August, 2011

Pop Chart Lab

Fermilab physicist Dr. Jason Steffen decided to see if he could speed up the process of getting passengers onto airplanes by testing different boarding methods. He did this by having 72 “passengers” use different methods to board a replica airplane housed on a Hollywood soundstage. His method, the “Steffen Method”, ended up increasing boarding time dramatically by boarding alternating rows at the same time, starting with the window seats. See it in action below:

More on the study here. | Via

A photo of the Earth and the Moon, as taken by the Lego-occupied Juno probe that is on it’s way to Jupiter:

Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) were seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. The photo was taken by the spacecraft’s onboard camera, JunoCam.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space

Cops doing what cops do.

Zoochosis | Via

7-year-old Amy (taking inspiration from her favorite book, The BFG) combined oil, colored water and glitter to send Roald Dahl one of her dreams, contained in a bottle. Dahl responded with the following note:

Letters of Note

23-year-old Alexandre Farto (heh) aka Vhils, sees your portrait painted using paintbrushes and canvas and raises you his portrait using controlled explosions.

Via

The shortbread/trefoils crowd ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Celine Grouard for Wired.

Twitter uses the fact that people read about the East Coast Earthquake on Twitter before they felt the tremors in their latest ad.

Twitter | Via

Looks like the upcoming live-action Captain Planet movie is going the “dark, gritty reboot” route.

“The power is mine, bitches.”

Funny or Die

5 Embarrassing Failures History Class Turned Into Victories – [Cracked]

What Is One Meal You Think Everyone Should Know How To Cook – [Ask Reddit]

Panda Poop Could be the Key to Cheap and Efficient Biofuel Production – [Inhabitat]

Giant Pandas are well-loved for their distinctive appearance and sedentary nature. Now they will receive even greater adoration and attention for their bowel-based contribution to the development of a clean energy future. In a national meeting at the American Chemical Society, researchers presented a study identifying panda poop as a source of enzyme-producing bacteria that breaks down plant materials in a way that is useful for biofuel production.

The Science of Gawker’s Nerd Baiting – [Forbes]

Why does this happen? Why would a woman subject herself to be publicly dragged through the mud by the entire male population of the internet? It’s because the life of a freelancer is based around getting hits, as the more you get, the more you get paid. This is especially true with the notoriously sketchy Gawker pay model, and though I don’t know specific numbers, I can safely say that Alyssa is riding a wave of nerd tears all the way to the bank after this post.

U.S. Files Complaint To Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger – [Bloomberg]

The U.S. sued to block AT&T Inc. (T)’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA Inc., saying the deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the wireless market. AT&T shares fell as much as 5.5 percent.

In the complaint filed today in federal court in Washington, the Justice Department is seeking a declaration that Dallas-based AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), would violate U.S. antitrust law. The U.S. also asked for a court order blocking implementation of the deal.

Google Launches Offline Versions of Gmail, Calendar & Docs – [Mashable]

Google is launching a new Gmail web app and updates to Calendar and Docs, in an effort to increase its products’ offline utility.

Google users have called bringing Gmail, Calendar and Docs offline an essential step for improving productivity, Group Product Manager Rajen Sheth told Mashable. The problem, he explained, is that when users need offline access to their email or calendar, they really need it.

Pic via