links for 2006-12-28

Judging by the facebook group “I Wish I Were Your Derivative So I Could Lie Tangent To Your Curves!” with 42,000 members, everybody loves a math joke.

Each week, the Magazine chronicles interesting and sometimes downright unexpected facts from the news, through its strand 10 things we didn’t know last week. Here, to round off the year, are some of the best from the past 12 months.

The COROT project sent into orbit a telescope capable of detecting planets smaller than is currently known; some maybe just a few times the size of Earth and rocky, rather than the larger, gaseous types.

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.

A single iPod vending machine sold thousand dollars worth of iPods in one month. “We’ve done about $55,000 in a month in gross sales just for the one on Concourse A.”

By being in a state of physiological arousal while being interviewed (due to the hight of the bridge), it was predicted that subjects would misattribute their physiological response as an attraction to the female experimenter.

A look at the 50 Coolest Websites of 2006, with links to all of them. Many of this year’s choices are shining examples of Web 2.0.

A twelve stored wooden tower, more than 38 metres high, in Arkhangelsk city. All surrounding houses in the town usually have two or three stories. A vodka-fire just waiting to happen…

From 25-year-old fruitcake to the new PlayStation 3, Americans celebrate the holidays in their own way. Here’s a yuletide yardstick of the 2006 season. $93.2 billion given to religious organizations, $38.6 billion to education.

Student and blogger Eston Bond describes in detail his methods for Getting Things Done with a Moleskine.

The picture above is of the Aurora Borealis photographed from the recent space shuttle mission. City lights and stars are also visible in this image from space because of the long camera exposure.

Prince Harry is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran, defence sources have disclosed.

“I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” said the letter, and then it goes on to say: “Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.”

Eighteen-year-old Abby Stewart got word this month that she won early admission to elite Princeton University, even though she has never set foot in a high school classroom.