The Onion, Chinese Edition The Onion just rolled out this morning with an elaborate “Chinese edition.” They were apparently bought out by the Chinese Yu Wan Mei company, which before entering the newspaper business was a salvage fishery, whatever that means. (The title literally translates to “Fish are perfect.”) Some choice headlines from this edition: (More…)
Here are two clips of cats purring. One of the clips is from a cat who is happy and content, and the other is from a cat who is hungry and wants you to feed it. Clip 1: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Clip 2: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Can (More…)
Sand Dollars “What’s effective is not the placebo, but the meaning of the treatment,” writes the doctor Harriet Hall in Skeptic Magazine. “We enter into a human relationship with a caring person who offers to help us.” Hall is talking about placebos, those pills used by doctors and scientists that don’t contain any medicine, but (More…)
From today’s NYTimes, on using glass as a construction material: For flat glass, heat tempering…took advantage of one property of glass — that when it cools slowly it becomes denser. By rapidly cooling the exterior of a sheet (usually with air), the surface stays less dense. This is about the process of “tempering” glass to (More…)
Road in Dover, MA If you had asked me a month ago what I imagined life would be like after graduating from college, I would have told you, “more annoying, but pretty much the same. Oh, and more pretty bike rides in the suburbs.” And now, one month and a commencement ceremony–spent in the throes (More…)