Japanese tombstone maker Ishinokoe has begun offering memorials that feature QR codes. Want to know more about the person entombed there? Just whip out your smartphone and scan the code…
Continue reading… “QR Codes as Tombstones”
Microsoft Kinect
Microsoft has sold more than 10 million Kinect systems for the Xbox 360 to retailers, the company announced Wednesday.
Kinect, a controller-free gaming system that competes with the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 Move, has been selling at animpressive rate since it launched in November.
During the first three months after its launch, this rate was fast enough to earn Kinect the title of “fastest-selling consumer device.” According to Guinness World Records, whichofficially confirmed the record today, Microsoft sold an average of 133,333 units per day between November 4 and January 3…
Continue reading… “Microsoft Kinect Sales Top 10 Million, Set New Guinness World Record”
Artist Ward Shelley’s brilliant map of the history of science fiction from 2009 is a kind of interestingness black hole whose event horizon captured me for several hours this morning as I pored over the diagram and the arguments it makes about the history and origins of science fiction. I don’t agree with every conclusion illustrated here, but thinking about them made me reconsider a lot of cherished beliefs…
Continue reading… “Wondrous, Detailed Map of the Wondrous History of Science Fiction”
Missouri has been at the U.S. center since 1980 but the geography is clearly shifting, with the West beginning to emerge as America’s new heartland.
America’s population center is edging away from the Midwest, pulled by Hispanic growth in the Southwest, according to census figures. The historic shift is changing the nation’s politics and even the traditional notion of the country’s heartland — long the symbol of mainstream American beliefs and culture.
Continue reading… “The West is Becoming America’s New ‘Heartland’”
Are you sick of hearing about Charlie Sheen? Tinted Sheen is a browser add-on for Firefox or Chrome that blocks mentions of Sheen as you go about your daily browsing.
Continue reading… “Firefox And Chrome Add-On To Erase Charlie Sheen From The Web”
Musician Michael John Blake shows us “What Pi Sounds Like” by transposing the number (out to 31 decimal places) to musical notes. A charming little ditty results.
Continue reading… “What Pi Sounds Like”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWyOgLBvBB0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
A 54-year-old man from Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province has broken the Guinness World Record of spending more time buried in the snow than anyone else in the world.
Jin Songhao was buried in the snow for a total of 46 minutes and ten seconds, wearing only a pair of swimming trucks. News reports declared 36-degree temperatures on this day and yet Jin showed no indications of shivering or discomfort during the entire time he was submerged in the snow…
Continue reading… “Chinese Man Buried In Snow Breaks Guinness World Record”
Japan is notorious for its fascination with vending machines — as of 2008, there were 5.5 million of them across the nation. And these aren’t merely the candy bar and soda variety, either — Japan has vending machines that sell live crabs, grow lettuce, are covered in moss, and dispense smart cars. And by this time next year, it will have 10,000 vending machines that charge electric cars.
Continue reading… “Japan to Build 10,000 EV Charging Station/Vending Machine Hybrids by 2012”
Women have never been happy about it, but now comparing female bodies to pieces of fruit has really gone pear-shaped.
Health experts are calling for an end to the labelling of bodies as apples and pears saying it dehumanises women and puts pressure on young girls to look a certain way.
Continue reading… “Report Says Women’s Body Shape Be Called Da Vinci, Rembrandt or Rubens”
Because that’s what we’re all looking for, right? Christina Bloom is the founder of FindYourFacemate.com, which will open for business later this month. She says that she was inspired to build the website after people kept telling her that she and her ex-husband look a lot alike. So this website will use facial mapping software to match you up with someone like you..
Continue reading… “New Dating Website Helps You Find Someone Who Looks Just Like You”
1.) The British millionaire who traded his mansion
for a mud hut after being adopted by tribe in Kenya
Most people return from Kenya with photos of giraffes and lions, and tales of their time on safari. But one millionaire has come back with the title of elder of a Masai tribe. Graham Pendrill is the first white person to gain such an honour from the group after solving a potentially violent inter-tribal dispute while on a month-long trip to the East African country last year…
Continue reading… “10 Most Eccentric Millionaires”
Well, here’s a shocker: Some of the people who phone in to talk radio shows (that caller with the pitch-perfect rant, provocative comment or burning question) may actually be hired actors reading from scripts. I’m not an angry listener, but I play one on radio!
If [the actor] passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were…
Continue reading… “Ensuring the Authenticity of Your Programming… With Paid, Planted Callers”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.