The back of the business card from someone working for a portable speaker company.

Even better, because it looked like it had handwriting on it, I paid extra attention to it during my post-exhibit debrief. Very clever.

This will mean nothing to anyone, but I’m very amused that in Ingress, Drexel is in the hands of the Enlightened (the “we welcome our new alien overlords” folks), while Penn is firmly Resistance territory.

If you’re never supposed to pull the emergency cord, why do trains have an emergency cord?

When Obamacare kicks in and we start the nationwide eugenics program to remove idiots from the gene pool, I might forgive the NSA for knowing where these people live.

The bathrooms at the Newseum have excellent decorations.

Check your Gmail.

Hadn’t thought of this. Couldn’t happen to nicer people.

DOMA Ruling Creates Tough Choices, New Opportunities For Some Same Sex Spouses

“I think major employers are going to have a hard time recruiting to states that don’t have recognition,” Kinney added. “If you’re a federally recognized couple living in New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles or wherever and your company wants to transfer you to Texas and you’re going to lose all your federal benefits, why would you ever do that?”

What happens when the Car Talk guys say “This is NPR” one too many times.

Bill introduced to regulate men’s reproductive health

Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way. The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week.

Other planets depicted here, but I think this would be one hell of an alternate Earth to live on:

Awesome, Google.

IDG reports this morning that Sony has a new smartwatch out. But the real amusement is how their URL changed the punctuation in the new phone announcement:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2042927/sony-launches-waterresistant-smart-watch-and-smartphone-with-64inch-screen.html

According to McClatchy, leaking even non-classified documents to the press is being treated as akin to sharing data with enemies of the state.

My podcast randomization sometimes causes some interesting juxtapositions. Today’s example:

Talk of the Nation interviews a writer about flocking and swarming behavior, where a group of creatures can exhibit complex and intelligent behaviors that the individuals do not have.

Planet Money interviews the inventor of computerized high-speed trading, which now makes up 50% of all stock trades. Includes an interesting anecdotes about using robots in 1987 to work around NASDAQ rules.

I strongly suspect that sociologists later this century will apply the insights of the first story to figure out how we’re screwing up the second.

This apparently has been around for a while, and damned if I know how I missed it, because it’s the best thing ever.

It has been said by some that the thoughts and tweets of Deepak Chopra are indistinguishable from a set of profound sounding words put together in a random order, particularly the tweets tagged with “#cosmisconciousness”. This site aims to test that claim! Each “quote” is generated from a list of words that can be found in Deepak Chopra’s Twitter stream randomly stuck together in a sentence.

Selected examples:

• Interdependence influences universal chaos.
• Quantum physics nurtures unparalleled energy.
• The web of life grows through the barrier of belonging.
• Your consciousness projects onto existential opportunities.
• The future is an ingredient of infinite destiny.

Holy crap. Believe it or not, this is an Excel spreadsheet. Hat tip: Pat Matthews.

He uses a Kryptonian mirror and his heat vision, you stupid, stupid fucks.

Fun NPR interview on Talk of the Nation. Direct MP3 download link.

When writer Stacy Horn was 26 years old, she was divorced and miserable. So she decided to audition for the Choral Society of Grace Church in New York. Horn made the cut and joined the community choir as a soprano.

She chronicles her 30 years with the group in a new memoir, Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness in Singing With Others. She talks with NPR’s Ari Shapiro about how singing made her life more bearable.

Daniel Levitin, psychology professor at McGill University, and author of This Is Your Brain on Music, joins the conversation to explain the science of group singing.

Reminds me of the official CIA coloring book that’s on sale at Langley.

http://pbump.net/r3v

Human Centipede Where’s Waldo is way easier than regular Where’s Waldo

This article is what it says on the tin. No, I’m not crossposting the image.