Archive for November 14th, 2011
Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert? (Update 2)
This is crazy. New photos have appeared in Google Maps showing unidentified titanic structures in the middle of the Chinese desert. The first one is an intricate network of what appears to be huge metallic stripes. Is this a military experiment?
Update 2: readers are finding even more weird stuff.
They seem to be wide lines drawn with some white material. Or maybe the dust have been dug by machinery.
It’s located in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu, north of the Shule River, which crosses the Tibetan Plateau to the west into the Kumtag Desert. It covers an area approximately one mile long by more than 3,000 feet wide.
The tracks are perfectly executed, and they seem to be designed to be seen from orbit.
Perhaps it’s some kind of targeting or calibrating grid for Chinese spy satellites? Maybe it’s a QR code for aliens? Nobody really knows.
via Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert? (Update 2).
Scott Brown Headlines Charity Event For Hedge Funds Care
WASHINGTON — Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is continuing to speak out against child abuse, and is set to headline a charity event on Nov. 17 for the group Hedge Funds Care.
The invitation for the event at Boston’s Children Museum promises “a very special appearance (in person or via live videoconference) by Senator Scott Brown, who will be honored for his courage earlier this year in sharing his own experience regarding abuse as a child.”
“His revelation has led to a much larger awareness on both a local and national level regarding the issue of child abuse and the importance the funding we raise has to the continued work around preventing and treating child abuse,” the invitation reads.
Since its founding 13 years ago, Hedge Funds Care has “rallied investment professionals … and raised $40 million” to fight child abuse.
Brown is running against Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who has been called “Wall Street’s worst nightmare.”
via Scott Brown Headlines Charity Event For Hedge Funds Care.
‘Food Landscapes’ | Chime.In
Making landscapes out of food seems like a rather unusual thing to do for a living, and people often ask, ‘What made you start doing this?’ It seems that the burning heart of this question is really the curiosity about what it is that motivates any human being to do something out of the ordinary, and my short answer to this is usually a simple, because I had the idea and I chose to do something about it. –Carl Warner
Social Spew — Life Finds A Way
Or in this case, shell growth finds a way. I always remember adults telling me as a child to break those rings before you throw them away because the birds could get stuck in them at the dump. I thought they were stupid then, now I see this…
6 Most Badass Self-Inflicted Medical Experiments | Cracked.com
These are not examples of random crackpot medical experiments. All of the following were performed by well-respected, influential physicians and researchers during their time.
What we’re trying to say is that these individuals have thrown down the proverbial gauntlet of badassery, making most of modern-day medicine look really, really lame.
via 6 Most Badass Self-Inflicted Medical Experiments | Cracked.com.
Don’t Give Your Users Shit Work
Take a look at Twitter Lists. The idea behind Twitter Lists was that users would carefully cultivate lists on Twitter of different accounts they’re following (or not following). These could be divided into lists like Family, Friends, Coworkers, People I Find Mildly Attractive, People To Murder, People I Find Mildly Attractive And Want To Murder, and so on.
The problem is that, anecdotally, no one seems to use Lists. Twitter is filled with users who have carefully made a few lists, and then promptly forgot about them after they realized their clients don’t make it as easy to read List tweets as it is to read tweets from people you follow.
This is why I was never fascinated by Google+ and its concept of Circles. You have to go through entire sub-communities of your friends and drop them into arbitrary groupings. That sounds like shit work to me. What happens if I get really hammered with a Business Acquaintance and he becomes a Close Drinking Partner? Do I move his circles around? What happens if we hire him? Is he a Coworker and a Close Drinking Partner? The last thing I want to have to worry about is continually micromanaging another facet of life. This is important, since Google+ Circles is allegedly about privacy, and if you don’t continually cultivate your circles, you could inadvertently send out the wrong update to the wrong subset of contacts.
