So while you were out drinking beer and shooting guns at hamburgers yesterday, science found “the God particle.” But, uh, if you didnt already know what that was, you were probably too drunk or are too hungover to read anything too in-depth about the new boson. No problem. Heres part one of the MinutePhysics rundown, for the drunkards, dullards, and otherwise uninformed. [YouTube]
via A Really Simple Explanation of What This Higgs Boson Thing Is.
There are some perks to working as a blogger, and one of them is that anywhere with Wi-Fi is your office. Great! But often times, when working in a coffee shop for instance, you experience some outrageous behavior.
Right now, someone six feet from me is sat using Skype, very loudly, without a headset—and it’s riling me. I can see arguments in support of it, sure; it’s not unlike people having a real-life conversation just across the way from me, I guess. But I can’t help but think that, on some level, it’s pretty obnoxious. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t: so I thought you could help me decide. Thoughts?
Ten bells, and not seven trumpets, announced the apocalypse on February 20, 1971. It was 10:33AM, and teletypes in every single radio and TV station across the country rang those bells to announce an incoming message that nobody had received before.
It was a message that announced the end of the world, sent by the North American Aerospace Defense Command—NORAD.
It was the teletype you are seeing above. It told everyone that any broadcast had to be interrupted and emergency protocols had to be activated—a non-descriptive way of saying that, from that moment, the United States of America was at war with the Soviet Union.
via This Message from NORAD Announced Global Nuclear War—In 1971.
Thanks to researchers at the University of Calgary, you no longer have to be ashamed of your gigantic thumbs. In fact, their Fat Thumb smartphone interface takes advantage of your opposable digits monstrous dimensions to let you fully interact with your device with just one hand.Youre probably thinking to yourself, “I can already send texts and emails single-handedly,” which is most certainly true. But if youve ever tried to zoom a map when your other hand is occupied, youll know that multi-finger gestures are downright impossible. So the Fat Thumb approach manages to provide the same functionality using the large contact surface of your thumb. When using just the tip its detected as a single finger, but when using the larger area where you find your thumbprint, the device will recognize it differently allowing you to perform gestures like zooming, which usually requires two fingers.
via Your Fat Thumb Could Let You Navigate Your Smartphone Single-Handedly.
For all of its wild popularity, caffeine is one seriously misunderstood substance. It’s not a simple upper, and it works differently on different people with different tolerances—even in different menstrual cycles. But you can make it work better for you.
Photo by rbrwr.
We’ve covered all kinds of caffeine “hacks” here at Lifehacker, from taking “caffeine naps” to getting “optimally wired.” And, of course, we’re obsessed with the perfect cup of coffee. But when it comes to why so many of us love our coffee, tea, soda, or energy drink fixes, and what they actually do to our busy brains, we’ve never really dug in.
It’s not often that a neuroscientist comments on the topic of caffeine consumption and how to optimize it, but Chris Chatham, author of Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired, shared some of his tips for those of us who like a good cup of coffee in the morning (or several) and also want to get the biggest cognitive boost for their caffeinated buck from every cup they drink. Here are his suggestions.
In an excerpt posted at Business Insider, Chatham suggest that moderate doses, say 20-200mg of caffeine per hour, may be optimal for that mental boost you’re looking for. Considering an average cup of filtered or brewed coffee has between 100-150mg of caffeine per cup, one cup per hour is more than enough. In fact, you could probably get away with less coffee every hour, if the cognitive benefits are all you’re aiming for. (Let’s not forget, Caffeine has some health benefits, and definitely does some interesting things to your brain.)
via Small, Regular Doses of Caffeine Offer the Biggest Mental Boost.
Android and iOS: Whether you’re preparing for an emergency or in the midst of one, the Red Cross First Aid app overs plenty of knowledge. It’ll help you get ready for a potential earthquake, handle a broken bone, survive a fire, and tons more.
The app features simple instructions for several types of incidents, checklists to help you prepare, and videos to show you what the included text can’t. If the basic information isn’t enough, most of the categories have a set of common questions and answers so you can find out more about a particular topic. While the app is never going to be a replacement for first-aid training, it’s a good way to brush up on your emergency skills should an incident arise. It’s one of those apps you’ll hopefully never have to use, but may be glad to have if you encounter a worst-case scenario.
via Red Cross First Aid Puts a Wealth of Emergency Information in Your Pocket.
Memorizing a large block of text is incredibly hard, but the folks over on Productivity 501 show a simple method to practice recalling information instead of repeating it, by reducing large chunks of text to just a few letters.
You have a lot of different options for memorizing large streams of text. An old favorite is the memory palace, where you lay out a string of words inside an imaginary palace. The method Productivity 501 talks about is all about reduction.
via Practice Recall, Not Repeating to Memorize Large Blocks of Text.
Despite our obvious affinity for Apple gear, we’ll be the first to admit that Apple’s wrist-friendly iPod nano is lacking a key feature: Bluetooth. The Syre ($50) is the most sensible way we’ve seen to add this functionality yet. By building the Bluetooth module right into the silicone polymer watch, it keeps things looking sleek and stylish while removing cumbersome cords from your workout routine.
via Syre | Uncrate.
When Apple introduced the iPhone back in January of 2007, it was clearly aimed not at geeks but at mainstream consumers. Even though it lacked many of the basic functions offered by competing smartphones of the time, its multitouch interface was so far ahead of the rest of the industry, especially when it came to the core experiences of web browsing and entertainment, that no one else stood a chance.
And there’s a very specific reason for that.
It's my life, you're just along for the ride! 