• Pareidolia: A Bizarre Bug of the Human Mind Emerges in Computers 
• How text messaging became a humanitarian technology
• The internet as a hive mind
• How Mat Honan had his digital life dissolved by hackers and multiple security flaws
• France has backed away from it’s three strikes downloading law
• John Birmingham on the real cost of Curiosity
• From a NASA contractor: a conceptual video of the Dream Chaser space vehicle
• The ‘spray on’ skin that heals wounds
• The perfectly legal ‘heist’ of $95,000 from a bank
• House cats kill more critters than thought
• Returned to Family: Outlaw Ned Kelly’s Remains, 132 Years After His Death
• Trojan’s PR stunt: hands out 10,000 dildos today from hot dog carts
• From NPR: Dean Norris On Playing Good In ‘Breaking Bad’
• Prometheus (2012) – Calvinball Mythology and the Void of Meaning
• 21 links between unexpectedly shared TV universes
• Tumblr: People Dying Like Marion Cotillard

This also looks interesting: aupcoming HBO documentary called About Face that speaks with former supermodels and talks about plastic surgery and the business of beauty.

Sixty-seven years ago today the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both History and Life have posted galleries of lesser seen photos depicting the damage inflicted and Mental Floss profiled the crew of the Enola Gray and what they had to say about the bombing.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s “View from the Window at Le Gras” was taken in 1826 and is considered the world’s oldest surviving photograph. Starting September 9, the photo, which is usually housed in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, will be on display at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim.

via Smithsonian Magazine Retina

A slideshow by renowned animal photographer Tim Flach with annotations about their body language

In science/tech:

• New Computer Will Simulate One Billion Neurons
• Microsoft reveals a muscle controlled computer interface
• Voyager 1 is getting close to ‘the edge’ of interstellar space
• The waves in Quantum Mechanics are real
• The discovery of a HIV protein’s structural change
• The Greenland Ice Melt might not be as apocalyptic as some would make it out to be
• Plants Can ‘Talk’ To Each Other by Clicking Their Roots

In society:

• Why Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Medalists
• A US Marine couple’s personal account of the Aurora Shooting
• Scientology’s insane concentration camp for it’s Executives
• A counter-editorial of Why Men Can’t Have It All
• Still haven’t seen ‘Girls’, but the parody trailer ‘Boys’ looks good
• Revealed, at last: why women live longer than men
• How to rewire your brain for success
• Do You Believe in Magic? Yes, You Do.
• Interesting Chronicling: history’s changing understanding of mammals
• Lost footage from The Karate Kid

Others:

• Project allRGB: creating images using only one pixel for each rgb color (16,777,216)
• Online app: based on weight/height, who’s your Olympic equivalent?
• The internet map: websites illustrated according to traffic and user activity
• Web-based Game Boy emulator with a slew of games to choose from
• Video: some guy almost walks into a bear while texting

Photographer Nick Moore is in the midst of various sound experiments, recording the effects of different audio frequencies on materials and played back in slow motion. The effects can be quite hypnotic and totally cool to see in action.

This first one shows off the rythmic behaviour of match flames next to a speaker running at 60 Hz.

And then there’s this one displaying what happens to a blob of mercury, which at normal speed doesn’t seem like much, but when slowed down, forms intricate ‘dancing’ geometric shapes.

This phenomena is called Cymatics and turns out, it has been around for a significant period of history.

One figurative example is the ‘musical’ boxes of Scotland’s Rosslyn Chapel; where a sequence of 213 cubes protrude from the pillars, with each displaying a selection of geometric patterns. The meaning of these were unknown until a hypothesis in 2005 by Thomas Mitchell identified these as cymatics and correspond to the Chapel’s carved angels that are depicted playing musical instruments and each pointing to a certain note on a musical staff.

Though not upheld scientifically or historically, it sure is pretty damn cool math.

• Awesome: European Agency Backs Approval of a Gene Therapy
• The ‘chemputer’ that could print out any drug
• Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math
• The Artist’s Lens: What It Means to See the World With an Eye Toward a Facebook Update
• Silicon Valley Warns That Their Products Are Addictive
• Oldest record in the world: recreated from photographs
• The most polite cease and desist letter ever
• The ‘feasibility’ of gun control in the US
• A man’s penis stolen by thieves in his sleep
• Website: An ermahgerd translator/generator
• Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps
• Pretty visualisation: Prime number patterns
• Chart: Distribution of colours in movie posters between 1914 and 2012
• 30 Awesome Behind The Scenes Photos From Old Movies
• 15 Hacks That Will Make You Life A Whole Lot Easier
• 10 of the Most Doomed Expeditions in History

• Roger Ebert on the Aurora Shooting
• How a 70 year old and a 7 year old bonded over the loss of their legs
• The story of Jay-Z’s most obsessive fan and his ‘correspondence’
• Pennie Smith’s historic Clash photo: The greatest rock ‘n’ roll image of all time?
• Author Denise Mina predicts fiction revolution
• John McCain to Appear on Parks and Recreation
• Lowest crime rate in decades. Is Britain behaving better?
• Why Pot Is Illegal Everywhere in the World
• Traffic signs in New Zealand destroyed by prostitutes performing stunts
• 18 Chinese Police Officers Dispatched to Rescue Sex Doll From River
• Stephen Gough, ‘Naked Rambler,’ Allowed To Walk Home Nude From Scottish Prison
• Tosher Work: Quite Likely the Worst Job Ever
• Tumblr: Onion-like headlines in real life
• Meowbify a website
• How a 70 year old and a 7 year old bonded over the loss of their legs

Also, will have to try this sometime…

Classic Movies in Miniature Style

• Internet Justice: 4chan Busts Lettuce-Stomping Burger King Employee
• What Google Is
• Shell’s social media campaign goes haywire
• Frisked By California Airport TSA: Man With World’s Largest Penis
• How Emma Sky went from anti-war academic to governor of Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s most volatile regions
• Where are you on the global fat scale?
• The Guinea Worm: A Dreaded Disease Nears Eradication
• Fears over plan to release GM mosquitoes in Key West
• Free access to British scientific research within two years
• A Vision of Crimes in the Future
• Profiling: Mayor Stubbs, the cat
• Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes
• The Scientific Method: The righteous left-brained storytelling of Breaking Bad
• The Wu-Tang Marketing Plan
• Fifty Shades of Babe: Duke Nukem Reads E. L. James
• What Happened to Bob Ross’ Paintings?
• 28 Sexy Pictures Of Older Actors When They Were Young
• Tumblr site: Am I Beyonce Yet?

Also, this video made using the Source Filmmaker takes one a completely different tone to the usual Team Fortress 2 videos, skipping the humor and instead opting for a more emotional approach that works really well.

Boy watching solar eclipse… taken from 1.5 miles away

• If you “Like” something on Facebook, you just gave it permission to post in your Timeline
• Having Access to the Internet is Good for Your Love Life (But Only if you are Under 30)
• White LEDs Lighting Directly On Paper
• Q: Why Do We Wear Pants? A: Horses
• UK government slammed for ignoring key security issues
• Lucas Foglia: the photographer in search of off-the-grid Americans
• The trouble with wind turbines
• No Matter the Drilling Method, Natural Gas Is a Much-Needed Tool to Battle Global Warming
• Mysterious radiation hit the earth just over 1200 years ago
• What divorced readers did with their wedding rings
• How Neuroscience Is Challenging Our Conception of Justice
• The Ghost in the Machine: Unraveling the Mystery of Consciousness
• Scientists Predict Synthetic Life Within a Year
• Crime Waves Will Follow the Heat Waves of Climate Change
• Letters of Note: A government complaint about a ‘debris’ dam and the landowner’s response on behalf of its builders
• Want: I’ve Never Meta-Pizza I Didn’t Like
• Build a bonkers hi-fi system
• Super-Resolution From a Single Image
• A rare interview: with Christopher Tolkien
• If the Wizard of Oz were set in China, it might look something like this

Merging Oceans photo

• Quantum Computing Research Breakthrough: no cooling required, as diamond stored quantum bits last for nearly two seconds
• First animation reveals how a face forms in the womb
• Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library
• 572 – The Phantom Island of Brazil
• Hidden Doggerland underworld uncovered in North Sea
• Will the boomers trust anyone under 30?
• What Is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect
• Shoe pants??
• Musicians missing royalties over copy-cat chart songs
• Charles Carreon drops lawsuit against The Oatmeal
• EU rules that downloaded games can be resold
• How Steven Spielberg’s Malfunctioning Sharks Transformed the Movie Business

Also, a trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s new show called ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’. You’re guess is as good as mine.