The Missing Links is just what it sounds like – a collection of links to interesting things I found on the interwebs this week. I hope you enjoy them. This is the eighth in a never-ending series.
Winner! The story behind the picture of the great Johnny Cash flipping the bird.
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A Close Second: Anthropologists have updated their views on how humans moved away from apes. See? I knew natural selection was a bunch of hooey. Never believe someone who marries their cousin.
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Best in Show: You may know about the Grandfather Paradox, where a person travels back in time and kills their grandfather, therefore negating their own existence, but have you heard of the Grandfather Paradox by Proxy? This is when a person merely tells someone in the past to kill their grandfather. What am I getting at here? A bunch of really cool theoretical physics involving the Large Hadron Collider.
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And this week’s Crazypants Award goes to… Minnesota Republicans, who have introduced legislation that would make it illegal for people on public assistance to have more than $20 cash in their pocket. What. The. Fuck. Here is House File 171 straight from the horse’s mouth.
Language Links
This is probably going to piss off my ancestors, but loyalty does not behoove those on the quest for knowledge. Here is an article claiming that the existence of “No Irish Need Apply” signs is a myth or, at least, a drastic exaggeration. Happy St. Patrick’s Day Hangover.
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Speaking o’ the Irish, here’s a short lesson on the history of spelling in Irish (Gaelic).
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The latest editions to the OED: Skype and coat.
This Week in Depressing/Infuriating News
Harper Collins has started enforcing restrictions on the e-books that it sells to libraries, claiming that the e-books are only allowed to be lent out 26 times before they expire and the library must buy the book again. This is only the most recent example of publishing companies shooting themselves in the foot by trying to resist change. Learn from the record companies, dummies.
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Another case of Apple being a bunch of douches. The hardware giant is being accused of deliberately slowing down apps that aren’t distributed through their app store.
Random Cool Links
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| Image Courtesy of PopSci |
Transmissions, cooling systems, and power trains could be made obsolete by this shockwave generator, which was designed by Norbert Müller and colleagues at Michigan State University. I hope, hope, hope the car companies jump on this quicker than they jumped on the hybrid engine technology. Hope.
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Wanna know more about hydrogen fuel cells? You got it.
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This is what happens when you let a nine-month-old pick your March Madness bracket. Cute, but we all know that octopi are the real savants in sports tournaments.
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I assume you’re already filled out your basketball March Madness bracket, but what about your Worst Company in America bracket? Or your Muppet March Madness bracket? Mental_floss brings you 12 Non-Basketball March Madness Brackets.
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Also from mental_floss comes three strange California politicians. Tony Clifton lives! (Maybe.)
Have a great weekend!
