The best stuff on the Internet, this side of the Chinese firewall.
Curated by Zack Shapiro and Patrick Traughber.
All of the Links
Another great from McSweeney’s.
The pronunciation of “GIF” is specified in the GIF specification to be “jif”, as in “jiffy”, rather then “gif”, which most people seem to prefer. This does seem strange because the “G” is from the word “Graphics” and not “Jraphics”.
A Jimmy Connors rally in the 1991 U.S. Open. The spectacular point begins at 1:00. Connors was 39 years old at the time.
See also the “See also” section.
Watching this I can’t help but be reminded of how thin Earth’s atmosphere is — just 62 miles as defined by the Kármán line (.0078 times the diameter of Earth).
Select HD, go fullscreen, and enjoy.
The experiment:
…the researchers presented 18 dogs of various breeds with four separate 20-second conditions. They included their owner crying, a stranger crying and both taking it in turns to hum “Mary had a little lamb”.
The results:
As they report in Animal Cognition, “person-oriented behaviour” did sometimes take place when either the stranger or the owner hummed, but it was more than twice as likely to occur if someone was crying.
As if we needed any proof. Related: here is a puppy that cannot get up off its back.
Here at All of the Links, we like surprises. So we have a surprise for you: our first Sunday link. If you’re like us, you’ve been antsy all weekend wondering how anteaters decide what to eat. If so, this link from Scientific American is for you. Don’t miss the accompanying photo of Salvador Dali walking his pet anteater in Paris:
Also: just added Velocitermes to the list of good words to drop in everyday conversation.
