When Things Collide

Within the last week, a Russian communications satellite collided with an American communications satellite AND a French nuclear submarine collided with a British nuclear submarine. Are people just not paying attention? Ipod-fiddling is probably to blame.

Moderate Muslim Beheads Wife

hmmm....

from CNN:

"Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park...He launched Bridges TV, billed as the first English-language cable channel targeting Muslims inside the United States, in 2004. At the time, Hassan said he hoped the network would balance negative portrayals of Muslims following the 9/11 attacks.".

but lets not call it "beheading"- lets call it "de-bodification".

Eeek! There are MACHINES inside me!

Galactica

.... i have a sinking feeling that maybe he was right about the Cylons... we shall see.

Wow

Via Neurophilosophy

Very interesting post on the always erudite Neurophilosophy Blog about the genetics of synaesthesia with research from Ali-G's 1st cousin. Notice the family resemblance?

Notice anything?

Neil Diamond: Cherry Cherry



The Romantics: What i Like About you



John Cougar Mellencamp

Red Beats Blue

"In a study on Olympic uniforms, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that evenly matched athletes in the 2004 Games who wore red in boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling defeated those wearing blue 60 percent of the time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes as for animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance."

also i think if you're a black dude- you're probably gonna beat the white guy 60% of the time.
(time passes)
later that same day: just had a thought- maybe red 'means' STOP as in "stop the-f@#ck punching me!"

Chess and the Expert Mind

"I see only one move ahead," Capablanca is said to have answered, "but it is always the correct one."

Great article from Scientific American on studies of the mental processes of chess players. Reminds me of Ford Prefect's advice to Arthur Dent on how to fly: just forget to hit the ground. With chess- just forget the bad moves!

p.s. great bauhaus chess board here.

Oldfangled is the New Newfangled

Is there a word for this sort of word? A word- like "NEWFANGLED" that seems to imply an ironic "OLD-FANGLEDNESS". (Seems the sort of word only uttered by 90 year edentulous old-timers between other phrases like : "Dagnabbit!"*, and "Darn Tootin'!").

*Urban Dictionary defines "Dagnabbit" as:

An expression of sheepishness, with a tinge of frustration.

e.g. "Dagnabbit, I knew I shouldn't have put my tongue in her arse on the first date. Now she thinks I'm a freak."

This is very funny.

Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman in the New York Times

Super Best Ever Websites for Little Kids 2009

Here's my updated list of great interweb things for 5 year olds:

1. Interactica: astounding, massive, mind-expanding, beautiful

.

2. Starfall: beautifully done- learn the alphabet, then learn to read.

3. Bembo's Zoo: cute animated alphabet.

4. Phun : not a website- you'll need to download it- 2-D "physics engine".. hours of phun.

5. Flowers : great little app from zefrank- let your kids scream at the computer and watch the 'flowers' grow. Mine were shouting "PINEAPPLE! PINEAPPLE! PINEAPPLE! PINEAPPLE! ". The neighbours think we are strange.


6. Frog: you talk- the frog talks! As close as you can get to playing with a puppet on a computer. Kids find this hysterically funny.




If you have any others- please leave a comment.