What have you done today of the day

Meet Tanishq Abraham. At age four he was accepted into MENSA and now at age eight he is about to start college. Eventually he would like to design a faster-than-light rocket.

Tanishq is part of an ongoing series called Prodigies from ThinkrTV.

[thinkr]

Lunchtime

PSA of the day: how to learn your Gmail keyboard shortcuts, thanks to CNET Australia.

Hot dog exposition of the day

[bite]

The naked eye is for suckers

A US PBS series pushes the boundaries of human perception through technology.

[petapixel]

Not yet the end of the day

As it turns out, the World may not end this year after all.

Archaeologists in Guatemala have uncovered a second reference to the Mayan "end time". This one includes also references to dates beyond the 13th cycle, which is where the last one ended.

[fn]

Hangover cure of the day

Had a bit much to drink last night and feeling it this morning?


LET SCIENCE CURE YOU!


[ls]

TGIF of the day

Stuck with a wine bottle and no corkscrew? There's science for that, thanks to the NakedScientists.

Renaming Big Ben

To mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne, Big Ben is to be remaned 'Elizabeth Tower'. 

The iconic landmark is officially called 'Clock Tower' but is more commonly known by the name 'Big Ben', which is actually the name of the bell inside the tower.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news, however public reaction was mixed, with almost half the respondents to a Yougov survey opposed the change.

[reuters]

Good morning, intertubes

As you're enjoying your morning coffee, let howstuffworks show you, um, how it works.

Trusted professions of the day

The Reader's Digest Most Trusted Professions 2012 report is out.

Once again, firefighters top the list as most trusted profession, while telemarketers languish at the bottom of the list.

I was surprised to see sex workers at number 37. I don't know why I was surprised, I just was.



LEGO Turing Machine of the day

Google has a doodle, LEGO has built a Turing Machine to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Alan Turing.

The Machine uses a light sensor to determine the value of the Lego Turing Machine's 32 switches - if the switch is on, the sensor sees a black brick, otherwise a white space.

Check out the video here.

Well if you gotta go...

The fossilsed remains of turtles mid-coitus were recently unearthed in Germany.

Researchers think the turtles had initiated sex in the surface waters of the lake that once existed on the site, and were then overcome as they sank through deeper layers made toxic by the release of volcanic gases.

[bbc]

Pronunciation of the day

Nah, too easy.


[source: CGP Grey]

How to of the day

Courtesy of Gordon Ramsay, perfect scrambled eggs.

btw creme fraiche is simultaneously the most glorious and the most evil thing in the Universe.

Lunchtime

Have you ever asked yourself how well body armour would protect you against practical weapons?


Well wonder no more, thanks to The Slingshot Channel!


Enjoy.

Tom Cruise could have used this

A group of Japanese scientists claim to be able to predict a movie's success or failure by using a series of mathematical models.


The model was originally designed to predict how communication spread over social networks and other word of mouth advertising, but found similarities when they overlaid the results with actual film revenue.


The only input required into the model was the daily advertising costs of the test movies, about 25 of them.


[source: dailydisruption]

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords

British researchers have created a robot that can learn simple words from conversations with humans, mimicking how infants learn how to speak. 

The robot, called DeeChee, was programmed with every syllable in the English language. A human volunteer then attempted to teach it by using and repeating simple words and phrases. DeeChee would then rank them according to importance and usage and began to recognise and reuse them.

According to the researchers, they chose a human baby likeness for the robot to allow more natural conversation between it and humans.

So, when does it learn "kill"?

[source: phys]

Blood donation controversy of the day

Are you a) a prostitute; b) from Britain during the Mad Cow Disease crisis; c) from certain parts of Africa; or d) a man who has had sex with a man in the last five years? Then you are prohibited from donating blood to prevent the spread of HIV.


A group of gay men are fighting against what they call discrimination, saying that the rule unnecessarily stigmatises people for something that is largely down to individual behaviour rather than sexual orientation.


The Human Rights Commission has received nine complaints from men who have been prevented from donating blood. The AIDS Foundation has said that it is comfortable with the status quo as donated blood "needs to be 100% safe."


[source: tvnz]

Saturday incest

Got a hot date tonight? Watch this video from VSauce and you might reconsider.