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How To Turn Google Translate Into Google Beatbox

For reasons inexplicable, a “Today I Learned” thread on Reddit has turned into a treatise on how to make Google Translate beatbox for you, among other things. It must have taken some intense experimentation for Redditor Harrichr to get here but he somehow stumbled upon the following combination of steps. 1) Go to Google Translate 2) Set the translator to translate German to German 3) Copy + paste the following into the translate box: pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpkzvpvzk kkkkkk bsch 4) Click “listen” 5) Be amazed :) Since the original post both the thread and meme have expanded into slight tweaks and variations, including Technocopter, Helicopter and Dubstep. YCombinator user iamdave actually posted a guide to making your own beats: zk = suspended cymbal bschk = snare pv = brush bk = bass tk = flam1 vk = roll tap kt = flam2 kttp = flam tap krp = hi hat tap pv = short roll th = better hi hat thp, ds = instant rimshot. Image: Datz.ro

"Page One" Story of the Century? NASA May Announce Thursday to Have Found Life on Saturn's Moon Titan NASA has called a 2 p.m. news conference for Thursday "to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." The group includes Pamela Conrad, author of a paper on geology and life on Mars; and James Elser, an Arizona State University professor involved in a NASA-funded program that emphasizes looking at the chemistry of environments where life evolves (and not just looking at water or carbon or oxygen); Felisa Wolfe-Simon (an oceanographer) has written extensively on photosynthesis using arsenic recently (she worked on the team mentioned in this article); Steven Benner (a biologist) is on the "Titan Team" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; they're looking at Titan (Saturn's largest moon) as an early-Earth-like chemical environment. This is likely related to the Cassini mission. The space agency did not release more details, but the list of news conference participants is telling, according to blogger Jason Kottke. Casey Kazan via Kotte.org

You Decide: Goldman’s Facebook Pitch or Nigerian Email ‘Opportunity’ - Deal Journal To be offered private stock in Facebook, wealthy clients of Goldman Sachs had to have a spare $2 million lying around. But even the hoi polloi may have a similar pitch sitting in their email inboxes right now. As a first step to drum up investor interest in Facebook stock, Goldman Sachs shot missives to clients with the opaque subject line, “Private Investment,” according to an email reviewed by Deal Journal. We couldn’t help compare it to another solicitation for money, from an anonymous Nigerian who assures you of a giant payout if you help him get back to his home country. Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Of course, unlike Nigerian email scams, the solicitation came from a Goldman money manager rather than a random stranger. GOLDMAN: (Line breaks and emphasis have been added by Deal Journal) ‪In addition, certain information we will reveal to you about the investment opportunity and the related transaction will constitute material nonpublic information about this private company.

National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010 National Geographic is once again holding their annual Photo Contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30th. For the past eight weeks, they have been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to rate them as well. National Geographic was again kind enough to let me choose some of their entries from 2010 for display here on The Big Picture. Collected below are 47 images from the three categories of People, Places and Nature. Captions were written by the individual photographers. (47 photos total) Kanana Camp, Botswana.

Beyond McLuhan: Your New Media Studies Syllabus - Christina Dunbar-Hester - Technology Editor's Note: A new generation of scholars is trying to come to new understandings of how technology and society shape each other. Christina Dunbar-Hester is among those young lions from her position at Rutgers School of Communication & Information. Here, she walks you through her PhD-level class on technology and media. Along the way, she distills a quarter century of academic work that goes far beyond pop culture's standard takes on how our world changes. It's tempting to see new technologies, especially new media technologies, as drivers of political and social change. But technological artifacts also embody the values and assumptions -- and conflicts -- of the societies that produce them, in complicated and surprising ways. "Technology is society made durable." In this course we ask, how can we think about media technologies in a smart and critical way? However, I teach in Rutgers' School of Communication & Information, and this course is for our Ph.D. students. Week Seven: Users

Defensible Space: Secret ‘Safe House’ in Bunker-Style Shell « Dornob Like a diamond forged in the heart of a chunk of coal, the harsh concrete exterior of this house contains a sparkling floor-to-ceiling glass secret hidden from view – a secret place with space-filled rooms and surprisingly open-plan layouts. The solid skin features is not just industrial camouflage, but also a weather-protecting shell complete with the ultimate in modern castle design: a drawbridge! Layers of dark gray perimeter fencing (likewise made of prefab concrete-surface panels) gives way to foreboding facades of likewise lackluster materiality – a dull, decoration-free set of undifferentiated surfaces that looms like a warehouse and looks even more sinister at night. Yet on the interior, luxury design is everywhere to be seen and accommodations include an expansive indoor swimming pool.

Catholic church gives blessing to iPhone app 8 February 2011Last updated at 10:59 Pope Benedict XVI has said Catholics should use digital technologies responsibly The Catholic Church has approved an iPhone app that helps guide worshippers through confession. The Confession program has gone on sale through iTunes for £1.19 ($1.99). Described as "the perfect aid for every penitent", it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament. Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first. The app takes users through the sacrament - in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings - and allows them to keep track of their sins. It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status - but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely. Instead, it encourages users to understand their actions and then visit their priest for absolution. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

Ten Weirdest New Animals of 2010: Editors' Picks Discover Literary Oddities in the Weird Book Room on AbeBooks Welcome to AbeBooks' Weird Book Room - heralded by the New York Times, Canada's Globe and Mail, The Times of London, and The Guardian (UK) as the finest source of everything that's bizarre, odd and downright weird in books. Everyone's talking about it - author Neil Gaiman is even tweeting about it, posting a link and suggesting his followers: "Go to this link and gaze on the titles and be made happy. Trust me. It'll work". With new titles added periodically - including five recently-added, delightfully odd books about tractors - we have an excellent selection of crazy and strange titles for sale by our booksellers, about every oddball aspect of life you could possibly imagine (and a few things you couldn't). We invite you to not only revel in our collection of literary oddities but to also send us your suggestions. Thanks to everyone who has submitted weird books!

Secret Weapon Style: Umbrella Grip with Wooden Knuckles « Dornob Personalized handle but … potentially fatal in the wrong hands? It is hard not to spot visual references in this work to both classic brass (or steel) ?knuckles as well as wooden gun grips. Whatever it is, this is no dainty outdoor parasol. Dissatisfied with mass-production wood or metal umbrella handles, Tobiah Adam wanted to carve something a bit more suited to his specific grip (and easy to hold tight during even the worst wind and rain storm), using a stock aluminum-and-black body above. Cut from rich dark Rosewood, the knuckle-duster design was made to fit with a conventional umbrella stem – no sense in reinventing the portion that was already well-built (not to mention: difficult to engineer). Perhaps the weapons association would, in fact, be deflated by this kind of mundane use.

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