io9 invites us to “bask in the metallic magnificence” of this VW Beetle turned dinosaur sculpture. But, to combine another article from the same site, can we call it that? While doing just what was suggested and planning a quick post over here, I encountered a story about New York City schools’ planned ban on certain words for standardized tests. These are words that might make some students feel “uncomfortable.” Like “dinosaur.”
This all leaves me feeling distinctly…something. Not sure if “uncomfortable” is quite the word for it. Perhaps “flabbergasted” more aptly covers the emotion?
Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that people are awesome. Tonight the job is done Jarno Smeets, a inventor/engineer who has just created working bird wings for himself.
Where’s Leonardo da Vinci when you need him?
…or maybe it didn’t happen, in which case people suck. Either/or.
“We know how a word is spoken can affect its meaning. So can how it’s typed,” said cognitive scientist Kyle Jasmin of the University of College London, co-author of a study about the so-called “QWERTY effect” in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. “As we filter language, hundreds or thousands of words, through our fingers, we seem to be connecting the meanings of the words with the physical way they’re typed on the keyboard.”
That’s…unexpected. I find myself visualizing the left side of the keyboard far more positively than the right, though (and I’m right handed). I wonder what kind of inverted brain that points to? Regardless, the subtle influences of our everyday things never ceases to amaze me!
Two years and some months later, I find myself in a very similar position to one I’ve been in before: the Mass Effect 3 collector’s edition is installing its first DLC while a new iPad (the third iteration, if that’s even possible) is on the horizon. Amazing how technology – and time – progresses when you aren’t looking.
