Channel 4's documentary-style drama, The Execution of Gary Glitter, imagines an alternative Britain that reintroduces the death penalty. Celebrity sex offender Paul Gadd—AKA glam rock star Gary Glitter—is re-tried for his crimes and hanged. It's a story about the moral quandary of capital punishment, generously garnished with the Britis […]
Another month, another glossy fashion magazine spread for Marissa Mayer, this time in Glamour. We get it, already: the Google veep is a computer scientist in Oscar de la Renta; a nerd invited to prom. Why embellish her achievements? Mayer was employee number 20 and retains immense power within the Googleplex. But, as much as she likes to insinuate her vital […]
A Duke University study on sex toys has the University's Catholic Center director worried that female students will "just sit around and masturbate."...
Yo, where my ships at? You'll never have to ask again. marinetraffic.com is a fun way to burn otherwise productive time. Cargo ships, military vessels, luxury high-speed yachts: track them, and imagine yourself out there on the high seas, instead of in that cubicle. (thanks, @shirky)...
A US-based genomics company announces that it can perform genomic sequencing for under five thousand dollars. In my budget, that's "fully loaded 8-Core Mac Pro and a monitor," or "sweet new Canon 5D with one nice lens." But unlike those tools I covet, DNA is forever....
How many of the kooky military research projects featured in The Men Who Stare at Goats really happened? Reality is more complicated than the movie (or the book), reports David Hambling at Wired's Danger Room blog. But reality may also be weirder. Hambling's post examines, Snopes-style, the truth or bogosity of such purported American military proj […]
Even though the title of this hilarious short mockumentary video is "Cockhead," it's probably safe for work, since the naughty bit is mosaiced. It was co-written by CJ Davies and Mr Tom Barbor-Might. Cockhead...
The University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center created this zoomable window that compares the size of a coffee bean with smaller things like a grain of salt, a paramecium, a red blood cell, a human egg, a glucose molecule, and so on, all the way down to a carbon atom. Cell size and scale (Via Good Experience newsletter)...
'Tis the season to rush up layoffs so they don't fall in the sacrosanct Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period: An AOL insider tells us the company is slated to let go around 100 people tomorrow, following 1,500 firings Electronic Arts announced today. AOL is expected to complete mass layoffs after its spinoff from Time Warner is complete, supposedly by […]