Archive for June, 2011

This year HowStuffWorks.com sent Tech Editor Holly Frey to the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Since she doesn’t have her own blog account yet, I’ll be posting her updates this week. Judging by what I’ve read, she’s having a good time!

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I’ve just permanently installed my scat freak flag in my cubicle. (Perhaps I should refer to it as a fecal flag.) Today’s podcast, “The Brilliant and Terrifying Future of Toilets,” could finally cement my rep here at HSW as the resident Scatologist (please, please, please!)

From fecal transplants and the unorthodox digestive lives of sloths, to the toilet that Dante might have had Satan use, we’re doing the dirty work to keep you all updated on scat innovations as much as possible.

Why? Because three things in life are necessary to our survival: eating, sleeping and pooping. Without the latter expression of our physicality, we’d pretty much be toast. With that in mind, once again Robert and I delve into the heart of darkness, this time to podcast about what kind of toilet technology you can expect to see in the future.

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I recently checked out an excellent TED talk from Alex Steffen of Worldchanging.com. In the clip below, Alex addresses the subject of a sustainable future (and what it will take to achieve one). This wide-reaching presentation touches on numerous issues, from the emergence of megacities to patterns of technology adoption and brilliant inventions built to empower [...]

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I love when the sky gets to look at itself in the mirror.

The mirror in the picture is Lake Eyre, a placid, 3,741-square-mile (9690-square-kilometer) flooded salt flat in northeast South Australia. When it’s not flooded with water, it’s a salty-white, blank surface stretching to the horizon.

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The 2011 World Science Festival in New York City culminated in a street fair by New York University and Washington Square Park. The event boasted six hours of scientifically inspiring entertainment.

So as you might imagine, children were everywhere and science experiments were rampant. Let’s look at some photos.

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Yesterday afternoon, as Rep. Anthony Weiner stood before a hoard of media and described his sexting relationships with “at least six women over the past three years,” he emphasized that it never crossed the line into physical contact. “I’ve never had sex outside of my marriage,” Weiner told the press.

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During the Conscious after Decapitation episode on SYSK, we all closed our eyes and counted off four seconds, since that’s about how long it’s been determined a person can stay conscious after being decapitated. We thought about all of the sights and sounds and sensations that can be experienced in four seconds and we were all thrilled with the horror and dread of it all.

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Today was the first day of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC. The event is a little different than other Apple conferences; with the focus on developers, the tone is more likely to be about software than the latest gadget or an updated computer line. There was a lot of news, but few surprises at today’s event.

There were few surprises at today’s event. CEO Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave, made an appearance to lead the keynote, which finally revealed the cloud service that many had been expecting for some time.

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Sure, it’s great to see the touristy sights — Times Square, Golden Gate Bridge, Eiffel Tower, etc., etc. But cities tend to shine brightest when a local leads you to the dive eateries, parks and markets you never would have known existed without his or her guidance.

Not everybody has friends in every city around the world, though. So, if you want that enthusiastic-insider experience in a city like Lyon, France, or Belgrade, Serbia, for example, where you don’t know a soul, here are some options for you …

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Even — even! — if you don’t care about being rich at all in the least. Even if you’re a freegan or give almost all of your disposable income away to sponsor children, even if you’re pretty sure that money actually is the root of all evil, even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist, there are some things out there that kind of make you want to be rich just long enough to purchase them. One website that makes a sterling case of this idea is Private Islands Magazine.

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