There is a Spider-Man musical, so why not a Mario opera, right? Get ready for a big surprise: The Mario opera is actually really good. Okay, so it might be a stretch to call this one song in a stereotypical opera style — and a stereotypical Italian accent — an “opera,” but it’s not a stretch to call it awesome. The song is courtesy of legolambs, a YouTube channel devoted to pop culture musicals and run by Jon and Al Kaplan. Check it out. It’s a terrific way to spend 2:49 minutes and justify calling a huge part of your childhood “high culture.”

A few weeks ago, news broke that scientists at the CERN laboratory observed what could be particles traveling faster than the speed of light. With such physics-shaking implications on their hands, the researchers put out a call for independent verification. Though there have been a flurry of responses, one from the University of Groningen’s Ronald van Elburg could be the sweeping refutation that puts this issue to rest. Emphasis on “could be.”

In the original experiment, called OPERA, scientists measured how long it took for particles called neutrinos created at CERN to arrive at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy.  The distance between the laboratories (roughly 454 miles), and the fact that Gran Sasso is located underneath quite a bit of mountain, complicated the experiment since synchronizing two clocks in different locations is extremely difficult. In order to account for this, the scientists relied on the time signal from an orbiting GPS satellite. Using this benchmark, the researchers found that the neutrino arrived 60 nanoseconds earlier than light would.

However, it’s this reliance on an orbital clock that van Elburg says is causing the results observed in the OPERA experiment.

Yesterday, the New York Post began blocking all access to their website for those using the iPad version of the Safari web browser. Instead of viewing the website, visitors see a large notice informing them that NY Post content “is now only accessible on the iPad through the New York Post App.” The NY Post iPad app costs $1.99, and is currently available in the app store. It should be noted that this is a subscription app, and further fees would apply.

Oddly, the NY Post blockade only affects Safari. If you were to use another iPad browser, such as Opera, you would have no trouble viewing NY Post content.

News Corp, which owns the NY Post, has been a forerunner in subscription content on multiple platforms, rolling out The Daily a few months ago. But the move to block a specific subset of users in order to drive app sales is a bit unusual. Prior to blockade, Safari users on iPads that visited the NY Post saw large ads that prompted them to purchase the app. The old ads were simply suggestions, but trying to force users to purchase the app could result in fewer app downloads, and more angry readers.

(photo via The Examiner, Paid Content via TechMeme)

Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey aired the last episode of her syndicated talk show, which had been running for 25 years. In honor of this historic milestone, the team behind the web browser Opera released a few of the emails they had received over the years from Oprah fans who mistook the browser for the talk-show host. “We’ve been receiving lots of mail from Oprah fans, asking us questions, complaining or simply just opening up, telling us about their lives. We’ve tried to answer these emails the best we can.”

Ah, opera. The tragedies of man portrayed on stage through some of the greatest accomplishments of music. And the singers — ah, their skill is truly moving. This short animated film by Juan Pablo Zaramella captures all that, and then some.

Remember, it’s not over until the Allium cepa sings. Or something like that.

(via Cartoon Brew)

Facebook doesn’t make information about who’s unfriended who public, possibly for fear of bloodshed. But there’s a browser extension called Unfriend Finder that lets you do just this for yourself.

Compatible with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera, this script by Edouard Gatouillat is simple to install: Download it, make sure the extension is active, and then, the next time you log into Facebook, you’ll get a series of instructions on how to use it, as well as a setup box. As you can see in the picture below, an “unfriends” menu pops up on the left-hand side of your page, below the “friends” menu. You may want to restart your browser after installing it as well, as I was initially grayscreened by Facebook when I logged in immediately after installing.

One major point: This app is not retroactive, meaning that it only tracks unfriends in the future, not in the past. So you’ll have to sit tight with it for a while before you can see any results, and the people who have unfriended you in the past will remain an intriguing, most likely unsolvable mystery.

Earlier this month, Google rolled out a cheeky, competitive video that compared the speed of Google’s Chrome browser with a potato gun, sound waves, and lightning, with Chrome getting the upper hand each time. Now, just days after Chrome for Mac and Linux phased out of beta, Norway-based Opera Software has launched a parody of the Chrome video with a distinctly Scandinavian sense of humor.

Rather than compare the speed of their Opera browser to a shooting potato, they compared it to a boiling potato. Many hijinks ensue, including the titularly-alluded-to herring sword fight, in what is at once an homage to Google’s video and a mockery of its silliness and pomp.