What's the strangest thing you've read on the Internet today?

[Eir]

You can submit a petition to the White House and if it garners more than 25,000 signatures, the White House responds. Someone petitioned that the Obama Administration "secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016" and sure enough, enough people signed off. Here's the ridiculously awesome response! :D

https://petitions.wh...e-youre-looking

[Galactus]

"Who the hell is Galactus?", in Chat.

[Castel]

'Django Unchained' is racist against white people. European Americans did not make the slave trade. It was almost entirely owned and run by the JEWS! A little research here on Youtube will show you that. LET THE JEWS ANSWER FOR IT! MAKE THE MOVIES ABOUT THEM! NOT ABOUT EUROPEAN AMERICANS!

Ah, Youtube. How I love thee.

[Sci-2]

Ah, Youtube. How I love thee.

I like that the poster used "research on YouTube".

I'd tell them to utilize MIT's open network, but I would[n't] want the MA government to harass them with worthless charges while real crime goes on.

[Eir]

I'd tell them to utilize MIT's open network, but I would[n't] want the MA government to harass them with worthless charges while real crime goes on.

You might be interested in this, a post from Aaron Swartz's friend and former attorney on prosecutorial overreach:

http://www.huffingto..._b_2467079.html

This is the bit that struck me the most:

"[Aaron] was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don't get both, you don't deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you...we need to get beyond the 'I'm right so I'm right to nuke you' ethics that dominates our time. That begins with one word: shame."

JSTOR also issued a truly gracious statement on Swartz's passing:

https://about.jstor....tatement-swartz

[cseresz.reborn]

http://newscenter.be...r-to-tell-time/

And what about the question, What is time? Müller says that “I don’t think that anyone will ever have a final answer, but we know a bit more about its properties. Time is physical as soon as there is one massive particle, but it definitely is something that doesn’t require more than one massive particle for its existence. We know that a massless particle, like a photon, is not sufficient.”

[Sci-2]

Air Sex World Championships

[Zoë Sumra]

Cleaner steals empty commuter train, drives off in it and crashes it into block of flats

[Sci-2]

You might be interested in this, a post from Aaron Swartz's friend and former attorney on prosecutorial overreach:

http://www.huffingto..._b_2467079.html

This is the bit that struck me the most:

"[Aaron] was brilliant, and funny. A kid genius. A soul, a conscience, the source of a question I have asked myself a million times: What would Aaron think? That person is gone today, driven to the edge by what a decent society would only call bullying. I get wrong. But I also get proportionality. And if you don't get both, you don't deserve to have the power of the United States government behind you...we need to get beyond the 'I'm right so I'm right to nuke you' ethics that dominates our time. That begins with one word: shame."

JSTOR also issued a truly gracious statement on Swartz's passing:

https://about.jstor....tatement-swartz

Thanks for these, just saw them now.

[Eir]

Thanks for these, just saw them now.

You're quite welcome! Huffpost has "Killed by the government," a quotation from Swartz's father, as their main page* headline right now, so this story is definitely still gaining traction. Let's hope for some meaningful action as a result.

*US Edition

[Horza]

Oh, I read a lot of crazy stuff, more than enough to post here every day, but every now and again something so delightfully mad comes across my path that it would be miserly to withold. So, I invite you all to join me in welcoming our Eugenically Perfected Chinese Overlords:

Chinese biopower has ancient roots in the concept of "yousheng" ("good birth"—which has the same literal meaning as "eugenics"). For a thousand years, China has been ruled by a cognitive meritocracy selected through the highly competitive imperial exams. The brightest young men became the scholar-officials who ruled the masses, amassed wealth, attracted multiple wives, and had more children. The current "gaokao" exams for university admission, taken by more than 10 million young Chinese per year, are just the updated version of these imperial exams—the route to educational, occupation, financial, and marital success. With the relaxation of the one-child policy, wealthier couples can now pay a "social fostering fee" (shehui fuyangfei) to have an extra child, restoring China's traditional link between intelligence, education, wealth, and reproductive success.

Chinese eugenics will quickly become even more effective, given its massive investment in genomic research on human mental and physical traits. BGI-Shenzhen employs more than 4,000 researchers. It has far more "next-generation" DNA sequencers that anywhere else in the world, and is sequencing more than 50,000 genomes per year. It recently acquired the California firm Complete Genomics to become a major rival to Illumina.

The BGI Cognitive Genomics Project is currently doing whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 very-high-IQ people around the world, hunting for sets of sets of IQ-predicting alleles. I know because I recently contributed my DNA to the project, not fully understanding the implications. These IQ gene-sets will be found eventually—but will probably be used mostly in China, for China. Potentially, the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximize the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilized eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of "preimplantation embryo selection" might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation. After a couple of generations, it would be game over for Western global competitiveness.

Anyway, I would just like to emphasise to our Hyperintelligent Oriental Beings of Pure Science that as a trusted board regular I can be of great use rounding up alelles for their utopian Han ethno-state.

[Eir]

<Snip>

Bloody hell. The Spartans have nothing on them.

[TerraPrime]

(Story)

Nothing to see here folks. Move along, move along.

*whistles*

[Serious Callers Only]

Eheh. Finally

Beggars in spain here we come

[Tears of Lys]

Here's the strangest thing I've **seen* on the Internet today:

http://www.inquisitr.com/482641/linda-kozlowski-gday-appearance-crocodile-dundee-star-had-some-work-done-pics/

:eek:

[cseresz.reborn]

http://www.msnbc.msn...44#.UPaHJh3ETvM

Dr. Stefan Lüpold takes second place with a time-lapse movie showing sperm from two different males competing within the female reproductive tract of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. While competition between sperm is a widespread phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom - and a powerful evolutionary force driving species diversity - it has been nearly impossible to study the fundamental biological processes associated with such sperm competition occurring when sperm from different males mix inside of females. The very recent development of genetically-modified fruit flies that produce sperm with either green- or red-fluorescent heads (as seen in Lüpold's movie) is now allowing scientists to answer important biological questions.

+

http://phys.org/news...s-brighter.html

Other research groups have studied the photonic structures in firefly lanterns as well, and have even mimicked some of the structures to enhance light extraction in LEDs, but their work focused on nanoscale features. The Belgium-led team is the first to identify micrometer-scale photonic features, which are larger than the wavelength of visible light, but which surprisingly improved light extraction better than the smaller nanoscale features. The factory roof coating that the researchers tested increased light extraction by more than 50 percent, a significantly higher percentage than other biomimicry approaches have achieved to date. The researchers speculate that, with achievable modifications to current manufacturing techniques, it should be possible to apply these novel design enhancements to current LED production within the next few years.

[Alex.]

Cleaner steals empty commuter train, drives off in it and crashes it into block of flats

Ha, love it. Job satisfaction at an all time high in that company eh

[IheartTesla]

The researchers speculate that, with achievable modifications to current manufacturing techniques, it should be possible to apply these novel design enhancements to current LED production within the next few years.

That is indeed the strangest thing I've read all day.

[Quoth]

I was wondering where I might post this and lo and behold this thread is here. :) Although it might warrant its own thread so all the math afficianados can argue about the correct answer... ;)

Math problem that will drive you crazy

http://i.imgur.com/qvzU4.jpg

[Fragile Bird]

There is no question posed that has a definitive answer that can be labelled "right".

Quoth, IT"S A TRICK! RUN! er, FLY!