flickering pictures

[Edit: as of 14h15 EST, the site seems to be up and running again — nice and speedy, too. I’m impressed.]
As of 13h00 EST (10h00 PST), or right about the time this post is published, Firefox 3 will be unleashed upon the masses, and it’s apparently good. Really good. As if you […]

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Sorry for the spotty posing lately — it’s been a crazy busy time work-wise, but for some reason I just can’t stop grinning. I must like my job or something.
Now that you’re paying $60 to gas up your Civic, I thought you might like to know where a good chunk of your gas money […]

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The New Scientist reports that over 20 years and 44,000 generations in the lab, a particular population of Escherichia coli (or E. coli for short) bacteria have evolved the ability to metabolize citrate, a nutrient that the bacteria normally can’t use. This is a big deal — something akin to humans developing the ability […]

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You know the old joke: “What do you get when you cross Vincent Price, Michael Jackson, 1,500 Filipino inmates and a transvestite?”
I think I missed the boat on this one, and some of you have probably already seen this. But sweet mercy it’s fantastic. If you ever go to jail in the Philippines, […]

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Ever been in the awkward situation of bumping into an old acquaintance, only to realize that you’ve completely forgotten his or her name? Their name is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t produce it for the life of you. The Boston Globe explains why:

[…] For the last several decades, scientists […]

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Woo hoo! Here’s a timeline for historically minded folk.
February 5: After years of putting it off, flickeringpictures.com finally launches, and a brave new world of news, views and oddity exploration is born. And for some crazy reason I decide to add at least an extra half hour of work to my day, nearly every […]

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In the winter of 1914, German and British soldiers spent Christmas Eve in the trenches, wading through mud, supplies and the corpses of their fallen friends. Their main activity was dodging the bullets from the enemy bunkers that were sometimes just 60 yards away.
To raise their sinking morale, both armies’ governments sent their troops […]

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Well, sort of. From the International Herald Tribune:

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.
The report, released online […]

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There’s something just beautiful about this. And something creepy…
ASIMO can run, speak, climb stairs, serve coffee, navigate through crowds of people, link up to computer networks, deliver weather reports and recognize faces, speech and environments. He works as a receptionist at Honda’s offices in Saitama, Japan.
In case you’re interested, ASIMO is taking some […]

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According to BusinessWeek, microfibre rags can remove both dirt and germs, and clean “surfaces mechanically, not chemically, by scraping them with microscopic precision.” In fact, they completely eliminate the need for harsh chemicals like Tilex, Clorox, Windex, Ajax and all those other nasty cleaners that end in “x.” So why are the cabinets […]

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