Readings 5-13-08

The Worst Cities in America

Lots of stuff I didn't know in there. Guess I'm canceling that Modesto vacation.
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How the brain detects the emotions of others

I've been accused of being psychic. Empathic is more like it. Not in some gloopy newage sort of way, but for real. I can walk into a room and tell how everyone in the room is feeling, immediately. I'm almost always dead on.

I've often wondered if it was just my brain gathering, sorting and interpreting clues and cues at lightning speed, the result coming across more like an emotion than a thought.

The above New Scientist article finds me wondering again.
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Ex-Python uncovers French plot to invade via Wales

FORMER Python Terry Jones has helped uncover a plot to land a French invasion force in Wales.

While working on a new television programme, the historian stumbled upon plans to land Louis XIV’s forces on the Mid Wales coast at Aberystwyth...

They had thought they were just going to follow an ancient map to see if a roadway depicted still exists today...

But they found something far more sinister – no less than a plot for revolution, which could have plunged England and Wales into a bitter civil war...

via linkfilter.net
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Computing without electricity

Multiplying and dividing numbers was not always that easy. Before the arrival of cheap electronic pocket calculators and computers in the 1970s, people relied on an array of low-tech means and machines to calculate taxes, profits or the properties of engineering parts.

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ends