is a new site that claims to not be your 'grandma's phonebook.' This is because it pulls a ton of info about you from all over the web into one place. And I mean a ton. More than you might be comfortable with in fact. But luckily you can remove yourself from their database by following these simple instructions. Thanks for the heads up on that one Chris.
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Friday, December 31, 2010
Spokeo may know more about you than you realize
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The safety of saccharine
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The underwater sculpture of Jason de Caires Taylor
"The Silent Evolution," by British artist Jason de Caires Taylor, lies between Cancun and Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico. Taylor used 'life casts' made from materials that encourage coral growth to build the installation on the sea bed, forming a new home for aquatic creatures. — REUTERS/Jorge Silva
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HOWTO grow your own snowflakes
Caltech physicist Ken Libbrecht wrote the book on snowflakes. Actually, several of them. The author of the Field Guide to Snwoflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake posted a HOWTO guide for growing your own snow crystals. (No, they probably won't look like the 'hollow column snowflake' or 'triangular crystal snowflake' above that Libbrecht photographed with a custom snowflake photomicroscope. For more of those incredible natural flakes, see this gallery at New Scientist.) From Libbrecht's Web site:
The parts list for this experiment is as follows:
>One used 20-oz plastic Coke bottle
>Three large-diameter styrofoam cups (or something similar; see below)
>A small kitchen sponge (1/2 inch thick)
>A short length of nylon fishing line (thinner is better; 1-pound test is good)
>A strong sewing needle
>Four straight pins
>One paper clip
>Some paper towels
'Grow Your Own Snowflakes' (via Science Friday)
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My Blackberry is not working
Video Link. Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield star in a sketch from The One Ronnie. (Thanks, Simon!)
Hunter Stabler, exquisite papercutting artist
Papercutting artist Hunter Stabler is an absolute X-Acto master. Above left, 'Baba Yaga Misquotes the Face to Steeleye Span,' W24' x H36,' Hand Cut Paper. Above right (and detail at left), 'Magick Kruller Alefbet Lamen of the Golden Dawn,' W27' x H35,' ink and graphite on hand-cut paper and Color-aid mounted on Plexiglass. Hunter Stabler (via Phantasmaphile)
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Indecision Points
The London Review of Books checks out President G.W. Bush's memoir, Decision Points:
Occasionally, someone on Team DP will insert a lyrical phrase - the tears on the begrimed faces of the 9/11 relief workers 'cutting a path through the soot like rivulets through a desert' - but most of the prose sounds like this:
'I told Margaret and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Bolten that I considered this a far-reaching decision. I laid out a process for making it. I would clarify my guiding principles, listen to experts on all sides of the debate, reach a tentative conclusion, and run it past knowledgeable people. After finalising a decision, I would explain it to the American people. Finally, I would set up a process to ensure that my policy was implemented.'
There are nearly 500 pages of this...
A spot of Foucauldian analysis follows of Team DP, that being the authorial voice in both print and presidency: 'There are no decision points in Decision Points... [instead] a space into which the writing subject constantly disappears.'
'Damn right,' I said [LRB via Metafilter]
People who touch your junk
This helpful Venn diagram was created by Chartporn. [via Laughing Squid.]
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