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Thomas Jefferson believed that a country’s constitution should be rewritten every 19 years. Instead, the U.S. Constitution, which Jefferson did not help to write (he was in Paris serving as U.S. minister to France when the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia), has prevailed since 1789. “Jefferson thought the dead should not rule the living, thus constitutions should expire frequently, but the fact is that the U.S. Constitution quickly became enshrined by the public and is the oldest constitution in the world,” said Zachary Elkins, a professor of political science at Illinois.

Iceland seems to be doing surprisingly well.

It has repaid, early, many of the international loans that kept it afloat. Unemployment is hovering around 6 percent, and falling. And while much of Europe is struggling to pull itself out of the recessionary swamp, Iceland’s economy is expected to grow by 2.8 percent this year.

Abusive comments and racist insults are the stock and trade of the Web, but now British police have begun cracking down and making arrests. What ever happened to freedom of speech, and where do we draw the line?

These are not isolated incidents. The UK government is cracking down on Internet trolls.

“The Wave” Online – A real life student experiment

The movie “The Wave” is based on a novel by Morton Rhue and is based on a true story that happend in 1967 at Gordon High School in Palo Alto. The teacher starts an experiment with his students trying to show them how the Nazi regime was able to invluence so many people and why no one stopped them. He created his own symbol (the wave), a dressing code, behaviour rules and a motto: “Strength through discipline, Strength through community, Strength through action.”

Government to deploy laser-based 'molecular strip-search' devices across airports and roadside checkpoints

Within the next two years

nstantly scan and identify every molecule on your body or person: the cocaine residue on your dollar bills, prescription drugs in your purse, marijuana in your pocket and even trace powder residue from your practice session at the gun range.

ources are reporting a strong improvement in Iceland's financial situation

Iceland

Success Story

Founder of Oracle

rags-to-riches tale

rkhunter (Rootkit Hunter) is a Unix-based tool that scans for rootkits, backdoors and possible local exploits.

Many young people in Britain are set to be in a worse economic position than their parents, but is there any sympathy among older generations and is their cause gaining support from politicians?

Twenty-five-year-old City worker George Lewkowicz is mad about the economy. He is typical of many young Brits under the age of 30 who have come to realise that their financial prospects are substantially less bright than that of their parents' generation.

thousands of students from across the UK protested against the rise in university tuition fees and the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

About Bad Astronomy Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.

The UFO Phenomena The 5% Non-Bullshit Information

TIL we could cut the US defense budget in half ... spend an extra $150B per year on NASA, mail every person in the United States a check for $500 ... and still have the largest defense budget in the world by a factor of three.

Redheads Require More Anesthesia

studies have proven that redheads actually require more anesthesia than blondes, brunettes etc

n 2004 a study was published in Anesthesiology that found that up to 20% more anesthetic was needed to achieve the same result in redheads that had been achieved in the blondes and brunettes taking part in the study.

Sullivan was hit by lightning on seven different occasions and survived all of them. For this reason, he gained a nickname "Human Lightning Conductor" or "Human Lightning Rod". Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being.

TIL that in 2005 NSA documents were declassified proving that the second Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used as a justification for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (which led to the Vietnam War), never happened.

The Complete Patents of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, the "man who invented the twentieth century,"

He did emigrate and he did go to work for Edison, but for less than a year, until the fee promised for a particularly difficult project, redesign of an Edison dynamo, failed to materialize.

TIL That google offers free legal download of music in China, in a partnership with the largest record labels in the world (since 2009). All of this while they sue children for illegally sharing music in the western world. (self.todayilearned)

I have been watching the SOPA/PIPA drama unfold, so thought I would share something that perhaps not everyone of you may know of. It took me three years to realize that google offers a free legal way to download music for people located in China (since 2009): www.google.cn/music/ It is backed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI Group, Universal Music and the Warner Music Group. So much for the RIAA suing families and kids in the western world for illegally sharing music for free when they give it out legally and for free - at the same time - to China. Hope Google will do the same with the MPAA for TV shows and movies. Let's just say I've been downloading like a mad man lately - legally for free :) NY Times article from 2009

[–]NorsteinBekkler 419 points420 points421 points 6 months agosorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on1 - Set up a proxy that runs through a Chinese server. 2 - DOWNLOAD ALL THE THINGS. 3 - Tell the RIAA to go fuck themselves.

How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air

With only three varieties of plants, we can “grow our own fresh air” indoors, to keep us healthy.

1. Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)Works well in the day timeGreat for living areasOne needs about 4 shoulder high plants/personNeeds to be put outdoors once every 3-4 monthsThe leaves of the plant need to be wiped everyday in Delhi and perhaps once a month in a cleaner cityThe soil used should be of vermi manure or use hydroponics