science

Wednesday various

Wednesday various

  • Studios are increasingly stripping rental DVDs of special features. I ran into this over the weekend with The Informant. I’d be very interested in an audio commentary or any other behind-the-scenes material — it’s an unusual movie, based on a very unusual case — but I won’t buy it for that.

  • Incidentally, speaking of The Informant, I was amused by this user comment at IMDB: “…the main character in this film was just bad with the way his thoughts were and thinking the way he did.”

  • Meanwhile, I am not at all surprised that Ridley Scott’s new Robin Hood movie isn’t remotely historically accurate, despite his repeated claims to the contrary. Still, it’s interesting to go in search of the “real-life” Robin Hood. [via]

  • I’m not a big fan of cilantro, but I don’t hate it. Apparently, though, there may be a good reason why many people (like my father) do. [via]

  • And finally, the headline reads Black Hole Strikes Deepest Musical Note Ever Heard. [via]

Tuesday various

  • If you’ve ever wanted to search the entire 137-year archive of Popular Science, well, now you can. [via]
  • I like these re-imagined Stephen King book covers. [via]
  • And this: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1988. [via]
  • Zombie apocalypse survival flowchart [via]
  • And finally, Todd VanDerWerff on why it doesn’t really matter if all the mysteries on Lost don’t add up. Contains spoilers up to last week’s episode:

    I certainly don’t want to tell any of you who are watching this final season and demanding more answers that you’re wrong to watch the show that way. Everyone watches TV for their own reasons. All I can do is tell you why I watch it, and I watch it because I want to see worlds I believe in, no matter how ridiculous, characters I care about, no matter how they end up mired in metaphysical conflicts from beyond our reality. I want to see a man realize that the only thing worth fighting for is the love of a woman he’s never met. I want to see another man who keeps chasing death because he thinks it’s the only way to find purpose. I want to see a doctor slowly realizing that there’s more to the strange events swirling around him in two worlds, a sad musician pull scientific genius out of thin air. The people on “Lost” aren’t real, obviously, but I want to believe they could be, that they’re living in a universe just around the corner. I want to see that smooth cut from Desmond grasping Penny’s hand to his eyes opening back on the Island, the look of joy on his face when it happens, a realization that some things matter more than others. Does it matter to me if the puzzle has its holes? No. Because what’s there is something I desperately want to see.

Monday various

Tuesday various

  • New research suggests that reading cuts stress levels by 68%. Clearly these researchers have never tried reading Dan Brown or Going Rogue. [via]
  • New research also suggests that food portions have grown significantly larger in depictions of the Last Supper over time. [via]
  • Ever wonder what those ISBNs mean? We have several different ISBN prefixes at work, having purchased and integrated other publishing companies in recent years, and it’s often quite helpful to be able to tell at a quick glance where a book originated from. [via]
  • Are strong female characters bad for women? [via]
  • And finally, Ken Jennings on Gotham City’s museums, banks, and storefronts:

    Maybe I just don’t understand all the challenges that come with running a business in Gotham. It’s true that this is a place with a weird, weird economy. How does one city support five hundred abandoned amusement parks and toy factories?