The Earth Dies!
Bad Astronomy (gotta love that name) hosts a video animation of what would happen if a 500-mile wide asteroid hit the Earth. Yes, I could have embedded the YouTube video here, but I found BA's comments worthwhile.
Wes Phillips
This Is Not My Jetpack
But the Ace Craft Gen H-4 personal helicopter is pretty darn cool. If you have a Y chromosome, I bet you want one, too.
Red States, Blue States, Yellow States, Green States
The linguistic distribution of the generic names for soft drinks.
Continental Aikido
Conventional wisdom holds that continental strength relies upon the solidity of rock at a depth of 15km and that below that pressure and heat cause the rock to flow as liquid. Not so fast, say Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Roberto F Weinberg, and Gideon Rosenbaum. Their new study says that "through dynamic interaction the strongest part becomes the weakest."
Girls Have Gotten Prettier
As my buddy Jeff and I were walking around the neighborhood recently, I was struck by how many drop-dead gorgeous high-school age girls there were. Feeling sort of dumb for asking, I said, "Is it my imagination or have girls gotten prettier since we were in high school?"
IBM's Primer on Quantum Teleportation
It is theoretically possible, but they'd have to destroy the original. You go first.
What's a Meta For?
Metaphors help us understand the universe, but what if they're really helping us get it wrong?
"You Always Get a Subway Seat. . ."
"When you're carrying a book with the big fat title Embalming." Lisa Takeuchi Cullen has written a gentle update to The American Way of Death. Putting aside her statement that "death is a big, huge bummer," it sounds interesting.
The Paping Soapbox Derby
C'mon, 'fess up—don't you wish you lived in Brooklyn?
Oregon Judge Rules Fixed Gear Bicycles Illegal
Fixed gear bikes, in case you don't know, have no freewheel, which means that if the rear wheel is turning, you're peddling. There's no coasting on a fixie—and braking is a matter of leg power.