The Google Tricycle is coming.

A 13-year old boy reviews a Sony Walkman:

...In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly -- effective, if a little laboured.

(Via Transterrestrial Musings.)

Is there a 62 million year mass extinction cycle based on the Sun's oscillations relative to the galactic plane? (Via Cosmic Log.)

"Cool Search Engines That Are Not Google"

"How McDonald's Conquered France". Interestingly enough,

...[T]he quarter-pounded conquest of France was not the result of some fiendish American plot to subvert French food culture. It was an inside job, and not merely in the sense that the French public was lovin' it -- the architects of McDonald's strategy in France were French.

"Researchers at a California National Lab will soon attempt to start self-sustaining fusion reactions using the world's largest lasers"

Wikipedia vs. NY Times controversy regarding suppressing information on escaped reporter.

I'm fine with keeping a temporary lid on newsworthy-but-sensitive information like this in order to protect human life. But I hope that if the New York Times wants other news sources to suppress a story in order to protect one of their reporters, then they'd be equally eager to suppress a newsworthy story in order to save the life of a non-NYT hostage in similar circumstances.

If not, then perhaps reporters should think twice before working for them...

Extreme life.

"How Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, and Harry Potter are Actually the Same Movie":

Once upon a time, [Luke | Kirk | Neo | Harry] was living a miserable life.

Feeling disconnected from his friends and family, he dreams about how his life could be different.

One day, he is greeted by [Obi Wan | Captain Pike | Trinity | Hagrid] and told that his life is not what it seems, and that due to some circumstances surrounding his [birth | birth | birth | infancy] he was meant for something greater.

Deciding to leave with [him | him | her | him], [Luke | Kirk | Neo | Harry] is taken to [Mos Eisley | Starfleet Academy | the real world | Hogwarts] where he meets lots of new, fascinating people.

For the first time in a very long time, life is exciting, and [Luke | Kirk | Neo | Harry] explores the new life that has opened up for him. With his new friends, he starts to work hard to become the sort of man that [Obi Wan | Captain Pike | Trinity | Hagrid] said he could be.

Although [Han | Spock | the Oracle | Draco] challenges his abilities, things go relatively well until suddenly, [Alderaan is destroyed | Vulcan is attacked | Morpheus is captured | Voldemort returns]...

(Via Kottke.)

Admin note: Posting will be irregular and/or light for the next two weeks due to external obligations.

iPhone app to manage your multiple girlfriends:

Benefits that this application can bring to you:

- Don't make mistakes. Check the measurements of the girl before you buy a new pair of shoes or clothing
- Be creative. Do not repeat gifts
- Be more creative. Avoid always going to the same places with the same girl
- Be attentive. Do not forget your special dates
- Be healthy. Do not mix information from two girls
- Be the master. Show to your friends your long list of girls
- Be selective. Through the analysis of ratings and cost of dates and gifts, you can keep only the girls with the best cost-benefit

WARNING: For your own safety, under any circumstances, do not let your girlfriend access this application...

(Via MR.)

Top 10 Prison Breaks.

"Could Maxwell's Demon Exist in Nanoscale Systems?"

Astounding optical illusion: These blue and green spirals are exactly the same color. (Via GMSV.)

Lenovo moves the "Delete" key.

Online journalism: then and now. (Via BBspot.)

The Panasonic Toughbook laptop really is tough:

...We found, however, that Panasonic's Toughbook performed as promised. Fair enough. So we came up with some tests that were decidedly unfair.

We used the Panasonic Toughbook to serve Doritos. Then we crushed the chips to dust between the keyboard and the screen, the same screen we used as a dartboard. The darts poked holes in the screen's protective coating, but the display underneath remained undamaged. Not a single dead pixel.

It also survived being mauled by "Nalin, a white tiger who lives at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA" and "Liz, a 10,000-pound Asian elephant":

[Liz] stood on it, dropped it onto a concrete slab, stood on it again--balanced on three legs--and then tossed it around some more. Liz put two small cracks in the laptop's magnesium alloy lid and popped the hard drive out.

The drive slid right back in to the Toughbook's chassis, which rebooted without a glitch. The screen was undamaged, although it was hard to see through the tiger hair and congealed drool.

And finally:

We took the laptop to the Jackson Arms firing range in South San Francisco to shoot it with a Ruger Mark III .22 pistol from 15 yards.

...We put a bullet through the laptop. Then we booted it up. We were able to log in. Our test file was still there. The screen had a hole in it, but was still usable.

Here's the "tiger vs. laptop" video (contains ads.)

How many apps are on your iPhone?

(I'm apparently at the lower end of the curve, with only 25.)

Warp Drive worries:

"Star Trek" makes faster-than-light travel look easy, but according to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a black hole that would incinerate any passengers on a space craft and then suck Earth into a black hole...

(Via Rand Simberg.)

Scientists have created (?discovered) Ice XV.

Forbes report on artificial intelligence. (Via Instapundit.)

Cleaning your teeth with a plasma torch.

"Couple says 'I Do' in zero gravity"

Dream job: "NASA pillownaut".

"Don't Sink My Battleship: 5 Ways to Defend a Supercarrier". (Via DefenseTech.)

"Nerdy Chicago Weather Joke". (Via Marginal Revolution.)

The science behind phantom traffic jams:

Phantom jams are born of a lot of cars using the road. No surprise there. But when traffic gets too heavy, it takes the smallest disturbance in the flow - a driver laying on the brakes, someone tailgating too closely or some moron picking pickles off his burger - to ripple through traffic and create a self-sustaining traffic jam.

...The mathematics of such traffic jams are strikingly similar to the equations that describe detonation waves produced by explosions, said Aslan Kasimov, a lecturer in MIT’s Department of Mathematics. Realizing this allowed the reseachers to solve traffic jam equations that were first theorized in the 1950s. The MIT researchers even came up with a name for this kind of gridlock - "jamiton."

The etiquette of using your smartphone during a business meeting.