Web Frog

Bloggie Howser, M.D.

kottke.org

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 003

PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS

The Credit Card Prank II

"How far could I go before they would check my credit card signature?"
ZUG

The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries

"To celebrate World Book Day, we asked the leading lights of British letters to name the characters who give them the greatest reading pleasure. Is your favourite among them? Interviews by Julia Stuart"
The Independent Online Edition

School Killer's Animated Terror

Minnesota teen posted bloody Flash film late last year
The Smoking Gun

Google sources

Distinct sources from Google News Home Page
Private Radio

How to really confuse your party guests.

zestyping

Transparent Screens

"a great trick to do on your background image"
Flickr

Billy Idol shaves his testicles

'Aging rocker Billy Idol told Maxim magazine in an interview that he shaves his testicles to get rid of the gray hair. Idol also admitted that without shaving "it's like steel wool down there."'
Exploding Cigar

Chewing gum can 'enhance breasts'

"A chewing gum which the makers say can help enhance the size, shape and tone of the breasts has proved to be a big hit in Japan."
BBC NEWS

A neo-nazi 'angel of death'

"Sarah Left uncovers a series of website posts apparently linking Jeff Weise to extreme rightwing politics"
Guardian Unlimited

Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater

WSJ.com

Pupils make more progress in 3Rs 'without aid of computers'

"The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do in international tests of literacy and maths, the largest study of its kind says today."
Telegraph

amaztype

A typographic book search
amaztype
Impressive!

Digits of Pi from 10000 to 50,000,000

10000 Digits of Pi and 50 million in 20 files of 2500000 digits each in gzip format.
Inverse Symbolic Calculator

13 things that do not make sense

NewScientist.com

Teen faces charges for semen prank

"The 17-year-old was arrested and charged with three counts of disturbing the peace after allegedly sending semen-frosted brownies to a fellow student on Valentine’s Day. That student shared the brownies with two other teens, according to Coeur d’Alene Police reports."
SR.com

Look - no hands!

"A Chinese man has lifted a 75kg barbell for 10 seconds - with his penis."
Ananova

Uncyclopedia

"Uncyclopedia is an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies. It's sort of like Congress or Parliament. Unlike Congress or Parliament, however, we do have a sense of humor. Nonetheless, this one of the only factual pages, before everything turns into a puddle of utter confusion and disarray. Savor it. And for the love of Sophia, we know you like disarray, but stop adding confusion to this page to spite the disclaimer."
Uncyclopedia

PhD research degrees: Entry and completion

This report examines the rates of completion for a cohort of students attending UK higher education institutions who began a doctorate degree mainly by research in academic year 1996-97. It is intended to inform discussion about the quality of supervision of postgraduate research in general, and the time and rate of PhD completion in particular.
[ summary | .pdf ]

Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers

"The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker."
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Guys Don’t Link

Burningbird

Colorization Using Optimization

"Colorization is a computer-assisted process of adding color to a monochrome image or movie. The process typically involves segmenting images into regions and tracking these regions across image sequences. Neither of these tasks can be performed reliably in practice; consequently, colorization requires considerable user intervention and remains a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive task.

In this paper we present a simple colorization method that requires neither precise image segmentation, nor accurate region tracking. Our method is based on a simple premise: neighboring pixels in space-time that have similar intensities should have similar colors. We formalize this premise using a quadratic cost function and obtain an optimization problem that can be solved efficiently using standard techniques. In our approach an artist only needs to annotate the image with a few color scribbles, and the indicated colors are automatically propagated in both space and time to produce a fully colorized image or sequence. We demonstrate that high quality colorizations of stills and movie clips may be obtained from a relatively modest amount of user input."
Colorization Using Optimization

Ex-Marine Says Public Version of Saddam Capture Fiction

"A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated."
13WHAM.com

Wikipedia:Best of BJAODN

Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
Wikipedia:Best of BJAODN
Link thanks to Vanessa.

Geography predicts human genetic diversity

"By analyzing the relationship between the geographic location of current human populations in relation to East Africa and the genetic variability within these populations, researchers have found new evidence for an African origin of modern humans.
[...]
The loss of genetic diversity along colonization routes is smooth, with no obvious genetic discontinuity, thus suggesting that humans cannot be accurately classified in discrete ethnic groups or races on a genetic basis."
EurekAlert!

Finger length 'key to aggression'

"The length of a man's fingers can reveal how physically aggressive he is, Canadian scientists have said."
BBC NEWS

The wrong conclusions

"Do women lack an "intrinsic aptitude" for science as Harvard's Lawrence Summers surmised? John Sutherland doesn't have data to disprove it, but he knows when a man is wrong"
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Seven years to the next 9/11, physicists predict

"Statistical laws suggest a terrorist attack deadlier than the World Trade Center disaster will occur within seven years, if current trends continue, two researchers say."
World Science

Torture Victim Found Bound, Genitals Cut Off

"A trail of blood on some stairs in South Florida led police to the discovery of a bound and gagged man who had been tortured, including having his genitals cut off, according to a Local 6 News report."
local6.com

Anchorage woman cut off boyfriend's penis, police say

"Surgeons reattached an Anchorage man's penis over the weekend after his girlfriend, apparently upset over a pending breakup, cut it off with a kitchen knife, Anchorage police said Sunday."
adn.com

Wisconsin man accused of having sex with calves

"A 63-year-old man is charged with sexual gratification with an animal for allegedly having sex with calves."
suntimes.com

Train Sex

A Wells man has received a suspended jail sentence for committing a lewd act as a train rolled past, and for committing a similar offense — without the train — a year earlier.
Rutland Herald

Woman Accused Of Naked Dog Wrestling

"A 40-year-old woman described as a transient was jailed in Grand Junction -- accused of jumping a fence to wrestle naked with a dog."
TheDenverChannel.com

Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon

"The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture."
New Scientist

Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments of the Web

Inspired by 10x10, an online artwork by Jonathan Harris.
Yahoo!

Ecstasy trials for combat stress

"American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares."
The Guardian

Why breasts sag and will bras prevent breasts from sagging?

007b.com

Who Says A Woman Can't Be Einstein?

'Yes, men's and women's brains are different. But new research upends the old myths about who's good at what. A tour of the ever changing brain'
TIME Magazine

Compete last, finish first

From song contests to figure-skating, the order of contestants biases decisions.
nature.com