Submitted by maheshee11 5/30/2008
This, from a blog powered by MIT, is a great example of understatement in technology. On the surface, the term “nanoparticles” does not bring forth feelings of excitement or even interest. They are very small — we know that — and they don’t have any influence over any social media user’s life.
What if this story had something to do with an eventual cure for cancer? More interesting, isn’t it. That is the case — this breakthrough may seem very insignificant in a virtual world where the RIAA, Barack Obama, and Apple makes the rules (and the front page) but if a cure for cancer is discovered in the near future, it will probably be at least in part brought about by this new technology.
Much more compelling when you look at it like that.
Original Description:
Particles that cross a cell’s membrane usually don’t get very far. The membrane recognizes them as foreign objects and closes them off in little pockets. But now, scientists at MIT have created coated nanoparticles that can slip inside a cell without triggering its self-protective mechanism.
read more | digg story
Submitted by UtopiaInTheSky 5/26/2008
Digg’s algo can act really strange at times. We’ve all seen those rare posts hit the homepage days after they’ve been submitted. This submission died in upcoming like others on this blog. But, this particular post also died a second time! The day after this submission died, BadWithComputer posted something similar. It went popular and was buried off within an hour of hitting the homepage. Another Digg user, zdiddy85, left a comment on BWC’s post containing a link to this.
Diggers quickly dugg the second post, noting that it was better than the one on the homepage. It garnered 100+ diggs during that time, but did Digg’s algo promote it? No…
Original Description:
Some seriously impressive moves in this one.
read more | digg story
Submitted by diggboss 5/29/2008
Considering that amount of terrible images, photoshopped abominations, and idiotic comics that hit the front page of Digg, this one really chaps my khakis. A real image, a moment in time captured and utterly needing to be spread across the social media masses as a representation of something truly beautiful, and after 296 diggs, it still couldn’t hit. Buried. Lost forever from Digg.
296 Diggs.
Had there been a LOLcat in the image, it might have had a chance.
Original Description:
After two months of shooting landscapes in Hawaii, this is probably the strangest moment I experienced. 11pm and pitch dark night, a grey bow appeared on the horizon, I quickly took a shot at +1ev, and was very surprised to find that the bow actually had rainbow colors in it. The entire bow was visible for about 1 minute before it went away. I had
read more | digg story
Submitted by mark076h 5/30/2008
Nice catch by shacknews. With websites like Australian News and DailyMail picking up on the “terrorist representation” of a decimated Washington DC, it is ironic that the image was taken from concept art for Fallout 3, the game.
The submitter has been on the front page of Digg 32 times, but submits a lot. This one got buried in the mix, which is a pity since it really was a nice piece of news about the news.
Original Description:
A piece of concept art of a decimated Washington, D.C. from Bethesda Softworks post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, 360) has been circulated through a handful of news publications, reported as terrorist propaganda after an intelligence contractor said the image was used in al Qaeda-related videos.
read more | digg story
Submitted by Troika37 5/29/2008
The Digg community has been against the war in general for a long time now. If it’s anti-war, it has a chance to hit the front page.
This piece from CNN takes a look at some of the progress that his been made, the reduction of violence, and hope for an end to US and world involvement in the country. It’s a good piece that paints a realistic picture as steps are being taken to get the troops back to their homes around the world.
Anything that mentions “progress” in Iraq has no chance of hitting the front page.
Original Description:
“Notable progress” has been made in Iraq despite persistent problems, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday at an international summit to promote peace in the violence-wracked country.
read more | digg story
Submitted by SVOboy 5/29/2009
This is one that was titled in a way that got my blood boiling. After reading the first few paragraphs about how it helped stop a 12 year old from getting kidnapped, I changed my tune.
This is a great read. The submitter and timing may have had something to do with it — this submission was bracketed by some high diggs and front pages, so 
it probably never made it passed Hot in Sub-category section. Otherwise, it was a good enough story with a good enough title to make it to the front page.
Original Description:
GPS units in cars…tracking on public transit…where can we hide.
read more | digg story
Submitted by KevinFederline 5/30/08 -
Good story, trusted source, flatline.
The mind boggles.
Original Description:
The World Bank is to offer immediate financial help to countries worst hit by sharp rises in food prices as part of a $1.2bn (£608m) assistance package.
read more | digg story
Submitted by hdar3415 5/29/08 -
Stories about Digg, and its users are usually quite popular. This one was not. Shame.
Firstdigg (aka Urgo & a contributor to this blog) has created a very awesome site for data on Digg stories that go popular called SocialBlade. Definitely check it out.
Thanks Firstdigg!
Original Description:
Top 100 Diggers
read more | digg story
Submitted by CosmicDebris 5/29/2008
- Editor’s Note: This one did hit the front page after being posted on popFAIL.
Since there is no way to collect “physical evidence” for this one, the story details using Crime Scene Investigation style methods to solve a cosmic mystery.
From the story: “The universe is a big place, and weird things can happen,” said Stephanie Wachter of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology.
“I was flipping through archived Spitzer data of the object, and that’s when I noticed it was surrounded by a ring we’d never seen before.”
Original Description:
Piecing together how a mysterious infrared ring got left around a dead star that displays a magnetic field trillions of times more intense than Earth’s.
read more | digg story
