“In the United States a 30 second television ad on a Wednesday night averages between $64,000 and $502,900, depending on the network. Let’s take a quick look at what else you could do with half a million dollars.” — goustelevision

“Explaining science to a Fox News anchor is like explaining cricket rules to a dog. They really just want to lick their own balls and bark at you.” — MPdinsdale

“Dreaming may help to relieve a bad day, according to a new study. For years scientists have wondered if dreams forecast the future but now new research says the brain uses dream to take the sting out of troubling memories. During nighttime dreaming the brain processes emotional experiences in a ‘safe’ environment when stress chemicals are low, the research shows… The MRI scans showed a dramatic reduction in activity in the part of the brain that processes emotions. Mr Walker explained that it is like dreams become the brain’s psychotherapist. Study researcher Els van der Helm, a doctoral student in psychology added: ‘During dreams, memories are being reactivated, put in perspective and connected and integrated, but in a state where stress neurochemicals are beneficially suppressed.” w/ photos

“In November 1, 2008, a man named Satoshi Nakamoto posted a research paper to an obscure cryptography listserv describing his design for a new digital currency that he called bitcoin. None of the list’s veterans had heard of him, and what little information could be gleaned was murky and contradictory. In an online profile, he said he lived in Japan. His email address was from a free German service. Google searches for his name turned up no relevant information; it was clearly a pseudonym. But while Nakamoto himself may have been a puzzle, his creation cracked a problem that had stumped cryptographers for decades. The idea of digital money—convenient and untraceable, liberated from the oversight of governments and banks—had been a hot topic since the birth of the Internet. Cypherpunks, the 1990s movement of libertarian cryptographers, dedicated themselves to the project. Yet every effort to create virtual cash had foundered… Other proposals followed — bit gold, RPOW, b-money—but none got off the ground… Read on for the rise and fall of bitcoin.” w/ photos

“My calculations differ slightly… Slingshot + Fruit + Slow Motion Camera = Good Times.”

“Ever wondered why flies are attracted to beer? Entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have, and offer an explanation. They report that flies sense glycerol, a sweet-tasting compound that yeasts make during fermentation. “Insects use their taste system to glean important information about the quality and nutritive value of food sources,” said Anupama Dahanukar, an assistant professor of entomology, whose lab conducted the research. “Sugars signal high nutritive value to flies, but little is known about which chemical cues flies use for food sources that are low in sugar content — such as beer.” w/ photos

Via: Casino Top Lists

“If you’re expecting the tiniest car in the world to be extremely cramped with limited legroom, you’re thinking too big. Go smaller. Scientists in the Netherlands developed a car that is the size of a single molecule, which can only be viewed under spectacularly small lens. Given that it is so small, the only real ways that it has any visual similarities to a car is that it has four wheels and a bare-bones internal framework. The car is powered by electrical pulses that respond to millivolts of energy. For every half-turn of its wheels, the car needed another jolt of energy. Because of its high energy requirements and minuscule size, it’s no surprise that the first journey was only six nanometres. Even though the actual size of the project may be smaller than the average human eye, it is a massive breakthrough for scientists in the field of nanotechnology.” w/ photos

“Lakes typically aren’t thought of as deep and many would incorrectly assume that one of the Great Lakes holds the spot for the deepest – after all, they were carved out by glaciers during the last ice age. So if one of the Great Lakes isn’t the deepest, which lake is?” w/ photos

“The writing is brilliant and factual… it’s super-informative, the narrator’s voice is great, and the illustrations are awesome. Clearly, these great people have a fantastic sense of humor as well as a clear desire to summarize and inform!” — torchpratt