facebook

Facebook has 59 million users - and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won’t catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information - not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site. Read more here.

pre edison audio recording

For more than a century, since he captured the spoken words "Mary had a little lamb" on a sheet of tinfoil, Thomas Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound. But researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison's invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades. Read about it here.

neat but slightly creepy robot

I'm not too worried about it creeping up on me though. Check it out here.

eiffel tower temporary reno

Yes they may be adding to the Eiffel Tower. Read about it here.

science 1, black magic 0

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill Sanal Edamaruku with the “ultimate destruction ceremony” on live TV. More here.

firetruck!

I saw a firetruck yesterday and noticed it had what I thought was the Toronto Fire Department logo on its door. I was stumped as to why this was until I read this today.

obama

So a friend sent me the transcript of a Barack Obama speech she found impressive. I have to admit I found it pretty impressive too, he's a really good speaker and has some great speech writers, but I found the highlighted portion below a bit annoying.

"I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

This is funny though.

tiny bones of tiny ancient people discovered

Here's an article from National Geographic about the tiny bones they found.

usa usa usa

I always wondered what they meant by "moral turpitude" when I filled out those ridiculous immigration forms.

financial analysis even i can understand

This is quite funny and very informative.

the most complicated thing humans have ever built

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is about to be activated. I'm excited. More about it here.