Casiello Family Weblog

(via Nature)

The Siloam Tunnel, according to Biblical verses in Kings 2 and Chronicles 2, was built in the reign of King Hezekiah – 727 BC-698 BC. Carbon dating of plant material and thorium dating of stalactites puts the tunnel’s age around 700 BC.

A site full of optical illusions.

My favorite: ‘The Music’

A particularly beautiful online periodic table from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Each element links to its chemical data.

According to The Register, and just about every other blog in existence, the RIAA is suing a 12-year old girl in its latest batch of 261 lawsuits. Here’s Dan Gillmor’s take.

They settled – for $2000.

(via Slashdot>

A moth trapped in a relay in a Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator was logged as the ‘First actual case of bug being found’ on Sep. 9, 1945.

(via MetaFilter)

MIT is putting their course materials online. Lecture notes or videos, handouts, quizzes. Cool!

Super cows with the potential to produce 14,000 liters of milk in one lactation.

Bummer! When I saw the title, I was hoping for a gang of crime-fighting cows.

(via The Shifted Librarian)

For six years, Beloit College in Wisconsin has been distributing the Mindset List to its faculty and staff. It serves as a reminder to them of the perspectives of the students of the current incoming class. Here’s this year’s list. A few of my favorites:

Bert and Ernie are old enough to be their parents.

There has always been some association between fried eggs and your brain.

Peeps are not a candy, they are your friends.

(via boingboing)

Interesting – a map of Europe with each country named what its inhabitants call it.

(via I forget)

Plans for some neat toys and cards you can make from cardboard or stiff paper.

(via boingboing)

How ping-pong would be played in the Matrix – from a Japanese game show.

(via I forget)

About 100 elephants.

How about a hurricane? Forty million elephants.

King Arthur: What? Indian or African elephants?
Old man from scene 23: I don’t know that! YAAAAAGH!

(via IP)

They must be traitors, too!

(via devnull)

This guy is amazing!

This entry on the Cincom Smalltalk blog brought up this article in Business 2.0 magazine, opining that maybe the market for IT jobs will be looking better in the not-too-distant future.

(via st)
A good piece in The Economist on SCO vs Linux

(via Nature)

Bees, and other hive insects, have an elaborate police state. Total Insect Awareness, anyone?

(via st)

According to researchers at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan pizza cuts the risk of some cancers!

Woo-hoo!

From Scientific American, via devnull

“In April the CIA decided to classify a report on a January session in which microbiologists and the CIA’s strategic assessment group discussed scientific openness.

True. That popping sound was your head exploding. “

(via devnull)

Arguing with an engineer is a lot like wrestling in the mud
with a pig. After a little while, you realize the pig likes it.