Every day, the same, again
Four Australian men undress and soap up at a car wash.
Woman drives into an aquarium at Tampa International Airport. The collision demolished a 1,500-gallon tank and killed most of the 30 saltwater fish.
Facebook alibi saves jailed teen. Related: LameBook. And: Reflections on leaving Facebook.
Saudi Arabia cracks down on magicians.
Australia’s koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken.
NASA Scientist: The world won’t end in 2012.
The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth… [Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru, and Cosmophobia | PDF]
A list of failed predictions of the end of the world.
Number 85 Broad Street, a dull, rust-coloured office block in lower Manhattan, doesn’t look like a place to stop and stare, and that’s just the way the people who work there like it. There’s no name plate on the building, no sign on the front desk and the armed policeman stationed outside isn’t saying who works there. There’s a good reason for the secrecy. Number 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, is where the money is. All of it. Goldman Sachs, the world’s most powerful, and most secretive, investment bank.
Two are charged with helping Madoff falsify record.
HP to buy 3Com for $2.7 billion.
Brazilian democracy, at long last, is working well, following many years of military government, and its economy seems more robust than ever. But two connected and major challenges lie ahead for Brazil and its government: the need to build a far more equal society and to resist the temptation to use nationalism to mask whatever domestic failures may manifest themselves.
In the late 1980s Iraq had a space program.
Environmentalism is given the same weight as religion in British employment laws.
Is owning a dog worse than owning an SUV? [chart | full article]
Kissing evolved to spread germs, not feelings.
If humans are genetically related to chimps, why did our brains develop the innate ability for language and speech while theirs did not? Scientists suspect that part of the answer to the mystery lies in a gene called FOXP2. [Read more]
Foreign subtitles improve speech perception (as long as these subtitles are in the same language as the film).
When does consciousness arise in human babies?
Researchers found strong evidence that many dinosaur species were probably warm-blooded.
A new study demonstrates the power of music to alter our emotional perceptions of other people.
Performing horizontal eye movement exercises can boost your creativity.
Less than 1 in 3 Toronto bystanders who witness a cardiac arrest try to help, study shows.
It may be no accident that, while some of the best American mathematical minds worked to solve one of the century’s hardest problems—the Poincaré Conjecture—it was a Russian mathematician working in Russia who, early in this decade, finally triumphed.
Ten statisticians every psychologist should know about.
Alice in Wonderland syndrome, also known as Todd’s syndrome.
Bibliometrics provides powerful tools for the evaluation of scientific research [PDF].
Bruce Wasserstein — CEO of Lazard. Ltd. and owner of New York magazine — died suddenly. A quickly released notice assured staff and public that Wasserstein family ownership and support would continue.
Times Square enters the WiFi age.
Bruce Davidson at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery.
Liquid marijuana seized in Brooklyn.
Apple to open Upper West Side store, fourth in New York.
Histories of sex and censorship in New York City.
Brooklyn Top 40. A highly subjective ranking of the songs that define the sound of right now.
Bad music in public spaces. More and more hotels, restaurants, and retailers adopt music as a branding device.
Rock music quality vs. U.S. Oil Production.
“The Original of Laura” — fragments of a novel that Nabokov left unfinished at his death and that his son, Dmitri, decided, after much agonizing, to publish against his father’s wishes. Related: Why The Original of Laura should never have become a book.
Read Me: A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements.
“The list doesn’t destroy culture; it creates it. We like lists because we don’t want to die.” Umberto Eco Interview.
Robert Crumb interview. [more]
Few writers have managed to exercise the kind of control that Bennett has exerted over his public image. He discovered early on that one way to protect yourself from a gossip-loving culture is to hide in plain view, to become a character.
When a “fairy-tale” marriage goes bad, the ending can be extremely grim. The divorce of supermodel Stephanie Seymour and tycoon Peter Brant.
Photographer says Mike Tyson hit him at LAX.
Bill Murray explains why he’s not crazy about the idea of Ghostbusters 3.
J.Lo. sues ex-husband for $10M over sale of sex tape, Judge blocks ex’s sex tape sale.
Does the camera really add ten pounds?
Sand behaves like a fluid but also like a solid. So how can some lizards swim through it?
My friends don’t have boyfriends and I think I know why.
Who’s to blame for these hideous Internet ads that just won’t go away?
How to generate scientific controversy.
I had hemorrhoid surgery in 1973 and have had trouble pooping ever since.
Phoot Camp, an invite-only camping trip and photography workshop.
Steve Jobs’ hits and misses. Update: Seven secrets of a Steve Jobs presentation.
How to open a bottle of wine with a shoe.
