Archive for September, 2010

According to the official Google blog, today marks the eighth birthday for Google News. For eight years, Google has been helping users find news stories while simultaneously ticking off some big names in the news business. To mark the occasion, Google has listed the biggest stories (measured by the number of articles indexed in Google News on the subject) from the last eight years.

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This would appear to be one of the best homemade coil guns in the world right now. And the creator is nice enough to give you a complete tour of the guts so you can see exactly how it works…

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From purely a scientific standpoint, the idea is fascinating. You change a couple of genes in your run of the mill salmon and suddenly it grows twice as big as a normal salmon…

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Heirlooms help tell the story of a family’s history. When you walk through your house, you spot the candlesticks on the dining room table and recall the story you’ve heard countless times of how your great grandfather carried those and one change of clothes over from the old country. Then you see the Chagall-esque drawing on the wall and can hear your grandmother telling you about the art class she took that summer she was studying abroad. As you try to conjure up your grandmother’s face in your mind’s eye, you don’t have to work too hard — you simply walk to the mantle in the den and pick up your favorite photo of her, which just so happens to be her at 20 in the French countryside.

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In this episode, Marshall explains how proteins determine your blood type — and why blood types must match for blood transfusions to be successful.

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A recent trend has seen young people — especially women — choosing to be celibate for non-religious reasons. But why? In this episode, Molly and Cristen discuss the cultural history, gender implications and possible benefits of celibacy.

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When Scott and Amundsen launched rival expeditions to the South Pole, they knew that only one group could be the first to reach the pole. Each believed his strategy would prevail, but which explorer won? Tune in and learn more in this podcast.

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How do you brew a perfect coffee? Very slowly – “In his Blue Bottle Cafe on Mint St, the counter is dominated by a couple of contraptions that would look more at home in a mad scientists’ laboratory, but which actually represent a San Franciscan pursuit for perfect coffee that combines technology and tradition with [...]

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A few weeks ago, I received an invite to participate in the private beta testing period for Unvarnished. It’s an online service similar on a superficial level to services like Yelp. Only instead of using Unvarnished to rate restaurants and businesses, you use it to rate other people. It’s meant to allow you to comment on someone’s professional performance and behavior. When word of the service first hit the Web in the spring, many bloggers had a negative reaction. I’ll include myself in that camp.  Molly Wood’s thorough blog post is an example of a critical take on the service.

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Beloved “Discworld” author Terry Pratchett is now officially Sir Terry Pratchett, and he has a lovely meteorite-infused sword to go with the title. Yep, according to this news item from Australia, he forged the blade himself with help from his friend Jake Keen, an expert sword smith. Pratchett had a chuckle over the inevitably magic qualities of a blade made from space rocks, but it’s important to point out that the use of meteoric iron in weapons is actually a very ancient practice.

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