical Implausibility →
“Professor Hany Farid, a computer scientist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and his PhD student Eric Kee, have been investigating photo retouching. They have developed a mathematical expression to quantify ballooning bosoms and winnowed waists. Their paper, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes how they use mathematical models along with...
How A Chain Of Tea Shops Kickstarted The Computer... →
“A British company stands on the cusp of a technological breakthrough that will change the way the entire world operates. The idea is worth countless hundreds of billions of pounds and is years ahead of similar efforts in America and elsewhere. The year, alas, is not 2011, but 1951.”
[Telegraph]
Caffeine Boosts Signals In The Hippocampus →
“Most caffeine addicts would tell you that coffee sharpens the mind. It turns out that in rodents, a single dose of caffeine does indeed strengthen brain cell connections in an underappreciated part of the brain.”
“These strengthened synapses in the hippocampus may have a role in learning and memory, which makes sense because one of the main jobs of the hippocampus is to form...
October 2011
20 posts
WatchBig Bad Wolf
“In this freakishly bizarre music video for “Big Bad Wolf” by DJ duo Duck Sauce, we follow the tale of two men whose libidos are embodied by second heads protruding from their crotches. The men (and their second heads) go about their day and then prepare for a night on the town, where they meet some women, and well, you’ve been warned.”
[Vimeo, via Laughing Squid]
New Decoy Website Launched To Lure Away All... →
“With funding from dozens of news outlets and media companies, the groundbreaking Outkube.com launched this week, providing an online destination where pandering and incendiary content is used to lure moronic Internet commenters away from all other websites.”
[The Onion]
Derren Brown: Communicating With Fans On Twitter
“It used to be the case that I’d do a show and then maybe meet somebody afterwards who was a fan, and they’d have a present and a message that they’d written, which is always lovely.”
“That was nice, and if you’d made them happy by having a chat with them, that was a lovely feeling to go away with. But now, the difference is often I know months before that they’re coming,...
Former Weezer Bassist Predicted His Own Death →
“dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today.”
[CNN, via BoingBoing]
UK Man Questioned by Police For Photographing His... →
“[Chris White] told BBC Scotland he was approached by a security guard after photographing his daughter ‘looking cute on the back of a vespa seat at an ice cream bar’ at about 16:00 on Friday. He said the security guard asked him to delete any photos he had taken from his mobile phone. Mr White explained that he had already posted two photos, in which his daughter was the only...
Radio 4's Long Wave Goodbye →
“A handful of specially crafted glass valves each measuring one metre high are all that is stopping the historic home of Test Match Special, Yesterday in Parliament and the Daily Service going suddenly and permanently off air.”
“BBC Radio 4 long wave, which transmits on the 198 kilohertz frequency, relies on ageing transmitter equipment that uses a pair of the valves - no longer...
