idealog

Canadian Anti-Piracy Outfit Pirates Photos for its Website

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:19 -0400

Canadian Anti-Piracy Outfit Pirates Photos for its Website:

[Canipre] want to change people’s attitudes toward piracy and make a few bucks in the process. However, it appears that the attitude change should start closer to home, as their own website blatantly uses photos that have been ripped-off from independent photographers.

The unintended consequences of bike lanes

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:20:25 -0400

The unintended consequences of bike lanes:

as I’ve watched a busy stretch of road convert from no bike lanes to bike lanes, here’s what I’ve noticed most: more people park illegally. Somehow the bike lane operates as a permission to “temporarily” park at the side of the road… this doesn’t mean cities shouldn’t install bike lanes. But they also need to adjust the rules about temporary parking. And schmucks need to learn that walking an extra half block to get your double tall carmel latte won’t kill you… and as an extra bonus, it would make it even less likely to kill me

#theBest Pumpcast News - The Tonight Show. Amazing and adorable.

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:20:08 -0400

#theBest Pumpcast News - The Tonight Show. Amazing and adorable.

Must read: Out in the Great Alone

Sat, 11 May 2013 14:43:59 -0400

Must read: Out in the Great Alone:

Flying through the pass was — how can I put this — awesome. I mean in the sense of inspiring genuine awe. You are a dot moving among white clouds. White cliffs break through the clouds and you fly beside them… For much of the crossing the snow makes it impossible to tell where the ground is, and then when you spot it, it’s crazy, striations of ice and rock like the inside of a marble. It doesn’t seem to exist in any measurable relation to where you are. (Even crazier: the occasional glimpse of mushers and dog teams moving against this background, upside-down i’s crossing a sheet of crushed-up paper.) Little canyon-like channels go wriggling off the main path. I don’t know what to tell you… it’s like passing into another world.

NYC Study Finds Protected Bicycle Lanes Boost Local Business

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:40:22 -0400

NYC Study Finds Protected Bicycle Lanes Boost Local Business:

NYC DOT found that protected bikeways had a significant positive impact on local business strength. After the construction of a protected bicycle lane on 9th Avenue, local businesses saw a 49% increase in retail sales. In comparison, local businesses throughout Manhattan only saw a 3% increase in retail sales.

GeoGuessr - Let's explore the world!

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:31 -0400

GeoGuessr - Let's explore the world!:

Guess where in the world Google street-view has taken you.

Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably)

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:00:55 -0400

Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably):

You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach.

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:30:56 -0400

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

The cost of scrapping the long-form census

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:03:01 -0400

The cost of scrapping the long-form census:

it would seem to have cost more money to produce less reliable data.

Here is Today, an interactive HTML5 site illustrating the scale...

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:00:00 -0400

Here is Today, an interactive HTML5 site illustrating the scale of time on Earth. (via swissmiss)

SquareBob SpongeMix (by Nick Bertke)

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:20:05 -0400

SquareBob SpongeMix (by Nick Bertke)

Gays Beware with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:40:09 -0400

Gays Beware with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei

Why Isn't Gatsby in the Public Domain?

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:20:21 -0400

Why Isn't Gatsby in the Public Domain?:

Yes, even though F. Scott Fitzgerald died 73 years ago (and is therefore unlikely to be incentivized to produce more work), The Great Gatsby is still restricted by copyright.

A wave of rock shaped by wind and rain towers above a plain in...

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:40:26 -0400

A wave of rock shaped by wind and rain towers above a plain in Western Australia, September 1963.
Photograph by Robert B. Goodman, National Geographic

via natgeofound

National Research Council move shifts feds' science role

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:20 -0400

National Research Council move shifts feds' science role:

the executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers said the government is “killing the goose that laid the golden egg.” “By transforming the NRC into a “business-driven, industry-relevant” organization, you are denying its ability to support basic research,” said Jim Turk.

"Throwing is hard. In order to deliver a baseball to a batter, a pitcher has to release the ball at..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:20:14 -0400

“Throwing is hard. In order to deliver a baseball to a batter, a pitcher has to release the ball at exactly the right point in the throw. A timing error of half a millisecond in either direction is enough to cause the ball to miss the strike zone… it takes about five milliseconds for the fastest nerve impulse to travel the length of the arm… In terms of timing, this is like a drummer dropping a drumstick from the 10th story and hitting a drum on the ground on the correct beat.”

- High Throw

A City That Turns Garbage Into Energy Copes With a Shortage

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:40:17 -0400

A City That Turns Garbage Into Energy Copes With a Shortage:

Oslo, a recycling-friendly place where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage — household trash, industrial waste, even toxic and dangerous waste from hospitals and drug arrests — has a problem: it has literally run out of garbage to burn.

"imagine that millions of Americans walk around each day wearing … a device capable of..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:20:00 -0400

“imagine that millions of Americans walk around each day wearing … a device capable of capturing video and audio recordings of everything that happens around them. And imagine that these devices upload the data to large-scale commercial enterprises that are able to collect the recordings from each and every American and integrate them together to form a minute-by-minute tracking of the activities of millions. That is almost precisely the vision of the future that lies directly ahead of us.”

- Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security for George W. Bush, on Google Glass (via Schneier on Security)

APOD: 2013 May 5 - A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:41:00 -0400

APOD: 2013 May 5 - A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana

Enbridge breaks safety rules at pipeline pump stations across Canada

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:00:05 -0400

Enbridge breaks safety rules at pipeline pump stations across Canada:

The biggest oil and gas pipeline company in Canada is breaking National Energy Board safety rules at 117 of its 125 pump stations across the country … the [National Energy Board] admits that it has only just started to concentrate inspections on regulations covering backup power and shut-down systems. The regulations are anywhere from 14 to 19 years old.