“He appeared to be able to manipulate atoms with amazing grace. He seemed to be able to force electricity to do seemingly impossible tricks, and claimed he’d found ways to make working molecule-sized electronic components.” Jan Hendrik Schön was also, apparently, a plagiarist. —The Undoing of a Star Scientist (AP/Wired) From this site: more about plagiarism…
Google scans thousands of online news sites and automatically assembles what it thinks are the most newsworthy items. —Google News (Google) Similar:Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice? Though not in a hospital setting, the …CultureVirtual debates about homelessness in Sim City hold up a mirror to real…
“A neighbour – an eminent retired politician, philanthropist and keen ornithologist – has just acquired an owl whistle, beautifully crafted from wood. When blown, it makes a most realistic toowooo…. The next day, another neighbour – a retired military man and also an ornithologist – showed me his latest toy, coincidentally also an owl whistle….…
“For the first time ever, information and pictures of all ACME products, specialty divisions, and services (from 1935 to 1964) are gathered here, in one convenient catalog. For more information about any ACME product, simply click on the thumbnail picture.” G.P. Markham —The Illustrated Catalog of ACME ProductsLooney Lyrics) Similar:Texas lawyer trapped by cat filter…
“British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, ‘A One Minute Silence,’ on an album for his classical rock band The Planets. He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition ‘4’33″‘ was totally silent.” —Composer Pays…
Pacemakers: “Batteries must be replaced, at further risk and expense, every 5-10 years, and patients must avoid strong magnetic fields, such as metal detectors and some medical scanners. The new approach instead adds a gene that changes the flow of chemicals in and out of heart cells.” —Gene Therapy Could Replace PacemakersNature) Similar:Twitter changes strategy…
“Are any biotech companies or researchers putting animal DNA into human embryos? Nobody knows. But, unbelievable as it may sound, some bioethicists and philosophers explicitly endorse engineering animal DNA into human embryos as one method of producing the ‘post-human’ race.” Wesley J. Smith —The Transhumanists: The Next Great Threat to Human DignityNational Review) Similar:Students Learning…
“The chromosome unique to men is a microscopic metaphor for those who bear it. For it is the most decayed, redundant and parasitic of the lot… From sperm count to social status, and from fertilisation to death, as civilisation advances those who bear Y chromosomes are in relative decline.” Steve Jones —End of Sperm ReportGuardian)…
“This paper proceeds first by reviewing literature on bullshitting. I then provide the definition of bullshitting that guides the subsequent analysis, and include a description of its key features. A brief discussion of the ubiquity of bullshitting also is provided. Drawing on related research, illustrations from everyday life, and social theory, I next explore the…
“Japanese never touch. It’s not even customary among themselves when they meet to shake hands. So how to explain why this woman would so casually reach over and adjust my collar? In public! And yet, not exactly…. My moment of contact, I concluded, could have only happened in an elevator, and then perhaps only in…
“Florida found itself in another voting debacle during last week’s primary election: Tens of millions of dollars spent to abolish hanging chads and they still can’t get it right.” Lauren Weinstein —A Vote for Touch and Go Away [Florida Ballots]Wired) Similar:If Wishes Were Horses (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 16) Hallucinations become…Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark…
No charges will be filed against Buzz Aldrin for allegedly punching a man who called him a liar for claiming that he’d been on the moon. —Update: Moon Hoax Conspiracy Theorist Punched by Buzz Aldrin (Space.com) Similar:Standardized-test robo-graders flunk“According to professor of theory of kno…AcademiaSpring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!AcademiaCave Gave Game: Subterranean Space as Videogame…
“Mel Gibson is set to direct a movie about Christ’s last 12 hours played out entirely in two ancient tongues – Latin and Aramaic – with no subtitles. The formula hardly sounds like the recipe for a hit movie but Gibson thinks language should be no barrier for the film, titled Passion.” —Mel Gibson to…
“[S]tudents with low GPAs who were quizzed weekly outperformed their counterparts by 18 percent… ‘Students hated me. They raged in front of the whole class. They hated being quizzed, and yet, it worked,’ Tuckman said.” —Students Get Better Grades When Tested Frequently In ClassOhio State) Similar:I Made My Friends Test the 19th Century’s Hottest Dating…
“The results show that procrastinators don’t work better under pressure, but it may be the only way they work… They don’t have any idea how well they might do if they didn’t procrastinate.”Bruce Tuckman —Procrastinators Get Poorer Grades in Class, Study FindsOhio State) Similar:Chipping away at Pygmalion and GalateaPygmalion is a legendary sculptor (whose…ArtI didn't…
“If you ask people why they procrastinate, you possibly may hear the real reasons. More than likely, though, you will hear their excuses. When an excuse sounds believable, it has a name – rationalization.” —Reasons and Excuses for Procrastination (Ohio State) Similar:Educators approve national campaign to halt high stakes, “toxic tests”Not a news item, but an…
A former freshman comp student: “I figure you’re about neck deep with groans and complaints from your ‘newbies’ right now, so I thought this might be a good time to say ‘Thank you. I was very fortunate to be in your class. No other class ever has, nor I suspect ever will, prepare me as…
“Described by those who’ve tried it as ‘souffle-like,’ the deep-fried Twinkie has become so popular that it has been mentioned by Jay Leno and will be featured on the Food Network.” —Deep Fried TwinkieCox) Can you tell that I’m hungry right now? Similar:Delightfully geeky news story about a legal kerfuffle over typefacesI’m very amused at…
My sister sent me links to (what else?) chocolate hexagons.Chocolate is great. So are hexagons. Similar:In-person classes heighten age-related hearing problems (opinion)My family tells me I’m starting to speak…AcademiaThe Cover Letter That Led to Awesome InterviewsWhen I do a career planning unit, I am o…BusinessIn October 2001, I was blogging about nothing, apostrophes, the anthrax…
Whiteboards vs. Blackboard: “So, on the one hand, we’ve got a classroom board that can be written on only with special pens. You can never tell when the pens will run out before they actually do so, and there’s no good way to extend the life of a pen once it finally expires. On the…