Tupac Shakur's posthumous, holographic performance at Coachella just may vault him to the top of the pack of hardworking dead performers - sure, Elvis tours regularly even though he died in '77, and Johnny Cash has released several critically-acclaimed albums after his official final curtain in 2003, but neither of them went viral the way Hologram Tupac has.
We’ve heard the story over and over again in these hyperconnected digital times…boy meets girl, they fall in love, become blissfully partnered until one day, girl finds boy’s photo on a dating web site…
That’s just what happened to our next guest… but here’s the twist, Reyhan Harmanci’s boyfriend had no idea his photo was on display for a universe of single women, even though he had, in fact, given permission for it to be posted there…sort of.
The Here's What's Awesome mailbox is full of interesting pieces on wheelchair technology these days, starting with the Action Trackchair. It's an off-road wheelchair with treads - treads! - capable of negotiating sand, snow, and hiking trails. And, as the company's promo video points out, you can have it painted in camouflage colors for serious action. [Wired]
One of my little psychological tics revolves around those little stickers on apples and oranges. For whatever reason they weird me out - I can pull them off and wash the fruit a thousand times and still I'll think of the trace amounts of invisible sticker goo I'm probably imbibing along with nature's candy.
If you think Rebecca Black of "Friday" fame has had a tough run with web users, imagine being in the band Nickelback, the rockers the web loves to hate. Nickelback has been the subject/target of more memes than I can count, as well as the upsetting trend of "Nickrolling," a Rickrolling knockoff that even Rick Astley would give up at the first opportunity.
Airplanes use a lot of energy to get from place to place, but they also create a lot of it - especially, say, when they're slowing down and landing. Engineers at the University of Lincoln are looking at how to harness that energy so airplanes can power themselves.
Best journal article title of the week? "Accelerated ion beams for art forensics." Frankly, they had me at "accelerated ion beams" - the beams could have been for almost anything - but using it to stop art fakes is even that much cooler. (My first thought was that the title was referring to some kind of public awareness campaign, that ion beams were taking a stand on forgery, a la "People for Pizza" or "Citizens Against Evil.") And unlike chemical testing, it does so without damaging the original work.
Most of the few routines we have in my house involve the thermostat - at night, as we all trek upstairs to bed, I turn the main floor thermostat down and turn the upstairs thermostat up. In the morning, we do the reverse. It keeps our heating bill down, but it's a little like trying to save gas by hypermiling - not everyone is going to put in that much time to save a buck here and there.
The Green Bay Packers are not going to repeat as Super Bowl Champions this year. That you surely already know. But it's not because Eli Manning and the New York Giants managed to contain the Packers' offense or outplay the Pack's defense. It's because of some sparkly nail polish and an Aaron Rodgers jersey that sat at home, unworn, during the most important playoff game of the year.
So explains our senior sports analyst, Sad Packer Fan:
