flickering pictures

How brilliant is this interactive little site?
Well, it can tell you that Washington, D.C.’s lone legislator used a meager 35,679 words in 2008 — enough for a long-ish novella. In comparison, California’s 57 representatives spoke exactly 1,346,968 words — equivalent to 33 regular full-length novels, or about two and a half times the length […]

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Smacker: “May I just whack you on the head with this shovel?”
Smackee: “You may.”
A new orange goo called D3O remains soft until you smack it with something (a shovel, say) at which point it becomes extremely rigid — hard enough to protect your head from a tumble over your handlebars, or from a good smack […]

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A new addictive toy from Andre Michelle’s aM laboratory lets you visually create complex, surprisingly catchy tunes in a simple matrix, including bass lines, multiple harmonies and other yummy musical goodness. I could play with this for hours. But then, I’m simple.
On a sidenote, as a Web communications guy, I can really appreciate […]

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They said it couldn’t be done, but physicists at McGill University in Montreal have managed to amplify laser light with less energy and cooling than ever before, which means that fibre-optic communications, among other things, could get a whole lot cheaper.
From the press release:

McGill University researchers have successfully amplified light with so-called “colloidal quantum dots,” […]

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FlowingData seems to have gotten itself up and running again, and contrary to my previous post, it features 27 neat-o infographics that explain the worldwide financial meltdown, not 16. Very much worth a look.

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According to these guys, at least.
I’d meant today’s post to be on FlowingData’s 16 excellent graphics explaining the financial crisis in über-simple terms for us regular folk, but their site seems to have imploded under the sheer weight of its own awesomeness and, I suspect, a lot of enthusiastic Diggers. So, here’s one that’s […]

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It’s a pretty blindingly simple design — the Amron Experimental toothbrush has a little groove on the back that directs water from the tap into your mouth. I’m not sure how many people picked one up at the original price — or what’s so experimental about this thing — but if some sucker actually […]

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Not that you were wondering, but the best-selling eyepatches at Eyepatches.com apparently include the Hello Kitty model, a camouflage one for stealthy folk, and something called “rhinestone butterflies” for the Dame Edna in you. For the festive among you, there’s also a nice selection of 53 holiday-themed models.

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IBM has patented an armoured body suit that actually DODGES FREAKING BULLETS. Or at least it will, if it ever gets built.
For you geekier readers out there, here’s an excerpt from the patent explaining how this is supposed to work, via the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

A method of protecting a target from […]

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* = may not actually happen
If someone told you that IBM and the U.S. government were building the world’s most powerful supercomputer — one that could perform a staggering 20 quadrillion calculations per second — what would you think its purpose was? If you guessed curing cancer, studying climate change or running Vista smoothly […]

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