This guy called Mark Jenkins has done some great street installations. He makes ‘fake people’ (amongst other things) and puts them on street corners.

See the full image (and video) gallery here.

Miners have discovered a substance with the exact chemical composition as Kryptonite as described in Superman Returns.
Unfortunately…

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.

“I’m afraid it’s not green and it doesn’t glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange,” he told BBC News.

Full article

So disappointing!

So I see that Time are running an online Most Influential People online poll. In theory this is great, in practice it’s horrible. Take a look at the poll or see the screenshot below, it’s been rigged something chronic.

Whilst I’m sure that Bhumibol Adulyadej is incredibly influential in Thailand is he really the most influential person in the world (or even, as Time’s awards seem to be really about, in America)? No, of course not - a group of people have obviously spammed the poll. Just like they would have done for Korean pop singer Rain who has little or no influence in the US.

How easy is it to rig a poll like this? In the days of online social networks, the answer is incredibly easy. One post to Digg took Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto from #153 to #5 on the list in five minutes.

How easy is it to prevent polls from being rigged? Well there’s one thing the person hosting the poll can do that is pretty easy - raise the barriers to entry. Just like from economic theory, if the cost to the person voting is high (where we define cost as money, time, etc. but in terms of the internet you’d have to say time is the big factor) then most people won’t bother. If it took more than say five seconds to go and vote for someone then people would obviously be less inclined to do so. For example, if you had to register first and then wait a week after registering before voting (and you had to remember yourself that you had to go back to the website in a week) then you would get a more representative sample and not a group of flashmobbers deciding the outcome of your poll.

What the marketers inside the companies that run these polls see though is the total number of pollsters. If they can get a million people voting then they’ll be much more satisfied than if they get 10,000 - even if the latter sample is far more representative of the population.

Oh well….if Colbert can make it to number one then not all is lost…

All of these are real cakes that can be fully eaten.

More cakes (lots of images - I warned you)

Oh, dear…

British Airways has removed a shot of Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson from the in-flight version of the James Bond movie Casino Royale.

Sir Richard was seen briefly in the original film, passing through an airport security scanner, but can only be seen from behind in the new edit.

Full article (via BoingBoing)

I’m sorry but what do BA foresee passengers thinking when they watch a movie with a Branson cameo? Personally, thoughts of “what a tool” spring to mind and surely BA would encourage that. It’s not like that by the time the in-flight movie starts you can suddenly change planes. Anyone who decides which airline to fly on based on a cameo of a jet and the chairman of the airline needs their head read.

This guy is incredible. If only it was useful!

In times of depressing world events these are the scientific breakthroughs we need more of.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A fruity cocktail may not only be fun to drink but may count as health food, U.S. and Thai researchers say.

Adding ethanol — the type of alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila and other spirits — boosted the antioxidant nutrients in strawberries and blackberries, the researchers found.

Any colored fruit might be made even more healthful with the addition of a splash of alcohol, they report in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Full article