Osama bin Laden's location predicted with technique used to track endangered species
Geography Professor Thomas Gillespie has employed a technique typically used for tracking endangered species in order to pinpoint the most likely location of Osama bin Laden. [via]
In a paper (pdf) published in the MIT International Review Gillespie describes how he used biogeographic data including bin Laden's last known location, cultural background, security needs, declining health, limited mobility and height to create a mathematical model that he claims will show where the terror mastermind is hiding.More specifically, he found a 90 percent chance that bin Laden is in Kurram province in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, most likely in the town of Parachinar which gave shelter to a larger number of Mujahedin during the 1980s.
Vegetables not as good for you as they used to be
According to the February issue of the Journal of HortScience, produce has been losing its nutritional value over the years, most notably due to the "Dilution Effect" and "Industrialization" of agriculture.
Apparently produce in the U.S. not only tastes worse than it did in your grandparents' days, it also contains fewer nutrients -- at least according to Donald R. Davis, a former research associate with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. Davis claims the average vegetable found in today's supermarket is anywhere from 5% to 40% lower in minerals (including magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc) than those harvested just 50 years ago.
Fruits seem to be less affected by genetic and environmental dilution, but there's no clear answer on how to deal with nutritionally bankrupt vegetables. Supplementing them is problematic, too, since recent research indicates vitamin pills aren't very helpful either.
Facebook returns to original Terms of Service
After a huge public outcry, Facebook has decided to return to its original TOS.
A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use hoping to clarify some parts for our users. Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.
A sensible decision, considering their new TOS essentially let them do anything they wanted with your content, even after you deleted your account.
Four new pennies being released
In honor of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, the U.S. Mint is planning to release four new Lincoln pennies this year, though given the rising price of zinc and copper it actually costs about 1.4 cents to make a penny.
Abraham Lincoln's penny has been around since 1909, when it was inaugurated with several firsts. It was the first U.S. coin to include the words "In God We Trust," and the first to include a portrait. "A strong feeling had prevailed against using portraits on our coins," said a Treasury Department fact sheet, "but public sentiment stemming from the 100th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth proved stronger than the long-standing prejudice."
The first penny depicts the one-room log cabin in Kentucky where Lincoln was born, and is already in circulation. The second shows Lincoln as a rail splitter in Indiana, and should start moving into circulation in mid-May. The third, due out in August, shows him reporting to work at the Illinois Legislature, and the fourth penny, due in November, depicts the U.S. Capitol without its dome -- a symbol of the civil war that divided the nation when he was president.
It is now illegal to photograph the police in the UK
Since Monday, it has become illegal to take pictures of police engaged in counter-terrorist operations. Which, in practice, is essentially a ban on taking pictures of the police.
Although I write as someone who has no particular axe to grind about the police, I am beginning to wonder whether we have a serious problem with a police force that believes it is entitled to monitor political activity. Set against the new law banning photographs of the police - which surely will be used by every policeman parked on a double yellow line or meting out the rough justice - there is increasing tendency of the police to photograph people in an aggressive fashion. It shows an innate lack of respect for the innocent citizen and the conventions of our free society, which is extremely disturbing.
New wave flash animation via Moscow
Russian animators are making the most out of Flash, with some pretty amazing results.
A new wave of Russian flash animation is evolving the form. When an offshoot becomes a genre is debatable, but the Russian school is stretching the boundaries - most certainly in subject matter if not the animation itself. Serious minded animation for those who want to see Flash used for more than just e-cards and Christmas sing-alongs.
Celebrities with twins
Here's a list of celebrities with twins, including Gisele Bundchen, Keifer Sutherland, and Scarlett Johansson, among others.
"Dammit I'm Mad" by Demetri Martin
This is a 224 word palindrome written by Demetri Martin:
"Dammit I'm Mad" by Demetri MartinDammit I'm mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I'm in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level "Mad Dog".
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider... eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one... my names are in it.
Murder? I'm a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash,
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I'm it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I'd assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
"Sir, I deliver. I'm a dog"
Evil is a deed as I live.
Dammit I'm mad.
It's not entirely coherent, but impressive nonetheless.
Fundies: The underwear built for two
And all this time you've just been wearing underwear built for one.
Plastic Surgery Confidential
Vanitry Fair explores the world of plastic surgery, sending an attractive woman undercover to see what plastic surgeons would "fix" about her.
Cosmetic surgery is now so popular that even young, healthy, attractive women are choosing to be "enhanced." In a quest for insight into this $13 billion industry, the author--a five-foot-nine, 120-pound 27-year-old--went undercover, asking three plastic surgeons what they'd do to her nose, her breasts, and her, uh, "banana rolls." The answers were as different as the doctors themselves.
Meet the blue-eyed alligator who stands out like a sore thumb
With his piercing blue eyes and pale skin this rare alligator stands out like a sore thumb. Weighing over 500 pounds, Bouya Blan is one of only 12 white alligators in the world. The 22-year-old, whose name means white fog, lives along with three other giant leucistic alligators at the world famous Gatorland theme park in Florida.
50% of the charges against Pirate Bay have been dropped
There has been high drama on the second day of the Pirate Bay trial. Due to serious shortcomings in the prosecution evidence, around 50% of the charges in the case are going to have to be withdrawn. The defense describes it as a 'sensation', seeing half of the charges being dropped on the second day.
What has been shown in court today is that the prosecutor cannot prove that the .torrent files he is using as evidence actually used The Pirate Bay's tracker. Many of the screenshots being used clearly state there is no connection to the tracker. Additionally, prosecutor Håkan Roswall didn't adequately explain the function of DHT which allows for so called "trackerless" torrents.
Meet 'Moot,' the secretive internet celeb who still lives with his mom
Moot -- and please lowercase the "m" -- is the mysterious founder of 4chan.org, one of the weirdest, vast-est, most disgusting-est sites online. It's a sprawling web of message boards on which users post images of everything from their favorite actors to their favorite bowel movements.
Moot, the most influential and famous Internet celebrity you've never heard of, isn't on a panel or presenting anything, but he appears on the program nonetheless: "Pass out when you see moot IRL"-- that's In Real Life, noobs -- is the activity listed to take place somewhere between the "Causing a Scene" presentation and "The Future of Online Video" panel.
Over in the corner, a serious-looking 21-year-old wearing a gray hoodie and a mop of curly hair chats with friends about his two kittens and the night's dinner plans and how, after dinner, and after the after-party, he'll be going home to his mom's house in a nearby suburb.
This is moot.
His real name is Christopher Poole.
How to make a VHS video toaster
The project was simple: convert a VHS video machine to make toast, and eject it through the cassette slot.
Mike Polk has the worst TV reel ever
Mike Polk, inarguably, has made the least impressive appearances on television in the history of the medium.
Dad interrupts soccer skill showoff
His son wanted to show his soccer skills but his dad had something else to do.
Nate Silver predicts the winners of the 2009 Oscars
After spending most of 2008 predicting the success of political actors--also called politicians--it's only natural that Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight.com) would turn his attention to the genuine article: the nominees in the major categories for the 81st Annual Academy Awards (Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. on ABC). Formally speaking, this required the use of statistical software and a process called logistic regression. Informally, it involved building a huge database of the past 30 years of Oscar history. Categories included genre, MPAA classification, the release date, opening-weekend box office (adjusted for inflation), and whether the film won any other awards. We also looked at whether being nominated in one category predicts success in another. For example, is someone more likely to win Best Actress if her film has also been nominated for Best Picture? (Yes!) But the greatest predictor (80 percent of what you need to know) is other awards earned that year, particularly from peers (the Directors Guild Awards, for instance, reliably foretells Best Picture). Genre matters a lot (the Academy has an aversion to comedy); MPAA and release date don't at all. A film's average user rating on IMDb (the Internet Movie Database) is sometimes a predictor of success; box grosses rarely are. And, as in Washington, politics matter, in ways foreseeable and not.
Driver plows car through a house
After driving her speeding car through a Kapolei home, an allegedly drunken 19-year-old woman pleaded with the homeowner, "Don't tell my mother," neighbors said.
A fake countess jailed for five years for conning victims out of their life savings has been ordered to pay back £850,000 by a London court
Elda Beguinua's wealth was supposedly so vast its value could only be described in court as "300 followed by 41 zeros", Southwark Crown Court heard. In case you can't visualize that, it's this: $30, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
Photographer Jesse Chan-Norris caught the aftermath of an attempted murder in Manhattan this morning
At 5:40am I was jolted out of sleep by a noise. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. I raced outside, I looked down, I saw the black car with its door open. I saw another car next to it. I saw the body in the middle of the street. I stood. I gawked. I went back inside. I put on clothes. I heard the sirens. I went back outside. I gawked. I went back inside. I got my camera. I went back outside. I took some photos. I went back inside. I went back outside. I watched the EMTs put the body on the stretcher. I went back inside. I heard the ambulances leave. I went back outside. The street was quiet except for two police cars, their lights on in the middle of the street.
I went back inside.
The Pirate Bay Trial - First Day in Court
This morning the trial of The Pirate Bay started. Without doubt, it will be the most important case the file-sharing community has ever witnessed. Here are the key parts of Day 1, distilled from the hundreds of ongoing reports.
Scientists stop the ageing process
Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says. Published in today's online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.
The New York Time's Article Skimmer prototype
This is the New York Time's new Article Skimmer prototype. An interesting new approach to meeting the changing viewing habits of this generation.
The Simpsons - NEW Main Title
This is the new title sequence for The Simpsons. It's the first change in 19 years. The show is also airing in HD for the first time tonight.
Teens come forward to claim they fathered 13-year-old Alfie's daughter
Two teenagers have come forward to claim paternity for the baby girl fathered by 13-year-old Alfie Patten, amid reports the child's mother Chantelle Steadman was sleeping with as many as eight boys. British's The Sun revealed last week that 13-year-old Patten had fathered a girl called Maisie with his 15-year-old girlfriend Ms Steadman. But according to another British publication - News of the World - there is a real possibility Alfie may not be little Maisie's father. 16-year-old Richard Goodsell has come forward claiming he regularly slept with Chantelle for three months around the time she became pregnant - and wants a DNA test to prove he's the child's father. Another boy, 14-year-old Tyler Barker, is worried that he may also have fathered Maisie.
Ohio woman pleads guilty in over-exercising death
A woman has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide for exercising her 73-year-old husband to death in a swimming pool, repeatedly refusing to let him leave the water. Surveillance video showed Christine Newton-John, 41, pulling James Mason around the pool by his arms and legs, said Middlefield police Chief Joseph Stehlik. The chief said he counted 43 times in which Newton-John prevented her husband from leaving the water, and Mason rested his head on the side of the pool several times while gasping for breath.
The supergun that kills from a mile - and the camouflaged crackshots using it against the Taliban
British Army snipers call it 'the Silent Assassin' and it is the weapon the Taliban fear the most. It is the British-made L115A3 Long Range Rifle which, in recent weeks, has killed scores of enemy fighters in Afghanistan. In a new initiative on the front line, the Army is using sniper platoons to target the Taliban and 'The Long', as the snipers call it, can take out insurgents from a mile away. Many of the elite marksmen who use the rifle make their own extraordinary suits of camouflage to stay hidden from the Taliban. Some have been known to go 'under cover' for two days while they pick off the enemy.
Probably not the best idea
On the bright side, the dude with the can on his head has always been a big fan of pirates.
Manchester United fan falls victim to Liverpool supporters hoax
A married Manchester United fan drove 400 miles for a saucy weekend with a girl he'd met on the internet only to discover it was an elaborate hoax set up by two burly Liverpool supporters he had upset on holiday.