Mark H

"Fundamentally, tap water across the UK is highly regulated and among the safest in Europe. But that doesn't necessarily cover taste. The reason why tap water tastes different is a heady mix of geography, science and subjectivity. [...] So most water [...] will contain certain ions, such as calcium and magnesium, even if it's just a trace amount. These minerals are the main ones that define whether water is hard or soft, and they play a role in the taste." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Hard water > soft water. That is all. - Mark H

soft water = cheaper, when it comes to soaps. I can't remember what tea tasted like in Wales, I just remembered taking forever to wash away the soap. - Halil

:) - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart from Android

"Harvard University announced yesterday that it would shut down its primate research center, used for research into diseases like AIDS, and move the 2,000 rhesus macaques and cotton-top tamarins to other research facilities throughout the country. Harvard cited "financial uncertainties" as the cause of the shutdown, somehow neglecting to mention that this research facility has been cited for violations of animal welfare by both governmental and private organizations." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"The facility was called out last January by the Department of Agriculture for five direct violations, including the deaths of multiple monkeys as well as poor treatment of other monkeys--one cage was too small, others showed signs of psychological distress. Of the deceased monkeys, the one that jumps out is a cotton-top tamarin, a very small New World monkey, that was euthanized after... more... - Mark H

"Every few weeks my family would eat out at Godfather's Pizza. There I would play Tempest and Star Wars like a freaking maniac. It seems like only yesterday I was blowing up the Death Star to the sound of Neil Diamond's "Heart Light" emanating from the restaurant's speakers. Every day after school, my friends and I would walk to the 7-11, get a bag of Skittles and play Q-Bert and Time Pilot. Every time I had to tag along to the grocery store (a Bruno's in Dayton), I spent the entire time playing Pole Position and Galaga." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

I have an original star wars game I'm trying to get rid of if anyone is interested. - Todd Hoff

Space Duel - Joe Silence

"Based in New York, Davis creates paintings that seem to explore the relationship between man and the world around him. All of his pieces features a group of identically drawn men usually congregating around a single, massive objects or group of objects. It makes for extremely striking paintings." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Animal rights activists have stated that ‘violent repercussions may follow’ if a controversial experiment using an infinite amount of monkeys is not ‘stopped immediately’. The experiment, in which an infinite number of non-human primates attempt to type the complete works of Shakespeare, has been called ‘barbaric’ and ‘inhumane’." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Activist Steven Hallter is furious: ‘It’s a heartbreaking to think about the cramped conditions the monkeys must be in. Moreover, having an infinite number of alpha males in the same location is going to wreak havoc on the social dynamics. And the environmental consequences are devastating: Just think of the carbon footprint of importing an infinite number of bananas every day.”" - Mark H

"In Uganda’s Kibale Forest last summer, I smeared a bit of cookie cream along a rock as ant bait. A pleasingly yellow Crematogaster soon arrived to feed. All was well until a second species, in the big-headed ant genus Pheidole, attempted to sneak a taste. Instantly, the acrobat ant swung her agile abdomen forward - while still feeding (!) - and warded off her competition with a dab of venom. Like many myrmicines, Crematogaster has a stinger, but the structure has evolved from a piercing weapon to a soft, flexible, brush. The unique shape of the acrobat ant abdomen allows these ants to deploy their chemical weaponry in nearly any direction." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"A century ago, one section of Vienna played host to Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin. In January 1913, a man whose passport bore the name Stavros Papadopoulos disembarked from the Krakow train at Vienna's North Terminal station. Of dark complexion, he sported a large peasant's moustache and carried a very basic wooden suitcase. "I was sitting at the table," wrote the man he had come to meet, years later, "when the door opened with a knock and an unknown man entered. "He was short... thin... his greyish-brown skin covered in pockmarks... I saw nothing in his eyes that resembled friendliness." The writer of these lines was a dissident Russian intellectual, the editor of a radical newspaper called Pravda (Truth). His name was Leon Trotsky." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Marxism is commonly used about every revolutionary grouping who has 'communism' as their utopian goal. That would be a stateless society with common ownership, where everyone is contributing according to their ability and consuming according to their need. I'm sure there are a million shades, but Leninism and Maoism is the first big split. - Eivind

"Sharks have been mythologized in our culture as ruthless brutes and hunters, but the truth is humans are way, way more of a threat to sharks than sharks are to us. About 100 million sharks are killed annually, mostly related to "finning" (when the shark fins are sliced off and sold, often for soup). Marketer Joe Chernov wanted to visually express how the amount of shark attacks that kill people in a year stacks up against the number of people attacks that kill sharks. (It takes four seconds for us to kill the number of sharks that kill us in a year.) So Chernov teamed up with designer Robin Richards to make this incredible infographic comparing the stats. Note that the first figure is per year, while the second is per hour." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Worth a click through and a scroll down. And down. - Mark H

Sharks all the way down. - Eivind

"It is awfully hard to move stuff from the surface of our planet into orbit or beyond. [...] I took a look at the amount of ‘stuff’ we’ve managed to get off Earth in the past 50-60 years. It’s actually pretty hard to evaluate, lots of the mass we send up comes back down in short order – either as spent rocket stages or as short-lived low-altitude satellites. But we can still get a feel for it." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"When the Space Shuttle flew it amounted to about 115 metric tons (Shuttle + payload) making it into low-Earth orbit. Since there were 135 launches of the Shuttle that amounts to a total hoisted mass of about 15,000 metric tons over a 30 year period. Take a look at [an oil supertanker]. This kind of tanker, fully loaded, is about 550,000 metric tons. That’s thirty-six times more mass... more... - Mark H

"The Space Foundation holds an international student art contest every year. Each year has a different inspiring theme like Space is Infinite - Explore (2012) or Human Space Travel in 2020 (2011). The theme for 2013 was If I were going..." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"The “Earth News” section of the Telegraph has a nice series of pictures of insect eyes: “Bug-eyed: Macrophotographs of insects by Ireneusz Irass Walędzik”. They’re wonderful. The series has 18 pictures, and I’ll show seven. Not all are identified in the Torygraph, so readers with entomological expertise can add their IDs. All photographs are credited to Ireneusz Waledzik/Caters News" - Mark H from Bookmarklet

This is where Rayban gets their ideas - Stéphane Miroux

"University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs and health risks." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Good videos at the link explaining the process and the comments are interesting too; there's a link to the research paper there as well. - Mark H

"According to basic forensic science, the human body after death is not a pretty thing. After the induced heroin overdose, the victim would have quickly exhibited pallor mortis, or a loss of color in the skin due to the end of blood flow, within minutes of death. To pass off the victim at parties and in public, the witnesses must have taken time to apply and reapply extensive makeup to the body of the victim." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Witnesses report that the body of the victim was not stiff, indeed, it was flexible enough to be carried around as if walking, dragged behind a boat, and finally flipped off a gurney to be buried in the sand by a small child. To achieve this ease of motion during the time the witnesses Wilson and Parker were in possession of the body, they could have used the same technique that... more... - Mark H

"When things are going a bit shit, the religious minded can always gain a little solace in the firm belief that it's all just part of God's Plan. This of course begs the question. "Is God really programme managing an intricate series of tasks, activities and dependencies allocated to over 7 billion resources?" If so, I'll wager it's far too complex to just wing it. Furthermore, God has always struck me as the sort of guy who would use a PC rather than a Mac, so he's bound to have it all planned out somewhere on a nice neat resource levelled Microsoft Project Plan. (Assuming of course that the heavenly finance department have authorised a license for him, they're not cheap you know)" - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Note that in the first painting, the blobs of paint are added to the page first, with the maggots then placed on the paint. The result is clearly abstract expressionist, reminiscent of action paintings, yet you see the artist trapped in the overwhelming color, much as the fly-to-be is trapped in the maggot itself. There is an artistic irony in this freeform expression being used to clearly convey that the artist is not free but constrained by where it happens to be placed on the page. In fact, when we see the process, we can tell that the maggots were lifted, no doubt against their will, and placed on a different color. The commentary on how we are all trapped in the Military-Industrial Complex is stark, yet somehow the message is that even here, we can find, nay, we can create beauty. Powerful." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Contrast this with the technique of dipping the maggots first, then placing them on the page. Here we see agency, vibrancy. We see that the artist doesn’t succumb to a false dichotomy. It says, I don’t have to choose. I can be both orange and yellow. I can keep them separate and combine them. I am fucking free. Yet somehow, in this very freedom, there's less boldness, less passion.... more... - Mark H

"League One Portsmouth are on the verge of salvation after administrators of the club struck a late deal with Portpin for the sale of Fratton Park. A takeover by the Pompey Supporters' Trust can now be completed after the club spent 14 months in administration. [...] It means the fans' group can now go ahead with their purchase of Fratton Park and BDO can start the process of finally bringing the club out of administration." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

At. Freaking. Last. - Mark H

\(^_^)/ - Eivind

"The Magicicada is a genus of cicada with either a 13- or a 17-year lifespan, depending on species. That might be surprising to those not familiar with the cicada, who'd think it only lives for a few weeks at a time. But the Magicicada larvae live underground for nearly their entire lives, feeding on fluids from tree roots in the northeast United States, emerging with only a few weeks life in their lives in enormous numbers to molt into adults, mate, lay eggs, and die." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Brood II, also known as the "East Coast Brood," is a 17-year cicada due for emergence this summer. It ranges from the Virginia/North Carolina border up through the northern end of the New York City suburbs. Radiolab, one of our favorite science radio shows/podcasts, has come up with a cicada tracker to pinpoint exactly when Brood II will begin "swarmageddon." Starting tonight, Radiolab... more... - Mark H

I lived through a cicada swarm in D.C. once. It was very LOUD. And messy. - Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)

We've already had upgraded hotels and a trip that we wouldn't otherwise have had this year. Tonight we went to a local restaurant which everyone we know - including the taxi driver who took us home - say deserves a Michelin star. It does. So very, very good. Seven courses including the appetisers, pre-desserts, etc. Next month we're off for a weekend up north and we're still trying to come up with ideas for the rest of 2013 although we've bought tickets for both NFL games at Wembley later on. - Mark H

We're up north! ;-) - Heleninstitches

"This is another post on musicians that never quite made it past the State Fair level. Back in the day, it was alright to not play Shea Stadium, there was always a place for you at the local hotel lounge." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

I've heard of the Henry Paul Band, and I see that a commenter knows them, too. - LB: #TeamMonique from Android

"NASA’s Great Observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Infrared Telescope — have combined forces to create this new image of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The SMC is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"The various colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red. " - Mark H

"Lensed by David Bellemere, model Chloe Nørgaard poses as a heavy metal vixen for Gravure Magazine. Fashion director Priscilla Polley dresses the native New Yorker in statement pieces by designer labels, while hair stylist Cecilia Romero creates enchanting blue and green waves. / Creative Direction by Alex Freund and Lisa Mosko, Makeup by Regina Harris" - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Soft focus and low contrast working well with the languid poses. - Mark H

"I did some using flash on camera, or flash on hand, but these images were not so exciting to me. I wanted to do something new. Then idea came up that I will use off flash on stand, using radio transmitter and receiver, just like studio photography. Then I happened to find interesting effects when I flash person from behind and use slow shutter speed as you can see on my images. The technique I am using is very simple and I like its simplicity. I am using wireless transmitter and receiver. All settings of camera and flash are adjusted by manually. Flash is on stand. The shutter speed will be set to 1/2-1/15th sec depend on what kind of effect I want." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Bohemian Rhapsody just popped in my head. "I see a little silhouetto of a man" - Rodfather