Condé Nast acquires Ars Technica for $25m (rumoured). I don’t get Condé Nast’s fascination with tech sites (they also own Reddit)—shouldn’t … gulfstream/2437
Screenshots of TV. gulfstream/2439
Have I posted this before? Small story on Sao Paolo’s near-complete eradication of outdoor advertising. gulfstream/2320
New Zealand tax department slights Dave Henderson, so he buys their building, evicts them, and turns it into a boutique hotel. gulfstream/2353
“Rather startled, I watched this scene from close quarters behind the window until 19.10 hours during which time (75 minutes) I made some photographs … gulfstream/1704
Headline slightly better than the reality, but: “Lab fireball ‘may be black hole’.” gulfstream/1713
“Today, more than 40 percent of the black girls born in California in a given year receive a name that not one of the roughly 100,000 baby white … gulfstream/1721
On black people “looting” and white people “finding.” gulfstream/1830
Leonard Cohen possibly broke. gulfstream/1832
“Nobody dumbs down the finance pages. Imagine the fuss if I tried to stick the word ‘biophoton’ on a science page without explaining what … gulfstream/1833
The best places to live, according some calculation. (Only three countries in the top ten: Canada, Australia and Switzerland.) The problem with … gulfstream/1845
“I would like to create a playground for children … a normal playground is flat but I want an undulating one, with bumps.” The ambitions … gulfstream/1877
One hell of a kill switch: to discourage a secondary “grey market” for that (much-hyped) $100 laptop, “the machine is disabled if not connected … gulfstream/1882
Difficult-to-descibe art: a large wooden box (filled with people) functions as a replicator—put something in a slot in the side, get a copy back. gulfstream/1888
Fascinating: the Red Cross is trying to negotiate a third, “neutral” emblem. This calls for diplomats! Lots of them! gulfstream/1898
The inexplicable popularity of Chuck Norris. (CHUCK NORRIS!) gulfstream/1923
(Largely silent) documentary about a (largely silent) order of monks is popular in Germany. gulfstream/1925
Great profile of a very successful and very good children’s entertainer called the Great Zucchini … who also, as it turns out, has a gambling … gulfstream/1959
(Podcastable) Radio News from The Onion. e.g. “Report: Lab Monkeys 96 Percent More Likely To Use Cocaine Than Those In Wild.” gulfstream/1960
Oh I love slippery slopes! If you want to kill yourself by slashing your wrists, should you be given clean blades? Says one advocate: “There … gulfstream/1968
A link—or at least a correlation—between not taking risks and getting Parkinson’s? “The study found patients with Parkinson’s disease had … gulfstream/1982
It’s seemingly very difficult to get hold of police complaint forms in South Florida. (Great transcripts.) gulfstream/1995
Good news, bad news: BBC news stories classified by mood. gulfstream/2005
Google bad news blog. This is pretty decent, although the most recent entry is wrong in claiming that the $90 million Google has offered to pay in click-fraud … gulfstream/2014
James Surowiecki says the newspaper business is still a decent business to be in: whilst there’s no potential for extreme growth (unlike high-tech stocks, … gulfstream/2036
A whole heap of stuff is being built—somewhat improbably, given its history, climate, prospects—in Dubai. gulfstream/2040
Beaver Overthinking Dam: “After much thought, Messner decided to reconstruct the anterior section of the dam with poplar wood on Tuesday, after he finished … gulfstream/2062
“NASA Announces Plan To Launch $700 Million Into Space.” You know where this is going, but it’s still a pleasant journey. gulfstream/2076
Almost perfect story for the media: two miners are trapped 1km underground in a Tasmanian gold mine; they’ve been under ground almost a week, and are … gulfstream/2077
History of The New Yorker via the recently-released CD anthology. Less than affectionate; attempts to diminish. (e.g. “The New Yorker is the only magazine … gulfstream/2089
The ad-stripping, Cory-rant filtering version of Boing Boing has gone away. And because they sent a lot of traffic to one of his sites? Pussy. gulfstream/2092
On the origin and revival of Matthew Carter’s font Georgia. gulfstream/2104
Live geographic traffic stats for the BBC news. This is pretty sweet, despite not being very usable. (The colours that represent different traffic levels … gulfstream/2137
“The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.” WELL THEN TRY HARDER DAMMIT. gulfstream/2143
Journalists from The New Yorker, thoughtful individuals that they are, attempt to arrange a meeting with the famously reclusive mathematician Grigory Perelman: … gulfstream/2150
Ruminations on Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy: why has it become such a popular cover, why is it so popular with mashup artists? Includes a link to Jack White’s … gulfstream/2155
I’m flying BA at least three times in the next three months and this is NOT REASSURING: one engine of a BA 747 flying from LA to London caught fire on … gulfstream/2165
Ha, strange: “Small Numbers of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus. … As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against … gulfstream/2177
Buildings in Mecca and Medina dating back to the time of Mohamed and before are being destroyed by Wahhabists in an attempt to prevent idolatry. (The … gulfstream/2206
A BBC TV show locks nine volunteers into a zoo and feeds them the sort of food our ape-like ancestors once ate, to healthy results. I wonder if a caveman … gulfstream/2211
Sort of meadering piece on nutrition, the food we eat, and the food we should eat. (Long; though there’s nine point-form tips at the end.) “Avoid … gulfstream/2221
Terrific picture: small ginger cat looks up at a black bear perched high in a tree after scaring it there. (Although … Google is suspiciously ignorant … gulfstream/2222
The New Yorker has redesigned! Some notes: overall, much cleaner, nicer and more modern (though it does feel a lot like New York Magazine) cartoons … gulfstream/2255
BBC NEWS | Europe | Finnish dogs in German bear hunt
a bear kills sheep and gets called "savage"?!