No sense trying to give this post a fancier title. I noticed this morning that my "stuff for linkdump" bookmark folder has eight subfolders of twelve bookmarks each. This is getting ridiculous. There's too much stuff...
A comprehensive survey by 102 scientists of a forest in Panama revealed that the 6000-hectare forest was home to around 25,000 arthropod species. Links and photos at the new National Geographic home for Not Exactly Rocket Science discuss the methodology and results of the survey.
An op-ed piece at the StarTribune echoes one of the controversial aspects of the gun control debate: "Warren Burger was a conservative Republican, appointed chief justice by President Richard Nixon in 1969. In a speech in 1992, six years after his retirement, Burger declared that "the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee the right to have firearms at all." In his view, the purpose of the Second Amendment was only "to ensure that the state armies' -- the militia -- would be maintained for the defense of the state."
In a remarkable video from the start of the 2012 baseball season [that's how old these bookmarks are], a Cincinnati Reds fan catches a home-run ball, and then while holding that ball in one hand, catches another home run ball hit by the very next batter.
"FedEx dropped off an iPad mini a dad got for his daughter for Christmas. UPS Grinch guy came and stole it. UPS denied the claim, until they realized the dad caught it all on tape."
Photograph of what happens when a bald eagle strikes an airplane (a C-130) at 300 mph (warning animal gore).
The "Christmas Quiz" at the Telegraph contained 40 TYWKIWDBI-style questions (with answers).
A thread of comments at Reddit is worthwhile reading for those of you who have a family member or loved one with dementia.
The "Pig-to-Table" project describes how a family undertakes the slaughter and consumption of a family-reared animal.
Museums and art galleries study the activity of their visitors - but not for security reasons. "Mr. Sikora watches where visitors stop, whether they talk or read, how much time they spend. He records his observations in a handheld computer, often viewing his subjects through the display cases or tiptoeing behind them to stay out of their line of sight. "Teenage daughter was with, but did not interact, sat on bench, then left," read his notes of one visit."
The National Security Agency is building an immense spying facility. "Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”
By grafting, you can create a plant that grows tomatoes above ground and potatoes below ground.
A list of the top posts of the year at Reddit. Some remarkable links.
Secrets of a pickpocket.
The "50 best viral videos of 2012" (combined in one mashup).
Six famous cartoon beagles (without peeking, can you name any other than Snoopy? - remember specifically beagles, not dogs in general).
The increase in autism correlates with the increased sale of organic food. Useful for discussions of correlation and causation.
"...between 1990 and 2010 Asian Americans have become far less Christian, on average. Meanwhile, the Republican party has become far more Christian in terms of its identity. Do you really require more than two sentences to infer from this what the outcome will be in terms of how Asian Americans will vote?
A photo gallery of creatures from the Mariana Trench.
A Reddit compilation of "free stuff on the internet that everyone should take advantage of."
Video of Hadji Ali, the famous "regurgitator." The segment at the link "from Laurel and Hardy’s 1931 Spanish-language film Politiquerias, includes Ali’s famous closing stunt, in which he ingests both water and kerosene and then upchucks them variously onto an open flame."
More of this tomorrow. Spring housecleaning for the blog, so to speak...
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