Not signed in (Sign In)

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

Bottom of Page

61 to 80 of 123

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. >
  1.  (10627.1)
    But the Indian city (whichever one it is) has melted walls! And huddled skeletons! And ash everywhere! And levels of radioactivity anywhere between 100 and 5,000 times those found in nature! (depending on just how batshit the author of the book you're reading is ;)

    In other news...

    Australian billionaire to rebuild the Titanic in China
  2.  (10627.2)
    Ah yes, Toad of Toad Hall. He's also making a run at public office. Poop! Poop! As a friend of mine asked, who'll be building the iceberg?
    • CommentAuthor256
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2012
     (10627.3)
    That's some A-grade nuttery right there, Seantanclaus. Cheers.

    I like the way that the most obvious explanation for a crude chunk of aluminium is that it's some sort moon-lander clog. Regardless of age, that seems like a pretty outside chance.

    Also, since (conventional wisdom says...) aluminium metal was first created less than 200 years ago, I really wonder what reference/calibration scale they're using for the rate that aluminium ages.
  4.  (10627.4)
    @256 - However, it would make for a great plot point for a game of some sort. Like I said, an interesting read, but in no way did I present it as anything more or less than that. Mind you, just looking at the articles linked off of that page, it's pretty easy to deduce that the site leans heavily toward conspiracy theory and other amusement. ;)
    • CommentAuthorRenThing
    • CommentTimeMay 1st 2012
     (10627.5)
    •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeMay 1st 2012
     (10627.6)
    • CommentAuthorflecky
    • CommentTimeMay 2nd 2012
     (10627.7)
    It was the wettest April since humanity could be bothered to record things like that.
    •  
      CommentAuthorphill_sea
    • CommentTimeMay 2nd 2012
     (10627.8)
    The entire history of the observable universe, all 13.7 billion years of it, has been for the first time successfully modeled by six scientists using a French supercomputer.

    Called the Dark Energy Universe Simulation (DEUS): full universe run, the historic supercomputer simulation created and tracked 550 billion particles, each the mass of our own Milky Way galaxy or greater, that were thought to be created in the Big Bang — the seminal expansive event that scientists believe birthed all matter into existence — to the present day.

    The simulation was run over a two-week period in mid-March on the CURIE supercomputer housed at the Très Grand Centre de Calcul (Very Large Computing Center) in Bruyères-le-Châtel, a commune in Northern France.

    http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/entire-observable-universe-modeled.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

    And so on.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeMay 2nd 2012
     (10627.9)
    Arizona has been called "The Meth Lab of Democracy." The latest entry:

    Armored gunman, 4 people dead in Arizona shooting
    A man equipped with several firearms and body armor killed four people, including a toddler, on Wednesday in Gilbert, Ariz., authorities told azcentral.com. They believe he then killed himself.

    J. T. Ready, a neo-Nazi and member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, was among the dead, according to azcentral.com. It is unclear what role he played in the shootings.


    Photo caption:
    "J. T. Ready, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, was among five dead at a shooting at a home in Gilbert, Arizona. He was running for Pinal County Sheriff."

    Sheriff. Of course.
    • CommentAuthorcardo
    • CommentTimeMay 2nd 2012
     (10627.10)
  11.  (10627.11)
    @DJ Stawes - It's in place, I'm on Virgin and last night got the following message:
    Sorry, the web page you have requested is not available through Virgin Media.

    Virgin Media has received an order from the Courts requiring us to prevent access to this site in order to help protect against copyright infringement.


    The solution? www.hidemyass.com

    Sorted. Thanks Internet! Thankternet!
    •  
      CommentAuthorOsmosis
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2012
     (10627.12)
    Blinternet.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeMay 4th 2012 edited
     (10627.13)
    A new dock lets you use your high-end smartphone as a home computer.

    Now someone needs to come up with a similar gadget for use with the lower-powered phones used by the majority of phone users - the ones in middle and low-income countries.

    My old Nokia probably has more processing power than my Amstrad or Commodore Amiga did.
    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeMay 5th 2012
     (10627.14)
    Dutch artist kills her sick cat, turns its skin into a purse, gets 100,000 threatening emails, publishes them in a book.

    When I broke the neck of my sick cat and then made a handbag of her skin, I honestly had no idea of what I had got myself into.

    The project was an artwork entitled My dearest cat Pinkeltje, with which I wanted to launch a discussion about hypocrisy. We simultaneously keep animals both as part of our families and as a commodity to be consumed. We live in a culture where the origin of our food or clothing is seldom seen, and we hand our sick pets over to an expert to be given a lethal injection to end their suffering. Did you know that there is still disagreement about the so-called "painless" euthanasia performed by professional vets? People in rural areas – where they take such matters into their own hands – laugh at these tales from the city.

    I decided those threats had to be turned into a book. For almost a year, the editor Coralie Vogelaar studied the contents of my mailbox and researched the writers' identities online. The hate mails were categorised, and in total we defined 12 variations of content and format, which became the book's chapters. We published not only the hate mails, but also all the information we found on the Facebook profiles, Amazon wish lists, and YouTube accounts that were linked to the email addresses. The combination of the data often gave a very comprehensive picture of the "private" lives of these people. In some instances, we even found pictures of their houses on Google maps. Most of those menacing emails were sent by people who appeared quite normal: sweet-looking teenage girls, policemen, housewives, office workers. With only a few exceptions, these were not people you would expect to brawl, let alone issue a death threat.
    • CommentAuthorArgos
    • CommentTimeMay 5th 2012
     (10627.15)
    Oh hey, I remember when that site about how to make a purse out of your cat was up. I remember being really disgusted cos I couldn't find any information about "oh, this cat was sick and needed to be put down" or anything similar. At the time I really thought she had just found some cat and killed it to make a purse for fun. I did not email her any death threats.
    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeMay 5th 2012
     (10627.16)
    I think her point is to make us wonder why it disgusts us if someone kills a random cat to make a purse out of its skin, but not if it's a cow.
    •  
      CommentAuthorStoto
    • CommentTimeMay 6th 2012
     (10627.17)
    @Wood Gary Francione calls that'Moral Schizophrenia'.
  18.  (10627.18)
    Fortune Teller used Google to Speak to the Dead

    "One woman told how she had believed the two Roma women were genuine mystics, and had been persuaded to take tens of thousands of pounds and go to a nearby lake for a midnight ritual. She had been told that she had to release herself from the burden of her money and throw it all in the lake – but when she hesitated a demon like figure had emerged from the water and in a panic – she had thrown the money into the water and run away. But police discovered that the water devil was in fact a pal of the pair who had put on diving gear and a mask to terrify the unsuspecting victim."
    •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeMay 6th 2012
     (10627.19)
    @Wood @Stoto

    I call it give me a catburger and then we'll decide.
  20.  (10627.20)
    I have a lot of friends who are cramming for the start of their exams this week.

    But they are mere amateurs compared to this....

    An entire class of high school students receive IV drips while cramming for exams
    The original uploader, “CHImushroom”, is a senior student at a high school in Xiaogan, central China’s Hubei province. In the photo, the classroom is brightly lit up late in the evening. On each desk, piles of books take up much space. Wires are installed above desks for hanging IV-drip dispensing bottles. Another animated gif picture offers a panoramic view of the classroom with a teacher standing in the front giving a lecture. “CHImushroom” joked in her microblogging post on Weibo, “This teacher, faced with such an intimidating scene, how did you manage to stand firm and hold it?”

61 to 80 of 123

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. >