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11 Oct 2009 11:27

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Tech: Help a zombie out, pay for gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames

The Zombie Experiment
  • Crowdsourcing through Zombies. The Zombie Experiment is looking to create a game completely paid for by fans who donate money and who have a say in the game’s design. Oh, and they donate to charity. Awesome. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Oct 2009 11:51

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Tech: That water-on-moon thing cost a lot of freaking money

  • $79 million for the attack – and there wasn’t even a big flash! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jul 2009 10:23

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Biz: A big web-only news experiment, AnnArbor.com, missed its launch date

  • Old launch date: Monday. New launch date: Tomorrow. Today, the Ann Arbor News, a 174-year-old Michigan institution, prints its last issue. On Monday, their parent company, Newhouse, was supposed to launch a Web product to replace the newspaper, giving some overlap time for users to get used to the product. But AnnArbor.com, which will include a twice-a-week print component, wasn’t ready so they didn’t launch it. Which means that tomorrow’s launch date leaves zero room for error and the possibility that the town will be without a primary news source if it gets delayed again. Talk about tightropes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2009 18:14

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Offbeat, World: What the $%#@? Experiment shows swearing reduces pain

  • Another reason to love scientists. Researchers at Keele University in England are saying they’ve shown swearing can actually lessen pain. They asked participants to put their hands in iced water and say either one of five swear words or one of five words to “describe a table.” As you may have guessed, the cussers kept their hands in longer – because the words brought on a “fight-or-flight” response, accelerated their heart rate and heightened aggression. source
Posted by Nathalie Heiberg • 3 Comments • Permalink

07 May 2009 09:16

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Culture, Tech: Wikipedia managed to hijack a dead guy’s obit with a fake quote

  • The quote When he died at the end of March, Maurice Jarre was quoted on his Wikipedia entry as saying: “One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear.”
  • The reason Jarre is an Oscar-winning composer who has the perfect combination of obscurity, cultural impact and newsworthiness to allow for a quote like this to be completely fabricated, a fact 22-year-old Irish student Shane Fitzgerald took advantage of to see how journalists will tend to use the Web as a primary source. Prick. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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