Incremental advances: "Invisibility Cloak Breakthrough Hides Objects From Human View".

How you're really supposed to play Monopoly -- and why almost nobody actually does. (Via Marginal Revolution.)

Is coffee good for you or bad for you? (Via @daniel_wahl.)

James Gleick: "How Google Dominates Us". A better title might have been, "How Google adds tremendous value to our lives".

One interesting tidbit:

"More than 96 percent of its $29 billion in revenue last year came directly from advertising... Google makes more from advertising than all the nation’s newspapers combined."

Business Week on the cyber arms race.

Who invented the "High Five"?

Neuroscience update: "The quest to build the perfect lie detector".

BTW, there's a good 1996 SF novel on this theme, The Truth Machine available at this Amazon link or via free download (MS Word format).

"Physicists Recreate 'End Of Time' in Lab"

1890s-era telegraph operators had their own texting culture.

Many formed transcontinental friendships, even though they may have never met personally. They would use the telegraph lines to spread jokes "virally", with "ha" being their version of today's "LOL". Similarly, "min pen" was apparently the 1890 equivalent of today's IM text "afk brb".

(Via Neatorama.)

What happens after you drop off your clothes at the dry cleaners.

"How Netflix Is Killing Piracy".

Related observations from Gus Van Horn.

Girls go geek. Interesting bit of history I was unaware of:

In 1987, 42% of the software developers in America were women. And 34% of the systems analysts in America were women. Women had started to flock to computer science in the mid-1960s, during the early days of computing, when men were already dominating other technical professions but had yet to dominate the world of computing. For about two decades, the percentages of women who earned Computer Science degrees rose steadily, peaking at 37% in 1984.

In fact, for a hot second back in the mid-sixties, computer programming was actually portrayed as women’s work by the mass media.

The images from the 1967 Cosmo magazine are hilarious. Don't worry, ladies. According to Grace Hopper, programming is just like "planning a dinner."

(Via Tyler Cowen.)

Scientists warn against real-life "Planet of the Apes" scenario.

Cool time-lapse video: "Acorn sprouts into oak tree"



(Via David Jilk.)

Medical tip: Do not try to treat your hernia by operating on yourself with a butter knife. (Via HotAir.)

French joggers before and after.

"Navy's Next Laser Mashes Up Machine Guns and Death Rays"

"What some other planets would look like if they were the same distance from the Earth as the moon":



(Via BBspot.)

Hotels offering "snore absorption rooms". (Via MR.)

StrategyPage has an update on EMP weapons.