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WorldWeird: [Closed] NEWSTRANGE -- the Informus Thread (Closes 20th May)

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  1.  (10627.1)
    One of my greatest aims is to make Whitechapel a nexus for Desirable Information.

    Memes, virals, that which makes you laugh, that which makes your bowels weep; anything found or scavenged online which has no informative value: that stuff will continue to go in “Around The Net.” I’ll be updating that once every four weeks too.

    This…? This is for everything else.

    News Stories. Mad Science. Horrific Nature. Metaphysical madness.

    Here is where we gorge ourselves on the creamy clostrum of Information. Here is where we nuzzle at the red-raw teat of the Up-To-Date Dataweb. Bring me the light of your Weird Wisdom and your New News.

    (Anything of particular interest, go ahead and create new threads in this category to delve deeper.)
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.2)
  3.  (10627.3)
    The news itself is pretty dull, but the writer gets points for the headline - Bin Laden death ship docks in Aussie port
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.4)
    @Kosmopolit:

    Obviously, this means we should thoroughly rat-proof buckyball containment facilities.
    • CommentAuthor256
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.5)
    Popocatépetl, a volcano 70km from Mexico City, is stirring.

    The fear is that an ash cloud (Eyjafjallajökull-style) could paralyse Mexico City, home to 9 million people. Some sites are saying that more than 30 million people live within sight of Popocatépetl, which in and of itself is a pretty remarkable statistic.
    • CommentAuthorArgos
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.6)
    When my sister was at uni in Puebla she could see Popocatepetl from the campus. She said the rooftops were ashen when it started smoking while she was there.
  7.  (10627.7)
    What's a buckyball?
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.8)
    @magnusisasillyname:

    An exotic carbon molecule. It looks like a soccer ball, or one those many-sided D&D dice.

    They keep finding odd uses for them.
  9.  (10627.9)
    I just spent a good couple of hours trying to get my head round that, and I'm still no further forward than your reply, Stefan. Thanks tho. :)
  10.  (10627.10)
    It's basically a tiny molecule in sort of a sphere shape. It's named after Buckminster Fuller, who was a rather brilliant designer of things like geodesic domes--domes that are actually made of flat polygonal plates. Basically, the idea is that if you get a bunch of atoms together in a shape made of tiny pentagons, it forms this strong ball-like structure that does rather strange things.

    It's kind of similar to carbon nanotubes, if you're familiar with those, in that it's a bunch of carbon atoms arranged in totally abnormal ways.

    Does that help a little bit?
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.11)
    MSNBC appears to have scooped the Planetary Resources announcement planned for tomorrow.

    The short version: cheap space telescopes to launch starting within 18 months, followed by some sort of space tug and resource extraction package within 3-5 years.

    It sounds like they want to target carbonaceous asteroids so I'm assuming they plan to fractionally distill them in space to get water and Oxygen and other gases.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.12)
    Magnus- you've heard of gaphite right? Carbon atoms arranged in a flat sheet?

    Buckminsterfullerene (aka Buckyballs) is what you get when you take a single layer of graphite and fold it up into a sphere.

    Nanotubes, which Keeper mentioned, are sort-of distorted buckyballs stretched out and with holes at the ends.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2012
     (10627.13)
    A powered exoskeleton will be going on sale soon in Japan. (where else?)

    The fact that it'll be used to move nursing home patients around rather than to fight aliens seems to sum up the 21st century so far.
  14.  (10627.14)
    Just a reminder: in Facebook, Google+ or other such free services you are not the customer - you are the merchandize.

    Here’s How Much Money Facebook Makes Off of You
  15.  (10627.15)
    I'm actually OK with someone paying Facebook for the right to advertise discreet male catheters and niche dating services in my sidebar. I guess if I'm the merchandise, at some point they're going to try and return me?
    • CommentAuthorKradlum
    • CommentTimeApr 24th 2012
     (10627.16)
    I thought those catheter ads were just for me :(
    •  
      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeApr 24th 2012
     (10627.17)
    @ Kosmopolit

    Eventually those things will make it to America. And then somebody will film Real Steel Geezer Fights featuring them. Prior to this there will probably be a version filmed in Japan, that will involve schoolgirls and vagina bubbles that will be even more awesome.
  18.  (10627.18)
    You want to hear Damon Alburn's Alan Moore-influenced opera about Dr. John Dee? It's streaming on NPR right now.
    •  
      CommentAuthorkperkins
    • CommentTimeApr 24th 2012 edited
     (10627.19)
    877 Dolphins wash up dead in Peru
    Somehow I think Spurrier has something to do with this.
    •  
      CommentAuthorFinagle
    • CommentTimeApr 24th 2012
     (10627.20)
    Why? Were their blowholes dialated?

21 to 40 of 123

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