MarcAbrahams

MarcAbrahams, 9 months ago to random

"Last year... I suggested to a group of people that it was only a question of time until we saw laws designed to make it impossible for women to travel across state lines. They told me there was no way such a thing could happen in the United States.
And yet, here we are." https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-1-2023?r=2y7i1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

MarcAbrahams, 9 months ago to random

'AI spells trouble for all the Alanas, Alannas, Alannahs, Alainnas, Alans, Alains, Allans, Allens, Alens, Alins, Aluns and other persons whose names begin with the letter pair “A then L” or the pair “A then I”.' [my col in New Scientist] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25934521-800-is-it-ai-or-just-short-for-alan-a-reader-rages-against-the-machine/

MarcAbrahams, 7 months ago to random

Tickets for the Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event at MIT this coming weekend are sold out. But fear not — later this year, we will webcast a video-recording. https://improbable.com/2023/10/17/ig-nobel-face-to-face-event-at-the-mit-museum/

MarcAbrahams, 8 months ago to random

For anyone familiar with Troy Hurtubise (if you're not, see the documentary film "Project Grizzly"), this shopping site is baffling. https://bestenaar.life/product_details/5467500.html

MarcAbrahams, 5 months ago to random

Learning from bivalves https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982223016470?dgcid=rss_sd_all

MarcAbrahams, 7 months ago to random

"Study: No such thing as a 'beautiful scrotum' " https://www.dw.com/en/study-no-such-thing-as-a-beautiful-scrotum/a-67152385

MarcAbrahams, 11 months ago to random

Another mystifying UpIsDown article in the NY Times, painting yet another con man as something of a hero, and painting the people who revealed the con as petty jerks. Nutso: "Uri Geller claimed to bend metal with his mind on live television. Skeptics couldn’t beat him. Now they’ve joined him." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/08/business/uri-geller-magic-deep-fakes.html

MarcAbrahams, 7 months ago to random

This is a rare music video about using a diamond cutting disk to cut an entrapped metal penile ring. The music is Mozart’s piano concerto no. 21 in C major. https://improbable.com/2023/11/09/cutting-of-entrapped-metal-penile-ring-with-diamond-cutting-disk-and-mozart/

MarcAbrahams, 8 months ago to random

"I initially had no intention of watching the whole ceremony, but ended up staying for the hilarious onscreen antics, an incredible array of hats and the impressive amount of accordion played throughout the ceremony. Having never watched the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony before, it was full of surprising moments that I just had to screenshot and send to a friend. I’m not sure words can capture all that went on throughout the ceremony." [Biotechniques] https://www.biotechniques.com/news/scientists-just-want-to-have-fun-the-33rd-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize/

MarcAbrahams, 4 months ago to random

Prizes of various sorts in Lund https://improbable.com/2024/01/16/prizes-of-various-sorts-in-lund/

MarcAbrahams, 7 months ago to random

"The green-and-white sign you see here is plastered on the floor of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. It says: “MAINTAIN 6 FEET THANK YOU”. Upon inquiry, Feedback was told that no, the sign is not a plea to protect and defend our planet’s insects." https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26034622-600-stereotype-busting-study-finds-gamers-are-actually-all-pretty-jolly/

MarcAbrahams, 9 months ago to random

In America, if you work really, really hard at committing crimes, and keep at it long enough, and cover your face with orange war paint every day, you just might get some recognition for your efforts. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/14/trump-indictment-georgia-election-2020/

MarcAbrahams, 5 months ago to random

'We have not reflected enough on the way Trump has used Jan. 6 to debase the GOP, demanding that they forget their near-misses with death at the hands of his thugs to keep his reputation intact. In classic autocratic fashion, Trump is telling them "I am everything, and you are nothing. Your life means nothing next to my security and ability to escape prosecution." And they nod along with him.' https://lucid.substack.com/p/how-trump-uses-jan-6-to-humiliate?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=300941&post_id=140454146&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2y7i1&utm_medium=email

MarcAbrahams, 4 months ago to random

What a spectacle — they velcro-ed themselves to a greedy monster. The chatterbox zombies who now run the Republican party whip themselves ever harder towards some kind of crash. Trump lurches ever harder trying to outrace the legal consequences of his fifty-odd years of fraud and other criminal activities. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-6-2024

MarcAbrahams, 3 months ago to random

Almost everyone who gets old dies. In a gross way, that brief sentence could sum up a Dutch/Danish/British study called “Use of sugar in coffee and tea and long-term risk of mortality in older adult Danish men: 32 years of follow-up from a prospective cohort study“…. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134794-000-just-add-sugar-for-an-almost-death-defying-study-on-tea-and-coffee/

MarcAbrahams, 4 months ago to random

"venture capitalists... are looking for new big opportunities to raise funds and invest portions thereof after extracting appropriate fractions therefrom.

Black hole batteries could be their next big thing, following hard on the flighty footsteps of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, both of which flocks of investors have found to be as compellingly attractive as black holes." https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134731-800-can-you-make-batteries-from-tiny-black-holes-maybe-say-scientists/

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

Another headline that — metaphorically or factually — could and maybe should replace a long-running series of attention-robbing "important news" articles: "R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

MarcAbrahams, 9 months ago to random

Ig Nobel moment on a German train https://armynow.blogspot.com/2023/08/ig-nobel-moment-on-german-train.html?fbclid=IwAR03S4DNkfoE8srtdfHpMnP5e0tDVl4IWovyhtCiIXlOtyYhW49en3npLXE

MarcAbrahams, 8 months ago to random

Portrait of a NYC real estate hustler https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/09/27/donald-trumps-fantasy-self-worth/

MarcAbrahams, 5 months ago to random

Google keeps on finding new ways to make its searches less informative. Now they've stopped giving a count of how many times the searched-for thing occurs. On a gross level (is the searched-for thing rare or common?) that count was useful.

MarcAbrahams, 10 months ago to random

Texas's elected officials keep looking for — and finding — new ways to destroy their state: "Houston Independent School District will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and converting the libraries into ‘Team Centers” where kids with behavioral issues will be sent, the district announced." https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/07/26/hisd-to-eliminate-librarians-turn-libraries-into-discipline-centers-at-28-campuses/

MarcAbrahams, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Premier of the video of the Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event that was held at The MIT Museum. 11:30 am US eastern time, today Feb 6, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiqN0Jl3Vgs

MarcAbrahams, 2 months ago to random

"The dictator needs those cheering crowds more than they need him" https://open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/crowds-and-power-29e?r=2y7i1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

MarcAbrahams, 2 months ago to random

Every successful con man has a run of these — until the inevitable day he, Wile E Coyote-like, falls off a cliff: "The ruling by a five-judge panel of appellate court judges was a crucial and unexpected victory for the former president, potentially staving off a looming financial disaster." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/nyregion/trump-bond-reduced.html

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

On a walk this morning encountered a suddenly-creepy corner that today has over-friendly bankers on the sidewalk enhorting people to go behind the building and have coffee.