Showing tag results for Non-Computer

Small electronics nowadays come in those impossible-to-open plastic packages. A few weeks ago I tried to open one and managed not to slice my hand with the knife I was using. (Those who know me know that knives and I don't get along well.) Unfortunately, I failed to pay close attention to the sharp edges of the cut plastic and ended up cutting thre...

Is there nothing a Game Boy can't do? We already learned that it can be played like a musical instrument. Now we discover that letting children play with a Game Boy before surgery is more effective than tranquilizers or a parent's hand at keeping them calm. You know when you go to the dentist and she asks you, "What flavor fluoride rinse would...

It's easy to distribute points evenly across a flat surface, but doing so over a curved surface is a much more complicated problem. Even spheres are hard. NPR's Scott Simon interviews mathematician Ed Saff who with colleague Doug Hardin has developed a new method of attacking this complex problem. Press release from Vanderbilt University. You ...

The Canadian Medical Association Journal traditionally runs an offbeat research paper in their Christmas edition, for which there is apparently huge competition. This year, Tintin goes to the neurologist. The feedback is fun to read too. (External news coverage here and here.) My first exposure to Tintin was—of course—in Sweden. ...

The International Chicken Sequencing Consortium announced that it has completed the sequencing of chicken DNA. I repeat: There is an organization called "The International Chicken Sequencing Consortium". (For some reason I want to think these people get together and decide, "Okay, Ginger goes first, then Bunty, then Babs...")

When I started studying Swedish, my web searches happened to alight upon Francis Strand's blog thanks to its wonderful title, "How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons", and I've been following his musings on life on Stockholm ever since. Wednesday morning, an apartment just a block away from his own exploded under curious circumstances. ...

In an operation straight out of a James Bond movie, a trio of gamblers used a laser range-finder hidden in a mobile phone to predict the likeliest landing spot of a roulette ball, reducing the odds from 37-1 to 6-1. Scotland Yard concluded that they did nothing illegal and were allowed to keep their winnings. I wonder how long it'll be befor...

Shortage of sleep is linked to obesity , according to research published yesterday. Lack of sleep boosts levels of a hormone that triggers appetite and lowers levels of a hormone that tells your body it is full according to the team. The scientists will now study whether obese people should sleep more to lose weight.

I enjoy poking around diploma mills. Especially the ones that spam my inbox. Like Kennedy-Western University, which describes itself like so: Since 1984 Kennedy-Western University (KWU) has provided distance and online degree programs to over 30,000 students. KWU is one of the largest non-accredited online universities in the United States. ... ...

The makers of a certain major brand of detergent which I will not name (but which for the purposes of this discussion will be called "Snide") appears to take every step to exploit inattentive customers. A box of Snide detergent powder comes with instructions indicating that for a normal-sized load, you should use 3/8 cup of detergent; for a large...