Sillykittymeow

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The Brick Testament

The Bible, in Lego:



The Brick Testament

The 14 Most Unintentionally Terrifying Statues in the World | Cracked.com

The 14 Most Unintentionally Terrifying Statues in the World

By: Pauli Poisuo April 26, 2011

Write a book or paint a painting, and who knows whether it'll still be around a few years later. But build a goddamned 100-ton bronze statue, and people will still be staring at that shit centuries from now. Which makes it all the more awesome when a sculptor creates a horrifying monument to his own insanity and gets it erected in city park or town square.

See the pictures at The 14 Most Unintentionally Terrifying Statues in the World | Cracked.com

Chernobyl nuclear disaster infographic

Source:LiveScience
chernobyl nuclear disaster infographic

Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops

ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.
The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.
.... Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops

Um, Uh …

LiveScience

Um, Uh … Speech Stumbles Help Toddlers Learn New Words

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

Date: 14 April 2011 Time: 04:07 PM ET

Stuck with a word on the tip of your tongue when talking to a toddler? Don't worry — a new study finds that hesitant speech may help the kid learn new vocabulary.

Language disfluencies, or the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper everyday speech, give young children a clue that the next word coming will be a new one, according to the study, which was published online Thursday (April 14) in the journal Developmental Science. These clues may help children link new words with new objects in their environment.

.... Um, Uh … Speech Stumbles Help Toddlers Learn New Words | Speech and Language Learning | Disfluencies | LiveScience

Syria: How Many Bad Fridays Can Assad Afford? - TIME

Syria: How Many Bad Fridays Can Assad Afford?

By Robert Baer Thursday, Apr. 14, 2011

Syria could very well learn its fate this Friday. According to a source from the country with close ties to the regime, if large-scale demonstrations break out after midday prayer in Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, the regime will be faced with a stark choice: either crack down with unlimited violence, or meet the demonstrators' demands. In either case, Syria is looking into an abyss.

The regime is in uncharted waters. In 1982 President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president, ordered the shelling of the town of Hama, killing more than 10,000 people to put down an uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood, because he was worried about a general uprising of Sunnis against the minority Alawites who rule Syria. Assad feared that the Alawites would not only be driven from power but also face the real risk of slaughter. As of now his son Bashar has apparently ruled it out, if for no other reason than it is unlkely to turn the tide as it did in 1982. Indeed, he appeared to be trying to calm the public anger. On Thursday, he met with a large delegation from the town of Dara'a, the epicenter of the demonstrations.

Read more: Syria: How Many Bad Fridays Can Assad Afford? - TIME

Psych test

Click to take an unusual psych test

Here are my results:

Verbally and mentally fluid, you are refreshing and illuminating to those around you. This is occasionally somewhat discounted by the obvious pleasure that you take in exercising your mental acuity. Although generally peaceful you can often take a verbally aggressive tact in relations with the world, which can often be misunderstood by those around you. Innovative in the extreme, you can often think yourself right out of the correct answer to a given problem. Many times you are referred to as your own worst enemy. You tire very quickly of routine and so make poor clerks or administrative help. You also have no respect for authority and little patience for those you regard as inferior, most especially those in charge. Experimentation is your watchword and can occasionally lead to experience for its own sake and shallow decadence. Your thought can sometimes be scattered and disconnected.

Interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 Pt1

Interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994

YouTube - 1. A prophetic interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 Pt1
YouTube - 2. A prophetic interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 Pt2

NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist

NCAA Justice

By JOE NOCERA

Published: April 8, 2011

I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time stomaching the sight of Jim Calhoun holding the championship trophy after Monday’s final game of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament.

Not because it was a lousy game (though it was), but because Calhoun, the pugnacious coach of the University of Connecticut “program” — as the big-money Division I teams are called — shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the gym.

.... N.C.A.A.’s Double Standard - NYTimes.com

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto

YouTube - A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto

Who Could Blame G.E.? - NYTimes.com

NYTimes Op-Ed Columnist

Who Could Blame G.E.?

By JOE NOCERA

Published: April 4, 2011

With tax day fast approaching, many Americans are thinking hard, and perhaps a little creatively, about finding deductions to help lower their tax bills. Nobody, after all, likes paying more taxes than they have to. So why in the world should we expect the mighty General Electric to act any differently?

.... Who Could Blame G.E.? - NYTimes.com

Radiation Dose Chart

Click thru to view full size


Sources here.

I waive all copyright to this chart and place it in the public domain, so you are free to reuse it anywhere with no permission necessary. (However, keep in mind that I am not a radiation expert, and this chart is intended for general public informational use only.)

Radiation Dose Chart

Police: Debt collectors for Citibank killed man who protested credit card bill - Yahoo! News

Thu Mar 31, 2:04 pm ET

Police: Debt collectors for Citibank killed man who protested credit card bill

By Zachary Roth

Never let it be said that American financial firms aren't doing their part to build global goodwill toward the United States.

The Jakarta Post reports that local police say three debt collectors working on behalf of Citibank killed an Indonesian political figure after he protested a higher-than-expected credit card bill today.

.... Police: Debt collectors for Citibank killed man who protested credit card bill - Yahoo! News

Global warming: Critics' review unexpectedly supports scientific consensus on climate change - latimes.com

LATimes

Critics' review unexpectedly supports scientific consensus on global warming

A UC Berkeley team's preliminary findings in a review of temperature data confirm global warming studies.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times

April 4, 2011

A team of UC Berkeley physicists and statisticians that set out to challenge the scientific consensus on global warming is finding that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly identical to those underlying the prevailing view.

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched by physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime critic of government-led climate studies, to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of skeptics who believe that global warming is exaggerated.

But Muller unexpectedly told a congressional hearing last week that the work of the three principal groups that have analyzed the temperature trends underlying climate science is "excellent.... We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups."

.... Global warming: Critics' review unexpectedly supports scientific consensus on climate change - latimes.com

German doctors advised to give out more placebos - Yahoo! News

German doctors advised to give out more placebos

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer – Thu Mar 31, 5:56 am ET

LONDON – For German patients plagued with problems like chronic pain and mild depression, doctors may soon be trying something a little different: a placebo.

After completing a major study on the use of placebos, the German Medical Association recently concluded the fake pills sometimes work better than real medicines and recommended that doctors give them out more often — even without explicitly telling their patients.

That is in stark contrast to guidance from American and British authorities, who say using placebos without the patient's consent is unethical. Placebo pills are often made from things like sugar, flour or dust, though doctors also use other things like vitamins, herbal supplements or drugs with very little active ingredient.

.... German doctors advised to give out more placebos - Yahoo! News

Sex-Change Chicken: Gertie the Hen Becomes Bertie the Cockerel | LiveScience

Live Science

Sex-Change Chicken: Gertie the Hen Becomes Bertie the Cockerel

by Remy Melina
Date: 31 March 2011 Time: 03:25 PM ET

A British couple was surprised to witness their pet hen Gertie gradually transforming into a rooster. No, this is not an early April Fools' Day prank. Chickens really can undergo natural sex changes.

The first sign that something was afoot with Gertie was that she stopped laying eggs, her owners, Jim and Jeanette Howard of Huntingdon, England, told the local media. Next, she began strutting around their garden and crowing like a rooster. Over the next few weeks, Gertie put on weight and developed wattles beneath her chin, a feature normally exhibited only by males. She also grew dark brown plumage and a scarlet cockscomb atop her head, both male traits.

''I know it sounds ridiculous but I can assure you it's all true," Jim Howard told cambridge-news.co.uk. "People think it's a bit weird but apparently its one of those things that does happen."

.... Sex-Change Chicken: Gertie the Hen Becomes Bertie the Cockerel | LiveScience

Japan earthquake:Timeline map of the quake

Japan quake timeline map

I can't embed it, but click the link to see an animated timeline of the quake, beginning with the foreshock at noon March 9.

Japan earthquake: Interactive map tracks the foreshocks and aftershocks of the magnitude 9.0-magnitude quake that struck March 11, 2011 - latimes.com

YouTube - ONE HANDSHAKE AT A TIME: How Whitney Young Changed America

ONE HANDSHAKE AT A TIME: How Whitney Young Changed America

YouTube - ONE HANDSHAKE AT A TIME: How Whitney Young Changed America

BBC News - Long game at Japan nuclear plant

BBC

29 March 2011 Last updated at 08:51 ET

Long game at Japan nuclear plant

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

We are now in a long game at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Two-and-a-half weeks on from the colossal Tohoku quake and its associated tsunami, engineers are working tirelessly to regain full control of the facility.

The past week has seen major gains in getting on top of the crisis, but difficulties and frustrations continue to hamper progress.

.... BBC News - Long game at Japan nuclear plant