The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.I feel like I’ve been preparing for this image all my life.
The internet is over, everyone can go home
The internet is over, everyone can go home
THE INTERNET IS OVER, EVERYONE CAN GO HOME
(Source: theamericankid)
![wired:
[via ex-genius]:
NEWS: Space Shuttle Enterprise completes historic flyover of New York City on the back of a modified 747 before delivery to the intrepid museum. This is totally an actual photograph of what actually happened.
THIS IS TOTES LEGIT.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m35foiJI6a1qzz0iho1_1280.jpg)
Because crushing student loan debt isn’t as fun as it used to be: here’s how President Obama’s making college more affordable.
LOLcats, 1870s edition
The US is at a serious disadvantage with NATO and the Geneva Accords, which is sad, because they foster a more humane war. The age of modern warfare is not large scale armies but proxy “small wars,” which utilize guerrilla tactics, foreign soldiers (ie not US citizens), and most importantly- deniability. History has seen this over the last 3 decades beginning and ending with Afghanistan.
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sweet jesus this is awesome.
npr:
Have a radiator? Why not have a Thermosaurus?
In Focus: Remembering Project Gemini
Fifty years ago, NASA began a program called Project Gemini, developing deep space travel techniques and equipment to prepare for the upcoming Apollo program. Two unmanned and ten manned missions were flown, and astronauts and engineers accomplished hundreds of goals, including the first American spacewalk, a 14-day endurance test in orbit, space docking, and the highest-ever manned orbit at 1,369 km (850 mi). After the project ended in 1966, many Gemini astronauts brought their experiences with them as they went on to fly Apollo missions to the Moon. Collected here are remarkable images of Project Gemini half a century ago — some beautiful, some technical, and a few surprisingly intimate.
See the rest. [Images: NASA]
![theatlantic:
Sparrows Actually Change Their Tune To Sing Over the Noise Of the City
Well it turns out city-dwellers aren’t the only ones miffed by urban noise pollution. Research has long suggested that wildlife – and birds in particular – may be impacted by the man-made sounds of the city, from car horns to traffic congestion. A new study confirms that sparrows in the Presidio District of San Francisco appear to have changed their tune and raised their voices to be heard over the increasingly noisy racket of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The researchers, George Mason’s David Luther and Louisiana State’s Elizabeth Derryberry, compared modern birdsong in the city to recordings of sparrows in the area taken in 1969. They also looked at historic noise-level data from the Environmental Protection Agency and San Francisco Department of Health, as well as traffic volumes over the Golden Gate Bridge across this time period.
They found that as noise in the city increased, so too did the pitch, or frequency, of the male white-crowned sparrow song. Higher frequencies of song allow the birds to keep twittering at each other over the low-frequency ambient noise of rumbling cars. Even more surprising, the authors write in the journal Animal Behaviour, the birds also seem in the last four decades to have literally changed their repertoire. […]
It’s probably good news for these sparrows that they’ve figured out how to adapt (and good news for urban bird-lovers that this wildlife isn’t simply fleeing the city all together). But there’s also something sort of disturbing about the implication that cities can distort the natural environment right down to birdsong. In some ways, noise matters even more for birds than it does for humans: Birds sing to defend their territory and to attract mates (life’s two most important goals!), and excessive noise threatens that.
Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ykhhLGWE1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Sparrows Actually Change Their Tune To Sing Over the Noise Of the City
Well it turns out city-dwellers aren’t the only ones miffed by urban noise pollution. Research has long suggested that wildlife – and birds in particular – may be impacted by the man-made sounds of the city, from car horns to traffic congestion. A new study confirms that sparrows in the Presidio District of San Francisco appear to have changed their tune and raised their voices to be heard over the increasingly noisy racket of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The researchers, George Mason’s David Luther and Louisiana State’s Elizabeth Derryberry, compared modern birdsong in the city to recordings of sparrows in the area taken in 1969. They also looked at historic noise-level data from the Environmental Protection Agency and San Francisco Department of Health, as well as traffic volumes over the Golden Gate Bridge across this time period.
They found that as noise in the city increased, so too did the pitch, or frequency, of the male white-crowned sparrow song. Higher frequencies of song allow the birds to keep twittering at each other over the low-frequency ambient noise of rumbling cars. Even more surprising, the authors write in the journal Animal Behaviour, the birds also seem in the last four decades to have literally changed their repertoire. […]
It’s probably good news for these sparrows that they’ve figured out how to adapt (and good news for urban bird-lovers that this wildlife isn’t simply fleeing the city all together). But there’s also something sort of disturbing about the implication that cities can distort the natural environment right down to birdsong. In some ways, noise matters even more for birds than it does for humans: Birds sing to defend their territory and to attract mates (life’s two most important goals!), and excessive noise threatens that.
Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]
