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MadRegale

@alexismadrigal-blog / alexismadrigal-blog.tumblr.com

madrigal • P. noun 1 writer, non-fiction, fiction 2 journalist, energy, science, technology at wired.com — ORIGIN Rural Washington from Old Mexican salvador and New English elizabeth regale • verb 1 entertain with conversation. 2 lavishly supply with food or drink. — ORIGIN French régaler, from Old French gale ‘pleasure’ The personal blog of Wired.com staff writer Alexis Madrigal.
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Marine Traffic Google Mashup

MarineTraffic.com have produced a Google Map showing real-time information about ship movements throughout the world.

The system is based on AIS (Automatic Identification System). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board, which transmits data on position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as the vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details.

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Mrs. Hamrock made the observation that in her opinion it didn't look like Marilyn Monroe because she was too flat-chested. The embalmer explained that the autopsy had rendered her physique in that condition. The family had actually brought in to the mortuary a pair of breast enhancers that she had frequently worn, but they were too small to compensate for the effects of the post-mortem. Mrs. Hamrock removed the falsies from the dress, discarded them and proceeded to form her own version out of cotton from the prep-room shelf. When she finished, she took a few steps back and declared, “Now that looks like Marilyn Monroe!”

The inside dish from Marilyn Monroe's mortician.

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Vital questions remain unanswered because current methods for studying the hydrologic cycle are lacking. As Jim Kirchner, professor of earth and planetary science and HydroWatch principal investigator, puts it, "It's like trying to understand a Beethoven symphony when we can only hear a note every minute or two."
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Early in the afternoon I tuned into the teevee broadcast to catch Obama's speech... Fast forward to after the dinner hour and some tinkering around with toys, etc. The kids disappeared into another room for a while.  With preschoolers you get a little worried when things get quiet so we offered a gentle call to make sure they were still alive. "Just a second, Obama is speaking" was the reply.  This was quickly followed with a command to the younger sibling..."Help get the stadium filled". That certainly piqued enough curiosity to go take a look in the other room. This is what we saw.
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The oppressive boot heel of socialism and wimpy cars! Men surely didn’t lay their lives on the line at the beaches of Anzio for that. In the end, the U.S. recognized Israel, the oil embargo of 1948 didn’t occur and Detroit didn’t have to emphasize economy cars for three more decades. But it makes me wonder. What would have happened if Forrestal’s fears had come true? What if the Gulf nations had imposed a strict embargo and the United States was forced to go four-cylinder and cut down on gas starting in 1948?

Former CNET greentech reporter Michael Kanellos is too good at writing and too funny in writing to be an analyst. Dude needs to get back into the pure writing game.

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Text messaging and walking at the same time, it turns out, can be hazardous to both the Blackberry-wielding pedestrians and passersby. An article in The Wall Street Journal today describes several mobile mishaps. For instance, Mike Munoz, a 44-year-old car-dealership manager in suburban Portland, Ore., describes walking smack into the bride at a wedding while he’s texting.

I am seriously guilty of looking at my phone while walking. I probably read 50 news items this way, bumbling down 3rd street going in to work. My problem isn't that I actually hit stuff, it's that when I've been looking down and I look up and see something sort of close to me, it freaks me out that I might hit it and I take evasive maneuvers. So I end up dodging poles and juking stollers that are 7 feet away. Tree branches, with all those shaking leaves, are particularly problematic for my phone-addled vision.

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Additionally, Facebook has announced a fresh $10 million that they will infuse into a second round of the fbFund. Simultaneously, they are announcing the following winners of the first round of funding for application developers: CourseFeed by Classtop, GoalCamp, HotBerry, J2Play, LuckyCal, MyListo, Podclass, Trazzler, and Zimride Carpool App.

My favorite app -- Zimride Carpool App -- gets FBFunding!

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There used to be a queer character on the Seattle 'front that we used to call: "The Chief Mate". About all he owned was an extensive collection of discarded ship's officer's caps, and he used to parade slowly up and down the board-walk in a different one every day. Likely as not, he'd wear them inside out, for variety. Nobody seemed to know where or how he lived. He never talked to anybody. But every once in a while he would scare the daylights out of a person by coming up behind them and suddenly yelling {Begin deleted text}"{End deleted text} Whrooo! {Begin deleted text}"{End deleted text}. Then he'd pass on without a word and without looking back to see the effect.

Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG reminded me of this incredible story with his post on Shanghai tunnels.

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Handmade by a Russian cosmonaut, Georgi Grechko, this cyclogram shows a 96-day flight of Salyut 6. Some 22 parallel time-series show 1500 sunrises and 1500 sunsets during the flight, a schedule for space walks and baths, and visits of resupply ships bringing equipment, fresh fruit, and gingerbread. Printed in six colors on fine paper, 36” by 20”.

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The green-colored submarine, carrying what was believed to be cocaine, was about 32 feet long and appeared to be a makeshift or modified vessel. "The submarine traveled almost at the surface of the sea and when it came up we took advantage," said Capt. Benjamin Mar, a navy spokesman. Special forces troops swooped on the submarine from a helicopter and subdued the crew of four, he said.

Drug carrying submarines are one of my favorite topics.

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Natasha Mitchell: He even got to a point where he drank beer and smoked. Elizabeth Hess: Yes, it was the 70s so you know it wasn't uncommon for Columbia students to be hanging around at night smoking pot, and Nim loved pot and eventually developed his own sign for give me a joint. You know chimps have the same vices that we have. Nim started the day for his entire life with a cup of coffee and as he grew older was often grumpy if he didn't get it.
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Dwayne Spradlin, president and chief executive of InnoCentive, said in an interview that the company had solved 250 challenges, for prizes typically in the $10,000 to $25,000 range. According to the Web site (www.innocentive.com), the achievements include a compound for skin tanning, a method of preventing snack chip breakage and a mini-extruder in brick-making. “Odds are one or more products in your home has been innovated in our network,” Mr. Spradlin said. “Procter & Gamble has products that were innovated on the InnoCentive network.”
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My hilarious interaction with the USA Today Instant Messenger Bot. I'm not sure why I started talking with it, but I'm sure glad that I did.

"Your welcome." Who trained it to say these things?

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