PANTIES ARE THE NEW GPS

ITEM [via Gizmodo]: The Catlin Arctic Survey are trekking 700 miles to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the shrinking Arctic icecap. Know what they’re using to navigate their way there?

Panties.



The panties serve as a wind sock of sorts.  The team attaches them to a ski pole and uses the wind as a guide to the North Pole.

Reason:

"Due to our proximity to the Magnetic North Pole, our compasses are currently going haywire, said navigator Ann Daniels. "The earth's strong magnetic field on this part of the ocean means that the compass needle simply spins uselessly in its housing. As such, we're currently relying on more traditional methods for day-to-day navigation, using the sun (for those few precious hours each day when it graces us with its presence), and using wind direction, as indicated by the panties…"

And YOU thought science was boring and stoopid.

Notice they don't explain where they got the idea in the first place. That must be a fun story.

Blowing in the wind,

This is dF

“BEELZEBUB HAS A DEVIL FOR A SON NAMED STEVE” AND OTHER KARAOKE DISASTERS

ITEM [via popfiend ]: A new study by Dr. Wei Ji Ma, assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, reveals why people mishear lyrics.

“Understanding speech can be difficult, especially when it’s noisy,” or overwhelmed by a loud music track, says Ma, whose study appeared in the March journal of Public Library of Science. “We found that this process can be helped a lot by looking at the speaker’s face. If you have only sound information, you will sometimes make mistakes. But if you also have the visual information, the brain will combine those two pieces and get a better sense of what’s being said.”

It makes sense, though it doesn’t explain why many people will mishear the lyrics in the same way. I suspect word-of-mouth plays a factor as well, where yr friend sings along to the song with the wrong words and you think that’s how the song goes.

Which is why punk rock invented the lyrics sheet.

FUN FACT: A misheard lyric is called a “mondegreen”.

READ MORE ABOUT IT: You can find mass collections of misheard lyrics at KissThisGuy.com and AmIRight.com – although surely some of them are just people trying to be funny.

Sing if you know the words,

This is dF

TEENAGE KICKS AND OTHER FELONIES

ITEM [via Threat Level]: A federal judge in Pennsylvania has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent a district attorney from charging three teenage girls with the production of child pornography for taking photos of each other in states of undress and then emailing the photos to friends.

Background:

Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick, Jr., had threatened to charge the girls with being accomplices to the production of child pornography unless they agreed to six-month probation, drug-testing and participation in a five-week educational program to discuss why what they did was wrong.

Similar cases have arisen in other states.

I’ve been tracking the “sexting” story for awhile now, but I haven’t posted anyhting on it because I couldn’t think of a good way to address what really bugs me about it without risking an arrest warrant.

Let’s start with the obvious: child porn is bad, and should be illegal. That’s because child porn involves adults victimizing children. Teenagers taking pictures of themselves and each other and sending them to boyfriends and girlfriends is hardly the same thing. It’s silly teenage shenanigans, and DAs who equate it with kiddie porn are wasting valuable time and money on cases like this that could otherwise be spent going after real child pornographers.

The other thing that bugs me, however, is that the DA seems bent on punishing the teen girls involved in this for something, ANYTHING, to make the point that taking consensual sexy photos of yrself and yr friends of yr own free will is a punishable act.

Personally (and I’m not a parent, so I can say this), I don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with it. Teenagers explore their sexuality in all kinds of ways that their parents would find alarming – just like we did when we were the same age (only without the benefits of digital technology).

That said, it’s true that teens likely don’t understand the consequences of what they get up to, and they should be made aware, just like they should be taught about the risks of pregnancy and STDs. In that sense, I think taking pictures of yrself and sending it to yr friends should at the very least be an informed decision. Sex ed classes should have a section on sexting and MySpace flirting.

But “stupid” and “wrong” are not the same thing. Which is why I’m annoyed by the current freakout over sexting as if it’s some new crime wave of DIY kiddie porn by kids, for kids. It is no such thing, and that alarmist mentality rings hollow to people like me who have seen other moral guardians raise the same alarms about everything from video games and slasher films to Judas Priest lyrics and gay people, arguing that the best solution is to criminalize everything that might be even the slightest way harmful.

Don’t get me wrong – I fully understand why parents wouldn’t want their teens sexting anyone. The point is that it’s their call what to do about it. The DA’s office shouldn’t be involved at all. Skumanick has said he’s only doing it to teach the girls a lesson. It’s not his lesson to teach. 

And furthermore, his teaching method of threatening to charge these kids with a serious felony that in most states will put them on a Registered Sex Offender list for the rest of their lives is far more stupid and irresponsible than anything those girls did.

I’m glad the Pennsylvania judge has the sense to know the difference.

FUN FACT: My first girlfriend and I used to swap extremely naughty handwritten letters with splendidly graphic details of what we’d do if we were in the same room without chaperones. We were 16. Which makes us both sex offenders under today’s standards. And we didn’t even have blogs or iPhones at our disposal. That’s progress?

A momentary lapse of reason,

This is dF

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN NEVER TWITTERED

... But someone did it for him.



Not anymore.

Twitter, which has been shutting down fake Twitter accounts (which is to say, accounts claiming to be famous people but really aren’t, kinda like the Fake Steve Jobs site), finally got around to shutting down the Fake Christopher Walken Twitter site.

That’s a damn shame.  It was one of the funniest things on Twitter.

More sample entries:

"Secretary of Ironic Scarves." I don't know if Obama read my letter but I hope so. Ashton Kutcher deserves this. So does California.

I don’t remember saying that the geese had eaten all of the kittens in Central Park. No matter. She’s upset and the geese are very confused.

She wanted to go to the zoo but she knows I'm not comfortable there. Animals can smell that too. Animals with noses I mean. Like bears.

There's a kid on a Pogo stick in front of my house. It's nearly midnight so let's assume he's been drinking. This should end well for him.

The neighbor's cat is back at the window looking in at me. I wonder how he would describe this to other cats. If he wanted to, I mean.

I figured from the get-go that Christopher Walken wasn’t really writing these. But it was funny to imagine that he was. It’s a genius concept, and one that really shows the value of Twitter as an entertainment medium.

And Twitter went and killed it.

Thanks, Twitter.

Bring back the cowbell,

This is dF