February 2012
38 posts
Google Web History
Since October 2005 I’ve done 32k Google searches. I wonder how that compares to other people. Too bad there isn’t a way to export my web history before I nuke it at the end of the month. It could probably be a lot of fun to data mine myself.
Though my all time top 10 searches are pretty idiotic:
chicago weather (seems about right)
restaurant (partially because I perpetually spell...
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mayor emanuel's tweets
i missed the first one or two but pretty sure i caught the rest:
01100101011011100110111101100111011101000111001101101101011011000110000101110011011001010110111001101111011100110110100001110100
01100101011000110110111001101111011101000110000101101100011011000110000101100101011011010110000101100011011110010110100001110100
...
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Adafruit's “Internet of Things” Printer →
↪ from adafruit industries blog
NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit IoT Printer Project Pack “Internet of Things” printer. Build an “Internet of Things” connected mini printer that will do your bidding! This is a fun weekend project that comes with a beautiful laser cut case. Once assembled, the little printer connects to Ethernet to get Internet data for printing onto 2 1/4″ wide receipt paper. The...
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NEW in SCIENCE (Nov, 1950) →
↪ from Modern Mechanix
Sadly, the University of Chicago no longer offers a B.S. in Monkey Railroad Engineering.
view additional pages
NEW in SCIENCE
Airborne Teletypewriter, securely latched to this paratrooper, will jump with him when he hits the silk from a C-82 transport plane. Safely landed in the field of combat, he can quickly set it up and type out messages that will go over radio...
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Dr Pepper 10: Explained
Chris/0: Top 10 Rejected Dr. Pepper 10 Slogans.
me: Dr. Pepper Ten: It's ten times more fattening than Pepsi One!
Chris/0: Dr. Pepper Ten: It's not for whores.
Chris/0: Dr. Peppers 2 through 9 were complete failures.
me: There are two types of people who love Dr Pepper 10: men and binary math nerds.
Chris/0: Dr Pepper 10 has no period, and so do its only allowable drinkers.
Chris/0: DP X: Brought to you by OS X
me: Dr Pepper 6.4: the only soda the Russian judge likes
me: Dr Pepper 10: for people who count calories and are confused when dividing by zero
Chris/0: Dr Pepper Tin: Aluminum is so '90s.
me: Dr Pepper Ton: The anti-diet soda
me: Dr Pepper Tyń: an artisinal soda created by 7 villagers in rural Poland
Chris/0: Dr Pepper Tsen: 苏打味道鲜美！
me: Dr Pepper Toon: Characters Welcome!
me: Dr. Pepper Teen: No Adults Allowed!
Chris/0: Dr Pepper Ten: Endorsed by Bo Derek
me: Dr Pepper 10: October's official drink.
Chris/0: Dr Pepper Decagon: You don't even know what this means, do you?
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On This Day: Gary Kasparov Faces Off With Deep... →
↪ from Technology : The Atlantic
On this day in 1996, then-World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov sat down to the sixth game in his match against Deep Blue, IBM’s supercomputer. Kasparov emerged the victor, winning three games, drawing in two, and losing one. When Deep Blue and Kasparov sat down to a rematch a year later, the computer eked out a victory. Above, Kasparov makes his first...
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Bayer Coined the Name “Heroin” and Marketed it as... →
↪ from Today I Found Out
Today I found out the pharmaceutical company Bayer coined the name “Heroin” and marketed the drug as a non-addictive cough medicine, among other uses.
While opium itself has been commonly used since at least 3400 BC, heroin is a relatively new invention, derived from opium. Heroin, more technically known as diacetylmorphine, was first synthesized in 1874 by chemist...
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Gosh, You've... Really Got Some Nice Toys Here
Schiller: Come in, sit down.
Gruber: Care if I talk? I'm kinda nervous.
Schiller: Would you like some coffee?
Gruber: Yeah, sure I guess -- that part of the product briefing?
Schiller: No, just warming you up, that's all.
Gruber: It's good hot coffee.
Schiller: We’re starting to do some things differently.
Gruber: Is this the product briefing now?
Schiller: Yes. We’re starting to do some things differently. We wanted you here today to talk about OS X. You look down and you see Mountain Lion--
Gruber: What?
Schiller: What?
Gruber: Mountain Lion, what's that?
Schiller: Know what Lion is?
Gruber: Of course.
Schiller: Same thing.
Gruber: I've never seen Mountain Lion but I understand what you mean.
Schiller: You reach down and you flip Mountain Lion over on its back.
Gruber: Did you make up this keynote, Mr. Schiller, or do the marketing and PR people do it for you?
Schiler: Mountain Lion lays on its back, its operating system baking in the hot developer preview, beating its legs, trying to turn itself into iOS but it can't, not without your help, but you're not helping.
Gruber: What do you mean I'm not helping?
Schiller: I mean you're not helping. Why is that John? ... It's just a presentation, John. In answer to your query, the marketing and PR people created it. It's a keynote designed to provoke an emotional response. -- Shall we continue? Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about Steve Jobs.
Gruber: Steve Jobs?
Schiller: Yeah.
Gruber: Let me tell you about Steve Jobs.
[Gruber shoots Schiller]
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Text Messages From a Ghost →
↪ from The Hairpin
October 14th hey im gaunting you ok Do you mean haunting yeah sorry i don’t have any fingers so im poltergeisting a stick to help me text this Who is this? oh sorry im a ghost So do you live inside this phone yeah kind of
October 21st sorry if last night was pretty loud Sorry? some other ghosts came over last night and we fought we used to be roommates Oh. they...
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Social Media →
↪ from Helpful Figures
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Poop: Explained
Chris/0: All my writing is flaming diarrhea. WANNA READ IT
me: irregularly
me: my eyes are still burning from the last time
Chris/0: Yes, it needed another pass. it's gotten one.
Chris/0: There's still a part that I feel may be lazy, but I think it's because I see it from the inside.
Chris/0: Er, wait, or were you continuing the metaphor?
me: yes, weren't you?
Chris/0: Ha, "pass."
me: and "inside"
Christopher: Poop is funny.
me: --Proust
Chris/0: "I raised the madeleine to my mouth, and the memory of every poop I took over my entire life came flooding back to me."
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Language: Explained
me: you should get one of those "would rather be fishing" posters/bumper stickers but instead "would rather be writing"
Chris/0: "My other car is a keyboard."
Chris/0: "Keep honking, I'm tweeting."
Chris/0: "Blogger on board."
Chris/0: "Schreibvergnügen"
---
me: i think i'm a bit punch drunk
me: "slaphappy with exhaustion"
Chris/0: Whoa-hoa.
Chris/0: We humans have such violent metaphors.
me: i wonder what word means "exploding with mild pleasure"?
me: violent over- inverse-reactions to minor emotions
Chris/0: "Orgasmic adequacy."
me: that would probably describe most of the internet
me: "balls to the wall ennui"
Chris/0: "Supercharged ambivalence."
me: "hypercharged normalization"
me: oops that's a bit similar
Chris/0: Needs more metaphors.
me: it's an allegorical drought
Chris/0: Maybe go all French and run with "Ne plus ultra ennui."
Chris/0: Freeing up "Balls-to-the-wall ambivalence."
Chris/0: I like the Bs in that.
me: that's what she said
Chris/0: Actually, nearly all of the stressed phonemes... B, M, V, L... are in the same family. That one really works.
me: sounds like you have a lexi-hard-on
Chris/0: Shorter Chris/0: "Ennui freeing up balls."
me: though maybe lexicon isn't the right word, i'm dropping the c...
Chris/0: I have been known get the occasional locurection.
me: thank you.
Chris/0: It's all the forewordplay that does it.
me: it's the best way to get to a neologasm
Chris/0: Ooh, nice.
Chris/0: I'm kind of out of my element; I'm spent for euphemisms.
me: i know your probably just stick to the euphemissionary position, i don't want to push you into deeper meanings than you're ready for
Chris/0: Yes, my tastes are a bit more banal.
Chris/0: I *am a zon*e-outer more than an attention-payer when it comes to these things.
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"Stilbruch" by C418 ♫ →
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Wombs: Explained
Chris/0: You're just focused on wombs lately, it seems.
me: WOOOOOMBS!
me: everyone should be as excited about wombs as i am
Chris/0: Everyone's first home was a womb; some remember it fondly, others don't.
me: you can never go home again
me: unless you're Oedipus
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Money: Explained
Chris/0: Dollars are a fluid on the macro scale, you see. This is why we differentiate between macro- and micro-economics, and why converting an asset to cash is called "liquidating."
me: that's also why so many rich people are drowning in funds
Chris/0: It all ties together.
me: that's also why they refer to fluid markets and money flowing from one entity to another
Chris/0: Not yet certain where the bears and bulls fit in, however.
me: what most people don't know is that when we were on the gold standard it was actually molten gold. we dipped that bull in it and set him up at wall street.
me: the bears and bulls used to fight each other for the gold. the bears would horde it and insulate their caves for winter. the bulls would decorate their horns with it and fight each other for prominence. in the bull species shiny gold horns are a sign of virility.
me: it's not well known but ron paul is actually the bear king. he's the smallest, least threatening, and most hairless of his kind which let's him blend in with humans almost undetected.
me: george bush is a bull prince. if you squint you can see his horns poking up through his hair. especially easy to see when in front of a fire, the dancing light reflecting off the gilded points
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Ever heard about Sweden’s “Buy American” Policy? ... →
↪ from Modern Mechanix
Ever heard about Sweden’s “Buy American” Policy?
Swedes like American products. In fact they like them so well that they buy nearly $50 worth a year for every man, woman and youngster. Per capita, few nations can match Sweden as a U.S. customer. * Buying American is typical of Sweden’s commercial outlook. Each year Swedes buy increasing millions on millions of dollars...
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Ten-year-old discovers new energy-storing molecule... →
↪ from Grist
By Jess Zimmerman
Fifth-grader Clara Lazen was just messing around with a molecule modeling kit in class, trying to construct a stable molecule that followed basic chemistry rules. What she ended up with was a completely novel molecular structure, and a co-author credit in the resulting journal article. Man, what were YOU discovering when you were ten? Masturbation and Faith No...
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Alleviating Phantom Limb Pain with the Kinect
Benjamin Blundell:
Over the summer, I worked with Advanced Interfaces Group at The University of Manchester on a research project to investigate Phantom Limb Pain. Previously, Steve Pettifer and Toby Howard (the principle researchers) has tried VR and ping pong ball style tracking in order to recreate a virtual world and ‘mirror’ the missing limb. The idea is to create a more...
“I was like, ‘It’d be cool to have a traditional college...”
– Zooey Deschanel, manic-pixie dream girl of her own life.
(quoth Jess Zimmerman)
"I could have died at 28 from cervical cancer"
plannedparenthoodsavedme:
If it weren’t for PP keeping a close eye on a series of abnormal PAP smears, I could have died of HPV-induced cervical cancer. As it was, I was able to have surgery to remove the precancerous cells. I am now 42 with a beautiful 9 year old girl because of my ability to get access to health screenings within my financial capabilities.
I have also never had an unplanned...
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Graphs About Charts and Charts About Graphs: Graph... →
↪ from McSweeney’s
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Magnatab →
↪ from swissmiss
With recessed metal balls and a stylus with a magnet in the tip, the Magnatab is the pixel art version of the Etch A Sketch.
Maybe your child will be the next Susan Kare.
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In a CNN interview this morning after his Florida victory, Romney stated “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” Shortly after that he stopped by the vault where he keeps his personal wealth for his regular Scrooge McDuck style 3 pm lap swim.
Mark Zuckerberg was later seen asking Romney where he rents his vault.
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Be An Airline Pilot Who Can't Stop Thinking He...
girlsareprettyforever:
Today you’re an airline pilot who can’t stop thinking you should have married Laraine, the woman you dated for two years just after college. Before every flight, you check the passenger manifest to see if there’s anyone named Laraine on board. Even if the last name isn’t the same, you assume maybe she remarried, so you walk through the cabin to see if it’s her. It never...
January 2012
75 posts
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DARPA funded $50 spy machine
The Linux-based F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors, is designed to be highly configurable, capable of connecting to anything from a barometer to a GPS. It runs on AA batteries, and any data that’s collected — like a record of security vulnerabilities — can be sent back over a Wi-Fi network.
Thanks to the widespread use of remote-operated drones, dropping...
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Ideal Use of Twitter II
Me: your tweets where you use quotes, is that you actually quoting something or is that original writing?
Chris/0: Some of both. I do not differentiate. Is there a particular one you had in mind?
Me: no just curious. i wonder whether to google them or say nice writing.
Chris/0: Eh, just tap that little "Disfavorite" link. You know, the one next to the icon of the puddle of vomit?
Me: you mean the picture of your face?
Chris/0: That's the one! I see you installed my Chrome extension.
The United Queues of Sarah
My monthly piece for Idler Mag’s In The Queue column is now up. Check it out here.
Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m an addict.
Last week I watched the entire series of “The United States of Tara” in 5 days. That’s 37 half hour episodes. I watched 13 episodes in one day. A Wednesday.
Continued →
I’m currently two days sober from Netflix.
Most people...
The Mercenary Techie
Seems like Gawker’s plan to let writers write good pieces rather than focus so heavily on traffic whoring is working already.
He emphasized that he has no moral problem providing IT services to drug dealers. These guys, he said, had a terrible “technology gap” compared to his millionaire clients.
“I kind of see them like they’re underdogs in a way,” he...
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mannequin →
↪ from Fake Etymologies
man‧ne‧quin, n. /ˈmænəˌkɪn/
Affected French spelling of “man akin.” That is, something that is akin to a man.
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Mythologizing the Dredge Boaters →
↪ from Pruned
Once the cities established their beachheads, the dredge boaters and their mud-suckers entered the soft, defenseless womb-belly of the Great Dismal Swamp.
There was an Empire to be made.
Some began on the margins, gnawing away at the neither solid nor liquid surface, leaving an alien grid of ditches and canals, by which the wetlands were sucked dry. Others were dropped in the...
New High Grade Telescopes
fakescience: