Let’s start this week’s links with a post from the Scientific American that tells you why you can’t roll down Airplane windows. While the answer is obvious, there were a few things there that I didn’t know of and I found the article very useful.
Now, how they came about writing this article is quite a story. Apparently, Mitt Romney, who will be running against Obama in the presidential elections was quoted saying he doesn’t understand why planes don’t have roll down window. Most media outlets picked this up and ran stories on how he doesn’t even understand how a plane works and if you read the comments, you’ll see people’s horror on this person potentially becoming the president of the United States.
Buried deep under all these stories is the fact that when you read his comment in its proper context, it’s clear that he was just joking. But of course, if he was just joking then how do you make ridiculous headlines and sell page-views?
Scott Adams wrote about this topic on his blog a few days ago about how a lot of celebrity quotes either get taken out of context entirely, or sometimes just manufactured for the sake of selling news.
Indian Express has a good story on how Sonia Gandhi was persuaded to back economic reforms.
NYT has a great article on research that shows reformers do win elections in India.
PC Magazine explains the difference between 3G and 4G.
Finally, there seems to be evidence that humans hunted for meat two million years ago.
Enjoy your weekend!
