@OPCW Please contact us @Nobelprize_org we are trying get through to your office.
— Nobelprize_org (@Nobelprize_org) October 11, 2013
Categories
Category: Misc.
Up now over at NewYorker.com: a story I wrote about the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s recent visit to the city-state.
- Dogs Are People, Too — The New York Times
- List of common misconceptions — Wikipedia
- The Political Economy of Zombies — The Airship
- How to beat jet lag — Kottke.org
- How Brazil’s Richest Man Lost $34.5 Billion — BloombergBusinessweek
- 11 Pieces of Obamacare Conventional Wisdom That Shouldn’t Be So Conventional — Megan McArdle at Bloomberg.com
- Every Sci-Fi Starship Ever*, In One Mindblowing Comparison Chart — Kotaku
- I’m walking every street in New York City — ImJustWalkin.com
- Putting Time In Perspective — wait but why
- Video embedded above and on YouTube here: “Flying eagle point of view.”
(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)
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‘Warning: Trains Arrive on Time’
An entertaining headline and story from The Bangkok Post today:
Rail passengers in Phitsanulok are being warned that trains stopping there will be more punctual during the 45-day track maintenance period for the far northern railway, and should ensure they arrive at the station on time so they don’t miss their train.
Saksing Wongsanguansodsri, chief ticket officer at Phitsanulok station, said trains will no longer be up to two hours late, as in the past, because the south-bound service would now leave from Sila-art station in Uttaradit, which is only about 100km away, and not Chiang Mai, which is 362km distant.
A quote from a New Yorker piece on Syria by Steve Coll.
- The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech — The New York Times
- JustDelete.Me — “A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services.”
- Michael Pollan and Amy Harmon ‘talk’ it out — Columbia Journalism Review
- The Danger of Strategic Distraction — Center for a New American Security’s Shawn Brimley on Syria
- WhichFamousEconomistAreYouMostSimilarTo.com — Which famous economist are you most similar to? (Via Fergus Pitt)
- How to Make Perfect Coffee — The Atlantic
- As Clear As Mud: CrossFit, Tough Mudders, and the rise of social-physical challenges — Grantland
- HowManyPeopleAreInSpaceRightNow.com — How Many People Are In Space Right Now?
- In Thailand, Rubber Price Plunge Has Political Cost — The New York Times
- Video embedded above and on YouTube here: “Martin Luther King – I Have A Dream Speech – August 28, 1963”
(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)
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It Is Hot and Humid Here in NYC
I recently watched a fascinating segment of the 2009 BBC show “The Secret Life of the Dog”. I’d never seen it, and wanted to share it here. It’s about domesticating foxes in Siberia.
The gist: Over the course of more than 40 years, scientists took normal foxes, which were aggressive toward humans, and looked for the tamest ones.
Then they bred them.
In just a few generations, the foxes — animals that would typically attack humans when threatened — had become completely tame creatures that snuggled the scientists rather than biting their hands.
What’s more, over time, the foxes started to look like…dogs.
Cute dogs.
The tame foxes even developed floppy ears, the color of their coats lightened, and their tails curled.
One theory is that the least aggressive foxes were less fierce because they had retained their juvenile traits into adulthood. And so dogs — domesticated wolves, that is — similarly display the traits of juvenile wolves.
For more, here’s an American Scientist article from 1999 on the experiment. And there’s a Wikipedia page, as well.
I also came across some domesticated fox footage on Youtube taken by someone who appears to own a couple of the creatures. The video becomes extra-remarkable at 1:14:
And finally, in case you’re wondering: It appears that you can purchase your own domesticated Russian fox. (The Cost: $8,900.)
(UPDATE: This post originally contained a link to and embedded clip of the show on YouTube. It’s no longer available there, so I’ve removed them.)
Categories
Snippet of the day, fast food edition
A snippet from a New York Times story yesterday:
The new menu items added by fast-food chains this year indicate as much: a brownie-batter-filled doughnut (Dunkin’ Donuts), a bacon habanero ranch Quarter Pounder (McDonald’s), bacon-filled tater tots (Burger King), a six-slices-of-bacon-and-cheese burger (Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s), a choco-covered pretzel and choco chunk vanilla Blizzard (Dairy Queen), and a chocolate molten lava cake (Arby’s).
Then there’s the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich from Dunkin’ Donuts that Mr. Moran tried. It was rolled out nationally this month after a Massachusetts test that was a ‘viral hit,’ the company’s executive chef told The Boston Globe earlier this month. ‘Within days of the test, people were sending pictures, tweeting ‘look what I got!’ or ‘this is so wrong!’ and it was just incredible.’
If unhealthy food is wrong, restaurant visitors apparently don’t want to be right.
Related: See my 2012 post — especially points two and three — about my favorite nutrition book, “Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics.”
(Image: Dunkin’ Donuts.)
The AP reports:
Religious tensions engulfing Myanmar spread Friday to the world of big business: Monks and others in the Buddhist-dominated country demanded to know why a lucrative license for a new national mobile phone network had gone to a company from a Muslim nation.
There’s more on the deal itself from Bloomberg:
Norway’s Telenor ASA (TEL) and Ooredoo QSC (QTEL) of Qatar won licenses to expand telecommunications in Myanmar, one of the world’s last remaining untapped markets where only about one in 10 people has a mobile phone.
The two carriers beat nine other bidders including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (ST), billionaire George Soros and Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI) in the auction. A France Telecom SA-Marubeni Corp. group was named as a backup in case one of the winners doesn’t fulfill final requirements.
The decision ends a six-month race that drew 91 expressions of interest to operate in the country of 64 million people. The licenses are among the biggest prizes for foreign companies since President Thein Sein moved to allow greater political and economic freedom after taking power in 2011. They’ll be awarded according to a telecommunications law that parliament expects to adopt soon, according to a statement yesterday.
(All emphasis mine.)