drego: the unrequited narcissist

This blog contains random stuff I've come across or thought about that I deemed worth collecting, primarily for my own amusement. Major tags: Android, animal, art, business, computing, digital media, economy, education, entertainment, environment, funny, gadget, government, health, home theater, IMHO, Internet, legal, lifestyle, media, musing, mobile, music, narcissism, nation, nature, networking, news, product, oddity, photo, photography, politics, programming, psychology, religion, science, Seattle, social media, society, shopping, technology, video, web development, Windows, wisdom, workplace.

[drego]

(via uberhumor)

[drego]

Internet Blackout Day's effect on SOPA/PIPA congressional support 

Rep. Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of the 'Stop Online Piracy Act' (SOPA), dismissed the opposition to SOPA as illegitimate and of minor importance. Oh really?! --drego

(source: ProPublica.org, via uberhumor)

[drego]

(via uberhumor)

[drego]

(source: @StephenAtHome, via Twitter)

[drego]

"Not sure if this research passes the peer-review process. British psychologist Cliff Arnall claims that, according to a complicated equation he devised in 2005, the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year. He calls it Blue Monday. We’re so blue, Arnall says, because of the weather, the Christmas holidays being over, and already-failed New Year’s resolutions, among other things he takes into account. But Arnall’s formula was created as part of a publicity campaign for Sky Travel, a British TV channel that shut down in 2010. “The fact is that Cliff Arnall’s equations are stupid, and some fail even to make mathematical sense on their own terms,” psychiatrist Ben Goldacre wrote in his “Bad Science” column in The Guardian, and other scientists have dismissed the formula."  Read more...

(source: NY Daily News, via The Daily Beast)

[drego]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

(source: Android Central)

[nickthejam]

[drego]

(via nickthejam)

[drego]

[CES 2012] The most impressive non-Android product of the week: Samsung's transparent smart window

Read more...

(source: Android Police)

[drego]

"Apparently it’s ultra-super important for Christian kids to be able to pray at school but not so much for Muslim kids."  Read more...

(source: PoliticsUSA)

[drego]

"The Village Voice has obtained artist renderings of a new Scientology Super Power Building being built in Clearwater, Florida. Here are pictures of 10 of the weirdest rooms/machines there."  Read more...

(source: The Village Voice, via BuzzFeed)

[drego]

A sudoku puzzle needs at least 17 clues to be solvable.

"An Irish mathematician has used a complex algorithm and millions of hours of supercomputing time to solve an important open problem in the mathematics of Sudoku, the game popularized in Japan that involves filling in a 9X9 grid of squares with the numbers 1–9 according to certain rules. Gary McGuire of University College Dublin shows in a proof posted online that the minimum number of clues — or starting digits — needed to complete a puzzle is 17; puzzles with 16 or fewer clues do not have a unique solution. Most newspaper puzzles have around 25 clues, with the difficulty of the puzzle decreasing as more clues are given."  Read more...

(source: Gary McGuire et al., via Nature)

[drego]

"Surprisingly, some studies have suggested that only 10% of the world's population is left-handed, and an even smaller percentage, 1%, is ambidextrous. But, all you creative left-handed rarities beware, seems that being a south paw isn't good for you."  Read more...

(source: LimeLight)

[drego]

"God Almighty himself, through his appointed papal mouthpiece, has picked a winner. For this year's celebration of Christ's birth, Pope Benedict will remotely light a giant Christmas tree display attached to the side of a mountain, from 130 miles away.... But! Scandal! He's doing it with the Lord's fave new gadget, [a Sony Android tablet]!"  Read more...

(source: Gizmodo)

[drego]

(via uberhumor)

[drego]

(source: Dilbert by Scott Adams)

[drego]

Grammar matters!

(via uberhumor)

[drego]

"Your resident narcissist — that excessively self-centered, self-important admiration hog — is ready to fill your holiday stocking with complication, drama and disappointment. Yes, just like last year. My definition of a narcissist is someone who possesses excessive amounts of self-centeredness and an inflated sense of importance. When a narcissist is a part of an event, other guests may try to ignore him, or overlook or justify his behaviors. It is often challenging to figure out whether or not a person is a narcissist, because these people are highly skilled in protecting themselves to the point that it may be difficult to truly get to know them (as they most often don't even know themselves)."  Read more...

(source: USA Today)