| 1. | | A great logo is recognizable in any form (amazonaws.com) |
| 232 points by vnchr on Oct 12, 2010 | 72 comments |
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| 2. | | Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough (theatlantic.com) |
| 223 points by dctoedt on Oct 12, 2010 | 100 comments |
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| 3. | | Visualization: Guy-to-girl ratio of every bar and restaurant in SF/NYC (weeplaces.com) |
| 208 points by zain on Oct 12, 2010 | 48 comments |
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| 4. | | OkTrends: Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex (okcupid.com) |
| 205 points by tel on Oct 12, 2010 | 122 comments |
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| 5. | | The Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial screencasts are out (railstutorial.org) |
| 201 points by mhartl on Oct 12, 2010 | 57 comments |
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| 6. | | Web Design is 95% Typography (informationarchitects.jp) |
| 186 points by ashitvora on Oct 12, 2010 | 47 comments |
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| 7. | | Java Trap, 2010 Edition (querna.org) |
| 177 points by pquerna on Oct 12, 2010 | 96 comments |
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| 8. | | The 'Irrational' Way Humans Interact With Dentists (npr.org) |
| 119 points by jakarta on Oct 12, 2010 | 91 comments |
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| 9. | | Tell HN: booking.com is looking for 40+ Perl programmers (in Amsterdam) |
| 116 points by thibaut_barrere on Oct 12, 2010 | 68 comments |
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| 10. | | Ask HN: Cover letter techniques for software development positions. |
| 116 points by Nemisis7654 on Oct 12, 2010 | 64 comments |
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| 11. | | No Java 7, The End Game (jroller.com) |
| 107 points by jancona on Oct 12, 2010 | 50 comments |
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| 12. | | The Social Network scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin posts about the portrayal of women. (kenlevine.blogspot.com) |
| 105 points by Imagenuity on Oct 12, 2010 | 41 comments |
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| 13. | | Innovation Nation: WePay is the anti-PayPal (cnn.com) |
| 88 points by pg on Oct 12, 2010 | 47 comments |
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| 14. | | The Android Market (tomkleinpeter.com) |
| 86 points by slackerIII on Oct 12, 2010 | 26 comments |
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| 15. | | $100,000 Revenues in last 12 months - wow (startupdesi.com) |
| 85 points by nhebb on Oct 12, 2010 | 35 comments |
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| 18. | | Animation of the AES algorithm (bc.edu) |
| 81 points by wisesage5001 on Oct 12, 2010 | 20 comments |
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| 19. | | So, why Plan 9? (mail-archive.com) |
| 78 points by pmarin on Oct 12, 2010 | 42 comments |
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| 20. | | Ubuntu.StackExchange.com is now AskUbuntu.com (askubuntu.com) |
| 75 points by phsr on Oct 12, 2010 | 33 comments |
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| 21. | | Startup idea for you: Modern e-commerce isn't enough (tibbon.com) |
| 73 points by tibbon on Oct 12, 2010 | 55 comments |
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| 22. | | Japanese Company to Buy iPhone Game Developer (Ngmoco for $400M) (nytimes.com) |
| 73 points by credo on Oct 12, 2010 | 12 comments |
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| 23. | | It Pays to Hire Women in Countries That Won't (hbs.edu) |
| 71 points by Concours on Oct 12, 2010 | 74 comments |
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| 24. | | Bringing Smiles to the Faces of MacOS developers - Miguel de Icaza (tirania.org) |
| 70 points by stesch on Oct 12, 2010 | 37 comments |
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| 25. | | Trent Reznor on Why Facebook "Sucks" (drownedinsound.com) |
| 69 points by phreeza on Oct 12, 2010 | 36 comments |
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| 26. | | Scotch tape found to emit x-rays by behaving like a particle accelerator (sciencenews.org) |
| 68 points by Natsu on Oct 12, 2010 | 7 comments |
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| 27. | | Why the CBC banned Creative Commons music from its shows (arstechnica.com) |
| 68 points by abraham on Oct 12, 2010 | 26 comments |
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| 28. | | "So you want to go freelance..." - a beginners guide to freelancing (mocko.org.uk) |
| 64 points by mocko on Oct 12, 2010 | 9 comments |
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| 29. | | Logical Literacy (might.net) |
| 64 points by plinkplonk on Oct 12, 2010 | 28 comments |
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| 30. | | Terrence Tao: The Cosmic Distance Ladder (files.wordpress.com) |
| 62 points by xtacy on Oct 12, 2010 | 6 comments |
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The reason plugs in the UK are so big is that each one must be individually fused. And the reason for that is something called a "ring circuit".
In a ring circuit you have, say, a 40 amp fuse at the mains/box. From this you send out two wires, each rated only for 20 amps, going in a circle around the house. You can now supply 40 amps worth of power using only cheaper 20 amp wires. (Since the current can flow over both wires at once.)
But this means that the wires going to an individual appliance are far too small for the main breaker, so each appliance gets a fuse in the plug.
Ring circuits have serious drawbacks, but they helped during a time when there was a copper shortage.
And ever since then the UK has been stuck with huge plugs.