February 2012
Scientists Had Humans and Monkeys Watch a Clint... →
French min deletes stay indoors tip for homeless |... →
‘Junior minister Nora Berra was ridiculed on the Internet for writing a blog at the weekend saying toddlers, old people, the sick and homeless were particularly vulnerable in times of extreme cold and should “avoid going outdoors.”’
Muslim: Quip led to terror probe | The Chronicle... →
‘MONTREAL — A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to “blow away” the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe.
Telecommunications sales manager Saad Allami says the innocent message, aimed at pumping up his staff, has had devastating consequences on his life.
The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police...
GM food banned in Monsanto canteen | The... →
‘The firm running the canteen at Monsanto’s pharmaceuticals factory at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, serves only GM-free meals, Friends of the Earth said. In a notice in the canteen, Sutcliffe Catering, owned by the Granada Group, said it had taken the decision “to remove, as far as practicable, GM soya and maize from all food products served in our restaurant. We have taken the...
Site Helps Icelanders Avoid Incest | The Mary Sue →
‘But, apparently, it’s not that unusual to find yourself dating your own third or fourth cousin, and some Icelanders are finding that a bit too close for comfort.’
Mr Men hired to switch on Christmas lights... →
Son-of-ACTA, the TPP, wants to legislate buffers |... →
‘Now, this is a secret treaty, so we don’t know most of what’s going on in the room, but one jaw-dropping leak is that that the treaty contemplates requiring licenses for ephemeral copies made in a computer’s buffer. That means that every buffer in your machine would need a separate, negotiated license for every playback of copyrighted works, and buffer designs that the...
5th Grader Discovers New Molecule | The Mary Sue →
‘Kenneth Boehr wasn’t expecting more than the usual from his ten-year-old students when he started a lesson on the Periodic table and handed out the molecule modeling kits. Then Clara Lazen handed him a model constructed from oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon atoms, and asked if she’d made a real chemical or not.’
Indiana Assemblyman withdraws urine-testing for... →
Republican proposes bill: mandatory drug-testing for everyone on welfare.
Democrat passes an amendment adding mandatory drug-testing for all politicians in the state.
Republican gets upset and withdraws bill.
January 2012
Transgender People are Completely Banned From... →
‘5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if […]
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents; […]’
Via @Catvincent.
Doll 'protesters' present small problem for... →
‘Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”.’
Blizzard Removes “Homosexual,” “Transsexual” From... →
The Nose Hair Notification Service | Neatorama →
‘Chololi, the nose hair email notification service, will send an anonymous message to someone who needs a reminder.’
Pirate Bay branches out into physical objects |... →
‘We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.’
85-Year-Old Woman Rescues Husband From Moose With... →
I’m trying to resist asking how the moose got the shovel. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Can America Make the iPhone? | Neatorama →
‘Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A...
“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting...”
– — Hunter S. Thompson
(I suspect I wrote this down after one of you posted it; I’m sorry I can’t credit you.)
NASA Won't Release First Sci-Fi Film Made in Space... →
‘Meet Richard Garriott — space tourist, video game designer, millionaire, filmmaker. While on board the International Space Station for some light sightseeing, he used his own money and spare time to produce an eight-minute short film, a sci-fi horror movie called Apogee of Fear. But NASA is refusing to let it see the light of day. Why? Because it’s chock full of NASA’s stuff, used without...
How long does the average share holding last? Just... →
‘The consensus suggest that investors dabbling shares should be in it for the long-term, yet the average holding is less than a minute thanks to computer driven ‘high frequency’ trading.’
"It shouldn't be a crime to insult someone" |... →
‘It’s not merely theoretical; many ludicrous cases have been prosecuted. The police arrested a student who held up a sign stating Scientology was a cult – surely a matter of opinion? Kyle Little, a 16-year-old from Newcastle, was fined £50 with £150 costs for saying “woof” to a labrador dog in front of police officers. Eventually the magistrates’ decision was...
State of Adversarial Stylometry: can you change... →
On Anonymouth, a tool that lets you evade being identified through your prose style.
‘During the Q&A, a questioner asked whether Anonymouth’s methods could be used by, say, fanfic authors to make their writing style match the author whose universe they’re dabbling in; the researchers thought this would be so. I instantly wondered if avid fans might make a JK-Rowlingifier...
“The big advantage of worshipping an actual glove puppet of course is that if...”
– — Alan More, Alternative Thought For The Day
(Via Eldafto Says.)
I apologise for my recent absence. There will now follow a bunch of stuff that I was too busy / lazy to post, in no special order. Thank you.
December 2011
Fingerprint evidence 'based on opinion rather than... →
So much for all the CSI I’ve been watching:
‘The report also said the misidentification of that print and another known as “Q12” which allegedly belonged to the victim Marion Ross, did “expose weaknesses in the methodology of fingerprint comparison and in particular where it involves complex marks”.
The report also contained 86 recommendations, including a...
UK tests "non-blinding" police lasers | Boing... →
‘My friend Sulka, who brought this to my attention, has some informed speculation about what “non-blinding” might mean. He notes that the UK is a signatory on the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (I didn’t know this existed, and I’m both glad and sad that it does), whose definition of blindness “is where your eyesight goes worse than 20/200, meaning you...
“If the government doesn’t trust the people, why doesn’t it dissolve...”
– — /usr/games/fortune
Lost Doctor Who Episodes From Space | The Mary Sue →
Dr Venn, of the Arecibo Observatory:
“I realised the signal was in the VHF Band and slap bang in the middle of 41-68 MHz. It was obviously old terrestrial television broadcasts, but they seemed to be originating from deep space. …
“They are signals that left the Earth about 50 years ago and have bounced off an object or more likely a field of objects some 25 light years away.”
“We now...
17-Year-Old Girl Won Science Competition With... →
November 2011
An Open Letter to Police on the Occasion of This... →
I recommend that you read the whole thing.
‘These camps, these collections of tarps and tents, are more than you see. They are the sweat and treasure of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people trying to learn how to take care of each other. The fucked-up kids, street kids and old homeless are as important as the community organizers and grad students.
They’ve all come to this place and...
