The Atlantic:

Astronauts can, certainly, tear up — they’re human, after all. But in zero gravity, the tears themselves can’t flow downward in the way they do on Earth. The moisture generated has nowhere to go. Tears, astronaut Andrew Feustel put it, “don’t fall off of your eye … they kind of stay there.” NASA spacewalk officer Allison Bollinger, who oversaw Feustel’s EVA, confirmed this assessment. “They actually kind of conglomerate around your eyeball,” she said.

In other words, yep: There’s no crying in space.

Even worse? According to the article, “space tears” actually can hurt.

As a Canadian, I have to say that #2 is very popular.

CNET News:

…we were told that we must use the official statement and that we must follow corporate policy to defer all press requests to corporate communications.

We were in an impossible situation as journalists. I could have quit right then. Maybe I should have. I decided that the best thing for my team was to get through the day as best we could and to fight the fight from the other side.

Going forward, I will do everything within my power to prevent this situation from happening again.

Anyone else want to join me in calling bullshit on her statement? She didn’t do “everything within my power” to stop it this time. What makes us believe that she will next time?

The New Yorker: In the January 7th issue of the magazine, Adam Green profiles the pickpocket Apollo Robbins. In this video, Apollo demonstrates some of his tricks and techniques, using Green as his victim. Amazing to see Robbins work. You … Continued

io9:

Since June 2010, Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta have been filming a shot-for-shot live-action remake of Pixar’s Toy Story, using human actors as the human characters and real toys for Woody and the gang (and the original Toy Story audio track). The toys move with a combination of stop-motion photography and good old-fashioned puppet strings and wires.

Do yo have far too much time on your hands? Then you might want to do what these guys did!

Fortune: Two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for “Oh, my God,” to slang such as “hot mess.” But Watson couldn’t distinguish … Continued

The Verge:

For those who’ve never helped run a booth at a trade show, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the temporary city — an endless sea of lights, sounds, and humans pressing past one another in search of the next great gadget — takes weeks to assemble before the first attendee even hits the floor.

The Verge has an all too brief picture story about the set up and construction of CES at the Las Vegas Hilton. It’s an amazing logistical effort to put on the largest consumer electronics show in the world.

With all the silly talk in the US of a “Trillion Dollar Coin”, you might not know that the Canadian Mint actually produced the world’s first million dollar coin in 2007.

It is 99.999% pure gold bullion, weighs 220lbs and, even though the face value is one million dollars, it’s actually worth over $5.3 million dollars now.

The coin have been certified by the Guinness World Records to be “the world’s largest gold coin” and the Canadian Mint has sold five of them.

Gizmodo:

Here’s a rare sight: four out of the ten Nimitz-class aircraft carriers—the largest warships ever built—plus an Enterprise-class carrier docked together. They are resting at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, which coincidentally is the largest naval base in the world. Look at all that engineering and firepower. And it’s only half of the Nimitz fleet!

Wow…if you’ve never seen one of these carriers up close, this picture might not mean much but trust me – this is truly an awesome display of military might!

Wired:

With all the technology hailed from the show floor at CES, it is inevitable that some of it will never materialize. CES always generates some vaporware, and 2012 was an especially good year. Here, then, is a look at the stuff we were promised at CES 2012 and continue waiting for.

Keep this in mind as Wired, CNET, The Verge, et al announce their “Best of CES Awards” next week – the majority will be for products that will likely never see the light of day.

I am a complete sucker for these time lapse videos and this one is incredibly well done. It helps the subject matter is one of the world’s great cities – Paris.

Gizmodo:

The US has a love affair with imperial units: height in inches, milk in quarts, weight in pounds. You name it, and it’s measured in imperial. The only problem? Imperial is dumb. So let’s cast of those shackles and join the rest of the world by embracing units that make sense. Let’s go metric, once and for all.

Why make the move? A (metric) ton of reasons.

What do you think? Should the USA “go metric”? I’ve been “bi-measuring” since I was a kid and am (mostly) comfortable with both but there’s no doubt metric, with its factors of ten, is much easier to deal with.

Gizmodo: It seems like only yesterday we were planning for the Mayan apocalypse, but like so many other products, the 14th b’ak’tun (next era) has been delayed due to bugs and lack of pre-orders. No doubt, in 2013, several long-rumored … Continued

Ars Technica: Let us take a moment to remember a few of the companies, brands, and products that went to the great electronic recycling center in the sky in 2012. Some you may still have traces of in your sock … Continued

The New Yorker magazine has posted what they call “The Hundred Best Lists of All Time”. Leaving aside the impossibility of this actually being true, it’s an interesting “list of lists” nonetheless. It includes everything from the obvious (The Ten … Continued

Have you ever been outside in minus 40 degrees? Trust me – DON’T. But just in case you are, try this “fun” trick before you freeze to death.

Mashable:

For 62 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, as he makes his way around the world delivering gifts to all the good boys and girls.

This year, the tradition will continue, and now there are even more ways that you and your little ones can follow Father Christmas’ progress. A stunning 25 million people from around the globe are predicted to follow Santa in real-time online, on mobile phones and tablets, by email and phone.

Apparently, NORAD has dropped Google Maps and is now working with Microsoft Bing to follow Santa’s worldwide progress. Insert your own Apple Maps joke here.

Have you ever wondered what the difference between “Holland” and “The Netherlands” is? Of course you haven’t – not many have.

But just in case you have even a mild interest, this video by C. G. P. Grey does an amazing job of explaining this odd little quirk of geography. And, for even more explanation of geographic and historical anomalies, check out his “The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained”.

Broadcasting & Cable:

The NFL announced the league, along with broadcast partner CBS, will livestream Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3.

The game will be available on both CBSSports.com and NFL.com. Tthe stream will have extra features, including additional camera angles, in-game highlights, live statistics and other interactive elements.

Last year’s game was most-streamed single game with over 2 million unique visitors…representing 6.2% of total downstream Internet traffic at 9 p.m. ET for NBCSports.com.

The Super Bowl is one of the few “Event TV” broadcasts left even if many tune in just for the commercials. It will be interesting to see how CBS leverages the internet to enhance the game on your “second screen”.

Yeah – it’s a Nike spot but it certainly captures how many Canadians feel about the game and its importance to our identity. Thanks to SlyM for the link to the video.

Amazing amount of work went into this edit particularly when you realize it holds up as a mini-movie all on its own.

The creator, Genevieve Ip, has helpfully posted a list of all the movies and music included in the piece.

Sports has always played a big part in the life of many of us and Sports Illustrated captured some amazing moments in the history of sport. Here are there “Top 100”. I’ve included my favorite shot here but I bet … Continued

The Verge: Hollywood insider Franklin Leonard this week released his annual Black List — a collection of the year’s best unproduced screenplays. Compiled based on insights from more than 290 film executives, this year’s list includes plenty of time-bending, apocalyptic, … Continued

BabyCenter: Of all the factors that parents consider in picking a name for their child, one floats consistently to the top: Picking a unique name. As you can see from the list, some parents did a bang-up job. Each of … Continued

BuzzFeed: Impress and delight your favorite food lover with any one of these budget-friendly presents. These are some very creative and original gift giving ideas but make sure you’ve eaten before you read the story because otherwise, you’re going to … Continued

ABC News:

Beer aficionados are pouncing at the rare opportunity to buy one of the world’s most elusive and revered beers for the first — and perhaps only — time in the United States.

It is called Westvleteren XII, and it is often hailed as the “world’s best beer” by reviewers and fans.

Westvleteren XII is produced by Trappist monks in Belgium and sold at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian countryside.

First person to compare this to Heineken gets punched in the junk.

We’ve all seen the famous “Earth at Night” composite image showing our planet at night and how much light there still is, sometimes in unexpected places.

Now Google has a new global view of Earth’s city lights that is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite.

With this version of the image, you can even zoom in to get a better (if not necessarily higher resolution ) and closer view.

NPR:

It may have something to do with all those Brontosaurus burgers everyone’s favorite modern stone-age family ate, but when you think of a giant dinosaur with a tiny head and long, swooping tail, the Brontosaurus is probably what you’re seeing in your mind.

Well hold on: Scientifically speaking, there’s no such thing as a Brontosaurus.

Why can’t these damn scientists leave our childhoods alone!? Columbus didn’t discover America, Pluto isn’t a planet and now this!