Monday

Posted: Monday, April 27, 2009 4:46 PM by Will Femia

1976 Swine Flu public service ad

Wait a minute. Venezuela owned an island in the Delaware River??

"An intriguing implication of this study is that male judges rule differently when they're sharing the bench with a woman." Women keep men honest just by being around?

Do you mean to tell me that these are real actual human lungs breathing under a giant bell jar?

I am fully cognizant of the fact that beatboxing isn't much more than rhythmic spitting and sputtering and yet I can never resist watching.

Spider resurrections may have surprised scientists but I personally have performed a fly resurrection and I learned the trick from a magazine so I'm sure it's no mystery. In fact, the trick is meant to allow you to put a fly on a leash. You catch the fly in your hand and hold it under water, effectively drowning it (although maybe just making it too mushy to move or fly). Then tie a string around the fly and cover it in salt. The salt sucks the water from the fly and it revives. I managed the revival part but the fly slipped my leash so I didn't get the full fly-on-a-string thing to work. (Having typed this out I have a nagging suspicion that I learned it from an Encyclopedia Brown book. Does this ring a bell to anyone?)

Site to go back to when I have more time of-the-day: Half Bakery. Is this a site for people with neat ideas?

What adopting a white girl taught a black family about race in the Obama era. An almost related but not quite story: I have white friends I hadn't seen in a while who recently adopted a black baby. Where is the baby from, I wondered. Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had assumed white couple + black baby = international adoption. Duh. I think that makes me both a racist and stupid.

Is facemining the future of IMDB? (And is that the silliest underestimation of a technology ever?)

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