Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Many straight men, as many a straight lady can tell you, have an annoying habit of mistaking basic manners — a smile, a laugh, even a simple polite reply — for flirtation. Recently, a team of Norwegian psychologists decided to investigate this romantic mystery, and they concluded that this sexual misperception — as they…
It took a century, but the message finally reached its destination. Marianne Winkler, a retired post office worker, discovered a peculiar bottle in April while vacationing with her husband on Amrum Island in Germany. Inside the dusty glass tube was a piece of paper with the words “Break the bottle,” inscribed in bold red type according…
Take a moment to drink in the glory of Shrek the Sheep. Shrek really, really, really did not like getting his hair cut. So for six years, this New Zealand libertarian managed to avoid spring shearings by hiding in a cave. By the time he was found in 2004, his owners couldn’t even tell he…
“Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising. “It represents an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer.” Cells need to divide constantly to replace themselves. But in cancer the cells do not stop dividing leading to huge cell reproduction and tumour growth. The scientists…
Yesterday, Burning Man organizers revealed the truth: the annual desert arts festival is infested with bugs. Swarms of them. Piles of them. What are they? Why has nobody ever seen them before, in over two decades of building mega-party spaces in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert? We found out. We asked entomologist and insect photographer Alex…
Last year, San Francisco released BART Watch, an app for reporting crimes on the Bay Area’s main transit system. After filing a California Public Records Act request to see what people were reporting, the East Bay Express found a disturbing pattern: Of the 763 alerts sent to BART, 198 included a description of the race…
Ben Carson, a Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate, previously did research using human fetal tissue. In the wake of the hidden-camera videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors discussing how to provide aborted fetuses to scientific researchers, Carson has told Fox News that the benefits of this research have been “overpromised” and “under-delivered.” Late on…
The Perseids is my favorite meteor shower of the year, and this year is likely to be the best one in recent memory. Here’s when, where, and how to watch it—and just what is going to make this year so spectacular. Top image: 2010 Perseids / image courtesy of Michael Menefee. What Are the Perseids?…
WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA researchers warned the Federal Aviation Administration nearly four years ago that air traffic controllers’ schedules lead to chronic fatigue and undermine safety. The FAA has kept the NASA study secret. Voluntary reports from a confidential aviation safety database run by NASA show that controllers are still complaining that they make dangerous…
According to a concerning trend piece on the current ‘dating apocalypse’ of twentysomethings, hookup culture has hit a critical mass of excess and indulgence, and the kids are not alright—they are, in fact, all fucked out with nobody to love. RIP going steady. The piece comes courtesy of Vanity Fair via journo Nancy Jo Sales,…