Above: Carbon Sink is a controversial new art installation at the University of Wyoming by British artist Chris Drury. The sculpture, a 36-foot spiral of logs morphing into charred coal, is constructed from trees that have died from skyrocketing beetle infestations across the western United States. Lawmakers in this coal mining state aren’t happy about it, and veiled threats have been made to potentially cut funding to the university. Read more at the Guardian.
Chess Boxing, a hybrid sport which combines boxing with chess in alternating rounds, is growing in popularity. Inspired by fictional depictions of the sport in French comic book artist Enki Bilal's graphic novel, Froid Équateur, Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh brought the concept to life in 2001. Governed by the World Chess Boxing Organisation, whose motto is "Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board", matches consist of up to eleven alternating rounds of boxing and chess with a one minute break between rounds. A photographic account of the sport. Further reading. Further viewing.
The Encyclopedia of Life is E.O. Wilson's dream become reality. It has been online since February of 2008, aiming to catalog the currently known 1.9 million species on our planet. You can also add text, images, video, comments, and tags. [ Video Introduction]
GE has posted a searchable bird's-eye view of the 6,000 most popular airports in the world.
The Guardian: Online commenting: How the internet created an age of rage
How to Convince People to Let You Cut in Line
Jury nullification, a situation in which jurors acquit in a criminal trial even if the facts favor conviction (often because the jurors disagree with the law), is of ancient provenance in the Anglo-American legal tradition. Courts are ambivalent towards it, regarding it both as quasi-illegal (they'll remove jurors if they catch them during the attempt) and as something that they cannot overturn once it happens. Nullification has furthered many causes, from anti-death-penalty to pro-southern-lynchings. Lawyers can't mention it in court on pain of contempt, but some hope to educate people in other ways.
Offshore drilling/container ship catering crews know some really cool kitchen tricks for cleaning.
An Ohio trial court judge last Friday in State v. Stephens [.pdf] held that there is no First Amendment right to bark at a police dog.
Please now enjoy this ginormous gallery of slow motion videos from a high speed digital camera.
"Putting Weird Things in Coffee" is one man's quest to find new and unusual ingredients to add to coffee instead of the cream-and-sugar staples.
