When your house is burning down, you should brush your teeth - The Oatmeal
Note from the author: Today, January 8th 2013, marks the 20th anniversary of my house burning down, so I decided to write a comic about it. It was a terrible thing and I've found the best way to deal with terrible things is to tell funny stories about them later. My dad still had a copy of the front...
BBC - Britain From Above - Stories - People - Tea-time Britain
Power surges called the TV pickup are unique to Britain. The engineers at the National Grid control centre brace themselves each time Eastenders ends and 1.75 million kettles get switched on.Power surges called the TV pickup are unique to Britain. The engineers at the National Grid control centre br...
Hasnain says:
This is a really good watch.
"The demand is increasing by 3 gigawatts in less than 5 minutes, right at the end of a popular TV show. The operator who oversees the whole grid has a TV to be able to watch the show, to know exactly when it ends and be prepared. That is insane. The demand for the whole country is ~40 GW on average. That's an 8% increase in 5 min."
Posted on 2013-01-07T19:47:43+0000
Awakening
Since its introduction in 1846, anesthesia has allowed for medical miracles. Limbs can be removed, tumors examined, organs replaced—and a patient will feel and remember nothing. Or so we choose to believe. In reality, tens of thousands of patients each year in the United States alone wake up at some...
Hasnain says:
This is long, has some scare-mongering, but is nevertheless a really well written article and a good read.
Posted on 2013-01-06T06:55:07+0000
My Father's "Eviscerated" Work - Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out
My Father's
As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow—First Chill—Then Stupor—Then the Letting Go
When your Jeep spins lazily off the mountain road and slams backward into a snowbank, you don't worry immediately about the cold. Your first thought is that you've just dented your bumper. Your second is that you've failed to bring a shovel. Your third is that you'll be late for dinner. Friends are ...
Hasnain says:
"At 85 degrees, those freezing to death, in a strange, anguished paroxysm, often rip off their clothes. This phenomenon, known as paradoxical undressing, is common enough that urban hypothermia victims are sometimes initially diagnosed as victims of sexual assault. "
Posted on 2012-12-29T01:06:45+0000
Gmane -- Re: Regression w patch Media commit causes user space to misbahave was: Re: Linux 3.8 r
article.gmane.org
1922: Follow This Rule — If You Want To Be Popular
From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine, something that is just as true today as back then. In fact, it probably has even more importance today, given how things — apps and services —...
1922: Why I Quit Being So Accommodating
A very odd essay from a 1922 issue of The American Magazine that seems to go against the general grain of most of the articles published then. There is also no name attached to it. Why I Quit Being...
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition.
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball...
Poor Students Struggle as Class Plays a Greater Role in Success
Low-income students have long trailed affluent peers in school performance, but from grade-school tests to college completion, the gaps are widening.