Tuesday, February 24, 2009

New URMA issue on my desk


A special land-and-water issue of Agricultures (Purdue)


New URMA issue on my desk


The Fall 2008 issue of Research Horizons (Georgia Tech)


Monday, February 23, 2009

Monday coffee break: Gold diggers

In all of history, the total amount of gold humans have mined would fill:
A. two Olympic-size swimming pools
B. the Colusseum in Rome
C. the Grand Canyon

At Batu Hijau, a large-scale open-pit gold mine in eastern Indonesia, how long does it take to accumulate more tons of mining waste than than all of the tons of gold mined in human history?
A. sixteen hours
B. sixteen days
C. sixteen months

How much rock and ore must be extracted at Batu Hijau to produce the amount of gold (one ounce) in a typical wedding ring?
A. 250 tons
B. 250 pounds
C. 25 pounds

The answer to all three questions is: A.

Source: The Real Price of Gold, National Geographic, January 2009


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

New URMA issue on my desk


Volume 22, No. 01 of HHMI Bulletin (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)


New URMA issue on my desk

Volume 18, No. 1 of UNT Research (University of North Texas)


Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday coffee break: MOBA


The Museum of Bad Art: "Art too bad to be ignored..."


Friday, February 13, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thursday coffee break: Nut-Jobs-R-Us

Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap. "Patri Friedman wants to make it easy for anyone to build an independent country: 'If we make one seastead, there's room for thousands.'" (wired.com)


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Bushfires in Victoria, Australia

Melted car wheels. From boston.com's Big Picture series.


New URMA issue on my desk


The Winter 2008 issue of Engineering and Science (Caltech)


New URMA issue on my desk


The 2009 issue of Binghamton Research (Binghamton University, SUNY)


New URMA issue on my desk


The Winter 2008-2009 issue of Ideation (William & Mary).


Tuesday coffee break: Digital Dark Age

Will today's digital documents be accessible in the future? Jackie Esposito predicts that "30 to 40 percent of this information will be available" in the future. (ResearchPennState)


Monday, February 9, 2009

Top 15 Unanswered Questions posed by Chuck Berry


A dubiously useful list in no particular order.

1. Maybellene, why can't you be true?
2. What to do?
3. Will you dine and dance with me?
4. Out the door?
5. Nadine, honey is that you?
6. How long to get fixed?
7. Should I pick you up at a quarter to eleven?
8. Is it a date?
9. Where to dine?
10. Can we get in?
11. Girl, what'd I say?
12. Oh mommy, mommy, please may I go?
13. Oh baby doll, will it end for you and me?
14. Who's the queen standin' over by the record machine?
15. Would you get hip to this kindly tip?


Monday Coffee Break: Violent Death in the Insect World


"Death in the domain of the insects can be swift and cruel but retains a magnificence and beauty that is somehow at odds with the brutality of what is happening..." (scienceray.com)


Friday, February 6, 2009

Friday poll results

How do you feel about your level of involvement in the design of your magazine?



  • I'd like to be more involved: 5 (25%)

  • I'd like to be less involved: 1 (5%)

  • I'm happy with my level of involvement as it is: 14 (70%)



Friday poll results

How happy are you with the design of your magazine?



  • I think it's the bee's knees: 6 (26%)

  • I like it, but there are things I'd like to improve: 13 (56%)

  • I neither like nor dislike it: 1 (4%)

  • I dislike most of it, but there are some good things about it: 2 (8%)

  • I really don't like it at all: 1 (4%)



Friday coffee break


An illustrated manual of Soviet road safety guidelines, written in verse. ("Don't use vodka as a fuel, Or you’ll crash your engine cruel.")


Thursday, February 5, 2009

Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt.

'Ring Tossed: "A Visit to the Nurburgring -- once the world's most treacherous racetrack, now a pedal-to-the-metal public playground -- provides a crash course in German automania."

Finalist, leisure interests, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing 2002 (Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated)

After you read the story, have a gander at this:


For all of them to live, one of them had to die

Gone: "What's it like to be kidnapped and held for ransom, not as a political prisoner but as an economic one? What's it like to live in the Ecuadoran jungle for 141 days? What's it like not to sleep, to be bound in chains, to have your body invaded by living things, to waste away to the point of death? What's it like to have one of your fellow hostages killed when the negotiators fail at negotiation? What's it like? This is what it's like."

Finalist, feature writing, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing 2002 (Tom Junod, Esquire magazine)


How to Save Your Newspaper

It's now or never for America's dailies. A former TIME managing editor offers a way to return journalism to prosperity: charge for it, a nickel at a time: "I am hoping that this year will see the dawn of a bold, old idea that will provide yet another option that some news organizations might choose: getting paid by users for the services they provide and the journalism they produce." Walter Isaacson, Time magazine


Monday, February 2, 2009

Yours for only $24.95


Monday coffee break


Hours of fun from Sleeveface: "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion."