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Archive for October, 2009
From:
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet Blog
Ode on the Day of the Dead
October 31st, 2009 by Amanda Arnold
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I had a poetry professor who said that all poems are about death — all of them. Every time he said this, and he said it a lot, I didn’t particularly like it. I suppose I was afraid he was right.
The nice thing about the Day of the Dead is that it’s frank. I don’t know whether all poems are about death, but I know for sure that the Day of the Dead is about death.
From:
BrainStuff Blog
Test – How long do you have before you die?
October 31st, 2009 by Marshall Brain
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Here’s an interesting test – you fill out a questionaire and it calculates your projected life span. The questionaire takes about 5 minutes:
It looks at a number of factors that affect life expectancy, but it also leaves out many. For example:
- it does not look at the effects of background radiation, as described on Is it true that bricks are radioactive? Are brick houses dangerous?.
- Given everything we hear about diet + lifestyle and longevity, it leaves almost all of that out. See for example How to live to be 100 years old
- It leaves out calorie restriction. See Adults should eat less and What is the most healthful known food on the planet?
- See also: Science has discovered the key to weight loss, and it is not exercise
Still, it’s fun and interesting, and showed me several things I could do to increase my life expectancy.
If you are so inclined, post your life expectancy in the comments section.
[[[Jump to previous test - What’s Your Political News IQ?]]]
From:
TechStuff Blog
ICANN Proceeds with Non-Roman Domains
October 30th, 2009 by Chris Pollette
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My friend Rob pointed this story out to me the other day, but today was the day that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (that’s ICANN) agreed to go ahead with the Internationalized Domain Name Fast Track Process Friday morning, allowing non-Roman characters to be used in top-level domain names.
From:
ScienceStuff Blog
Vampire Bats Will Bite You — In the Amazon
October 30th, 2009 by Sarah Dowdey
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One of my favorite tabloid headlines from the now-defunct Weekly World News was this: “Vegan Vampires Attack Trees.” I can just see it — a particularly menacing vegan vampire, perhaps draped in an organic cotton cloak (wool would be inappropriate, right?), lurching toward a helpless tree, preferably maple.
But I’m here to discuss something nonvegan and decidedly bloody: the vampire bat.
From:
How-to Stuff Blog
How to Ensure that Scary Skin is Just Part of a Costume (Not a Way of Life)
October 30th, 2009 by Molly Edmonds
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Well, the big day’s almost upon us. Tomorrow is Halloween, and all this talk of picking costumes and carving pumpkins has me thinking about memorable Halloweens from years past. One year, when I was in college, I decided to be a witch (coincidently, Cristen and I talked about witches on this week’s Stuff Mom Never Told You — head to iTunes to check it out!).
From:
High Speed Stuff Blog
High Speed Stuff Wrap-up: Motorcycles and Helicopters
October 30th, 2009 by Scott C. Benjamin
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Well, it’s time for another High Speed Stuff wrap-up. And here’s what Ben and I have been up to on our High Speed Stuff podcast over the past few days…
From:
BrainStuff Blog
Invention – new muscle/computer interface will let you type without a keyboard and play a real air guitar
October 30th, 2009 by Marshall Brain
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The technology is called a muscle-computer interface. By putting electrodes on the forearm, a computer can read muscle signals directly and turn them into input signals, like this:
In theory it would let you type while both hands are on a steering wheel. So you could have a heads-up display screen and safely text while driving.
More info:
- How mind control works
- How Muscles Work
- How Augmented Reality Will Work
[[[Jump to previous invention - The cool dual-screen netbook from Kohjinsha]]]
From:
BrainStuff Blog
Motorola Droid: The first Android 2.0 phone runs Google Navigation
October 30th, 2009 by Marshall Brain
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The following video demonstrates the first Android 2.0 phone. This phone is also one of the first to run The Google Navigation app we looked at the other day, and the phone has an available car dock and car mode.
A full review from PCMag is available here: Droid by Motorola (Verizon Wireless)
One of the more impressive things about the phone is the screen resolution: 854 x 480 pixels. So you can look at many web pages full-width without any scrolling side-to-side. The talk time, at over 7 hours, is also impressive.
See also:
- New Google Navigation app shows what happens when you combine a GPS receiver with Internet access and Google Maps
- The new Andriod – enough to take on the iPhone?
From:
Stuff You Missed in History Class Blog
This Week in History Podcasts: Frankenstein, a Vampyre and a Voodoo Queen Walk Into a Bar
October 30th, 2009 by Katie Lambert
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On Monday’s podcast, Sarah and I got to wear our English major hats – our favorite chapeaux of all.
In honor of Halloween, we talked about a little ghost story competition that gave us both “Frankenstein” and the vampire.
Wednesday’s podcast brought us Marie Laveau, voodoo queen, a person Sarah and I had a devil of a time researching.
The legend of Marie Laveau speaks of a 20-foot snake named Zombie and powerful magic that could make people crawl on their bellies on the floor, disappear or fall in love.
