Craig Newmark On The Future Of News Media:
e new model for news curation and selection, I feel, will be a balance of professional editing and collaborative news filtering. In one incarnation, news organizations will look at feeds from highly respected news fans, and that will drive stories that are featured more prominently. Now, remember that "trust is the new black." The contemporary model for trustworthiness is "objectivity" but the commonplace observation is that it's failed to inspire trust. That is, the audience just doesn't trust news…
1 min read
NYTimes.com – Even Rabbit Droppings Count in Nuclear Cleanup:
government contractor at Hanford, in south-central Washington State, just spent a week mapping radioactive rabbit feces with detectors mounted on a helicopter flying 50 feet over the desert scrub. An onboard computer used GPS technology to record each location so workers could return later to scoop up the droppings for disposal as low-level radioactive waste. via nytimes.com Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy…
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Chinese Scientists build a black hole and maybe soon, an invisibility cloak:
searchers theorized how to design a table-top black hole earlier this year. Now two ambitious Chinese scientists have actually built one—using the same materials that made invisibility cloaks possible. The theoretical model for the black hole aped the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards. The working Chinese model consists of a cylinder, made up of strips of a special…
1 min read
The false god of coffee:
is year I decided to stop drinking coffee, my only source of caffeine. Anyone who knows me will recognize this as a radical step. I've been drinking coffee since age 10, and I'd developed quite an obsession for the perfect cup. In the past, I've experimented with quitting a few times by simply going cold turkey. Each time, the physical withdrawal, basically headaches, was over within 10 days, but after a month or two I would become convinced that…
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McSweeney’s: YouTube Comment or e. e. cummings?
loog a his lirow nose 2. there is some shit I will not eat 3. LISN bud LISN 4. this i bad sorry to saY 5. leave her alone she's not your gal 6. She is Lucifierian ! 7. THuNdeRB loSSo!M iN 8. aThe):l 9. stunned. i. am. stunned. every question speaks to us 10. What is nothing? YouTube comment: 1, 4, 6, 9, 10 e. e. cummings: 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 via mcsweeneys.net Join over 320,000…
1 min read
Women are getting unhappier:
r research is simply about documenting a fact: since the 1970’s, women’s self-reported happiness has fallen, relative to that of men. This seems paradoxical, given the tremendous strides made by the women’s movement. We report this fact, test that it is a robust finding, and suggest that future research may help sort out whether it reflects how the women’s movement affected women’s hedonic state; whether it reflects the differential impact on women of some broader social trend; or if instead…
1 min read
Clay Shirky on Chinese knockoffs:
kia products say "Made in China" on the back. Chinese-made Nokia-knockoffs say "Made in Finland. via twitter.com Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert
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Can attitudes toward aging affect how well we age?
a WSJ: The old saw that you're only as old as you feel is getting a lot of scientific backup these days. Even the views that younger people hold about aging can affect how they age, according to some intriguing research from Yale University and the National Institute on Aging. In one recent study, social psychologist Becca R. Levy and colleagues looked at surveys taken by 386 men and women in 1968, when they were under age 50, and then…
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