December 2008
35 posts
Who Says Java Programmers Don't Have A Sense Of... →
I’ve heard the stereotypes about Java programmers being uptight nerds who don’t know how to cut loose. Well, that’s about as far from the truth as Enterprise is from Gene Roddenberry’s original…
Google Reader API is Coming Soon →
Shared by Paresh
repost from 2005? FAIL
Google confirms a Reader API is perhaps only a month away from a public release. Web technologist and blogger Niall Kennedy, recently posted on…
The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gollancz S.F.) →
Book — £4.68
Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet →
Book — £9.49
Fools →
Book — Click on product link to check availability
The Manuscript →
Book — £4.27
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your... →
Book — £13.01
How can I sleepwalk more productively? →
Shared by Paresh
The ultimate lifehack.
I’m a sleepwalker. While asleep I can accomplish basic tasks, but nothing which requires higher brain function. I’ve heard of lucid dreaming; is there any…
Viagra Is the Latest Bioweapon in the CIA's... →
Today CIA officials have admitted that one way they secure loyalty in hard-to-penetrate regions like rural Afghanistan is to bribe people with Viagra. Covert operators have often used trinkets and…
The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live... →
Book — £5.86
The Last Theorem →
Book — £11.10
tina fey - cupcake eater →
(2008-12-09 07:56)
2008: The Year Science Fiction Became Science... →
This year, the top twenty movies in the US grossed 3.7 billion dollars. Science fiction movies accounted for 2.5 billion of that. In 2008, scifi rocketed out of the basement to become scicult.
40 years of Earth →
It’s the anniversary of an undersung Christmas moment today, which also happens to be the event of possibly one of the most important photographs ever taken, the Earthrise picture, taken by the…
NO REALLY →
THE DUSTBIN LORRY JUST CAME AND ALL THE BIN MEN ARE WEARING FATHER CHRISTMAS OUTFITS (WITH CITY COUNCIL FLUORESCENT JACKETS ON TOP).
Yoz: The National Autistic Society - Children with... →
A fast - but fascinating and affecting - page on the special bond that autistic children have with Thomas. It’s the calm narration, still background and scenery, the movement of trains along fixed…
Optogenetic therapy for spinal cord injury →
Shared by Paresh
Mind control lasers.
Optogenetics is a recently developed technique based on microbial proteins called channelrhodopsins (ChRs), which render neurons sensitive to light when…
Space Shuttle Coming To London? →
The space shuttle Endeavour’s final flight could be to South Kensington. NASA plans to sell off its aging orbiters after decommissioning the fleet in 2010. Today, London’s Science Museum…
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is...”
– James D. Nicoll
Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little... →
Book — Click on product link to check availability
Ventus →
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Dressing the Man →
Book — £18.74
Comfort with meaninglessness the key to good... →
Ed. Note: Boing Boing’s current guestblogger Clay Shirky is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. He teaches at the Interactive…
"My left at floods turned upside down" →
James Hook ran the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air through Microsoft’s speech recognition mechanism. I pulled up to the house around seven or eight And I yield to the cabbie your…
A recipe for industrial transformation →
When Tom Raftery pointed me to this gloomy assessment I had to go back and remind myself of what I found hopeful in Saul Griffith’s extraordinary energy talk at ETech.
Saul concedes a…
Stubble indicator →
I AM regularly asked, by non-natives, if the financial crisis has turned New York into a ghost town. They picture the once trendy and bustling restaurants and bars empty. I don’t frequent the trendy…
What if Crossrail got full, legally-binding,... →
There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, “Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!”
UFO in Her Eyes →
Book — £8.57
Inside a frozen pizza factory →
Video of the inner workings of a mostly automatic Irish frozen pizza factory. I like the tomato sauce shooter (the way it tracks along with the pizzas briefly as they whiz by on the conveyor belt)…
Don’t Look →
Someone called Julia, who plainly didn’t include her last name for fear of reprisals, sent me a link. It came with the message “I’m just sending you this because you posted that damned video of the…
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long Term... →
Fourth Estate (2002), Paperback, 275 pages
The Turing Test by Chris Beckett →
jobbi’s review: “Thoughtful, well-written stories of just the right length.” Elastic Press (2008), Paperback, 200 pages
Crooked Little Vein: A Novel (P.S.) by Warren... →
Harper Perennial (2008), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 304 pages