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How Formula SAE Racing Works – Students build and race 100+ MPH cars
by Marshall Brain | February 24, 2011
Imagine that you are a mechanical engineering student in college. Being a MechE, you would probably want to get your hands dirty making something mechanical. And what better thing to make than a car? Cars are the most complicated mechanical objects that people come into contact with on a daily basis. To ratchet it up [...]
HP’s new business notebooks sport up to 32 hours battery life – “HP has introduced a bonanza of new notebooks aimed at business users, including the EliteBook 8460p with up to 32 hours of battery life….” Motorola Xoom review – “As we put rubber to road on our Motorola Xoom review, it’s important to note [...]
Tone Deaf Whale Cruises Seas Alone
by Amanda Arnold | February 23, 2011
Oh my goodness. A whale has stolen my heart.
Poor little enormous mammal is swimming the seas alone because his voice sounds weird.
Scientists who tracked the whale between 1992 and 2004 say the whale sings at the basso profundo frequency, or “just above the lowest note on a tuba.”
Last November, I watched the teaser trailer for the upcoming movie “Sucker Punch” with an expression on my face that could only be described as “huh?” As I said back then, the film’s plot seemed like a Bizarro World mash-up of “300″ and “Girl, Interrupted” with liberal sprinklings of Herculean mythology and “Nightmare on Elm Street” mixed in. It certainly looked cool, but … huh?
Thankfully, a new trailer for the film goes a long way towards explaining the plot. I think.
How to Tell if Your Pets are Over-the-Top Naughty
by Jessika Toothman | February 23, 2011
Do you own a dog on a mission to slowly shred its way through your shoe collection? A cat who brings home “gifts” of the corpsicle class? Or perhaps your pup has some other nasty habit like barking obsessively and biting strangers. Maybe your kitty freaks out in the bath and (oh, the horror!) has taken to protest pooping. These examples of out-of-control pets behavior can get old real quick. So to help tell how your pets stack up against some cases of extreme animal companion crazy, check out these videos. Best of all, you’ll get tips on how to fix the bad behaviors from “It’s Me or the Dog” expert trainer Victoria Stilwell.
Last week, Councilman David Catania, of the District of Columbia Council, put forward a bill that would allow pharmacies to offer birth control pills, patches and rings over the counter without a prescription. Catania’s plan has a lot of big question marks hanging over it: Who would be eligible? Will the Food and Drug Administration be involved? Would it even pass? That said, Catania says the measure is important for low-income communities that don’t have access to health care providers.
Councilman Catania will find something to like — as well as a cause for concern — in a study coming out today (hat tip to Feministing).
I’m not among the millions of women watching the “Bachelor” … but I know a few people (yes, men included) who are and I’ve seen the show before. So I recognize the name Brad Womack when I see it mentioned but I’m not always enticed to read more than the headline. However, when I saw the words “hidden brilliance” used to describe the guy — well, I had to keep reading.
Cart Before the Horse: Nathan Fillion and the ‘Firefly’ Rights
by Tracy V. Wilson | February 23, 2011
Our friends at Science Channel have picked up the rights to air “Firefly,” starting Sunday, March 6. Nathan Fillion did an interview with EW.com to promote the show’s return to TV, in which he said that if he won $300 million from the California Lottery, he’d “buy the rights to ‘Firefly,’ make it on [his] [...]
This morning, I read an open essay on Wired UK written by Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur. Keen’s argument is that the Internet in general and social networking in particular is destroying privacy and that this, in turn, is erasing part of what it means to be human. I found Keen’s argument to be interesting but flawed. Part of my objection is that I think a few of his premises are faulty.
Imagine that men and women are automobiles parked next to each other in a garage. The male car (painted blue, naturally) is a full-sized sedan that gets, oh, 15 miles to the gallon. The gal-mobile is a VW Bug with an imitation flower sitting cheerily in the built-in vase compact car that chugs along at 25 miles to the gallon. Which car gobbles up more gas and emits more carbon? The bigger man-sedan.
Recent Postings by Category
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- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
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Stuff You Missed in History Class
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- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
