Sperari Tumblelog RSS

Picks and finds from Erica Tesla. Little elaboration here, kiddies; if you're looking for that, go to my blog. I largely post stuff here to distribute stuff to friends - stuff that otherwise I'd forget to IM them (or whatever) - or to save it for me, for later. Yes, I am so scatterbrained I have to blog stuff to myself.

Jul
4th
Sat
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With just a few weeks of training, you can learn to “see” objects in the dark using echolocation the same way dolphins and bats do.

Ordinary people with no special skills can use tongue clicks to visualize objects by listening to the way sound echoes off their surroundings, according to acoustic experts at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain.

Jul
3rd
Fri
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Bare essentials of safety from Air New Zealand (via AirNZnothing2hide)
Jun
19th
Fri
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I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
Jun
15th
Mon
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The research, by Don Moore of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shows that we prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are. And it spells bad news for scientists who try to be honest about gaps in their knowledge.
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For nearly everyone in the U.S., Canada and Europe, a banana is a banana: yellow and sweet, uniformly sized, firmly textured, always seedless. Our banana, called the Cavendish, is one variety Aguilar doesn’t grow here. “And for you,” says the chief banana breeder for the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Investigation (FHIA), “the Cavendish is the banana.”

That sameness is the banana’s paradox. After 15,000 years of human cultivation, the banana is too perfect, lacking the genetic diversity that is key to species health. What can ail one banana can ail all. A fungus or bacterial disease that infects one plantation could march around the globe and destroy millions of bunches, leaving supermarket shelves empty.

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Jun
9th
Tue
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The beans were cooked.  Every single one was tender and ready to go.  It had taken 15 minutes on top of the oven to bring to a boil, and then 75 minutes inside a 250 degree oven.  I had not soaked the beans before hand.  I didn’t even bother to rinse them or sort through to see if any rocks had been hidden inside.  How could this be?  This question drove me mad, because I have been cooking beans nearly every week for the past year, and now I realize I’ve been doing it all wrong.  
Jun
8th
Mon
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The premise of the game is simple — you play as Maxwell, who must solve various puzzles to obtain Starites spread across 220 different levels. To execute the aforementioned solving, you write words to create objects in the world that your cartoonish hero can interact with. It’s a simple concept that’s bolstered by one astounding accomplishment from developer 5th Cell: Anything you can think of is in this game. (Yes, that. Yes, that too.)
Jun
3rd
Wed
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Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version (via dascottjr)
Jun
2nd
Tue
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World Builder (high quality) (via bbranit)
May
26th
Tue
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