Archive for February, 2009
Do you want to be the smartest person hovering around your water cooler on this post-Oscar Monday? Check out these cool facts and figures and get ready to wow your co-workers. Learn how much the Oscar weighs, what it cost to make and where it got its curious name.
Oscars Honor Historical Films
by Candace Keener | February 23, 2009
While historical films don’t always make a big splash, the 81st Annual Academy Awards honored a handful of 2008 historical dramas. First, there was “The Duchess,” which won the award for Best Costume Design. My friend and fellow HSW editor Katie Lambert has raved about Amanda Foreman’s biography of Georgiana Spencer on which the film [...]
I get that they’re long. I get that most people, including me, can barely make it to the best picture award, but it seems like the Oscars are giving science and technology the shaft. If you saw the lovely Jessica Biel last night announcing the sci-tech awards, held earlier in February and the split-second camera [...]
It’s not a new concept: Men look at women in bikinis differently than they do when women are fully dressed. A recent study by A Princeton psychologist has found just how deeply men objectify scantily-clad women. Men: prepare to cringe in shame. Women: prepare to be angry with men.
Thanks to Marc Abrahams over at Improbable Research, we now know that the safe-sex message has reached even the darkest corners of human desire. Yes, necrophiliacs are making sure to pack a few condoms when heading off to the cemetery.
According to Channel 3000 out of Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court just decided in November 2008 that state laws forbid copulating with the deceased. A lower court had previously ruled that the state laws didn’t take a stance on necrophilia, which according to “Stiff” author Mary Roach, isn’t that uncommon. I mean, really, how often does this come up? As a result of the new ruling, the three men accused in a 2006 attempted grave robbing entered “not guilty” pleas.
According to the original reports, the suspects were apprehended just before they could pry open the casket. They’d brought with them a crowbar, three shovels and — most remarkably — a box of condoms.
The next version of Canonic’s Ubuntu Linux distribution, 9.10, carries the quirky codename of Karmic Koala. The server edition of the operating system will be tuned into cloud computing, according to James Urquhart at CNET.
When the global economy began to falter, the Tech sector seemed untouchable. A few months later, the Tech industry began to see the effects from the downturn. Even companies like Microsoft and Google began to lay off employees. But could the economic downturn provide the foundation for cloud computing?
On Friday, our friends over at Discovery News reported that a (possible) Leonardo Da Vinci self-portrait has recently surfaced. Experts are hesitant to jump to conclusions yet, however, because they’ve been duped before.
You asked: Does aluminum rust? — Eric Marshall answered: When we talk about “rust” we are referring to the oxidation of iron (or steel). But rust is oxidation, and aluminum does oxidize. Aluminum oxide is very hard, and it bonds to aluminum tightly (unlike rust, which flakes off of iron). A thin coating of aluminum [...]
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