Blog Heap of Links for the day 12 July 2012

Homeland Security buys 'big brother' laser scanner that can tell if you are high, what you are carrying and even what you had for breakfast... will be able detect the most minute traces of molecular discrepancies in both individuals' bloodstream and carry on luggage from 50 meters away… will likely be deployed throughout airports and other high-risk areas… said to be ten million times faster and one million times more sensitive than the scanners used in airports and border patrols currently… The size and portability of the Picosecond Programmable Laser scanner means that in addition to airports and border points- which are expected to be the main areas of use- there is the possibility that the scanners may be put in police cars and subway stations. [Emphasis added]

118 106 Men are bad in this way: you're telling a story--a funny or impactful one--and in the middle of it, they interrupt and comment, thinking that the place in which they interrupted is the point. Their interruption ruins the punchline or the impact. Yes, we are. I am. I try not to do that, but sometimes I still do. But being guilty of this, I know why I do it to women especially. Men seem to know when to leave a rising inflection, or some other vocal signal that the story is not over. Women often seem to drop something that sounds final, and then the listener finds out it was just a way station.