The Adventures of Shylock Holmes

Check out this great story in the New York Times magazine about Albert Gonzalez, a big-time credit card fraud operator. He's sure fal...

Here's something I've noticed about my recollections of dreams. The amount I seem to remember follows something like an exponential ...

A Google researcher on social networks has a fascinating slide show on how  social networks  operate in real life. In particular, one of the...

The Last Psychiatrist has an interesting post about the images that marketers use to subtley convey cool: It's easy to think that the ...

I got a Roomba a few months ago. They're a brand of robotic vacuum cleaners. I refer to it affectionately as 'The Cleaning Lady...

From the excellent Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal . What's funnier is that I know people who'd actually do this:

I think I've figured out part of the secret of Robbie William's success. It's his carefully crafted persona that broadcasts &quo...

If you ever needed proof that the government views us as its subjects, rather than its masters, consider the way the TSA has rolled out i ts...

For those of you who think that mental accounting isn't real or significant, I ask you this: Is not the end of daylight saving the bes...

There's something really satisfying about seeing science applied rigourously to areas normally ruled only by rumour and superstition. It...

Everybody tells me that I should learn a language. It's the trendy thing to do. Wouldn't it be amazing to go to some remote village ...

For various reasons, my family tends to take a very matter-of-fact approach to death. As I grew up, it became apparent that this wasn't ...

I consider myself fortunate to have had to endure only minimal exposure to women's magazines, usually when a girl I know is reading them...

http://www.sellsbrothers.com/Posts/Details/12395 The premise is Richard Feynman applying for a job at Microsoft: Interviewer: Here's...

This guy is brilliant - he figured out the same thing that Bear Stearns, Citigroup and Goldman figured out, except he was in High School : ...

Pot Smokers Too Stoned To Get Their Act Together And Show Up At Voting Booths! Shocking New Findings! News At 11 ! The best result of the ...

The Scottish Enlightenment was to the Ancient Greeks what Black and Scholes were to Bachelier . From a discussion over lunch with The G...

Here's something I've noticed. Typically without realizing it, people use different adjectives to describe when they're feeling ...

Not to be confused with a Mini Canon or a Mini Canon . It looks like you could do some serious damage if you fired one of these into a pers...

If you looked at all the advice that's dispensed, and compare the numbers for 'Frequency That Advice X is Given' and 'Actual...

Via Ace of Spades , this hilarious video from Reason about the way that the founding fathers insulted each other. This stuff is pure gold. ...

So begins William Gibson's description of Singapore in Wired. From my limited experience of a few trips there (and Singaporean friends)...

B uilding up a blog seems to face similar challenges to building up any other kind of business (I assume - I've never done the latter). ...

The true measure of when gays will have achieved equality is when being gay is viewed as entirely unremarkable. And when that's the case...

It's difficult to say anything original on the subject of love. Still, the Gorillaz have one very nice line in the song 'To Binge&#...

It amazes me that there are still criminals who think that it's a positive expected value proposition to steal anything containing a GPS...

Mark Steyn is back, and on fire. He's doing a series of postings on the issues of the US election. From Tuesday's column : The n...

The song is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' b y Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo`ole. As a starting point, I find it hilarious that ...

It's strange how seemingly innocuous details can make a story poignant. A 19-year-old surfer who died after getting bitten by a shark...

True story.  I've had a similar argument with vegetarians and vegans several times before, except looking at the indirect effects of...

I'm not sure if this is a common reaction, but I certainly notice it in myself. I don't know why, but  I find it surprisingly hard t...

This comic is awesome - it's about what the author imagines people mean when they use poor grammar and spelling, featuring the mythical...

In general, I'm a complete sucker for suspending my disbelief during movies. I'll go along with the vast majority of absurd premises...

If this is true, it's astonishing: Bill Clinton lost the card containing launch codes for a nuclear strike for "months" duri...

President Obama was in California today. He gave a speech in Los Angeles to a crowd estimated at 40,000 .  Even though the majority of the U...