Category Archives: Cool Stuff

3.29.2013

by Dani Johnson

My Fascinating Backyard: Spiny Backed Orb Weaver Spider + Spider Myths

Photo taken by Mkullen The other day I almost walked into a spider web that contained a spider that looked bizarre and like nothing else I’ve ever seen. Its back is white with face-like black markings and it has 6 / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Education / Nature / Science / Urban Legends

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yellow vase yellow vase yellow vase yellow vase yellow vase …

One of those things which amused me during class, was to take two words (I liked “yellow vase”) and reiterate it over and over in my head. If you do this at least twenty times, then you’ll start feeling that / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Science

3.5.2013

by Brendan McKinney

On Knowing the Names of Things

Jared Diamond, in Guns, Germs, and Steel, relates the time he was traveling with Foré tribesmen in the New Guinean highlands and a rival tribe blocked off their route, trapping them in the jungle without food. One of the party left / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Education / Nature

3.5.2013

by Mike Weaver

Ghost Illusions From Metamaterials

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have released details from an upcoming paper (to be published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials this month) about using metamaterials to generate controlled “ghost” images of an object. While not yet done / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Science / Technology

2.25.2013

by Brian Dunning

3 Amazing Moments in Podcasting

To start your commuting week, here are three fine moments from podcasting that I really enjoyed, and that I still think of whenever it’s time to up my own game. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did:

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Posted in Cool Stuff / TV & Media

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2.16.2013

by Chad Jones

Providing evidence for evolution

Last week I pointed out some common misconceptions about evolution and arguments that  are often used to support creationism. This week I would like to share some of what I feel to be the strongest evidences for evolution.

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Education / Nature

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Voices from the past

Recently, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has resurrected a very old recording from 1878. Not the oldest recording ever (dating from 1860), but it seems the oldest in the States. PBS has a nice, although long-winded, segment on it, after the / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Science / Technology

1.27.2013

by Brian Dunning

Skeptoid Secret Project: Weather Station Needed

Skeptoid is putting together a Secret Project. A very special piece of hardware is needed, one that I hope some friend or colleague can help with. It is a remote weather station, capable of operating unattended in extreme environments, and / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Events / Science

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“Hello, this is Antarctica calling”

Most of you are probably aware of the Arecibo observatory, world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. Constructed in a natural valley in Puerto Rico, it is still one of the work horses in radio astronomy. But a proposal from 1960, which / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Science / Technology

1.22.2013

by Brendan McKinney

The Voluble Desert

A hundred feet above the desert floor, on the delirious edge of a sandstone escarpment, the rock speaks in tongues. Its black mineral surface has been etched and scraped into a gallery of clamorous images, some animal and some human and / read more…

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Posted in Cool Stuff / Uncategorized

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