[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/6792724[/vimeo]
What if power came at a cost to the individual?
The average American consumes 3383kwh of energy per year. That’s equivalent to leaving the light on in 4 rooms for a whole year. The simple flick of a switch allows us to power appliances and gadgets 24/7 without a thought to where it comes from and the cost to the environment.
Continue reading… “Blood Lamp”
The world record for largest human mattress dominoes has been broken: you now have to assemble and then topple over 850 humans to claim the title World’s Largest Human Mattress Dominoes…
Continue reading… “World’s largest human mattress dominoes record toppled!”
You can extract your own DNA with drinking water, salt, dish soap, alcohol, food coloring, and your own spit! This NOVA/PBS-made video shows you how.
I’ve been writing about DNA for more than a decade, and I just realized that until this video, I’ve never actually seen DNA. And there it is, in the form of a white string in a plastic cup. Pretty freaking neato…
Continue reading… “How to extract your own DNA using household items”
You and I may grumble when people nearby talk loudly on their cell phones, but that’s not enough for one man in Philadelphia.
He decided to take matters into his own hands and jam them phones!
Continue reading… “Annoying People Talking on Their Cell Phones? Jam ‘Em!”
Last week’s news cycles were dominated in part by rising gas prices, and the political parties’ response to costs at the pump inching closer to $4 per gallon. The GOP is outraged, rather, is feigning to be outraged, and is disingenuously blaming Obama’s energy policies for the spike.
But all this political football obscures one important fact…
Continue reading… “The true cost of gasoline is closer to $15 a gallon”
Lamar Smith has a unique vision for your internet rights.
Lamar Smith (R-TX), author of the ill-starred SOPA Internet regulation, has an even dumber idea for the Internet. In the name of fighting child pornography, he wants to force ISPs to log everything you do online, then make it available to police and government agents without a warrant. Leslie Meredith has a writeup on the mounting opposition to Smith’s latest act of unconstitutional lunacy…
The Middle Ages may not have actually been the way you thought.
No matter how interested you are in history, you probably have still heard a lot about the Dark Ages, but much of that information, even the stuff you learned back in school, is actually fiction. Here are five commonly held beliefs about the Middle Ages that aren’t actually fact.
Continue reading… “Five common misconceptions about the Middle Ages”
Human pixels, because traditional media is not social
Quote of the Day: “I am not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” – Woody Allen
Continue reading… “Top 10 Photos of the Week”
Chandra Bahadur Dangi with his certificates.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal is now officially the world’s shortest living man. He’s 21.5″ (54.6 cm) tall. If you have a hard time estimating that, notice the, er, iPad included in the photo above for comparison. Dangi beat out the Philippine’s Junrey Balawing by two full inches. From Guinness World Records…
Continue reading… “New world’s shortest man”
According to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, Facebook going public could be very good to more than just investors and longtime employees. Their estimates have the IPO netting the state in the neighborhood of $2.45 billion from income taxes…
Continue reading… “Facebook’s IPO could net California up to $2.5 Billion in tax revenue”
Blood samples.
You probably know your blood type: A, B, AB or O. You may even know if you’re Rhesus positive or negative. But how about the Langereis blood type? Or the Junior blood type? Positive or negative? Most people have never even heard of these.
Yet this knowledge could be “a matter of life and death,” says University of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif…
Continue reading… “Blood mystery solved: Two new blood types identified”
Kamagasaki, Japan. A slum in Nishinari-Ku one of 24 wards in Osaka, with a density of 30,000 people in every 2000 meter radius. Source: Androniki Christodoulou
Booming urban populations have seen poverty on the rise in some of the world’s biggest cities. Of the 3.49 billion people that now live in cities, 827.6 million are slum dwellers, according to a UN Habitat Report. Global slums can be vastly different in nature…
Continue reading… “A satellite tour of the world’s biggest slums”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.