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xkcd does the best nerdy comic but oglaf is the comic I never knew I needed – and it's probably the best ever. It's wry humour + sex, often featuring erotic fungi and The Blind Gibberer, and even more oftenly situated in the sort of medieval setting that
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Laura Vanderkam writes in Fast Company about a three-minute habit that changed her life: keeping track of how she spends her time during her waking hours, with a spreadsheet. Much of her piece is directed towards mitigating parental guilt – that Vanderkam might not be spending too much time with her
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Rolling Stones has published a fabulous profile of Johnny Depp, written by Stephen Rodrick. It's about 15 minutes' worth of reading long and I highly recommend you read it right now. The profile's power comes from excellent writing and a narrative that makes you come
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I'm sorry, my dear followers, to have to disappoint you (or, quite possibly, induce a sigh of relief) but today's blog post will have to be just these lines. My laptop died yesterday, I got a cold, lots of anxiety, a mild fever and a migraine,
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My laptop, a 2015 MacBook Pro that survived being drowned during the Chennai floods that year, went into the ICU today. A service person said the RAM was fried, along with some other adjacent components. When a friend asked if I was going to get a new machine, I said
Science
Scientists have combined one atom of sodium (Na) and one of caesium (Cs) to form one molecule of NaCs, achieving the most precisely controlled chemical reaction in history. They were able to achieve this using a fascinating bit of technology called a magneto-optical trap. While the trap itself has a
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Today's post is just a very interesting tidbit I found when conducting research for a piece for #GRIT – about how, in the 19th century, the White House had a sewer gas problem so severe that Chester A. Arthur, the 21st US president, refused to move in there until
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Nagraj Gollapudi on the yo-yo fitness test, ESPN Cricinfo: A player starts at speed level 5, which consists of one shuttle. The next speed level, which is 9, also consists of one shuttle. Speed level 11, the next step up, has two shuttles, while level 12 has three and level
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Here's another instance of an unsound university press release exaggerating the conclusions of a study. The headline goes "Children in India demonstrate religious tolerance, study finds". According to the 2011 Census, 182 million people in India are between the ages of 9 and 15. The two
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There's a formula in thermodynamics 101 called Carnot's theorem that goes like this: This is a famous equation because it defines the absolute upper limit of efficiency achievable by a heat engine, irrespective of how much its performance is optimised. ηth is the thermal efficiency; Tc
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I've had migraines since 2006, when I started college. The pain is excruciating, disabling, ruinous, usually on both sides of my head. I can sense a migraine coming 12-24 hours beforehand, in the form of a small sphere of ache embedded deep inside my brain that I can
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There are many similarities between Kaala, Pa Ranjith's second flick with Rajinikanth, and their first film together, Kabali (2016). The thematic one is the most obvious, where Ranjith focuses on class mobility, caste discrimination and social welfare and brings them into mainstream cinema using Rajini as his frontman.