Old man or man-child?

"This extreme shape-shifting was possible because the bone tissue in the frill and horns stayed..."

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:21:40 -0500

“This extreme shape-shifting was possible because the bone tissue in the frill and horns stayed immature, spongy and riddled with blood vessels, never fully hardening into solid bone as happens in most animals during early adulthood. The only modern animal known to do anything similar is the cassowary, descended from the dinosaurs, which develops a large spongy crest when its skull is about 80 per cent fully grown.”

- Morph-osaurs: How shape-shifting dinosaurs deceived us - New Scientist - New Scientist (via Boing Boing)

"The only way I can think of to get around this problem, to allow journalists to report and analyse..."

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:16:52 -0500

“The only way I can think of to get around this problem, to allow journalists to report and analyse politics in an honest and intelligent fashion without worrying about accusations of bias based on the contents of private emails, would be to have a newspaper where the reporters don’t have any bylines, where everything is written in a collective voice. But that’s a crazy idea that would obviously never work.”

- Weigelgate: The Washington Post sets itself on fire | The Economist

"I agree that language should change over time, but using “addicting” as an adjecting -..."

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:32:26 -0500

“I agree that language should change over time, but using “addicting” as an adjecting - uh, adjective - is a little too inventing for my taste. At this rate, it won’t be long before I pick up some new rims for my car at my local automoting supply store or sign up for a creating writing class, where I’ll get derising remarks from the teacher for being too derivating. You see? Maybe it’s not technically incorrect, but it is terribly irritative. Anyway, that’s enough of my missing. Sorry. Missive.”

- Drewmass on Grammar Girl : Addictive Versus Addicting

"It may help if you realize that a dollar isn’t just a dollar, and once you start talking about..."

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:06:03 -0500

“It may help if you realize that a dollar isn’t just a dollar, and once you start talking about millions or billions of them the character of a dollar changes in ways that far too few people realize. A dollar is blood, sweat, tears, time spent working instead of with one’s family, a finite and characterizable risk of death in the aggregate, indeed, lifeblood itself converted into currency. Taking a billion of them out of an economy is to doom people to fractionally shorter lives, for marginal people to be lost, and a lot of other very serious things much more important than whether Johnny gets to buy a videogame this week. The extinction of a species and ten billion dollars are far more comparable than you might care to admit, not because you overvalue the species, but because you undervalue the dollars. They’re not just scores in a game. They’re human life.”

- jerf on Is the BP Gusher Unstoppable? at Hacker News.

“Fear the Boom and Bust” by EconStories

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:49:45 -0500

“Fear the Boom and Bust” by EconStories

"Friedman also recounted advice that his friend Willie Nelson gave him before his most recent..."

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:06:40 -0500

“Friedman also recounted advice that his friend Willie Nelson gave him before his most recent campaign: “He said, ‘If you’re going to have sex with an animal, always make it a horse, because that way, if things don’t work out, at least you know you’ve got a ride home.’””

- 2010: “The Tea Party Folks are Like Barbara Jordan” | The Texas Tribune

"I understand that the Pentagon was telling the President “don’t you dare,” and that it’s difficult..."

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:04:42 -0500

“I understand that the Pentagon was telling the President “don’t you dare,” and that it’s difficult for Democratic presidents to take on DOD. But at some point, Democrats are going to need to “man up,” as it were, to a Defense leadership that doesn’t fully understand what civilian control of the military is all about.”

- AMERICAblog Gay: My thoughts on the DADT compromise

"French press coffee = more cholesterol = imminent death?!"

Sat, 29 May 2010 18:28:58 -0500

“French press coffee = more cholesterol = imminent death?!”

- Ask MetaFilter

jayparkinsonmd: soupsoup: bgilliard: Pictures of drinks...

Thu, 20 May 2010 23:58:29 -0500

jayparkinsonmd:

soupsoup:

bgilliard:

Pictures of drinks beside their sugar equivalents in food. Some you expect but most are quite shocking.

mrgan: We’re nearing the series finale of Lost, so I thought...

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:48:49 -0500

mrgan:

We’re nearing the series finale of Lost, so I thought I’d share this little bit of fan art I made. Presenting Pixel Lost, 8-bit versions of some of my favorite characters from the show.

Since you are now inevitably crying “but where is Libby!” I’m also offering the original Pixel Lost PSD. Add your own characters, put them in screenshots, make icons from them. It’s your destiny!

By popular demand: thePixel Lost wallpaper for iPhone and iPad.

Giant Pacific Octopus (by Houston Zoo)

Sun, 09 May 2010 18:18:38 -0500

Giant Pacific Octopus (by Houston Zoo)

"Requiring successful enforcement of the current immigration laws before they can be changed is a non..."

Sat, 01 May 2010 22:13:12 -0500

“Requiring successful enforcement of the current immigration laws before they can be changed is a non sequitur. It’s like saying, in 1932, that we can’t repeal the nationwide prohibition on alcohol consumption until we’ve drastically reduced the number of moonshine stills and bootleggers.”

- To ‘Control the Border,’ First Reform Immigration Law | Cato @ Liberty

"Both the terms “warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded” have fallen out of favour..."

Sat, 01 May 2010 22:08:08 -0500

“Both the terms “warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded” have fallen out of favour with scientists, because of the vagueness of the terms, and due to an increased understanding in this field. Body temperature types are not discrete categories. Each term may be replaced with one or more variants. Body temperature maintenance incorporates a wide range of different techniques that result in a body temperature continuum, with the traditional ideals of warm-blooded and cold-blooded being at opposite ends of the spectrum.”

- Warm-blooded - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The telephone was an aberration in human development. It was a 70 year or so period where for some..."

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:25:35 -0500

“The telephone was an aberration in human development. It was a 70 year or so period where for some reason humans decided it was socially acceptable to ring a loud bell in someone else’s life and they were expected to come running, like dogs. This was the equivalent of thinking it was okay to walk into someone’s living room and start shouting. It was never okay.”

- Rick Webb about this (via toldorknown) (via marco)

"In running to any base, while trying to avoid being tagged out, the runner runs more than three feet..."

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:29:00 -0500

“In running to any base, while trying to avoid being tagged out, the runner runs more than three feet left or right from a direct line between the base and the runner’s location at the time a play is being made.”

- “When Runners Are Out” (NCAA rule 8-5-a)

MLB rule 7.08(a)(1) [pdf] doesn’t contain the “left or right” language.

In my day, if the catcher had the plate blocked there were only...

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:19:06 -0500

In my day, if the catcher had the plate blocked there were only two options: take the out or slam the poor bastard so hard he dropped the ball. No gymnastics allowed.

baseball player makes a Superman leap over catcher (via aashah1986)

"[N]o team is scheduled off days on any day of the week except Mondays and Thursdays. Therefore,..."

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:13:48 -0500

“[N]o team is scheduled off days on any day of the week except Mondays and Thursdays. Therefore, every day of the regular season that is not a Monday or a Thursday will have every team playing, barring unscheduled postponements and the all star break.”

- Major League Baseball schedule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look at the pictures, of course, but take a minute to read about...

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:56:25 -0500

Look at the pictures, of course, but take a minute to read about the design process too. It’s brilliant work.

US currency redesign - Michael Tyznik

"In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who..."

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:37:05 -0500

“In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest as well as duty to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade.”

- Edward Gibbon - The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume 1

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Don't play The Tray

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:31:29 -0500

Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Don't play The Tray:

Trying to “clean out” your tray is not a habit you want to get into. It’s pointless, and besides, you can never win - as soon as you run another app, in the tray it’ll go. It’s like the world’s worst game of Whac-A-Mole. Instead, learn to see the tray as a “recent apps” area. If you’re in the middle of one task - say, writing an email - and you need to switch to something for a second - say, looking up a spelling - then the tray is your friend. But once you’re done with that, you’re done.

I was horrified when I first saw the tray; how am I going to make time for that without neglecting my inbox and trash can emptying duties?