] INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Eat your way to the bottom
] of almost any bag of popcorn and there they are: the
] rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels known as old
] maids.
]
] It's long been known that popcorn kernels must have a
] precise moisture level in their starchy center -- about
] 15 percent -- to explode. But Purdue University
] researchers found the key to a kernel's explosive success
] lies in the composition of its hull.
]
] Unpopped kernels, it turns out, have leaky hulls that
] prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for them to
] pop and lack the optimal hull structure that allows most
] kernels to explode.

Finally! The mystery is solved! I, for one, can die happy.

CNN.com - Scientists solve unpopped popcorn - Apr 21, 2005

] Cookie Monster curbs cookie habit
]
] Hoots the Owl, Cookie Monster and friends in Sesame
] Street
]
] Hoots the Owl (left) explains the benefits of fruit to
] Cookie Monster
]
] Cookie Monster, the biscuit-eating puppet on US
] children's show Sesame Street, will cut down on his
] favourite food as part of an anti-obesity drive.

People are insane - just so you know.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Cookie Monster curbs cookie habit

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Housing - San Francisco

] The distractions of constant emails, text and phone
] messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration
] than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled
] volunteers.

Emails 'pose threat to IQ'

Have you ever wanted to build your own cube farm? Perhaps you want to pretend that Sue is that CBW (C*** B***H Wh**e) from work that drives you nuts and you can sacrifice her by the copy machine? Maybe you have a crush on Jim and you want to have a little nooner under the "Hang in there kitty" poster? Now you can!! With Cube Figures all of that is now possible. I have Sue and she's busy making copies for me right now. I'm thinking of buying the "newhire" expansion kit so that she has lots of friends to hang around the coffee machine with.

The Cubes

] A blow-by-blow account of how one of the world's most
] prolific senders of spam email was tracked down and
] prosecuted had an audience of spam fighters on the edge
] of their seats last week.

New Scientist Breaking News - Project Honeypot aims to trap spammers

] Hiring the right people is extremely crucial to Fog Creek
] Software. In our field, there are three types of people.
] At one end of the scale, there are the unwashed masses,
] lacking even the most basic skills for this job. They are
] easy to ferret out and eliminate, often just by reviewing
] a resume and asking two or three quick questions. At the
] other extreme, are the brilliant superstars who write
] lisp compilers for fun, in a weekend, in Assembler for
] the Palm Pilot. And in the middle, you have a large
] number of "maybes" who seem like they might just be able
] to contribute something. The trick is telling the
] difference between the superstars and the maybes, because
] at Fog Creek Software we only hire the superstars.

This is great and is exactly what I look for when hiring candidates!

Joel on Software - The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing

] "This is R Peed Robbert, McNicoll and Don Mills
] bus-shelter."
]
] "That's nice. This is Detective Icaza de Arana-Goldberg,
] three blocks east of you on Picola. Proceed to my
] location at once, priority urgent, no sirens."
]
] "Acknowledged. It is my pleasure to do you a service,
] Detective."
]
] "Shut up," he said, and hung up the phone. The R Peed
] - Robot, Police Department - robots were the
] worst, programmed to be friendly to a fault, even as they
] surveilled and snitched out every person who walked past
] their eternally vigilant, ever-remembering electrical
] eyes and brains.
]
] The R Peeds could outrun a police car on open ground on
] highway. He'd barely had time to untwist his clenched
] hands from the steering wheel when R Peed Robbert was at
] his window, politely rapping on the smoked glass. He
] didn't want to roll down the window. Didn't want to smell
] the dry, machine-oil smell of a robot. He phoned it
] instead.

Cory Doctorow is writing short stories again, but with a vengeance. This is his latest whereby he writes of the future where patents have limited creativity and there is only one kind of robot left in the world. He also called it "I, Robot" as part of his new effort to write new stories with the same title as a famous story by another author. It's a bit of a protest of all the bitching about Michael Moore using "Fahrenheit 9/11" as a title since it is so close to "Fahrenheit 451".

Anyway, enjoy.

Dolemite

Cory Doctorow | I, Robot

] ASPEN, Colo. Feb 21, 2005 %u2014 Hunter S. Thompson, the
] hard-living writer who inserted himself into his accounts
] of America's underbelly and popularized a first-person
] form of journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in
] Las Vegas," has committed suicide.

ABC News: Writer Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

] A year after a sweeping federal antispam law went into
] effect, there is more junk e-mail on the Internet than
] ever, and Levon Gillespie, according to Microsoft, is one
] reason.

The New York Times Technology Law Barring Junk E-Mail Allows a Flood Instead