NYC Criminals take day off

The Guardian reports that on Monday 26 November 2012 no one was murdered, stabbed or the victim of a violent crime in New York City.

New York police department chief spokesman Paul Browne said it was "first time in memory" that the city's police force had experienced such a peaceful 24 hours.
It comes at the end of year when the city is on target to have its lowest murder rate since 1960.

I lived in New York in 1991 and I remember my colleagues there mentioning that one big advantage of living in Toronto was that if you were murdered you were guaranteed to make the news.  In NYC at the time you would have to be murdered in a particularly gruesome way to get a mention.

Google Map of Canadian Census

This site has a nice map interface for viewing some of the data from the latest Canadian census.  It is interesting how the size of the areas being displayed changes as the map is zoomed in.

via Google Maps Mania

Hindenburg Photos

The Atlantic has a nice photo article about the Hindenburg and its fiery end.

via Rebecca's Pocket

The British have Invaded all but 22 Countries

According to this article in the Telegraph, the British have invaded all but 22 of the 190+ countries on Earth.  They do stretch things a bit far to come up with the numbers though.  They basically use present day countries and their current borders.  Then, if the British have ever invaded any place that is now within those boundaries, they count that country as having been invaded by Britain.  Canada for example has never been invaded by the UK but is counted since territories presently held by Canada have been.

I was also rather surprised that the British have never invaded Luxembourg.

via Kottke.org

There is an Abacus in Your Head

The Guardian has a blog post about a strange new sport called Flash Anzan.  Basically the game consists of rapidly adding a series of numbers in your head.  Like a spelling bee anyone who gets the wrong answer is eliminated then another round begins with the numbers displayed faster.  This year's winner added 15 three digit numbers in 1.7 seconds.

via No Tech Magazine

A Summary of Everything

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a post with a video that basically shows the history of the universe in one minute.  There may be some simplification but it is nicely done.

Toronto's First World War Dead

Global TV has a post with a map showing the locations of the homes of all of the soldiers from Toronto who were killed in the First World War.  According to the text:

in Toronto, about 2 per cent of the total male population was killed in the war

Make a Fist With Your Left Hand

The Atlantic has a story about a study that claims athletes can prevent choking under pressure by making a fist with their left hand. It only applies to situation where they are performing a task they have performed many times before (a "motor skill").

"Hemisphere-specific priming" appears to discourage over-thinking in high-pressure situations. Activating the right hemisphere of the brain by doing a simple action with the left side of the body (making a fist, in this case) appears to negate context-related declines in complex motor performance.

via kottke.org

The Evolution of the Airline Baggage Tag

Slate has an interesting article about the evolution of the baggage tags used on commercial airplanes.  There's more to it than just the bar code.

via Flowing Data

How Corks Are Made

WineAnorak has an nicely illustrated two part article explaining how corks are made.

via kottke.org

Factoid: No one born since 1935 has walked on the moon

If you look at Wikipedia's list of Apollo astronauts you will notice that the youngest, Charles Duke, was born on October 3, 1935.

No one born since 1935 has ever walked on another world.  No Baby Boomers, no Gen-X.

Where Can You Not Buy Coca-cola?

The BBC has an article about which countries you can buy Coca-cola in.  It turns out there are only two where you can't: Cuba and North Korea.

Working for Your Beer

The Economist has a post comparing how long the average worker in various countries has to work to buy a beer.  It varies from nearly an hour in India to about five minutes in the US.

The Drake Equation

Presumably you are all familiar with the Drake Equation which lets you calculate to probability of intelligent alien life.  The BBC has a webpage that lets you play around with the various figures in the equation and see how many alien civilizations you would end up with.

Video of Mark Twain

Kottke.org has a post with a video of the only known film footage of Mark Twain.

Drivers in France Must Carry Breathalyzers

The Telegraph reports that drivers in France now have to carry two(!) single-use breathalysers in their cars at all times.  I didn't even know there was such a thing as a single-use breathalyser.

Are You Too Old for the Olympics

The Washington Post has an article that will show you which Olympic sports you are still young enough for.

People Used to Sleep Twice As Often

According to the BBC, the idea of sleeping right through the night is a fairly modern one.  Apparently in antiquity people would sleep for a few hours in the early evening then get up for a few hours then go back to bed.

His book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, published four years later, unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern - in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer's Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.

Much like the experience of Wehr's subjects, these references describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep. 

Words We Don't Have in English

I think I may have blogged about this sort of thing before but I liked this list of foreign words that we don't have in English.

Some favourites:

Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude

 Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time

 L’esprit de l’escalier (French): usually translated as “staircase wit,” is the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late to deliver it

 Pena ajena (Mexican Spanish): The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation

Evolution of Basketball Uniforms

Dubly has an infographic showing the evolution of the proffessional basketball uniform.  Interestingly it has been getting larger since the 1960s'.

via Flowing Data