Romanian Government Pays Subsidy of £400,000 For Farmville Farms.

Carjackers Who Stole Truck Full of Radioactive Waste Likely to Die

Masturbation is good for your health.

The role of facial hair in women’s perceptions of men’s attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities. [Thanks Tim]

The science of how we talk to ourselves in our heads.

Data Mining Reveals the Secret to Getting Good Answers.

Insomnia drugs like Ambien are notorious for their side effects. Has Merck created a blockbuster replacement?

Experiments showed that a traumatic event could affect the DNA in sperm and alter the brains and behavior of subsequent generations.

Shapes of Things to Come: Exotic Shapes for Liquid Drops Have Many Possible Uses.

Sharks prefer to sneak up from behind, study shows.

The Art and Science of Growing Snowflakes in a Lab

How I Cured My Impostor Syndrome.

I believe Google is making a huge mistake in completely banning facial recognition systems for its Glass product.

A typical smartphone could be covered by as many as 250,000 patents. Google says patents are rubbish. Yet it’s accumulating more of them than ever.

Does parody trump copyright?

Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World.

Inventions to detect and prevent annoying phone calls, documents, or people.

Can mixing up the running shoes prevent overuse running injury?

Toyota is getting more serious about wireless charging for its electric cars .

The GER mood-sweater, which uses Galvanic Skin Response, will automatically tell people how you are feeling.

You’ll learn about litotes, synecdoches, zeugmas, isocolons and the right way to order your adjectives.

New York was legendary. It was where things happened. David Byrne on NYC’s present and future.

Dummy pilot and seat soar, as engineers test a catapult escape system.

Blogger shows how to take travel photos with an imaginary girlfriend.

At the time of this writing, there are 16,277 days remaining in my life. I know this because an app I have installed on my phone tells me so.

And the future never arrives. [Thanks Tim]

Romanian Legs crushing watermelon.

AddictionBlog has an amazing article by a doctor and recovering morphine addict that describes the experience of injection, rush and withdrawal.

[…]

Heroin, by the way, is just the prodrug of morphine. In other words, the heroin molecule just gets broken down into morphine in the body and this is how it arrives in the brain. But because each heroin molecule gets transformed into two morphine molecules (hence the medical name for heroin – diamorphine) the feeling can be a little different because increased concentration can apparently make the high more intense.

{ Mind Hacks | Continue reading }

Banksy’s reps told LAist that the prints are counterfeit reproductions and that they were “dealing” with Walmart about them.

{ Gawker | Continue reading }

Everything at Walmart comes from China. Including their attitudes towards intellectual property rights.

{ OMG!PONIES!/Gawker | Continue reading }

Topless barber charged with unlicensed cosmetology.

Drone tries to sneak contraband into Georgia prison.

Amazon will need to answer questions about everything from privacy to physical safety if it wants its delivery-drone program to fly.

Australia and China are way ahead of Amazon in the commercial drone race.

21.8% of all online Black Friday sales were made from mobile devices.

The number of homeless people in shelters and living on the streets in Massachusetts has risen 14 percent since 2010.

How can it be that great wealth is created on Wall Street with products like credit-default swaps that destroyed the wealth of ordinary Americans—and yet we count this activity as growth? Likewise, fortunes are made manufacturing food products that make Americans fatter, sicker, and shorter-lived. And yet we count this as growth too.

Nasa to grow plants on the moon by 2015.

3-D printing lithium-ion batteries.

With free air cooling and 100 percent renewable electricity, does it make sense to outsource our data to Iceland?

Studies suggest red-haired women tend to choose the best passwords and men with bushy beards or unkempt hair, the worst. The gentle art of cracking passwords.

UK National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles shows significant increases in the reported prevalence of anal sex, lesbian activity, and female intercourse before age 16.

Psychologists have shown humans are poor judges of their own abilities, from sense of humour to grammar. Why the stupid think they’re smart.

In September I covered a paper that described the massive amount of bias created in the legal system in parts of the US where forensic laboratories are paid in return for coming to conclusions resulting in guilty verdicts. Another recent paper, published in Psychological Science has found that extraordinary levels of bias can occur even when money is not explicitly involved.

It took them 8 years after publication of the paper—and five after we submitted a retraction and 4 and a half years after we published PROOF of fraud (later borne out by Rutgers’ investigation) for them finally to “retract” a paper now cited 136 times. At long last, disputed dance study retracted from Nature.

How to Burst the “Filter Bubble” that Protects Us from Opposing Views.

The visual behavior of 320 elevator riders was observed by two experimenters. It was found that about half of all riders gave the confederate a brief visual notice at the beginning of the ride and then refrained from further eye contact.

Human Babies Are 75 Percent Water. Then Comes The Drying.

Despite the research telling us people will like you more if you are warm and hire you more when you are competent–perhaps, it is more important that you are moral.

Your Brain Has 2 Clocks.

During the past decade or two, there’s been a growing body of work arguing for a special connection between endogenous brain rhythms and timing patterns in speech.

To do everything that it needs to, the brain splits up the stream of visual information into a few different streams. One of these streams is linked to object recognition and representing abstract forms. For companies like Facebook or Google, copying this would be something of a holy grail.

DARPA Wants to Fix Broken Brains, Restore Lost Memories.

Starting next March, New York magazine will print only two issues a month.

Gawker Media has more readers than the top-circulation U.S. magazines.

Photographer wins $1.2 million from companies that took pictures off Twitter.

Heavy metal shows piracy is not killing music, offers new business model.

You have only three seconds to decide what to say. An angry soldier in front of you is about to shoot an unarmed prisoner. What words can you use to stay his itchy trigger finger?

I decided that there is literally no non-creepy way to say “Excuse me, do you mind if I place my hands on your breasts?”

Waiting in Line 3D is a very boring video game about queuing.

Why Aren’t Cities Taller?

Forty years after “The Exorcist” premiered, the anniversary of that classic horror movie has led to renewed interest in the 1949  possession case that reportedly inspired it. The boy at the centre of the exorcism case remains anonymous although he was assigned the pseudonym of “Roland Doe” by the Catholic Church.

Data gathered from horror movies show there are two strains of zombie infection and that both can be modeled in the same way as influenza.

Sony issued patent for ‘SmartWig.’

The artist takes one canned good to multiple supermarkets and re-buys it. This single can of corn has been re-bought from 105 supermarkets for a total of $113.07.

Wish you were beer.

People often reveal their private emotions in tiny, fleeting facial expressions, visible only to a best friend — or to a skilled poker player. Now, computer software is using frame-by-frame video analysis to read subtle muscular changes that flash across our faces in milliseconds, signaling emotions like happiness, sadness and disgust.

With face-reading software, a computer’s webcam might spot the confused expression of an online student and provide extra tutoring. Or computer-based games with built-in cameras could register how people are reacting to each move in the game and ramp up the pace if they seem bored. […]

Companies in this field include Affectiva, based in Waltham, Mass., and Emotient, based in San Diego. Affectiva used webcams over two and a half years to accumulate and classify about 1.5 billion emotional reactions from people who gave permission to be recorded as they watched streaming video. […]

So far, the company’s algorithms have been used mainly to monitor people’s expressions as a way to test ads, movie trailers and television shows in advance. […] Affectiva’s clients include Unilever, Mars and Coca-Cola. The advertising research agency Millward Brown says it has used Affectiva’s technology to test about 3,000 ads for clients.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

related { New algorithm finds you, even in untagged photos. }

For four years, Josh and I were Silicon Alley’s “it” couple. We met in 1996, when he was running the Internet entertainment site Pseudo.com and throwing Warhol-scale parties. […]

One morning, as I was putting on my robe, he announced that he was planning to have cameras installed all over the loft–above the bed, behind the bathroom mirror, inside the refrigerator, even in the litter box–and wire them to the Internet in the name of art. Art? More like porn, I said. But Josh calmly explained that we would never do anything that made us uncomfortable, and that he eventually hoped to sell unedited tapes of our lives to a museum. […]

As we were gearing up for the November launch, Pseudo tanked, as did the rest of the tech stocks. Josh’s share in Pseudo was now worthless, and the fortunes he made from Jupiter Communications were slashed. Meanwhile, he was sinking over $1 million into Living in Public, hiring me to produce the Web site, manage press and plan a launch party (I was not paid to live in public), and bringing in a team to rip open the walls and fill them with a complex nervous system of wires, cables and cameras.

{ NY Observer 2/26/01 | Continue reading }

photos { 1. Phebe Schmidt | 2 }

{ John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882 }

{ with Velázquez’s Las Meninas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain }

Driver Arrested In Ohio For Secret Car Compartment Full of Nothing.

A Fake Slum for Luxury Tourists Who Don’t Want to See Real Poverty.

“A friend told him that when the toll booths were unmanned after 11:30 p.m., you could use the road without paying.” Reston man runs up $202,000 bill driving through E-ZPass gates without paying.

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought.

In a mile-long run, contemporary children would finish a full minute and a half later than their parents did at their age in the 1980s. It’s a sad visual that exemplifies just how unhealthy our lifestyles have become.

Taking up exercise relativly late in life could help older individuals age healthily.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley say that wives are the key player in toning down marital spats. And after a heated argument, she’s the one who needs to calm down to maintain peace.

A study finds men regret missing opportunities to have sex, while women feel remorse for having casual, meaningless sex.

Heavy Drinking Is Bad for Marriage if One Spouse Drinks, but Not Both.

Researchers say repeatedly exposing yourself to a negative event may prevent it from affecting you.

Going to the Movies: The Seat Choice Dilemma.

Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims.

The neuroscientist who was a psychopath? Or just narcissistic?

23andMe’s problem isn’t the FDA—it’s that no one knows if it works.

A simple explanation of how money moves arounds the banking system.

Chat rooms have become integral tools of the modern trading floor. UBS has become the latest bank to bar multi-dealer chat rooms.

“All that had changed was people’s opinion of the place.” Bitcoin vs. South Seas Stock.

Researchers found 20 million fake Twitter accounts for sale. That would mean almost 9% of Twitter’s monthly active users are fake.

A voyage into the strange underworld of spambots, shady marketing, and non-human intelligence.

Here’s yet another Twitter bot: Pizza Clones. Every two hours it generates a joke in the form of “Every {NOUN} is a(n) {ADJECTIVE} {NOUN} when/if/as long as {SUBORDINATE-CLAUSE}.”

Netflix has 20,000 customers in Australia—where it hasn’t even launched.

Online Anonymity in a Box, for $49.

Stuxnet is not really one weapon, but two. It turns out that it was far more dangerous than the cyberweapon that is now lodged in the public’s imagination.

From 1945 onwards, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI spied on Camus and Sartre. The investigation soon turned into a philosophical inquiry…

Aldous Huxley is the true visionary.

Interview with US Defense Attorney turned Tijuana Narcojunior.

Prankster applies to art schools with famous artist’s portfolio.

A guidebook for an Alien language.

Snapchat’s 23-year-old founder continues his goodwill campaign.

Booth has been dedicating his free time to designing and demonstrating a variety of homemade weapons constructed out of items commonly found in airports.

The device is offered for sale under the brand name ”Sandun-Evaco Toilet Converter.”

Gagadoll.

It’s a dish where a chicken is stuffed into a duck which is then stuffed into a turkey.

Smart glasses let nurses see veins through skin.

Women’s expectations of the opposite sex are at least as unrealistic as men’s.

For a mother, the smell of a newborn baby — not even her own, according to this study — provides a dose of dopamine and fills her with feelings of positivity and well-being, which acts as a reward for cuddling and snuggling the baby.

New research has shown that people who are not accustomed to holding power are more likely to be vengeful when placed in charge. Experienced power-holders, on the other hand, were found to be more tolerant of perceived wrongdoing.

What makes for a beautiful visage, and why, may have been discovered accidentally on a Russian fur farm.

The Macbeth Effect (when feelings of moral disgust provoke a desire for physical cleansing): A failure to replicate the Macbeth Effect across three continents.

An article in The Observer about our tendency to perceive meaning where there is none.

Where is language located in the brain? There are two sides to this story.

Tickling yourself is impossible.

Odds of being murdered closely tied to your social network.

Multilevel study finds no link between minimum wage and crime rates.

Inside the world of the double-crossing fake hitman.

I know of no other account of any decipherment that gives a clearer idea for nonspecialists of how some of the detailed technicalities of the process actually work. Margalit Fox’s account of the decipherment of Linear B.
The experiment that led to the concept of “Thinking Outside the Box.”

Is Google’s Secretive Research Lab Working on Human-Dolphin Communication?

Snails high on acid make poor choices, get eaten by predators.

If you use the surface as a table then your computer can bring you real objects such as your mobile phone.

Burberry has teamed up with Google to let people capture their kisses by direct contact with their touch screen device.

Couponer, Hipster, Superparent, Pseudo-Foodie… Archetypes in the restaurant industry.
12 Mistakes Nearly Everyone Who Writes About Grammar Mistakes Makes.

‘Because’ has become a preposition, because grammar.

In traditional print, the distinction is easy: a font was a typeface set at a certain size, weight and style and cast in metal. There was no way to buy just a typeface. Instead you bought a font: Garamond Bold at 13 points.

Knitting for ants.

Being bored has just become a little more nuanced, with the addition of a fifth type of boredom by which to describe this emotion. […]

The study builds on preliminary research done by Goetz and colleague Anne Frenzel in 2006 in which they differentiated between four types of boredom according to the levels of arousal (ranging from calm to fidgety) and how positive or negative boredom is experienced (so-called valence). These were indifferent boredom (relaxed, withdrawn, indifferent), calibrating boredom (uncertain, receptive to change/distraction), searching boredom (restless, active pursuit of change/distraction) and reactant boredom (high reactant, motivated to leave a situation for specific alternatives).

The researchers have now identified another boredom subtype, namely apathetic boredom, an especially unpleasant form that resembles learned helplessness or depression. It is associated with low arousal levels and high levels of aversion.

{ Springer | Continue reading }

photo { Robert Carrithers }

This column discusses the roots of the Great Divergence between European and Asian economies. […] The Great Divergence of living standards between Europe and Asia had late medieval origins and was already well under way during the early modern period. […]

The economic history literature suggests two important shocks coinciding with the turning points identified above around 1348 and 1500.

- The Black Death – which began in western China before spreading to Europe and reaching England in 1348 – wiped out around one-third of Europe’s population within three years, and more than a half over the following century.

- Around 1500, new trade routes were opened up between Europe and Asia around the south of Africa, and between Europe and the Americas.

[…]

The Black Death of the mid-fourteenth century had quite different effects in different parts of Europe. The classic Malthusian response to such a mortality crisis is a rise in incomes for those lucky enough to survive because of an increase in the per capita endowment of land and capital for survivors.

{ Vox | Continue reading }

Woman fined $3500 for leaving a negative review online. […] Apparently, she violated a non-disparagement agreement hidden within the terms of sale.

{ Gawker| Continue reading }

twophrasebark
Just because something is in the terms of agreement does not make it legal. Or binding.

lobstr
Exactly — what’s to stop them from picking “$1,000,000″ instead of the arbitrary amount of “$3,500″ as the fine?

Sue–Asponte
Not to mention that the husband is the one that signed it so it never bound the wife. Not to mention, further, that the contract was probably void when the purpose of the agreement wasn’t fulfilled when the couple didn’t get their crap.

olal
According to reports from Techdirt, it would appear that the company didn’t even have this clause up when the woman made the order. It seems that years later, after having their rating ruined, they added this clause and then threatened these customers retroactively.

{ Gawker/Comments | Continue reading }

related { Your Phone Number Is Going To Get A Reputation Score }