inkDot - your daily news aggregator

Provided by: boingboing.net162010-09-09 01:57:50blogs / boingboing.net /: I'm not sure which is more magical and wondrous: That it is apparently possible to buy a bag of the little, perfectly stale marshmallows normally only found mixed with terrible cereal, or that one buys bags of little, perfectly stale marshmallows care of a company called Discount Herbals. That odd business plan leads to such cognitively dissonant quotes as: Cerealmarshmallows.com is positive that once you have tried our products, the results you experience will prove that no other herbal or vitamin nutritional supplements compare. I haven't decided yet whether I think this is a joke site. Part of me (the part that wants to buy a bag of little, perfectly stale marshmallows) hopes it's not. Via rstevens...

Provided by: boingboing.net172010-09-09 02:10:25blogs / boingboing.net /: The Taiwanese tabloid animators recently profiled in Wired have done it again: a CGI retelling of the war between the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Animated Arthur Sulzberger, and Rupert Murdoch striking a Michael Bay action-movie pose, flanked by helicopters....

Provided by: boingboing.net182010-09-09 01:39:09blogs / boingboing.net /: Just in case I wasn't already in awe of the scientific progress made during my own lifetime, Lauren Submitterated (it's a verb now) this video showing the mind-blowing numbers of asteroids that have been discovered since 1980. Created by Scott Manley—and with some very lovely music, I might add—the video shows new discoveries in white, then changes their color to reflect position in relation to the inner solar system. Earth crossers are red. Earth approachers are yellow. All others are green. Manley's included a lot of good information about what the patterns of where and when new asteroids appear in the video tell us about astronomy over over the last 30 years. Notice now the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit, most discoveries are made in the region directly opposite the Sun. You'll also notice some clusters of discoveries on the line between Earth and Jupiter, these are the result of surveys looking for Jovian moons. Similar clusters of discoveries can be tied to the other outer planets, but those are not visible in this video. As the video moves into the mid 1990's we see much higher discovery rates as automated sky scanning systems come online. Most of the surveys are imaging the sky directly opposite the sun and you'll see a region of high discovery rates aligned in this manner. At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. These new observations are the result of the WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) which is a space mission that's tasked with imaging the entire sky in infrared wavelengths. Video: Return of the Hayabusa asteroid mission capsule New black spot on Jupiter -- from comet, asteroid? 400-meter asteroid currently has 1-in-60 chance of hitting Earth ... Human mission to an asteroid? Discovering asteroid craters using Google Earth...

Provided by: boingboing.net192010-09-09 01:43:46blogs / boingboing.net /: My favorite new one-note-samba image blog: Turtles Eating Things. There's a Facebook Fan page, too. I like turtles. (via @seanbonner)...

Provided by: boingboing.net202010-09-09 01:35:24blogs / boingboing.net /: Keita Takahashi, the gaming visionary responsible for Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, is reported to have departed Namco Bandai this week. (via BB Submitterator, thanks Toma)...

Provided by: gapingvoid.com211970-01-01 00:00:00blogs / gapingvoid.com /: Image: http://evavhost.com/i/news/jade_raymond_running_crew.jpg According to a study conducted by the University of Liverpool in the UK, the percentage of women actively employed in the games industry has fallen to just 4%. This is a significant drop from the 8% reported in 2006. Why the... "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" [The "Life Is Too Short" print...] I first started playing with the idea of “Smarter-Conversations” way back in 2004, the same year gapingvoid really started getting traction in the blogopsphere. Though not something I talk about day-in-day-out, it’s always been there somewhere in the background, informing everything I work on. Here are some notes: 1. [...]

Provided by: boingboing.net221970-01-01 00:00:00blogs / boingboing.net /: A new trailer for Gareth Edwards' Monsters has come online and can be watched using the player below. The official description from Magnet (a division of Magnolia Pictures) is as follows: Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and grow. In an effort to stem the destruction that resulted, half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain the massive creatures... Our story begins when a jaded US journalist (McNairy) begrudgingly agrees to find his bossHeroRats are rodents who have been specially trained to sniff out unexploded landmines. The Dutch organization Anti-Personnel Land Mines Detection Product Development (APOPO), first referenced on BB in 2004, use Pavlovian conditioning to teach the rats to detect the scent of TNT and then send them to Mozambique for final testing and deployment. From CNN (image Goooutside/Wikimedia Commons): Their olfactory senses are superb. They're native to Africa, so tropical disease is no problem, and they rarely weigh more than the 3 to 10 kilograms required to trip a mine, (APOPO chief of mine action and human security Havard) Bach said. It also helps that the mine-sniffing rats are not bonded to individual trainers or prone to ennui, as dogs are, he said. "If you compare them to canine mine detectors, it's pretty much the same in terms of sensitivity and capability," Bach said, noting that dogs are better equipped to work in brush or high grass that might conceal a rat. "Rats are not going to oust dogs in this industry, but it's a very positive complement," he added. "You could say they work for peanuts." "Giant rats put noses to work on Africa's land mine epidemic" Giant pouched rats sniff out landmines...

Provided by: boingboing.net232010-09-08 20:43:07blogs / boingboing.net /: HeroRats are rodents who have been specially trained to sniff out unexploded landmines. The Dutch organization Anti-Personnel Land Mines Detection Product Development (APOPO), first referenced on BB in 2004, use Pavlovian conditioning to teach the rats to detect the scent of TNT and then send them to Mozambique for final testing and deployment. From CNN (image Goooutside/Wikimedia Commons): Their olfactory senses are superb. They're native to Africa, so tropical disease is no problem, and they rarely weigh more than the 3 to 10 kilograms required to trip a mine, (APOPO chief of mine action and human security Havard) Bach said. It also helps that the mine-sniffing rats are not bonded to individual trainers or prone to ennui, as dogs are, he said. "If you compare them to canine mine detectors, it's pretty much the same in terms of sensitivity and capability," Bach said, noting that dogs are better equipped to work in brush or high grass that might conceal a rat. "Rats are not going to oust dogs in this industry, but it's a very positive complement," he added. "You could say they work for peanuts." "Giant rats put noses to work on Africa's land mine epidemic" Giant pouched rats sniff out landmines...

Provided by: boingboing.net242010-09-08 20:24:39blogs / boingboing.net /: In 1988, Batman joined the War On Drugs to fight an Ecstasy-fueled killer and the pusher who got him high. Erowid has scanned several pages of the issue, Detective Comics #594. "Batman Ecstasy-Villain Commentary" (via Dose Nation)...

Provided by: gapingvoid.com252010-09-03 18:45:55blogs / gapingvoid.com /: ...give Jack Bauer the movie he deserves! by J.A. Hamilton We all have our favorite shows, but to be honest I didn"cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" [The "Life Is Too Short" print...] I first started playing with the idea of “Smarter-Conversations” way back in 2004, the same year gapingvoid really started getting traction in the blogopsphere. Though not something I talk about day-in-day-out, it’s always been there somewhere in the background, informing everything I work on. Here are some notes: 1. [...]

Provided by: gapingvoid.com262010-09-03 18:45:55blogs / gapingvoid.com /: [The "Life Is Too Short" print...] I first started playing with the idea of “Smarter-Conversations” way back in 2004, the same year gapingvoid really started getting traction in the blogopsphere. Though not something I talk about day-in-day-out, it’s always been there somewhere in the background, informing everything I work on. Here are some notes: 1. [...]

Provided by: boingboing.net272010-09-08 18:36:42blogs / boingboing.net /: (Video Link) The talented D.C. Douglas wrote, produced, and voiced this fake commercial making fun of Koran-burning hate mongers....

Provided by: boingboing.net282010-09-08 18:26:26blogs / boingboing.net /: What the Fuck Should I Make For Dinner? offers meal suggestions with links to recipes....

Provided by: boingboing.net292010-09-08 17:56:31blogs / boingboing.net /: (Video link) Amy (with the help of her friends Ben and Brian) attached 100 $1 bills to a tree on a public street. She says she did it "just to see what would happen." A lot of passers by didn't notice the tree. A lot of them noticed the tree but kept walking. A lot of them took one bill. A few took more than one. What would have happened if Amy had attached $100 bills to the tree instead of $1 bills? (Via Cynical-C)...

Provided by: boingboing.net302010-09-08 18:12:42blogs / boingboing.net /: Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story, by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Alexander Shulgin is a well known psychedelic chemist, and he has synthesized hundreds of drugs, which he and his wife Ann have taken and written about in Pihkal (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved) and in their follow up book, Tihkal (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved). Fortunately for Alexander, he has a Drug Enforcement Administration Analytical License that allows him to possess, identify, and analyze drugs that would land other psychonauts in the slammer. Vice recently sent Hamilton Morris ("VBS’s resident expert in all substances mind-bending") to the Shulgins' home in Northern California for a video interview. After spending days, weeks, months poring over the work of psychonaut-in-chief, Alexander Shulgin, Hamilton Morris mustered up the chutzpah to give him a call and request an interview. The result is this: an epic love-fest on the man who birthed Ecstasy in a test-tube. Hamilton visits the Shulgin residence (in San Francisco, naturally) and tempers his fanboy freakout with a rare and intensive look at the home and laboratory that caused the balls of millions to trip. SiHKAL: Shulgins I Have Known and Loved - Hamilton's Pharmacopeia | VBS.TV...

▼ next page

▲ prev page