Links for 26-01-2007
The maths of wobbly tables, more on abundance economics, water on Mars back on (yet again), US military’s ‘humane’ heat-ray…
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1 - Strange but True: Turning a Wobbly Table Will Make It Steady
“You may have thought your only recourse against this scourge is a hastily folded cocktail napkin stuffed under the offending leg.” You’d be wrong - I’ve shown this trick off at pubs and bars and gotten plenty of free drinks with it.
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2 - Step One To Embracing A Lack Of Scarcity: Recognize What Market You’re Really In
“It’s interesting to note that it wasn’t horse-drawn carriage makers who became successful automobile companies.” Seriously, read what this guy is saying. He’s talking a lot of sense.
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3 - Hints of huge water reservoirs on Mars
“Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface.” Wait one month for the debunk, then another month for the reassertion.
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4 - The Return of the Salon and the End of Mass Media
“Paradoxically, contemporary marketing will not destroy the virtual salons; the virtual salons are destroying contemporary marketing strategy and replacing it with something altogether new.” Very intriguing point of view.
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5 - So that’s where the €100 billion went
“All 27 EU countries will disclose data revealing details of some €100bn given in subsidies by the Eurotaxpayer every year to farmers, food companies, industrial regeneration schemes and the fishing industry…” Viva, transparency!
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6 - Tax Takers Send in the Spiders
“A five-nation tax enforcement cartel has been quietly cracking down on suspected internet tax cheats, using a sophisticated web crawling program…”
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7 - Alcoholics can’t take jokes
“Problem drinkers often don’t know how to take a joke or understand a punchline, according to German researchers.” Interesting - personal observational experience seems to back this one up.
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8 - Getting SAD Is More Than Having The Blues
“While many people believe that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) amounts to feeling gloomy in the winter, a … research review emphasizes that SAD is actually a subtype of major depression and should be treated as such.” Amen.
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9 - Dark Energy And The Inverse Square Law
“Dark energy is an unknown driving force behind the acceleration of the universe, and we’re measuring the inverse-square law below the dark-energy length scale to look for a possible new gravitational phenomenon.”
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10 - US aims to use heat-beam weapon by 2010
“The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation, forcing people to run for cover, but does not cause lasting harm, officials say.” Just like Mace, right? Right…
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11 - Text message novel published in Finland
“A novel whose narrative consists entirely of mobile phone text messages has been published in Finland.” Call me a linguistic fascist if you will, but I think this is awful, and I doubt it’ll take off. Link via Scalzi’s AOL gig.
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12 - Virtual/Real World Control Panel In Second Life
“The real and virtual controllers are “entangled together through a Python web server” so that turning a knob on the physical controller affects the same knob on the virtual one.” The membranes are getting thinner, people.
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