Columnist joins The New York Times, then writes how the newspaper's power might be bad news.

Point #1:  Ben Smith used to work at BuzzFeed when it was a startup company.

Point #2:  The New York Times has more digital subscribers than the COMBINED subscribers of The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Point #3:  Ben Smith left BuzzFeed, joined The New York Times as a columnist, and on Sunday wrote his first piece about how his now-employer's consolidation of media power might not be so good.

He joined the very problem he fears.

The New York Times has become such a monopoly of information that it can hire people to criticize the company, publish it, play it as self-aware, and simply laugh as they watch more money roll in.

Felix Baumgartner's jump from 24 miles. (Video)

Because it's cool:

Video: The Guardian

Scientists at Harvard Medical School use DNA to store data found in a book.

I'm a 110% certain I have no clue what the hell this article is talking about.










photo: topnews.in

Head fissure #12

Rhythms is the longest word in the English dictionary that doesn't include any of the five recognized vowels.

And don't give me any of that "But sometimes Y..." hoo-haa.

We all know Y is just a consonant confused about its identity.

Head fissure #11

The longest name of a place in America is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, or Lake Chaubunagungamaug for short, in Webster, MA, on the border with Connecticut.

Its name comes from the Nipmuc, an Algonquin language. It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries-- Neutral Meeting Place."

The name is apparently misspelled on a sign bordering Connecticut.

This is because folks from Connecticut hate literacy. We all know this.

Head fissure #10

No word in the English language can be created using only the letters from the bottom row of a typical QWERTY-style keyboard. This is because there are no vowels. No Y or W either.

Shazzam--you just learned some extra useless knowledge for trivia night.

Head fissure #9

The longest word one can type using only the top row of letters on a typical QWERTY-style keyboard is rupturewort.

The hell's a rupturewort?

It's a type of plant found in the West Indies.

I just karate chopped your brain with knowledge.

Head fissure #8

Euouae is the longest word in the English language which is made up entirely of vowels. And, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it also holds the record for most consecutive vowels anywhere in a word.

Of course, euouae is actually just a mnemonic device from medieval times. Don't be picky though.

Head fissure #7

The longest word with no repeated letters is dermatoglyphics. (Get that prefix crap out of her, fool! We ain't counting that!) Dermatoglyphics is better known as the study of fingerprints.

I just fingerprinted your mind with knowledge.

Head fissure #6

According to a computer study of over a million samples of English prose, the longest word in everyday use that a human is likely to come across is uncharacteristically. 20 letters.

Holy. Crap.

Head fissure #5

The longest word in the English language that's a palindrome is rotavator, a type of rotary tiller.

Your skull just pulsed twice taking in that kind of knowledge.

Head fissure #4

The longest word in the English language which all of its letters are in alphabetical order is Aegilops--which is a grass genus.

If you're going to be a Scrabble snob and argue that Aegilops is Latin AND a proper noun, well, not only are you a pest, but here are the next three longest words falling under the same definition--all two-letters shorter: almost, biopsy, chintz.

Bam.

Head fissure #3

Schmaltzed and strengthed are regarded as the longest monosyllabic words in the English language.

That is unless, of course, you prefer to pronounce squirrelled as a one syllable word--which the OED allows as an option when you say the word squirrel.

I know. I just sucker-punched you with knowledge.

Head fissure #2

The word strengths is the longest word in the English language to use only one vowel.

Pow.

Well, okay then, if you say so...

The word honorificabilitudinitatibus--which, defined, means the state of being able to achieve honors--is the longest word in the English language where the letters alternate between consonants and vowels.

That sound you hear inside your head is your mind being blown.