Maricopa County, Arizona, seems to have developed a bad habit of giving the wrong election date to Latinos on Spanish-language items that they distribute, while the correct date appears in the English version. Less than a week ago, a voter discovered that the Spanish information accompanying voter ID cards showed November 8th as Election Day while the English version listed the correct date of November 6th. Now they’ve done it again. Bookmarks distributed at three election counters throughout the county once more list November 8th as Election Day on the Spanish-language side, while the English side correctly says November 6th. A spokeswoman for the election department stated they have no idea how many of the incorrect markers have been picked up by the public.
A team of British researchers has developed an algorithm that uses tracking data on people’s phones to predict where they’ll be in 24 hours. The average error: just 20 meters.
Cellphone tracking: What happens when our smartphones can predict our every move? (via misantropo)
Ma quali britannici, sono tre ricercatori italiani! E uno è di famigghia in questo blog!!
(via velimir)
Boia faust è vero!
For this innovation, the researchers—Mirco Musolesi, Manlio Domenico, and Antonio Lima of the University of Birmingham—won this year’s Nokia Mobile Data Challenge. It’s fascinating from an academic standpoint. But how exactly might it be used in the real world?
Ricercatori italiani: fanno bella figura nel mondo mentre il loro paese fa una figura di merda a costringerli ad andarsene.
(via velimir)
Those at the top of the pecking order have the least stressful and most healthy lives. Cardiac arrest—and, indeed, early death from any cause—is the prerogative of underlings.
Low social status is bad for your health. Biologists are starting to understand why. (via theeconomist)
(via theeconomist)
If you cannot convince a Fascist, acquaint his head with the pavement.
According to an exposé by the Associated Press, the NYPD has been monitoring Muslims not just in New York, but also across the Hudson river (and the state line) in Newark, New Jersey. It appears to have done so for no better reason than that its targets practise Islam.
Over the last ten years the New York police department has become a sophisticated counter-terrorism agency. But now it may have crossed a line. (via theeconomist)
(via theeconomist)
Diversity creates conflict. If we celebrate diversity, we create conflict.
Rick Santorum (via soupsoup)
In one survey a fifth of Korean middle and high school students said they felt tempted to commit suicide. In 2009 a tragic 202 actually did so. The suicide rate among young Koreans is high: 15 per 100,000 15-24-year-olds, compared with ten Americans, seven Chinese and five Britons.
Every year South Korea comes to a halt on the day of the university entrance exams, for it is the most important day in most South Koreans’ lives. The single set of multiple-choice tests that students take that day determines their future. But the “one-shot” society carries a heavy cost. (via theeconomist)
(via theeconomist)
La leggerezza per me si associa con la precisione e la determinazione, non con la vaghezza e l’abbandono al caso.
Italo Calvino - Lezioni Americane (Leggerezza)
Dopo quarant’anni che scrivo fiction, dopo aver esplorato varie strade e compiuto esperimenti diversi, è venuta l’ora che io cerchi una definizione complessiva per il mio lavoro; proporrei questa: la mia operazione è stata il più delle volte una sottrazione di peso
Italo Calvino, Lezioni americane (Leggerezza)
Parliamentarians in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition have been hounding human-rights groups, which consist mainly of secular left-wingers who often depend on funds from European governments and charities. The cabinet has just endorsed two bills to stop foreign governments from giving grants of more than $6,000 to human-rights outfits. Another bill raises tenfold the ceiling for libel fines. Yet another threatens to ban Arabs who shy from singing Israel’s anthem, which celebrates the Jewish yearning for Zion, from playing football for Israel.
A battle is under way for the control of Israel’s judicial system. Many liberals feel they are a waning minority. (via theeconomist)
(via theeconomist)
He is Bob.
Eager for fun.
He wears a smile.
Everybody run.
The One Armed Man (via gateway-to-the-black-lodge)
