It's the Law!
The law of unintended consequences, that is. It seems that, as the Mega Lo Marts introduce auto-scanning checkout kiosks to feed customers through more "efficiently," people are buying fewer of those impulsive point-of-purchase items.
Wes Phillips
The Sofa-Moving Constant
"What is the greatest possible area for a sofa S that can be moved around a right-angled corner in a hallway of unit width? It's assumed only that S is a connected region of the plane."
Yo Ho Ho!
And a bottle, too. Wayne Curtis considers The History of the New World in 10 Cocktails.
Dance Like A Monkey!
I've never been a huge New York Dolls fan, but I like the energy of this single—and I love the cameo by the Flying Spaghetti Monster at the end of the clip.
Get the Feeling You've Already Heard This?
"Leeds Memory Group researchers say they have gone some way to recreating the sensation [of deja vu] in the lab using hypnosis."
Worst Fast Food Idea Ever?
The competition's fierce, but KFC's new Famous Bowls just might take the, um, cake, according to Dan Neil.
Mark Fleischmann's Blog
Over at Home Theater's website, Fleischmann's arch blend of understatement and geekiness is the sort of stuff I wish I could write consistently. A recommended daily read. Yes, I know him, and yes, I share an employer with him, but this encomium comes from the heart.
Faster In Reverse?
The Register reports that scientists have developed a material with a negative refractive index, which means it causes light to bounce off it "backwards" at speeds that "appear faster than the speed of light."
All About Great Britain
George Saunders checks out the motherland.
The Sleeping Sickness
Fans of Sandman will recognize this outbreak as one of the points of departure for the story arc begun in issue #1. What they may not realize is that Neil Gaiman wasn't making up the Sleeping Sickness: there really was an outbreak of Encephalitis lethargica from 1916 through the '20s.